Mt. Pleasant Farm in May 2017

The Howard County Conservancy’s Mt. Pleasant Farm was a busy place in May: many field trips from elementary and middle schools and the flurry of construction on the education center expansion…trying to finish by the end of the month. There were the usual spring sights around the farm house: black walnuts leafing out and blooming,

Dogwoods in flower (this pink one is and near the rain garden).

And peonies.

The perimeter around the construction is mostly off limits – but the new sign in up.

Last week I took a walk out to the community garden to meet the buses for a 2^nd grade field trip and enjoyed the time before the other volunteers walked out doing some photography. There was plenty to see: dandelions gone to seed,

Water droplets in the grass,

Seeds of grasses and

Sturdy wild flowers in the areas no mowed recently.

The winds have broken some of the ties that held the fencing mesh around the community garden; I noticed it as I photographed goldfinches

And tree swallows. The tree swallows were in a nesting box near where the buses were going to unload. It sounded like there were already nestlings!

Gone to Seed

The first dandelion flowers have already gone to seed. I notice many along the sides of the narrow county roads…and in the plants I photographed earlier on my deck. The plants move from flower to seeds in about a week.

And then the seeds are ready to float away and sprout in any bit of soil that is deep enough for their roots.

These plants that we fight as weeds in our lawns were brought to North America as a desirable garden plant by early colonialists! The leaves and flowers are edible…there is dandelion wine. I try to remember that as I photograph them.

Invasives on the Deck

I left some pots on the uncovered part of our deck from last summer…intending to plant flowers for pollinators in them for the upcoming season…but I have invasives pull the first! One pot has a very health garlic mustard plant (there is more of it at the edge of our forest. I’m pulling all of it that is on our property. I supposed some people might like it in salads….but it is too aggressive in places I want jack-in-the-pulpits and woodland wildflowers for me to like it at all.

The other invasive is dandelions. They don’t seem as bad to me but maybe that is just because they’ve been around my whole life. They too can be eaten and I have gotten leaves from my CSA and grocery store on occasion. There flowers and seed pods are interesting topics for photography. I’ve heard one soil conservation person comment that dandelions might be a good thing for slopes since they have longer tap roots and can hold soil more effectively that shallow rooted plants. So – they do have some redeeming qualities….but they are still weeds and I’ll pull them from my deck pots before I plant the flower seeds in the next week or so.

Around my Yard – April 2017

April has been a rainy month for us – so far. I managed to walk around the yard on one sunny afternoon. There is a lot of trimming and cleanout work to be done as soon as we have a few dry days in a row. I am not a gardener so it is a chore that requires some will power to accomplish. I cheered myself up by taking some pictures of little things I noticed as I was assessing the yard: a wasp exploring a past-prime daffodil,

A dandelion – one of the first to bloom this season (pre-emergent is never totally effective),

A self-fungus on one of the larger pieces in our brush pile,

Violets beginning to bloom,

And a scruffy looking robin!