Our Little Acre

One Flower's Point of View

2013-05-17T11:39:00.000-04:00

In light of yesterday's post, this strip from The Other Coast by Adrian Raeside presents an interesting point of view...

(Click to enlarge)

Forcing Myself to Enjoy the Flowers

2013-05-16T23:30:00.000-04:00

You must think the title of this post is strange. I mean, what kind of gardener has to force herself to enjoy flowers? Well, it isn't that hard for me to enjoy them; in fact, I enjoy them a little too much - in my gardens.

I'm one of those people who has a hard time cutting flowers and bringing them inside. I've tried to figure out why this is so difficult for me to do and it's pretty simple, really. I enjoy seeing plants and flowers in their natural environment. Not that our flowers grow naturally in well-defined spaces that suit our tastes, but natural in the sense that the blooms are still attached to the plant that grew them.

Erin Schanen, of The Impatient Gardener, knows exactly what this is like, because she's "one of them" too. Erin is trying to overcome this aversion to cutting flowers from our gardens by going public with a campaign she calls, "The Garden Appreciation Society." She's challenging us to cut some flowers, make a bouquet, and post the photo of it online.

Okay, Erin. I took the bait and rose to the occasion. But it wasn't easy. I told you I'd do it, but in the back of my mind, I just wasn't sure I could. Then this evening, as I was cutting off the spent tulip stems, I was inspired. And it wasn't a flower that motivated me.

It was those tulips - the ones that looked great a couple of weeks ago. The ones that dropped their petals just last weekend. The ones that made these amazingly awesome seed pods. Those.

These are the seed pods of one of my species tulips- Tulipa tarda:

Before they do that, they look like this:

I love it when a plant doubles the fun like that.

But anyway, I decided that I'd just use those seed pods and find some other things in the garden to go with them. Since there's always an abundance of chives and columbine, it didn't pain me too much to cut those blooms.

A little harder to cut were the Euphorbia 'Ascot Rainbow' blooms, but I've got plenty of those too, and I'll be cutting those soon anyway, so that the plant will bulk up and branch out. (Although this Euphorbia doesn't really require any pruning, if you don't want to.)

They've got The Most Awesome Blooms that most people will never notice because they won't get down close enough to see the beautiful detail. Just look at this!

Euphorbia x martinii 'Ascot Rainbow'

So here's what I came up with for my bouquet:

It's small - just 10 inches at its tallest point. Baby steps...

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

To see how others are enjoying flowers from their gardens, visit Erin's blog.

Wordless Wednesday: Tree Peony 'Shimanishiki'

2013-05-15T23:30:00.000-04:00

Seen in the Smiley Park Children's Garden in Van Wert, OH...

Paeonia suffruticosa 'Shimanishiki'

Lowe's Creative Ideas: A Rainbow of Color For a Partly Shady Garden - and a Deck!

2013-05-14T23:30:00.000-04:00

Our average last frost date here at Our Little Acre in northwest Ohio is May 15th, but it's been a long time since we've had a frost that late. This year, spring has taken its sweet time getting here, although we've had some nice weather here and there. Frost two nights in a row this week didn't make some things in the garden very happy - the gardener either.

My April Lowe's Creative Ideas project is just a bit late, due to the cold weather and a lot of rain. It's hard to plant in mud. But finally, we got it completed!

Sometimes I dream a little too big. But I'm a possibility thinker and I could visualize this project. In fact, part of it had lived in my head for a couple of years now. A big tip of the hat to my ever-helpful husband, Romie. Without him, most of it would not have been possible.

One of the Creative Ideas themes for April was to use colors of the rainbow. I decided to incorporate these colors by using both flowers and hardscape.

A portion of our large garden at the back of the property has always been reserved for what I call "hot" flowers. In the past, I'd grow colorful zinnias, cosmos, snapdragons, marigolds, and lilies. Anything that would bring about a riot of color was fair game for that garden. But in recent years, that has been a challenge, due to the maturing of several trees in that part of the yard and in the garden itself. The kinds of flowers I'd always grown there needed a lot of sun to perform well. That was Dilemma #1.

Secondly, we had made use of the trunk of a pine tree that had died, by converting it into a directional with colorful signs indicating the miles to the homes of family members. We also put a decorative bird house on top, which the wrens always made use of. This past year, the pine rotted to the point that it was only a matter of time before it fell over, so that was removed. I had always loved this colorful addition to the "hot" garden, so this became Dilemma #2.

I put my thinking cap on.

I'd remembered seeing a cute set of birdhouses in my Lowe's Creative Ideas magazine awhile back, so I went to the website and found the plans. I knew I was going to need some husband help for this, so I talked mine into making the birdhouses for me. It didn't take him too long; I got them painted, and we put them up.

The birdhouses fit like a sleeve over 4x4s that are set into the ground. The top of the 4x4 serves as the bottom of the nesting cavity of each birdhouse. We made the holes 1¼-inch in diameter, so as to attract wrens and not sparrows.

This added a lot of color to the garden and I was pleased with how they looked as a replacement for the directional.

Heucherella 'Gold Zebra'

To add more color, I planted some perennials and annuals, some of which do okay in shade. For example, Heucherella 'Gold Zebra' has bright yellow foliage with deep red veining, and the fountain grass Pennisetum setaceum 'Fireworks' has a burgundy tint to it (more so with direct sun).

Gerbera jamesonii

The "hot" garden still gets a fair amount of direct sun on its western and northern edges at various times of the day, so I planted perennials lithodora (Lithodora diffusa 'Blue Star') and candytuft (Iberis sempervirens 'Purity').

A couple of Gerbera daisies in orange brightened things up and existing Asiatic lilies 'Matrix' and some colorful daylilies will provide some vibrant red-orange and golden yellow color as the season progresses.

The candytuft (front left) was done blooming by the time I finished the
project, but it will provide pretty foliage and occasional rebloom.

Lithodora diffusa 'Blue Star'

The second part of my plan was the one that I'd first expressed a desire for two years ago. There's a small pond that's part of this garden and I'd wanted a deck for a sitting area next to it. This took some convincing on my part before Romie agreed to make it.

I'd envisioned a curvy-edged deck, but when it became clear that curves were going to be much harder to execute than a deck with straight edges, I conceded to going with the simpler design. After a geometry discussion, we agreed on a trapezoid shape for the deck.

We placed cardboard under the deck, to kill the grass.

The deck proved easier to make than the birdhouses, and they weren't difficult, so in the end, the project was pretty easy. It just took some time and some cooperation from the weather to get it all in place.

I'd fallen in love with a yellow daisy bench on a previous visit to Lowe's, so I picked one up on my trip there to get supplies for the rest of the project. That, I put together all by myself. I mean, it was only a few nuts and bolts and voila!

