A PEEK AT MY JULY GARDENS

Doc, my DH canoed the West Branch in June with 2 of his students and a father. Last year he did it with 3 of our 4 sons. They went from Clearfield to Renovo both times. My brother lives up in Wellsboro. It is a beautiful area of the country!
Your pots look wonderful.

I have canoed the West Branch from Renova downstream to Williamsport once and various portions of the river fishing. The river from Hyner just ten miles or so South of Hyner is now bearing fish. The aquatic insects are recovering to make this possible. Various mine drain restorations of fixes have brought this about. Twenty years ago the mine acid would eat your toenails off if you stayed in it long enough.

There is a significant Elk population between Renova and Hyner and North of Renova to Route 44. We have seen evidence of Elk near our hunting camp which is in the Eastern most range of the Elk. We have on occasion during the rutt seen them outside and East of Route 44.

A beautiful canoe trip is Pine Creek from a few miles North of Wellsboro to Slate Run. This is definately a down stream run and best done March through May. This is through the valley of the Pennsylvania Grand Canyon. There is one spot well marked Wassie that can get into a Class 1 1/2 white water with an experienced canoe level requirement about six miles South of Renove. One can stop and determine if one should walk the canoe through those fifty yards of fun. That is an Indian named shoot in the creek. The jolk is as many swim to shore and run the banks to catch the canoe is the question, what wassie that"? The rest of the trip is fun water and takes about four or five hours. It is excellent trout fishing all along the way but if fishing one should choose a segment of the trip for more fun. Deer and Bald Eagles are an absolute trip sighting. Everything else is a maybe.

Sounds simply beautiful.

Doc, I am really enjoying your posts. Funny, hubby just saw a bear, driving between here and Waterford this weekend, he takes the back roads, and so did the bear.
As for the Buffalo, you can still see them along Rt. 79 north of Edinboro, there is a buffalo farm there. Unsuspecting drivers/travelers have to do a double take. Gosh, now I'm hungry for a buffalo burger.

Doc, My Dad many, many years ago did the fast and furious version of the Piney Creek run during a high water rush. I on the other hand did a late summer slow tubing version a couple of years ago. His hunting camp is in Slate Run just up the hill from the Manor. You might know it "The Old Winchester".
This is the woodlands right behind his camp. So beautiful and peaceful.

This is another peek at Docs, area.
Doc you might have to help me out a bit with the name of the "small hill" I'm at. It is where the hang gliders go. Ric and I think it would be a State Park near Renova, can you tell from the pic?

Other direction, from here those mtns just look like they go on forever.

Thought I would toss in a pic of the bathtub it is growing in very nicely.

Bathtub looks great, Holly.

I'll let DH know about when to canoe Pine Creek. Thanks for the info.

The picture near Renova is taken above a very small town named Hyner thus you have a shot looking North from Hyner Lookout. It is Pennsylvania's most used hang glider launch site. Several agencies got together and just bought a farm which will protect the most used land for a landing site. For years all they had was a handshake and verbal agreement that the hang glider folks could land there.

Our hunting camp or weekend hideout is about two miles Northeast of that Hyner Lookout point as the crow flies. As the mountain roads go we are about eight or nine miles from that point behind or above Hyner Park and Rt. 44. There are likely not more than a couple hundred people who actually reside in that township. Their largest source of tax income is from the recreational cabin owners in their township. The largest business within their boundries is a gasoline station whose owner also sells propane and is an excavator doing everything from basements to cabin road improvements. There are occasionally picked up part time labor helpers. The rest is all family. Everyone else who works goes to Lock Haven and as far away as fifty miles to Williamsport. A few work in the forrest industries and with various state agencies that manage the State Woodlands. There are no golden arches within forty miles, your cell phone, Ipod, and laptop does not need to be turned off because you are in dead space most of the time and only a handfull of the recreational cabins are better than primative unless they install gasoline or propane generators. There are five hundred primative cabins on State owned on leased ground. You now have a glimpse of which is only a small part of the huge mountain area we speak of as God's Country. Roughly it goes from New York State on the East to Ohio on the West. It includes roughly the top third of the state of Pennsylvania North of Rt. 80.

