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...

   This is a plant called St. Andrew's cross,  Hypericum hypericoides, which is a member of the St. John's Wort family Hypericum .  It is a very common plant in the Southeastern United States.   One of the main differences visually between this and St. John's Wort is that the St. Andrew's cross has four petals, placed oblong in a 'winged' fashion, while the St. John's Wort has five evenly spaced petals.  The St. John's Wort contains folk medicine qualities that some believe in, and some don't.  St. Andrew's cross was also valued by the Native Americans for it's help in fighting certain inflammations and pain.   I believe in the past I have called this a 'yellow lespedeza', if only to myself, because the leaves do resemble the lespedeza sericea.  And, it is true that there are other colors and more showy versions of lespedeza than the one that has been wilded on our hill (back more than thirty years ago, I am told).  Today, after ...

Sometimes, you've got to look twice.   There is something about this plant, and the way it emerges at this time (late July to early August, with many other butterfly plants) that made me take a second look at it today.  It looks inconspicuous, growing about a foot high on the side of the road among the grass.  The leaves reminded me of lespedeza, but the flower structure was more like baby's breath.  In days past, I would have just kept walking because it was a 'little flower'...(in fact one site called it 'green noise!' ) But - this morning, I noticed the little clusters of flowers were being visited by many small bluewing and white moths, and had many small bees and ants crawling near them.  I thought, there has to be more than meets the eye about this!   family Rubiaceae, also containing madder plants and coffee trees! best guess: Galium album, common bedstraw, heath bedstraw Galium is a very important pollinator plant in the life cycle of moths and but...

So, what is this weed? I've been told it is the reason this place is called 'pea ridge.'  It is definitely in the pea family Fabaceae , which basically just means it is a legume, like peas and beans.  But it isn't your classic sweet-pea flower, or several of the other things Google suggested to me it might be. Balsam imaptiens?  Nope, that isn't a vine.  This is definitely a vine.  There are some of these plants called 'touch me not', which have seed pods that explode upon a touch.  This is not quite that animal, although the flowers are similar, the leaves are not.  And sweet pea flowers have much different leaves than this, as well.  IF you look at the leaves and they are markedly different - keep looking, you'll run into a better match soon! It winds itself around things like bindweed (in the convolvulus family, as we spoke of the other day) , but it isn't a 'classic' bindweed.  I had a hit on this being in Fabaceae, from the shape of th...

It was 66 degrees at ten to 6 this morning, but now that it is 10 am, it is already 75.  Took three dogs out leashed for a walk, and it felt like I was trying to keep a sled dog team from tangling up.  Paid attention to where the 'moonflower' is in the forest, and it was open still, that was maybe at 9 am.  A local wild moonflower, which is actually a morning glory! Was talking with my friend again about the name 'moonflower'.  It is used for so many flowers that open at night.  This wild 'moonflower' does not, in fact, it opens up in the early morning, closes in the afternoon and is closed up tight by night.  But it is a local name for it.  I have looked at it over the years and I think it is actually a form of 'bindweed', 'convolvulus', 'morning glory'.  I always forget how to spell convolvulus - so my mnemonic for it is 'conVO-L-VIEW-lus'... otherwise I stick more 'v's in there than should be and forget the 'l'....

We took a trip out to the Homestead Garden and Gifts today to buy some of the local honey.  Homestead is located in Springville, TN, on East Antioch Road.  They are a greenhouse and gift shop.  They had a lot of local fruits and vegetables, and this one yellow onion was so large we had to grab one to fry up for lunch one day.  Yellow onions fried in butter are one of Esme's favorite things.  I used to beg my father to make them for me when I was very small.  We like to eat them with eggs, chicken rice or chicken sandwiches! A friend pointed out that honey and onions are great for cold and sinuses.  Definitely right!  I have been using a little honey in my tea almost every night.  I finally received my yellow onion seed, as well.  I'm thinking of planting it in the raised bed sometime this month to overwinter.  The bunching white onions have done so well in pots this year that I would really like to see if we can grow these, too....

There is a tall 'weed' that was growing behind our other plants in the main garden.   I noticed the other evening that the weed had yellow flowers blooming that I had not seen there before.  The plant itself was almost six feet tall and resembled the 'headknocker' weeds that grow here.  However, those plants do not have flowers like this.   I took a piece off of one and brought it inside to put in a vase.  It sat all day with the flowers closed, although some parts of it had changed overnight.  Tonight, well after sunset, the snippet of flower was blooming with a larger flower than I had seen, even when I removed it from the plant.  It occurred to me that perhaps the plant was blooming at night? So, what was this weed? It is not a weed.  It is a native evening primrose.  Of course it is blooming at night! I have one other primrose in the pole garden, a low-growing pink one. Now, I'll have to watch for the pods which will develop the seeds.

Catsear, Cat's Ear or Flatweed?  Or you could call it a false dandelion.  I mistakenly called it a coreopsis for a while, until I saw the seeds.  The actual Latin name for this plant is Hypochaeris radicata, It is listed as an invasive weed in the Northwest of the United States.  It doesn't surprise me to find it here - we have things that are 'supposedly' growing all over.  And there is always the chance it could be just a slightly different variety that no one pays much attention to here.  After all, very few people go examining their roadside weeds with such detail.  It grows freely in the meadow between the road and the neighbor's property.  I can remember seeing it in that particular area for the past ten years - but not in very many other places around the county.  I've seen numerous bugs and small butterflies attracted to it. It is such a bright lemon yellow it would be hard to miss it! At first sight you might be whizzing by the road ...