Forecast Frost last call

Fall Garden

Fall Raspberry

Canes of fall bearing raspberries also live only two years _ but the new canes jump the gun and squeeze in the beginnings of a crop toward the end of their first season. Once new canes reach a certain height, fruiting begins at their tips and then works its way down the cane until stopped by cold weather.

These canes finish their job the next year, bearing fruits in midsummer lower down, where they left off fruiting in fall. Fall bearing raspberries are sometimes called everbearing raspberries, which, literally, they almost are.

Take Fallgold, for instance, a variety yielding golden orange fruits with delicately sweet flavor. No sooner does the July crop _ on last year's stems _ wane than you notice little flower buds beginning to stud the tips of the new canes. Despite the "fall" in this variety's name, Fallgold pumps out golden treats well before fall, in late summer.

Pruning keeps all raspberries healthy and productive, and the procedure for fall bearing varieties is slightly different from that for conventional, summer bearing ones. Because stems of both die after their second season, they need to be cut to the ground either right after they finish fruiting in summer or during the winter that follows.

As far as the other stems of fall bearing raspberries, the ones that start to bear in the latter part of their first season of growth: Sometime during their first winter, these stems should be shortened to just below where they bore fruit. Remnants of fruit stalks along the young stems clearly tell you where to cut.

There is another, even easier, way to prune fall bearing raspberries, and that is to just lop the whole planting clear to the ground each winter. Use pruning shears, lopper, heavy duty mower, whatever it takes; no finesse is needed.

The next spring, the perennial roots will push out new stems that will begin bearing in late summer. Chop the whole planting down again the following winter, and the cycle repeats itself, and so on year after year.

This brutal way of pruning does sacrifice the midsummer crop, which would be borne on canes in their second year. But balance this loss against the ease of this method of pruning. Also, cutting down all canes avoids some disease problems and leaves nothing for deer to munch on in winter.

There aren't nearly as many varieties of fall bearing raspberries as summer bearing ones. Heritage is easy to grow but not all that tasty. At the other end of the flavor spectrum are varieties such as Caroline and Fallgold. Fallgold is so good that you may consider it worth the trouble of selective pruning rather than mowing each year.

Land Fill Reclamation

New Life awaits the peak of what was once a steaming, stinking, seagull-infested mountain of trash, a peak that is now green, or greenish, or maybe more like a green-hued brown, the tall grasses having been recently mown by the sanitation workers still operating at Fresh Kills, on the western shore of Staten Island. The sun dries the once slime-covered slopes, as a few hawks circle in big, slow swoops and a jet makes a lazy approach to Newark, just across the Arthur Kill. The sky, when viewed from atop a twenty-story heap of slowly decomposing garbage—the so-called South Mound, a Tribeca-size drumlin surrounded by other trash mounds, some as long as a mile—is the kind of big blue that you expect to see somewhere else, like the middle of Missouri. It’s a great wide-open bowl, fringed with green hills (some real, some garbage-filled) that are some of the highest points on the Atlantic seaboard south of Maine. Meanwhile, at your feet, hook-shaped white plastic tubes vent methane, the gas that builds up naturally in a landfill, a by-product of refuse being slowly digested by underground bacteria. The hissing of landfill gas is soft and gentle, like the sound of a far-off mountain stream or the stove left on in your apartment. The rest of the New York Times article can be found here:
http://nymag.com/news/features/52452/

Silphium is fantastic finch food and water source

Few forbes represent the Midwestern tall grass prairie as well as the plants of the genus Silphium. The compass plant, Silphium laciniatum, served as an orienteering device for early explorers: the tall, deeply cut leaves turn north and south based on the sun's direction in order to conserve water. The leaves of the plant are arranged in a perfoliate fashion, which means the leaves wrap around the entire stem, creating a small cup which captures the morning dew and rainfall. the morning dew collected is ofetn the only water source for birds and butterflies. Prairie dock, Silphium terebinthinaceum, towers several feet over the rest of the prairie when it blooms in the late summer. At an average height of 12 feet, Cup plant, Silphium perfoliatum, thrives in the dense, rich prairie.
Based on ethnobotanical history, modern researchers are investigating the medicinal properties of prairie plants. The sap from S. perfoliatum not only provides protection from HIV in infected cells, but is a known anti-cancer organic extract. The healing properties of the genus Echinacea are well known, as are the anti-cancer treatments afforded by the genus Ceonanthus.

