Digging RI

so i’m out there in the garden the other day, and i’m already weeding, and i’m thinking, “really? weeds in early april?” and it occurs to me that i’m really not that familiar with what it is i’m yanking out, and more importantly, what the prevalence of various weeds  says about my garden. so i thought i’d put together a series of posts about my many weed nemeses… nemesises? and i figured i’d start with what’s out there right now, growing insidiously among my peas and spinach…

Chickweed

meet chickweed, or stellaria media. stellaria, i guess, named for its star-shaped flowers. (yes, this baby is already flowering.) i’ll give it to you as good news/bad news.

first, some good news. one of the first things you ought to know about chickweed is that it is an indicator of fertile soil. so if you’ve got a lot of the stuff, and i do, that means your garden soil is in good shape, nutrient-wise. some other weeds that are also indicators of fertile soil include henbit (lamium amplexicaule), lamb’s quarters (chenopodium album), and chicory (cichorium intybus). so if you see chickweed along with several of these other weeds, you can feel pretty confident you have fertile soil.

some bad news, according to the university of california, is that chickweed can start producing seeds as early as 5 weeks after germinating, and can continue to produce seeds for weeks or even months thereafter.

some good news. chickweed can be pretty easily controlled by hand weeding, as it is fairly shallow rooted. of course, you’ll want to do this early, before it sets seed, as (bad news) one plant can produce up to 800 seeds, and the seeds can be viable for 7 to 8 years. and if you do yank it out, you’ll want to be sure to remove it from your garden, as it easily re-roots.

more good news: chickweed is edible! go ahead, google “chickweed recipes.” i’ll wait. waiting… waiting…

what did i tell you? chickweed pesto! chickweed salad! chickweed tea! (and i’m sure herbdoc can chime in on the medicinal and nutritional value of chickweed.) so i guess this is one of those “if you can’t beat ’em, join ’em” type situations.

all i know is, there is so much out there right now, i could start a chickweed farm!

for even more exhaustive information about stellaria media, see these fact sheets from virginia tech, university of california, and oregon state.

also, there is another very common weed called mouseeared chickweed. it looks very much like my friend, above, but the leaves are hairy. its latin name is cerastium vulgatum, and you can read about it thanks to the diligent work of, among many other folks, the good people at montana state university and ohio state.

Another ritual of spring for me is a visit to historic Casey Farm in North Kingstown, RI. I went for their annual plant sale, and bought some tomato, eggplant and basil seedlings. We got there before they even opened, and by the time we were ready to pay for our stuff, there were long lines. Oh well, a good sign, I guess. At least more people are gardening!

There were also some stands with interesting and tasty things to buy. Please feast your eyes on these intriguing bouquets from Robin Hollow Farm. These women have serious taste. Don’t you love the deep orange and white ranunculus paired with lambs ears? I just had to buy one of these.

As we were leaving, someone brought out two older ducklings. Whether they were for sale or not, I don’t know. I felt sorry for them as they huddled together in their bin. They looked scared.

Here’s an example of a stone wall, a feature for which Rhode Island is justifiably famous. They are all over the state, and I believe it is illegal to dismantle one, regardless of where you find it.

My own mother (may she rest in peace) never believed in Mother’s Day. She was a pleasantly cynical woman, who believed the whole thing had been dreamed up by a greeting card company as a way to sell more cards. She was right, of course, but my mother-in-law is not a cynical woman and I think she would be hurt if I didn’t remember her on her “special” day.

The creation in the above photo is my gift to her this year. Instead of buying something ready made, I went to my favorite nursery for inspiration. I bought a rectangular hypertufa and several plants from their extensive and irresistible alpine collection.

I first created a better drainage layer by adding sand, then soil. These are the plants I used:

Aubretia “Dr. Mule’s Variegata” (purple rock cress)

Orostachys “furusei”

Armeria maritima “Rubrifolia” (sea pinks)

Raoulia australis “hookeri”

Erodium x variabile “Flore-Pleno” (Heron’s Bill)

Muehlenbeckia axillaris (wire plant)

Here’s another view from above:

I tucked them all into their new hypertufa home and watered them in with Superthrive. She’ll love this. Mission accomplished!

I wonder how long it’ll take her to kill them………

The entrance to the bridge

We took another one of our drives recently, and this time, we wanted to visit Shelburne Falls in the Berkshires. For those of you who do not live in New England, the Berkshires are gentle mountains in eastern Massachusetts. This little town took a terrible hit from Tropical Storm Irene last year, and so did its most famous attraction – the Bridge of Flowers. Here’s a link to some unbelievable video shot during the flooding last August.

When we saw the water rushing OVER the bridge and all its beautiful plantings, we were heartbroken, and certain that they would have to take down the bridge due to structural damage from the floods.

The Bridge of Flowers

But despite warnings that the bridge  might have to be demolished, it survived. Here’s how it looked when we visited. Absolutely fine!

This is what the bridge looks like when you’re walking it.

We were so relieved to see that  all the trees and flowers were intact. Amazing, when you consider the extent of the disaster here. Many homes and businesses were lost.