To add some more color, I planted up one of my larger pots - bright blue! - with a braided Dracaena that I found in the Lowe's houseplant section. I added a couple of shade-loving caladiums for red color, and sweet potato vine in a bright chartreuse. The sweet potato vine will eventually spill out over the edge of the pot and will do fine in shade, even though it prefers sun.

I get to have my "hot" garden, even though a good deal of it is now in shade.

Supplies

Tall Trio of Birdhouses:

11 - 1"x6"x8' pine boards ($5.96 x 11 = $65.56)
1 - 2"x8"x8' pine board ($6.47)
3 - 4"x4"x8' treated pine posts ($8.27 x 3 = $24.81)
1 lb. box of 6d galvanized finishing nails ($3.92)
3 - 1 qt. Valspar exterior semi-gloss paint + primer in Mountain Botanical, Classic Red, and Morning Sunrise ($12.33 x 3 = $36.99)

Total cost: $137.75

Deck:

6 - 2"x4"x8' treated pine ($3.37 x 6 = 20.22)
15 - 5/4" x6"x8' treated deck boards ($3.97 x 15 = $59.55)
1 - 5 lb. box of 2.5" deck screws (Used about half of box @ $22.47)

Total cost: $ 91.00

Plants:

3 - 1 gal. Heucherella 'Gold Zebra' (3 x $10.98 = $32.94)
3 - 2.5 qt. Lithodora 'Blue Star' (3 x $7.98 = $23.94)
1 - 2.5 qt. Pennisetum 'Fireworks' ($5.98)
3 - 2.5 qt. Iberis 'Purity' (3 x $5.98 = $17.94)
3 - 1.25 qt. Gerbera daisy (3 x $4.98 = $14.94)
3 - 1 pt. Ipomoea (3 x $2.98 = $8.94)
2 - 1.25 qt. Caladium 'Freda Hemple' (2 x $4.98 = $9.96)
1 - 1.25 qt. Dracaena ($10.98)

Total cost: $125.62

Cost of daisy bench: $98.00

For more DIY inspiration, visit Lowe's Creative Ideas and the Lowe's Creative Ideas Creator and Influencers Blogger Network.

___________________________
Lowe's Home Improvement provided me with gift cards for the purpose of purchasing the materials needed to complete this project.

Perky-Pet® Bird Feeder - NO SQUIRRELS!

2013-05-07T16:08:00.002-04:00

Thankfully, we aren't bothered by squirrels trying to eat at our bird feeders here at Our Little Acre. It's not that we don't have squirrels, because we do. We even had one in our house once. (THAT was fun.) But for some reason, they keep to the big oak tree in the front yard and the smaller nearby maple.

Mmmm! Acorns!

We think it's probably the herd of cats we have that discourages them from coming closer to the house, although undoubtedly the squirrels would win if they were to stage an invasion of the turf that our cats consider to be theirs. We also have more than our fair share of acorns from several large oaks, so maybe they get enough to eat from those.

But I've seen numerous complaints by bird enthusiasts about squirrels wanting a piece of the pie that doesn't belong to them, so I know it can be a real problem for a lot of people. This bird feeder from Perky-Pet®
is designed to discourage such behavior from the squirrels. Here's how it works:

Perky-Pet® Squirrel-Be-Gone®
The Baffler

I like that this feeder is large enough to not need filling as often as smaller ones (it holds three pounds of feed). I especially like that it's so well-made, with its heavy-duty powder-coated finish. Not only that, it's an attractive feeder, and if the squirrels ever do try to eat from the feeders, we're prepared. (Pre-emptive strike!)

The baffle at the top tilts to throw the squirrels off balance.

Since we've put up the feeder, I've seen cardinals, goldfinches, nuthatches, and numerous other birds feeding from it.

Sparrows need to eat, too!

For more information on this feeder and others, visit Perky-Pet®! Right now, they have many of their feeders on sale, with free shipping on orders over $50.

_______________________________________
I was sent the Perky-Pet® Squirrel-Be-Gone® The Baffler bird feeder free of charge to trial here at Our Little Acre. I was not required to write about the feeder, but I wanted to share it with my readers, in case they were interested in an item like this. All opinions expressed here are my own.

The "Indoor Plant Décor" Virtual Book Tour

2013-05-06T04:20:00.001-04:00

This is a special week for co-writer Jenny Peterson and me. Our new book - Indoor Plant Décor: The Design Stylebook for Houseplants - has been out and about for two weeks now and we've been busy with book signings and in Jenny's case, a TV appearance on Central Texas Gardener. We had an interview this past week with The Saturday Evening Post and our book will be featured in their November/December issue!

Today, May 6th, is the beginning of our Virtual Book Tour. Eleven blogs will be featuring a review of Indoor Plant Décor and each one will be giving away a unique gardening item at the end of the tour on May 12th.

Following is a list of the participating blogs, with the item that they will be giving away:

Gossip In the Garden - Rebecca Sweet will be giving away a set of Moss Rocks!™ from Moss and Stone Gardens.
Gardening Gone Wild - Debra Lee Baldwin has a $25 Logee's gift card for one of her readers. A photo from Debra's home is featured on page 119 of our book!
Cowlick Cottage Farm - Carolyn Binder will be offering a Home Farmer Seed Saving Kit from The Seed Keeper Company.
Dirt du Jour - Charlotte Germane and Cindy McNatt have a 6" x 12" Living Frame planter from Succulent Gardens to give away.
Not JUST A Housewife - Stacy Risenmay will be giving away a vintage-style cloche and saucer terrarium set with a begonia tuber for growing from Longfield Gardens. Stacy has a cool planting idea and photo featured on page 16 of our book!
The Impatient Gardener - Erin Schanen has a four-piece small tool set from DeWit Garden Tools that is perfect for houseplants that one lucky reader will win.
Digging - Pam Penick also has a tool set from DeWit Garden Tools to give away.
The Rainforest Garden - Steve Asbell has a super assortment of bookazines and magazines from Better Homes & Gardens for one lucky winner. Steve was the winner of our design contest and his idea is featured on page 36 of our book.
The Casual Gardener - Shawna Coronado is giving away a two-piece small pruner set from Dramm.
The Personal Garden Coach - Christina Salwitz will be giving one of her readers a stainless steel watering can from The Master Gardner Company.
Urban Gardens - Robin Horton has a Woolly Pocket container to give away, courtesy of Green Up.

Be sure to click the above links to see what they have to say about our book and grab a chance at winning a great gardening item!

Tree Peony Suckers

2013-05-04T10:40:00.001-04:00

Just a few weeks ago, I was rejoicing that the herbaceous peonies (Paeonia lactiflora) were emerging and I remarked on Facebook that they resembled hands reaching to the sky.