Thanks Doc, As soon as you said Hyner I remembered. Dad would say lets go to Hyner and watch the gliders. LOL

I forgot to mention if one has a house or cabin fire one may be allmost assured of a total loss because the five volunteer fire companies have little or no manpower in daylight hours. In all instances a fire is reported to all five of the companies with the hopes that one will be able to respond and enough menfolk are available to work off that one firetruck. If our cabin should meet such a fate we plan to grab a chair, climb a downwind hill and watch it go because it would take any of the fire companies an hour to get there.
After there they have only the water they can carry with them and they hope our camp road is wide enough for heavy equipment. Then they hope three or four more live bodies show up to use the equipment. I am not streaching the truth an inch. One of those fire companies was built by a restrurant and campground owner to cut insurance costs for his business. There are two native familes that live within ten miles and they are over sixty years of age. Yes they do respond as one of those five companies once in awhile maybe and if the door opener to the firehouse will work. The bears have not yet been trained to fight fires.

Doc, Does that put you up near Clay Mine or Little Docherty? Holly's Dad's camp is Old Winchester just up the hill from the Manor Inn and next to the grave yard. The new Manor is nice, but the old one had a lot more atmosphere. Ric

We agree on the New Manor. Food is still reasonably good perhaps the best in the nearby mountain. I think we should drop into Dmail for further discussion. You have mail.

Pennsylvania is such a big state, but I haven't gotten to see much of it lately. I would like to see the Delaware Water Gap someday.
Here's a picture of part of the bed by the driveway. There's swamp milkweeds and nicotiana towards the end, and a few tall clumps of heleniums not really visible in this picture. All down the other side of this bed the caryopteris is just starting to bloom now, which seems early to me.

View from the corner of the backyard

standing in the backyard

Mike, you would really enjoy the Water Gap area. Drive further up the river to Dingman's Ferry and put your canoe in the water. It will be a lovely afternoon. While there, be sure to go do the hike at Bushkill Falls.

I see you've been using that Magic Dust again.

Last one, the dawn redwood in the front yard. It was three and a half feet tall less than three years ago. The mulch ring is eight feet wide, to give you an idea how tall it is.

Gosh, Mike. That's going to be the tallest tree in the neighborhood.

It's funny, I could put the canoe in right down the street, but I seem to just use it on vacation. I could float down and visit you sometime. Ok, another picture, the view from the kitchen sink. Most of that green stuff will bloom soon, ironweeds, cardinal flowers, and heleniums. I didn't know that helenium got six fet tall, so I''ll be moving them this fall.

I figured out yesterday I can use the sink sprayer to water the planter by the patio!

Claypa, Your gardens are just beautiful, You will have the tallest tree in the neighborhood. I have a friend that has one about the same size. She planted it in her field nothing will get it it's way.

Thanks! I would have loved to have a big oak tree like the one accross the street, but I couldn't get the one I wanted at the time, and just too impatient I guess. I'll never forget the time I was sitting on the couch and noticed the tree had grown into view. Another year or two and it will start providing some needed shade.

To the right of the shed, there's a number of shrubs and small trees where I'll start planting perennials for a "mixed" border this time. My yard is so small that it's hard to get a "long view" picture, so I always post close-ups, but here's a view from upstairs. I'd put a picture window up there, but there's a plumbing vent stack in that wall and I haven't figured a way around that yet.

You're right Holly and he won't share any of that Magic Dust.. I have 3 forms of Helenium growing this year. An early one, Copperelia is just starting to bloom. It only gets 3 feet tall. The other two, one gets 4 to 4 1/2' tall and the Red and Gold can get up to 6 feet.

Claypa, you have some really nice cottage gardens going on at your place. I like your style.

Great pics, thanks for sharing.
Mike is that a 'for sale' sign on your lawn?

