What a nice welcome home! These are two pictures Don took on that hike. The day before we went up to Mount Spokane to look for huckleberries, but the bushes were very small and bare. Not enough rain this year. (sorry, I couldn't find a good link on the huckleberry. Ours is the Vaccinium Membranacem. I'll have to take some pictures and post some info on these)The yard was a bit of a mess to our dismay. Our property management people left the automatic sprinkler system on for us, but no one mowed the yard for the month our house was vacant. The grass grew up over the sprinkler heads, so they were blocked. So we had this dead brown yard with brilliant green spots all over it!!!! I should of taken a picture! 'Didn't think about that till just now. Sorry. Anyway, now its mowed and starting to recover. We used the thick clippings from the green spots to start a compost pile. Grif made a quick
frame with a 10 by 3 foot piece of hardware cloth from the hardware store on the corner.We also had to trim up our box elder tree. We want to remove this tree because it's a fast-growing, and very brittle tree. NOT a good tree in a climate where the limbs break under heavy snow and ice in winter (as in the ice storm of 1992!). It's gonna take a lot of work to get this tree in decent shape before winter sets in.
When I left before, I had a nice hedge of black currents along the southern fence. All but 3 frail bushes are dead and gone. So I think I'll put in a row of bayberry. They may be a bit hard to find, but it will be worth the effort! On the other side of the yard I want to put in a row of high bush blueberries and maybe bilberries underneath.
I need to build a home for our allowed 3 chickens. Our yard is covered in maple bugs! But a week of chicken-grazing should take care of that! We have also found several hobo spiders around the yard and have killed 4 in the basement. Yikes! But again, I think our chickens will gobble them up.
Much to do! Much to do! :) I better get to work!
2 comments:
My search for the roots of "maybon" took me to your blog on roadside foraging last Fall... & I decided to look further. My family used to pick huckleberries in Pend Oreille County, near Ione (where my mom was born)... and I'm still seeking them out- in a number of forms (red, evergreen, the "foothills" species), along with other berries, native plant seeds, basketry materials, mushrooms, Spring greens (nettles, etc) & other "good things" along the way (eg agates & other interesting minerals). The cool summer may have damped down the pollination early on, but August rains sure filled out what fruit is available... around here, anyhow.
All the best with your settling in, & fall foraging, too! cheers, ^..^
thanks! :)
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