Botanizing the Neighborhood

Illus. of Corn Gromwell from my notebook.

One one of the side streets around the neighborhood I spotted several flowering plant in this one stretch of roadside turf.  The flowers are only a few mm wide and so I had to use my new microscope and 15X loupe to be able to draw it.  Neat part about modern botanizing is that you can record it's local with GPS coordinates.  Also, you can sometimes get a bird's eye few via satillite or arial imaging.  I found that once you can narrow the plant to it's family it is much easier to ID the species using the internet.

Here is a google image of the location.
Down the street (N. Norfolk) is Shangri la

What is living in your birdbath?

Birdbath sample and 100X field microscope

Since I had my microscope out to look at white fly nymphs I decided to take a look at what lives in the birdbath.  When there is no water in it many of the creatures encyst until it either rains or I fill it up with water.  During the summer you can see a reddish deposit on the bottom and I've read that this is carried in by the birds and is rotifers. A good place to see what grows either in your birdbath or garden pond is to visit Ron's Pond Scum.  An interesting web site that gives you lots of interesting photos of micro-critters and plants.  Sure would like to have his microscope and camera setup.

I was expecting to find rotifers but haven't seen a one so far.  It was pretty lifeless when I looked at it right after collecting the sample.  But I placed it in some sunlight and have spotted some nostoc growing.  Also there are a few critters swimming around in the soup but I can't I.D. them.  I've ordered a student microscope with zoom from 50-250X in hopes of getting a better look.  There is also a lot of dead plant tissue fragments in the mix that the birds brought in.

BTW I scrub the birdbath with a stiff brush and rinse out the debris each time I refill it with fresh water.

Update on Poinsettia Rescue

3rd & 4th instar nymphs 

Well, the concoction I made up the other day is not working.  Today I saw a white fly emerge from the poinsettia plant as I tapped it.  I decided to put one of the leaves under a microscope at 100X and sure 'nuff there they were...about 6 nymphs on the leaves.  I could not find any eggs which gives me hope.
 Lady Stickfigure banished the plant from the house and my reply could only be, "Yes, your Linesse."  I promptly curtsied and left with a pitiful looking poinsettia out to the patio.  Its fate is hanging on the edge of doom.

At right is a drawing I made of the little creatures.  I compared them with some online pics and they look pretty close.

That plant sat out on the patio all summer last year and really took off.  But when I brought it into the house the flies went to work unopposed.  I figure they must have been prayed upon outside to such an extent that they could not do much damage.

I gave it another dose of the pepper/soap concoction and left the plant outside to see what happens.

Blogger's Bloom Day 3/15

I think the flower is posing. :)

Jonquils

Crocus

Hey folks, it's Blogger's Bloom Day.  Spring is here and it looks like a good one.  We had a late bout of winter weather but nothing looks damaged.  I can't wait for the iris but that is in late April around here. Click on the tag below to see the other bloom day posts of mine.  Also you might want to look up May Dreams Garden.  It's a great tradition that connects you with fellow garden bloggers.

Potting up Veggies with Sloanie Mae

Sloanie, (my grand daughter), and I potted up some veggies.
Green and Red Bell Peppers, and Petunias.

We made a special pot for her where she planted 3 beans so that she could watch them grow.  All the while she was singing Farmer in the Tail (Dale).  She is 3 and a half years old.  Hope she takes up gardening later in life.  We always say a bracha (prayer) whenever we plant or harvest something.  There is a saying, "Those closest to nature are closest to God".

Springtime

There are infinite segments of a moment in time.

There is a spring somewhere
  for a little seed.
And she awaits it's coming
  from here on winter's day.
The urge within her swells
  of wanting for the robin to come home
  and the trees to dress their naked, knotty limbs;
  for the children to laugh and sing...they too have gone.
I fear her fate.
 Should she thrust her infant spriglettes up
  to taste the sun
  too soon.
  Would the frosty night return
  beheading her, her frail existence,
  before the chance to bloom?
And if she waits another year
  her fate I still must fear.
  Could then a blizzard come
  to freeze her thoroughly to the bone;
  her Spring denied.
But then that fateful day appeared.
  She laid her trust upon the hand
  of a circumstantial god.
  Should if the frosty night return
  her effort will not have been in vain.
  Because that finite day contains
  An infinite of infinite springs.

