Thursday, May 28, 2020

A foot at a time in the garden

Today was slow going. In two hours I managed to clear a 5'x3' area. It was slow going since I had to battle grass and weeds. Some of the weeds are typical dandelions but we also encounter vetch. Vetch is in the legume family. The state decided to plant vetch along the roadways not taking into consideration the invasive abilities of this plant. Vetch can attract many types of wildlife to include deer and birds. wildlife may love the vetch (since it produces edible parts), gardeners do not. It can take over a garden lickety-split. So be careful what you sow and where.

The area I cleared. I even took the time to move a few wild geraniums. I think they will look fantastic near the rock. 

A different view of the cleared area. I hope the geraniums survive. This was hard work and my hand is a little stiff from all the grass pulling. Don't mind the terrible looking bushes. We plan on pulling the bushes that are struggling, and we will move some around the garden. 

If you look behind the cleared area, past the rock, you can see the next battle area.

Vetch

Tuesday, May 26, 2020

Shall we call Forgotten Garden one the Iris garden?


Another day of cleanup, this time three hours. One of the fun parts of cleanup is determining what is a weed and what is a flower. What to keep, what to remove. I know some people think a weed is anything you do not want in your garden. I do not subscribe to that though since there are many plants that can be native and/or transplanted to other gardens. It helps to have fellow gardeners to send pictures to or to email about a particular plant.
Something good that comes out of gardening is the calorie burn. Three hours of pulling weeds can burn up to 200 calories an hour. The downside is the muscle ache (LOL). Make sure to stretch those muscles and limber up before gardening.

bush with grass growing among the roots. Had several of these bushes. Took two hours to clear six bushes of the grass. 

horsetail, very invasive. Remove by cutting. If you try to pull it out the spores will scatter.

Yarrow, has beautiful flowers


Friday, May 22, 2020

First day of clean-up 2020

So, the first day we started clean-up was a Tuesday in May. It was a glorious day of sun and warmth for Alaska. We started out with three members but as the hour progressed a total of ten members were helping clean and clear. We started "tagging" bushes for removal. These bushes will be transported to other gardens in Eagle River, AK.
How do you remove a bush or any plant for that matter? What is the first thing to consider and then where does one go from there? I think the first thing to consider is the new location. Will it be the same as the location the bush is currently located and will the needs of the plant be the same or different. Some gardeners recommend giving the tree a trim before digging it up. It all depends on the plant and the time of the season. When pulling a plant make sure to get as much root ball as possible. I recommend digging from the plant's drip line to start. This is where the main roots are located. There may be runners but the main root ball is what you are after.   After you have the plant and root ball out of the ground, be sure the new location has a deep and wide enough hole to fit your plant. You may need to make some minor adjustments to how the bush is viewed before soiling over the roots. For instance, for one or two bushes we moved, later in the month, I went about five feet away from the bush to look at how the bush sat. If I didn't like the view, I spun the bush to get it to the view I liked (this way, I was able to choose the fullest part of the bush for viewing)

Initial removal of debris started

You can see all the pebbles from the melted snow piles. Oh, look in the background--it's the Blue Star Garden

The drain has lots of suckers which were cut down and treated



Sigh, did I start in the right spot?? LOL

Geared up for the battle

Thursday, May 21, 2020

Alaska Eagle River Garden clean-up, spring 2020

I adopted a garden in Eagle River, Alaska, along with several of the ladies from the Greater Eagle River Garden Club (see link below). The garden is part of the "forgotten" gardens reported in the Echo in 2018 (see below). Two of us ladies adopted the garden know as number one. There are over 30 gardens scattered throughout Eagle River but only about ten that are currently being taken care of.

We have our work cut out for us. For instance, many of the gardens have been overrun with grass, weeds, and tree and bush runners. The pictures below show almost four hours of work done to clear the bed at garden one. The before and after show clearing the drain rocks of grass and weeds; as well as, clearing some of the Iris bed. Today we pulled seven bags of debris from the garden area. This past Tuesday we cleared over ten bags of debris. I will post a separate post on the work we did on Tuesday after I get pictures.  We anticipate the clean-up to take most of the month since the garden is so neglected. There will be many more posts on this clean-up so stay tuned.

This garden (Garden one) is situated in the same area as Eagle River Blue Star  Marker and the Eagle River Garden sign. 

To learn more about AK ER Garden Clubs and our efforts please visit the following URLs:

Eagle River, AK Garden club
https://www.alaskagardenclubs.org/eagle-river or Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/greatereaglerivergardenclub/

Forgotten Garden article
https://www.echoak.com/2018/05/greater-eagle-river-garden-club-forgotten-gardens/
 Rock drain after

Rock drain  and Irises before

Irises after

Before