What a beautiful day it is.
Our weekend weather was a bit chilly and we had some patchy frost on a
few nights. I have the majority of my
house plants inside and now I spend time watering inside instead of outside. I
managed to bring in a cricket with them who has been singing his head off every
evening by one of the front windows filled with plants. The frost didn’t kill my tomatoes, even though
I didn’t cover them and I picked a few today.
I just reviewed some long range weather reports from various
places and the agreement seems to be we will have a mild dry fall.
(I also consulted a wooly bear caterpillar
but he seemed to be equally black and orange.) Mild is fine but dry is
not.
Our soils are still in a very dry
state.
When you do any digging you find
the soil is bone dry an inch or so down.
My pond is down at least 5 feet and one end is dried up.
I am getting worried about some of my trees.
Pay attention to the weather reports this time of year if
you want to protect certain plants from frost still. The weather is extremely changeable at this time
of the year and a warm sunny day can quickly become a frosty night. Usually weather forecasts will warn you in
the evening, but use your own judgment too.
Anytime its clear and the temperature is forecast to get to 40 degrees
or below at night frost could happen. It doesn’t hurt to cover plants as long
as you remember to remove covers when the sun comes up.
In the garden
I have these swamp sunflowers in my bee and butterfly garden
that are blooming like crazy right now.
The Jerusalem artichokes with
a similar flower are also blooming again.
I will be harvesting a lot of “sunchokes” from them soon. I like them because they produce a large
harvest from a small space, are perennial and the seed heads also attract
birds.
If you have never eaten Jerusalem
artichokes you should try some this fall. The roots or tubers are lumpy and odd shaped,
from home grown plants, commercial varieties tend to be rounded lumps. You can eat them raw or cook them in any way
you cook potatoes. They are quite good,
if a little hard to wash, and don’t make the blood sugar rise like
potatoes. Try frying them with a little
onion, like country fried potatoes and mix in some cooked crumbled bacon. Delicious.
The autumn joy sedum is quite pretty mixed with Russian sage
right now and the zebra grass by my pond has some beautiful flower plumes. I picked some seeds off the yucca plant
while I was photographing the zebra grass.
I wonder if they are fertile as I never see little yucca plants come up
from seed around the big plants. I am
going to try and see if they grow in pots.
I also have some nice gaillardia blooming by the pond.
My shrub roses are blooming again and the garden phlox is
too. The sweet autumn clematis is
sweetly filling the air with scent as well as spreading a drift of white
flowers all over one of my flower beds.
The ornamental kale is coloring up and as soon as frost kills the
morning glories smothering them they will put on a nice show.
Birds
I lied when I said I had no apples this year. I was looking at one of my apple trees and
spotted an apple. I went to inspect the
tree closer and found 2 more apples. But
while looking so closely at the tree I found this year’s oriole nest, the first
time I have found one before the leaves fall.
I think the orioles left early this year, I haven’t seen any for about 2
months.
Last night the turkey vultures were congregating in huge
numbers on our property. We normally
have a group of about 15 that roost in our trees at night but there must have
been 50-60 around here last night. I am
hoping that they are getting ready to fly south as I will feel safer about the
little baby ducks we have out in the barnyard right now if they leave. They say the turkey vulture doesn’t eat live
prey but I think they took some baby turkeys earlier and several old timers
have told me they do eat baby birds.
I have also had a small darkish duck on the pond all week I
am trying to identify.
I think it’s a
female of some species but it is very quiet, most female ducks quack a
lot.
My Muscovys are neutral toward it
but they don’t spend a lot of time on the water.
It’s eating the autumn olive berries along
the shore and doesn’t seem too spooked by me watching it or the turkeys and
chickens roaming around eating the same berries.
Take a look at the picture of the duck. Any birders out there with a clue? I know the photo’s not great, it’s a
magnification of a zoom. Maybe an
immature wood duck? The belly is tawny,
bit of white on the wings, sort of a bar by the eyes, haven’t seen a crest but
maybe it is there folded down. Little
patch of iridescence on back. Let me
know if you think you can ID it.
