Around the Yard

Working from home, which I will be doing until at least next September, I spend quite a bit of time in the yard. Breaks that used to take place in the office lunch room or wandering outside the office building now occur in the yard.

And that's a good thing.

Here's some of what I've been seeing ...

Not a tiny pinecone, but Frass. I've been seeing Frass all about the yard, but I've not been able to find the producers. But it is good to know the caterpillars are there.

I am still seeing caterpillars. This Smartweed Caterpillar is still munching away on the pond reeds.

And Yellow bear Caterpillars ...

... are all over the yard.

Other critters visiting ...

A rather devilish looking White-tailed Deer in the not yet deer fenced area of the yard. Look how skinny it is. It is really quite sad. New Jersey has a deer density that is often greater than 100 deer per square mile. The overpopulation is not good for the deer or the other critters that share the forest. A healthy population, not just for deer but for the entire ecosystem, is one tenth that number (references here and here).

Another Northern Short-tailed Shrew. And another dead shrew. This one likely met its fate at the paws of Max. This is not a good thing. 

Snakes have been slithering about the yard.

This Eastern Garter Snake lives just outside the garage in the back garden.

This snake skin was next to the bench in the Bench Garden.

And I think this tail is that of a Black Racer, which was hanging out by the Fish Pond for several days.

I'll end this episode with one of my favorite yard flowers ...

... Indian Pipe, which is popping up in the woods behind the "Hermitage".

We are very lucky to have such a wonderful property.

Front Gardens

I noted the frog pond in the new front yard meadow project.

You can read about that here Meadow Project.

This is what the new Meadow looks like now:

Not exactly what I was going for.

From the seed mixes I used, only Black-eyed Susan has appeared. Disappointing for sure.

They are pretty though.

There were a few volunteer plants like this Cardinal Flower. 

But it appears to be mostly weeds. So I may do a complete reset this fall/winter. We'll see.

But the Japanese Stiltgrass is mostly gone. And that is a good thing.

Now, on the other side of the driveway ...

... is the Mini-Meadow.

Quite the study in contrasts.

We started the Mini-Meadow in 2015, so maybe we just need to wait. 

I don't want to wait. I WANT IT NOW!

Or at least next year. 

Fingers crossed.

You Can See A lot Just By Looking

The last weekend in July is the annual Cheshire party, which has not been help in Cheshire for quite some time. Kinda like our annual Finger Lakes Trip. But unlike the Finger Lakes Trip, which is somewhere different each year, "Cheshire North", as it has come to be called, is held in Tupper Lake, NY, at my friends Liz and Larry's place.

And for various reasons I have missed data last several, after being there for the first thirty some. But this year we went. 

And while there Patty lost her glasses while wandering about the woods. Looking at plants and fungi, and things. So the assembled masses became a search party. A successful one, as the glasses were found.

As were a few other things ...

I think this is Spindle Shaped Coral, Clavulinpopsis fusiformis, but fungi identification is a non-trivial endeavor.

And I think this is Comb Tooth, Hericium coralloides. These are just two of the many fungi species about the site. Our friend Tree (not his given name) forages for mushrooms and he was reluctant to ID any of what we saw.

We saw plenty of this. Often mistaken for a fungus, Indian Pipe is a flowering plant, albeit somewhat akin to fungi as it has no chlorophyl and, like some fungi, gets its nutrients from other plants. Although unlike fungi, Indian Pipe is parasitic on live healthy plants.

This is a healthy plant for sure, as it was growing all about the site.

I ID'd this as Running Ground Pine (Lycopodium clavatum), but I'm no expert (I'm pretty confident it's a Lycopodium). It's not a pine but rather a clubmoss, a type of plant, like ferns, which reproduces by spores and not seeds. Like fungi.

Finishing with a member of the third kingdom of macro-life (Fungi, Plants, Animals) we have a Northern Spring Peeper. Seen here on Lichen, which spans two (maybe three) kingdoms, Fungi and either Plants (algae) or Bacteria (biology is complicated).

🏕  🍄  🌿  🐸  🏕

It was a fun weekend and good to see old (college) friends. I truly missed going. I'm already looking forward to next year. And I think I'll bring more than just my iPhone camera.

⚾️  ⚾️  ⚾️  ⚾️  ⚾️

The title is a play on something Yogi Berra famously might have said. Of course, he may have also said, "I really didn't say everything I said."

The Word is Out

And the sunflower seeds are all gone (I checked).

These two completely worked over the sunflower. And there are no more seeds to be had.

This was yesterday. No American Goldfinch have visited today.

Very sad.

Yummy Sunflower Seeds

While the warblers are enjoying splashing about there was an American Goldfinch not more than fifteen feet outside my office window enjoying the seeds of a sunflower.

