Wildflower walk

I used to call it Jennifer's Elbow but I think Wildflower walk has a better ring to it.  It's the path off the Jennifer trail that takes us around the hemlock and then down to the camping site. there's some ginseng but it's not up yet and these that we planted last fall:

Red trillium

Virginia Bluebells (Mertensia)

Red trillium

Bloodroot

Dutchman's Breeches

Flowers of the Barony

After several days of rain our flowers in the meadow and around the house are coming on strong.

Loncera buds	Loncera
Viburnum	Cornflower or Bachelor button, chickory, Centaurea cyanus
Pinks and Lupine	Sweet William--Dianthus barbatus
Sweet William	Lupine
Columbine	Clematis
Wood anemone Anemone quinquefolia	Heuchera

Early wildflowers in our WHIP shrub plot

The WHIP shrub plot and pollinator strips are blooming nicely.  The purple flowers are , considered a noxious weed because it seeds aggressively.  Still, in some of the close-up pictures you can see a bumble bee visiting the purple flowers. The blues ones close up by noon.

Dames Rockets	Noxious weeds because they seed so readily.  We pick these and enjoy the flowers so we'll have no seeds. I'm disappointed that wild flower mixes from reputable sources include these.
Blue Flax-- Linum perenne lewisii	Native west of the Mississippi.  these close up in the heat of the day.  Here's another that doesn't make sense in an northeast wildflower mix.
Cheiranthus allionii	Siberian Wallflower are at their best in early to mid-May.

Had a double FOY yesterday:  saw two Eastern Black Snakes close to the electrical junction box near the house.  The first on was out in the open on a patch of ground that didn’t have any vegetation.  This snake was about 3 foot long and when I first saw it, it held its head about 6 inches off the ground to get a better view.  As the dogs and I approached it, the snake zipped back into the forest behind the junction box.  As we continued walking towards the house, another Black Snake appeared in a weed covered depression.  It was a little larger, about 4 foot long and as the dogs walked over it, (without even noticing the snake), the snake rapidly crawled into the forest in the same area as the first snake.  First of the year snakes, but both were fairly small in size compared to the typical 6 foot ones we find in the chicken coop!
The cherry trees are show lots of immature cherries on their branches now, more proof that the freeze and frost of last week did not do any real damage. My apple tree is another issue as it is not showing any apples. This tree was partially girdled by a rodent chewing the bark off the tree down at the soil line. Its partner apple tree was chewed so much that it just fell out of the ground this spring. The cool season WHIP plot shows a dead strip of grass that I sprayed earlier in the spring. This was a strip that was missed when we applied herbicide last year. This plot was planted last year in alfalfa, yellow sweet clover, bird’s foot trefoil, slender wheatgrass, Austrian winter pea, and flat pea. I did some over planting by broadcasting winter peas and wheatgrass this spring. The plot now shows a lot of alfalfa and trefoil greening up nicely. The warm season WHIP plot was planted in switchgrass, big bluestem, little bluestem, indiangrass, purpletop, orchardgrass, Canada wildrye, and a wildflower mix. I did some additional over planting this spring by broadcasting big bluestem, and switchgrass. This plot now shows a lot of clover, some white wildflowers in bloom, and just the beginning of several grass varieties. We should be seeing the switchgrass and bluestem grasses emerging as the warmer weather arrives.

More planting than we bargained for, part 2

Now that the meadow is chest high we find new treasures on each walk.  Treasure #1 is a very dead looking ailanthus.  A couple of sprays of Garlon 4 took good care of that baby in a week.   Aspen have spread out.  We have found one tulip poplar and some ash seedlings, several cherry tomatoes, a couple of apple-y looking sprouts, and a deep purple butterfly bush, buddleia, Thank you birds.

cherry tomatoes	tulip poplar, 8"
Missouri primrose	weed over NJ tea perhaps

There's plenty we haven't identified yet. Wildflowers of Pennsylvania  and Wildflower color chart may help us name them. Cosmos (pink, white and purple), Coreopsis, Gaillardia, California poppies and Icelandic poppies, chicory,