But when I saw this at the base of my tree peony, I wasn't happy at all:

Tree peonies (Paeonia suffruticosa) are generally grafted onto a P. lactiflora root and occasionally they'll try to grow from below the graft. Since you probably paid good money for that tree peony, you don't want something sapping the strength from it and that's just what the herbaceous peony shoots will do. Besides which, they'll bloom like an herbaceous peony, too.

So, what's a good peony mother to do?

Nip it. Nip it in the bud. Carefully cut the suckers off at the ground and keep them cut. Later, in the fall, you can dig around the roots and see if the tree peony portion has formed its own roots. If so, you can trim away the herbaceous roots to prevent suckering in the future. (Instructions for this can be found at peonies.org.)

I'm not sure that's entirely necessary though. I feel more secure in just keeping the suckers trimmed away. Can someone smarter than I am about these things comment here and let me know if this is an acceptable way of dealing with this issue, or whether I will eventually need to deal with the herbaceous roots in a more permanent fashion?

Tree peony (unknown cultivar)

Wordless Wednesday: 'Coors'

2013-05-01T22:57:00.000-04:00

Greigii tulip 'Coors'

What's That Smell?

2013-04-25T20:11:00.003-04:00

Skunks are plentiful around here. Especially in spring. You know the old saying, "It must be spring - there are dead skunks on the road." We see them year round, almost always at night, which makes sense, since they're nocturnal creatures.

I fear that our cats will meet the smelly end of one of them someday, but when a skunk comes around in search of cat food, our smart cats give it a wide berth.

This spring, as I've walked around Max's Garden, looking for newly emerging plants, I've smelled what I was certain had to be skunk musk. And then, of course, my first thought was, "Oh no, I hope one of the cats didn't get too close." But when I checked the cats later, they were all fine.

But every time I'd walk through the garden, there was that smell. And then I had a light bulb moment. The Fritillaria...

Fritillaria imperialis 'Rubra Maxima'
April 9, 2013

Fritillaria imperialis is known for its skunky smell. When I planted the gigantic bulbs in the fall of 2011, they were quite "fragrant" and I understood why scavengers leave them alone when digging for a snack in the garden. But I never thought the plant itself would smell like that.

Usually, a plant only has an odor that's detectable from a distance if it's in bloom. But not this one! From the time it first emerged from the ground, you could smell it. Now I'm a super sniffer, so maybe I can smell it before most people would, but it's pretty strong.

I didn't notice the odor last year when they emerged but none of the three plants bloomed last year either. Even though they were smelly before they bloomed this year, maybe they have to reach a certain age before they emit a strong odor. You know...like teenage boys.

In any case, I'm elated that this year, two of the three plants are blooming!! One seems to be stunted but has blooms, one isn't going to bloom, and the third one is just perfectly gorgeous.

Crown imperials can be tricky to grow. They prefer soil on the neutral to alkaline side (what we have) and it's imperative that they have good drainage. When I planted them, I made a little mound and I used mostly sand to fill the hole around and on top of the bulb.

They don't like to be moved, but we're going to have to move them later this year because they're beside a weeping willow tree that died and we have to take that out. We'll do that later in the fall and I'll replant them. I wouldn't be surprised if moving them causes them to not bloom next year.

Fritillaria imperialis are hardy bulbs in Zones 5-8 (some sites say 4-9) and can benefit from extra winter mulching in the colder zones. (I didn't.) Although the tallest of my plants is a little over two feet tall, they can grow to a height of as much as five feet. They are one of the more pricey bulbs. I bought them in the fall on sale at $7.99 each.

Worth every penny when I see their "bad hair day" colorful blooms...in spite of their not-so-sweet smell.

Master Gardener Plant Sale & Book Signing - Saturday, April 27, 2013

2013-04-24T19:30:00.002-04:00

This Saturday, the Van Wert Master Gardeners will be having their annual plant sale. This is a fundraiser for the group, because they are not funded by any entity other than donations and fundraisers such as this and their garden tour later in the summer.

I will also be on hand to sign copies of my new book, Indoor Plant Décor: The Design Stylebook for Houseplants. This will be my first official book signing event!

I'll be bringing a decorative planter with me, and each person who buys a book that day will get to put their name in a drawing to win it. You must be present to win.

The sale will be held in the Junior Fair Building at the Van Wert County Fairgrounds, 1055 S. Washington St. (click link for map), and starts at 8:00 a.m. The sale will run until all plants are sold. Come and help out the Master Gardeners of Van Wert County!

Robin's Nest Update

2013-04-23T14:01:00.001-04:00

Sadly, I don't have good news in regard to the robin's nest that I wrote about last weekend. Since we found the eggs on the ground and we replaced them in the nest, we haven't seen the mama robin return. Several things might have happened:

Mama could have met with an ill fate while she was away from the nest.
Mama may have returned to the nest during the time when the eggs were on the ground and seeing none, abandoned it.
A predator could have invaded the nest and destroyed the eggs before Mama could get to them.

We'll never know for sure, but when I went out to check on them yesterday, another broken egg was on the ground, along with an intact one. The broken one still contained the yolk, with no signs of development. There was also a broken one in the nest, which made me think a predator had gotten to them.

The most likely culprit is the brown-headed cowbird that we've seen at a nearby feeder. This bird is known for taking over the nests of other birds and will destroy eggs.

Brown-headed cowbird

Sad, but also a part of everyday life out in the wild.

Weekend Wisdom: Or Should That Be Weekend "Whizdom?"

2013-04-21T09:10:00.000-04:00

As nice as some people can be - and humble, too - in reality we're a self-centered lot. Well, except for when we think we're the only one in the world who does this or thinks that, but even that is a bit egotistical at times. We all like to think we're normal, but as Erma Bombeck says, "Normal is just a setting on the dryer."

Making our way through life, we have experiences that seem normal to us, in that we think everyone does things the way we do. I mean, we've always done it that way or we've always been that way, so it must be the same for everyone else, right? Not necessarily.

When I was in college, studying dental hygiene, I learned about the protruberance (something that sticks out) that I'd had in the roof of my mouth for as long as I could remember. In fact, I never really gave it much thought until then. It seems that not everyone has this, even though I assumed they did.

An example of mandibular tori
(Wikimedia/DRosenbach)

I learned it's called a maxillary torus (although technically mine is a sagittal protruberance because of its shape) and it's simply extra bone. No one really knows why some people have them and some people don't, but there is a hereditary factor. I also have tori on my lower jaw (called mandibular tori), on both the tongue side and cheek side, as well as on the cheek side of my upper jaw.