Wisteria strangling a fence

These roots in the above photo are wisteria, of which there are several planted along the span.  The gardeners who volunteer to maintain these plantings do a terrific job. It’s clear that this is a well-loved feature of this charming town. If you go, admission is free, but there’s a donation box at one end. The money is used to pay for bulbs and plants.

Here’s a link to the official website.

Shelburne Falls is also home to some very interesting glacial potholes. The town abounds with artists and there are some good restaurants there, too. It’s a perfect day trip if you live in our area – and very dog-friendly.

Some cool “lawn sheep” by the river

i am slowly being made crazy by the incessant sound of robins (a pair of them) bonking their beaks against every glass surface on and around our house. it seems a local nesting pair has decided to drive off the strangely attractive yet rival robins that seem to be following them everywhere!

this is, apparently, normal behavior, and, according to the massachusetts audubon society, rarely harms the birds. mass audubon remains silent, however, on the effect of this behavior on the mental health of the humans inside the house!

Image from freerangestock.com

Rather than lull you into a stupor with another of my rants, I will give you a break. This post is all about images – photos I have taken but have not used in any posts. I think they deserve to see the light of day, so here they are – at least some of them. If I get a favorable response I might do this again.

By the way, for those of you who don’t already know, you can click on each image to view it in a larger format.

The marsh near our house

Seaweed at low tide

A peaceful little cemetery in our neighborhood

My dog's paw prints on the sand

The door of a shop in Maine. Strange and funny.

A street sign in Newport. Tough choice, eh?

The magnificent canopy of a European Beech.

HerbDoc has a cautionary tale for lovers of trees:

I suppose it’s a lesson to all of us that we should be planting sustainable plants and trees in our yards, but I can’t I can’t help but feel badly about the once mighty one hundred and fifty year old European beech on my friend’s property.

At one time these trees experienced real popularity and were planted among the mansions in Newport and on the grounds of other well to do homeowners throughout Rhode Island. Today, many of these same trees are dying an early death because of insects, bleeding canker fungus, root damage from lawn mowers, pollution and compacted soil and pavement damage. European beech trees here are lucky to survive 130 years, but those in their native European forest groves live to 300!

My friend’s tree was carefully tended to and dearly loved. Unfortunately a local business near his lot line put in a drive through where the tree proudly stands. Although no one can prove it, it appears that the paved lane may cover a portion of the trees roots and may have hastened its decline.

Since installation the tree has been steadily losing large portions of its once magnificent canopy, and the older wood is at the point where it can no longer recover. The tree is also losing bark and is discolored in places. In a couple of weeks a licensed arborist will arrive to begin the sad process of cutting the venerable old friend down.

A sad lesson to us all: know what plants you’re adding to your landscape and find out if they are sustainable in your area. My friend will do just that when he’s looking for a replacement to prevent the heartache and expense he’s now going through.

Editor’s note: Beeches are notoriously sensitive to any disturbance of their roots. My guess is the driveway did it.

I am so fed up with all the trash people toss out of their cars on the road to the beach. I thought I’d document some of it and indulge in a little rant at the same time.

I’d love to know who does this. I never actually see anyone throwing entire bags of beer cans or fast food remnants out their car windows. They must do it at night.

All I know is, there’s far too much of it, and some things, like  plastic bags, can end up in the water where sea turtles mistake them for jellyfish, eat them and die.

Our neighborhood association does clean-ups along the beach road a few times every summer. It astounds me how fast the trash accumulates again.

So disrespectful, and so disgusting.

But wait! After writing this, I took a walk down to the beach on Earth Day, and there were volunteers picking up all the trash! I especially enjoyed seeing one of them pile all his stuffed garbage bags…..into his Hummer!!!!!

There is hope — I guess.

We took one of our favorite drives recently, to Cape Cod. It only takes about an hour for us to get there, and it’s always a pleasant change of scene. We don’t even think about going in the summer, because it’s just too crowded.

Almost every yard was full of narcissus. Even the street corners had their share. They plant so many more of them on the Cape than they do here in RI. (I wonder why.) The header photo is just a small part of a large field of narcissus and muscari. I thought the trees growing up through the color gave it additional impact, and I asked my husband to turn the car around so I could get out and take photos.

This time, we ended up at the Cape Cod National Seashore, on Coastguard Beach. It’s a seemingly endless stretch of sand – desolate and relaxing at the same time. Personal watercraft are not allowed here, thank goodness.

This is where the pilgrims on the Mayflower first saw land, but the shoals were too dangerous so the ship headed up to Provincetown. Our dog loved hanging out and sniffing the spring breeze.

This is the driftwood we leaned up against while we lounged on the sand. When we got up, I realized it looked a lot like an alligator. Cool, isn’t it?

wow, i must be a little behind on my tomato news… i just found out about a gorgeous purple tomato, “indigo rose,” on Your Organic Gardening blog. i hardly finished reading the post before i googled it and found the seed at Johnny’s Selected Seed, and ordered some. i’ll be starting lots to give to friends and family.

Editor’s Note: That is one of the most beautiful tomatoes I’ve ever seen. It almost looks like a piece of candy!

(crossposted to auntiebeak.com)