Black walnut update: Surprise!

 A chicken wire cage will protect the black walnut seedling from deer and rabbits.

Look what happens when you're not paying attention.

The background: We sowed 14 black walnuts in fall 2009. Three germinated. They were planted out back on the "nature trail" last fall. This spring, they looked good. We were hopeful. But then, nothing. Did a cold snap kill the buds? Who knows. There were too many other things to think about and we left the sad-looking stems alone. 

A couple of weeks ago we made the discovery. One of the seedling trees has put out a robust show of leaves. It lives!

Seventh Day September: Go Team!

 Blue Hubbard squash

New this month -- photos taken by both of the Silly Dog's keepers. While I was away working on a project, the other half of the sillydoggarden team filled the gap by shooting images of lots of cool stuff (like that squash, above).

September is racing by -- we had three consecutive nights of frost/freeze this past week so many of the tender annuals are toast. But we also have a bunch of beans and corn in the freezer and trays of onions curing in the garage. The root crops will be harvested later. And even on a rainy day like today, the garden has the beginning of that burnished autumn glow.

See what's been going on at sillydoggarden by clicking here or going to the slide show in the sidebar at right.

X marks the spot

Weekend vapor trails at sillydoggarden.

Honoring the memory of a friend's brother

 Self-sown Nicotiana alata.

A day of reflection. A friend writes about the loss of his brother on 9/11 in the New York Times.

Grateful ...

... for 17 years of (state-sanctioned) garden-making.

Sunset

8:13 p.m. Saturday. View from the backyard deck.

Already, the days are getting noticeably shorter. The sun is rising about a minute later and setting about a minute earlier. A minute here and a minute there and pretty soon you're talking about real time. 

Yesterday's sunset was particularly stunning.

8:14 p.m. Saturday. View from the backyard deck.

August bubbling away

 I've had the water lily ('Chromatella') for more than 15 years. The floating plants are new additions we purchased at Winter Greenhouse in May.

August is going by way too fast. Here is some of it captured and saved in The Seventh Day Project: August 2011. (Or see sidebar at right)