leafy rainbow

Behold, the colors of survival! This Japanese maple is making its best showing of fall colors in 10 years.

a small pirouette

This tree’s early life included the combined challenges of multiple transplantings, puppy root-chewing, a stint of neglect during the Pennsylvania years, and finally a major hack job following a strange infection. Much healthier now, this tree reveals this season’s wonderfully slow autumn in the Pacific Northwest.

there's no such thing as too much color

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Citrus Tree

The Festival of the Trees 50 celebrates the tree-loving child in each of us. Join Roberta at the Growing with Science Blog for Festival 50 – Through a Child’s Eyes for a hop and a skip through the woods.

Next, take some time to connect your table to your tree tops with Festival 51 which celebrates edible trees at Orchards Forever. Send your favorite edible tree posts and tree-inspired tasty delights to Peg (and stop by her blog to see what she’s planting in her backyard orchards).

Host: Orchards Forever
Deadline: August 29
Email to: amberapple [at] gmail [dot] com – or use the contact form
Themes: Edible Trees
Important! Put “Festival of the Trees” in the subject line of your email

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These sugar pies are giving a much stronger showing this year (as are all the vegetables), and I hope to be making fresh pumpkin pies as early as October.

As of last week, the plants have cleared the fence. They use their tendrils to walk wherever they want. The faster they grow, the faster they grow.

Did you know that you can actually hear pumpkins laughing?

The ring of fence you see in the foreground is the perimeter for a new garden bed I’m working on. Dogs out, compost in. The pumpkins are eager pioneers.

Squash blossoms are stunning. They open with the rising sun. Got any yummy squash blossom recipes to share? Tell us in the comments.

For every pumpkin I find, there are probably three more I cannot see. Got a guess for how many pumpkins I’ll have by October 31st?

They’re heading for the forest now… In fact, I hear that pumpkins like to grow in trees.

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Garden Strawberry (Fragaria)

Greetings and Welcome to Berry Go Round #30, the blog carnival which celebrates all things botanical!

Kind thanks to the coordinators from Seeds Aside and A Neotropical Savanna for inviting me to host BGR. This month’s submissions hail from many blogs that I do not normally frequent, which has made this issue a delight to compose.

Fortunately for all of us, there are many smart people online writing about what they know, and today we get to hear from people who know plants. This issue represents scientists, hobbyists, artists, educators, botanists, writers, gardeners, forest dwellers, outdoor enthusiasts, and the rainbow of curious among us.

Foxglove (Digitalis)

I sense that these bloggers share a common hope, will, desire, impetus perhaps, to help all us homo sapiens reconnect ourselves with the earth’s systems in a very basic way: through dirt, and wind, and green things, and things that go raaaawwwrrrr.

I invite you to spend the month exploring these articles, and to give yourself a chance to read every one.

Note: Whereas some botanists, paleobotanists, and geeks of their ilk seem to share a general nerdy love of intellectual discussion occasionally punctuated with expletives and sexual innuendo, I’ll offer a blanket PG-13 rating to this month’s carnival.

Our first peek is for the orchid lovers out there (of which I am but one of countless hopeful amateurs). Mr_Subjunctive of Plants are the Strangest People shares Geneticist (Phalaenopsis cvv.), Part I, a fun and insightful discussion about why there aren’t many yellow- and red-flowering Phalaenopsis varieties. Mr_Subjunctive gives us enough background and peripheral knowledge to make the discussion relevant and understandable, while keeping us entertained with the facts of life, and a smattering of speculative footnotes ranging from tetraploid humans to bananapocalypse. There’s plenty more at this blog to whet any cultivator’s appetite, so be sure to poke around the pages.

Want more orchids? Visit Scott Namestnik at Get Your Botany On! where It’s A Purple Platanthera Party.

Thistle (Cirsium)

Elaine Medline of Memorizing Nature waxes whimsical with wildflowers including Daisy (Asteraceae), Bladder Campion (Silene vulgaris), buttercups (Ranunculus), blackberries (Rubus), strawberries (Fragaria), and thistles (Cirsium) in Beauty in the Ditch. Her prose reminds us to keep our minds and senses open to the unexpected – good advice for scientists and artists alike. Wander around and read her other recent musings on turtles (Testudines), honey bees (Apis), bulrushes (sedges, Typha I believe), and Canadian geese (Branta canadensis).

Speaking of sedges, from the New York Flora Association Blog I was delighted to get a look at numerous rare plants shared by Steve Young of the NY Natural Heritage Program, including white-edge sedge (Carex debilis var. debilis), and sticky sundew (Drosera filiformis) which I heretofore have known only from fairy tales.

Western Red Cedar (Thuja plicata)

This seems like the perfect time to share a little about the Sustainable Prisons Project, a partnership of the Washington State Department of Corrections and The Evergreen State College. The Sustainable Prisons Project found its roots when my friend/mentor Dr. Nalini Nadkarni got it in her head to work with prisoners to experiment with cultivating mosses for use in the floral industry (wild harvesting of mosses takes a heavy toll on Northwest forests). Take a look at their mission statement:

Our mission is to reduce the environmental, economic and human costs of prisons by training offenders and correctional staff in sustainable practices. Equally important, we bring science into prisons by helping scientists conduct ecological research and conserve biodiversity through projects with offenders, college students and community partners.

Talk about positive intersections of plants and people! Read the stories, take a look at their accomplishments, and if you need a starting point I suggest that you visit the blog to hear journal entries from Graduate Student Carl Ellot in Growing Plants and Potential: Stafford Creek Nursery Project. [Note: If you're a scientist looking for similar opportunities to make meaningful connections with the public, I recommend another one of Nalini's branch projects, the Research Ambassador Program.]

Now let us wander to the foothills of the Ozark Highlands where research entomologist Ted C. MacRae of Beetles in the Bush shares the Friday Flower – Dwarf Spiderwort, also known as a wild crocus. Ted offers exquisite images of the shy Tradescantia longipes, including details on where and how it grows and the tricks it seems to use to attract insect pollinators in the absence of nectar. Needless to add, Ted has a wealth of information available on beetles to satisfy your every inquiry.