Building a better bat
cave
Gardeners in the know love bats because they eat a lot of
harmful insects. Some even go so far as
to put up bat houses to attract them. But
recently bats in North America have developed a disease
called “white nose fungus” that weakens them while they hibernate in the
winter. It causes them to wake up and
leave the caves in winter where they perish, probably because they are starving
as the disease consumes energy resources.
Holes develop in the delicate membranes of bat wings and a white growth
covers their nose.
Researchers have recently found that the fungus that causes
the disease is common in bats found in Europe, but that
it doesn’t seem to have as much impact on the health of European bats. Researchers think that the disease may have
been carried to North America by people exploring caves
in Europe and then entering caves here with contaminated
equipment. Many caves where bats
hibernate have been closed to human visitors in an effort to slow the spread of
the disease.
Now in Tennessee
researchers are taking it one step further and they have built a climate
controlled cave with easily cleaned concrete walls and floors, (with private
funding). Their hope is to lure the
endangered gray bat into the cave with sound recordings and get them to
hibernate there. The estimated 270, 000
gray bats left in the world hibernate in only 9 known caves. The artificial
cave is located near a cave where the bats do hibernate. When they disperse in the spring the cave
will be disinfected. The cave is also
fitted with cameras and other scientific devices to study the bats.
Scientists do believe that over time bats in North
America will build up a resistance to white nose fungus as they
have in Europe but it may be some time before that
happens and some rare bat species may be lost.
The disease was discovered here in 2006 in New
York but it has spread west and south to numerous
states.
Bulbs
If you haven’t bought your fall bulbs yet better get them
while you can. If you don’t have any
spring flowering bulbs to get spring started in your yard shame on you. I have been digging up an older flower bed to
get rid of some ferns and daylilies there and I ran into literally hundreds of
daffodil bulbs which I am sorting and trying to get replanted in a less crowded
fashion. I think I will have some to
spare for other places around the yard.
Bulbs can be planted up to the time the ground freezes but
its better to give them 6 weeks or so to grow new roots before then. If you do forget to plant them and snow has
covered the ground simply plant them in pots and put them somewhere cold, like
an unheated shed. You can bring them
inside to a warm window sill 6 weeks later for early blooms or just let them
bloom in the pots outside. (You will
need to take them out of a shed about March and put them in a sunny spot.) When the ground has thawed enough you could
plant the clumps in the garden.
Daffodils and alliums are deer proof but tulips are like
candy to them. I have never had deer eat
crocus, grape hyacinths or snowdrops but other people have told me that deer
have eaten theirs. Put them close to the
house and hope for the best.
Master Gardeners
across the nation
In Washington State
the Master Gardener class meets from 8:30 am
to 3:30 pm once a week until 80
hours of classroom instruction are met.
Volunteers are expected to do 50 hours a year of volunteer time for 2
years to certify. The course costs $245
but jumps to $745 if the volunteer work is not completed. That’s a big
incentive.
In Alabama the MG course meets from 9am -3pm once a week for 13 weeks and requires
50 hours of volunteer time. It costs
$125. In New York MG classes are generally held every
other year in a county. Class meets from
9am - 4pm once a week for 15
weeks. 30 hours of volunteer time is
expected and the course costs $350. In Pennsylvania
MG classes meet for 3 hours once a week for 13 weeks, 50 volunteer hours are
expected and the course costs $125.
Some articles to read
There is
no doubt a bit of sadness when we notice the days are shorter and the nights
are cooler. But many gardeners feel a bit relieved that the busy season is
over. They anticipate that they’ll have more energy and time in the cooler days
of fall for what garden chores they feel still need to be done and maybe some
time to enjoy other activities outdoors too.
Continue reading here.
Rice is
the latest food being turned into a scary threat by people who are jumping to
conclusions after some preliminary reports by the FDA and a push by Consumer
Reports to get the FDA to set standards for the consumption of arsenic in food.
The release of reports by the two groups has caused a rash of speculative
articles from everyone.
Continue reading here.
Grants for gardening
projects with children
I saw an article in the County
Press about a Lapeer County Master
Gardener who was working with a school on a beautification project. Those are rewarding projects and for those of
you who enjoy working on volunteer projects with children here is a link
http://www.kidsgardening.org
that has a section devoted to grants
for gardening projects involving children.
It never hurts to have a little money to work with.
Open a window and hear the crickets sing.
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