![Autumn is Ungardening’s High Season](https://lakevillejournal.com/media-library/image.jpg?id=48211860&width=980&quality=90)
Photo by Dee Salomon
While garden work is winding down, it is high ungardening season and those of us working in the woodland and meadow are busy with a myriad of tasks. I had a conversation with Cornwall Garden Club comrade Heidi Cunnick, who is a PhD of environmental science, to compare notes on our fall ungardening work and talk about our ‘to do’ lists for the next few weeks.
Moving saplings
Dee: So many trees have sprouted up over the past few years; in the woods they are welcome but around the house they are getting in the way of established planting. This week we moved an elm and several sycamores — all about six feet tall — from behind the house and replanted them in spots that could better accommodate them. I am always torn between the aesthetics of the landscape and the need for tree recruits; I get emotional about cutting down trees!
Heidi: I know how you feel but I am at a point where the removal of a few saplings and larger trees in the woods would either extend the view and create greater light-shade complexity, or allow a tree they are crowding to thrive. I look from the edge of the lawn and through each of the windows in the house to envision how the change in trees will change the view. Sometimes taking out just one small sapling can suddenly bring great beauty to a tree that was blocked behind it. This is the time to do this as in spring the birds nest so you don’t want to bother them. Gardens are more beautiful your eye can travel through the trees and when birds move through the open spaces.
Removing Invasives
Dee: This is also the time of year when some of the main invasive instigators are easiest to identify. Burning bush and bittersweet turn a bright pinkish red but also bright red are the berries of bittersweet. It’s like they are signaling ‘come and get me!’ But also, as you taught me, fall is actually the best time of the year to tackle them.
Heidi: I concentrate mostly on these woodies in October and my methods in the fall are different than in the summer. It’s helpful to know some plant biology here. In fall, plant sap descends from the leaf to the root and so a minimal amount of full-strength glyphosate or triclovir applied directly to the cut stem will be super effective. I use a Buckthorn Blaster applicator but a paintbrush also works well.
Dee: Herbicide always feels like a last resort so great to know that there is a time of year when it will be most effective.
Heidi: I have also been trying to rid my field of the invasive grass Reed Canary grass aka Phalaris and will plant native grasses after I do my best to reduce the Phalaris. My neighbor has goats and I gave them a sample of the phalaris to see if they will eat it — they will!
Dee: Cute, and certainly easier on the back than picking it, which is what I am doing with stilt grass where it has grown next to ferns and small trees. The blow torch worked wonders on the wide swaths of it in the swamp and in that space I have already planted about 100 plugs each of tiarella, (in the shade) and Acorus americanus or Sweet Flag, on the banks of the stream. I am filling in with seeds I collected of Solomon’s seal and transplants of Thalictrum from areas that are still crowded with stilt grass. I would say this year that stilt grass is enemy #1 — what is your scourge?
Heidi: In addition to the usual suspects, multi-flora rose, bittersweet and barberry, two plants that have come into the woods under my watch are wisteria and forsythia. They appear in the woods just beyond the border of our lawn. And yes on stilt grass. This proliferated really quickly in West Cornwall, in part due to road crews that cut the verges of the road. When it hits the forest, that is all you get. Hope people reading this heed the advice and act quickly.
In the woods
Dee: I love working in the woods in the fall. The scent is musky from the leaves and mushrooms and the migrating birds give me a new soundtrack. Which is helpful as I get through some of the more tedious chores like putting tree guards around saplings to protect them from young bucks and scraping spongy moths off trees. Is there anything fun on your list?
Heidi: Pick up a bale of straw from Agway is high on the list. I plan to use the straw to draw a meandering path through the woods. I saw this done at the Wild Gardens of Acadia on Maine’s Mount Desert Island. Using straw for paths will allow me to more easily create the most ideal meander and identify where to plant a select few of the small native trees and shrubs I have been harboring in a nursery bed. I’d like to plant these at points in the path where, when they grow a bit, they will add to the enjoyment of a woodland wander.
Dee: That sounds like ample payoff for a year of woodland restoration; I look forward to walking on those paths next year!
Dee Salomon “ungardens” in Litchfield County.
Abstract art display in Wassaic for Upstate Art Weekend, July 18-21.
WASSAIC — Art enthusiasts from all over the country flocked to the Catskill Mountains and Hudson Valley to participate in Upstate Art Weekend, which ran from July 18 to July 21.
The event, which “celebrates the cultural vibrancy of Upstate New York”, included 145 different locations where visitors could enjoy and interact with art.
On Saturday, July 20, The Wassaic Project hosted numerous community events. Will Hutnick, the director of artistic programming, said “We’ve been a part of it since the beginning, this is the fifth year of UPAW.”
Most of the action was based at Maxon Mills, the seven-floor grain mill located in the heart of Wassaic. On exhibit was work from 30 artists, 18 of whom were past residents of The Wassaic Project. “Artists can come and do a residency here, meaning they live and work with one another for a couple months at a time,” Hutnick stated.
The first floor held work by Petra Szilagyi, who uses dirt and linseed oil to construct images of paranormal concepts, most of which include bats. They reflected that a recent trip to a fifth sense competition in Vietnam was the influence behind the exhibit.
Across the floor was Tiffany Smith’s interactive installation which incorporated plants and wicker chairs, all of which were objects associated with her Carribean upbringing. “The room being filled with plants is symbolic of hurricane prep which often included bringing the plants from outside into the house,” Smith said.
