Power tools and pinwheels

OK, so this is post number two about the moose pinwheels.  I needed to turn a flat sheet of galvanized metal into a pinwheel that attaches to rebar by a welded-on bolt.  Follow that?  Luckily, I had printed out a how-to-make-a-pinwheel instruction sheet from wikihow, so that was a big help.  How did I cut the metal? 

Electric cutting shears (pictured) helped.  The yellow ones are the old fashioned manual tin snips.  I used those, too.   After cutting the pinwheel out I whipped out the Dremel tool (looks like an archaic dental drill). 

I used a grinding attachment to make patterns on the sheetmetal. 

And I used a wrench to make it wavy.  I wasn't sure how to tack the bent ends onto the pinwheel. ( I absolutely had to fasten them down somehow, they were very sharp, and the metal was too thin to bend down permanently without creasing the pinwheel.)  On the cheap plastic ones, the tacking down is usually accomplished by a bead or button.  My clever husband had a great idea: a riveting gun.  I expected something that looked like a gun or at least a tool with a cord.  Not so.  The thing looked very unglamorous, a bit like a three-hole punch.  It did the trick, as you can see below.

Next post about this project will be how I stick the leaves onto the rebar stems.  Any ideas?

Just passing through

Those giant metal pinwheels can't come soon enough.  The moose have been tromping though the yard every day for the last week.  We have to listen at the front door before we open it because sometimes they are right there!  Though the moose haven't eaten much, they certainly don't help soil structure in the raised beds by compressing it.  And plants don't care for having their crowns stepped on, even if they are ignored as a food source.  My poor newly planted rhubarb!  Almost a direct hit.

It has been unseasonably warm.  Get those bulbs planted NOW.  Planting bulbs is a pleasurable activity in this kind of weather.  Miserable when it's cold.  You've been warned.

Welding 101

Or more appropriately, welding for dummies.  There is something magical about taking raw materials like sheetmetal, rebar, and bolts (pictured)

and turning them into garden art.  Luckily, I know a fearless metal artist.  I say fearless because, would you let me weld in your garage, when I have had no prior experience?  I think I only blinded her once or twice (starting my weld without warning her to put her helmet down).  We assembled my art project about halfway, so this is just part one.  Here is the one of the beasts I worked with:

And here is the other:

I think she said the cutting torch was oxy-acetylene (the one with the green tank).  How is that for a vocab word?

I conceived this big idea after learning of a gardener that had used rebar rammed into the ground part-way, sort of like a jail, to keep the moose out.  Additionally, I saw on a Master Gardener tour last year that some practical soul was using cheap plastic pinwheels to frighten moose off with some success.  Very cheerful looking, too.  Voila, rebar and sheetmetal pinwheels!  A couple of people stopped by the garage and checked things out.  There was some amused skepticism about how the durn things would look in the garden.  "At least it's not a gnome or something like that," said my welding guru.  Well spoken.

Did I mention I got to wear a leather button up shrug?    

Next time maybe she'll let me wear the leather apron/chap combo...stay tuned for part 2.

They're baaaack!

Line from a movie or line from Anchorage residents heard about this time of year.  You decide.  Our topic today, an Alaska gardener's adversary, the moose.  I get a kick out of gardeners in the Lower 48 whining about the deer problem down there.  I say, get a dog and stop fussing.  Moose don't care for dogs, but I know most dogs don't want to be stomped by a moose.  My sister-in-law's dog was dumb enough to jump on top of one laying in the snow.  Kapow.  Kung fu moose.  That dog was stomped.  Luckily the snow was deep and he just sunk way, way down.  The two moose pictured are eating the willow (Salix) trees in my neighbor's yard. 

What's the big deal about a moose in the ol' yard, folks in the contiguous U.S. will say.  What's so different about it than our deer?  How about a couple of stats from the Alaska Fish and Game website: up to 1600 lbs. and 7 feet at the shoulder.  You really want that in your garden looking for dinner?  I sure don't, but they are cruising neighborhoods this time of year looking for grub.  They aren't really desperate yet, but just wait four months or so.  That Prunus maackii (Amur chokecherry) they passed up in October could be on the buffet in February.  It depends on how hungry they happen to be at the time.  And, according to some long-time gardeners, it depends on the moose.   Something moose won't touch in Sand Lake might be on the menu for moose in the Muldoon area.  I guess this means we have to be moose whisperers, knowing what "our" moose like and planting accordingly.  Or you could plant the moose equivalent of brussel sprouts.

Some plants that are at the very, very bottom of the menu for the moose would include spruce trees (Picea), mugo pines (Pinus mugo) pictured, certain roses with really vicious prickers, like Rosa rugosa 'Wild Spice', and aromatic perennials or herbs.  Many perennials with a silver cast or fuzzy texture would fall in this category, for example: Achillea (yarrow), Stachys byzantina (lamb's ears), or Artemisia. 

Keep in mind that if they are starving, they will eat nearly any plant (or bark from most trees).  One stripped my neighbor's small pine tree a couple years ago.  It looked like the Charlie Brown Christmas tree!  I didn't think they ate evergreen trees before I saw that happen.  Also, they may destroy the leading shoot of a young tree trying to see if they like it.  Moose snapped off the leading shoots on all three of my hand-picked Prunus maackii specimens and now I have the difficult job of trying to re-train a new leader.  They didn't eat the branches they broke.  They were just sampling it and left the broken branches on the ground.  Sort of like chewing up a chocolate and then putting it back in the box.  Thanks but no thanks.

