When we 1st moved here we made a line that was bordered by 3 huge old silver maple trees, from those trees to the house was Yard, above those tree was the field. My wife has a say so about what happens in the Yard, but I get to do what ever I want up in the field. The field was all grown up in brush and jaggers, [ Black Berry bushes and multi floral rose ] I had a friend brush hog it for me and have kept it mowed since. The yard has to be mowed every week, but the field can get high and its OK. There is also an Upper Field that gets mowed 2 or 3 times a year. All of the flowers I have planted, the shrubs, the butterfly garden, the orchard, the garden, the blue berrys, the grapes, all are up in the Field. It was the best deal I ever made, lol. Much better than the deal I made when she wanted a swimming pool. I was to open and close the pool, she would do everything else, chemicals, water testing, back flushing etc. I should have gotten that in writting because that deal isn't working for me at all any more, lol.
When I planted the fruit trees all of the Baldwin apples died, that was OK with me, I just figured that God didn't want Baldwin apples up on the hill, so I replanted golden delicious, macintosh, and Delicious trees instead. All are doing fine. Two of the pear trees died after several years from Fire Blight, it left a nice open area in the field for Volly Ball, I didn't replant. When I went to buy Blue Berry bushes I knew that you needed different varietys to cross polinate, so I asked the old guy at the nursery what types he had there. He said, well, this one has a red ribbon on it, that one has a blue ribbon on it, there is a white ribbon on that other one over there, so they must be different kinds and should work to cross polinate. OMG, the old guy didn't know anything, so I bought 8 plants, several of each color ribbon, 2 of the 8 died 6 are still producing well many years later. I really wish I knew what types I have because the one has huge berrys that taste great. Unfortunately I have No Clue what kind I planted, lol. I am now getting to be an old guy myself, I hope that Boo has time to read all of this because I have been making Learning experiances Happen for low these many years now. As a matter of fact, I may have coined the expression, lol
I have never tasted a Gooseberry, but I have read about them for years, so this year I planted 3 bushes. I really hope I like them when they fruit next year,
I don't mind taking a flyer here and there, trying something new or different or off the wall. That is why I bought an electric car. It wasn't because I wanted to save the planet, it wasn't to save money, it was because I watched a Video called " Who Killed The Electric Car " and it ticked me off so badly that we had the tech back in the late 1990's and let it go, I had to go out and buy one, I was that upset. I am normally more conservative than that, I had just been forced to retire and I think it was my mid- life Chrysler.
I probably have more in Common with Youngblood than I do with many of the young Bucks here on this site. One young fella was telling Matt that he was Born in 1969, I graduated High School that year and met my wife that Dec.
talk about making me feel old. lol
This is the line of trees that seporate the yard from the field.
This was the 1st flower bed, the yellow Iris my Mom gave me, the timbers have not totally rotted away just yet.
This bed is on the way to the garden, it has lillys of the valley, daffidiles, sun drops, and a couple of other flowers that I can not name. It is not bordered by 6X6 and so its shape just sort of grows with time.
This is a patch of Tiger Lillys, they were growing wild across the road. Orange and black Day Lilly flowers They are done for the year. I do not bother to mow them off untill late fall. All of these planting are on the line of the field, so I just do what ever I want up there,
My pictures seem to show up small on here, just click on them and you will see a larger size, it you click again they will be full size and show alot more detail.
Never doubt that a small group of dedicated people can change the world, indeed it is the only thing that ever has.