I'm declaring war

I've wanted a Redring Milkweed (Asclepias variegata) in my yard ever since I first saw one in the wild.  

I've tried to start some from seed but haven't had any success.  Some say these seeds have a low germination rate, and my guess is that because I didn't know what I was doing, I probably didn't cold/moist stratify them properly.  I thought I would give it another go, but "winter sow" the seeds in a milk jug this time.  I thought I had a good understanding of how to get them started.  All I needed were some seeds.

The plants in The Barber field didn't set any seeds again this summer (maybe too hot and dry?  maybe they didn't get pollinated?) and I never even saw the plants that used to grow in the woods at the top of that field.  I thought I'd try to see if the patch I had photographed back in 2014/2015 in The Carey woods had any.

The Redring Milkweed patch in The Carey woods.  Notice the two little cedar branches sticking up behind the plants, and the persimmon tree in the background.  Those were "markers" that I used to find the spot where the milkweed grew.

I hadn't gone walking much at all in the past few years, and I expected things to be as I remembered. But when I walked down into the woods to look for the milkweed, it was like I had walked into a place I had never been.  I didn't recognize anything anymore.  

When I started walking with my camera a few years ago, I remember being annoyed by the Japanese Honeysuckle (Lonicera japonica) and what is probably Chinese privet (Ligustrum sinense) growing in the woods down by the creek.  My annoyance at the time was selfishness - those two plants were everywhere and that meant that I wasn't seeing any new and interesting plants!

But as my understanding has grown and my relationship with nature has evolved, I've come to understand that the reason for my annoyance - that those two plants were everywhere - is the very thing that makes them so devastating to our native plants and insects.  Where there is a privet shrub, there is no room/light for the American persimmon (Diospyros virginiana) seed to sprout and grow.  Where there is Japanese honeysuckle, the Blackhaw (Viburnum prunifolium) is dragged down and smothered out by the vine's aggressive growth.

Simply put, because these plants evolved in another part of the world, there's nothing here that has co-evolved with them to keep them in check.  They're like misbehaving children turned loose in a candy store.  

In spring of 2019, a severe thunderstorm tore through The Carey woods, taking down a big swath of trees.  Many more came down in storms that rolled through the next summer.  And when the tree canopy was gone, the population of these invasives and the aggressive natives in The Carey woods exploded. 

Back to my search for the milkweed...between the tangled mess of tree limbs blown down by the storm, the privet that had been growing unchecked ever since then and the tangle of Saw Greenbrier (Smilax bona-nox) and Japanese Honeysuckle strangling the trees, I didn't even know where to look anymore.  I used to come into the woods on the east side, walk up the hill along the downed pine tree, and go straight to the little opening between the limbs of a dead cedar tree and find that little patch of milkweed every time, no matter what time of year it was.  But not anymore.  

Parts of The Carey woods are completely overtaken by privet, honeysuckle, brier and rose.  This is bad, but it's nothing compared to other areas.

I went back several times, wandering up and down the hillside, trying to find the little curved cedar branches and the persimmon tree that was in the background of the photos I had taken.  I even tried coming in on the east side like I used to, but I couldn't even find the dead pine log that used to lead me up the hill to the milkweed.  There is Chinese privet, Japanese honeysuckle, green brier and Supplejack (Berchemia scandens) everywhere.

I want the woods to be as I remember them before the storms came through.

My motivations were again selfish.  I wanted to be able to find the milkweed plants -- if they hadn't been smothered by a fallen tree.  I started researching ways to control Chinese privet, and all I can say is what I've learned has been disheartening and really quite scary.  I knew the problem was bad, but I really had no idea just how bad.

Dr. Don Steinkraus, professor with the University of Arkansas Entomology department, gave this sobering assessment of the problem to the Wild Ones - Ozark Chapter.

He closed his presentation with these words.

The war is on.  The battles are everywhere.  No place is safe, not even the Buffalo National River.

The warriors/workers are few.  Most people are blissfully asleep, unaware.

Our native plants, butterflies, moths, birds, bees, are depending on us.

Our tools: our labor, chainsaws, scythes, hands and knees, burns, education, herbicides. 

Herbicides.  As much as I hate the thought of using them, given the limited time I have, I'm not sure there's a way to get fight this battle without them.  And it is a battle I'm going to fight.  

I bought a pint of Killzall glyphosate concentrate from Amazon and a foam dispenser and dye from Green Shoots.  The dispenser and dye came in the mail today.  

My war on these invasives has started.

