June 26 - Summer has arrived.  We had a beautiful Full Strawberry Moon on June 24th.  Summer memories always revolve around nature's aromas and scents.  One plant that you wouldn't think contributes to a flowery essence is the common privet hedge - Ligustrum ovalifolium. When you study & memorize the phenology of a garden, if you ever became deaf & blind, you'd always know when the seasons come and go by the fragrance in the garden. You'd learn that Spring is over when the wild roses stop blossoming, and that summer is here when the wild privets are in full blossom. The fragrance of these small, seemingly insignificant flowers is a trademark of summers on Long Island. If you take the time to sit in nature by the untrimmed, wild privets growing in your yard like I do, memories of childhood summers most surely will flood your thoughts. A great shrub to attract bees. The entire yard is intoxicatingly fragrant, today. I am remembering my adolescence living on Jackson Ave. in Lindenhurst, and walking along Copiague Road toward Zahns Airport in Lindenhurst and smelling these flowers that filled the air with summer's perfume. And while walking from the small airport, I searched the ground for yellow buttercups to hold underneath my brother's chin to test whether he liked butter. Ahhh the memories of a childhood out in nature. Priceless!

                                 

Triodanis Biflora - June in the organic Gardens.

 It's a delightful cool Sunday morning - 62 degrees and no wind.  A perfect day to burn these piles of wood.  While I tend to 2 burning pits and use the chain saw and pruners to make smaller pieces to burn, I can clean up and trim, rake and tidy up the north organic gardens.   There's a special plant I've been observing and want to share info on it, this morning.   It's Native to America and so sweet and clean cut, upright, and interesting to look at.  

Today I saw the very first dark purple flowers open up.  But only on the top of the plant.  I love it's cupped leaves.  It's got a strong stem and is upright, but still small and dainty. 

Blooms in various stages of development.   Today there are the first purple blooms coming out and they are on the top of the slender plant. 

Triodanis perfoliata is native to the United States and Canada. This species grows in all of the lower states in the United States except Nevada; it also grows in British Columbia, Ontario, and Quebec.

Tridanis biflora is also native to the United States but only grows in the lower U. S. from Oregon and California through Arizona and New Mexico. It also grows in states south of and including Nebraska, Missouri, Illinois, Kentucky and Virginia as well as in New York State and Pennsylvania.

 A sunny hot Monday, June 7, 80 degrees and very humid.  I observed many many yellow flowers on tall firm stems.   Yellow Hawkweed.  It's growing in clusters so no fescue grass can grow.   I need to dig them out.  

Hieracium caespitosum

Yellow hawkweed has clusters of many small, yellow dandelion-like flower heads on top of mostly leafless stems. The erect, bristly stems can grow up to 3 feet tall, each topped by 5 to 30 bright yellow flower heads in a compact, flat-topped cluster. Each plant produces 10 to 30 flower stems. Flowers in bud are distinctively rounded and black-hairy in tight clusters at the tops of the stems.

The leaves are long and narrow, up to six inches long, not lobed, somewhat hairy on both sides, and form a basal rosette. There are also usually one or two small leaves on the stem. The entire plant contains a milky juice. Yellow hawkweed has a shallow root system and underground creeping stems called rhizomes. New plants can arise from buds on the rhizomes and plants can develop several creeping stems (like strawberries) that are also capable of producing new plants.

Yellow hawkweed is a perennial and spreads by seeds, stolons and rhizomes. It flowers from mid-May to July and usually sets seed by August. Yellow hawkweed thrives in disturbed areas such as roadsides, gravel pits and pastures. It can also invade meadows and forested areas and is well-adapted to life at higher elevations. Usually found in sunny areas, it is somewhat shade tolerant.

Hawkweed identification can be difficult and often requires technical details such as hair types. Also, hybridization between species can make it even more confusing. 

 So it's already June and still light at 8:20 PM when the sun sets.  Sunrise is 5:24 AM.   The white Spirea has all faded as has the dogwood bracts.   Forsythia are long gone and desperately need to be pruned.  Mom's old climbing rose is in blossom and so is the black locust tree.   The invasive blackberry brambles have white flowers, and the golden raspberries are getting ready to bear fruit.   The lily of the valley was quick to fade from their intoxicating fragrance and now the honeysuckle have taken over the perfume counter in the landscape.  Shocked to see it wound all around the hedgerow.  This could be serious.  The fragrance reminds me of my Grandmother.   I had to pick a bouquet.    Amazing how the scent of a flower can transport you back into time and associate your memories to a loved one from your past or a lazy summer day in nature.  