Thimbleberry (Rubus parviflorus)

This month I enjoyed one of the many benefits of plant blogging: plant bloggers who are smarter than me. I blogged about the wild cones growing on a Christmas tree planted ten years ago, only to learn that the tree had been mislabeled, and I had never thought to double check its identity. Thanks to the keen eye and swift detective work of The Phytophactor, the tree has been correctly identified as a Fraser fir (Abies fraseri) and not a Blue spruce (Picea pungens). I invite you to visit The Phytophactor for the glorious Friday Fabulous Flower – Sacred Lotus, among other thought-provoking blog posts.

Sarcozona of Gravity’s Rainbow gives us a unique glimpse at a pretty sanded cross-section of pinyon pine bark and core. Also recommended by Sarcozona: from the DISCOVER Not Exactly Rocket Science blog, an article describing how Mosses use explosive cannons and mushroom clouds to spread their spores. This is a fascinating article revealing how peat moss (Sphagnum), apparently one of the more common plants on earth, employs spore cannons to propel precious genetic material high enough into the ether (a whopping 10 centimeters) in a sort of ‘vortex ring’ so as to be caught and carried by air currents for the furtherance of the species.

Buddleia (Buddleja davidii)

Take a break from reading and visit Greg Laden’s blog on ScienceBlogs for the eye candy tour of Plants = Love at Coon Rapids Dam East. Shown here are wildflowers from a prairie ecological restoration project just downstream from Coon Rapids Dam on the east side of the Mississippi River. As reflected in the comments, it’s easy to spot one or two invasives which have wiggled their way among the many gorgeous intentional plantings, but speaking as a gardener, I’ve learned that one must forge a sort of ruthless persistence balanced by an acquiescent peace with the invasives. Face it – a lot of invasive plants are really pretty, really fragrant, and really easy to grow, (*cough* Buddleia davidii *cough*).

More flowers? How about this lovely Bougainvillea from RecordingNature at Naturally Beautiful…

Also from Greg Laden, Nature Stinks, a discussion about the notorious corpse plant (Amorphophallus titanium), aka “Big Giant Formless Penis,” which as he aptly describes is a popular yet stinky specimen found in many botanical gardens, (not excluding the University of Washington’s “Waldo,” recently on view at Seattle’s Volunteer Park Conservatory on Capitol Hill).

Greg next submitted “How to Become a Yucca Moth”: An interview with researcher Jeremy Yoder by Chris Clarke of Coyote Crossing. I’m including this piece because of how nicely it shows the interrelationships between people, biota, and landscape and connects each of us to these peculiar trees. Before the interview, Chris gives us a quick synopsis of Joshua trees’ mutualism with two species of moths:

“Tegeticula synthetica (which works with the western population of trees, these days dubbed subspecies Yucca brevifolia brevifolia) and Tegeticula antithetica (the partner of the eastern subspecies, Yucca brevifolia jaegeriana). The tree can’t reproduce without the moth, and the moth can’t reproduce without the tree.”

Pumpkin (Cucurbita)

Stepping out of the wilderness and into agribusiness, Jeremy Cherfas submits posts from the Agricultural Biodiversity Weblog written with compadre Luigi Guarino. These articles discuss agricultural trends, plant domestication, and the tricky business of reconstructing the evolutionary past of important staple crops. First, we explore some arguments (and counterarguments) on discussions which pitch organic agriculture against industrial agriculture.

Next, we hear about the challenges in peasant agriculture with Detoxifying Cassava. I like the way Jeremy and Luigi tend to discuss issues from several different perspectives – take some time to read through this article and ponder what it means to say, “This crop needs peace.”

In Looking for leimotifs in the early history of wheat and rice, we are all welcomed to the rich archaeobotanical table heaped with mystery, complexity, and more than a modicum of wonder. As in, I wonder how many of us think regularly about the long-reaching relationships between homo sapiens and so many species of plants? I really appreciate how these two bloggers manage to distill big ideas into meaningful discussions for all us lay-folk.

JSK from Anybody Seen My Focus? shares the lovely Pale Beardtongue or Eastern White Beardtongue (Penstemon pallidus) wildflowers, complete with photos captured at Fort Yargo State Park. Meanwhile TGIQ of Fall To Climb gives us an up-close-and-personal glimpse at the deceptively humble carnivore, common butterwort (Pinguicula vulgaris).

Fireweed (Epilobium angustifolium)

Looking for more flowers? Visit Janet Creamer at Midwest Native Plants, Gardens, and Wildlife and oogle the Dwarf larkspur.

More, you say? Now try Flora Urbana, where the beautiful flowers reside “sur le boulevard Saint-Joseph.”

Or take a reflective stroll to Weedpicker’s Journal where Cheryl Harner shows us what grows in Cemetery Prairies.

And Sandy Steinman at Natural History Wanderings gives us a lovely slide show revealing Very Tiny Wildflowers of White Mt. and Mono Lake Areas.

This month from Seeds Aside we get a good look at lasagna garden beds – a gardening method which builds beds with many thin layers organic matter. We see healthy cucurbits, tomatoes, and… potatoes sprouting in this soil experiment (hop over and play “Name that strain”). After picking up a copy of The One-Straw Revolution by Masanobu Fukuoka, I too have learned to adopt a similarly practical gardening approach and can speak to its success. Seeds Aside also suggests Lasagna Gardening: A New Layering System for Bountiful Gardens: No Digging, No Tilling, No Weeding, No Kidding! by Patricia Lanza.

Red Romaine (Lactuca sativa L. var. longifolia)

At A Neotropical Savanna Mary Farmer brings us Cissus the Scrambler, documenting the careful plant identification process one step at a time. First, the vine is distinguished by the leaves (alternate and compound), and is determined as a member of the Vitaceae family with the aid of the tendrils. For anyone new to botany and plant identification, I’d like to point out Mary Farmer’s Plant Article resources from Learn Plants Now, including 19 Basic Botanical Terms.