Project complete, now let it grow

On Thursday May 10 we had the warm and cool season grasses planted by Adam Smith’s team (Adam, John, and one other guy who drove the drill on the back of a pickup truck).  For our two grass plots they used 51 HP John Deere tractor and a Truax seed drill.  It took a total of 6 hours for the whole process, including the time to get the drill set up, the seed mixed, loaded into the drill box, adjusting the seed drill depth at 0.25 inches, and the actual drilling. I have the remaining seed that they were able to vacuum out of the drill box after completing the drilling and I plan to broadcast that left-over seed sometime this week, depending on how wet it gets. I also have broadcast 7 rows of pollinator flower plots so far:  2 rows of northeast wild flower mixes, a row of combined sunflowers and butterfly weed, and individual rows of red clover, buckwheat, chicory, and birdsfoot trefoil.  I have a couple of packages of wildflower and pollinator seed mixes that will go into remaining rows between the shrubs. The number of shrubs in the ground now is 128.  We still have 22 shrubs holes available for planting. Getting the grasses drilled last week was a big event and now the meadow grass plots really look like they have been seeded, so we’ll see how they develop.  The rains this week will be welcome!

Planting the meadow

I am getting ready to order the grass seeds for our two 0.5 acre plots of cool season grasses and warm season grasses.  I will probably order the seeds from Ernst Conservation Seeds as they seem to have the best assortment, good prices, and they provide pure live seed (PLS). 

 

For the Warm Season Grasses, based on the Technical Guide Reference Number 122, I will probably go with a combination of

Big Bluestem (Niagara certified NY)  – 2 lbs

Indiangrass (PA ecotype) – 1 lbs

Little Bluestem (Fort Indiantown Gap PA ecotype) – 1 lbs

Switchgrass (Cave In Rock IL ecotype and Blackwell OK ecotype) – 2 lbs

Purpletop – 1 lbs

Wildflowers (Plateau Tolerant Wildflower Mix ERNMX-166-1) – 1 lb

·         20% Bachelor's Button Tall Mixed/Cornflower (Centaurea cyanus, Tall Mixed)

·         16% Cosmos (Cosmos bipinnatus)

·         10% Purple Coneflower (Echinacea purpurea)

• 10% Perennial Gaillardia (Blanketflower) (Gaillardia aristata)
• 7% Partridge Pea, PA Ecotype (Chamaecrista fasciculata (Cassia f.), PA Ecotype)
• 6% Oxeye Daisy (Chrysanthemum leucanthemum)
• 5% Lanceleaf Coreopsis, Coastal Plain NC Ecotype (Coreopsis lanceolata, Coastal Plain NC Ecotype)
• 5% Marsh (Dense) Blazing Star (Spiked Gayfeather), PA Ecotype (Liatris spicata, PA Ecotype)
• 5% Illinois Bundleflower (Desmanthus illinoensis)
• 4% Shasta Daisy (Chrysanthemum maximum)
• 3% Yellow Prairie Coneflower (Ratibida columnifera)
• 3% Blue Chicory (Cichorium intybus)
• 3% Grey Headed Coneflower, OH Ecotype (Ratibida pinnata, OH Ecotype)
• 2% Blackeyed Susan, Coastal Plain NC Ecotype (Rudbeckia hirta, Coastal Plain NC Ecotype)
• 1% Plains Coreopsis (Coreopsis tinctoria)

For the Cool Season Grass seeds, I will likely go with 2 lbs each of:

·         Orchard Grass (Pennlate)

·         Wild Rye, Canada (PA ecotype)

·         Legumes

§  Alfalfa, Vernal

§  Sweet Clover,Yellow Blossom

§  Birdsfoot Trefoil (Empire and Norcen)

·         Wheatgrass, Slender

·         Flat Pea (Lathco)

·         Austrian Winter Pea

WHIP plantings draft plan

I am getting ready to order the grass seeds for our two 0.5 acre plots of cool season grasses and warm season grasses.  I will probably order the seeds from Ernst Conservation Seeds as they seem to have the best assortment, good prices, and they provide pure live seed (PLS). 

