Fish Pond Fountain

Good morning folks! 

Check it out, I now have a mini solar powered pond fountain in my naturalized pond. 

Unlike my ponds at our Pennsylvania house I decided to go natural with this pond. And as you can see I have a "pea soup" pond. Hopefully that pond water will clear up once my pond plants are established and a proper PH balance is established. 

Our ponds at our Pennsylvania house were near the house and thus easy to hook up to an electrical outlet. Here the pond is all the way at the other end of our almost one acre backyard. Running an electrical line out that far just isn't feasible. Nor do I want electric running all the time. 

We enjoyed the gentle water sounds of the pond fountain at our Pennsylvania house but here in Delaware the pond is too far away from the house for us to hear the soothing sound of gently splashing water. However, I did want to give some aeration in the water for the now dozen or so goldfish that live in the pond. 

I love this pond. Still a work in progress though. I will keep you updated. 

Army Worm Update

 This morning our local twice weekly newspaper, the Cape Gazette, featured an article about the army worms that decimated our back yard. 

Yes, that's me pouring soapy water on a patch of my grass to bring out the army worms to show the reporter who wrote this article.

The army worms have finally stopped eating my lawn but the damage remains and probably will the rest of the year. There is a slight (very slight) green haze (if you look at it with the right angle of sunlight) where you can see the grass trying to make a comeback. It is my understanding that the cold weather of the fall will kill off any remaining army worms. However, my grass probably won't recover back to its former glory this season. Oh well, I'll look at the bright side, less lawn mowing for me. Not really though, I do like to mow the lawn. So relaxing.

During my morning walk this morning through our development I see where the army worms have chomped through one of my neighbor's front lawns. These army worms are very selective, just chooses certain lawns to lay waste. 

One of my neighbor's lawn laid to waste this morning by the marching army works. Total destruction.

Army Worm Infestation

Here's proof, I have an Army worm infestation. 

I'm sick about it. It gives me little solace that others here in southern Delaware are victims of this parasitic infestation.

I called my lawn service company this morning to request a treatment. 

These worms in my backyard are not long for this earth. 

Grass

 Here at Casa Tipton-Kelly, we live on not quite an acre lot (.98 acres). 

When we moved to our development which contains fifty-seven homes, I noticed immediately some lots had "nice grass" and some had, well, just weeds. I decided that we weren't going to have one of those lot that was "just weeds" cut short. Yes, I would pay for a lawn service to have that green carpet of grass. Yes, I would be a slave to my lawn.

And what an interesting journey it has been these past fifteen years since we took up residence. 

Bill seeded our lot with Kentucky fescue blue grass. That was a big job.  Bill did a lot of big jobs like that when he was in his prime. 

The first couple of years I employed a well know local lawn service company.  They were also the most expensive but they were good. The grass was so thick and green, our lawn mower would often jam up when mowing. 

Later on, to save money, I discontinued that lawn service company and hired another. One my neighbor was using. I noticed his grass was "just about as good" as mine and he was paying less than half of the $233 an application (five applications during the season) that I was paying. For the next thirteen years I used that company until I had a falling out with them over a disastrous wire grass removal application that almost ruined my whole lawn. I went back to my original lawn service company. Yes, I would be paying over thousand a year "just for the lawn" but having a nice green lawn is one of my few pleasures in life. It was worth it.

Then last month, when I was mowing our lawn I noticed huge swaths of brown patches. What happened to my nice green thick carpet of a lawn? My lawn service company told me it was "Brown Patch Disease". Oh wonderful. Below was the explanation he left on the back of the $233 invoice:

Today I noticed Brown Patch Disease, which is a disfiguring fungal disease. Disease an develop rapidly when daytime temperatures are warm (85 to 90 degrees F) and humid, nighttime temperatures are above 65 degrees F, and there is an extended period of left wetness. Thunderstorms, high relative humidity and poor air circulation are ideal conditions for brown patch Tass fescue, the preferred turf species used in Delmarva lawns is highly susceptible to brown patch and can be expected to develop the disease most summers. In many cases affected areas are able to recover but tall fester lawns less than a year old can be completely killed. In tall fescue lawns the disease appear as circular patches of brown and blighted leaves. During early morning hours a smoke ring of fungal mycelium may be seen on the outer edge of patches. In lawns mixed with tall fescue and Kentucky bluegrass, the disease is more diffuse and does not usually appear to discrete circular patches since Kentucky bluegrass if more resistant to this disease. To diagnose the disease it is best to inspect leaves for lesions. On close inspection you will find variously shipped, chocolate-brown lesions. Where the lesion meets green tissue there will be a brown band. We offer a preventive fungicide program to manage Brown Patch Disease.

