Shepard Lane Garden

  The woolly croton (Croton Capitatus) usually begins to have its odd 'fuzzy blooms'  here in Tennessee right around the time we go back to school.  For that reason, we've done the 'what's that weed!?' before on this one.     However, I did not learn at that time it had so many other names!  It is also called Hogwort (and not the same Hogwart as Harry Potter's school, apparently that was a misremembering of Hogweed!) - and Goatweed (although it is poisonous to goats) and Doveweed, as its seeds can provide an important food source for doves and quail.    Grasshoppers like to eat the plants, too Goatweed or Croton has been a problem for many farmers because it harbors 'pests', like grasshoppers and root that also like to eat cotton, and because it causes illness in goats and cows that consume it with their feed.  However, in non-agricultural forest areas and meadows it is an important part of the life   The croton grows in this silv...

There is a whole microclimate living under the oak out by the hydrant.  It can be seen for something like twenty feet in any direction that the roots of plants are different, the soil moisture level is different, the insects and the fungi are different.  It is the only place in the entire yard I have ever seen this plant, and it grows back at the base of this oak every year, near the yucca and the baby's breath, the wandering daffodil bulbs and the place where the salamander stays wet under the hydrant stone.   Commelina communis - Asiatic dayflower, also known as Mouse Ears.  It is kind of easy to see how it got that nickname, despite the color! It is part of the Spiderwort family, also known as Tradescantia. It is such a brilliant blue, and yet, so small it is easy to miss, and the flowers only last for one day.  Bees and butterflies are interested in it and visit it for pollen, but it contains no nectar.  The leaves are small and blade shaped, and grow...