Redbuds in Bloom and Birds Singing Loudly

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.

Potted Begonias Survive the Winter Indoors

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.

Potted begonia in a sunny window.

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.

Begonia still alive near the cats' window.

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.

Dark Purple New York Iron Weed Beautifies the Roadside

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.

New York Ironweed along a Pennsylvania road.

Standing 3-4 feet tall, NY Ironweed is typically found in old pastures and waste places. Photos taken 14 August 2008.

Lance-shaped leaves of NY Ironweed.

Looking down on the long, pointed lance-shaped leaves of New York Ironweed.

Deep purple violet flowers 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.

Cows won't eat NY Ironweed.

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.

Catnip Harvest: Strong-Scented Fun for Kitty and Tea for You

Catnip is probably one of the first herbs that people learn about that has a purpose other than food for humans. We all adore our pets and provide them much love and affection, not to mention toys and treats.

Felines love their catnip and we’re only too happy to oblige them their desire. After all, we don’t have mice. We have cats.

We see to it each year that wild, native catnip, Nepeta cataria, seeds are spread about in offering to the little mousers everywhere. Cats rub against the plants and chew on a leaf now and then. One of the big boys holds down a fresh leaf that I’ve given him with one paw and licks the leaf to shreds until he’s down to the stem.

Flowering catnip, pre-harvest.

Flowering catnip, pre-harvest. Photos taken 16Sep08.

For fun during the cold season, when catnip will only be growing in a planter at our latitude, we harvest a few plants and dry them.

Harvesting the catnip is as easy as pulling up the entire plant, or cutting the stems off near the ground, and laying the stems on a clean surface for a few days. Don’t pile a lot of stems together so that the leaves can dry out and turn the stems everyday so all parts of the plant can dry. I covered a bench with a large black plastic bag to be able to collect the seeds that might otherwise roll away.

Cut off the flowering tops and carefully strip the leaves from the stems so that they’re not crushed. Careful handing will help to retain the aromatic compounds that attract the kitties.

Drying catnip.

Catnip, dried on a clean surface.

Not only do cats enjoy catnip, but people can enjoy it, too. Use the dried leaf in making tea – it’s especially nice blended with any of the mints.

Once your catnip is completely dry save it in a glass container.

If you’re looking for a little catnip or just the seeds, check out my ebay auctions of catnip this weekend.

Red Wiggler Worms Live in a Worm Bin

In nature Red Wiggler worms, Eisenia fetida, can be found among and underneath the leaves and throughout the top layer of soil where materials are available to the worms as a food source. Leaves, decaying plant matter, just about anywhere in this zone that you find decaying organic matter, you’ll find some kind of worm and red wigglers are typically found in the leaf litter.

Homemade worm bins come in all sizes and shapes, but most are variations on a simple plastic box. The requirements for a mini-worm farm are to provide them food and shelter. We’ve already touched on the food part and using a crock to hold kitchen scraps until they can be fed to the worms.

Shelter for the worms means you need to provide a place for the colony to survive, thus the box. Worms in nature are mostly underground or otherwise out-of-sight, so a lid for the box is needed to duplicate a dark, natural place for the worms to live.

As time goes on liquid accumulates in the worm bin due to the natural cycles of material breakdown, so we must provide a way for excess liquid to be removed from the worms’ living quarters. This is where the variation comes in the design of home made worm bins. If liquid is allowed to accumulate in the box your worms will try to find a way out. When this happens the worms usually don’t get too far away before they encounter difficulties and dry up.

Some folks drill or cut holes in the bottom of the plastic box that houses the worms. Liquid is then collected on a tray or in another plastic box. Others invent some sort of tap for collecting the liquid.

Worm juice can be diluted by about 1/10 with water and used as a dilute fertilizer for plants.

Using shredded paper for bedding in a worm bin gives another benefit to the earth in that we can recycle some paper instead of dumping it in a land fill. Also, if the worms run out of food scraps, they will eat the paper!

