Of scattering abroad...

This morning I had a little bit of time free after giving a program at Fancher Elementary.  I hadn't been out in the woods for a few days do I decided to head to Chipp-A-Waters Park and walk the trails.  I didn't have plan, I just wanted to get outdoors and take a few pictures.  Almost immediately I noticed a Common Milkweed (Asclepias syriaca) with a few seeds still hanging to its dried out pods and nearby was Bitter Dock (Rumex obtusifolius) with its flattened seeds.  When I a bit further I noticed the fluffy seeds of a Canada Goldenrod (Solidago canadensis) and a Boxelder's (Acer negundo) winged samara.  At that point I had an idea - how many different fruits, seeds, or nuts could I find?

#1 - Common Milkweed (Asclepias syriaca)

#2 - Bee Balm (Monarda fistulosa)

#3 - Bitter Dock (Rumex obtusifolius)

#4 - Canada Goldenrod (Solidago canadensis)

#5 - Boxelder (Acer negundo)

#6 Queen Anne's Lace (Daucus carota)

#7 - Multiflora Rose (Rosa multiflora)

#8 - Buckthorn (Rhamnus sp.)

#9 - Common Burdock (Arctium minus)

#10 - Virginia Creeper (Parthenocissus quinquefolia)

#11 - Honeysuckle (Lonicera sp.)

#12 - Aster (Symphyotrichum sp.)

#13 - Eastern Poison Ivy (Toxicodendrom radicans)

#14 Blue Cohosh (Caulophyllum thalictroides)

#15 - Orange-fruited Horse-Gentian (Triosteum aurantiacum)

#16 - Buttonbush (Cephalanthus occidentalis)

#17 - Japanese Barberry (Berberis thunbergii)

#18 - American Bladdernut (Staphylea trifolia)

#19 - Black Locust (Robina pseudoacacia)

I spent barely thirty minutes in the park.  My first photograph was taken at 10:46AM and my final photograph was at 11:16AM.  Of the nineteen species that I photographed, seven are not native to Michigan.  Of those seven, five are considered invasive species.  To say that Chipp-A-Waters Park has an invasive species problem would be an understatement.  Birds readily consume the fruit of Buckthorn, Honeysuckle, Multiflora Rose, and Japanese Barberry helping the species spread further.  Eventually, if nothing is done to stop their spread the wooded areas at Chipp-A-Waters Park will be completely overgrown with these species and many of the native species found there now will be choked out.

Is the situation hopeless?  No, of course not.  However it will take planning and effort to reduce and control the invasive species and encourage the native species found there.  

Pumpkin-spice massacre

Halloween was last week, but when I came home yesterday I found a gruesome sight on my front steps.  It looked like the scene of horror film, with guts strewn everywhere and a pair of hollowed out corpses flanking the steps.

The victims of the massacre?  Pumpkins.

The perpetrators?  Squirrels.

Every year we put pumpkins on our porch as a fall decoration and every year the squirrels chew on them.  This year the squirrels have gotten much more industrious and have completely hollowed out two of the four pumpkins (so far).  The squirrels are not eating the flesh of the pumpkins at all - it is all about the seeds. 

I expect that when I get home tonight I will find that the other two pumpkins have also been hollowed out and all of the seeds nibbled upon.

Our squirrels are industrious and will take advantage of any food available to them.  I intend to plant several hundred tulip bulbs in our flower gardens this weekend and I expect the squirrels to take their toll on those as well.  

I just wish that they would have left the pumpkins alone until after Thanksgiving...

On Wild Apples

Almost all wild apples are handsome. They cannot be too gnarly and crabbed and rusty to look at. 

                           

                                                                     -  Henry David Thoreau

                                                                        "Wild Apples"

                                                                        The Atlantic

                                                                        November 1862

Right now is apple season in Mid-Michigan.  An apple can be stored for 16 months or more (but that doesn't mean they should be).  A stored apple loses its flavor, dries out, and becomes "mealy".  Fresh, local apples can be found from late-July through late-October or even into November.  They are fresh, juicy, crisp, and perfect.

Go to the store and get some apples.

Better yet.  Go to the farmers market.

Even better, visit the orchard and pick some up.

Best of all, pick your own.  It's too late to plant apple trees now, but if you plant them in the Spring you can be enjoying your own apples within two or three years.

Try a variety that you are not familiar with.  There are so many apple varieties beyond Red Delicious, Macintosh, and Honey Crisp.  I like Braeburn, Matsu, Pink Lady, and Ginger Gold.

My favorite apples are from trees that I find growing along roadsides or in the woods.  Trees that were self-seeded or planted in orchards long ago and then abandoned.  The apples found on these abandoned or wild trees will not be "perfect".  They might have rust, scabs, or worm holes.  They will probably be small.  They are usually lumpy and misshapen.

To continue the above quote from Thoreau:

The gnarliest will have some redeeming traits even to the eye. You will discover some evening redness dashed or sprinkled on some protuberance or in some cavity. It is rare that the summer lets an apple go without streaking or spotting it on some part of its sphere. It will have some red stains, commemorating the mornings and evenings it has witnessed; some dark and rusty blotches, in memory of the clouds and foggy, mildewy days that have passed over it; and a spacious field of green reflecting the general face of Nature,—green even as the fields; or a yellow ground, which implies a milder flavor,—yellow as the harvest, or russet as the hills.

