The Gateway Lodge - Our Cooks Forest Adventure cont.

 

The Gateway Lodge - where we stayed.

 

 

This life size sculpture greets you as you enter the lodge grounds.

 

 

When you enter the rustic building, you first come to the office where you check in.  It's a quaint little area without a lot of room and is well separated from the main lodge guest area above.  There was always someone there wrapped in those huge soft chairs reading books.  Opposite the large windows of the two story room was where the wood burning fireplace crackled constantly.  This was an utterly gorgeous place that was well kept and highly maintained with the best you could ask for.  Wi-fi was available in this room only.  The rest of the lodge wasn't privy to Internet or cell phones.  Breakfast coffee and fruit was served there every morning for the early risers.

 

The lodge also had a very high class gourmet restaurant.  We had our breakfast of fruit, eggs over easy with a slice of whole grain, homemade bread, choice of apple sausage, again homemade, apple bacon, juice, coffee and homefries.  Breakfast came with our package.

 

For dinner it was dinner for two, with choice of entrees, a salad made of spouts, grass shoots, dandelion leaves, nasturtium flowers and green apples thinly sliced, covered with a lovely oil and cheese curd.  A tomato bisque laced with worcestershire sauce which gave it a wonder zing and a fried mushroom appetizer and apple crisp ala mode drizzled with caramel.  They also served a lovely wild mushroom soup that not only rivals Longwood Gardens, but passes it with flying colors!  My new favorite mushroom soup!

 

They were proud that all their food was organically grown and in season.

 

 

Down the hall from the guest main lodge was a hall way that housed a lovely billiards room seen below and a wonderful massage spa with products that are very lovely.  We also got them in our room.  The TV in the billiards room was the only TV and it was a nice one over the fireplace in that room.  Who wanted to watch TV anyway?

 

The rooms were just as rustic as the rest of the lodge, but each suite had a fireplace, whirlpool to ease those tired muscles as well as the usual shower.  It was a lovely room.  The whole place was 4*** all the way.

There are few places we've been that Bob made it known that he was planning on returning.  This is one he said that about over and over again.  It was a really great place to spend time.  This is my kind of camping.

Our Cook's Forest Adventure

 

For the first time in 10 years, we finally had some time off together and I used it making reservations to Cooks Forest.  We had first heard about this ancient forest, the only one in the US that is protected from logging and mineral depletion from a Harvard Professor at Longwood Gardens in March.

 

Since we arrived at the Lodge several hours early, we used the time with a hike through the old forest and to the tower to view the entire Allegheny forest.  We were there at a good time (autumn) and the day was beatuiful and sunny.  Perfect for taking pictures.  We stayed at a lovely century old lodge within walking distance of the Clarion River.  It was a beautiful area.

 

I've always been told that to have a healthy forest it must be managed and logged.  So much for the infinite knowlege of mankind.  In this ancient and beautiful forest, there was a place for life as well as death.  In death, these majestic beautiful trees were covered with moss and lichens.  In the crevice of this old dead trunk, a fern finds shelter and grows nicely.  Other dead trees littered the forest floor providing a place for moss, insects and tiny creatures and sometimes almost hidden by the masses of forest ferns that shared the floor with moss.

 

The eco system of this incredible place was unchallenged and left to be tended the way it was meant to be tended.  Not by human hand but by the Hand of God, and left in the care of Mother Nature.

Diamond Hills Pretty Boy Little Brat

 

He came to live with us July 3rd, 2003 at the age of 3 years.  He passed away this past Monday, September 10 at the age of 13 years.  I just hope he was happy while he was with us.  He was a devoted member of the family, never one to run or chase, but was by out side to the end.

An Unusual Butterfly

For the past six weeks, I've been pretty much laid up with a bum knee.  I twisted it somehow and am only now able to be on it.  I was out in the garden today and found a beautiful unusual butterfly there that just screamed to have it's picture taken.  It is an Acadian  Hairstreak.  According to information I could find on it, even though it is within it's range, we are at nearly the lowest end of it's regions. 

http://enature.com/fieldguides/detail.asp?shapeID=978&curGroupID=2&lgfromWhere=&curPageNum=24

I also understand from reading about this beautiful butterfly that the willow is a host plant for it.  I've never seen this stunning butterfly in my garden before and am glad that I have all the elements it needs to live here.

Nature never ceases to amaze me.