Metamophosis cicada emerging

After 2, 13 or 17 years below the ground, in May or early June the mature nymphs bore to the surface, and sometimes even construct mud "chimneys" up to 3 inches tall. They climb onto nearby vegetation or any vertical surface. They then molt into winged adults. Their shredded outer skins or "exoskeletons" are frequently found attached to tree trunks and twigs. Their emergence is often tightly synchronized, with most nymphs appearing within a few nights.

The male's courtship songs attract females for mating. After mating, females use their saw-like ovipositors to split open the bark of hardwood trigs and insert eggs in two rows. They lay their eggs in twigs 1/4 to 1/2 inch in diameter. One to several dozen eggs can be laid in one branch, with up to 500 eggs being laid by each female in about 50 sites. Cicada eggs remain in the twigs for 6 to 10 weeks before hatching. After the eggs hatch, the tiny ant-like first stage nymphs drop to the soil to borrow in 6 to 18 inches underground to feed for the next 2 or more years. (Periodical cicadas develop for a thirteen to seventeen years cycle). The nymphs feed on the roots of many kinds of trees.

Silphium terebinthinaceum

Prairie Dock, the 12' giant has been weighted down in this afternoons rain.

Bare Roots today

A welcome surprise today at the door, Lake Norman Spirder(28" M 8" fragrant twist and curl petal pink/yellow bicolr) and Starsearch (34" M 7 1/2" pale yellow spider with green throat pinched petals, heavy bud set) daylily bareroots sent from Gail Korn at Garden Perennials in Nebraska.

Hummingbird activity today

Fragrant Bee Balm is winding down and hummingbirds were working hard collecting nectar.

Help wanted August garden

Achieving the natural look in a controlled space is .......... a talent.

August Garden

Heptacodium buds ready to pop

The scent of northern jasmine is not far away on this mid august day. I fell in love with this plant when someone pointed out the three distinctive ribs on each leaf and then I was surprised with a very drought tolerant and fragrant shrub.

Figs

Dragonfly

Dozens of dragonflies flying in groups above head today

Hydrangea Pia

With the blue hydrangea colors - you don't have to do much, when the garden's soil is acidic, aluminum is more bioavailable.

American Waterways

Designed by the world famous architect Louis I. Kahn, Point Counterpoint II has been the waterborne home of the orchestra since its construction as a Bicentennial project in 1976. The streamlined, 195-foot long, steel vessel is equipped with a 75 foot wide stage, the roof of which is raised up by hydraulic lifts at performance time. The stage area is spanned by an acoustical shell, and is equipped with a permanent pedestal seating designed by Japanese sculptor Yasuhide Kobashi.
The entire ship is a floating gallery that showcases this summer contemporary art and crafts from the America's. A woodworker from Maine handcrafted the oak tables that are set into the ship's office and galley; the Finnish artist Eino Ruutsalo created the kinetic light sculpture that forms one wall of the art gallery in the lower deck.

American Waterways Tour

The American Waterways Wind Orchestra performed its blend of pop and classical music to the waterways of Sturgeon Bay this weekend in a free concert on the Harbor.

Hundreds of young musicians have performed with the Wind Orchestra over the years and over 400 works by contemporary composers have been commissioned and played by the group at ports all over the world.

Fish Creek Wisconsin

Daylilly Days

Illinois Beach State Park

Waukegan Community Garden

Bottlebrush Buckeye from seed

Japanese Beetles collected in a Mason Jar

I have collected all the beetles that I could see at dusk in a jar. They are happy in there for now with a few rose pettles and did not even try to escape. I wonder how many more I will find tonight.

Japanese Beetles are here

Last week I released Preying Mantis in one bed and there seem to be less Beetles than in the bed where no Preying Mantis were released. Today I dusted the roses with diatomaceous earth and 6 hours later the Bettles still seem to be thriving, eating and multiplying inside the flowers. Now at dusk, I will try to pick them off one by one and see if there is a fresh army of Beetles tomorrow. The Beetles seem to prefer pink rugosa over all else. Not many beetles were found on the meidiland, pavement, or knockouts, maybe because they are hybrids.

July 11 Volo Bog

This afternoon we visited the Volo Bog. A very interesting place that we plan to spend more time investigating. The sidewalks are floating wood planks and the bog was created by glaciers that stopped in this spot 12,ooo years ago. The glaciers started to melt about 6,000 years ago and created a 50' deep pit that filled with glacier water. The silt and vegetation that have collected there are the uniques "bog" situation. This unique development has been designated as a Natural Historic Landmark and is now protected by the National Historic Sites Act of 1935.