Posted by wilde on May 3rd, 2009 — Posted in Animal, Vegetable
Rainy days of spring – we’ve had a few in a row and the grass is getting too tall too fast. Even though it makes my last last mowing session seem like a waste of time, I do like seeing the garden lettuce getting bigger.
Trees are really growing their leaves quickly now. Scanning across the mountain ridges you can see shades of green replacing the drab and lifeless grays and browns. It’s like a wave of color change going up the mountain. The dark evergreens contrast nicely with the light greens of the new deciduous leaves.
Yesterday, we took a drive west into the heart of the Pennsylvania mountains, south of State College. All along Route 22 were beautiful redbud trees in full bloom. The lavender, lilac and light purple flowers were magnificent. In a few places these small trees lined both sides of the highway to provide a burst of colorful energy on that cool Spring day. Perhaps the redbud blossoms will last a week, but when the leaves start expanding the blooms will die back.
Dogwood trees are blooming near the edges of the forests. Even though they started blooming about a week ago, the white and ornamental pink flowers still look bright.
All the blueberry bushes are blooming now and the gaywings are smiling pinkly on the forest floor.
With all this Spring activity of growth we can’t forget our feathered friends as they have been quite active, too. A pair of bluebirds are nesting in the bluebird box – they’ve been busy for a couple weeks inspecting and cleaning house, and making a new nest.
This morning I heard an unusual bird song coming from the tree tops, so I ran to get the binoculars and then ran upstairs to get a better view. At the top of a tall oak tree was a male Scarlet Tanager singing loudly. I got to see him for only a few minutes before he flitted out of sight. Peterson tells us these birds are common, but you rarely see them unless you look up to the canopy. It’s pretty amazing how the bright, scarlet red color disappears in the shade of the leaves.
This afternoon I was treated to another bird song. This time the sounds came from a different direction, but also from the top of an oak tree. The binoculars verified that a Baltimore Oriole, or Northern Oriole, was looking for his mate. The bird’s head was distinctly all black and his chest and back shined a bright orange.
The oak leaves are probably 50% developed on average. The white oaks are a little behind the red oaks and chestnut oaks in their development.
The gypsy moths should be hatching very soon, so I hope the tanager and oriole will stick around for many free meals. I’ve heard that these two birds will eat the gypsy moth caterpillars, but can anyone verify that? I’ve also heard that no native bird here in the U.S. will eat the nasty little defoliators, so I’m crossing my fingers that the former is true.
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Posted by wilde on February 5th, 2009 — Posted in Animal, Vegetable
January and February in Pennsylvania don’t give many opportunities to observe flowers or growing herbs, except for the ones we take indoors. Light has to be made available from a sunny window or from an artificial source if you want to see the plants stay healthy.
I tried something new this fall and dug up some begonias that were real pretty growing at the edge of the woods. Outdoors they seemed to like their spot in the shade of the trees, although they did get a little morning sun. They were taken up before freezing weather hit and planted in a couple large pots with some potting soil.
I was surprised that the plants did so well and even grew throughout the winter. The pots were placed near a south-facing window so the begonias could get as much sun as possible.
Lil’ Scoshe at the south-facing window near the begonias.
The begonia plant on the higher stand was able to get more sunlight and it grew better and flowered a lot more than the begonia on the lower stand that didn’t get as much sun.
Potted begonia dangerously close to the cat overlook. Photos taken 10Jan2009.
The window-attached bird feeder is a great entertainment center for the cats during the winter. Unfortunately, the plants nearby often get clobbered when the felines get a little frisky.
At times over the course of the last couple months a playful kitty caused a few stems of the begonia to be broken. Pushing the broken stems right into the soil, even without any root-tone, was all that was needed. I was really surprised that the stems took off growing more stem and flowers so quickly. For about 3 days the stems looked a little bent over or wilted, but then they came back around to start re-growth.
I had never had begonia plants before, either indoors or out. I was pleasantly surprised as the begonias treated us to non-stop flowering in shades of red, pink and white. I highly recommend these ‘old time’ flowers for splashes of color in your garden, along walkways or indoors near a sunny window.
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Posted by wilde on October 15th, 2008 — Posted in Animal, Vegetable
Once you see the deep, dark purple of New York Ironweed flowers, you’ll be on the lookout for them at Summer’s end each year.
About the middle of August we start seeing the 3-4 feet tall “weeds” along the county roads near the places where goldenrods and asters show off their colors, especially in wetter areas near culverts and along river bottoms.
Standing 3-4 feet tall, NY Ironweed is typically found in old pastures and waste places. Photos taken 14 August 2008.
Looking down on the long, pointed lance-shaped leaves of New York Ironweed.
The flowers of New York Ironweed are a much deeper violet color than what this photo shows.
New York Ironweed, Vernonia noveboracensis, gets its common name from the toughness of the stem – it’s like iron. Just try and break off a stem to take a piece with you!
New York Ironweed differs from Tall Ironweed, V. altissima, by having long threadlike bracts on the flower head base and 30-50 flowers in each head. Tall Ironweed has short-pointed bracts and fewer flowers in the flower head, approximately 13-30 flowers. Both are rayless members of the Composite family.
New York Ironweed stands tall in this cow pasture. Apparently the cows won’t eat it.
Native Americans made use of an ironweed root tea for the treatment of irregular menses, bleeding, and stomach upset.
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