A Hornet's Nest

When we first moved into this home, we had a lot of trouble with paper wasps building their nests all over the property. Everywhere they could find an overhang, they would build. It was always around the house, near doorways, porches or the shed door where they would be a nuisance.  Then a few years ago, the number of wasps decreased to the point where they either found another place to live or they weren't such the nuisance they had been.  Occasionally, I will see a small paper wasp nest under an overhang, but rarely.  Here's why...

We noticed a few years ago when I got stung in the face that a colony of bald-faced hornets made a nest in my largest climbing New Dawn rose, only inches from our grill.  It was a very large nest so it had been there for some time before I got stung.  Of course, being so close to the place where we grilled almost daily, it had to go.  To bad.  I had asked a friend what they were and he informed us that they were a quiet beneficial insect that prayed mostly on paper wasps and other destructive insects.  I hated to do what we did to them, but they had to go.  Paper wasps returned to the garden.

The following year, they were found in the top of one of the maple trees.  Our tree trimmer found them and refused to prune that tree.  Understandable.  However, because they were at the top of the 10 foot tree, they were allowed to remain there, not being a problem with stinging.  There were no paper wasps in the garden that year.  By November of that year, the nest had long been abandoned and was blown from the tree in a stiff wind.

The year after that, they decided to make a nest in my vegetable garden, near the ground.  We couldn't harvest the strawberries without being stung numerous times.  They had to go again.  Once again paper wasps returned to the garden.

This year, I found a fine, very, very large bald-faced hornet nest deep inside the Star Magnolia.  This nest is even larger than the one we found in the New Dawn rose - about the size of two human heads put together.  It's been there undetected all summer and just increased in size over this time.  I stood and watched the activity around it for a bit and realized that the hornets were using a hole deep within the tree to enter and leave.  It would be very hard for any person to get that far inside the magnolia.

I had to tell Husband about the nest and he got upset.  "I was working really close to that spot pulling weeds," he said.  I told him to be careful around the area and don't do anything to dislodge the nest or disrupt it in any way and he will be fine.  He was insistent that it had to go.  I hope I talked him into leaving it alone.  Even with hornet spray, there's no way you could destroy this size nest without taking on a lot of battle scars.  I do prefer that they keep their nests at the top of the larger trees, but this one really isn't in the way and should be left alone.  Besides, they do keep the destructive bug population down a good bit.

September is coming and the temperatures are going to be dropping.  They will leave the nest and hibernate underground for the winter.  The nest will be abandoned forever.  They've lived here this long without incident and hopefully will be able to live the rest of the summer quietly.  At least I hope so.  Most of the work for that garden bed is done for the year.  It won't be until early spring when we go there again to prepare it for next year's growth.  The only work around that area is mowing that will be several feet away from the nest once a week or less depending on the rain.  Since the hornets enter the nest from inside the tree, no one, even the mower will get close enough to upset them.

I have seen a nest that was even larger than this one, near the top of a 80 foot dying tree.  These insects are incredible and having them in the garden isn't a bad thing.  Just when they choose a bad spot to start a nest.  Next year, they will find another place to build and hopefully it will be at the top of one of our larger trees.  Up there, they will be left completely alone, to live their lives and do their thing without consequence.  I like what they do for my garden - the way they keep it clean of destructive insects, but I can't have them where I work a lot.

They've been living in this garden for the past 4 years and I hope they continue to stay.  Each year it is interesting to see where they decide to build a nest and I can only hope they choose a spot where I won't find them a nuisance.  They are usually quite quiet and don't get upset if you meet them in the garden away from their nest.  Their protective instincts, however, can cause problems in more high traffic areas.

A night of fun

Last evening we went to a pollinator's challenge.  For those of you who don't know, my garden is registered with Penn State as well as the Audubon Society as a "natural" garden. 

For the Audubon Society it's registered as a bird sanctuary.  With Penn State it's registered as Pollinator Friendly.

Basically what this means is that I limit the herbicides and insecticides in the garden which allows a more poison free environment for both birds and insects.  There was a very small fee of about $10 each to register my garden and my garden as also inspected by Penn State Master Gardener's which was no big deal since by then it was already registered with the Audubon Society.

 Last night was the first every Pollinator's Challenge that was put on by the Penn State Master Gardener's at the test gardens in Landisville.  It was very fun and even though I didn't win any of the door prizes, I had such a great time exchanging observations with others of like mind.  There were bee keepers there explaining how the hives were kept and the honey extracted.  There was a honey tasting event and snack that were wonderful!  There was a lecture on the pollinator's garden and what it should be and as usual, the push for more registered gardens.

