SqueakyChu's 2012 Gardening Diary - Chapter 2

Welcome to my second gardening thread!


Photo by Jenn Durfey - Flickr, CC-A

This is NOT a butterfly from my garden! I just thought the photo was stunning, and "captured" it from creative Commons at Flickr.

What's my true butterfly count? Is it going down? I think it's stagnating at 5. :D

References:

1. Maryland Native Species Plants
2. Maryland Butterflies
3. Butterfly side by side comparison

(message deleted)

DOUBLE POST!

She's spamming the threads!

I'm telling!!!!!

I always have a problem when I do that continuation thing. I don't know why. It's supposed to be simple.

*going back to delete self-imposed spam*

So nice to see that lovely butterfly after that gross squash vine borer thing.

Heh!

Beautiful photo!

Yeah. That photo just sort of jumped out at me.

5: So nice to see that lovely butterfly after that gross squash vine borer thing.
Yeah, really.

LOL!

Today in my garden...

Since the wren family is gone, things are so quiet. The butterflies are all the same ones. I got a better picture of the zabulon skipper today, though...


Zabulon skipper (male) on phlox

The males of this species perch all day in search of females.

I was also disturbed that I maybe had more baby squash vine borers but found out that these were actually baby milkweed beetles! I found these (nymph instar) on my butterfly weed plant.


milkweed beetle (nymph instar) on butterfly weed

My favorite find of the day, though, was this mystery flower...


Can you guess what it is?

If not, it's...
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the flower of a cotton plant. Isn't it pretty?!

yes, it is very pretty. Your photography skills are great! and I enjoy visiting this thread regularly! You Go Girl!

Thanks, Karen.

I'm trying to read up more on how to use my point-and-shoot camera to better advantage and with more skill. I really think I'd do better with a more expensive digital SLR. Maybe one day I'll spring for one.

The first two pictures are out of focus because I was trying to use the digital macro setting with not much success. I HATE photos which are out of focus, but I'm putting these here to document the insects I've seen. Some insects don't give me a second chance to photograph them. Flowers are more forgiving because they are going nowhere! :)

That cotton flower is loverly: does it have a scent? I too enjoy visiting here for your pics but mostly for your contagious enthusiasm about your flora and fauna.

You know, flora and fauna is really more fun if it can be shared with others just as enthusiastic. That is, what I think, got me hooked into this group after having serious doubts if I'd have the time to spend here. I just love it!

At home I joined a neighborhood "native species" group, but it quickly fell out of favor with me. The members were too activist, it leader too controlling, the meeting agenda were always rehashes of previous meetings, etc. I opted out of that group as quickly as I was able to do so tactfully (although I still run their listserv as no one else in that group seems to know how to do it - or wants to learn). :(

> 14

That cotton flower is loverly: does it have a scent?

I don't know! I'll have to find out. :)

Beautiful cotton flower!

I've been living in NC since 1999, and one of the prettiest sights is when the cotton fields turn white. It's a delight to drive by cotton fields that have 'popped', because it looks as if there's been a freak early snowfall!

*grumble*

I might take up my son's offer to borrow his SLR camera. I just can't take a decent picture of the now open cotton flower to show it's beauty. Whatever I do, it overexposes the white area and underexposes the background. Maybe I have to wait until sundown to photgraph it. :(

*grumbles again*

> 17

I lived in Israel where cotton was a major crop on the kibbutz where my family lives so I know the beauty of those cotton fields. I never had my own cotton plant, though. With global warming, it seems to be doing very well in my Maryland garden!

I also have a peanut plant! That's new to me as well. :)

(18) Are you using flash? If you are, try it without.

If you really need flash for the picture, try putting your finger over the flash part of the camera, so that only a portion of the light illuminates the flower. This has worked well for me. :)

> 20

I keep the flash turned off with most pictures. Im going to consult with my son this week. He's the best photographer in our family. There may be no remedy with my point-and-shoot, though.