But what these wild apples lack in classic looks, they more than make up for in flavor! The best apples that I have ever eaten were from an abandoned farm near Sleeping Bear Dunes.  I don't have any idea what kind they are, but they are crisp, sweet and tart, and juicy.  My second favorite apples grow on a tree in a local park.  Thoreau addresses the taste of wild apples in another section of his essay

These apples have hung in the wind and frost and rain till they have absorbed the qualities of the weather or season, and thus are highly seasoned, and they pierce and sting and permeate us with their spirit. They must be eaten in season, accordingly,—that is, out-of-doors.

Yesterday I picked and ate one of the apples shown in the picture above and they stuck an idea into my head that has been working around for a few weeks.  Wild apples are wonderful fresh, but they are even better pressed into cider.  The cider that you can buy in stores usually lacks dimensions of flavor as it has been created to ensure a consistent flavor.  The cider from wild apples is often as wild as the apples themselves - tart, acidic, sweet?  You never know until it's made.

It looks like I'm pressing cider this year.  I can't wait to see how it turns out!

An autumn walk at Forest Hill Nature Area

The weather yesterday was absolutely beautiful.  After arriving home from work, we decided to head out to Forest Hill Nature Area for a walk.  Here are a few of the sights.

Why my garden is a mess...

Here is a picture of my home garden from yesterday afternoon.

You probably notice that it looks messy.  Many gardeners could not stand to leave a garden looking like this through the winter.  I am not one of them.  For years I cleaned my garden beds each fall and removed all of the dead material.  I stopped doing this about the time I started planting mostly native plants in the garden.

Why do I leave the garden looking like this?

To sum it up in one word - habitat.

Monarch Waystation #6591

I want the garden to be a year round habitat for native species.  The garden is certified as a Monarch Waystation, but it also provides habitat to dozens of other invertebrate species including native bees.

Bee hotel at almost full capacity - all the capped holes are full of larval bees

Many of the bees inhabit the native bee nesting blocks.  Others will spend the winter hidden in the hollow stems of dead plants - a great reason to leave plants standing over the winter.  Other insect species spend the winter hidden in the carpet of dead leaves and other debris that I leave in the garden.

Look at all the potential hibernation locations!

Seeds are another major reason that I leaves the garden alone in the fall.  I want as little open space in the garden as possible - open spaces allow weeds to pop up, full spaces have no room for weeds.  I want the garden to be full of native plants, but fully grown plants can be expensive to purchase.  If I leave all the old flower stalks in place through the winter, the garden replants itself.

Showy Goldenrod seeds ready to deploy into the garden

Some of the seeds also end up becoming food for songbirds.  Every year American Goldfinches eat most of the seeds from the various coneflower species, Cup Plant, Rosinweed, and sunflowers.  Other birds take advantage of the hibernating insects to fill their stomachs during the late fall and winter.

Cup Plant seeds are on the menu for many birds

While I don't pretend that my garden is a complete habitat, it does help.  That's all that I can ask it do do in the limited amount of space that I have available.  By treating the garden as habitat I see more species of animals (especially insects) than I would if I treated the garden as an outdoor extension of the home that needs to be kept neat and clean.  In the long run, I think the garden is healthier than it would be if I constantly felt the need to tame it.

The garden gives back with a series of delights throughout the year.

American Highbush Cranberry fruit

It also provides surprises.

A Wild Strawberry bloom in late November!  I found several of them.

In the spring, before the plants begin to grow, I can remove all of the old stems and add them to the top of my compost pile. (Don't worry any bee larvae will have the opportunity to emerge from the stems.)  The leaves and other debris will decompose naturally on the ground, acting as a natural mulch and helping to rebuild the soil.  New plants will pop up from the seeds that spread throughout the garden.  Some will be allowed to grow in place; others will be transplanted within the garden or planted in other gardens. 

I like my messy fall garden.  I think I'll keep it.

Way down yonder in the pawpaw patch...

Yesterday I spent a couple of hours walking around Mill Pond Park with the twin goals of collecting leaves to press (for leaf identification/classification with students) and of finding more wildflowers to add to my 2016 list.  After I collected several Pawpaw (Asimina triloba) leaves, I decided on a whim to look around the Pawpaw patch and see if there was any fruit.

In the 10+ years I have been looking at this patch of Pawpaws, only once have I ever found a fruit and that one dropped off without maturing.  The trees flower every year, but never seem to develop fruit, so I held out little hope of finding anything.

Then to my surprise, I found one!  A single fruit, about 1 to 1.5 inches wide and 2.5 to 3 inches long, dangling about a dozen feet up in the air, but there it was in all of its glory. 

Fall Crabapples Photos

A heavy frost covered everything in the Mt. Pleasant area this morning.  It began to melt quickly once the sun came up, leaving water droplets on everything it had touched including this crabapple tree.