Above is a picture of an Agastache plant.  In my opinion this is one of the the best plants for bees and butterflies.  This plant will get about 4 feet tall and will spread nicely, creating a wonderful colony of flowers.
Below is the Heliopsis.  Another very lovely large daisy that is a big draw for bees and butterflies.  This plant can get close to 6 feet tall if in the right place and will also create a nice colony of plants as it ages.

After the lecture, we ventured out with the hostess for a tour of the test gardens.  A really lovely place.  We entered through an arbor of honey suckle (below).

We discussed all the native plants that were growing in the test garden.  Did you know that Pennsylvania has it's own native petunia?  Ruellia is the native petunia.  A small plant that will definitely find a spot in my garden.  I love petunias and have them around the house every year.

One of Husband's plants of interest is the Yucca.  I've always tried to discourage them because of the massive root system.  But when they are in flower they are impressive, so I might have to agree to put some back in the meadow garden.  Our hostess was telling us that they are surprisingly sought after by bees and butterflies.

Other plants that I have in the garden and saw peeping from under some of the other natives were the lovely wild violets.  I got six plants several years ago at the Penn State native plant sale usually held around Mother's Day.  They've now spread to just about every flower plot in my garden.  We know these lovelies and won't pull them out as they cover the ground with their lovely purple leaves and deep indigo blue flowers in the spring.

It was a wonderful time altogether.  It was nice to converse with and spend time with people of like mind - who realize what it is to have gardens that are pesticide free.  To grow food and herbs in gardens without pesticides or herbicides and know that when you eat out of it, you are eating food as nature intended. 

This was very last minute for me, but I'm glad I decided not to miss it.

Flowers to take Note of

The white rose across the back of my vegetable garden is City of York, Climber, 1945
Tantau, Germany.
'Professor Gnau' x' Dorothy Perkins'
This is one of a few climbers that I would encourage any Pennsylvania garden to have.  It is vigorous, (mine is only 4 years old), and yes, all the white roses you see across the back of my veggie garden is simply one rose!  It stretches across at least 20 feet of fencing wire.  Even though it does get blackspot, it is so vigorous it will just push past the fungus and keep on looking incredible without being sprayed.  Even when not in flower this rose is stunning.  It does rebloom several times in a season.  And you gotta love that fragrance!  It has a wonderful spicy aroma that makes your mouth water.
My only disappointment with this rose is rooting cuttings.  When I bought this one from Roses Unlimited, I had plans on purchasing another the following year.  When the time came, Roses Unlimited told me that they had had some problems with their mother stock and didn't have the rose available.  I immediately cupped two lovely stock canes.  One of them died within the first three weeks.  But the other continued into the summer, still cupped and finally in October of 2010, six whole months after I first started the cutting, I finally planted it to protect it over the winter.  It had only one ½" long root on it and I seriously didn't think it would make the winter.  It not only did, but started growing slowly in the spring and continued to grow until now, it is about five feet long.  It now has a total of six main canes.  It gave me close to 2 dozen flowers this year and I hope that by next year, this baby will begin to really be as vigorous as it's mother plant.  It takes about 3 years for a rose to establish in my garden but then it usually shows its full potential. 
Below is a close up of these exquisite beauties.

 This is a flower that is so exquisite that I had to comment on it.  It is the flower of the
St. John's Wort.  The variety show below is called 'Brigadoon'.  About 4 years ago, this lovely variety of St. John's Wort was introduced and I thought it was so stunning I wanted to try it in my garden.  Each year for three years I bought three plants from Wayside Gardens and the fourth year they didn't carry it any more.  I was able to get one plant from Kehlm Nurseries, but I didn't see it in their catalog this year either.  So, I wonder what is wrong with it? 

I put all ten plants in the deep dry shade of our maple tree and it flourished wonderfully.  However, until this year it had never bloomed for me.  Could that have been the problem?  I don't know.  But, I do know that they lovely chartreuse colored leaves lend a great color contrast to an otherwise very deep shaded area.  In brighter light the leaves would be more gold but for my purposes, the chartreuse is enough.  The flowers are bright yellow and quite delicate looking.  Also they are much larger than I had anticipated.

I do nothing to it, ever.  Even when autumn comes, I leave the dead, brown leaves there and the new ones come up through in the spring.  It spreads wonderfully in the bed and is covering all the exposed dirt, allowing us at least one bed that doesn't need to be mulched.

