Morels Found!

I cleared one tiny section of the hill-
still alot of garlic mustard to kill

Yikes, it's been a hectic month around here!  Excitement!  Exasperation!  Extreme muscle fatigue!  With each day that I accomplish something in the yard, I feel a bit less stressed and panicky but there's still SO MUCH to do!  

I continue my battle with garlic mustard.  By this time last year I had my yard totally cleared of flowering GM. Due to all the rainy days in April this spring I am barely getting started.  This past Sunday my neighbor came out and helped and having that second pair of hands really helps.  We were both excited to see how much our Mayapple patches have expanded.  It's amazing what a difference clearing out weeds has for the native plants.  We also found morel mushrooms.  Turns out my neighbor didn't know there are similar looking mushrooms that are poisonous (false morels) but the ones we found were the real deal: the right kind of cap and pitted texture, and hollow on the inside.  Yay! 

Yesterday I took a break from the GM and trimmed dead branches from the cedar out front, put more soil on my asparagus trenches (oh, their little thin stems are so cute!), weeded dandelions out of my little front lawn and then mowed and fertilized it with corn gluten.  If this stuff does what it says it does, I'm in heaven.  An organic nitrogen source that also kills any weed seeds that dare germinate in its presence?  Wow!  It's a good thing too because the dandelions are out in full force this week.

Amber Queen Epimedium

Yes, I ran the range of emotions yesterday.  Happiness (when I found my Amber Queen epimedium in bloom for the first time.  Fear (when I accidentally knocked over a metal trellis I had pulled out of the shed and it whacked me hard on my face (I haven't looked yet but I'm hoping I don't have a black eye.))  Frustration (when I found that those naughty chipmunks had dug out every melon, squash and cuke seed I had planted out in containers on my deck. A 2nd-story deck!  Seriously?)

I was also embarrassed.  A couple of my kids brought home pine tree seedlings from school for, I don't know, Mother's Day or Earth Day or something.  They were pretty much dead, I think, but about a week ago I dutifully spent a morning ripping out buckthorn so I could plant them.   Some of the buckthorn I just threw back into the woods but the bigger ones I left out in the ditch by the side of the road for "processing" at a later date.  Turns out I missed the email about yesterday being our city-wide brush pickup day.  I'm sure the city workers were not happy as they dug through the mess of thorny branches sticking out every-which-way.  Sorry, city workers!  That wasn't my brush for pickup!  Still, they did get it removed so one less job to do for me.  Thanks, city workers!  I promise to pile my brush more carefully in the future, just in case you stop by to grab it.

Anyhow, since I'm still experimenting with what plants will survive in my yard, most of my perennials are new to me and a bunch of them are in bloom now.  I'm really digging native Creeping Jacob's Ladder with its cute little blue blooms but despite reports of deer resistance, something decided to eat one down to the ground.  Add that to the spray list!  

Yum!  Morels!

Oh, and I doubt I'll add it to the spray list but something's been working over some Sweet Cicely.  That's also a native and it has a distinctive anise (licorice) smell when the leaves are messed with.  That's why I find it surprising that deer would munch on it; I thought they don't like smelly foliage.  I had to send this particular plant in for identification at the UW extension but I like its ferny leaves.  I don't, however, like it's long spiky seedheads and I noticed it seeds itself liberally.  Very liberally.  Still, it was a native plant that I didn't have to buy and I've never have to water, so it works for me.

Speaking of native plants, we went looking for morels at our local state park and I noticed that I have many of the same woodland plants in my yard.  One thing I don't have is Large-flowered Bellwort (uvularia grandiflora) which was blooming all over the place at the park.  It's got a wilty look to it that I'm not sure I find attractive but I've added it to my to-get list for next season.

My Frohnleiten epimedium is also blooming and it's flowers are so different from Amber Queen it's hard to believe they are the same type of plant.  Frohnleiten has sunny yellow shooting-star-type flowers and its foliage is glossy green whereas Amber Queen has these funky jester-hat-shaped flowers and red-mottled foliage.    So far, nothing has eaten either so they are both on my for-keeps list.

Frohnleiten Epimedium

Also blooming for the first time is my "Little Lanterns" columbine.  It's like our native columbine but in miniature.  I picked off the blooms because the plant itself is still so tiny.  Turns out there's sweet nectar in their blooms too.  When I was a kid I'd pick columbine blooms and suck out the nectar.  I can see why hummingbirds like them.