I see clouds moving in, which means it’s time to visit fellow Pacific Northwest resident Mike of The Slugyard. This month I wrote The Makings of Good Tree Forts, in which I mention the use of creeping plants or long grasses to lash and bind sticks. And as serendipity would have it, Mike blogged about the plant I knew from my youth by the neighborhood-kid-appellation “stickyweed” (we had a few similarly unscientific names which basically referred to its all-purpose function as a playtime binding agent). In Cleavers sticks to you, Mike gives a name and references one of my personal favorite identification books for these parts, Plants of the Pacific Northwest Coast, to tell us more about this clingy little creeper. Thanks, Mike, for matching a name to a fond plant memory.

Head over for a visit with Watcher at Watching the World Wake Up for Idaho Vacation Part 2: The Weird Flowers of the Lochsa Valley. If you stopped by Watcher’s place while reading BGR 29,  you may have already read Idaho Vacation Part 1: Trampy Flowers, Running Bears and Glacial Moraines. Look for follow-ups in Fat, Low & Orange: Catch-Up, Corrections and Filler.

Feel the thick, restive humidity of summer at Rock Paper Lizard, starting with Bee’s Work whereupon the magic of photographer and pollinator reveals the globe thistle (Echinops). Or sit back and regard The State of Things with Santolina, blue elderberry (Sambucus), and creeping Crassulaceae.

Naturally, there is a lot to see over at A Plant A Day, so I’ll conclude our issue with yet another pretty (albeit, poisonous) flower: Mountain Deathcamas-Zigadenus elegans of the lily family. I’m landing you here to drift off and peruse the pages for plenty more plant fun.

I want to thank everyone who submitted links, to nature bloggers everywhere, to the coordinators who keep this green blog carnival alive, and to all our readers. And with that, I’m off to play outside…

But wait — the fun doesn’t end here!

Everyone is invited to keep the celebration kicking this August 1st with issue 50 of The Festival of the Trees, themed especially to examine trees from from a kid’s-eye-view with host Roberta Gibson of the Growing With Science Blog. (Can you name her mystery seed of the week?)

Bee balm (Monarda didyma 'Jacob Cline')

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Coming up at BGR….

BERRY GO ROUND ISSUE #31 returns to SeedsAside. Send in your submissions by August 25.

Berry Go Round is always looking for volunteers to host future carnivals. To learn how to submit or volunteer to host, visit the coordinating blog.

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Western Hemlock Passageway

When I was young I spent much of my time, especially my summertime, making and playing in tree forts. Although my sister and I took advantage of the neighbor boys’ tree house, I always felt more adventurous while cleverly ensconced at the feet of the trees.

My father engineered our first tree forts around the yard as it evolved, and my sister and I worked with the tree-house-owning neighbor boys to develop ground-bound tree forts sprinkled about the local woods. I learned to translate my techniques for playground use (where permanent tree forts were not permitted).

Douglas Fir Ring

Let us examine some of the key qualities of good tree forts:

1) There are no rules for the construction of tree forts.

2) Do what you can with what you have.

3) Shade, privacy, and secret-hiding-spots are ultimate.

4) The less non-forest material you bring in, the better (pack it in, pack it out).

5) Beware of ants’ nests and bees’ nests.

6) If you live in an area where ticks are present, clear the underbrush.

7) If you’re not having fun, you are probably doing it wrong.

[Now that I look at my list, I see that it could potentially apply to many fun forest activities. But I digress…]

Back Fence Enclosure

Location

To start, you want to select a site for your tree fort. Kids know how to do this, perhaps by instinct.

If you’re a kid you already know where you want your tree fort, and if you don’t, you just need a little walk around your yard or neighborhood to pick your spot. Remember, you can always make another, even better one if this one sucks or gets taken over by neighbor kids.

If your home doesn’t have a yard, it just means you have to be more creative with location, and minimalist with construction. It also means that you need to travel to the site (say, once a week), ‘cause what’s the point of having a tree fort, if you don’t use it?

Public parks and public school playgrounds can provide a helpful compromise for those without yards. With these kinds of tree forts, you’re looking for places which already have big trees in close proximity so that you make no changes to the landscape (for example, I just visited Wilcox Park in Lynnwood for the first time a few weeks ago – it has tree groves perfectly suited to tree fort purposes). You will not be able to move, stack, weave, and/or brandish branches in public parks as you can on your own private property. [You may be permitted to erect picnic canopies for the day, so check your local park for rules.]

What you want is a forest floor and canopy. Early mornings are often the BEST times to be at parks, when they are cool and quiet. And remember: you can’t own the park, so consider the diplomatic approach when another group of kids shows up and wants to play in your tree fort too.

If you are a parent or guardian, pay attention to the shady green spaces where your kids are attracted to play and explore. These places are often near or at the sources of local creepies and crawlies such as frogs, snakes, lizards, or tadpoles, and they may also coincide with edge spaces like culverts, construction sites, abandoned lots, and quiet street ends. You want to help your kids find the right balance of safety and privacy.

Western Red Cedar

To find a good public park, take your kids to as many in your local area as possible, and get a sense for the parks they like best. Follow your kids’ lead to identify the top two park choices with good trees, playgrounds, and other qualities such as: good morning bird songs, pens with farm animals, really good swings that let you go super high, water access, mud access (yes, I said mud access), well-maintained trails, wide open run-around-crazy spaces, good wheelchair/stroller accessibility, good benches for kid watching, good parking, safe and managed, etc. Having two choices available means you can alternate parks according to convenience, availability, mood, etc.

Make it as relaxing and enjoyable as possible for yourself, and your kids will enjoy themselves too (in other words, don’t pick the park across town if you have to drive through lame traffic every time you visit). See note in previous section regarding early mornings.

If your kids (or you) aren’t used to playing outdoors, or if they (you) cry when unplugged, you may need to ease into the transition to the open world. I suggest that you start by incorporating affordable toys which are easy to take outside (and easy to give out in quantity to many kids at a time), using a different toy for each outing. Examples include bubble soap with wands, plastic snap-out “light sabres”, wax lips, pencils/watercolors and sketch books, noise makers, pinwheels, squirt guns, super balls, big rubber balls, and absolutely anything messy, stinky, noisy, and colorful. Work your kids up to outdoor toys and games once the park setting is comfortable and familiar (and remember the sunscreen and brimmed hats).

