American Pokeweed: Bane or Beauty?
There’s an American Pokeweed (Phytolacca americana) growing across the alley from our house. It emerged from an overgrown hedge this year that our new neighbors have cut to the ground.
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Notes from a wildlife-friendly cottage garden
A recycled post from the National Wildlife Federation recently reignited a debate in our house concerning the humble opossum. Possums give Judy the creeps, but I think that people generally, and gardeners in particular, should roll out the welcome mat to North America’s only marsupial.
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On a recent Saturday, I spent the morning planting bulbs at Lurie Garden along with other volunteers and staff. This was the beginning of a massive effort to revitalize LG’s spring flower display through planting 61,000 bulbs.
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Somehow, it’s almost the end of October. Yesterday Judy and I decided to walk through the neighborhood to inspect the state of fall foliage. Color continues to settle in, though tardily and somewhat unevenly.
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Finally, I’m all done with this year’s bulb planting. The last of them were 100 Glory-of-the-Snow (Chionodoxa forbesii) that I ordered as kind of an afterthought – after I was done with the Tulips, Daffodils, and Alliums.
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Here we are in the second half of October and the normal fall color is still slow to set in.
Most of the street trees are still green, but some of the Maples have turned orange and red.
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There’s an American Witch-Hazel (Hamamelis virginiana) planted on the east side of the house. Rabbits chewed it to the ground every year before I protected it with hardware cloth. Then it bounded upward and quickly reached its current height of about 10′. It’s still growing, I think.
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Round and Round Over Roundup
When I hear people debate the herbicide glyphosate, or Roundup as it is more commonly known, I generally want to hide under a table. This is because I have friends who are passionate on both sides of the issue.
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I’m not one of those people who say that seedheads are just as good as flowers. They’re not. But in the absence of flowers, seedheads can be pretty nice to have around.
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Oh, I ache. My back aches. My thighs ache. Even my fingers ache. Even so, I have an undeniable feeling of accomplishment, having planted approximately 370 bulbs in our garden this weekend. Just 30 to go.
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