365Caws is now in its 14th year of publication, and was originally intended to end after 365 days. It has sometimes been difficult for me to find new material, particularly during the winter months, but now as I enter my own twilight years, I cannot guarantee that I will be able to provide daily posts. It is my hope that along the way I may have inspired someone to a greater curiosity about the natural world. If so, I can rest, content in the knowledge that my work here has been done.
Monday, October 14, 2013
Seeds Of Crocosmia "Lucifer"
Day 12: The weather was a bit too cool for kayaking or bicycling today, and the government shutdown means I can't even go into work, let alone take a stroll up one of my favorite trails, so I decided to do a bit of gardening in preparation for next spring. The first project of the day was to move the half-sunken, enormous tomato pot forward so the Sweetfern would have room to expand (which, incidentally, it's doing nicely). I dug out half the soil in the pot and the space in front of it, shovelling the potting soil into buckets and the garden dirt onto a piece of heavy-gauge plastic sheeting I'd laid out on the sidewalk. Once loosened, the pot was fairly easy to "walk" into place without needing to be lifted. I relocated clusters of Grape Hyacinth bulbs and the chives, and then filled in behind the pot and installed four metal fence posts around it. Next spring, I'll put up 2 x 4 wire to keep Bambi out.
A few other small yard projects kept me busy for an hour or so, and then after I'd cleaned all the tools and put them away, I noticed that the Crocosmia's seed pods had opened. Crocosmia is notorious for spreading by both seed and stolon, so to keep the sprawl at a minimum, I harvested the pods for future planting. The hummingbirds love red "Lucifer's" bright flowers, so I'll set aside a corner of the yard where the plant can run rampant. After all, I have to keep my hummers happy, don't I?
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