Saving Food Scraps to Feed the Worms

Here’s my little bean pot. It even has a lid! I use it to collect a few days of coffee grinds, tea bags and vegetable scraps from the kitchen.

Bean pot with lid for saving kitchen scraps.

Bean pot with a lid for saving food scraps to feed my worms.

The occasional cutting of a houseplant, bits of string, egg shells, just about anything that’s organic can go in there. Red wiggler worms are not particular about the rotting organic foods that we offer to them in our little worm bins. They’ll even eat the paper bedding.

The only types of foods that are recommended NOT to be fed to your worms are oil-based foods, like meats, cheeses or oils. Any dinner plate scraps go to the dogs while food preparation scraps go to the worms.

Worms in Bin Recycle My Kitchen Waste

Worms are our friends. They convert lots of organic material as part of Nature’s food webs. We can take advantage of this fact by farming with worms, where the desired product is compost, a source of available nutrients for plants.

Recycling food waste and house plant clippings into compost is very desirable. We can save on the expense to haul the waste away and get a beneficial product in return for a few moments of our attention. It takes only a few minutes to separate food wastes or plant clippings into a separate container for feeding your worms.

Feeding your worms can be as easy as opening the cupboard under your kitchen sink, raising the lid on the worm bin and throwing in the scraps – no meat, cheese, or oils, please. Ours is in the garage, so we place kitchen scraps in an old bean pot that sits on the counter by the sink. It took me forever and many a flea market to find one with a lid, but persistence pays off!

There are more modern-looking solutions to the bean pot. Just make sure you get a compost bucket with a lid!

It’s easy to get started recycling your kitchen waste into compost gold.

Six steps to recycling kitchen waste:

  1. Get worms. Use Red Wiggler worms.
  2. Set up bin. Large plastic container with lid and tray or spigot to remove excess liquid and air holes for the worms.
  3. Get crock. Pail with a lid or compost container for holding kitchen waste.
  4. Tear up newspaper. Any paper will do fine for bedding. Newspaper, envelopes, junk mail, old bills, any paper, colored or not.
  5. Add worms to moist bedding and empty food waste crock into bin.
  6. Keep moist. Use a spray bottle to keep moist or soak paper in water before adding to bin.

Compost has been shown to be a rich source of nutrients for plants. The nutrients in worm castings, as their poop is called, are highly available, which means that the nutrients in compost are more easily absorbed or used by the plants as compared to the nutrients in chemical fertilizers.

Sights and Sounds of Spring in Central Pennsylvania

Yesterday the weather cooperated in the afternoon just long enough for me to get in a little gardening. The air wasn’t real warm, but a touch of sun here and there after the previous days of rain felt really good. The vegetable garden is too wet to turn over, but at least it’s cleaned up and ready for that task.

The sights and sounds of Spring are many, and here’s my list of new life stirring in the last couple weeks here in Central Pennsylvania.

  • Canada geese and snow geese flying high, going back up North
  • blue birds settling into a blue bird nest box
  • tulips sprouting their greenery
  • Snow drops Gaultheria sp. emerging and flowering
  • lily vegetation growing again
  • Great Horned Owl hooting to a mate just before dawn
  • grass getting greener
  • rabbits enjoying the returning sorrel in the garden
  • giant blue hyssop sprouting up its first purple leaves
  • catnip growing up from last year’s plants
  • parsley and oregano greening up
  • fennel regrowing from bulb left in ground
  • return of a pair of nesting Eastern Kingbirds
  • Crocus bulbs up and flowering
  • songbirds singly loudly in the early morning
  • False Indigo Baptista just now sprouting

The maple trees will be opening their buds any day now, maybe today. The last three days their buds have been getting bigger and more noticeable.

Spring is always welcoming on the long side of Winter. So far, we seen and heard quite a few stirrings of Spring.

How about you? What is your favorite Spring sighting?