A sunflower no doubt planted when a bird dropped a seed.

A nice diversion from working.

Watching it climb under the flower head to pull out a seed.

And then climb back up to eat it.

Over and over.

This has been going on for several days. I'm surprised there are any seeds left.

I suppose I could go look, right? I'm mean, it's only a few feet away ...

If You Leave It ...

... They will grow.

I blogged last year about a no mow zone where Great Blue Lobelia sprung up. This year they've really taken over the area.

Last year I had to weed out Japanese Stiltgrass, a nasty invasive (we still have it about the yard) but in this section the Lobelia are so thick I don't see any Stiltgrass. Yay!

Two Dogwoods, a Tulip Poplar (to replace the fallen Willow), and a few other natives along the woods edge comprise the the list of what we've planted in this area. Everything else came on it's own.

A testament to the resilience of the natural world, the deer fence, and laziness (although I did place the Willow limbs along the edge, and resurrect the Willow stump).

The Matrix

One of my favorite exhibits at the Flower Show was this one on the Matrix.

It didn't use the term "matrix" but that's what it was about.

The exhibit information at the show noted that it was meant to get folks to focus on what is below, the soil that plants grow in.

Represented by the grid supporting the various trees. The views were very different above and below.

The soil is the matrix in which the plants are imbedded. And while the sense of order shown below appealed to me, the natural world is not like that (except maybe for the laws of physics and even then the more we learn ...).

And certainly once at the level of biology things are much messier.

More like this, even as it still reflects the underlying grid order. 

And it is the order that appeals to us in gardens, versus the "hodgepodge" of the natural environment. And it is that order that allows us to discern that it is a garden at all.

🌳  🌳  🌳  🌳  🌳

The last time my Dad visited our place, he referred to our "hodgepodge" gardens. And he was right in that ours was not then a very ordered space. It still quite isn't there yet, albeit a bit by design, with our "no mow" zones just allowed to grow wild. And of course the yard blends seamlessly into the woods, the very thing that contrasts with and allows us to recognize gardens as gardens.

Philadelphia Flower Show 2021

In the Before Times, the Philadelphia Flower Show was held in March. Indoors.

In the After Times (is it too soon to call it that?) it was held in June. Outdoors.

It was different. And other than the parking (which sucked big time) different was good.

As I noted in last years post, highlighted by the magnet shown below, this year's theme was "Habitat".

Note the optimistic Before Time dates.

But thanks to Covid, the exhibits were in real 'habitat'. The trees in the first image were not part of the installation but never the less add to it. And Patty and I both thought the actual local 'habitat' enhanced the show in a way the industrial trimmings of the PA Convention Center never could.

This openness also made the show seem less intense, less in your face. Another good thing in my opinion. At the Convention Center, as soon as you walk in the exhibits dominate your field of view.

This years entrance is shown above. There isn't an exhibit in sight. Yet the trees made it inviting.

The show was held at FDR Park, and the structures in the park became part of the show.

'Habitat' was very broadly interpreted. Above we have a exhibit purportedly showing nature reclaiming an abandoned building. It did have some carnivorous plants, so that was cool.

This was a somewhat simple exhibit, extolling the virtues of pollinators, like the queen bee shown.

This was an Australian 'habitat', although I have no idea if these plants are just native to the continent, or if they would really be found together. 

I'm not sure this is the right 'habitat' for a hammerhead shark ...

We've several neighbors going for this look ...

A more traditional garden.

Another difference was that the vendors were spread around the show grounds, unlike at the Convention Center, where there was a designated vendor area. This is our friend Adam amongst a number of his awesome photographs. You can check them out at his website Invisible Lenses. 

This exhibit, in the small space for gardens category, did take the habitat theme seriously. Submitted by the Pinelands Preservation Alliance, it shows how to use a small space to support bird life. It took second place in the category.

The Men's Garden Club of Philadelphia went for bird ancestors in their exhibit, a garden playground for "kids".

This exhibit used flowers, in the form of flowers and a Blue-capped Hummingbird, to highlight the plight of this endangered bird, due to the loss of its mountain forest habitat.

🌺  🌷  🌻  🌸  🥀  💐  🌼

Overall, the PHS pulled it off. A Covid Time Flower Show, outdoors. Patty and I both enjoyed our visit. I suspect the show will be back in the Convention Center next year. And while I like having a winter time extravaganza, I think having it outdoors added a lot to the experience. Now I get the concerns about the weather. This is thunderstorm season. And the temps this week are in the 90s F, not optimal. But indoors seems even more artificial now. It's not clear how to take what made this show special, the space and natural surroundings, and bring that to an indoor space. I hope the figure it out.