Finally, good plant and animal identification books are awesome for parents and kids alike. Binoculars, magnifying glasses, and flower/leaf presses are helpful tools. It’s never too early or too late to learn about what lives where you live.

Young Red Alder Stand

Trees

If we refer to the key guidelines above, we know that there are no rules about what trees make good tree forts. Your tree forts will be different depending on what grows where you live.

I grew up in western Washington near Seattle where good tree fort trees include young Red Alder (Alnus Rubra) stands, old Western redcedar (Thuja plicata) trees, Big Leaf maple (Acer macrophyllum) woods, mature Douglas fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii ssp. menziesii) stands, and large Pacific coast rhododendrons (Rhododendron macropyllum). Naturally creek banks and lakeside woodlands are extra-awesome tree fort sites – weave back the salmonberries (Rubus spectabilis) and voilà!

While living in eastern Pennsylvania I didn’t get a chance to build a tree fort, but I did scope out good potentials. Hedges are good candidates, especially those which have been sculpted over generations with Pin cherries (Prunus pensylvanica) and brambles such the Multiflora rose. The Multiflora rose (Rosa multiflora) is considered an invasive species in this region because of how much it likes to make big, impenetrable cane stands (it was once encouraged for planting in gardens). American Beech (Fagus grandifolia) stands have a nice openness about them, but it’s important to be aware of the poison ivy (Toxicodendron radicans) and other plants which are not safe to touch. Black walnut (Juglans nigra) trees seem to be good candidates because their allelopathic qualities tend to eliminate most other plants around them. [NOTE: if you live where ticks live, ALWAYS CHECK FOR TICKS after playing in tree forts. Clear the underbrush and low hanging branches to help reduce ticks.]

Considering what a beautiful diversity of ecosystems exist on Earth, I’ll end my speculation there and invite you to share your favorite tree-fort-tree candidates in the comments.

If you want to plant trees: you can plant trees now and have the makings of a tree fort in a few short years. Young trees still make good tree forts! Before you select and plant your trees, take some time to learn what trees grow best in your soil and climate, what trees are considered nuisance trees in your area, what qualities you want in your trees (evergreen or deciduous? flowering?) and how much maintenance they require (do you have to rake leaves? will sweet gum balls fall on the main walkway?).

It’s also important to “think-tree” when you plant: trees grow up, down, and side-to-side. You don’t want to plant trees too close to your home, your utility lines or your other trees. BEFORE you dig, you may need to call utilities to mark underground power, water, gas, or communications.

Visit The Arbor Day Foundation online to read more information on tree planting and care, including these articles:

• Right Tree in the Right Place
• 9 Tree Care Tips & Techniques
• Tree Pruning Guide

And remember, if trees are scarce you can always build a sunflower fort on the lawn.

Douglas Fir Hidden Entrance

The Fun Part

Finally, the really fun part about tree forts: playing with them. Referencing again our “no rules” guideline, remember that you can do whatever you want with tree forts. That said, here are a few things which I learned in my tree fort days:

Branches are great for stacking and weaving into walls, barriers, and canopies.

Look for weeds which are long and strong – strong grasses and reeds, creepers and vines, or anything that’s abundant and handy – these can be used to tie sticks together, join branches, and other good stuff. [NOTE: Poison ivy and poison oak are NOT SAFE TO TOUCH - learn how to identify these and other poisonous plants where you live.]

Boys and girls have different ideas about how to make tree forts. You want input from both if you’re gonna make an ultimate tree fort.

Brings snacks in baggies and water in bottles. It sucks to have to go home for stuff.

Remember to take your trash home with you.

Work with what’s already on the ground when you can – if you strip stuff off of living trees, it will take a long time for it to grow back.

Mosses make good seats. Collect pieces and keep them damp to help them grow into mats.

Big rocks are useful for many things. Keep some in the sun, and some in the shade, and you’ll have hot rocks and cool rocks.

Fallen logs work really well, which is why I believe that a large fallen log on a forested hillside is possibly one of the best places to start a tree fort (but I’m biased).

Red Alder Canopy

If you’re a parent sculpting a tree fort out of grown trees in your yard, read up on good tree-trimming technique, and remember that less is more: a couple entry points and a clear interior space is your goal. If you open it up too much with heavy trimming, you leave the fort feeling exposed.

While attending The Evergreen State College, I accidentally located a domed tree-fort-in-progress. Whatever its intended purpose, the construction was as follows: large/long branches erected in a stable hemisphere with enough crisscrossing branches to create a web. Mosses, ferns, and forest duff were being woven through the web to make a complete (and living) enclosure.

In closing, I’ll share one final suggestion, to always, always remember:

The first step in making a good tree fort is a concealed lookout along the front (and another at the back… don’t want anyone sneaking up!)

Please share your own tree fort ideas in the comments, including your favorite tree fort tree species where you live.

Salmonberry Shade

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The garden is one of my primary occupations this month. Here’s a peek – there’s more to share.

Poetry is also on my desk this July. Today I finished my submission (poetry with narrative movement) for The Clarity of Night “Uncovered” Short Fiction contest featuring Stephen Parrish author of THE TAVERNIER STONES. Some time over the next couple days I’ll create an audio recording to share here with text at Brainripples (I’m really liking the audio poetry experiments).

There’s still time for you to write, submit, read, and mingle – hop over and enjoy the first 15 finalists! (Hint: you don’t have to be a finalist to benefit from one of Jason Evans’ interactive short fiction contests.) And as if this all weren’t enough, Jason, JR Tomlinson, and Aine have prepared An Extra Bonus!

UPDATE: You can read my entry Forties Club Finalist #22 here.

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This Christmas tree was planted about ten years ago, an evergreen (not  a spruce) tree Colorado Blue Spruce (Picea pungens) which surprised us in 2009 with flowers, and in 2010 with its first cones (which I’m pretty sure turn red-purple as they mature).

