Dog Doo Afternoon

The other day began with picking up the trash, the trash that, as it's told, blows in, except for those cat tins and beer bottles. I believe they do not take to the wind so well. In fact, the amount of trash on the sidewalk, in the tree pits, and especially near the corner storm drain was more than I had ever seen. Too heavy for the street sweepers to pick up, now, the neighborhood will have to get out there to clean it up. I cleared the sidewalk cutaway and the drain, leaving the rest for another day or someone else with initiative, as I had my hands full with the garden and tree pits.

I am disheartened by the number of bagged dog turds thrown into the garden. This behavior seems otherworldly -someone has already bagged the doo, yet tosses it into the garden instead of one of the many pails. I keep telling myself that it only takes one to make such a mess, just to keep my heart open to all the dog owners I see. But then there are those who let their dog drop yellowcake on the fenceline, undiscovered until I am toe deep in it while raking the leaves or trash out of the garden. 

Most turds I find through olfaction, and recently this sense has been overloaded. Last fall one of my upstairs neighbors stopped to tell me that she smelled 'cocky.' Her english is not very good, and she was pointing to the garden. I wasn't sure what she was telling me. Does she not like the garden?

Today she stopped to tell me she was again smelling too much cocky. She said it was wafting up and in through her windows, ruining her quality of life (I can only presume). I too smelled the cocky and it is raunchy, adding a rank flavoring to our outdoor experience. I told her it was cat shit, but she heartily disagreed, saying for sure that cat's dung smells different, and this surely was people poo, aka cocky, and they're dropping it at night on the sidewalk and the place in front of the building where the landlord keeps his utility poles, which happens to be underneath her windows. 

It is hard for me to fathom that people are squatting to poop in front of our house. Besides, a walk with eyes through the utility pole zone reveals an alarming amount of fresh and old turds, and I am pretty sure they are dropped by cats. Cat's that eat whatever human food they can find are probably going to make a nasty stink, and the same goes for people's dogs, whose tree pit turds I can attest are just as rank. Cat's like loose soil and privacy, but this winter both were erased by mountains of snow.  Between the poles and our  south facing building, the snow melted early on, creating one of few 'good' spots for them, and they did it by night. Another neighbor tells me they (the cats, that is) started going in their basement door well -probably a good day spot if you're a cat.

My upstairs neighbor told me that two years ago one of our other neighbors, a nice elderly man, was discovered to have 75 cats, living and dead, in his house. A team was brought in to deal with the 'situation', although to this day cats still follow him around the block. 

Oh man, are you feeling sick after reading all this? If you've got problems with feral cats, check out the NYC Feral Cat Initiative.

*Minor Update: this Sunday someone shoveled up the winter's garbage around the storm drain. Thanks to whoever had the initiative.

Opening Day

It was opening day yesterday, as all the neighborhood stopped to chat while I was out cleaning the garden. I even got to crane my neck chatting it up, old style, with my neighbor upstairs (ack, apparently the window affair will be starting up again).  It was time to open up the garden to air and light, removing leaves and litter, and open up some new possibilities.

I raked leaves that never had a winter's chance to blow into corner catches, matted under the all-winter snow, creating a comfy, never did freeze environment for over-wintering perennials. I hesitated for just a second, thinking there's well enough time for a long, hard freeze for these newly exposed leaves. But then I wanted to rake, to clean, and did a cursory job, leaving some for later. I also pruned out all the lower branches of the climbing hydrangea, in hopes that they will not catch trash and to minimize the privacy so many neighborhood cats find under there.

I could have photographed all the bulbs coming up, but after three years blogging, who needs more of that? I was impressed with the greenery of the Aconitum, or Monkshood, that was just a few days ago covered in a pile of snow.

You may or may not remember that I had some late, late irises in December. While cleaning the iris bed out, I found some stalks that had budded, but ceased to grow, remaining under snow for most of winter. This one I had cut and peeled open, revealing no sign of rot. In fact, the bud seemed perfectly healthy and ready to shoot up this spring. Unbelievable. I left another intact, just to see what happens.

I've started some snap peas in bond paper tubes and every quick glance makes me think I'm seeing chocolate cake.

Don't Throw The Babies Out With The...

Many friends say to me that they do not get praying mantis year to year. I have had a reliable pair every year and while I was cleaning out the garden it occurred to me the possible reason why.

While I was snipping old perennial branches and disposing of them in bags (sorry, no room for composting those), I had one of those moments of pause -am I forgetting something? I was standing in front of the dead branches of the pineapple sage, Salvia elegans.

Yes, I remember! The egg case of the praying mantis is attached to the sage! I went through my branches strewed across the sidewalk and yes, there it was. The prior year the eggs were deposited on the tomato supports and I almost completely forgot about seeing this last fall on the sage.

Last fall.

I grabbed the branch, putting it in a safe spot until I was done cleaning.

I then tied it to the rose trellis and clematis vine, knowing that I wouldn't mess with this area too much. Whew, mantis free season averted! Although, the first ones came from somewhere -my guess is that they came in a potted nursery plant or as an egg case on a plant transplanted from another garden.

Spring Cleaning

The warmish weather this weekend got me fired up for cleaning out the garden. I usually leave all the dead perennial branches over the winter, then wait for the first signs of life, usually crocus, to go out and cut them down. In that time, many of the blowing leaves get caught up at the crowns of the shrubs and perennials. Although many argue the points of cleaning up before winter or after, I choose to leave these and have had little problems for it.

Because we can have a late winter cold blast, I take my chances clearing out the leafy protection the new shoots enjoy. That said, those young shoots are pretty hardy and the chances of a prolonged deep freeze are unlikely. My plot here benefits from strong all day sun (equal to October 10th or so), a protective wall to the north and a warmed sidewalk to the south. All the more amazing that my crocus are just up now, where usually they come up somewhere in February.

The only real danger comes in cleaning out too late. I am always eager to get out there as soon as it warms enough to see green shoots popping through the leaves, but life gets in the way sometimes and I get out there later than I would like. If the bulb greens and new leaves of perennials are putting on lots of new growth, I may damage them with my rake (or my hand) as I clear the leaves. I can only avoid this by getting in to clean as soon as possible.

The hardy Aconitum -last to go in fall and first up in spring.

Surprised to see these daylilies coming on strong

I cleaned out two full size trash bags, which is hard to believe. Twigs, stems, leaves and lots of trash. All in all, it was a good 3 hours of work. I left the rose pruning to "some other time." I also got to chat with some neighbors, all of whom I haven't seen since I was last in the garden.