There's nothing to be done about it and it's not harmful, unless I ever find the need to get dentures (please NO). It creates a problem whenever I have to have impressions taken because the impression trays are not made to accommodate that extra bone. (Can't someone invent a flexible tray???) It also is a problem when I'm eating certain things like taco chips or very firm apples, because as I bite down, these things can scrape the tissue covering the bone and it gets sore.

About 7-10% of the U.S. population has mandibular tori. It's more common in the Asian and Inuit population, and it can continue to form as a person ages, apparently stimulated by bruxism (grinding your teeth). What does this say about me? That I'm highly stressed??

Well, anyway, it turns out that I'm "special" in yet another way. We're going to get very personal here. I've known for a long time that whenever I eat a lot of red beets that I'm going to have a "phenomenal" bathroom experience. Plainly put, it turns my pee pink. Sometimes I forget and for a moment I wonder if I've got a bladder or kidney infection. Then I remember the beets.

I've talked to other family members and I was skeptical when they said they'd never had that happen to them, because gee...this was normal, right? I mean, it happens to me just about every time I eat them. I was sure they just weren't taking notice of their own pee.

Turns out that only one in eight people experience what's called "beeturia." It's caused in certain humans by oxalic acid in the digestive system not allowing the betalaine in the beets to be absorbed, so it's excreted. Furthermore, they found that people that ate pickled beets experienced beeturia more often than those who ate boiled beets, due to the acidic nature of vinegar in the pickled beets.

Studies in the 1950s concluded that there was a genetic factor associated with beeturia, but later studies disproved this.

So now you know more about me than you ever wanted to and maybe yourself. If there's anything normal about any of us, it's that we're all unique.

__________________________________________________
*Thanks to Chris Tidrick for the "whizdom" pun.

Spring Means New Life

2013-04-20T23:48:00.000-04:00

The very best thing about spring isn't the warmer weather, although it ranks right up there near the top. For me, it's the day after day appearance of new life in all forms. As a gardener, of course I love to see each new plant come to life and bring color and vibrance to the landscape. But I also look forward to birds returning from their winter homes to take up residence here around ours. The bluebirds were spotted earlier this week, checking out two of the three bluebird houses we have out back.

Brown thrasher

A couple of days ago, we heard the most beautiful symphony as we stood in the backyard. Looking high up into one of the larger trees, we saw a brown thrasher. They have a multitude of melodies they sing, much like a mockingbird has. In fact, they are known to have the largest repertoire of songs of all birds, with over 1000 in number.

That same day, as we walked around the yard, enjoying the 80+ degree weather, I noticed a long piece of dry, dead Miscanthus grass hanging from a low branch of the Maine pine tree. The last time I saw something hanging from that tree (a little higher up), it was attached to a nest. So it was this time, too.

This was a well-made nest, dense and melded at the top with mud.

There was no bird in it, but there was this:

The color of blue was more of a light teal than a robin's egg blue, but the nest, coupled with the size of the eggs, let me know that it belonged to a robin. Why on earth it picked the west side of the tree instead of the leeward side, or the low branch (about five feet off the ground and within leaping distance of the cats), when there were so many more protected locations in that very tree, is beyond me.

Spring is very windy here and that branch was bouncing. Eventually, the mother robin was seen in the nest and I didn't worry about her or that the nest might be dislodged from the tree. She'd done a very good job of building and securing it. But she left the nest unattended quite often. A severe storm was due to come in and I feared for those eggs.

The next day, as we were walking around the yard with Hannah, we checked on the nest and the eggs. As I pulled the branch down a bit to peek in, there were no eggs. A look on the ground revealed four of them. Though I read that a robin will only lay one egg a day, she definitely laid two between that day and the afternoon before.

We carefully placed them back in the nest - all but one, which hadn't survived the fall from the nest.

It's a myth that a bird will abandon eggs or baby birds that have been touched by humans, but we avoided touching any more of the surface of the eggs than necessary when replacing them.

Time will tell if the eggs survive and then the chicks. It's not an ideal situation, but we'll keep an eye on them and continue to help them if necessary.

Indoor Plant Décor Goes Live!

2013-04-15T23:23:00.000-04:00

Today is the day. The major project that co-writer and friend Jenny Peterson and I undertook last May is out there in the world.

Indoor Plant Décor is available on Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

When we began our quest to write a book together, we knew very little about the process. We talked with a couple of publishers who wanted us to write, but they both wanted us to write about something different. But we had a goal in mind and we were elated when Paul Kelly, owner of St. Lynn's Press said yes.

After a lot of phone time and much discussion on the direction our book would take before he even offered us a contract, last May we signed on to do it. At the exact same time we began writing our book, Jenny discovered she had breast cancer.

There was a lot of contemplation about what to do - should we put off writing the book or should we go ahead with it? What was best for everyone? I wanted to do what was best for Jenny, and Paul was supportive of whatever we decided, so when Jenny determined that she could - she would - do this, it was on.

That doesn't mean it was easy. We both had some physical issues that not only occurred at the same time, but they came at a crucial time in the book writing process. Add a week without power and shuffling from one offspring's home to another to stay cool in the 100-degree heat of July while trying to secure and upload photos to meet a deadline and things got a little scrappy there for a bit.

But with that part over with, and the rest of the book before us, it was Jenny that had to persevere through chemo and radiation, all the way up to the end of December, when we were submitting our final material. I'm here to tell you right now, I'm pretty sure I could not have done what she did, let alone do it as well as she did it.

To say she was inspirational leaves a lot unsaid. I saw the scars. I was there during some of the tearful times - the ones that she wanted the world to know happened, but didn't particularly want them to see. She didn't want people to think she was Wonder Woman, but she didn't think they necessarily wanted to see the not-so-nice part of it all either. In the end, what we all saw was a beautiful soul who handled what life dealt her with grace.

Today Jenny is cancer-free and one of my closest friends. When I first took a look at the finished Indoor Plant Décor, I saw a nice-enough looking book. I'm uncomfortable saying I'm proud of anything I've done, but I am proud of it, and not for the reasons you might think.

When I look through its pages, see the photos, and read the words, I see all the months of phone calls, personal visits, the shared laughter, anguish, and yes, tears. I see two friends who now share this special kind of bond, represented to the world as a book about houseplants, but that will always be so much more to the two authors who wrote it.

Jenny and me, at the Bailey Nurseries photo booth in Tucson, Ariz,
while attending the Garden Writers Association annual meeting in October 2012.

Weekend Wisdom: Does Lightning Make the Grass Greener?

2013-04-14T16:16:00.002-04:00

You may have heard it said that following a thunderstorm, which by literal definition contains lightning, the grass will be greener. It's not the rain, mind you, but the lightning that has been credited with greening up the grass. Is it true?

