Sea Goats Garden

dead tree

Today I was surprised: I fully expected to be deadheading Lilacs and instead ended up digging two cherrys out of large, anerobic, stinky planters.  The boxes weren’t draining, and the trees  essentially drowned.  The forklift showed up loaded with plywood sheeting; we laid down plywood from perennial garden way to the first two planters of the visitors center.  We backed up a Toro Workman to the planter and started shoveling the slop out of the planters and cutting roots.   Then, we brought the forklift in, attached pulling straps around the tree and fed them through the tines and pulled the trees out.  Thank god we didn’t have to empty the planters of the mud.

Next, we moved on to rolling sections of tree down a hill to a skidloader and loading into the dumptruck.  None of the logs really rolled very well, and we had to really manhandle them to get them down the hill.  The Bobcat also stopped working (computer problem) and that delayed everything.  It really was like a game of slow-motion, mildly stupid Donkey Kong.  I finished the day up with weeding.

Last Friday we went to the Morris Arboretum and Chanticleer garden. The Morris was a nice surprise – I have to admit that I wasn’t expecting much going there, but I really like that garden.  They had a skywalk through the trees with a very cool open netted seating area about 50′ up in the air.  Great trees, nice follies, formal rose garden and an outdoor train set that was actually pretty fun.  I’m definitely heading back in the fall to look at (and smell) the Katsura and Nissa (Tupelo) trees there.  We had a really informative private tour, ending with an amazing American Beech colony that shows how they grow.  Their horrible URL:  http://www.business-services.upenn.edu/arboretum/gardens.shtml

Chanticleer garden is just amazing.  It’s one of the most interesting gardens I’ve ever seen – the plantings are amazing, the paths, the woodworking on the bridges, the folly with “water table.”  Their gardeners are not just excellent horticulturists, they are artists too who create art pieces throughout their areas.  Each gardener is responsible for a fairly large area, and they mentioned they have spent a lot of time working on transitions from garden to garden.  I have to say it worked – each area is unique, but really holds together well.  Highly recommended, even on a 95 degree day with horrid humidity.

http://www.chanticleergarden.org/

I have mostly been shearing a massive taxus hedge in front of the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory.  This beast is long, and about 70″ wide.  I have a pair of shears that aren’t the greatest, and have spent a lot of time doing the back of the hedge (it isn’t that visible).  Anyhow, I’ve been taught to go along for a length of hedge and mark the depth you want to cut, then cut in the top and progressively move to the bottom of the hedge.  All the while, be sure to back up often and look at what you’re doing.  I have the habit of putting in a “belly” at about the 2/3 way down mark, so I usually have to go back and straighten that out.  NYBG is very exacting with their hedging and this is taking a long time.  The thing that is the worst with this process is when you make a sharp cut and hit a knuckle or thick branch and the shears vibrate in your hands – that hurts a little, and it happens often.

My friend, fellow student and Birthday Buddy Luis Marmol wrote a fun article about a field trip we took to a rooftop farm in Brooklyn.  I’m generally opposed to gentleman farmers and all, but I think Luis did a good job capturing everything.  BTW: neither of us canoed.  Read about it here:

http://www.nybg.org/wordpress/?p=6351

My Botany II teacher, Dr. Margaret Conover, is something of a world expert on Chia seeds (Salvia hispanica) and runs a fun site at:  http://www.chiativity.org/.  I randomly came across a bag of Chia seeds in the Berkshires and have been religiously taking 2 Tbs of gel every day.  I can now perform super-human feats.  Your take-away from this:  eat Chia and be like me.