December 23, 2022 Gardening Journal

It's just plumb COLD.

The temperature here when I took Mo around the yard yesterday morning was 41° F, but as we finished making the rounds and headed back into the house, it had already started to mist, signaling the arrival of winter storm Elliott.  Within 30 minutes the temperature had dropped to 39° F, and the mist quickly turned over to sleet and snow as the temperature continued to drop like a rock. 

We didn't get much snow out of this system, just a dusting.  By late afternoon, the clouds were already clearing out, and the sun even made a brief appearance right before sunset.  The cold was relentless seeping in through the cracks in the house - the windows on the east porch had already frozen over by the middle of the afternoon and the water on the shelf in the south window had ice on top.  Before nightfall, we tried to secure everything as best as we could...unhooked the water to the washing machine, drained the drain hose and put a couple of lights inside; left the water trickling in the kitchen sink; moved all of my plants into the living room (except for the ginger, which is in a pot that's too big for me to move in here); stuffed towels and blankets into some of the drafty cracks in this old house; then settled in for the night under a heavy layer of blankets.

My dad said the low last night was 0° F, so not quite a cold as the night of December 22, 1989 when my older sister got married.  She had said this might be the year when we broke that record of -4° F, but IMHO, thankfully that record still stands!

It was 4° F when I took Mo out this morning, and we didn't dawdle today.  He did his business and we came right back in.  With northwest winds around 20mph, I'm not sure what the wind chill was, but even Mo wanted no part of it!

My rain barrels are probably frozen solid, and the IBC tote might be.  I just hope they don't bust.  I probably should have drained them, but since the cold isn't supposed to last too long, I hoped I might get away with just leaving them filled up.  If they do bust, I'll be very sad, but will have learned my lesson.

The ginger froze, so once the stems and leaves go all brown, I'll dig it up.  Hopefully the roots are still ok and I can replant some of them in the spring.

It has warmed up a bit this afternoon.  The temperature is now showing to be 18° F but we're still under a wind chill advisory until mid-morning tomorrow, when the temperature is supposed to make it to just above freezing.  Our low tomorrow night is supposed to be right about what the temperature is now.  That's the start of a slow warming trend going into the last week of 2022.  

December 19, 2022 Gardening Journal

Saturday was a good day to work out in the garden, albeit a bit cold and windy.

But Sunday was a much nicer day, and I spent a good part of the day working on yet another thing on my too-many projects list...the raised beds around the storm cellar.

I built the part of the raised bed on the west side of the cellar last winter, and finally bought some lumber to start on the east side.  The dirt on that side wasn't piled out quite as far, so I've ended up making the entire bed only 48" wide, rather than having a lower section that was about 62" wide.

Unfortunately, I once again struggled with the "why didn't you make it square?" problem.  I did get the corner where the two boards on the bottom layer joined together square.  I even double-checked it!  But what I failed to do was make sure the structure itself was square against the cellar!  So while the front board for the second layer was cut at 48", the opening it was supposed to cover was more like 50".  The third opening was probably 52".  Sigh.

I was prepared to just leave it like that, and try to plant something there to cover the gaps.  I just didn't feel like digging all of the dirt back out to try to move things around.  I guess I will see if it can be done, but if not, I may just do what RAF suggested and cut new boards to the right length and use the 48" boards somewhere else. 

My square but not square to the world raised bed.  I ran out of boards, but the top layer will have one more row of boards around it.

Regardless of whether or not the thing is square, I am pleased with how it's turning out.  I have decided to put my lettuce, radishes, green onions, etc. in the east bed.  I don't think the rabbits will climb up there to eat them! 

And speaking of rabbits....  

I found evidence in the yard yesterday where a rabbit met an untimely death:  bits of hair; the contents of its intestine; a bit of blood on a leaf.  And about 30' away, an owl feather.  Probably not a coincidence, right?  RAF and I did see a Great Horned Owl in the yard late one evening last June, I have seen a barn owl in the hay barn, and we've heard screech owls calling in the woods.  So maybe the owls are going to help me solve my rabbit problem.  While I feel somewhat sad for the rabbits, I know that's just nature's way, and I'm glad for the owl.

December 17, 2022 Gardening Journal

It sounds like we're in for a very cold stretch of weather to end 2022.

The weather wasn't that great today...the temperature was in the mid-40s but the wind....  Oh my, was it COLD!  Sustained winds of around 15 mph, with gusts up to 30 mph at times made for a really unpleasant day to be outside doing anything.

