Sweetgrass Is Going Bananas

Around here, with the rain and sun, everything is growing fast, including the sweetgrass patch.

I’m thinking it might be time for an initial harvest. Since sweetgrass is a grass, it should be like other grasses and, as opposed to most plants, grow from the base. This should mean that if I trim it off low, it should grow back fine, and maybe produce two crops. We’ll soon find out.

Pretty Nice

The ArbAtStarin is really coming together. (I know, some photos might be repeats.) But this nice bit of news yesterday:
Jim – I am delighted to confirm that Generac will be making a $15,000 donation to the City of Whitewater to support The Arboretum At Starin Park. These funds are designated to purchase the supplies for the Generac Welcome Center at The Arboretum at Starin Park that will be constructed by the city and volunteers. This is one more way we can support environmental education and give back to where our employees live and work.

In other news, a real duck-drownder this morning, and the robins (along with all the new plantings) are fat and happy.

A Thing Of Beauty…

…is a joy forever. And the Arboretum is shaping up to be a thing of beauty. (Photos don’t do it justice.)

The several areas where the planting has progressed are transformed.
The work done is stunning, beautiful, sensational. The newly planted areas provide a powerful feeling of welcome, tranquility, and uplift.
Bowers, groves, shaded retreats, and, along a main sidewalk, what I would call a tunnel of trees. A great variety, all native.
This part of the AASP is now a place so inviting it will make people want to visit often, only to find themselves reluctant to leave. And, over the years it will only get better.

Turning out well beyond my expectations.

Sometimes It’s Better…

…to not try.

The basil I babied from seed has failed in the garden. The tomatoes are looking anemic. And the only prosperous squash are the volunteers in the compost bin. But cilantro? Cilantro we got, in plenty—self seeded, apparently, from last year’s crop. The menu will now be adjusted to go with the flow.

Inter Urban Trail

Today Will and I rode the Ozaukee Interurban trail from Grafton/Cedarburg to Port Washington.

Above, we are crossing the wide and clear-running Milwaukee River.

Here, going over Interstate 43.

Walking around the harbor at Port W, we had to stop at the filleting station, of course.

And then we had lunch. Oddly enough I had a tuna melt.

After lunch we explored some more, then back to the bikes for the return trip—only to find I had a flat tire. Great time, but rather embarrassing to have to be rescued. Turns out a tiny piece of glass infiltrated my front tire.

For anyone interested in Interurban trains, check this out:
"Interurban Queen" by R. A. Lafferty
”A clever tongue-in-cheek utopian story, a glimpse at an alternate universe in which the automobile has been outlawed and America is covered in railways. It starts with theory--a dude with a big inheritance in 1907 has to decide whether to invest in rubber (for car tires) or in trains that will connect small cities, and he consults the experts, who tell him that the automobile will turn America into a living hell by fostering the development of dense cities and suburban sprawl and by turning everybody into an arrogant jerk.”

Incredible Success

At first glance, failure.

But, on closer examination, twenty-eight shagbark hickory nuts sprouted—about 80% of the nuts that sank, and 10% of those that floated. (Moral: sinking is better.)
The thing is, with hickories, like many other plants, it’s root before shoot. Although nothing much was visible above soil level, a number of thick, fibrous roots had broken through the bottom of the peat pots, worked their way around the wire mesh, penetrated the landscape cloth sub-layer, and dug into the fondament.
Hoping to do minimal damage, I extracted and re-potted them. But first, I had to make a pot. Hoping to emulate Possibility Place (the source of Arboretum trees) I decided that air pruning was necessary, so I built seedling troughs (long pots) with few drain holes and a couple of feet below the base so that the plants would be elevated from the soil below.
Maybe this will work. Question is, what then.

Travel Day

Back to Wisconsin for a bit. Enough of boat work for a while. And, oddly enough, there is quite a lot of yard work needing to be done here. AND tomorrow I get my glasses back!

Witch Hazel is doing well.

Very, very windy this evening. And now the power is out. are we back on Manitoulin?

And, of course, as light fades, I have to bring up the old riddle, “Where was Moses when the lights went out?”

Deep In The…

…bowels of the bilge.

Bilge pump clogged by a vast amount of gunk accumulated over the past 3 years of idleness. From 10 until 4 today we were deeply involved in gunk. Spray with the boatyard hose, pump with our guzzler, spray with the boatyard hose, pump with our guzzler, wipe and repeat. Then Sue went down the port cockpit locker (impossible except for a contortionist) and dragged the befouled pump up into daylight, where we operated on it in various ways, and then replaced it (working) down in the grungy depths.
Tomorrow we deal with the water system, and then, sometime, on to the engine.

N.B. Sue was able to get back our of the locker though at first it seemed unlikely.

Warm Front

Light rain night and morning, so boat work canceled and breakfast at Mum’s instead. Then on to JD Nursery for coreopsis.

Later, lots of hot and sweaty work cleaning up all the vegetation along the lakeshore killed by high water and grinding ice. This evening, as we sit on the porch, the hum of vast swarms of midges.