I use a secondary source of light for my point-and-shoot, when necessary.

Shooting pictures early in the morning, or later in the evening is often suggested in photography classes. It is said the light is better, whatever that means. I do find my best pictures are not middle of the day, full sunlight pictures. Try in a lower light.

Is your point and shoot one which shows you your results right away. You can shoot one with the flash, one without, one with the flash covered with a piece cloth.

Have fun with it.

That's good advice about the lower light, but I have no time tonight, and I have no idea whenI'll get to try to catch that flower again. I guess I'll have to remember what it looks like. :)

Have a safe trip!

Wow, I didn't know cotton flower was so elegant. Thanks for sharing.

Thanks, fuzzi.

I'm back on line again. My computer died as soon as I got to the beach. I had to live there non-electronically (which wasn't really so bad!). :)

I forgot to check the cotton plant when I got home from the beach. I'll have to look at it in the morning.

Welcome back

Thanks!

Welcome back!

Thank you!

:waves:

*waves back*

These were not in my garden but from my trip to North Carolina. The pictures of this landscape came out so lovely. I took them from a ferry on our way back from Bear Island. I love capturing the ominous clouds on a picture when a rain storm is approaching at the beach.

Sigh!

I love the bands of color you've captured.

Same here - I love the top photo (I like the other one as well...) I'm drawn in by those horizontal strata: water, grass, shrubs, trees, clouds - it would make a great book cover (with the spine vertically central - right on the dead stem at the top of that tree!) for the right book.

My older son loves photography, but couldn't really find good subject for his pictures this past week at the beach. The air was too hazy most of the time.

I took more pictures, but these two were the only landscapes that I found really striking. Mostly, it was the darkening clouds that made them so.

I really should think of getting an SLR camera because my point-and-shoot so often disappoints me. It's easy to carry around, though! :)

> 37

Paul, would you like to buy the rights to the book cover and then go write your book? ;)

By the way, the clouds are also stratified into bands of white, light blue, dark blue, and gray. :)

My Garden Today...

I'm grateful to this creature...


monarch caterpillar

because, without my wren families, the backyard seems sort of empty. I've got to get my hummingbird feeder (which I took down last week when I was at the beach) back up. Late summer tends to be a busy time at hummingbird feeders as these birds prepare to travel south soon.

Awww. It looks pretty big in comparison to the leaves. So it may wander off to pupate soon.

I'll never find it again...

:(

Well, you'll have about a week to look for it.

Ha!

Which ferry did you take, SqueakyChu?

I've ridden on a ferry down near Alliance. The sea gulls/terns followed us the entire way, and I got some great shots of them feeding from the outstretched hands of tourists...the birds would swoop down and snatch a cracker from people holding them up in the air. Nifty.

The ferry was from a bit west of Swansboro. It's a very short ferry ride to Bear Island, a barrier island about 2 and a half miles long. Last year, when my young son and his fiancee were there, they saw a baby sea turtle walking to the sea!

I don't know where Alliance is.

Alliance is very, very small. It's where my dh's grandmother lived for years, near Bayboro? Not far from New Bern and Havelock. :)

I've never heard of Bayboro, but I do know New Bern and have visited Havelock.

Havelock is where my dh's aunt still lives (his uncle passed away earlier this year).

Look at this map, you can see Bayboro to the east of New Bern:



Alliance is between New Bern and Bayboro.

I know why I never heard of Bayboro. It's because we come to the beach from Route 95! :)

How do you get to the beach? I-95 to ...?

It varies. Sometimes through Wilson, always through Goldsboro and Kinston.

My maternal grandmother was born in Goldsboro.

My grandmother was born somewhere in North Carolina, too. 1888. We are all related, I'll bet. Sisters! or Cousins!

My uncle was stationed in North Carolina when he was in the Army Air Force during WWII. I think he was stationed in Charlotte, and nowhere near the beach, though.

