English style gardens

Over planted, lush, full. Lots of varieties. One plant here, another variety next to it. Lots of types all squished in together.

When we plant in that format, in the spring when things come up, we cannot tell the weed from “good” plant. We are afraid to pull anything. And we end up with a weed patch.

A large section of pachysandra in the front, showed me a different option.  It is so full that it keeps the weeds down. And if one pops up, it is easy to identify, and gets pulled immediately.

That has lead to our planting large sections of one plant only.

We can identify weeds in those sections. And if something “good” pops up, from a neighboring area, we can transplant it. Or give it to a neighbor.

And we still get that “full look”.

The secret to the English garden look I love, I think, is not being able to see the dirt.

Monarchs and milkweed

Two summers ago, I planted milkweed seeds, purchased thru a “save the monarchs” type group. Did not grow.

Last summer friend dug milkweed roots for me. He dug them far from farmlands and roadways. They came from a pond at a DNR fishery. (DNR - department of natural resources.)

Once milkweed gets exposed to chemicals, monarchs avoid it. Forever. That might well be adding to the monarch shortage. The milkweed along farm fields, is often now un-eatable. 

Root planted milkweed just outside our living room window. And it came up this year. A good clump of  it came up. And thrived. I was very excited.

Both my grandmothers would think I was a little nuts for starting milkweed in a yard. But I was smart where I started it. House on one side. Grass path on the other side. Evergreens, dense evergreens that can hold their own, on both ends. So it is a contained area. And if it goes under the grass to the next bed, I am okay with that and will let it fill that (currently empty) bed.

A month or more ago we were invaded by tussock moth caterpillars. My husband removed them all. And every day he checks to see if any more have hatched. Most days he plucks at least one.

https://journeynorth.org/tm/monarch/milkweed_ecology_answers.html

Today, we counted 8 caterpillars in our patch. And I think there are enough leaves to support them. Because my husband is removing the tussock caterpillars (which mow down leaves at an alarmingly fast pace), only the monarch's are feeding.

Pictures -

Milkweed patch outside our living room window

This is the good kind. A monarch caterpillar.
(Taken with my iPhone)

cold air returns

We have cold air returns in most rooms of the house. Interestingly, not the kitchen.

I have two Goldens that keep me company most days. They belong to a neighbor. It is a mutually beneficial situation.

However, middle and I both have asthma and assorted people have dog allergies. And I did not want dog dander pulled into the duct work of the house.

So our heating/air conditioning guys came and put filters on the three cold air returns that are exposed to dogs. We keep all the bedroom doors in the house shut when the dogs are here.

The cold air returns (with filter added) are in the living room, top of stairs, my sewing room. So these are in the “main” areas of the house.


Purpose of filter - to keep dog hair out of the duct work. The dog is only in the kitchen, hall, living room.


When the service man came to clean/check air conditioner, this past week, he took out the filters and had me wash them with the hose in the kitchen sink. Then he put them back. Interestingly, the cold air duct at the top of the stairs, is always the dirtiest, it must pull from downstairs kitchen. We do not have a cold air return in the kitchen/hall.

We are going to do the same thing in the late fall when he comes to check the furnace.



And we have two tower filters in my bedroom. And two tower filters in the other downstairs bedroom. There is also one in the living room. These are good quality tower filters from Target with permanent/washable filters.