And tonight I want to write about the Japanese Honeysuckle plant.   Did you ever notice or wonder why there are different colors on one vine?   When the honeysuckle flowers are white, it is their first day blooming.   The next day they begin to turn light yellow, and by the third day they are darker yellow.  Insects prefer colors rather than white flowers.   And with honeysuckle, there is an indication that inside the yellow flowers there's nectar in it's corolla (nectar tube), and it immediately needs pollination to occur.  

So as you study Phenology, stop and observe if bees and butterflies are landing on the yellowing honeysuckle flowers or the white.

And remember, any plant that has a name starting with a foreign country, don't plant it in your garden.  Now's a good time to find the Japanese honeysuckle vines and get them out of your shrubs that have stopped blooming.  You can see the invasive honeysuckle clearly by those sweet delicious flowers dancing all over your stately shrubs. How many of you were taught to pick a flower and suck on some sweet nectar as a child?   

Remove the entire flower, including the little green bud where the flower connects to the stem.

Carefully pull on the end of the flower. A white "string" should show up, connected to the calyx. This white "string" is the style, part of the female half of the flower. Continue to slowly pull the style down the center of the flower.  Luckily, the style has a little green plunger on the end of it (called the stigma) that just barely fits into the tube shaped flower, forcing all the nectar to pool in a little drop at the back end. 

Bring it to your lips, and enjoy!

Never Ending Late May Siege of Invasive, Noxious Weeds

 NE winds gusting to 22 mph, it's finally gone up to 51 degrees.  It was in the 40's last night.  After having hot summer-like temps, this is a drawback to March weather. It's the beginning of Memorial Day weekend, Saturday. May 29, 2021.  It poured rain all night, high winds, chilly air.  The east windows of the old house were battered with hard rain.  Secretly, I prayed it would rain the entire weekend.  Our Earth is parched from not having rain since May 10th.  Now the noxious, invasive weeds will run rampart all around the property entering through the neighbors' fences.  Blackberry brambles, English Ivy, Asiatic bittersweet, Artemisia vulgaris (mugwort),  Garlic mustard, Bindweed,  Virginia creeper, Cleavers, etc. All I do is hand rip weeds out wherever I walk on the property. It's upsetting and endless.  I'm falling way behind on the English Ivy on the north section.  

Within the first growing bed where Early Spring vegetables are growing (sown May 8 - 12th - a month late due to my disabilities) there are a bazillion carpetweed plants everywhere in between the rows, today.  This rain will enable them to grow fast so they must be gently hoed out. Using clear plastic over the 5 ft. by 20 ft.  row, I was able to solarize & force weed growth for a few months to eradicate the crabgrass earlier, and before sowing 18 rows of Spring lettuce varieties, carrots, spinach, turnips, chard, beets, onions, kale, radishes, fennel.  

Many many cans of invasive weeds have been taken by village sanitation early on.  Everything has to be hand pulled as this is an organic property.  

Only 2 summer sowings have been done.  A small cucumber patch on a rickety old trellis formed with old wire fencing and climbing nasturtium on the ends. Straight 8 & Munchers were sown last week.  

New Zucchini bed sown on May 27 2021. 

I purchased zucchini seed at Oceans Job Lot on May 27th.   They went straight into a prepared small row to be covered with a wire frame and grow cloth.  Inside the bed where 9 seeds were sown also went Alaskan nasturtiums and daikon radish to deter the squash bug.  Companion planting.  

I also purchased two rolls of artificial turf grass.  The weeds are getting so bad in the driveway I wanted to cover the area and make it a place of peaceful rest.  Also purchased weed cloth - commercial grade and put the hammock on it so I can have a place of rest.  The wooden table I found in 2019 has been painted and the grass rug will go under the table for weed free living space.  

The 2 giant maple trees were cut down on November 28 2020.  I left one 100 year old Silver maple standing toward the road that would cast long NE shadows onto the driveway in late afternoon when the SW sun is the hottest.   

I'm exhausting myself as an organic gardener to eradicate the never ending growing list of invasive weeds on my property.  

Spring rows are doing well but look closely and you'll see all the carpetweed getting ready to take over. 

 

There's so much hype about native plants. And there's groups that exist that want to make a profit off them. I get it. I understand the value of native plants. I'm a member of the Invasive species group with NYSDEC. I loathe some non-native invasive species as they take all my time eradicating them organically. English Ivy & Asiatic bittersweet are 2 dreadful specimens. (My back and aching hands tell their story) But come on, it's NOT all that cut and dry. There are countless non-native species originally from other countries that have adapted to North America. And they are perfect for a back yard specimen; and they don't compete, don't invade, don't have allelopathic features. Look into the old fashioned tried & true. Ask an elderly gardener what has worked for them for 60 - 90 years. I had one in my first home that was built in 1950 & this one built in 1929. Every good quality exists in the Spiraea cantoniensis, or Bridal-wreath Spiraea. It's a deciduous perennial shrub typically grown as an ornamental feature in gardens.