There are some plants that the moose will eat, or at least try (and mangle in the process), nearly every time encountered.  High on the list are Sorbus (mountain ash) pictured, Cornus (dogwood), and Salix (willow).  A good way to know if moose are around your neighborhood is whether anything is about to bloom.  They seem to have a sixth sense about this.  If the tulips are about to bloom on your side of town, bam, they are decapitated or eaten to the ground by morning.  Have your heart set on watching the dramatic unfolding of a peony over the course of a few days?  Don't blink or it may be all over 'til next year. 

Like many of us, they are fond of homegrown fruits and vegetables.  You have an unfenced veggie garden at your own (major) risk in this state.  Check my post "Of moose with the munchies" for a few preventative tips or ring up the cooperative extension, always a wealth of info.  If all else fails, some gardener's swear by an electrified fence.  Keeps the bears out, too, I hear.

Late night drive-in

Just wanted to let you all know the oft mentioned, always feared moose visitation happened last night.  It was around 10pm, so call it the moose equivalent of Taco Bell's "fourthmeal."  Two shady characters visited the front porch containers, not quietly.  There just isn't a way for hooves on a several-hundred-pound beast to be stealthy on a wooden deck.  Gardener's response to moose in the yard: "AAAAAAHHHHH!!!"  Non-gardener husband's response: dash upstairs to fling open a window and try out moose calls. 

Thankfully I practice what I preach, in this case copious and frequent dousings with Plantskyyd, or the damage might have been substantial.  Though this late in the season it is difficult to produce feelings of actual concern about something as fleeting as annuals.  Roll call of the casualties: one ornamental kale, one Pelargonium (Latin name for our gas station annual, the geranium).  Yup, that's it. 

Of moose with the munchies (and machetes, oh my!)

Ah, the memories this photo brings back. Feelings of futility, rage, anger...but I will focus on the humorous story that goes along with it. Perhaps you did not know that in a former life, the Last Frontier Gardener had another alias: the Southside Chopper.

Our story unfolds a couple of years ago in the lovely metropolis of Anchorage. The city was making improvements to a park in my neck of the woods. Mountain Ash (genus Sorbus) were planted. Right next to a swamp and forested area. If you have lived in Alaska more than, say, 10 seconds, you know that moose frequent forested or swampy areas. And moose love, love, love mountain ash trees. It's not if they find them, it's when. And they did a couple of months after planting at the park. They snapped off all the leading shoots. Major scaffolding limbs were smashed and left at odd angles on the trees. When Ralphie's mother said "you'll poke your eye out," she could have been talking about a stroll down that sidewalk. Yikes.

I drove by this unlovely sight for several months before I snapped. I packed my pruning saw, Felco hand pruners, and Plantskyyd and headed out for some tree TLC. I parked the car, hiked through snow, and avoided the icy patches as best I could. I hacked away for an hour and forty-five minutes. OK, hacking doesn't quite describe it. Artfully, sensibly, pruning the broken branches with saw and hand pruners. A lot of cars were slowing down to check out what I was doing as they passed. A woman rolled down her window and thanked me. I was starting to feel pretty good.

After I slipped and slid to the trees planted in the median, I got started spraying the Plantskyyd. I love the stuff. If I didn't have it, I'm convinced my front yard trees would be short, wooden poles. As I was starting to wrap things up, saw in hand, covered in a fine mist of rotted animal blood (just what do think Plantskyyd is?), two APD cruisers rounded the corner. (My internal monologue something like: probably just some tykes into a spot of graffiti down the road. They are slowing down though. Is it possible? Yes, they are here for me!) They cautiously exited their cars, hand at holster. For a moment, I thought I might laugh but instead I said "hello, officers" and one answered by saying "uh, what are you doing?" I explained myself in my most cheerful tone and he had the good grace to look abashed and say "some lady called in and said a crazy woman was cutting down the street trees with a machete." They drove away and I laughed 'til the tears came down. Housewife doing volunteer work rates two police cruisers...I couldn't make it up if I tried.

You should know that a few days before this event, a disturbed person was running around the Sand Lake area of town with a machete and was styled "the chopper" by some, including myself. I was covered in (animal) blood and sliding down the icy sidewalk with a hand saw. I suppose I can see how the caller was confused (and now you know how I acquired my alias). The handsaw (or so-called machete) in question, is pictured, along with co-defendants (pruners and gloves).

The real point of this long reminisce is to remind you to get out the Plantskyyd (which I used religiously) or whatever you use as a deterrent and put it on any plant the moose can reach. I much prefer it to the orange vinyl construction fencing, black garbage bags, or duct tape contraptions. If you wouldn't dream of sending your yard to sleep without wrapping the trees, try burlap. It is far less conspicuous in the landscape than home improvement orange. Your neighborhood will thank you. If you need something less "mummy-on-top-of a-tree-looking" than wrapping and less odorous than spray, consider fencing. I've seen some decent chicken wire cages, both the permanent and temporary kinds.

So, final questions. Do you want your valuable, venerable, and vulnerable trees to transform into wooden sticks? Do you and the neighbors want to be looking at elevated, bright orange "tree-mummies" for 7 or 8 months? Now is the time, as my brother says, to "T.C.O.B." That's "take care of business." You've been warned.