MG Morris

The turnips are up

My turnips are up and they made a pretty good stand.  This time I'm going to make a special effort to thin them out more than ever in hopes of having healthier plants that could fight off the aphids.  The soil they are in is very good and that should also help.

Turnips and Radishes have arrived.

I've noticed the iris greening up.  A sign they have broken their winter dormancy.  Here in Oklahoma they also go dormant in the hot summer months and put on rhizome growth in the fall and early winter.  At one time I had 400 varieties but there is no way I could take care of that many now.  In fact I'll have to thin the herd even more this year.

Grape hiacynths

The grape hyacinths are blooming now.  They are quite plentiful around the neighborhood and quite beautiful when blooming in mass.

Poinsettia rescue

I'm working on the fall garden log that I made up in 2013 while we are having this cold spell.  I have it all in a spiral-bound notebook and am in the process of putting it into a book using Microsoft word.  I would like to offer it as a download to provide a snippet of our fall garden experience.  I'm hoping to have it finished by the time the garden demands my full attention.

I had problems with the poinsettia in the south window.  We bring it in each year to overwinter.  It was attacked by white flies and almost died.  I tried this that and the other but finally had success by first taking it to the garage and using the sprayer from the facet to wash the critters off.  Next I picked off the worse leaves and rubbed out the nymphs with a small artist's brush. After that I made up a concoction of jalapeno peppers, water, and dish detergent.  I didn't have a blender so I ran the peppers through an old antique meat grinder I had, then strained it using an old T-shirt.  What ever you do DON'T TOUCH YOUR EYES UNTIL YOU WASH YOUR HANDS FIRST....OKAY, WEAR GLOVES. :)  I sprayed that plant top to bottom and both sides of all leaves.  Afterwards I re-potted the poor fellow and gave it a light dose of liquid fertilizer and placed it in a north window.  It is now showing signs of recovery by little leaves sprouting out after about 4 days there.  I don't think I'll have to say Kaddish over it, thank heaven.  It's very beautiful and I've tried to shape it to look bonsai-ish.  It needs another pruning but I'm going to wait until it has fully recovered to do that.  Check out this 21 year old poinsettia bonsai.of Nigel Saunders.  Mine is only 4 years old and will probably out-live me if I can manage to keep it alive. :)

Click on image to enlarge.

The Daffies are Blooming

The daffies are blooming and they are absolutely beautiful.  I planted them in the fall of 2013 and they are still looking good.  I planted  several clumps when we moved to Shangri la back in 2001 but the last of them died last year.  I just figure I will have to plant more every so often to keep up the numbers.

A note in passing:  The clematis showed up two days ago.

Jubilations! It's plantin' time in Shangri la.

Planted lettuce, radishes, onion slips, and put compost into raised bed.  So happy to get out into the garden and plant something.  BTW the little critter perched on the row marker stake is a cabbage butterfly watching her dinner being prepared.  

The bed on the left is raised about 6 inches while the one of the right is only 3 inches.  I've tried making them higher but they dry out too quickly in 102 deg weather.  The plants in the hog wire cage are black-eyed Susans...a native plant to Oklahoma.

Mr. Woodpecker is knocking

I'm watching you.

As I was making my daily rounds through the garden I suddenly heard a woodpecker hammering away on one of the trees.  We have seen the pileated woodpecker, hairy woodpecker, and a northern flicker here at Shangri la.  Before the ice storm, the landlord who thinned out all of his properties, and the power company trimming and removing trees we had a lot of bird life here in the 'hood. Also most of the abandoned houses have been torn down which provided nesting for several species.