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...

    I've been waiting for the thistles to bloom.  One of the first things that got me thinking about 'microclimate' was that our thistles weren't blooming yet - and they were elsewhere.  I looked at other things that are 'different' here on our side of Pea Ridge... and we really are one 'microclimate' away from the rest of the area.  Our Ipomoea Pendulata (woods dayblooming moonflower) is just about done - one or two blooms a day now, and the ones elsewhere are just rearing up.  Other places the Thistles are tall and purple, in our area, they are just emerging from the spiky balls they have been forming slowly over the past few weeks. Another just about to bloom and where they sat two weeks ago, when I noticed the very first flower heads beginning to emerge from the spiky nests of leaves And I'll leave you with the soft fuzzy part of the thistle - like a Dr. Seuss flower or the topknot on a fuzzy chick.  It is still amazing it can come out of all tha...

    These whipporwill peas originated in Mansfield, TN from an Etsy shop that popped up in 2012 and has since disappeared.  I don't have the lady's name anymore, but her first name was Barbara.  She called them 'brown speckled whipporwill peas', and told me they had been growing in the area for at least a century.   They are a type of the group of legumes called cowpeas.  I have been trying to keep the variety alive by growing it out every few years.  Although the 'purple-hull pea' is more popular around here, this item actually has a very long history and I actually find more success with keeping it as a mold-free dried seed than I have with the purple-hulls.  I consider it an important historical local food.  The best thing is it that grows well even in poor soil.   But, 2020 has been hard!  The weather has been so unpredictable, and I am hearing reports of slow maturity in everything.  Our tomatoes are finally starting ...