"And so," I ask, "Where did these lovelies come from?"  Above are garden hollyhocks that grow in the "Wildflower" weed bed along a fence of other notable roses and elderberries.  One time, when we first move here, I had some wildflowers and black hollyhocks growing along this fence.  Now after several years of not see hollyhocks at all, a bunch of them made an appearance.  Most of them are yellow, but some this year are white.  These beauties will stand up to 7 feet tall and are great for that back fence since they are so easily seen.  These wild babies will be allowed to reseed at will since that's where they came from in the first place.

Below is a butterfly weed.  Curiously, it made an appearance this year in a flower bed at our well.  It is a large plant so it must have been there for several years without being noticed???  I honestly think I would have noticed the bright orange flowers.  But nonetheless, it made an appearance this year and because of the bright orange flowers, it wasn't pulled out.  We made sure that most of the weeds around it were pulled away so it has room to spread.  No, I didn't plant this one at all and am curious as to where it came from.  I did have one about 10 feet away many years ago, but it's been gone for a very long time.  It got here somehow and I'm happy to see it.  I hope to have it grow into a nice colony in the next years.

Spring in the Back Garden

Spring is here in the back garden.  After 10 years, I noticed the the Tulip Poplar is blooming!  This is the first time I've seen this tree bloom and they are simply wonderful!

As this unopened bud is, most of the flowers for this tree were hidden within the dense foliage.  I'm hoping, now that the tree has finally begun to bloom that each year we'll see more and more of these beauties.

This is one of two of our wood nymphs that we found at Lowe's.  This one resides in the birdbath among the glossy abalias and the gold St. John's Wart.  The other resides in the birdbath in the HOSPICE bed we created from plants we bought at a HOSPICE Auction two years ago.  These two nymphs add the bit of whimsey needed in our garden.

This is a rose of note - Anne Marie de Montravel.  It all started in 1987 when we bought our home in Lancaster suburbia and I wanted a rose garden.  Husband bought me a rose through a club he joined and I decided I needed a few more to finish the bed.  On a trip to Home Depot, they had an antique rose called Anne Marie de Montravel, so I got it thinking that it would be nice to have an antique rose in the garden.  It turns out that the rose was misnamed and actually was Frau Karl Druschki, which is also classified as an antique rose, but is a hybrid perpetual bred in 1901in Lambert Germany.

On the other hand, Anne Marie de Montravel is a polyantha bred by Francois Dubreuil in Rambaux, France and introduced in 1879.  Anne Marie de Montravel is a much smaller rose than Frau Karl Druschki and since I have both in my garden, I will say that in my garden, Anne Marie is the far better rose.  She towers at almost 6 feet tall and nearly 10 feet wide which makes her almost 3Xs the size she's supposed to get.  This rose will cover itself with tiny white blooms several times a year.

When it was discovered that the rose I originally got was not Anne Marie but actually Frau Karl Durschki, I searched for Anne Marie but a friend told me it was not available in the US.  In 2002, the year we moved into this home, Anne Marie de Montravel became available in this country in limited quantities through a grower which many considered questionable.  Still I ordered the rose.  It came so absolutely tiny I had serious doubts if it would make it.  But I planted it anyway, right into the ground.  The first year, a rabbit got it and chewed it to the ground as it began to grow, so I put a cage around it to keep the rabbit at bay.  It lived until the next spring, still very tiny but outgrew the cage quickly and I had to free it.  10 years later, my very tiny, brand new rose is pictured above.

Two floribundas I had planted around it succumbed to the powerful Anne Marie de Montravel.  One of which I will be replacing in the spring should another spot open up in the garden somewhere.  She rivals my breathtaking Marie Pavie who often crowds Happy, a smaller bright red polyantha given to me by a friend.  Happy doesn't seem to mind to much though.

It's funny, I have a lot of trouble with Hybrid Tea roses, but when it comes to the "Old Garden Roses" such as Ann Marie de Montravel (1879), Marie Pavie (1888), Happy (1954) and Leonie Lamesch (1899), all polyanthas, Some of the stronger hybrid perpetuals such as Baronne Provost (1842), and the exquisit Gruss an Aachen (1909), considered the 1st floribunda, just to name a few, grow so nicely in my garden with strength, disease resistance and breathtaking ease.  These roses were bred to grow in a garden.  And with these roses I'm quite happy.

There are other roses in the garden, most of which are the older, proven varieties that I grow in my garden.  And I'll leave some of those for another day.

