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Wednesday, September 26, 2012

Tuesday notes September 25, 2012


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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