Wikimedia Commons/Axel Rouvin

I trust scientists that know a whole lot more about this stuff than I do, but I have to say I'm a believer, no matter what they tell me. I've seen it. Simple rain has failed to green it up to the extent that I've seen a good thunderstorm with an abundance of lightning do.

This is a topic that has been in debate for longer than I've been alive, I imagine, but here's what I found out, put in as simple of terms as I can come up with:

Nitrogen in fertilizers is responsible for greening up the grass. The atmosphere contains 78% nitrogen, but in order for plants to make use of it, the nitrogen bonds have to be broken so they can combine with oxygen to form nitrates, the form of nitrogen that plants can use to form more chlorophyll. The lightning provides enough energy to do this, causing the nitrogen to combine with oxygen in the air, which is then taken to the grass in the raindrops. The grass drinks it up and is greener.

The debate over this is whether there are enough nitrates formed during a storm to make a difference. Those of us who have seen it happen are convinced there are. Others will disagree and you can find just as many opinions on one side of the issue as the other.

As a dental hygiene student in college, I was taught that a teething baby's diaper rash has nothing whatsoever to do with the teething. I believed that too, until I had my own kids and saw it happen. Over and over, that rash would appear at exactly the time a new tooth did. So what about that?

I'm rather surprised at the number of people I encounter that have never heard of this lightning/green grass thing. It's something I remember hearing many times from an early age. That, of course, doesn't make it correct, but years of personal experience have helped to form my own opinion on the issue.

This spring, we've had rain and we've had warm temperatures, but it was only after a thunderstorm with plenty of lightning one night this past week did I notice the extreme green that lay before me the next morning when I looked out the window. The difference was dramatic enough for me to think about this lightning connection again.

You may say I'm wrong, but that's okay. We'll just agree to disagree.

Lowe's Creative Ideas Project: Swing Shelf for Herbs

2013-03-31T23:00:00.000-04:00

Last year, I was a member of the Lowe's Creative Ideas Team, for which Lowe's Home Improvement stores provided me with gift cards for purchasing materials to do projects around the house and yard.

One of my projects from last year was my Lowe's Creative Ideas Pallet Project. I used a pallet to make a decorative tool storage design. It is by far the most viewed blog post I've ever done in the 6+ years I've been blogging (around 25,000 views) and it's still going over on Pinterest. Participating in this each month was a challenge for me, but pretty fun too, so when they asked if would continue with the team this year, I said yes.

Our first project of the year took on an "Edible Gardening" theme. Since winter remained firmly entrenched here in Northwest Ohio and we had seven inches of snow on the ground less than a week ago, this was a challenge in more ways than one. I solved that problem by taking things indoors.

I've actually had this idea for a little while, but had never really sat down and thought it out in detail until now. The concept is simple and putting it all together is pretty simple too.

Swing Shelf for Herbs

Materials list:

1" x 6" x 4' unfinished poplar board ($8.98)
Olympic ONE Quart Interior Semi-Gloss True White Paint and Primer in One ($12.24)
3 4-inch terra cotta pots ($.97 each)
Valspar 12 Oz. Outdoor Gloss Spray Paint in Red Queen ($4.98)
LOCTITE Polyseamseal 6 oz White Latex Kitchen and Bathroom Caulk ($2.99)
12 feet 1/16" stainless steel cable wire ($3.24)
4 sets: 1/16" ferrule and stop ($2.48)
2 nickel-plated steel cup hooks ($1.96)
8 #6-32 Zinc-Plated Standard (SAE) Brad Hole T-Nuts ($4.60)
3 Bonnie Plants herbs ($10.44)

Since I wanted my terra cotta pots to be red, I started things off by spray painting them so they could be dry by the time I needed to plant them. It took two coats of the paint to get the look I wanted, since terra cotta is porous. You could leave them unpainted.

It just so happened that this roll of
packaging tape was the right
diameter for the holes to be cut.

While I was busy painting the pots, I enlisted the help of my husband in preparing the board. It isn't that I couldn't do this part, it's that I like him to feel needed. He's good with power tools so I let him play with them. I did the math - measured the inside width of the window where the shelf will hang, measured the circumference of the terra cotta pot just below the rim and used Π to figure out the diameter of the circular holes to be cut in the board. I did some more math to figure out where to place the three holes so they would be equidistant apart. Then I handed the board to Romie, with its markings for the jigsaw.

By the time I was done painting the pots the second time, the board was ready for painting. Two coats of paint were needed here too.

We didn't have to purchase the white enamel paint because we had some left
over from a previous project.

Hardware needed for hanging the shelf.

Once the paint dried on the board, Romie drilled two 1/16" holes in each end where the cable wire would be threaded through. These holes were two inches from the end of the board on each side.

I hammered a T-nut into each of these holes on both sides of the board. This will provide reinforcement to the hole so that the cable wire isn't cutting into the wood. It gives a more finished look to things as well.

Next came the trickiest part of the entire thing - threading the wire through the holes, making the loops for hanging, and making sure the wires are the same on both ends so that the shelf hangs level. You can cut the wires the same length, but you also need to make sure that your loops for hanging are the same.

Hanging loops with ferrules and stops, crimped in place with pliers.

Before I made the wire hangers for this shelf, I had no idea what a ferrule was. It can come in many forms but here, it's the little piece of aluminum through which the cable wire is threaded to secure the loop for hanging. Once you have the wire threaded through, pliers can be used to crimp the ferrule so that the wire won't move. The stop is crimped on the end to cover the sharp cut wires and to prevent them from unraveling.

We screwed the hooks into the trim around the window at the top, under the existing window treatment and hung the shelf.

It's nice to have herbs close at hand when using them in cooking, and this shelf allows you to grow them in a sunny window; most herbs need full sun to do well. I chose Bonnie Plants flat Italian parsley, rosemary, and lemon thyme. I'll admit, I chose these because I like the look of their foliage and in the case of the rosemary and the lemon thyme, I love their fragrance.

Since the pots have a hole for drainage in the bottom, I needed to cover that and seal it so that when I water, it doesn't drip out the bottom. I used plastic milk jug caps and caulked them to the bottom.

This lack of a drainage hole can be dealt with then by planting the herbs in a plastic pot that does have drainage and using the terra cotta pots as cache pots.

If you don't want to seal up the hole, you can remove the pots and take them to the sink, water them, and allow them to drain before replacing them in the shelf.

This shelf hangs in our utility room, where I keep quite a few houseplants, and there wasn't room on the small table in the window for more. The window in this room has a southern exposure, which is just right for growing herbs.

There's enough room in between the red herb pots to sit small planters on
the shelf if you want to.

The total cost for the project was $56.58, including tax.