Today in my Garden...


crossline skipper - Polites origenes (female)



This is just to show you what the inside of the flower of a cotton plant looks like. It's so pretty! I had to decrease the exposure (darkens the picture) in order to bring out the details. I'm actually learning more about my point-and-shoot camera as I try to improve my photography of insects and flowers.

55: Oh, how pretty!

Very pretty, I agree.

And I think you're correct on that butterfly being a Crossline Skipper.

55: In my butterfly book, the Crossline Skipper has different markings, but I've paged through and I don't see one that matches yours. Closest is maybe female Hobomok Skipper.

> 55

That doesn't look right. Try looking up Peck's skipper (Polites coras) and see if that's it.

These are butterflies of Maryland

Hobomok Skippers are here in Maryland only early May to mid June. With global warming, however, who knows?

Hobomok has a lot more yellow on it than shows on that photo.

I'm using Kaufman's, and the female Crossline looks very similar to the Skipper in #55.

Peck's is darker, and the guide books says it is orange and BLACK.

I'll stick with Crossline then?

She was a good girl. She sat so still for me. :)

I think Crossline is the best choice, for identification.

I'll keep it Crossline then unless I decide to change it at a later date (which I doubt!).

None of us can be perfect, just do the best you can. :)

60: Huh. Maybe the photos look quite different on different monitors and in different books.
59: That's quite a table of info. I'll look more carefully tomorrow.

Leonard's Skipper maybe? Crossline photos I'm seeing have much more orange on the male, and much less contrast between orange and brown on the female. All of these skippers have variants. Trouble with internet images is that people like us are labeling their photos and misidentification surely abounds. I'm declaring defeat on this one.

The pattern on the wing doesn't seem right for the Leonard's skipper.

67: Yeah, the pattern doesn't seem quite right for any of them. Maybe you have a mutant skipper, or discovered a new species. I assume people who categorize the skippers have a lot more to go on than five minute photography sessions.

What about a broad winged skipper (Poanes viator)?

This is a cool butterfly site. You can view butterflies side by side!

Whoever wants to do more investigation as to the identity of my skipper, I've listed all the skippers in the Piedmont section of Maryland (my area) for late August. Now we have to eliminate those skippers that my butterfly are not:

1. Swarthy - eliminated
2. Clouded - eliminated - the wing spots are too large and yellow
3. Least - eliminated - no resemblence at all
4. Leonard's - eliminated
5. Peck's - maybe - Polites peckius
6. Tawney-edged - eliminated
7. Crossline - probably not
8. Little glassywing
9. Sachem
10. Zabulon
11. Aaron's - eliminated
12. Broad-winged
13. Two spotted
14. Dun - eliminated
15. Twin spot
16. Ocola - eliminated - forewings are too short

If nothing else, this has made me aware of how many species of skippers there are. How did scientists know that they were all different species and not variations of the same species?

Reprinting picture:


She (or he?) looks like a little jet plane about to take off! :)

ETA: I think I might go for the Peck's Skipper - Polites peckius so far...

70: I actually went through that list this morning, which is why I concede defeat.

How did scientists know that they were all different species and not variations of the same species?
Host plant differences? Larva differences? Anatomical differences? Genetic differences? It's not only the many species, but they're grouped into many genera and subfamilies.

but they're grouped into many genera and subfamilies

..which I will not even get into.

I'll probably slowly continue my investigation - if only to narrow down what it *might* be.

I consider all my skipper identifications to be tentative.

Global Warming Effects Seen in Butterfly Populations

This will make it even harder to identify our skippers! :)

Don't just look at the wings, look at the legs, the antennae, the body length, etc. It was using all these that made me think the Crossline was the correct choice.

Count it as a Crossline Skipper, and go on. There are too many variations to make yourself crazy over!

But, I could be wrong...and if I am...so? I did my best to identify my butterflies and moths. :)

look at the legs, the antennae, the body length, etc.

...al of which, of course, I didn't do!

