What’s Coming Up In The Garden, 3: Golden Alexanders

This is a very early blooming pollinator, which means it gives the bees something to forage when they’re just starting to build up for the spring nectar flow. It’s really pretty and although short-lived in terms of bloom time, the seed heads stay interesting and I leave them unless we get a lot of rain and they get moldy.

Here’s the first bloom - the plant will get much larger than this with many of these petite blooms before maturity.

Here’s a bit more info. I’m posting the photo that comes from the native plant site but it seems they aren’t showing up once the blog post goes live. Apologies. If you see a plant that catches your eye, look it up online and see it in all its glory through all its seasons!

Flaigg, Norman G. 

Zizia aurea

Zizia aurea (L.) W.D.J. Koch

Golden Zizia, Golden Alexanders

Apiaceae (Carrot Family)

Synonym(s): 

USDA Symbol: ziau

USDA Native Status: L48 (N), CAN (N)

Golden alexanders is a short-lived perennial with branching, erect, reddish stems. The lower leaves are divided into threes twice while the upper leaves are divided once. The yellow flowers less than 1/8 inch long. Each tiny flower has 5 sepals, 5 petals, and 5 stamens. Separate clusters of tiny, yellow flowers gather into a large, flat-topped flower head, the middle flower of each umbel being stalkless. Dry seedheads turn purple, adding summer interest. The plant is 1-3 ft. tall.

What’s Coming Up In The Garden, 2: Eastern Redbud

I’m stretching it a bit, as many of our redbuds were here before we were, but I have planted several to replace a couple that died over the past few years. They are early pollinator plants for bees and other insects and we love their fuchsia color.

This is my take on an older redbud residing in Poplar Folly, very close to the apiary:

They are all over our farm, mostly in the front edges of forested areas. While many in our larger area are further along, ours are just budding out.

After the blooms are done, the leaves on the redbud are gorgeous heart-shapes that make me smile every time I notice them. A huge benefit as we deal with COVID-19.

More info:

Makin, Julie 

Cercis canadensis

Cercis canadensis L.

Eastern Redbud, Redbud

Fabaceae (Pea Family)

Synonym(s): 

USDA Symbol: ceca4

USDA Native Status: L48 (N), CAN (N)

Tree with short trunk, rounded crown of spreading branches, and pink flowers that cover the twigs in spring. Redbud is a 15-30 ft. treewith one to several picturesque, maroon-purple trunks and a wide, umbrella-like crown. Its pink flowers, borne in tight clusters along the stems and branches before new leaves appear, create a showy spring display. Smooth, heart-shaped, deciduous foliage does not have significant fall color. Trees from the southern part of the species’ range have smaller, glossier leaves and often a more compact form. Stunning tiny pink flower clusters cover the entire tree.

What’s Coming Up In The Garden, 1: May Apple

Starting a new series, since everything I’ve been signed up for is now canceled - I’m all for “flattening the curve” when it comes to COVID-19. For someone who overextends as a normal mode of operation, this is pushing me to slow down, do the things that I already love doing but often rush through, and take the time to document some of them.

What’s coming up today, or at least what I’ll feature today, is the may apple.

This is a native North Carolina woodland plant that volunteered itself along our woods’ edge. I enjoy seeing the big patch of green in early spring, and will watch for the flowers and single berries that will appear as the plant matures.

A little more info:

Cressler, Alan 

Podophyllum peltatum

Podophyllum peltatum L.

www.izelplants.com

Mayapple colonizes by rhizomes, forming dense mats in damp, open woods. The common name refers to the May blooming of its apple-blossom-like flower. Although the leaves, roots, and seeds are poisonous if ingested in large quantities, the roots were used as a cathartic by Native Americans.

As you can see, we’re well on track for a May bloom, and keeping an eye on this beauty will help pass the days as we all live through the pandemic.

May we all stay healthy and use this time to putter, ponder, and do what we can to help those who need it most.

(Also, please consider the current administration’s poor response to this mess and prepare to vote for someone competent to lead in November.)

November Hill farm journal, 93

We’ve finally dried out enough to get a few things done outside. Husband helped me complete one big project yesterday which was to measure and cut the oak trunk that was taken down in the front pasture, and use the truck and a towing strap to move it about 30 feet to create a terraced area that will hopefully help with rainwater run-off.

His plan worked perfectly and once the huge tree trunk was in its new position, I worked on stacking fallen branches from the little grass paddock (which I call Salina’s Paddock) and the upper front pasture in a nice layer on the high side of the tree trunk.

Once this was done husband brought 4 wheelbarrows of stall waste and I layered that on top of the branches. The plan is to allow that to settle some and then continue layering with more branches and more yard/stall organic matter. After that and a rainfall or two, it should be settled enough to add the final layer of compost from our big pile, and then I’ll need to figure out something to plant there that can tolerate water run-off.