Thanks, both. No, that's next door, both sides have been vacant for quite a while now. That reminds me, I should plant some stuff near the other house's foundation, the bank won't care. These houses are "twins", and my yard is only .08 acres, about 40'x100' or so.
This is the "wild frontier", with possums, skunks, rabbits, and lots of groundhogs (four babies this year, but two died; one by a hawk, one roadkill). Soon I will cover the grass here with newspaper and cardboard and one ton of mushroom compost, and plant lots of divisions of plants from the rest of the yard among these trees and shrubs.
Just out of the picture to the right is a tallish 'Dragon Lady' holly, planted where a thirty foot tall Norway maple used to be. Can you tell I like it crowded with plants? : )

Mike, Lovely gardens and pics. Rerouting a vent stack around a window can be a DIY job, if your vent size is 1 1/2", and it's PVC pipe, you can use sanitary elbows (longer sweep), and a hole saw. If your vent is copper and you aren't experienced in sweating joints you may need a plumber/Handyman to do it safely. Either way will require removal of the interior wall sheeting (drywall, whatever). Ric

If my husband can sweat a pipe joint, I know claypa can LOL
I also would be tempted to correct any landscaping issues at a vacant house next door.

Sally, Our neighbor did the opposite! They were losing their place, so they invited everyone to a swap. It was an unusual swap to say the least, all you had to bring was dirt to fill the holes. LOL Ric

Thought I would post a pic of one of my small beds. This is the Sunflower feeder and I've put a few things around it that seem to hold up to the constant squirrel activity. Earlier this summer the irises bloomed I have 3 of them one is a varigated variety that hasn't bloomed for me but has pretty fronds. There is a Coconut Lime Echinacea blooming now it's new this year and doesn't have many blooms yet not very noticeable in this pic as it is planted on the other side. There is also a newly planted varigated grass on that side too newly added to form an opinion on that one yet. The highlight of this bed is the Heliopsis I got from Critter a couple of years ago. There are also volunteer sunflowers and corn stalks that come up every year to add to the mix.
Edited to add:
Doc, I was thinking that some of your purple millet would look very nice in this bed.

This message was edited Jul 31, 2009 4:16 PM

Holly, That bed is very cute. I like the corn stalks.

Holly,

I really like the way you cut out a piece of the lawn and put an interesting little garden bed here and there. I would love to do that, but I think that mine would look silly since there is so much lawn for them to get lost in.

R_R_R, I had a terrible time deciding where to plant things at first. I would look at my empty yard and think where do I put this. LOL Not like there wasn't room I just couldn't decide. As I placed things (bird-feeders, water-features and the gazebo) in the yard I built the beds around them. I put the bird feeders in my view and then planted the butterfly bush half way between them and back a bit, makes a triangle. I can see the butterflies in the summer and gives the smaller birds a perch in the winter. The birdbath was also put in the view and a bit off to one side of the largest feeder, added a few large rocks to the other side and built a bed behind and around that group. The bird feeder is tallest and then the mid sized birdbath and the low rocks. Kind of steps down as it spreads out. I had Ric set up the frame of the gazebo and move it around the yard till I decided exactly where I wanted it. There will be beds on the 4 corners of the gazebo and I put in a small one beside the box pond. The beds will spread out from the "things" and once the GH and pond are in place there will only be a small grassy spot and walkways everything else in the back corner will be beds that started out as islands and flowed together. Well that is what I am aiming at anyway. LOL
Ric, whines about my little beds when he mows and I will say that after his accident and I tried my inexperienced hand at mowing he is right. I do try to be mower friendly with my spacing and edges but as things are growing and spreading the spacing is getting a bit tight. I think I would really be lost with that big open space you have but think of all the possibilities.

Gosh, Holly! Who would have thought of adding a couple of corn plants for height and effect????
They look so----like they belong there. Thin and wispy--just the right accent.

Love that bed!!!! You sure have good eye for design! Care to come over here??????

Gita

LOL Gita, That is natures design, mostly. I put cob corn at the base of my feeders for the squirrels these just grew on their own. I just decided to let them be. I do like the look.
I find that some of my best combos come from serendipity rather than great planing.

LOL Holly, let's hope the squirrels drop some more seeds for next year in the same spot. I often find that Mother Nature is a wonderful garden designer and am thrilled to have her lend a helping hand..

I was thinking some of Doc's purple millet planted in those spots next year might work well with similar results.

and....In the front is Jill's Not-Chocolate-daisies? ..Or, are they Rudbeckias?
Mine are still blooming away too--such a bright accent looking from a distance....

Need to dead-head all the Shastas in that corner...the first wave of bloom is now over. If only all this rain would stop!