It's wonderful how all of this is honing our attention to detail, as well as our point and shoot capabilities.

Having been a 'birder' for years is helping me with identifying butterflies, because I don't just look at the obvious (main color) but other things like the eyes, body, etc. It's those little things that will help you figure out which one it is when you find several butterflies that look the same.

I'll keep that in mind.

Birding is fun!

And now, I'm checking out all sorts of nature things, thanks to you ladies!

This morning my husband told me there was a frog on his pickup truck, and he probably regretted it because I took several pictures of the frog and delayed our leaving for work.

At work there were more mushrooms near the entrance, pictures to follow on my thread. :)

This morning my husband told me there was a frog on his pickup truck, and he probably regretted it because I took several pictures of the frog and delayed our leaving for work.

LOL!! That is so me, too, fuzzi!

Birding is fun!

It is! My husband and I always watch birds. Now we've resumed feeding them as well.

Have you ever read To See Every Bird on Earth by Dan Koeppel? That's a book that any birder should truly enjoy. You'll especially appreciate the ending.

In addition, I rexcommend The Big Year : A Tale of Man, Nature and Fowl Obsession by Mark Obmascik

My parents were avid birders. Of course I had no appreciation for this as a callow teen and used to think that binoculars on the dining room table were a bit much, as was the leaping up to dash to the window to watch feeder activity. And now here I am with a feeder outside our kitchen window and binoculars (my Dad's) close to hand. I'm not in their league by any means. But I find myself wistful that I let my mother throw out their life list after Dad died.

That's too bad, @tiffin.

When my mother passed away, I "inherited" her Peterson's Guide to Eastern Birds, which included notes and life list information. I don't use it, it's just on my shelf as a 'special' book. :)

My own Peterson's was a gift from my mother, in which she wrote a personal message. I do use it, but again, it's special. :)

@SqueakyChu, no, I've not read either of those books, but I'll put them on my wishlist. :)

I am a wannabe birder. I also want to be so good at putting out a hummingbird feeder that I can get Anna's Hummingbird which winters in the pacific northwest to come to my houser regularly. But I wannabe so many other things too. Reader. Photographer. Dog Walker. Exerciser. Cook. Homemaker. Child Care Wonder. Where is the time?

You don't have to be good at any of those things, just do what you want to do. :)

> 83

But I find myself wistful that I let my mother throw out their life list after Dad died.

Wow. Sad.

>63 SqueakyChu:: I had no appreciation for this as a callow teen and used to think that binoculars on the dining room table were a bit much, as was the leaping up to dash to the window to watch feeder activity.
So there's hope for my children then? They think the hubster and I are nuts.

In my experience it is in Adolescents' Job Descriptions to be thinking their parental units are stupid, old fashioned, and probably nuts. They are living under the Idea that They Will Be Better than their parents' generation. We shall see.

And goodness knows, the world needs the next generation to do better. I do wish them well even while they look at me as if I am from another planet and speak an ancient and largely undecipherable language (or and read too much).

Karen, my son is now 29, and he recently told me that he thinks that we (his parents) did a pretty good job raising him and his sister. He added that when he was a teenager, he thought we were horrible, but now he knows better. :)

Ah...there is hope!

Yeah, the older I got, the smarter my mom seemed.

Today in my garden

Fuzzi and qebo helped me identify this bedraggled butterfly:


Red-Spotted Purple Admiral - Limenitis arthemis astyanax - perched on a leaf of a chokcherry tree

I just positively identified the tree on which the red spotted purple admiral was perched. It's a black cherry - Prunus serotina. I identified it by scratching a young twig. It smelled like almonds! That tree is the host tree for the red spotted purple admiral.

I was wrong. It's a chokecherry tree (as I originally thought). It's a Prunus virginiana.

Woo! How exciting!