I meant to take photos but was so caught up in the doing of the thing, I did not. The area directly behind this new terraced bed is hard red clay and rocks which stays that way due to the run-off and resulting erosion. I’m hoping this will ease that enough that the area can heal a bit. I’ve got a small compost pile that’s been cooking on the edge of the eroded part and I began spreading it out a bit yesterday. When I plant the terraced bed I’ll finish spreading the compost down there and then plant some orchard grass/red clover mix to see if I can get some roots in the ground.

We also re-wrapped the tulip poplars with a green plastic netting material to keep the herd from chewing the bark. So far this year, knocking on wood here, they haven’t touched any living trees. I started their spirulina early and hopefully between that and the netting we won’t have any issues. Tulip poplars are not only regal and lovely, they are the largest source of nectar flow in our area for honeybees and also the native bees. Over the years of living here, we’ve lost several to storms and two more to equine girding. Not to mention the power company’s taking down several two years ago in Poplar Folly. I don’t want to lose any more!

While we had the truck in the pasture, we used it to move three large cedar logs that were salvaged when a dying cedar was taken down a year ago. These amazingly long-lasting logs are now in Brown Bunny Potager ready to create 1.5 garden beds. I’ll be working on that this week. There are more cedar logs in Poplar Folly that will have to be carried up by hand since we can’t get the truck back there. Between using brush pile waste and salvaged logs from dying/dead trees for the terraces and the garden beds, I’m getting some space cleared out. The brush piles mulch down pretty quickly even if left alone, and in that time they offer shelter for wildlife.

About a year ago I completed the paperwork and November Hill was certified as a wildlife refuge, and this week I did the same to have it certified as being on the Butterfly Highway. These are simple, honor system questionnaires that can be completed online. Getting the attractive signs that you can purchase is a good way to support the Wildlife Federation and also to remind yourself and anyone who visits that we can all participate in making our yards and farms part of the larger puzzle of supporting wildlife and insect life.

Two Advil and an ice pack at the end of yesterday helped avoid my waking up with sore muscles. Today we have to move one bluebird house, install a second one, and yuck chore but necessary, clean the dryer vent. Then I’m off to plant ecology class. :)

November Hill farm journal, 92

Rain every few days has really thrown my outdoor projects off course, but I’ve made a start on clearing the pollinator beds of winter growth. I left the plants as they were through the winter season so birds, insects, and other wildlife could have seed heads and shelter. A lot of the plants have nice visual appeal with interesting textures through the winter.

For the past 3 days I’ve spent some time while the dogs are romping to begin the cutting back and removing of the winter detritus. Since we have two brush piles in close proximity to the pollinator beds, I was able to put the cuttings on top, where birds and insects can still use them if needed.

Once I began cutting back I could more easily see the giant bloom of purple crocuses - lovely color with their bright green stems! And the daffodils are still going. Most of the pollinators are already leafing out at their bases, and I have a big job of transplanting goldenrod once I get things cleared out.

This week I’ll finish the clearing, and once we get some sunshine and things dry out a bit, I’ll order mulch to top off all the beds and plantings. It will be easy up front, but those things planted in Poplar Folly will take several trips with the wheelbarrow.

I also cleaned out one of the main drainage ditches that we created to help with the water run-off. It was full of very wet leaves. As the ditch got clean, the dogs got dirty! For some reason they love to walk along the wet ditches and as soon as I had it clear, all three dogs trotted over and made their way from beginning to end. Thankfully we have enough winter grass on the wildflower strip to clean them up a bit before we came inside. In retrospect, I should have held off on vacuuming and mopping floors until AFTER this farm romp!

During some of the yuckier rain time, I stayed inside and sketched out my new beds. The pollinator bed on the other side of the driveway will hopefully make big leaps this spring. I planted it in the fall, and everything has had the winter to develop strong root systems. I can’t wait to see what comes up and how it does. I also sketched out the potager plan. I need to get cracking with creating beds in there next week. I’ve decided to start the potager with mounded beds using some logs we have on hand, but not formal raised beds made with wood. I’d like to get a sense of how things do there before putting a lot of time into building wooden beds. We’ll see how it goes.

This week was a good one for writing time. For whatever reason, things kicked into high gear. I submitted my 12k short story, as well as 2 essays to 5 new places, reworked another essay for submission today. Gray wet mornings translate to good writing time, it seems.

The horses and pony and donkeys are dealing with the mud that is the dirt paddock. Thankfully I can feed them through the well-drained arena to the back pasture, which is sloped enough that it never gets too muddy. I try not to overuse it when we have these rainy stretches, but it’s a dance - any place all those hooves go in and out of is bound to be muddy in short order. Today the sun is supposed to come out as we hit 70 degrees and then a cold front moves through to bring us back down to 40s. I see a week of sunshine on the weather forecast and oh, do we need it.

For now, the fog is lifting, skies are still gray, and it’s definitely damp out. I think we’re all wishing for sunshine but until it comes through the clouds, I’ll be happily submitting my true tale of light being stolen. I’ll link here if/when it gets accepted for publication!