Sticks and stones may break my bones ...

Sticks from the birch trees, ready to be hauled to the local landfill
Small cobbie stones on the patio, ready to be replaced, and for the French drain, above the wall.
 
   Wind is a big challenge for an enthusiastic gardener in rural Iowa.
   The wind, you see, makes the trees in the yard shed sticks, by the zillions. And someone in the family has to pick the sticks up before the grass can be mowed.
   So who is that? In our family, it's me. Hubby suffers back pain if he has to pick up too many sticks. After the journalism career ended I vowed to myself that I would get every stick picked up before Steve mows the grass.
   This year, almost every day in the last month has been windy in our part of Scott County, Iowa. We planted birch trees several years ago and the branches and/or sticks of the trees have fallen. And fallen.
   While birch trees remind me of my native Minnesota, they also can be messy in the springtime winds. I have gathered up several thousand sticks since it became warm enough to cut the grass.
   Birch trees are in the "betula" family of trees, and there are 40 varieties native to the U.S. Our home includes Whitespire, river birch, and a red birch variety of the seven planted. The trees grow fast and have beautiful bark, and are valued as a landscape plant.
   In addition, we decorate with stones, or "cobbies" as they are called by the local stone company. The smallest cobbies add color and interest to our red stone patio, but they are located underneath the place where we feed birds. We get a lot of enjoyment from watching the birds that frequent the big feeder on the deck, but do limit that practice to the winter months. Right now we're feeding hummingbirds and Baltimore orioles.
   Hence, I pulled out every stone from the patio space, and left it to be washed during this week's rains. I'll re-line the area with landscape fabric and replace the stones when the weather clears up.
   I also decided to replace the landscape fabric used in the French drains that we installed to help handle the stormwater washing into our yard. Our home is at the bottom of a hill, and we get tons of water during the gusher rains.
   We've done much over the years to handle the water, but it is not a perfect system. New fabric on the drains, and a clean outlet, will help overall.
   The down side of cleaning the stones and gathering the sticks is a sore body. Tylenol helps!
   Keep on gardening; our world needs more beauty.

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