(okay, so I'm simple, but I have a lot of FUN!) :)

Now I don't know if it the tree's a chokecherry or (an invasive) buckthorn. They all look alike to me. :(

Many of the Prunus genus look alike, and can be notoriously difficult to identify at this time of year. Best time of year for ID would be late winter/spring so you can examine the flowers (number of stamens etc.). Otherwise the bark may help. I'm not so familiar with Prunus virginiana I'm afraid...

Thanks for the input, @PolarisBeacon. Are you a horticulturist?

> 97

Thanks, Paul. That's good to know. I'll also look for the color of the leaves in the fall. I'm hoping it's really a black cherry, but I think it's a chokecherry because the underside of the leaves don't have any "hairiness".

Off topic (sort of)...
By the way, Paul, my son and daughter-in-law just brought me back some za'atar from Israel. What herbs are in that? Do you know?

>98 fuzzi:

Hi Fuzzi! No, but I'm an arboriculturist :)

>99 SqueakyChu:

All praise the Holy Hyssop! I just love za'atar - and use it quite often. I have some in the kitchen right now, so can confirm that it is a mix of: hyssop, sesame, oil olive?, parsley, and salt. That is the Pyramid brand anyway. There are doubtless other mixes too - you can probably pick some up in a friendly neighbourhood Arab grocery - but Hyssop will always be the chief constituent. Goes great on loads of things - salads, soups, omelettes, etc.

Here's a photo of some I took in the suq in Jerusalem once:

https://fbcdn-sphotos-h-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-snc6/168210_1475056648125_7555...

Looks like some sumaq sprinkled on top.

My za'atar tastes great! It is so pungent.

I mixed 1 Tbsp of za'atar with 1 Tbsp of olive oil and rubbed it all over chicken pieces before I roasted them. That turned out wonderful.

It's also good mixed with softened butter and put directly on freshly cooked corn (I get my corn picked in the morning I cook it because it comes from my CSA box). Mondays are always fresh corn days in the summer. :)

Today in my Garden

I saw a goldfinch on my purple coneflower. It didn't stay ther long because it saw two of my cats. However, there were a whole gang of goldfinches on my neighbors basil plant. They won't come to my basil plant because I won't let it flower and got to seed. At this point, I want the basil more than I want the goldfinches. :)

I sometimes startle goldfinches on my sunflowers when I go out into the yard. I've never been able to get a photo. They dash off to the trees on the other side of the street.

Goldfinches are so colorful. I feed them in the winter, but they are drab during the cold months.

I think goldfinches are the official state bird for Washington State. I get lots of them at my feeders. They are lovely.

Is it legal to send by mail from state to state (or event o Canada)? If so, should we start a seed exchange for native plants here in this group?

My swamp milkweed is now making seeds. I blew a few into the "wild" part of my garden and am saving the others.

I love watching the bees on my sedum. There are four different kinds: carpenter bees, bumble bees (smaller with fuzzy abdomens, honey bees (even smaller with striped abdomens), and some other kind that are even smaller that I can't identify. No time for pictures today, though.

No time for pictures??? That's like saying no time for reading!

California probably doesn't allow seed shipping, but I don't live there, and would be pleased to exchange seeds.

I have a bunch of purple coneflowers that have gone to seed, if anyone is interested...

...I'll take some of your milkweed seeds. :)

The bees are going mad on my sedum right now too, Madeline. It's pouring down buckets today but when the sun shines, there they are. I should learn to identify my bees. Tons of bumbles and honey bees (hives in the field down the road) but I don't know any of the others.

ETA: tons of goldfinches here too. Za'atar sounds interesting!

> addendum to 108

Those last insects I saw were hoverflies! They're new to me! :)

>110 tiffin:: I used to call those mid-air bees when I was wee.

When we exchange seeds, be sure to check if seeds for the species is native to each of your own states. I don't want to be spreading exotic species! :)

If we do exchange seeds, we should have a separate thread for that. Fuzzi, do you want to set one up? :)

> 109

No time for pictures??? That's like saying no time for reading!

