Late Spring Projects

A rock, A river, A tree. So begins Maya Angelou’s famous poem, On The Pulse of Morning. As Spring moves to Summer, the pulse in my yard shifts. The days of delicate spring temperatures, when a jacket might be desired in the morning and then cast off in the heat of the afternoon, are gone. Summer heat limits how much strenuous work I do around the yard and house. Weeding and maintenance takes the place of planting. In these last weeks, before the start of summer, I completed projects with rocks, by the stream and using trees.

The entrance to my road, Genna Way, is bordered on one side by a steep bank. The road 9W bisects what was once the Powelton Farm. Various people have told me a story about the development of 9W, a significant artery linking north and south – Newburgh to Albany. Originally, there was the Old Balmville Road. This was the main road on the west side of the Hudson to travel north. Eventually a new road was needed to more efficiently move traffic. Putting the road through the Powelton Farm was allowed if, as locals claim, the owners of the farm could move their horses under the road. In the photograph above you can see a tunnel to the right. It is tall enough to walk through and corroborates the stories I have heard. I must add I have also heard some crazy stories from people who have clearly never been through the tunnel. One person insisted on telling me the tunnel was built to allow the first owner of the house to drive his golf cart through the tunnel to access the Powelton Country Club Golf Course.

The construction of the road made for a steep, artificial bank. Run off from the road has deteriorated the bank. The slope has been covered in weeds. As a first impression of the property, the area generally leaves a lot to be desired. I will overcome the problem in stages.

Stage one is the introduction of tons of stone. Rather than cover the entire bank with stone, I created a plan utilizing random stones and small terraces. The stone was difficult to place. At points the bank is quite steep. Maneuvering a large rock on a steep slope is tricky, either you or the rock is at risk of tumbling down. Fortunately, I fell only once and luckily not with a large rock.

While I do not have horses to take through the tunnel, neighborhood kids and the father of my neighbor across the street still use the tunnel to go onto the Powelton Club grounds. I built rustic stone steps to lead from my driveway down to the stream level. This provides an easier route; it will hopefully keep visitors from walking on plants I am growing and creates a more pleasing architectural feature. Over time I will grow periwinkle and cotoneaster on the bank to stop the erosion and replace the weeds.

Being a prime route 9W has a fair amount of traffic. In the age of GPS, motorists look only at their navigation systems, instead of the town provided private road signs. I solved the problem of people coming onto my property from 9W by erecting a locked chain. With an increase in traffic and young children on the road, my neighbors and I implemented additional barriers to deal with the problem.

At 9W we erected a sign reminding people it is a private road. My neighbors had a metal fabricator cut heavy metal signs which we attached to a painted wooden backing. My neighbors put up the sign at one end, while I installed the sign at the 9W entrance.

Living on a private road can be nice. We have less traffic generally, however we are beset by people who try to take a short cut through our property. Speed has a been a significant problem. To help alleviate the issue, we collectively purchased and installed speed bumps at three points on the road.

And now for the tree. Norway maple trees are invasive in New York. They put out thousands of seeds that easily sprout, driving out other native trees. Unfortunately, many of these have been allowed to grow. By the oriental garden, they significantly shaded and deformed a beautiful Japanese Umbrella pine, along the driveway they have helped to hasten the demise of the old catalpa trees. I have cut down several of them. Most recently I cut down three growing quite close to each other. They were spindly immature trees, but still 30 feet tall.

Andrew and I used the wood from the three felled trees to craft a bench. The bench is 7 feet long and generous enough for 4 people to sit upon. The back design was inspired by a pattern we found in a book of 18th century English furniture designs. The Chippendale style benches are beautiful, but I wanted to have something unique, so we designed our own. The seat is made of regular 2×4 and 2×6 lumber to provide a smooth surface.

The garden is beginning to show off some of the past of year’s work. Following are two views of the astilbe growing by the bridge. We had to surround them with rocks. After we planted them in spring the squirrels kept digging them up. We found that by placing rocks around the roots the squirrels were less likely to dig them out.

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Last year I started foxgloves from seed. They did not do anything last year, being biennials, but this year they have rewarded us with beautiful clusters of flowers. Unfortunately, many of them died in early spring. Perhaps they will reseed themselves.

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Maya Angelou ends her poem looking to the future:

Here on the pulse of this new day
You may have the grace to look up and out
And into your sister’s eyes, into
Your brother’s face, your country
And say simply
Very simply
With hope Good Morning.

Summer is upon us! Let the weeding begin.