Well, we certainly have had very hot and humid weather here on the Delmarva (Delaware, Maryland, Virginia; the peninsular we live on) this past summer. This summer perhaps the worst since we moved her in 2006. Our beautiful lawn looked terrible. Ah, I remember our "lawn" at our home in Pennsylvania in the middle of our wooded 6.875 acres on the side of a hill in Chester County, East Brandywine Township. No expensive lawn service, just au natural grass which looked just fine. But of course an "au natural" lawn won't do here in our fou fou development.  

The decision was easy.  As I looked on with envy at some of my neighbor's lawns during my morning walks who obviously have availed themselves of the fungicide treatment and those who haven't, I decided to take the plunge so to speak. I called my lawn service company to sign up for the treatment next year. I was gobsmacked when she told me the cost:

$335 for three applications

After a few minutes of weighing my options I signed up. So now I'll be paying almost $2,000 a year for my nice green lawn. I'm reminded of what my good friend Pat (who lives in a penthouse condo in a converted fou fou hotel in downtown Hamilton, Ontario, Canada) tells me whenever I whine about my lawn expense:

"What has your lawn ever done for you?"

Well, actually my lawn does a lot for me. To relax I often walk around our back yard, checking out the progress of the flowers and other fauna that I planted this year. Our backyard is my palette, always a work in progress. I just wish it didn't cost so much.

Note: The "boom boom" music that you hear in the short video I took of our backyard late yesterday afternoon was not added by me. That was in real time. Across the road (Route One, Coastal Highway) from our lot is Hudson Fields. They were doing a sound check for an outdoor concert today which is going on right now. Yes, the  "boom boom" is going on right now, vibrating the very foundation of our house here at Casa Tipton-Kelly. This is a subject for a future blog post. Little loud don't you think?

Moment of Zen

A few seconds of Zen in our backyard this late afternoon. 

We're rolling through the dog days of summer here at our home in southern Delaware, also known as Casa Tipton-Kelly.

Bill is not the same person he was last year but he's here and we're together. 

We have our routine.

He's not in pain.

He knows who I am.

We value each day together. 

We know how fortunate we are to be together at this time of our lives. 

Bagworms and Rabbits

Now there is a blog title I bet no one has ever posted before.  Hey, anything to get attention.

Lately I've been a bit off track in my daily postings.  Several reasons for my tardiness.  An obsession with online Scrabble games (trying to get my win rate up to at least 50% - not successful - yet).  Another reason is just the amount of time I spend in my backyard trying to maintain this garden oasis in Lower Slower (aka Sussex Country, Delaware).  

Every year I encounter challenges in maintaining and improving by sylvan wonderland.  This year my challenges are:

Japanese beetles
Bagworms
Rabbits

Oh my, oh my.  Several times a day I go out and collect Japanese beetles off of my rose bushes.  They're easy to collect, they just drop into my jar of soapy water and die.  

A Japanese beetle gangbang

I don't like to kill living things but I do make exceptions and Japanese beetles are definitely one of them.  Why I even slip them into their soapy death when they're having sex, which is quite often.

I think the female Japanese beetle must be the slut of the insect world.  I often find her, hind quarters up awaiting penetration by her male counterpart.  Yep, I slip both of them into their soapy demise.

Another pest I found this year are bagworms.  Ever see them?  Disgusting!  We have a whole like of pine trees bordering our property.  Just last week I found that part of them is already infested with these useless insects.  For the first time I went out and brought insecticide to kill the MF's. You can pick them off too like balls off of a Christmas tree. 