But I had it in my head that I needed to get something done outside before the cold weather gets here, so I bundled up and headed outside around 9:30 am.

First thing that had to be done was empty my little garden cart.  It was full of the last of the composted cow manure from last winter.  I ended up just carrying it into the garden one shovel-full at a time (because my rows are too close together for my cart to fit).  I had enough to put a layer about 2" thick on about half of one row, along the south side of the cattle panel the cucumbers were on, and in a few spots at the end of that row.  So now the compost is gone.

The last of the composted cow manure has been put out on the garden.

Once the cart was empty, I used it to haul in two more cartloads of very fresh cow manure and added it to the compost bin, layering in some newspaper as my "browns."  I know that bin doesn't have nearly the right ratio of greens to browns, but it just is what it is.  The last time I checked, the temperature wasn't going up really at all, so I don't know if the pile just wasn't big enough or if it was too wet.  I didn't even bother to check it today.

The last thing I worked on today was a Hügelkultur row that I have wanted to add to the west end of the garden. That part of the garden was just so dry this past summer that I didn't have luck growing anything there.

I've seen several YouTube videos that talk about how great this works, and if I want to have that row ready for summer, I needed to get started on it ASAP.  (One of my favorites is "Hugelkultur in the Home Garden" from Growfully with Jenna!)  So I brought in a couple of logs that were about 24" long and 8" around, plus one "chunk" of a log that was already starting to get soft, then dug a trench about 12" deep, 3' long and plopped the logs in.  I filled in the gaps around them with sticks, topped that with some of the dried Sorghum Sudan grass I had cut last fall, put a layer of fresh cow manure over that, then finally covered the whole thing back with about 8" of the dirt.  A light coating of partially rotted straw finished it off.

Now I only have about 30' more to go!  

My first section of Hugelkulture bed in the west row of the garden.  It looks very tiny for the amount of work it took to build it!

December 4, 2022 Gardening Journal

It's the first week of December, and I'm feeling pretty defeated in my "cuttings" project.

I waited almost two months on my first spicebush (Lindera benzoin) cuttings, and I couldn't resist trying a few gentle tugs during that time.  Some of them felt like they were holding on when I tugged, and that had made me hope that those were starting to put out roots.  

But as the days went by, those little cuttings started looking dried up and brown.  I decided to just have a peek to see if any of them were showing any signs of root formation so I took a popsicle stick and carefully started lifting them out of the pot one by one.  Not a single one showed even a hint of a root. 

In hindsight, I think I made a few mistakes that doomed those cuttings.  First, mid-fall might not be the best time to take spicebush cuttings.  I have since read that one would have more success with cuttings taken in early summer, in the June-July timeframe.  Second, since these were probably semi-hardwood cuttings, I don't know that they needed to be in a plastic bag -- especially since I had cut the leaves off anyway.  Because the humidity in the bag was so high, and it was still quite warm, the cuttings were all quickly covered by mold.  I ended up taking them out of the plastic bag but I'm pretty sure the damage was already done.  And third, I don't think I cut the stems off right below a node.  Instead, I probably left about 1/2" to 1" of stem below a node. The nodes are apparently where most of the rooting action takes place, and by leaving that much stem, the cells in the nodes probably weren't stimulated to put out roots.  Those are my theories anyway.  

For now, I've just buried the poor little spicebush sticks back in their soil.  I hope I just got impatient and didn't wait long enough.  But I don't think so.

As for the rest of the cuttings, I know for certain that two of my fig cuttings have rotted.  They had started to look shriveled and brown and when I tugged on them, there was absolutely no resistance to the tug at all.  I went ahead and pulled them out, and the lower part of each cutting was soft and slimy.  Out of the five that are left, there are only two that still look "alive."   Maybe the others are too, because I guess it's hard to tell anything on those with the very woody looking stems.  I just hope that at least those two best looking cuttings will go ahead and root.

The second batch of spicebush cuttings doesn't look very good anymore either.  There are a couple that still have a greenish color and look somewhat fresh, but many of the others are starting to take on that "I'm nothing but a dead stick" appearance.  I had such high hopes for them.  Maybe I can find some female plants this spring and put seed collection bags on some berries to collect next summer/fall.  And I do plan to try some softwood cuttings this coming summer.  I'm not ready to give up and buy plants just yet!

The blackhaw (Viburnum prunifolium) cuttings have probably dried out too, although they don't look quite as bad as the spicebush cuttings.  It's hard to know by looking at the buds if they're still viable because I don't know what the dormant buds are supposed to look like.  So far I've resisted the temptation to check them for roots!  But it's very tempting.  Patience!  Patience!

