Squirrel damage

By Crystal | August 29, 2014

We’ve never exactly appreciated the squirrels that live in our neighborhood, but this year they seem especially mean.

This sunflower already had its top bitten off, and the rest didn’t last long after this photo.

An entire evening primrose was pulled out of the ground, stem by stem.

This white coneflower, which bloomed this year for the first time, was snipped off near the ground.

I was especially annoyed that the squirrels were damaging our flowers for no good reason: they weren’t even eating them. But then they turned to the vegetables, and I wasn’t any less upset even though the food was being eaten.

A chicken-wire fence, which stopped the rabbits, wasn’t enough to deter the squirrels from picking the tomatoes. So we had to add another fence to the top to the garden, which makes it a challenge for the humans to harvest the tomatoes and kale.

Earlier this summer, when the squirrels were ripping up the squash and gourd flowers, we fenced them all in, which stopped the damage – but we eventually had to remove the fence because the vines were too constrained.

At one point, we had two acorn squashes. One disappeared completely, and the other ended up with a good chunk eaten off the top.

Same thing with this yellow squash. They also got two zucchini, but I don’t have the photo evidence because I was too busy rescuing the untouched zucchini to document it.

There were at least five gourds at one point, each distinctly different in appearance.

Two disappeared, one is now just a fraction of a rind, and a few scattered “crumbs” were all that remained of the fourth.

After this week’s gourd and squash damage, we re-fenced our one pumpkin and one remaining gourd. Without a top to the fence, though, I fear it’s just a matter of time before they’re gone too. At least we have tomatoes and kale!

Coming or going?

By Crystal | August 24, 2014

Butterfly weed’s bright orange blossoms are so striking, though in our garden this flower seems to be more enticing to bees than butterflies.

Every year it starts forming seed pods before I think it should. The orange has been replaced by 35 seed pods (and counting).

But we got a surprise this week: a few new buds opened up alongside the seed pods.

Summer isn’t quite over yet.

Shelter from the rain

By Crystal | August 20, 2014

I got home from work yesterday evening soon after an apparently heavy downpour. I wondered where all of the bumblebees went during the rain, so I checked the usually busy giant hyssop. It took some searching, but I eventually found…

bumblebee clinging to the underside of a leaf — This bumblebee (and one other) clinging to the bottom of a leaf …

grasshopper clinging to the underside of a leaf — … a grasshopper doing the same …

wet bumblebee clinging to a flower — … and this unfortunate bumblebee that must not have been able to find shelter in time. He (she?) looked pretty exhausted from hanging on.

Love blooms here

By Crystal | August 1, 2014

My cousin gave away packets of wildflower seeds at her wedding reception a year ago.

two wildflower seed packets

I waited patiently all fall and winter to plant them this spring. Just one packet held what seemed like hundreds of seeds − probably too many for this flower box, but I spread them all in the dirt anyway.

It didn’t take long for the first shoots to poke out of the ground.

I don’t know the names of most of these flowers, but I’m really enjoying them.

It’s been fun to see all the different varieties bloom and fade, only to be replaced by others.

Just when I think there can’t be any more, two or three new ones emerge.

It’s interesting to note how certain flowers like the red poppies are mostly on the left side of the planter, while others like the blue flowers gravitated to the other end.

Love is blooming.

What’s blooming at Tettegouche State Park

By Crystal | July 30, 2014

I spent three days and two nights camping with friends at Tettegouche State Park north of Duluth a week and a half ago.

bunchberry, northern bluebells, wild strawberry — Bunchberry, northern bluebells, wild strawberry

We went on a long hike each day – one through the woods to High Falls, and one along Lake Superior to Shovel Point.

self-heal, evening primrose, fireweed — Self-heal, evening primrose, fireweed

As is my habit, every hike turns into a wildflower hunt.

wild avens, wild rose, cinquefoil — Wild avens, wild rose, cinquefoil

It felt like every other minute I was stopping to photograph yet another specimen.

tall agrimony, American vetch, pussytoes — Tall agrimony, American vetch, pussytoes

Most were at ground level, but some were at eye level.

cow parsnip — Cow parsnip − some of these were taller than me!

black snakeroot and meadow rue — Black snakeroot, meadow rue

Wild columbine, yarrow, bush honeysuckle

The bush honeysuckle above is not a wildflower, but there were so many blooming that I had to include them. There were many other flowering shrubs, berries, and ferns that I’m not including.

I’m not sure whether this pretty buttercup is a native wildflower.

Many of the wildflowers we saw are natives, but of course there were also many non-natives…

clovers — Alsike clover, red clover, white clover

campion, field mustard, chickweed-alfalfa-pennycress — Clockwise from top left: campion, field mustard, chickweed, alfalfa, field pennycress seed pods

…including several on the Minnesota Wildflowers Invasive – ERADICATE! list.

devil flowers: devil's paintbrush, Glaucous King-devil — These two invasives look so similar except for their color, and they have similar common names: devil’s paintbrush and Glaucous King-devil. (The yellow one may instead be meadow hawkweed; I can’t tell the difference. If so, I’d like to switch to the other common name for the orange one – orange hawkweed – so these two flowers still match.)

Pretty but invasive: daisy and birds-foot trefoil

Back to the natives! Fortunately for me, the park’s visitors center compiled a list of the flowers that were blooming, so I had a head start on identifying those I didn’t already know:

one-flowered pyrola — One-flowered pyrola points nearly straight down, so I had to nearly lie on the ground to see its face.

shinleaf, pink corydalis, twinflower — Shinleaf, pink corydalis, twinflower

A new Instagram friend saw spotted coralroot a week earlier, an orchid I was disappointed to miss! I settled for a few black-eyed susans that were starting to bloom.