Nothing touches the Mayapple, Wild Ginger or Sweet Woodruff and the ferns haven't been messed with either.  Gotta love that!   I noticed there wasn't any Wild Ginger or Sweet Woodruff in the state park.  They prefer a more acidic soil than what our area has.  They seem to be doing fine though and it's been a couple of years now.



Creeping Jacob's Ladder

Yesterday I put out my tomato and pepper plants and my tropicals so of course we had a frost warning last night.  It's a good thing my spouse turned on the news.  11 pm and we were out in the back yard, putting blankets on everything tender.  I need to get a light out there.  Stumbling over things in the dark is not much fun.

Anyhow, today I'm going back to the garlic mustard weeding.  And maybe moving mulch.  (Did I tell you my mulch story?  Did I ever mention that Murphy's Law is a force alive and well in my life?  I ordered 6 yards of mulch from the city and specified on the form that I didn't want it where I had it delivered last year.  I even drew a map of the new location where I wanted it dumped.  Later, I got a phone call verifying that I wanted the location changed.  The day the mulch was to be delivered, I got another phone call to confirm that I wanted it dumped in a new location.  So, I'm out back clinging to my hillside so I don't fall to my death as I weed GM and I hear a truck.  Hmmm....wonder if that's my mulch delivery?   Then I realize that the truck sounds were coming from the wrong side of the house.  Noooooo!!!!   I rush as fast as someone clinging to a steep hillside can rush to the front to find my six loads of mulch dumped smack dab in the middle of our 2nd driveway, exactly where I told them NOT to dump it.  I have one week, maybe two to get it all moved before my patio contractor needs to use that driveway.  I can NOT win!  Ever!)



Wild Ginger foliage

 I found another tag for a long-gone perennial.  It has me worried.  I keep finding tags in the dirt for perennial plants but no plants.  I wonder why they are gone.  Was it the dang wildlife?  Was it the clay soil?  Did the previous owners not realize that liberal applications of mulch on a yearly basis is a must-have soil conditioner when you've got clay soil?  I wish I knew why they focused on annuals and why so many perennials are MIA.
Still, today the sun is shining (we haven't seen that too much this spring) and I've got a bird with an orange belly singing a beautiful song in the trees.  Perhaps a baltimore oriole?   I've got a cup of hot chai in my grip and a tasty peach muffin in front of me.  Have a happy day, ok?




Going After Gooseneck Loosestrife

I've already blogged about my front yard's foundation planting; it was very unattractive because it was overgrown and some of the nicer plants were getting muscled out by others that don't hold much charm for me.

One of those bullies is gooseneck loosestrife. Now, don't get me wrong. Overall, I like this plant. I like its unique white flowerheads and it does a good job of smothering weeds. Also I like its subtle fall foliage color. However, the previous owners had this planted by the front entrance in full sun and since I don't do much supplemental watering, by mid summer it was a big patch of ugly and diseased foliage. GL likes moisture.

I didn't want to take it out but since it swallows up any neighboring plants I also didn't want it in any of my perennial borders either. So, even though I was totally dreading doing it, I decided to rip it out. I also have a patch of it in a different area where it is controlled by a large spruce so I've consoled myself that it's not like I am totally giving up on this plant.

The easiest way to clear out the patch would have been to smother it or spray it but I needed the space ASAP for an overabundance of strawberry plants I had ordered in a moment of cabin fever madness. That meant pulling it all out, which basically meant removing the top 6-8" of soil in the bed. That's because the roots of gooseneck loosestrife form a dense patch of salmon-pink fleshy underground shoots and white fibrous feeder roots.

It took me all day but I managed to clear enough space to put in my strawberries before the rain started. In fact I got done early enough to transplant some perennials, rake and fertilize the front lawn (I sprinkled Garden Supply Company's Yum Yum Mix and compost on the grass) and I also got some peas, lettuce and spinach seeds planted (I know, I know, I should have done that weeks ago).

As I was forking wood mulch I was musing on how much easier that job is when you have a pitchfork versus using a shovel. Later, I realized as I was winding twine around some poles to make a pea fence that I was enjoying myself. It was actually fun to try and figure out how to get the twine to do what I wanted without cutting it. I never noticed before that I like jury-rigging things.

It's important to notice the small things that bring a person happiness, right? Maybe it's all these little bits of happiness that makes gardening so enjoyable.

As I surveyed my day's work I noticed that the strawberries I put in several days ago have really taken off; I was surprised to see they leafed out so quickly. I guess all the rain we've been getting is to their liking. So tonight I've got a sore back and sore hands but I'm happy that I was able to get so much done and that my newest batch of strawberry plants will get a good soaking.