I haven't been doing much reading this year, either. That was mainly because I was running around the yard taking picture of butterflies and what not in the garden for this entire summer. :)

Tsk, tsk, tsk...no excuse!

Sure, I'll start a thread, but will need your input!

I'm leaving now...but I'll be back later...

Thanks, Fuzzi!

I have quite a few milkweed seeds myself these days...

I found another native plant in my garden today. It was a HUGE plant of fleabane. It was attracting eastern common bumblebees and those small shiny green flying insects (I forgot what they were called).


Fleabane (Erigon), a native to Maryland plant
(Maybe Common Fleabane? I'm not sure!)

I also found a small English walnut tree in the "wild" part of my garden. . I'm going to see if my son wants it as it's not a native USA tree. The walnuts are easier to deal with than black walnuts, but I'd love to have a healthy black walnut tree now. Our black walnut tree does not make good walnuts (they're too small and dry) so my husband gathers black walnuts from other neighborhood trees. Black walnuts are native to this area.

Oh, yeah! Fleabane shows itself in my gardens this time of year, as well. Some years it's an invasion, and other years not. Easily pulled up though, so I don't really consider it a nuisance.

There are so many kinds of fleabane that I couldn't figure out which kind it was. Can you tell from looking at it?

Nope. And I've moved my Peterson's again and can't put hands on it.

I initially had it confused with false aster. So many of these plants look alike!!

Today in my Garden...

Look what my cotton plant produced...


a cotton boll

I'm going to use the cotton from this plant for nesting material for birds next spring. I put it into a suet box and birds pull it out. This year I used cotton balls and other materials. Next year, I'm using my home-grown cotton bolls. :)

Kewl! I like!

Neat! and what a good idea for using it.

123: Oh that's so cool!

Ta Da! Very neato, plant and use and all.

Oh that's so cool!

I thought so, too. I also have a peanut plant and hope that, at the end of the season, I'll get peanuts. Usually such plants are not grown so far north, but our summers here have been hot, hot, hot, and the leaves of our trees still have not begun to change color even though October begins in two days.

I think we can all think about growing things which may have thrived in slightly different climates The trick is to find out which climate we are becoming.

How cool, both cotton and peanuts are exotic crops to me! I hope you get some peanuts.

Me, too! :)

They're both exotic here in Maryland, but I bought them for fun and just to try something different.

Does anyone here know when and how to harvest the peanuts?

Georgia Dawn is a LT member and she grows peanuts on her farm in Georgia. Send her a PM and I'm sure she'll know either answers to your questions, or where to look for answers. Tell her I sent you.

I just watched a video on harvesting peanuts. It doesn't seem all that hard. I just need to wait until the plant turns a bit yellowish, then dig it up. Since I only have one plant, that shouldn't be very hard. I'll post the results. :)

Maryland is the new Georgia! :D

It sounds like fun.

Cotton! Amazing. Great photo too.

Thanks! I try. :)

134: I wonder what this makes Pennsylvania.

> 138

Tennessee? :)

>138 qebo:: you know what James Carville said about Pennsylvania, right? Philadelphia and Pittsburgh with Alabama in between ...

138: Ah, yes. Alabama, that's where I am. :-) But there's a city-county divide, and I'm on the city side of it.

>141 qebo:: well I'm on the Alabama border. :)

Today in my Garden

I picked the cotton! It took a while to get all the seeds out of it. It is so soft and smells so fresh. I have more cotton bolls that have yet to produce their own cotton. Too bad I don't have enough cotton to spin into yarn. I could knit a scarf or something! I even know someone with a spinning wheel.

I also harvested my peanuts. They're little but so cute. :D

I'll post pictures later this week.

Oh, sweet! Yes, photos please!

Well!? I'm just catching up with your thread Madeline and am now on tenterhooks to see your peanuts... Nice one on the cotton by the way. Regarding your English Walnut - Juglans regia as opposed to Juglans nigra (Black Walnut). You know about the allelopathic properties of those species right? Lovely trees though in my opinion - love the bark.