For more great project ideas, here are some helpful links:

_________________________
As part of the Lowe's Creative Ideas Team, I was provided with a Lowe's Gift Card to cover the cost of the project.

Spring...finally!

2013-03-30T23:30:00.000-04:00

Spring has been reluctant and petulant this year and regardless of how hard we try to not let it affect our mood, it has. Winter in the north can be both exhilarating and exasperating, often at the same time. Last week at this time, we were anticipating two to four inches of snow and hoping it would be the last of the season. Snow in April isn't unheard of, but it's not welcomed no matter how quickly it melts.

OhNo and Sunny don't mind the snow.

Well, we got seven inches here at Our Little Acre and some areas close to us got as much as ten. There were some crocuses blooming before the snow, but they aren't as bothered by it as we are and now that the temperature has risen into the 50s, the snow is gone and the crocuses are fine.

Chionodoxa

Romie and I walked around the yard last evening and looked at the spring flowers - what there was of them - and noted that most of the usual suspects were at least poking out of the ground, even if they weren't blooming.

There were snowdrops, hellebores, Dutch hyacinths, Eranthis, reticulated iris, Puschkinia, species tulips, hybrid tulips, Chionodoxa, daffodils, and crocus, of course. But only the snowdrops, hellebores, Eranthis, and some of the crocus were in bloom.

What a difference a day makes! Today, the reticulated iris, and a few Chionodoxa were open.

Iris reticulata 'Spring Time'

But the crocus...ohhhh the crocus! There were many more of them and this is their day, their time to shine.

Crocus sieberi 'Tricolor'

Crocus 'Advance'

Crocus sieberi 'Tricolor'

Crocus chrysanthus 'Prins Claus'

Crocus chrysanthus 'Fuscotinctus'

Crocus chrysanthus 'Prins Claus'

Last year, the hot - yes, HOT - weather in March put the spring blooming in overdrive and we had such a short time to enjoy it. The joy of a slow and leisurely spring is a longer bloom time for those gaudy flowers we wait all winter to see.

Crock-Pot® Chicken Teriyaki

2013-03-27T22:30:00.000-04:00

I can cook. I'm fairly good at it. But I usually just don't want to, because it's not high on my list of things that I think are fun to do. I'd much rather weed a garden. However, when photos of delicious food start showing up in my Facebook stream, sometimes I get motivated to get barefoot and get in the kitchen.

It happened Monday. My friend (and cousin) Algene posted a photo and recipe for Crock-Pot® Chicken Teriyaki that caught my eye. I started salivating. Anything teriyaki has that effect on me. So I looked down through the list of ingredients and noted that I had all of them, including garlic from last summer's garden.

Then I looked at the directions. It's a Crock-Pot® recipe, so how hard can it be? It's not. The most difficult thing was cutting up the chicken into bite-size pieces and that was a piece of cake. (More about cake later...)

That settled it. We were having this for supper. I'm sharing it here, just in case it looks good to you, too. It originally came from the Facebook page of Heavenly Recipes and if I spend too much time on that page, I may just be forced to cook more often. This particular recipe appealed to quite a number of people, because as of this evening, it's been shared 144,667 times.

Here we go:

Crock-Pot® Chicken Teriyaki

1 lbs chicken, cubed
1 cup chicken broth
½ cup teriyaki sauce
⅓ cup brown sugar
3 garlic cloves, minced

1. Combine chicken broth, teriyaki sauce, brown sugar and garlic cloves in large bowl.

2. Add chicken to sauce, and mix.

3. Pour chicken mixture into Crock-Pot®.

4. Cook on low 4-6 hours, or until chicken is cooked through.

5. Serve over hot cooked rice and spoon on extra sauce if desired.

It should be noted, if you saw the recipe on my or on any other Facebook page, that the photo posted was NOT a photo of this recipe. The photo showed sesame seeds in the sauce and a thicker sauce. Most of us that tried the recipe agreed that the sauce was more watery than we'd have liked. The remedy for that is to cut back the broth drastically or as one my friends suggested, cut it out entirely. I would do that next time.

But it was delicious, and I will make it again. Now, about that cake...

My cousin also posted a photo of white cake with caramel frosting, which reminded me of a recipe my mom had when I was a kid. My dad loved it and I loved it, and I dug it out and made it. So we topped off our teriyaki meal with caramel cake. Yummmmm...

Weekend Wisdom: Tomato Tidbit

2013-03-24T23:30:00.000-04:00

As one who dislikes raw tomatoes, I pick up on anything that reinforces my choice to not eat them. I have extolled their nastiness here, so I won't go into that again, but thanks to my friend Charlotte, over at Dirt du Jour, chalk one up on the side of eating them cooked, not raw.

She brought to my attention a news article reporting on studies that state the virtues of lycopene. No surprise there. We all know that lycopene is a valuable anti-oxidant that is beneficial to our skin, and helps protect us against certain types of cancer as well as osteoporosis. Lycopene also provides some protection from the sun's UV rays.

But did you know that cooking those tomatoes greatly increases the body's ability to absorb that lycopene? Just like carrots, cooking them makes them better, healthwise. Yeah, I don't like raw carrots either. Maybe my body just senses what is good for it. (Not sure why I crave English toffee, however.)

Not only that, but when eaten with a small amount of oil or fat (such as cheese on pizza), the ability of lycopene to be absorbed by the intestines is enhanced.¹

Let me say that again: Cooked tomatoes are better for you than raw ones. That means you should eat more ketchup, tomato soup, chili soup, pizza, spaghetti sauce, and drink more tomato juice.

Lucky me, I like all those things.

_________________________________
¹Elaine Magee, MPH, RD, "Health properties of tomatoes," WebMD, date accessed March 24, 2013.

"Once Upon a Flock" Blog Tour & Giveaway!

2013-03-23T12:30:00.000-04:00

Chicken owners know how utterly charming chickens can be. Others may not realize this. While most chickens initially become part of the family in order to contribute to the home larders in one way or another, they can blithely charm their owners with their quirky and winsome ways. No one was more surprised by this than my husband and I.

If I'd read Lauren Scheuer's Once Upon a Flock: Life With My Soulful Chickens before we got our hens two years ago, I would have known just how wonderful their personalities can be. If my husband had read it, it wouldn't have taken three years to convince him to get chickens. But this delightful romp through Lauren's backyard has only just now hit the bookstore shelves.

If you're contemplating adding backyard chickens to your life, this will make your decision easier. If you already have them, you'll certainly relate to the tales of Lucy, Lil' White, Hatsy, and Pigeon, as well as the family terrier, Marky, who is fiercely protective of the flock. There's plenty of drama, because...well...with animals, there's always drama, right?