Like the native evergreens, this tree is slowly and steadily emerging from the protective understory of Red alders. I’ve seen this tree provide a home for spiders, caterpillars, tree frogs, and birds, but one never knows what’s hiding in this shady corner of the yard.

The adjacent foxglove (Digitalis) are coincidentally in their first year of flowering. These plants have been working up the gumption to blossom for at least four years, possibly longer, and shine in late sunlight with purple, pink, and white.

Now is the time for seeds to quietly form and ripen for the autumn.

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Young Sunflowers (Helianthus annuus)

The seeds were planted at the last new moon, and as of July 10th the plants stood over one foot in height. This week they’ll be transplanted around the garden to get big and cheerful.

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Summer Moonset Among Alders (Alnus rubra)

Join in the green festivities online with two lush blog carnivals:

The Festival of the Trees

First, high thee hence to The Organic Writer blog where Yvonne Osborne has prepared an inspiring forest-garden for every wanderer at The Festival of the Trees 49: Favorite Trees.

Happy Birthday, Festival of the Trees! Since July 2006 the Festival of the Trees has been celebrating all things arboreal online with the participants and hosts from around the world.

Join us for Issue #50: Trees Through a Child’s Eyes, hosted by Roberta Gibson at the Growing with Science Blog.

Roberta asks that we consider submitting child-friendly posts. Ideas include sharing bark rubbings, children’s drawings of trees and leaves, ideas for or photographs of tree houses, nature journals with tree themes, photos from a favorite walk through the woods, science experiment ideas, etc. If you want some serious inspiration, she suggests you take a look at Rachel Carson’s book THE SENSE OF WONDER.

You can read details about issue #50 here, and the easy submission information is included below:

Host: Growing With Science Blog

Deadline: July 29

Email to: growingwithscience [at] gmail [dot] com – or use the contact form

Theme: Trees through a child’s eyes

Important! Put “Festival of the Trees” in the subject line of your email

Berry Go Round

To begin, enjoy issue #29 of Berry Go Round at the Agricultural Biodiversity Weblog, which brings us “11 blog posts about plants that you really must read.”

This July Berry Go Round issue #30 visits Brainripples and opens its garden gates to intersections of arts and sciences throughout the plant kingdom.

Berry Go Round is a celebration of all things botanical, which encourages lively discussions about plants, their natural history, life cycle, growth habit and other related topics. I’m asking participants to expand this discussion to apply concrete botanical information to your personal interactions with plants, and allow yourselves to be inspired, to create, and to share.

Scientists and laypeople alike are encouraged to investigate not only the physiological and ecological aspects of a plant, but also a plant’s relationship to you, people, culture, place, art, dreams, and beyond.

Host: Brainripples

Deadline: July 28

Email to: trees [at] brainripples [dot] com (or use the BGR submission options here)

Themes: Stretch yourself – incorporate botanical observations with artistic reflections

Important! Put “Berry Go Round” in the subject line of your email

Recap: What’s a Blog  Carnival?

If you’re still scratching your head, and you want to participate, here’s a little help…

Botanical Blog Carnival Participation in four easy steps:

Step 1: Blog about plants, trees, and all things botanical (or create other content/media, and share it online)

Step 2: Send us the link (see above for each blog carnival’s submission information)

Step 3: Spread the word (tell your friends)

Step 4: Enjoy!

Blog carnivals are published on a regular schedule, usually at a different Host blog for each issue. The Festival of the Trees and Berry Go Round are each published once per month. To find additional Nature Blog Carnivals, visit the Nature Blog Network.

Sweet William (Dianthus barbatus) and Butterfly

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The front yard corn hills are in their second year of production this season, bearing corn/maize (Zea mays of the family Poaceae), squash (Cucurbitaceae), and beans (Fabaceae or Leguminosae), a trio known as the three sisters. These plants are beneficially grown together: corn provides support for beans throughout the season, squash protects the corn roots and cools the soil while shading out the weeds, and beans fix nitrogen in the soil. Grown among them are mints, nettles, nasturtiums, and various wind-sown wildflowers.

We enjoyed great success last year with white corn, purple-podded-pole-beans, and various hybridized pumpkins (see the last two images in this post for purple beans and yellow squash flowers). This year we’ve planted bi-color corn which should produce yellow and white kernels. Shown above are the initial plantings from the new moon in June, with updated photos taken at last week’s new moon (shown below).

One-third of one hill has been sown with both green and purple-podded pole beans. More beans will be sown in coming days, and again next month, to determine how late I can grow mature successions in the Pacific Northwest. Our summer heat arrived very late, so I have a hunch we’ll enjoy warmth through October this year.

Although the two cucumber plants are having a little trouble getting started, the zucchini is out ahead of everyone, and the sugar pie pumpkins have cleared the fence and are happily exploring the yard. The zucchini fruits mature quickly. As you can see, one zucchini has been allowed to grow to a ridiculous size (it’s about three times as large now as it was when this last photo was taken), and it will be used for a cous-cous-stuffed zucchini recipe from Cooking by the Seasons: Simple Vegetarian Feasts by Karri Ann Allrich. I’ve been waiting to try this recipe, and I know I’ve raised a splendid candidate.

Other zucchinis will be harvested for one of my favorite kitchen delights, zucchini bread, and then later zucchini cheese bake (we’ve previously discussed both recipes in Fun Things to Do with Your Zucchini). The corn was just knee-high for the Fourth of July, so I hope that we’ll be eating fresh ears by the end of August. The beans had a slow start, but I know once they get going they’ll be ready in no time. We’re also fortunate to have discovered a broccoli volunteer tucked in with the zucchini, which already has its first main broccoli head nearing harvest size.

It’s not just the bounty of food that makes me love growing the three sisters. If you like a lot of color in your garden, these foods are an easy way to bring it. Squash blossoms are unrivaled sun-catchers, corn offers many surprising colors (my favorites being the purple blushes of fresh silk; the violet hue is revealed again as the leaves and stalks dry and weather with the approach of autumn). All these plants attract many varieties of bees, spiders, and other crawlies, and if you throw in a few sunflowers you’ll be guaranteed many colorful visitors.