Or, noticing that the previous post was October 1st have you migrated to another one already?

Hi Paul,

Here are is my cotton harvest photo as well as my peanut harvest photos. Each harvest consisted of only one plant, althougnow it has grown too cold in Maryland to harvest more cortton, I believe. I only harvested three cotton bolls although there are still about 15 of them left on the plant - which is now looking very haggard.


My cotton harvest and the seeds I pulled out of three cotton bolls


My harvested peanut plant


The peanuts from that plant ready to be plucked off of its roots

> 145

Paul, the Juglans nigra (black walnut) are favorite trees of mine. I know of the allopathic characteristic in which the juglone they produce inhibits many other species of plants from growing near them. I only have one black walnut tree in my small yard. It's not a great tree for two reasons. The first is that it's leaning at a severe angle toward my house - but it's been that way for many years. The second is that its walnuts are small and dessicated. I don't know the reason why. Would you?

In the meantime, my husband always combs our nearby neighborhood for these trees and collects the black walnuts which he then husks, washes, dries, cures, and cracks. I bake with them. Sadly, the black walnut has a very strong flavor which my kids don't like so only my husband and I eat what I bake from them. Now we have a black walnut apple cake which I made with only half black walnuts and half English walnuts (because of the strong black walnut flavor). I think it's very good.

This is a blurry picture (taken back in 2008) of how my husband husks the black walnuts...



P.S. I think I'll wait until 2013 to migrate to another thread. There's not much happening in my own garden now.

Thanks for the photos! The cotton looks fantastic - cotton seeds remind me of the big piles of the stuff there'd be out back behind the cow barns at Ktura... great place to go and frolic in on hot summer nights...

The peanuts look great as well - how did they taste?

Now your leaning Walnut - the puny fruits could be for many reasons - but the likeliest is either - poor stock (do you know the tree's provenance?) as far as fruiting is concerned, or some form of root dysfunction. The latter could be related to ground compaction - even if only of the pedestrian variety - you mention it leaning towards the house, does that mean it's quite close to where you or others might walk through on a regular basis? If the soil drainage there is poor and the rooting area is within a well worn route, then that could account for the poor size and poorly hydrated fruits - apart from the obvious physical anchoring function, roots are essential for tree's uptake of air and water necessary for healthy growth. If the rooting area's soil is compacted then that could manifest in poor fruit development and/or poor growth generally. Do you know if the tree's shoot extension each year is getting worse? Then again, it could be a particular nutrient deficiency that inhibits fruiting, which can be fixed with fertilising the soil - though this seems less likely as your garden doesn't seem to have this problem with other species.

If you think compaction is possibly the problem, it should be quite easy to ameliorate the situation and possibly improve the tree's fruiting potential. If the problem is due to the tree's stock then there won't be much you can do - but you already know that.

As for the time of year, have you been keeping an eye out for mushrooms or other fungus fruiting bodies (now's the season for the annuals)?

I haven't tasted the peanuts yet. I'm not sure yet if I want to eat them or keep them for seed.

I think compaction is then the reason for the poor quality of black walnuts on our Juglans nigra. It sits next to my neighbor's driveway, and I'm not asking her to tear out her driveway! This is a very old tree which was probably here since we bought our house back in 1978. I never paid any attention to it until recently when I became a "foodie" and interested in native species! :)

Fungi are fun! Look what I found yesterday on my front lawn:





How can I tell if they are the same species, the small one just being an immature form of the larger one?

(149) A mushroom book!

;)

And find out if there are mushroom fans in a group, club, or like nearby. The Puget Sound Mycological Society (http://www.psms.org/index.php) has great meetings, education, etc. There may be something like that nearby you.

*runs off to check spelling*

> 150

A mushroom book!

Hah!

Do you know that I haven't gotten my butterfly book yet!! I ordered it from Powell's, and it's back ordered.

I have no idea how to identify mushrooms!