Longwood Gardens

Yesterday we went to Longwood Gardens to attend Dr. Joan Maloof's lecture "Among the Ancients"  It was a very interesting lecture about the ancient (virgin) forests that are now at 1% of their original numbers.  The group was also surprised to find out that our National Parks and lands are not protected from logging and/or mineral depletion.  We also learned that amount of time it would take to put protection policies in place would make it almost impossible to save what is left of our old wood.  One of the group suggested that her old growth network get together with the game commission to help establish a network of old forests.  This would be a win/win.  The old forests is where the animals are most at home and it would help with the hunting experience for those who enjoy this sport.

www.OldGrowthForest.net

When I first moved to Conestoga, I loved the area for all the old trees and old forests.  I moved to Green Hill and was so glad that I did.  The deer, turkey, plaited woodpeckers and all the other animals were fund to watch and listen to.  In the past 10 years, the plaited woodpeckers are now gone; the deer population and dwindled and I no longer see any of the huge 16 point bucks that roamed here frequently; and much of the old wood on this mountain is gone too.  This was a wonderful forest of hardwoods such as beech, oak of several varieties, poplar, maple.  Many have been cut down to make room for roads, houses and grass.  What trees are being planted are Asian trees that have no benefit here.

Scientists are always warning us about global warming.  How can this not be happening with 99% of our forests now depleted?  They are the core of our earth.  The oxygen that we breath, the coolness that we feel on a hot day, homes for animals and food for us all.  They live on carbon dioxide and their roots stop erosion. They also help us save on fuel, but cooling our homes with their shade in the summer and in the winter, when their branches are bare, they allow the warm sun through to help with heat.  And yet we continue to destroy our forests.  We are drawn to the forest as are all animals.  This is where we find the beauty we so need to drop blood pressure and make sense of life.  Yet we are the only species that will see something beautiful and destroy it, hoping that it will become part of us.  In the end, all we did was destroy something beautiful.

When we built our home 10 years ago, we placed it in a knoll of a farm field.  The 1 1/4 acres that surrounds it we've planted 65 trees in that time, ranging from small understory food trees and large shrubs to poplar, ash, oak and maple for shade and living areas for birds.  We also planted a number of evergreen trees included in that count, again for food and shelter as well as wind breaks from the strong Westerlies that blow across the property.  Our bird population has increased to include sparrows (3 different species), wrens (2 species), finches (3 species), woodpeckers (4 species), thrashers, cardinals, blue jays, bluebirds, tree swallows, catbirds, mockingbirds, orioles (2 species), hummingbirds and hawks (2 species), the great horned owl and an occasional eagle.  Lots of visiting birds migrating or just visiting.

Unfortunately, our trees are still very young.  I won't live to see them mature, but will be able to enjoy them right now.  I've already watched our garden grow from barren and hot to a much more shady and inviting garden.  I hope to see it grow even larger.

Something Big

It's been about a month ago now, we had a visit from the local electric company. They were concerned that we had two white ash trees in "their" border zone of the high tension lines that run behind our property. This are is an easement and although they do allow plants in this area, large trees are another story.

Our concern was the weather. It's been entirely to warm this winter and the ground hasn't frozen which is what is needed for the equipment to be on the property with the least amount of damage. I asked for an extension if I needed it to get these trees moved. PPL agreed since they were in the border zone and young trees.

Today the tree movers we hired came to move the trees. The 10 ton tree spade was huge!

Brian got the tree spade into position and double checked everything before actually digging the whole that one of the trees will occupy.

When he was finished, the hole was 5 feet wide by 5 feet deep.

After digging the first tree ( the smallest one), he stops and measures the size of the plug (dirt and tree) to make sure it is the same size as the hole he dug to fit it into. With this smaller tree, it will never even know that it's been moved! There were absolutely no roots cut with this one as the spade is much larger than necessary for the 3½" diameter ash.

The larger 10" diameter tree was much more the size for this tree spade, but only a few roots were cut with it. This tree should be able to snap back quickly as well. In the above shot, Brian is placing the larger tree plug into the hole he had dug for it earlier.

I did get a charge out of the little Black-Capped Chickadees who all sat in the beech tree watching as we moved these trees. They were very curious and very unafraid. They made me laugh.

It was really a beautiful day for all this work to get done. My day started at 7am when I was outside digging up plants that I didn't want hurt or ruined by this spade. Husband joined me around 9am and we were able to get all the plants out of the way and are now shoed into the garden for a few days until we have a chance to establish the four holes and plugs that are now in the yard and make a nice place for them to be permanently.

The rest of the week is to be wet chilly weather. This will be great for the two trees and all the ruts that were put into the yard with this huge piece of machinery. It will water in and set the trees and prepare the other plugs for the plants we want to put in them.