They may look like pretty pine cones but they are death to a tree

But believe me, these insidious, destructive insect will kill a tree in no time if left undetected.  I've already lost a wonderful arborvitae tree next to my front door when I discovered them chewing away from their innocuous bags that I thought were miniature pinecones. I had to have the whole tree removed.


I sprayed the line of pine trees yesterday morning in the hot and humid heat but some still survived, witness Bill holding this one in his hand late yesterday.

But folks, the most annoying threat to my Garden of Eden here is, you got it:  

RABBITS!

Every early evening, there they are, munching away on my expensive Peppers' Greenhouse plants.  And bold!  I almost tripped over these two last night while making my final rounds collecting Japanese beetles.




 I'll be quite frank with you folks, I wouldn't mind shooting both of these Easter bunnies. Really, I wouldn't. But I won't. What I do instead is just try and plant plants that they don't like.

These rabbits may look all cute and everything but they are destructive.  I've often said to Bill "Where is the fox when you really need one?" And coincidentally, yesterday as we were traveling up Route One to Milton to make a pit stop at Food Lion I saw a roadkill fox along the side of the road.  So here we go, the rabbits have no natural enemies here in Lower Slower but the foxes have one which is pretty efficient in keeping their population down:  automobiles. 

Each day is a challenge folks, especially in my backyard where there are many living creatures, some uninvited and not welcome, sharing with me. But then there are others like the honey bees and the birds, all welcome.  That's life!

Yeah, well we have tried to set out the Have-a-Heart trap with a carrot lure inside to catch the long eared critters to no avail.  We try folks.

Backyard Tour 2015

All right folks.  Due to popular demand, here is a video I took on this hot and humid Sunday morning of my backyard.  Actually it was only one blog follower (the famous "Anonymous") who requested this year's tour but I agree.  

Growing up in second floor apartments, I only lived in a house with a real backyard the last year I lived at home (1958).  Then I graduated from high school and I was off to the Army for three years.  After getting out of the Army in 1963 (they didn't allow gays back then, that's why I got out while the getting was good), I lived in a series of apartments.  

Then I met Bill, my lifelong (51 years this year!) partner and friend in 1964.  We lived in his garden apartment (Penn Manor) in Pennsauken, New Jersey.  After a couple of years we moved to Philly (Philadelphia) where the "action" (ready "gay" for a young, not and horny guy like me) was.  We got an apartment in Roxborough (Cheswick Square).  Roxborough is a section of Philly like Brooklyn is a section of New York.  I was only a bus ride away from THE BARS (read "gay.")

Then when they raised our rent from $140 a month to $165, I said "Enough!" and we went looking for a house in center city Philadelphia where I could walk to work (and walk to the bars - read "gay").  

My first real house with a backyard, albeit, small.  

After eleven years I had enough of The Bars (read "gay") and center city living with the police sirens and the dirty streets and the crime, and the congestion.  I needed SPACE.

We moved to The Country.  Specifically East Brandywine Township, Downingtown, Pennsylvania.  Built a house on 6.875 acres of land and I really had a Backyard now, even though I had to share it with the local deer population.

After twenty-five years I had enough of the high Pennsylvania school taxes and power outages and congestion (yes Virginia, Pennsylvania was getting congested even where we lived).  We (read "I" because Bill was against the idea) brought land and had a house built right here in southern Delaware, near Rehoboth Beach and the large gay population.  I figured as I got old and needed a support group, the local gays would be more accommodating than my super religious, right wing, conservative, gay-hating neighbors in Pennsylvania.  Well, the gay support group thing didn't quite work out but I've made a lot of friends through this blog and I now have a real backyard that I thoroughly enjoy.  Of course I'm still "sharing."  This time with a rabbit

Yes, this is the actual rabbit that is decimating my flower beds (likes lavender especially) - I took this picture a couple of nights ago.  I haven't been able to take a picture of that fat groundhog that lives under my shed but I will, give me time.

and a groundhog that lives under my shed but what the hey?  There's enough for all of us. 

P.S.
I'll write about The Rabbit later.  He/she is worthy of a whole blog posting of their own.