The flowering dogwood (Cornus florida) cuttings were all what should probably be considered hardwood cuttings,  as were the ones from the American persimmon (Diospyros virginiana), the Possumhaw (Ilex decidua) and the American bladdernut (Staphylea trifolia).  I really don't expect the dogwood, persimmon or possumhaw cuttings to root, but I am still holding out hope for the bladdernut since those trees are kind of short-lived and suckering anyway.  I think they're another one of those plants that will put out roots from a limb that gets bent down and touches the dirt.  Finger crossed, because my little American bladdernut tree out in the yard just didn't look very good this summer.  I'm not sure if it was from the drought or from being planted under the black walnut tree.........

There is one bright spot though.  I had taken some cuttings from our native honeysuckle (Lonicera sempervirens), and it looks like two of the three cuttings might be going to survive.  Those both have new leaves starting to put out already.  The fourth "cutting" is a cheat, but it is looking really good.  (I call it cheating because it was taken from a vine that had already started taking root where a node was buried in the dirt at the base of the parent plant!)

Leave the Leaves

Last September, I wrote a blog post titled "To till, or not to till...I think I'll try not to."  One of the pledges I made was:

I also pledge to start raking up the leaves in my yard every fall and putting them on the garden.

And last fall, with RAF's help, I did get the leaves raked.  Some went in the compost bins, and some were left on the little east garden in an effort to help improve that soil.  I was feeling pretty good about the leaf thing.  I was just waiting for the leaves to drop off the trees this fall so I could get busy raking.

Now I had already started growing some native plants in my flower beds (remember "The Flowerbed to Hide the Ugly Stmpe?") and while browsing channels on YouTube looking for information about native plants, I discovered some really interesting ones, including "Native Plant Channel."  That's where I first learned about Doug Tallamy.

Dr. Tallamy's interview with Lourdes (host of Native Plant Channel) emphasized why planting natives is so critical.  And because I watched that interview, other videos with Dr. Tallamy started popping up in my recommended video feed.  In this interview with "Bringing Back the Natives Garden Tour," he talks about how important leaf litter is to soil health.

  

Maybe I didn't need to be raking up the leaves after all.  😕

I found myself torn between wanting the leaves for my garden and compost, and wanting to leave them for the insects and soil invertebrates.

Then I watched a video from the Master Gardeners of Northern Virginia about native trees.  The speaker talked about the awful things we do to our trees; the importance of leaving the leaves; how to properly mulch; and more.

The video left me feeling really sad and guilty about my beautiful trees.  I actually had some of them topped back in 2020, because I was afraid they would fall on the house.  I guess that's really bad for trees, and I just hope it doesn't kill the old black walnut tree. 

The willow oak in the front yard is a beautiful tree in spite of being hit by a catalpa tree that was blown over in a storm back in 2019.  But I've often wondered how it even survives when the soil underneath it looks so dry and compacted all the time.  Grass doesn't grow under the tree...it's just bare hard dirt with some moss on it.

And it's the same way with the red maples and the giant red oak out by the road.  (I plan to write a post about that oak in the coming days.)  The dirt under all of them is so hard and compacted - it doesn't look like the water would soak in much at all.

Maybe I'm wrong about everything with these trees.  Wouldn't be the first time I've been wrong about things, and it most certainly won't be the last.  But what would happen if, instead of trying to grow lawn under the trees, we put a big ring of leave mulch around the trees?  What if I just leave their leaves to cover that bare soil, and see what happens?

So that's what I've decided to do.  This year, I'm going to leave the leaves.

One of the challenges I've already come up against is that without something to help catch them and hold them in place, the leaves just blow away.  We've had very strong winds the past few days, and lots of them have already blown into the field.  But this afternoon I raked up enough leaves to cover the dirt almost out to the drip line of the willow oak with about two or three inches.  And for now, I've carried some old tree limbs and rotted bits of log over to the tree and made a half-circle around it to try to contain those leaves.

If there were some groundcover under the trees that would help.  I'll need to do some research to see what might grow under them, and then slowly start putting in some plantings.  I plan to start with violets and native strawberries under the willow oak.  For the red oak, there's a much larger area to cover, so I think I'll put down some cardboard as sheet mulch in a few spots, then plant some native shrubs like spicebush (Lindera benzoin) and blackhaw (Viburnum prunifolium).  I guess that plan will hinge on how whether or not my cuttings root! 