The plant can reach a height of 6 - 8 feet, tends to be twiggy and spreading into a fountain-like form, and displays frothy, pompom-like clusters of snow-white flowers along the terminal of arching branches. The bush blooms in May in its native China; hence the common name, May Bush.

Bridal-wreath Spiraea is a hardy plant that is drought and heat tolerant, slightly salt tolerant, and seldom damaged by deer. The plant is easily transplanted, grows rapidly, and will often require pruning, which should be done after the plant has completed flowering. It grows in a range of soil types with the exception of wet soil and produces new stems from the base of the plant. It is best grown in cooler climates with protection from the hot afternoon sun as that can cause leaf burn. The flowers attract butterflies.

Insects, Diseases, and Other Plant Problems -this plant is relatively pest and disease-free. It's been growing here for 90 years. I welcome the white cascading graceful branches that burst into bloom right after it's neighbor, the Quince shrub, stops blooming it's apricot colored petals. Another oldy but goodie. The old time gardeners often know what's best.

Picture taken on May 18th 2021 in my garden. Linda McParland.

 It's already mid May and the weeds have taken over my life.  The daily walk involves constant ripping out of invasive plants.  I carry buckets with handles my friend, Janet, gave me 2 years, ago. I'm seeing more and more of new uninvited plants.  And in my old age of sometimes becoming forgetful, I've spent hours trying to figure out what these strange plants are.  There was a plant I sowed, and forgot about it.  I was sure I'd sprinkled chamomile by the old strawberry patch, but this looked different and possibly invasive because what I had last year unbeknownst to me scattered so many seeds that there were seedlings everywhere.  Some were what looked like second year plants.  I had to ask a plant ID group on Facebook to help me ID it.  I was told it was most likely German Chamomile.  Then I went through old packs of seeds.  What did I find?  An open pack of GERMAN chamomile from 2019.  I had bought it from MiGardener, an online seed company.  Never again.   I've been hoeing and pulling them out of a large area I need for summer veggies.  

Hundreds of small seedlings were everywhere. and then there were giant thick clumps of it with flower buds in mid May.  I can't risk an invasive of these right where I grow veggies. 

 Today it reached 70 degrees.  Finally finished sowing the Spring bed yesterday (May 12) and needed to do a lot of cleaning up on the north side of property.  Mowed some Zoysia and some Fescue areas.  I've temporarily moved all the potted trees in my little tree farm to the herb garden so I can clear out the aggravating brambles coming from under the fence from the nice neighbor's property.   

The quince flowers have faded and the Spirea shrub is in bloom with fragrant white flowers.  At the same time the white dogwood tree is in a sea of white bracts.  The birds love this tree.  

Before understanding what a bract is, it is helpful to understand what it is not. First, it is not a part of the "flower" by definition. Complete flowers are composed of four parts: sepals, petals, stamens, and pistils. A bract is none of these.

Neither is a bract a leaf, although it is sometimes defined as a leaflike structure. Bracts usually differ in shape or color from leaves, and they function differently. Leaves may be anywhere along the stem while bracts are generally located on a stem just below a flower, a flower stalk, or an inflorescence. 

Flowers may arise between bracts, flowers may be separated from bracts, and bracts can be present without flowers. Bracts can be leaflike as in poinsettias, scale-like as on pinecone gingers and bromeliads, or even petal-like as on dogwoods. Several familiar flowers have bracts. The dogwood inflorescence, for instance, consists of a cluster of tiny flowers. Surrounding the actual flowers are showy, petal-like bracts. Once observers are able to identify the basic flower parts, (sepals, petals, stamens, and pistils), they can figure that if other plant parts that are neither these nor leaves, fruits, needles, or cones, they just might be bracts. Recognizing specific plants that have bracts and being able to identify them will help to identify bracts in unfamiliar flowers. All it takes is careful inspection and a bit of basic understanding of plant parts.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Another terrible invasive I've seen this year in my garden (that is growing in the nice neighbor's yard) is  

                   Lamium purpureum, Purple Dead Nettle

We had this at the Deer Park Edith Salzer Organic Community Garden and it's impossible to eradicate. I've got to keep pulling. 

Oxalis stricta - common yellow Sorrel

I don't mind this too much.  It's a native plant and low growing.   It's kind of sweet!   I pull as many as I can though.  

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

And finally, I was dismayed to see that on the southern side of property the Garlic Mustard is back.  I had it in the far northern corner with the invasive English ivy but it just disappeared one year. Now it's here on the neighbor's side.  I have to rip all of this out.  I do NOT want it.  It's creeping by the dirt driveway, now.   This is so invasive and in full flower. 

end of journal for May 13th 2021.