Ahead: sunflower transplants, cold frame change-ups, and more…

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Garden Strawberry, Genus Fragaria

Host: Brainripples
Deadline: July 28
Email to: trees [at] brainripples [dot] com (or use the BGR submission options here)
Themes: Stretch yourself – incorporate botanical observations with artistic reflections
Important! Put “Berry Go Round” in the subject line of your email

This July Issue #30 of the Berry Go Round blog carnival visits the Brainripples blog to celebrate all things green and growing (and fruiting).

Berry Go Round is a celebration of the plant world from a botanical perspective. What does that mean? For Berry Go Round, we want to know the juicy details about the plants you share with us – scientific name, growth habits, ecology, even cultural significance.

For Issue #30 (incidentally one of my favorite numbers), I’d like to invite all my garden-blogging, art-blogging, and tree-blogging friends to participate and share a little something extra from their usual backyard blogging fare.

Stretch yourself a little:

1) Pick a plant in your garden, or your local park, or your favorite walk of trail.

2) Look at where the plant is growing, what it’s growing with, and how it looks different right now compared with how it grows during other seasons.

3) Try to find the plant in an identification book, learn a little about its natural history and cultural significance.

4) Share your findings at your blog or website, and send me the link at trees [at] brainripples [dot] com

You don’t have you be a super-smarty-pants scientist to have fun with Berry Go Round. Gather a little info about a plant, and compose it with a song or a poem or a sketch. For example, my haiku for the banana slug:

Ariolimax columbianus poetess
sentences congeal in sticky opalescence
while she explores the shady sweetness

Even parents with kids at home for summer can use this event as a great excuse to get outside and put those kids to work learning about the plants, big and small, which quietly contribute to our lives.

And yes, to those brilliant researchers among us, I want to hear ALL the juiciness from your latest field work, your ongoing data analyses, and your newly identified flora. Tell us all, and with all the detail. I welcome your insights and look forward to sharing your discoveries here at Brainripples.

Now, go forth, and learn much about the plants of the world!

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The Bumblebee Favorite

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Working Cold Frames in June

Since resolving to spend more time in the garden I’ve made good headway sowing vegetable starts, flower seeds, and other good summer growth.

There’s a lot to report, so I’ll start today with the cold frames… which reminds me, I need to create a good naming system! I’ve always considered naming the cold frames with flower names (because it’s a great excuse to get out the paint brushes and have fun). Let’s designate the current cold  frames as: Daisy (foreground), Mum (right background) and Nettle (left background). In this first image, you can see our three working cold frames, each in their current daily configuration of closed, open, and partially open.

You might recall the first cold frame adventures from the Pennsylvania garden. Our design has been carefully refined over the past four years, and we’ve decided that the 4×4 boxes work best for our needs, mostly because they are easier for one person to lift and carry, and because they allow more flexibility by adjusting each cold frame to meet the specific needs of the plants inside.

New Moon Sunflower Starts

Daisy currently stays closed. This month Coldframe Daisy is a nursery for sunflower starts. They are a bit late, but I have a hunch we’ll have a late summer, and I don’t mind short sunflowers. I originally tried sowing the sunflowers directly in flower beds, but the birds and mice pulled up all the seeds and ate them in one day. What you see here are week-old sunflower sprouts, which have doubled in size since this picture was taken three days ago.

Cold Frame Experiment: Tomatoes and Peppers

Coldframe Nettle is housing an extra-special experiment this season, and will stay propped open at four inches, opened only for waterings and other maintenance. Last year I found that the tomato plants in the open-air vegetable garden were vibrant and healthy, but the fruits never ripened on the vine. The reason is because of the cool nights and generally moderate summer temperatures of the Pacific Northwest (unlike the tomato boom we enjoyed in PA thanks to that warm, summer rain brought in by the Gulf Stream).

Late last summer Coldframe Nettle was sown with tomato seeds on a whim. The plants soon surpassed those in the open-air garden, filling the cold frame with large, vine-ripened fruits which spilled out the sides, much to the husky dog’s delight.

Adventurous Tomatoes

This year I’m trying the same approach by deliberately planting an entire box with peppers and tomatoes. Even at the peak of summer, this cold frame will stay propped open only slightly, and trellises will be set on either side (as you can see, the tomatoes already know what’s going on). This will keep the heart of the plants extra warm, while leaving space for the fruits to crawl out and climb. My hope is more ripe fruit, so we’ll see what happens!

Fresh Start Basil

Other cool things to note about Coldframe Nettle: the basil you see hugging the tomato at the back is actually a grocery-store survivor. You wouldn’t believe how sad it looked before I put it in the cold frame – now it’s a whole new plant!

Tough Peppers

Speaking of harsh-looking, those peppers are looking rough for a reason. I didn’t baby them once I brought them back from the nursery, and instead let them cook hard on our first sunny day. The result: much more vigorous growth from tomatoes and peppers alike. Visible at the front of the box are the surviving green onions from last year’s cold frames, and between the plants I’ve sown carrots, plus additional peppers and tomatoes. I’m curious to see if I can get successions  of the latter two to survive into late winter.

Cold Frame Greens

Coldframe Mum has been the lettuce and greens box this spring, which is why it’s propped all the way open all the time. The colder I keep the greens, the longer I’ll have greens to eat. I’m fighting their natural summer urge to bolt (hence the semi-butchered look) and I’m already snipping salads on borrowed time. These plants will eventually be transferred to the open vegetable garden where they can flower and drop seed to their hearts’ content.

Jade's Favorite Greens

This season’s salad greens include a few of my absolute favorites: mizuna mustard greens (Brassica rapa nipposinica), red oak leaf lettuce (Lactuca sativa var. crispa), pak choi (also bok choy, Brassica rapa), and arugula (Eruca sativa). There are teeny tiny purslane (Portulaca oleracea) sprouts in there (however funny I find it that I actually have to purchase purslane seeds), as well as a handful of calendula sprouts (for transfer to flower beds), and two pouches of onion sets that are really in need of a fresh hill in which they can grow big and juicy.