What I do NOT want to happen is for the area to be taken over by privet and Japanese honeysuckle again.  We just got rid of a big patch of that year before last, and I don't want to ever let it get started in the yard again!

Poor RAF does love his lawn, and I hope he won't mind this change too much.  I think so long as I stay away from the beautiful Zoysia grass, he'll be ok with it.  I hope so, anyway.

November 10, 2022 Gardening Journal

A while back, I removed the cage from my largest American Hazelnut tree (Corylus americana) thinking that since we hadn't had any issues with deer since putting up part of our new fence, it could be "free."  It had one main shoot that is about 3' tall, and two small shoots that had put up late this summer after the rain returned.  They were about 8" and 12" tall.

One of two American Hazelnut trees (Corylus americana) that I ordered from the Arbor Day Foundation.

Night before last the rabbits ate the two new shoots that had come up, but thankfully left the main shoot.  I put the cage back around the little tree, so once again, it's obscured from view by the wire.

The second, much smaller tree had struggled to get going. I actually thought it was dead.  But it finally put up one shoot, and over the summer, with lots of babying (water, mulch and shade) it had grown to about 18" tall.

I didn't have another cage for it, but in hindsight, I should have tried to find something.  Last night, the rabbits ate it, leaving only about 1" of stem.  I think (hope) it will put back out in the spring, but <insert swearwords here> that made me so mad!!!

And I was even more angry when I saw the little Eastern Redbud tree (Cercis canadensis) I had transplanted from the garden into the back yard last week.  It was about 12" tall.  Now it's a 4" stub.

I don't think there's any way we can reinforce the new fence in such a way that we could keep the rabbits out.  So I think my best bet is going to be to get some of the 1" x 2" welded wire and build cages...lots of cages.

November 7, 2022 Gardening Journal

Well, the rabbits are doing it to me again.  My snow peas looked so pretty yesterday when I walked Mo around the yard.  Today there is only about 4" of stem left on every one of them.

They've done the same thing to my sugar snap peas, and have started in on the Kale.  

The plants are all "protected" by 2" x 4" welded wire cages and/or chicken wire.  Didn't matter.  

If the rabbits ate the plants they destroy, that wouldn't be so bad. But they don't eat them.  They just chew the pea stems in two and let the top drop to the ground.  The kale leaves are just left lying on the ground around the plants.

So it looks like I'm going to have to buy some wire like that which is around the dogwood tree.  It's 1" x 2" welded wire so they can't get through that.  They're NOT going to win, dang it all!

Regarding the cuttings.  I not sure many, if any, of them are going to make it.  They're already getting covered with mold.  The only exception might be the fig cuttings.  So far they still look Ok.  I went ahead and took the newest cuttings out of their plastic bags.  That is just a perfect environment for mold.  

So maybe I'm just being a pessimist today, but the cutting experiment that I was so excited about looks like yet another failure.  Maybe in January I'll post all happy saying how every one of the little twigs has developed roots.  But I doubt it.

November 6, 2022 Gardening Journal

Today was a very nice day, perfect for doing some fall cleanup chores.

First on the list, drain the IBC Tote, then move it to the north wall of the carport slab.  Once moved, I connected it to the three 55 gallon barrels and transferred about 60 gallons of water back into the tank.  Much better setup than before.

Next, time to put some of the composted cow manure onto the garden.  I raked back the straw, dumped one cart load onto the cardboard (which has almost rotted away) and then pulled the straw back over the compost.  I still need to put some wood chips down on my walking rows, and might want to put some boards around the compost.

Next, fix the mulch around the blackberry plants.  I put  composted cow manure around the plants, and covered that with cardboard/newspapers.  But this time I also put some cardboard down in the area between them.  I used most of my last remaining bale of straw to cover the cardboard.   Still have one plant to mulch around, and I still need to figure out what I'm going to do to get the canes up off the ground.

Finally, I put a layer of composted cow manure around the apple trees, covered that with cardboard/newspaper/packing paper, and topped that off with a thick layer of straw.

And in spite of the hot dry summer we had, the pecan tree has started dropping pecans!  I'm not sure how well they are filled out, but I've picked up a large coffee can full.  What a nice surprise!

When you lose sight of what matters....

I went for a walk yesterday with my little dog Mo.  He bounced on through the field ahead of me, and scared some blue birds that were in the grass.  I watched as they flew off to the trees...all except for one.  He veered off to the north, then turned back toward the tree, headed straight for me.  Instinctively, I pulled back, thinking I was about to be hit.  