Lauren Scheuer and Lil' White

The tales of life with chickens are by themselves more than enough to carry this book, but we readers get a wonderful bonus in the accompanying photography and original artwork by Lauren that's peppered throughout the stories. And you're going to be totally jealous of this: Lauren surprised me with a drawing of my very own!

Here's Violet, one of our Silver Laced Wyandottes, and the most friendly member of our own flock. She comes when I call her, she squats in submission for me to pick her up, and she's content to sit on my shoulder. And, for all the times I've held her and been her perch, she's never ever made a "mess" on me. Such a good girl.

As part of the official blog tour for Lauren's new book, I received a complimentary review copy of Once Upon a Flock and her publisher is making a copy available to one of my readers! All you need to do is leave a comment to this blog post, telling me what names you'd give your chickens if you had them, or if you already have chickens, what their names are. Remember, I'll need to contact you if you're the randomly selected winner, so be sure I've got a way to do so.

Be sure to comment by midnight, Friday, March 29th (that's Good Friday), and I'll use Random.org to select a winner from all eligible entries. Giveaway is only for US residents. (Sorry!)

Here are the other stops on the blog tour, where you can have another chance to win a copy of the book:

March 19 Tilly's Nest

March 20 Hencam.com

March 21 The Chicken Chick

March 22 Our Neck of the Woods

March 24 Red Dirt Ramblings
March 25 Lessons Learned from the Flock

March 26 Fresh Eggs Daily

March 27 Garden Rant

And for the continuing adventures of Lauren's flock, as well as the occasional "Where's Marky?" hide and seek fun, visit Lauren's blog, Scratch and Peck.

_____________________________________________________

And the winner is...

From Beyond My Kitchen Window

I've sent an email your way and need for you to send your mailing address so that your copy of Once Upon a Flock can be mailed! Congratulations! And thanks to everyone who entered! Special thanks to Lauren for her beautiful drawing of Violet and for asking me to be on her Virtual Book Tour!

_________________________
The publisher, Atria Books, provided me with a review copy of Once Upon a Flock. The opinions expressed here are my own. There were 47 eligible entries after removing a second comment left by the same commenter and Lauren's initial comment.

How To Get the Perfect Tomato

2013-03-17T08:00:00.000-04:00

Tomatoes are pretty - I'll give you that.

My gardener friends are always talking about their tomatoes. There must be a bazillion kinds of tomatoes and they have their favorites, yet they're always on the lookout for a "better" one. Those tomato lovers - it seems they're never satisfied.

Well, it's a pretty well-known fact that I don't like raw tomatoes. I've got good company in Southern Living Magazine's The Grumpy Gardener (Steve Bender) and Chris Tidrick (From the Soil), who don't like 'em either. Our distaste for raw tomatoes even garnered the attention of Scientific American ("Taster's Choice: Why I Hate Raw Tomatoes and You Don't") and Living Green Magazine, which republished my original article last May ("Please Don't Make Me Eat Them").

But now, just maybe there's a way to make the perfect tomato - maybe one that even I will eat without cooking it. I doubt it though. After all, it would still be a tomato, with that slimy, seedy texture that just feels ucky in my mouth. But that's not my point here. The point is someone has written a book about creating custom vegetables and flowers in your own garden. So if you don't particularly like what you're growing, breed your own!

Requisite photo of Joseph and me in lieu of the video we intended to make,
but we talked too much, and then it was time for Joseph to go.

My mystery guest that came for lunch on Friday was Joseph Tychonievich, whose new book, Plant Breeding for the Home Gardener: How to Create Unique Vegetables and Flowers, was just released on March 7th. Yes, there were several of you that guessed correctly in the giveaway - more about that in a bit, after I talk about Joseph's book.

I wasn't so sure how I was going to like it when it arrived here about a week ago. I mean, really. It's only plant geeks that like this kind of thing, right? Don't you believe it. (Okay, so I am a bit of a plant geek, but that's beside the point.) The short story is that I liked it quite a bit and there are some very good reasons that you just may like it too. For the longer version, you can read my review on Horticulture Magazine's website.

Timber Press, the publisher, has provided a copy of Joseph's book to the winner of my giveaway, and Joseph, who is nursery manager at Arrowhead Alpines in Michigan (read about my visit there last year) threw in a plant for the lucky winner. That plant will be custom chosen for the winner, depending on where the winner lives. No use sending a plant that won't be happy in its new home, right?

So, now I suppose you're dying to know who the winner was. Everyone who made a correct guess (and each person had three chances) got one entry for each correct guess. I wrote each one on a piece of paper and had my husband, who couldn't care less about any of this, choose a name from the bowl.

And the winner is...

Congratulations, Gregory!

I will be contacting you so that I can get your mailing address for shipping your prizes to you. And thanks to everyone who played along, including Timber Press, Arrowhead Alpines Nursery, and especially to Joseph, for wanting to stop and visit, and for writing the book in the first place. Well done, one and all!

________________________________
I was also provided with a free copy of Plant Breeding for the Home Gardener for possible review. I was not obligated to do so, however. All opinions stated here and in my reviews published on the Horticulture website are my own.

Amaryllis Blooms Never Fail to Deliver

2013-03-15T23:30:00.000-04:00

I received a surprise package a couple of months ago from Longfield Gardens and if you know me or have read this blog for awhile now, you know that what was in that package thrilled me to no end.

Because I am an amaryllis addict.

The package contained a very cool vintage-looking rectangular wooden box with handles. Inside the box was potting soil, decorative moss, and two gigantic amaryllis bulbs - two of the largest bulbs I've ever seen and I've seen some gigantic ones. Both of them had offset bulblets that will one day be large enough to separated from the mother bulb. When it comes to amaryllis bulbs, size matters - the bigger, the better.

I'd gotten a few amaryllis (Hippeastrum sp.) bulbs from Longfield Gardens late last fall and I shared the photos of 'Limona' on my Our Little Acre Facebook page.

Hippeastrum 'Limona'

That bulb first bloomed at the beginning of December, and went on to put out a second and yet a THIRD flower stalk, the latter still in bloom now, three months later. It's the first time I've ever had an amaryllis bulb produce three flower stalks. Like I said, size matters!

I potted the new bulbs up, gave them a shot of water, and put them on a shelf in the family room. It wasn't long before I noticed that bulbs starting to put out flower stalks - two each from each bulb. About six weeks after planting, I got the first bloom.

Hippeastrum 'Apple Blossom'

Eventually, each bulb threw up two flower stalks and two of those stalks had five flowers on each stalk - one more than the usual four.

Hippeastrum 'Apple Blossom'

The cultivar is 'Apple Blossom', which has white petals blushed with pink, and an apple green throat.