As visitors made their way up the narrow wooden stairs, music could be heard from behind the walls. The echoing music was Daniel Shieh’s installation, entitled Mother’s Anthem, which played a recording of the American Anthem in 30 languages. The languages ranged from Spanish and Italian to Navajo and Bengali.
Each floor was filled with artwork of all mediums, including painting, fibers, collage and photography. Rachel Bussières, who switched her concentration after watching the 2017 solar eclipse, uses varying light sources to produce lumen prints. During the wildfires, she recounted that she “made a new exposure each day to capture the changing air quality”.
Luciana Abait also incorporates the natural world into her pieces, instead using maps. An environmental activist originally from Argentina, Abait’s work highlights “environmental fragility, specifically the impacts it has on immigrants.” Her installation that is currently on display at Maxon Mills, takes the form of a mountain range built solely from maps of the US and Argentina.
Throughout the day, visitors could “Arm Wrestle 4 A Popsicle”. Winners had the choice of 3 playfully flavored trout-inspired popsicles - Nightcrawler, Power Bait, and Salmon Roe. Artist Katie Peck, who spent the day in costume as a rainbow trout, encouraged guests to step up and try their hand at an arm wrestle.
Shibori Indigo dyeing, group meditation, and dance workshops were open for community members of all ages as well.
While the daytime activities fostered appreciation of fixed art, a dance party until midnight at The Lantern Inn offered guests a space for performative art.
When describing the environment of The Wassaic Project, Smith emphasized, “It’s all community, it’s all love.”
A serene scene from the Amenia garden tour.
AMENIA — The much-anticipated annual Amenia Garden Tour drew a steady stream of visitors to admire five local gardens on Saturday, July 13, each one demonstrative of what a green thumb can do. An added advantage was the sense of community as neighbors and friends met along the way.
Each garden selected for the tour presented a different garden vibe. Phantom’s Rock, the garden of Wendy Goidel, offered a rocky terrain and a deep rock pool offering peaceful seclusion and anytime swims. Goidel graciously welcomed visitors and answered questions about the breathtaking setting.
Amenia Finance Director Charlie Miller welcomed visitors to his Bog Hollow Road garden in Wassaic, a manicured expansive yard with well-placed garden beds framing a far-reaching view. He said he plans carefully each winter for the next spring’s improvement.
The organic, environmentally responsible Maitri Farm was next, a lesson in coordinating agriculture with natural balance. The farm stand and a walk among the greenhouses brought visitors together.
Near the center of Amenia was the garden of Polly Pitts-Garvin, offering a chance to visit a robust vegetable garden with raised beds to be envious of and a remarkable absence of any insects or usual vegetable garden problems.
At Chez Cheese, the vast garden acreage surrounding the 1850s historic home of Joan Feeney and Bruce Phillips in Millerton, visitors could begin at refreshment stations where walking tour maps of the 15-acre property were available. There were streams and ponds with docks, and a dozen bridges arranged around the landscape. In the 19th-century, the property had been the home of the Wilson Cheese Factory, inspiring the name of the estate.
The Amenia Garden Tour was supported this year by Paley’s Garden Center in Sharon.
Gary Dodson working a tricky pool on the Schoharie Creek, hoping to lure something other than a rock bass from the depths.
PRATTSVILLE, N.Y. — The Schoharie Creek, a fabled Catskill trout stream, has suffered mightily in recent decades.
Between pressure from human development around the busy and popular Hunter Mountain ski area, serious flooding, and the fact that the stream’s east-west configuration means it gets the maximum amount of sunlight, the cool water required for trout habitat is simply not as available as in the old days.
This is not a new phenomenon. It does seem to be getting worse, though.
Gary Dodson and I convened where the creek makes its final run into the Schoharie reservoir, part of the New York City water supply system, on a semi-broiling Thursday afternoon, July 11.
The goal was simple. Catch smallmouth bass, which abound in the lower section of the river.
This was hot stuff — as in an 80-degree water temperature.
The air temperature was actually slightly less at 77.
After negotiating the intensely slippery rocks, festooned with treacherous algae, the first major pool presented several difficulties, with a back eddy competing with a main flow and several large trees draped about the whole thing.
I hit on the simplest strategy, which was to flip a weighted attractor fly called a Tequilley into the start of the eddy so it would proceed slowly but steadily into the maelstrom, sinking all the while.
This worked. A proper adult smallmouth, with bronze coloring and vertical stripes, took the thing.
The point-and-shoot camera finally died, however, and I was not going to try to fumble my phone out for a nice but routine fish photo.
Why not?
Because I guarantee the fish would have made a sudden, last-moment bolt for freedom, causing me to drop the device into the drink.
Gary moved downstream while I continued trying to annoy the residents of the pool, succeeding a couple of times with different colored Wooly Buggers.
Then we all got bored and I moved off, where Gary was catching rock bass and cussing them out for not being something else.
I have to admit, they are not the most compelling critters. Something about the red eyes.
This latest trip was dominated by extremely tedious and distasteful Harry Homeowner activities, but on both Wednesday and Thursday mornings I prowled Woodland Valley Creek. By “morning” I mean “dawn,” because that was when the water temps were down to a barely acceptable 64.
I made the acquaintance of several stocked browns and of a handful of their wild cousins. The wild fish are smaller and nimbler.
The successful ploy was an Adams wet fly, size 16, drifted behind something big, like a Parachute Adams or Stimulator.