> 151

And find out if there are mushroom fans in a group, club, or like nearby

Noooooooooooooo!!!!!! I don't have any time for more activities!!!!!!!

But, but, but they might have web sites with pictures....

146: Oh, what fun! Will you expand the crop next year?

> 155 Oh, what fun! Will you expand the crop next year?

I don't have enough room to really expand the crop. Peanuts needs full sun...and my vegetable garden is becoming shady because of a growing maple tree.

>149 SqueakyChu:

They could be the same species, difficult to tell without seeing them in the flesh. At first I thought they were both different species though. Only way to tell what they are would be to take pics as they mature, as you've done, and then compare them once mature with a well illustrated ident book. Dissecting them can help confirm the finer aspects of ident - gills or pores, ringed stems or not, etc. Placing black/white paper underneath a 'de-stemmed' cap overnight can confirm spore colours (often the best way to confirm an ident). But it can be tricky, and sort of comes with experience. In the UK the books by Roger Phillips are excellent on fungi, especially identifying them as they are very well illustrated with high quality photos and good detailed written descriptions, - so after a quick perusal perhaps Mushrooms of North America is one to keep an eye out for...

That's helpful information, Paul. I'll mark the second book you mentionedusr in case I should decide later to start identifying mushrooms.

I think those two mushrooms are probably both the same species as they both popped up overnight on my lawn after a particularly hard rainfall.

I have Mushrooms for North America, don't know how it compares to other guides but it was given to me by a friend who is serious about mushrooms, goes on foraging expeditions. I'd page through and identify your mushrooms if I could, but too many of them look too much alike to me.

I just know not to eat it! :)

The funny thing is that my CSA has just started selling mushroom shares. I've already received cremini and shitake mushrooms. I think next week I get either oyster mushrooms or white mushrooms. It's fun to learn about the edible ones because I can taste them and cook with them! :)

Oyster Mushrooms are the only ones I've ever identified in the wild and picked to go and cook up - quite nice by the way. All the other edible ones I can positively ID are not really worth the bother sadly.

No, I tell a lie, I've found Ceps as well - they're very nice.

My husband and younger son have great luck in finding morels in April. I have gone morel-hunitng with them, but I've never spotted one on my own. They are so hard to find!

I refuse to eat them because they look so gross! My husband will scramble them up with eggs. I don't trust any wild mushroom. He trusts all morels. :D

My garden today...



The poplar tree in my backyard lost all of its leaves over the past few days. They make such a pretty ground covering, not to mention the food for the tree roots as they decompose. I don't do a lot of raking and *never* do leaf blowing. I do add a few of these leaves to my compost pile, though as "brown" matter.

The tiny green bushlike thing on the left is actually an eastern redbud tree that I planted this spring. The sort of pinkish leafed tree on the right is what's left of two dogwood trees that are slowly dying. I won't let my husband chop them down because the dead part of them attracts woodpeckers.

My garden plans for next year:

1. No tomatoes as I'm tired of fighting blight.
2. Continue to look for and plant native species.
3. Refuse to tolerate any pokeweed which only seems to want to take over my yard - despite its being a native plant and desired by birds. It will just have to grown in wild areas.
4. Continue to pull out my dayliles and replace them with native plants.
5. Find another place in my yard to plant vegetables as a tree is beginning to overshadow the vegetable garden to the side of my house.
6. Pay more attention to the overgrown bushes in front of my house (i.e. trim the azalea bushes in time).
7. Put out my native grown cotton in the spring for the birds to use as nesting material.
8. Plant the peanuts I harvested this year! :)

164: Pretty!
165: Kind of nice to have a winter respite to think about next year. Can you pull out daylilies faster than they expand?

>166 qebo:

Can you pull out daylilies faster than they expand?

Probably, but I don't want to pull them out until I have something to replace them.

New (gardening) year resolutions, good!

Ah! List of things to do/try in the garden next year! Good idea!

I learned a great deal this year. More to learn! no doubt