We upgraded the greenhouse

There's never a shortage of things we want to do here at the Manor, and it seems there's always a roadblock or two on the way to getting it done. I want to grow more veggies, and you'd think it would be a simple matter of tilling up a spot for a garden. Nope. Deer. We have a DEER PROBLEM. 

To go off on a tangent, this past hunting season was a bust. As in there were not many hunters in the woods. Why? Well, they couldn't get any ammo! Now all you left-leaning folks probably think that's a good thing. In real life, next winter, the deer will starve to death because there will be too many of them. Good going. 

But I digress...

With our local deer herd population, that is to say the little herd that lives in my woods and beds down in the thickets we leave for them, expanded to fifteen, there's no way in hell my veggies are safe. The small greenhouse I got two years ago is just that - small. So I upgraded to a 12x7x7 greenhouse, and amidst screaming wailing and gnashing of teeth from the spousal unit, it went up yesterday. I think it will work out fine. 

I should be able to extend the season for a few tomatoes and plant a few fall Brassicas. Next year, I'll be able to move my seedlings outside a lot faster, and that's always a plus. I may even be able to coax some herbs to live over the winter inside the greenhouse. 

This greenhouse is probably a stepping stone to a more traditional constructed greenhouse, one that won't need to sit on the leeward side of the house to be protected from the wind. I'll just have to see how I do with this one to more accurately gauge whether or not it's worth the investment in a more permanent structure. 

Like a lot of things in life, it's an experiment. It may work out, or it may not. This is just one more step in my life's journey to somewhere. It requires patience to allow everything to happen at a pace I'm not sure I control. No matter how it all shakes out, I know I'll enjoy spending time in the greenhouse on chilly winter days. Maybe it'll be a warm spot to read a book on a cold day. Wouldn't that be fun?!

The Lady of Holly Tree Manor (The Hideaway)

Holly Tree Manor, The Hideaway, simple country pleasures, greenhouse, gardening, Lady of the Manor, a writer's life, white-tail deer, hunting, ammo, veggies, herbs, stepping stones

The hardest part of gardening is just ahead

We've not done extensive vegetable gardening here on the Manor. We have a huge problem with white-tailed deer and therefore, in the past, we had an even bigger problem with working hard just to provide them with a nice salad bowl. But the times, they are a-changing, or so they say. This past summer we were successful on a very small scale. For 2021, we're upping our game. 

I'm already in possession a collection of seeds from Burpee. My grandfather and my mother both bought seeds from Burpee so I'm continuing the tradition, at least for this year. I can't say as it got off to a good start since I received someone else's order, but apparently, the lady who got some of my seeds got to the company before I even knew it happened. I had an email telling me my replacement order was on the way before I got the wrong seeds. That I get to keep. I'll be growing sugar snap peas, spinach, and different varieties of radish and lettuce along with what I ordered. It's all good. There are enough seeds in each envelope to plant for two or three seasons. Just because they're packaged for 2021 doesn't mean they will magically go "poof" on December 31st. 

Now I need to figure out when to start the different seeds. That means research into each variety and careful notes on a gardening calendar. After the seeds spouts, the fun begins as the plants grow, then flower, then produce. I'm kind of excited about it! 

I already know some of the seeds can be started early in seed trays inside my little greenhouse. Others will need to go directly into the growbag for the season. Some, like the lettuce and spinach, I'm undecided about how I want to grow them. I have an old wagon and I'm tempted to plant them in that and move them around to thwart the critters. 

Yes, the time to do serious planning for 2021 is here. 

The Lady of Holly Tree Manor  (The Hideaway)

The ferns in fall

Walking through the woods is a constant joy for me. Even though I stick to the same trails, as a general rule, there is always something new to see mixed in with the familiar. This year, there has been a big stand of ferns growing on a bank. I've marveled at how green they were all summer.

Fall has arrived, and the ferns have turned a pale yellowish-brown. It's the way of the season. Will they return next year? In all likelihood. This type of fern grows wild everywhere around here, even on the manor. Part of their growth success is that the deer don't seem to like them. 

I wish the deer would eat the ones growing along the upper stone fence. I've tried and tried to eradicate the ferns in that area, but so far they've bested me. 