 

For the Warm Season Grasses, based on the Technical Guide Reference Number 122, I will probably go with a combination of

Big Bluestem (Niagara certified NY)  – 2 lbs

Indiangrass (PA ecotype) – 1 lbs

Little Bluestem (Fort Indiantown Gap PA ecotype) – 1 lbs

Switchgrass (Cave In Rock IL ecotype and Blackwell OK ecotype) – 2 lbs

Purpletop – 1 lbs

Wildflowers (Plateau Tolerant Wildflower Mix ERNMX-166-1) – 1 lb

·         20% Bachelor's Button Tall Mixed/Cornflower (Centaurea cyanus, Tall Mixed)

·         16% Cosmos (Cosmos bipinnatus)

·         10% Purple Coneflower (Echinacea purpurea)

• 10% Perennial Gaillardia (Blanketflower) (Gaillardia aristata)
• 7% Partridge Pea, PA Ecotype (Chamaecrista fasciculata (Cassia f.), PA Ecotype)
• 6% Oxeye Daisy (Chrysanthemum leucanthemum)
• 5% Lanceleaf Coreopsis, Coastal Plain NC Ecotype (Coreopsis lanceolata, Coastal Plain NC Ecotype)
• 5% Marsh (Dense) Blazing Star (Spiked Gayfeather), PA Ecotype (Liatris spicata, PA Ecotype)
• 5% Illinois Bundleflower (Desmanthus illinoensis)
• 4% Shasta Daisy (Chrysanthemum maximum)
• 3% Yellow Prairie Coneflower (Ratibida columnifera)
• 3% Blue Chicory (Cichorium intybus)
• 3% Grey Headed Coneflower, OH Ecotype (Ratibida pinnata, OH Ecotype)
• 2% Blackeyed Susan, Coastal Plain NC Ecotype (Rudbeckia hirta, Coastal Plain NC Ecotype)
• 1% Plains Coreopsis (Coreopsis tinctoria)

For the Cool Season Grass seeds, I will likely go with 2 lbs each of:

·         Orchard Grass (Pennlate)

·         Wild Rye, Canada (PA ecotype)

·         Legumes

§  Alfalfa, Vernal

§  Sweet Clover,Yellow Blossom

§  Birdsfoot Trefoil (Empire and Norcen)

·         Wheatgrass, Slender

·         Flat Pea (Lathco)

·         Austrian Winter Pea

Rattlesnake weed and whip-poor wills

While walking out to check the game camera we heard the honking of a flight of geese, down in the valley and below the trees. The honking got louder and louder as they came thundering out of the aspen below the shed and flew overhead, close enough to hear their wing beats over the squawking. We both had the impression of the Thunderbirds at a summer air show; they seem to come from nowhere and suddenly roar overhead. They were gone just as quickly. The perfect V had at least 20 birds, but we didn't see any missing man formation.

We've been watching a wildflower on Rough Grouse Path. The leaves are distinctive but the flower usually gets eaten before we can see it. Finally, the Baron found one in bloom: flower with pinked petals, reminiscent of a dandelion, but purple veined mostly basal leaves: rattlesnake weed Hieracium venosum. Thought it might be trout lily or dog tooth violet, but when we "teased it apart" al la Eric, my wild flower instructor, it's not even close. Luckily, it's native. In the same area we have loads of Perfoliate Bellwort Uvularia perfoliata






Last night the whip-poor will didn't sing. We noted that because I've been using the song as my bedtime alarm. One night he sounded like he was on the bathroom window sill. He began tonight at 9:01 but started and stopped and moved around front to back before settling down, even cutting off one song mid "whip". He can go for as long as 45 whip-poor wills without taking a breath, so when he doesn't we notice. We've never seen him, but certainly know he's there.