In July Coldframes Daisy and Mum will be ready for replanting, probably with carrots, onions, and some kitchen herbs I’m missing (like cilantro, another cold-loving vegetable). Next up, I’ll show you what’s happening in the front yard on the corn hills.

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Last night I watched the bright waxing moon set in the west, heralded by the first coyote calls that I’ve heard this season. In fact, yesterday morning on my way home I watched a coyote dash down through the trees to a riverbed off the highway. There’s busy work afoot in the coyote world!

The Nighthawks (Chordeiles minor) are out now, with their tell-tale “peent… peeent… peent… pee-yah… hhhhrrrrrrrllll!” The Common Nighthawks hunt at dusk, and you can watch them fluttering high in the sky while calling “peeent….peeent…peeent” in an even rhythm, followed by the whirring sound (which some describe as a “boom”) made by their wings as they dive in rapid pursuit of tasty mosquitoes, moths, and other insects. It’s a magical, almost indescribable sound, and one of my favorite indicators that summer is near in Kitsap.  Perhaps I’ll get hold of a digital audio recorder so I can share the sounds and silences.

Remember to step outside over the next few evenings to watch the waxing moon set as it chases the sun down.

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What is your favorite tree?

Maybe you think of a specific tree you know, or perhaps you think of a tree species you love. Maybe you don’t even know what the species of your favorite tree is, but by sweetgum, you know you love it!

This July, our host for The Festival of the Trees 49 is Yvonne Osborne of The Organic Writer blog. Yvonne and I share a love of writing, gardening, and dreaming, (and apparently a healthy synthesis of the three).

For Festival 49, Yvonne invites us to share a glimpse of “our favorite trees, whether from a childhood memory (sad or joyful) or the one growing outside our window, with participants using art in any form to relate their story — haiku, photography, flash story, sculpture, painting, etc.” — however the tree spirits move us.

I’ve never found a FOTT theme to be quite as challenging as this one. How to pick a favorite? Every place I’ve ever lived, studied, worked, or wandered has marked my memory with a tree (or two, or three), or a forest. Apart from my desire to study at a liberal arts college, at least half the reason I chose to attend The Evergreen State College was because the Evergreen campus is so well forested. If you’re one of my long-time readers at Arboreality, you already know that I select my places of residence based as much on cost and convenience as on the abundance of trees in proximity. My earliest, happiest, loneliest, strangest and most familiar memories all blush forest green. Where to begin?

Don’t wait for me to decide: everyone is welcome to participate in The Festival of the Trees. It’s easy to join in the fun:

1) Blog about trees

2) Send us the link

3) Spread the word

4) Enjoy the Festival on the first day of every month

Details for The Festival of the Trees 49:

Host: The Organic Writer
Deadline: June 28
Email to: yvonneosborne08 [at] gmail [dot] com – or use the contact form
Themes: Our favorite trees, shared in any art form.
Important! Put “Festival of the Trees” in the subject line of your email
And remember to enjoy the June Festival of the Trees 48 now online at Wandering Owl Outside.

Still want more? The Festival of the Trees has been published every month since July 2006. Browse the FOTT archives, and enjoy!

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In preparation for the new moon planting this weekend, I set myself to the task of weeding the corn hills in the front yard. These hills are only a year old, made entirely of imported dirt (store-bought organic matter) layered carefully on top of our rocky soil, and fenced off from our husky. (Take a peek at last year’s planting here and here.)

Considering the low quality material and poor soil structure, I was truly impressed with last year’s healthy yield of delicious corn ears. My goal is to build up the corn hills a little each year by layering corn stalks, sunflower stalks, and other organic matter, topped with compost. I don’t intend to turn the soil, and will perform minimal weeding each year. (In case you haven’t noticed, dandelions and most wild flowers are welcome friends in my garden beds.)

This time, however, I must extract one of the most adventurous pioneers to homestead the corn hills. They emerged very early in the spring, and at first appeared to be ambitious carrots. As the days grew warmer, the plants grew taller, until I finally conceded that even the most industrious of carrots wouldn’t grow tops reaching eight feet in height (unless they’re some sort of GMO escapees I don’t know about).

I lopped off a stem on Wednesday and noticed that it was hollow inside. Time to break out Plants of the Pacific Northwest Coast, one of my favorite identification books. As it turns out, this tall, pretty pioneer is none other than the famed Poisonous-Hemlock (Conium maculatum), known by many as the source of the deadly toxin ingested by ol’ Socrates back in the day, may his trouble-making youth-corrupting soul rest in peace.

I’m always sad to remove a plant – even a weedy plant – but in this case, the choice is obvious. This plant is toxic for people and animals alike, and the husky I mentioned happens to love carrots. The plant smells pungent when cut; knowing what I know now, I’m glad I handled it with gloves on.

According to Plants of the Pacific Northwest Coast:

The world ‘hemlock’ is from old english haelm or haem meaning ‘straw’ or ‘stalk’ and leac meaning ‘plant,’ applied originally to any plant in the Apiaceae with hollow stalks (like straw) left after flowering.

This plant is a happy invasive growing in waste areas and moist disturbed sites, easily found in urban areas (and I’m guessing that it was introduced with the very soils I used to build these plant beds). The easiest clues I found for identifying this plant are its huge size, generous branching, hairless hollow stalks, purple splotching and spotting along the stems, and delicate white flowers. You can click on these pictures to enlarge them for more detail.

RIP, pretty poisonous plant.

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New Sprigs of Evergreen Huckleberry (Vaccinium ovatum)

Columbine (Aquilegia) in the Garden

Salvaged Epiphytes from the Wood Pile

Pacific Coast Rhododendron (Rhododendron macrophyllum)

Pacific Coast Rhododendron Buds (Rhododendron macrophyllum)

Fluorescent Fingertips on Douglas Fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii)

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I’m guessing that at some point, most of us are forced to realize that we need to slow down and reprioritize. There are plenty of published materials from experts and laypeople alike which expound upon the virtues of personal wellness (or what I like to think of as common sense). Ideas like “slowing down,” “finding balance,” and “doing what you love,” are deceptively simple, and somehow easily overlooked.