Hippeastrum 'Apple Blossom'

When these are finished blooming, the foliage will emerge (I can already see it starting). I'll cut the spent flower stalks off at the base and allow the foliage to grow and do its thing. I plan to keep these bulbs and plant them out in the garden for the summer, where they'll use that foliage to feed the bulb for flowering again next season. I'll dig them up and trim off the foliage just before frost in the fall and store them in my cool, dark basement for about two months before potting them up and starting the process all over again.

Amaryllis is the gift that just keeps on giving, and really, they couldn't be easier, whether you've got a green thumb or not.

_________________________
Thank you to Garden Media Group and Longfield Gardens LLC for arranging to have the amaryllis bulbs and the amaryllis kit sent to me free of charge.

Guess Who's Coming to Dinner & You Could Win!

2013-03-11T23:44:00.002-04:00

I'm having a very special Guest in my home on Friday. This person has never been to Our Little Acre before and I'm really looking forward to seeing Guest, because it's been a little while since we've been in the same place at the same time. I thought it might be fun to do a little giveaway in conjunction with this visit, so here we go...

From now until noon EDT this Friday, the 15th, I will be posting hints on the Our Little Acre Facebook page that are designed to help you guess who Guest is. Since you all may not be on Facebook, I will edit this blog post to include my hints as they are posted. So bookmark this page and return to it to see any updates that you may have missed on Facebook.

When Friday comes and Guest gets here, the giveaway will be over and I will reveal who Guest is. I will do a random drawing from all the correct guesses, and one of you will win a copy of Guest's book. That's right, Guest is an author. (Yes, a gardening book.) That's your first hint.

In addition to the book, the winner will also receive a live plant, suitable for growing where the winner lives.

You may make three guesses as to who Guest is throughout the duration of the giveaway time period. If you want to guess three different people's names or use all three of your guesses on the same name, it's up to you. Only correct guesses will be entered into the drawing though. In the event that no correct answers are submitted, winner will be chosen at random from all entries.

So, are you in?

Guess my guest!

Leave a comment here on this blog post - up to three guesses per person - before noon EDT on Friday, March 15th.

*The prize package of a live plant and a book were provided by an independent garden center to be named later and the publisher for the purposes of this giveaway, because we all just like to have fun.

*Giveaway is open to residents of the lower 48 United States only.

What's Growing Under the Cold Frame?

2013-03-07T13:19:00.002-05:00

A couple of years ago, I planted some spinach seeds in August for a fresh fall crop. For who knows what reason, the seeds didn't germinate and I got no fresh spinach that fall. But when spring came, so did the spinach! The seeds had lain there all winter and when the conditions were right, they germinated and grew.

Spinach is actually pretty tough. We've had years where I planted it in spring, I cut it all through summer and fall, and it continued to grow through winter. Only the coldest temperatures that our winter throws at it will kill it.

Spinach in snow - Winter 2011/2012

This year, I decided to try something else. I'd been eyeing a cold frame at Peaceful Valley Farm & Garden Supply for a little while and finally made the purchase last fall. The kind folks at Peaceful Valley were a big help in advising me as to which cold frame would best suit my needs. I decided on this one because it has a little more real estate than a similar model. If I'd been putting the cold frame up against a building, I would have gone with the other one.

A mild late fall and winter and a little procrastination meant we didn't get it put together until December. Though all those pieces looks a little scary, it was very easy to assemble.

I lightly cultivated an area in the garden and placed the cold frame over that. In mid-January, I sprinkled some spinach seeds over the soil under half of the cold frame and that was that. I figured that just like a couple of years ago, they would come up when they were good and ready.

Spinach seeds were sown on January 12, 2013.

We had some snow and some cold and some sunny days, and while I didn't really think I'd see anything going on under there until maybe late in March, on February 18th, I opened the top of the cold frame and saw this:

Spinach seedlings under the cold frame on February 18th.

No, the seedlings won't grow as quickly as they would in their normal season, but we'll be eating fresh spinach salads when many other gardeners are just thinking about what they're going to plant.

There's spinach growing in that cold frame!
March 6, 2013

As far as the cold frame is concerned, it was a little lighter weight than I expected - it's made with aluminum framing and double-walled polycarbonate glazing - and on a couple of extremely windy days, one of the lids blew off, but there are clips you can put on to prevent that. Oops - we forgot to use those.

I also purchased an automatic vent opener because past history of using a cold frame has taught me that I cannot be relied upon to open the top a little on those early sunny days and I've cooked the plants inside. Likewise, forgetting to close it again on cold nights meant dead plants, too. We ("we" would mean "Romie") haven't installed the vent opener yet, but it needs to be done soon. Spring, with its warmer, sunnier days, is right around the corner.

Late Winter Walk in the Woods

2013-03-04T12:51:00.000-05:00

Eastern skunk cabbage
(Photo from Wikimedia Commons)

In my quest to see skunk cabbage in its natural environment, Romie and I headed down the road to the woods where we go to see the wildflowers in spring. Eastern skunk cabbage (Symplocarpus foetidus) is the first to appear here, usually appearing in late February or early March.

Skunk cabbage smells funky because one of its pollinators is flies. They're attracted to stinky stuff. This plant has a cool trait though; its flower buds generate heat - enough to melt snow! The temperature inside the plant can reach as high as 70° F on a cold winter's day.

We cross Poohsticks Bridge on the way to the woods.

I've never seen it in this woods, in fact, I've never seen it in person anywhere, in spite of it being native to our part of Ohio. I suspect I've just never been out and about during the time when it emerges. Only the prospect of seeing a wildflower would get me out in the woods at a time of year when I've thoroughly had it with winter.

We didn't find any skunk cabbage - mostly just some grasses and moss were greening up - but we did see some lovely lichens growing on fallen trees. It will be another month before we start to see much in the way of wildflowers on the woods' floor.

Note the small stick that's threaded all the way through several layers.

I'm not sure what type of fungus this is. It has a black stem and the cap
measures about four inches across.

One of the things I like about our walks down the road is that we have the most interesting - and strange - conversations. Yesterday's went like this:

Romie: (Standing, facing south) I wonder if I took my gloves off and held them against my stomach in the sun, if they'd get warm enough to keep my gloves off.

Me: I think it would depend on if there's wind or not.

Romie: Yeah, I mean out of the wind.

Me: Probably at this temperature (30°), they'd stay warm enough. But having your hands inside your gloves holds your body heat there too, so it's probably a wash as to which would be warmer.

You know, there are people who think about these things when they're kids and then they grow up to become scientists because they want to know the answers. I want to know the answers, but I don't want to devote my life's work to finding them.

Thank God for scientists.

Romie: Yeah.

And an earlier one:

Me: I wonder where the snakes are.

Romie: I don't.

___________________________________________