I won't give up. I've got a tip on a woven ground cover that might do the trick. Do I feel remorse at the thought of killing off some ferns? No, I do not. There are plenty more to be found on the manor. I simply want what was a flower bed to be returned to its original function. I want to see the daffodils in the spring. I want the foxgloves and columbines to grow back. 

As I ease into being home on the manor full-time, this is just one of the many things I want to accomplish. And I'll still enjoy seeing the ferns along the woodland trails. 

The Lady of Holly Tree Manor

August lilies in September

We've always had August lilies. I don't know much about them but I think they're part of the hosta or plantain family. I love them, but so do the deer. It can be a problem.

Years ago, my grandmother gave me the first plant. From there, I divided the plant every other year until, no matter how much I loved them, I was overrun with August lilies. That's when the deer took notice. Over the course of a few years, they managed to kill a lot of the plants. Not to be beaten by a bunch of tick-hosting miscreants, I started over. 

These days the August lilies are thriving up close to the house. They shine best when planted in a row, but the strategic spots behind the house work as well, although I do miss looking across the yard on nights when the moon is full and seeing their white trumpets gleam.

Sometimes we need to settle for our memories as we nurture bits of the past in the present.

The Lady of Holly Tree Manor

Magic lilies

When I built my house, my grandmother gifted me with perennials from her garden. I worked hard to make border flower beds and even harder to maintain them. 

It was a lost cause. We have too many white-tail deer around here, and they all seem to know when the buds and blooms are at their best. Deer-proof plants? Don't kid yourself. Deer will eat everything except daffodils. I've lived it and I know. These days, I'm content with a garden limited to a few things next to the patio and in pots. Sweating to provide the deer with "salad greens" is not part of my plan.

One of the many bulbs my grandmother gave to me were magic lilies, sometimes called naked lilies. Or vice versa. It hardly matters to me which is right or wrong. To her, they were magic lilies and so they will always be to me, too. 

In the spring, the bulbs send up sturdy green leaves resembling the greens of a daffodil. Then the greens turn brown and yellow and die off. When that happens, it's best to cut them off. Don't pull them because they may still be firmly attached and you could uproot the bulb. 

Wait for it...

Around the first week of August, pale pinkish-green stalks appear. They may be three or four inches tall one day, and twenty inches tall the next. It happens that fast. Then they open lovely, lacy, delicate pink blooms that last perhaps a week if you're lucky and the deer don't mangle them. After about a week, the stalks fall over. 

I let the stalks lie where they fall because the next year or two, there will likely be a new magic lily where the seed pod developed. It's a haphazard way of getting more bulbs, but it works for me. 

Here on the manor, we know we can't always improve on the ways of Mother Nature. 

The Lady of Holly Tree Manor

Peonies - almost there

May 11, 2020

My mother and grandmother both loved peonies. My grandmother had a row of them planted along her driveway, and my mother did the same thing in 1965 when she and Dad bought their house. My grandmother, in fact a lot of the older women I knew as a child, called them "pineys." 

When I moved to the manor, my mom insisted I have a start of her favorite variety, one that is pink with a yellow center. The problem with that was I'm not the same caliber of fan my mother and grandmother were. But I was dutiful in those days. 

Somewhere along the line, probably in 1993 when my mother sold the house she and Dad had lived in, I went to the row beside the driveway and dug starts for a white, red, and mauve-ish pink, and planted them in a row front of the porch. Pink, white, red, step, red, white, pink. The women before me were more haphazard in their plantings. 

I must admit that, now, in the spring, I wait for the "pineys" to bloom, checking them daily for progress. The deer taught me a hard lesson - if I live here I can't have many flowers. I spent years doing backbreaking gardening only to have the deer eat the flowers down to the ground. They don't eat my peonies. 

It won't be long now until they open and the connection to my grandmother and mother comes full circle for another year. I have a lot of those connections and they mean more to me with each passing year. 

I miss having lots of flowers. I do. But it's too much work and the deer too plentiful to spend all that time so they can have a salad bowl every year. Life on the manor is a mixed bag. 

The Lady of Holly Tree Manor