For those who share my situation of a temporary lack of common sense, or for those who simply need a friendly reminder to be kind to the self, here are a few easy steps that I’m taking to strike a balance, find a center, and achieve renewed health.

Get off my ass

No, not you, me. Tech-loving writer-geek that I am, it’s become all too easy for me to spend sunup to sundown at my desk, typing and scribbling away. It doesn’t take a genius to discover that sitting on my butt all day, every day, might be part of what’s got me down this season.

Option 1: GARDEN, of course! I postponed my garden work this spring to make time to prepare for a trip that I wasn’t able to take — because I got sick. The result is an unprepared spring garden and a grouchy Jade. In this image you can see the fruits of my initial labors, which are tasty indeed. I’m sticking with light-duty garden tasks for now (like seed sowing) and working my way up to the big stuff (like garden bed relocation).

I’ve mentioned before that my garden resides in a rock-rich swath of glacial till in Kitsap County, which means I need to add a lot of organics to build up the soil. This season I had a healthy pile of mushroom compost delivered on my driveway, which equates to lots of rounds with the wheelbarrow to relocate the decomposing matter to places around the garden. I’ve decided to visualize that big, steaming pile of crap as the symbol of my big, steaming pile of unwell. I can’t move the pile in one go, but I have to work at it, one load at time.

–> Suggestion: find a symbol that works for you, and see how good it makes you feel to move that mountain of shit out of your way. [Hint: try looking at the state of your desk, or office, or house. Notice anything that's getting in your way?]

Option 2: QIGONG: I first tried T’ai Chi Ch’uan in 2000 while working in payroll tax and terminations at the-bank-formerly-known-as-WAMU. If I think about it, I probably started taking that program for the same reasons as I have today: I wasn’t feeling well, and I knew I needed a change. My instructor at the time (whose name currently eludes my memory) said something to the effect of, “the first million tries don’t count,” as told to him by his mentor. For me, this is a reminder both to discipline myself with practice, and to forgive myself for the inevitable imperfection.

I know that I love to dance, even if I’m not all that graceful. While studying at The Evergreen State College I practiced Orissi dance with Dr. Ratna Roy and Jamie Lynn Colley. Orissi Indian classical dance is a delicious intersection of Tantric, Yogic, and Martial arts, which often uses motion to tell stories on the stage. Orissi is by far my favorite dance, but it has been six years since I really practiced in earnest, and I’ve lost much of the form, discipline, and strength I once had.

This June I am beginning with Martial arts (again) with the help of Eight Simple Qigong Exercises for Health: The Eight Pieces of Brocade, a DVD by Dr. Yang, Jwing-Ming which was originally recommended to me many moons ago by Qigong instructor Michelle Wood. I bought this DVD a couple years ago, used it for a while, and then stopped. This June my focus is on the sitting portion of the Eight Piece Brocade, which I am practicing every morning upon waking. My goal is to learn enough of the motions, and the poetry behind them, so that I can do this every day (and without using the DVD as a guide). I’d like this daily routine to last indefinitely.

–> Suggestion: find a motion that works for you, and do it EVERY DAY. [Hint: walking is moving. So is waving your hands in the air like ya just don't care!]

Lose the ‘tude

An attitude adjustment can be the most obvious (and the most difficult) solution to a lot of problems. Feeling bad begets more bad feeling. Whenever I’m frustrated, stuck-in-a-rut, or I otherwise feel like there’s no way out, I can usually eliminate all the external grievances I might have, and boil my problems down to this: I’m not looking for a solution, and I’ve donned an unproductive attitude.

Option 1: SMILE, of course! Anyone who has experienced depression knows it’s not that easy. You don’t “just snap out of it,” because chances are, you didn’t just snap into it. You probably wormed your way down into that dark little hole (or fell in unwittingly), and maybe turned your back on the exit, forgetting it was there. Silly movies are one approach, but I’m not a TV junkie. My approach is to spend time among the things I love (like out in the forest and the garden) until I start to wake up, notice the world around, and smile. This morning I ate breakfast on the porch and watched a humming bird eat its breakfast in the salal (Gaultheria shallon). I dare anyone not to smile at such a sight.

–> Suggestion: close your eyes, quiet your mind, and ask yourself this question: “If I could be doing anything I wanted right now, what would it be?” [Hint: it's probably not "sitting on my butt getting frustrated."]

Option 2: EAT WELL, naturally. I consider myself a good eater… when I eat. I prefer fresh foods to packaged foods, I grow what I can in my garden, and 18 months ago I began to eliminate meat from my diet and replace it with plant proteins, like my many beloved legumes. This has been a great choice for me for several personal reasons, but if you need a few of your own it’s easy to find ethical, ecological, and practical reasons to reduce your meat intake: if you’re looking for discussion rather than instruction, start with Michael Pollan.

The problem for me is that I often skip meals when I’m busy, ill, tired, grouchy, or otherwise out of balance. I’ve also recently adopted a bad habit of eating at my desk while working, and it’s not hard to recognize that my meal isn’t restful if I type while I munch. My goal is to unplug from my computer for significant chunks of the day, get back into the kitchen, and remember to celebrate the simple pleasures daily. For me, this means physically shutting down my machines, because otherwise I’ll think of something REALLY AWESOME, run in to my office to write it down, and stay there for three hours.

–> Suggestion: take stock of your meals, and BE HONEST. Really be honest. If most of your food comes from a box, consider this: where do most animals get their food? [Hint: the answer is not "from a box."]

*     *     *

To recap, my goals/foci are as follows:

MOVE

1) Get out in the garden

2) Practice Qigong

CELEBRATE

3) Smile, and adjust the attitude

4) Eat well and cook more

*     *     *

Your turn! Share your ideas and answer us this in the comments: how are you approaching your goals, health, and attitude this season?

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