But he didn't crash into me.  Instead, he landed on my hand.

I'm not sure who was more surprised.  Our eyes locked together.  I wonder what was going through his mind.  I was marveling at the intense blue of his feathers and the intricate pattern they made across his brow and down his wings.  The feeling was something I can't describe.  Maybe it was joy?  

I know it couldn't have been more than a couple of seconds.  I heard myself exclaim out loud, "Oh! You are so beautiful!" My coarse sounding voice broke the spell.  He launched himself off my hand to join his little flock in the nearby tree.

Male Eastern Bluebird (Sialia sialis), observed on March 29, 2015.

Cuttings

I have decided I want some native shrubs in my yard.

One that I've wanted for several years is Serviceberry (Amelanchier arborea).  I know of one little plant that hangs precariously off the edge of the bluff overlooking the creek.  But there's no way for me to get to it to try to collect any berries from it, so for several years I've just had to admire it from the other side of the creek.

Common Serviceberry, observed March 5, 2017.

But this fall I found the website for "Food Forest Nursery," in Westfork, Arkansas.  According to their website:

We specialize in bare root fruit and nut trees, berry bushes, fruiting vines, nitrogen fixers, and other perennial permaculture plants.  We select the varieties we grow for disease resistance (in our humid climate in the Arkansas Ozarks), flavor, overall variety in our diet, and hardiness to zone 7 or colder.

 

And one of the plants they sell is Serviceberry (https://foodforestnursery.com/product/serviceberry/).  

I ordered one.  

And as I looked through the plants on their website, I started thinking about other plants I'd seen on my walks.  I didn't realize that several of those have edible parts.   I wondered if I could start some of those from seed?

The problem with that idea is that if you're going to start plants from seed, you have to first find plants with seeds.  

I knew where a Spicebush (Lindera benzoin) plant was growing along the creek where I walk (a section of creek we call The Maple Hole), but I had never seen any berries on it.  I've come to the conclusion that the plant must be a male (Spicebush is one of those plants that is dioecious, meaning some plants have only male flowers, while others have only female flowers).

Spicebush (Lindera benzoin), observed March 7, 2020.

I had walked about three miles down the creek from The Maple Hole over the years, and knew there were lots of Spicebush plants along the creek below my sister's house.  So she and I walked through the woods about a week and a half ago, looking for Spicebush berries (and Paw Paws).  There were none to be found.

I actually thought about ordering a couple of plants from the Food Forest Nursery, but I wanted to be sure I got a male and a female plant.  I sent them an email asking if they knew which plants were male and which were female, and if I could specify what I wanted, but they never answered.  Plus, I worry about introducing non-local plants into the environment...even though Spicebush is a native plant, the ones that grow around here have evolved to live here, and introducing plants from another location could disrupt the ecological balance (yes, I am going to be doing that with the Serviceberry and I do worry about that...).  So I held off placing that order, but continued to read about Spicebush.  I was actually becoming quite obsessed with wanting one.

Then one evening I happened across a website that said Spicebush could be propagated from cuttings.  Ding, ding, ding, ding!!!!  If I took cuttings from several different plants, surely I would get lucky and at least I could get some cuttings to root, and if I got really lucky, maybe I would get a cutting from a male and a female plant to root! 

That next weekend, I walked down to The Maple Hole and took cuttings from what I believed to be the male Spicebush plant.   A few days later, my sister and I walked through her woods again and I took cuttings from maybe a dozen different Spicebush plants along the way.  

I don't know if it is the right time of year to take the cuttings...some websites said take softwood cuttings in June/July, while others said take semi-hardwood cuttings in late summer or fall.  The cuttings I ended up using were all new growth, and were what I think would be considered semi-hardwood cuttings.  I snipped off the ends, scrapped the bark off the lower end on one side, dipped the cuttings in rooting hormone powder, then buried them in a pot of the Fox Farm "Salamander Soil."  When all of the cuttings were potted up, I put the pots inside a plastic bag to hold in the moisture.   

Spicebush and fig cuttings, all bagged up ready to take root!

Now I wait.

I did notice differences in the cuttings as I was working with them.  The ones from the plant at The Maple Hole already had prominent buds where the flowers will be next spring.  Some of those from my sister's woods also had those buds, but others didn't.  I tried to separate the cuttings into pots according to whether they had buds or not.  I'm curious know now if those without the buds are female plants.

And now, I have "cutting fever."  Apparently there are lots of plants that can be started from cuttings.  My sister gave me some cuttings from her fig trees, so they're in the plastic bag with the Spicebush cuttings.  I walked down into the field today and took cuttings from a Blackhaw (Viburnum prunifolium) that grows by the slough.  Again, it may be totally the wrong time of year to take the cuttings, and if they don't root, I'll try again next summer.

Blackhaw (Viburnum prunifolium), observed April 11, 2015.

I took cuttings from a Flowering Dogwood (Cornus florida) (these were definitely what I would call hardwood cuttings though, so they may be totally wrong).  I  am also trying to root a cutting from an American Bladdernut tree (Staphylia trifolia) and from a couple of Paw Paw trees (Asimina triloba).  In the past, I've successfully rooted cuttings from the little white rose bush that was here at the house when we moved in; Elderberry (Sambucus canadensis) cuttings; and a cutting from Common Dittany (Cunila origanoides).    I still want to try some cuttings from Coral Honeysuckle (Lonicera sempervirens) too...I just need to find the plant again!  And I saw YouTube videos today about starting Red Mulberry (Morus rubra) from cuttings - it sounds like that's a very easy one to do as well! Persimmons (Diospyros virginiana) can also be started from cuttings..I know where I'll be going tomorrow during my lunch break!

So now I'm wondering...can I take a cutting from this?  How about from that?  There are possibilities everywhere I look!

Update 11/5/2022 - I finally got to go after some persimmon cuttings yesterday.   While there were several "new growth" limbs on one of the trees, I couldn't reach them.  I did remember that there was another small persimmon tree down below the pond, so I walked up the hill on my way back home.  I was in luck.  Not only was it a female tree, it also had some new growth limbs down low enough that I could reach!  I ended up potting up 10 cuttings.  

Today I walked back down to the creek to see if I could find the coral honeysuckle that I had seen growing in a small tree on my dad's side of the creek a few years ago.  I looked and looked in the area where I thought I remembered it was, but just didn't see it.  I was just about to give up, when I happened to notice what looked like a few honeysuckle leaves in the little tree right beside me.  LOL  That was it!  I just didn't see it because it had already lost most of its leaves.  It did, however, have one set of fused leaves where a flower had been, so I knew I had the right plant.  I took a very few small cuttings from it, but leaving some I would have liked to get because they had caterpillars of some sort feeding on them.  So now I have three small cuttings of the native honeysuckle!  

Coral Honeysuckle (Lonicera sempervirens), observed on April 24, 2016. 
This one hangs down the bluff on the opposite side of the creek from my dad's field, so it was out of reach. 
But a few years later I found on growing in the woods on my dad's side, so now I have some cuttings.  What a gorgeous vine it is!

No-Till: One Year Later

Just a little over a year ago I wrote a post titled "To till, or not to till:  I think I'll try not to."  And after my first year of no-till, I know one thing for sure...I'll never go back to my old way of gardening.

To be clear, I can't say that my no-till garden has been a huge success - quite the opposite actually.  I don't think I got what I'd call a real harvest from anything until late summer.  But when I walk through the garden now, it just seems "right." 

I began the transition to no-till by building raised rows in the "good" part of the garden.  I raked up the old straw mulch and shoveled dirt on top of that.  Cardboard topped with cypress mulch covered the walking space in between the rows.  Over the next few months, I slowly added more rows and by early spring the east part of the garden was pretty much complete.  I started planting.

So what are the positives about no-till?

First, I love being able to take my seeds and little transplants out to the garden and just plant them without having to worry about getting the tiller out of the shop.  

Second, between the cardboard and cypress mulch in the walking rows, and the straw mulch on the sides of the raised rows, there were hardly any weeds, and what weeds or grass did pop up were easily pulled out by hand.  The exception to the "hardly any weeds" were prostrate sandmat (Euphorbia prostrata) and common yellow woodsorrel (Oxalis stricta).  But since both of those are very low-growing, I just left them.  (I may regret that next spring.)

Third, it seemed like there was just more "life" in the garden than there was when I was keeping it tilled.  Until the weather turned off hot and dry, there were always earthworms and other little soil-dwelling critters under the mulch.  That meant there were toads living in the garden too. And because I interplanted different kinds of flowers in with the food crops, there were bees, butterflies, wasps, and syrphid flies.  When the sunflowers set their seeds, there were goldfinches and chickadees hanging upside down plucking seeds from the seed heads.  

A Fowler's Toad (Anaxyrus fowleri) hunting in one of my walking rows.

What were the negatives?

I don't think there were any real negatives that weren't caused by something stupid that I did.  But I did learn a few things from my mistakes, and will try to correct them and know better what not to do next year.

First, my raised rows were too steep.  As a result, when I tried to water them, the water didn't have a chance to soak in - it just ran down the sides into the walking rows. (...and in some cases, taking my seeds with it.  I had quite a few carrots growing at the edge of the walking rows!)  The rows will need to be reshaped this winter so that they are flattened out, but with the sides slightly higher than the center so they hold the water until it can soak in.

Second, my raised rows went all "hollow" underneath.  Best I can figure out is that the straw underneath has decayed, leaving a big void under the top couple of inches of soil.  For whatever reason, the rows haven't collapsed, but when I tried to set out my beet transplants this fall, every hole that I tried to "dib" punched through the top crust into a big empty space.  So when I'm reshaping the rows, I'll need to break that top layer so that it collapses down into the void below.  The decaying straw might also explain why some of my plants didn't look as healthy as I thought they should.  There might have been some nitrogen tie-up going on.

I really can't think of anything else to list as a "negative" of no-till. If something else comes to mind later I will edit this post to add it.

Gardening Journal: September 11, 2022

September 11 used to be just another day, didn't it.  All that changed 21 years ago, and every year since then, when the calendar rolls round to 9/11, we all remember where we were and what we were doing when we found out that a plane had hit one of the twin towers.  Such a senseless tragedy and I am always sad for the families of those who were killed in the attacks.

The day started out cloudy, damp and cool.  We had a surprise rain shower yesterday afternoon, I suppose triggered by a cold front that is inching its way closer to us.  I think by tomorrow, it will feel very "fall like" with lows possibly in the 50s.

It was a good morning to do some cleanup in the garden.  

The black plastic has been relocated to the west side of the cellar to try to kill out the Bermuda grass that was trying to take over.

I've had black plastic out in the garden since last summer, and it seems to have done a pretty good job of killing out the Bermuda grass.  But I had let the area west of the cellar get away from me this summer.  So this morning I pulled some of the taller grass and weeds, then dragged the plastic over the Bermuda grass and tried my best to weight it down so it wouldn't be lifted up by the wind.  The plastic is starting to get pretty ragged, with lots of holes and splits.  

Once the plastic was moved to the new spot, I took the rake and scratched up the dirt where it had been and planted a mix of winter rye and hairy vetch.  I raked the seeds back in and scattered straw over the top of it.  I hope that's enough to keep the birds from eating the rye seeds.  I'm not sure a single rye plant has come up in the back part of the garden where I planted my last cover crop mix.

Cover crop mix of Hairy Vetch, Crimson Clover, Daikon Radish, (supposed to be) Winter Rye and Sorghum Sudan grass.

I cut back some of the Sorghum Sudan grass that hasn't already been cut this morning too.  The tallest stalks were just about 5' tall now. I took the first few stalks that I cut off to the compost bin, but it made me sad to see all of the lady bug larvae and pupae in among the leaves.  So the rest of what I cut just got left on the ground in that patch of garden.  

I didn't cut it very short this time because the last that I cut hasn't really ever seemed to take off growing again like I thought it would.  I had cut it at about 6" to 8" after it blew over in the storm.  

Cover crop mix of Sorghum Sudan grass and black oil sunflower.  The stalks that were cut after they blew over are just now starting to grow again.  Notice one nice looking sunflower at the edge of the patch....

It is interesting to see that some of the sunflowers actually have buds on them.  They're not very tall, and most of them are pretty spindly from being shaded by the Sorghum Sudan grass.  But I guess their internal clocks are telling them that they're running out of time and they're going to try to produce some seeds if they can.  

Elsewhere in the garden....

The crimson clover that I planted under the bell peppers and peas has come up and looks to be doing well.

Cover crop of crimson clover in rows of plants that will be taken out after frost.

I am excited that I might FINALLY have some green peas this fall!  I have a section about 10' long where the peas have made it to about 8" high.  I did have to put wire up on both sides of the panel because an armadillo got in there one night and rooted up some of the plants, but so far it hasn't been back, or else the wire has deterred it from digging in that row again.

Green peas (Sugar Snap) interplanted with a Crimson Clover cover crop.

I planted some carrots yesterday after the rain.  I decided to try the "cover them with a plank" method described by Huw Richards because it seems that small seeds that I direct sow in the garden always dry out and don't germinate very well.  I planted two plots, one with newer seeds that I had ordered from Everwilde.com, and the other with very old seeds that I had bought years ago at the local feed store.