5/12/04: It’s Wednesday, and I had the children do a ‘naturalist diary’ for this week’s paper. We got off to a good start observing our half block of neighborhood on Monday, but didn’t make it outside to observe yesterday. (We did make it to the library, though, and I picked up some field guides, which will be helpful for this study).

We went out today, and I’m amazed at the changes since Monday. If you’re not actually studying your environment, it looks static, but if you take the time to look closely, you can see that it is dynamic. I decided today that I would write a journal, too.

Monday: we went outside ca 10 AM. Xay had a play date with William Morrison in the 11 o’clock hour scheduled, so we tried to get some school in before he left. The air was damp, temperature moderate. The babies (Mani and Joy) each had on a Tommy Hilfiger short-sleeved dress with bare legs, and the big kids and I each had on a short-sleeved shirt with long pants. There was still dew on the grass. Dandelion seeds floated through the air like fat snow flurries, and it was such a contrast to the warm weather.

We noticed our neighbors’ landscaping, lawns, etc., and observed that our own grass was really growing long and unruly in some spots, while a clover patch in the front had died. Curtis’ weed treatment of that nefarious patch had left the grass in that small area depressed, while we had grass seed and crabgrass seed growing in other areas of the lawn.

We also noticed that squirrels had dug up and eaten some of the bulbs I’d just planted in front of my office window. I had just planted those last week! But it looks like the dahlia bulbs were left undisturbed. I hope so.

The Birchmeirers and the Brodes have pansies by their doors. For the first time, I noticed that the tree that the Brodes have dug a big hole around and shown off with garden stones, bricks, or whatever, is a flowering tree. It looks really set-off and pretty. They have nicely trimmed evergreen hedges behind this tree, and a tall, full hedge nearly blocking the front door.

The Vendervilles’ tulips were still in full bloom and beautiful on Monday. Their (spirea) bush hasn’t begun to flower yet, but neither has ours. I’m wondering if it actually will. The Brodes have turned their side yard into a ‘native plantscape,’ and it was looking pretty weedy Monday. So far, it’s mostly dandelions, along with the huge dandelion patch next door to them, at Curtis’ professor’s house.

We actually moved in for a closer look at the Rutherfords’ house. Their grass is impressive, but I was more drawn to the flowers this year. I remember the flowers looking pretty scanty in previous years, but it is nice this year. They have little colonies of fuchsia and lavender flowers at the base of some of the their trees, and around the house. They have a slight ammonia smell, with almost evergreen looking leaves. Yanni and Xay drew these for a later identification. They also have several small trees with white flowers.

In the Rutherfords’ back yard, I noticed a rhododendron that was almost ready to bloom. The buds were up and poised to open, if only there were enough sun. . .

Wednesday: Today I noticed that the Vendervilles’ tulips are starting to lose their petals. The rest of their landscaping is on the verge of flowering. They won’t fool me by all this green right now. I know by late summer, she’s got nothing but color over there. I’d like to watch it start.

The Brode’s native plantscape has some red and purple blossoms in it now. I want to identify them from the wildflower field guide I checked out yesterday, but haven’t had a chance yet.

I noticed the same bush at Ryan’s house that I’d noticed Monday; I forgot to mention it, and I want to look that up, too. I’d mistaken it for a burning bush last year, and bought one for my yard. My burning bush is still green, and as I recall, didn’t do much burning last fall.

The Rutherfords’ yard has subtly changed. The rhododendron in the front yard is at the bud stage, but the one in the back yard has started to bloom! The surprise is that the buds looked dark pink, but the flowers are light pink. I could swear I remember the front yard one having just the dark pink flowers last year, but will have to wait and see his year. I found out that the white trees are flowering dogwoods, and while sitting in their back yard so Yani could write, I observed tiny white flower petal fragments raining down. We thought it could possibly be pollen, but I am used to having some kind of reaction to that, so I wasn’t so sure. I also noticed a different kind of flowering bush beside the house. The almost dead blossoms were purple and a little puffy, or spiky in the center.

We ventured a little further than Rutherfords’ today, and caught a whiff of a sweet smelling scent in the air. We went across the street to see if it was a dogwood, but that barely had a smell. Then we found a bush with tiny white flowers all over, and indeed, the smell came from that.

We walked home through the Christiansons’ walkway, and made it home. Talking with Yani about preparing my flower bed for tomorrow’s flats, I caught a whiff of that sweet smell again. My nose led me to that mystery tree in the back. I determined to find its identity in the field guide during Joy’s nap. Well, after careful consideration, including taking the book outside and comparing the picture to the tree, I determined that it’s a Fringe Tree, or Old Man’s Beard. Its description in the book is as follows:
Slow growing to 15-20 feet. Multitrunked and rounded. Showy clusters of fragrant creamy white blossoms in late spring. Dark waxy green leaves turn yellow in late fall. Smooth gray bark. Showy blue fall berries attract birds.
I’m not sure about those berries, though. I think this tree does red berries. Perhaps the answer lies further in the field guide. .

5/13/04 This morning I looked in the tree field guide again, and identified the mystery tree as a Russian Olive tree! What gave it away was the close-up of the flowers. The flowers on that fringe tree were completely different from the sample I’d brought in from the yard—not to mention the leaves were different. Here’s the description of the flowers we have from the book:
The creamy bell-shaped blossoms give off a very strong sweet fragrance and are nestled among the silver new leaves in late spring.

Then I looked in the encyclopedia section of the guide, and it tells me that there are 45 species in this genus, which includes evergreens, deciduous trees and shrubs. The fruits are described as single-seeded and berrylike. That is what I remember from a couple of years ago, when we first discovered this mystery tree. Good to have the mystery solved, but want to check back in the fall to be sure.

Just returned from walking our usual ½ block. It is lightly raining, so we sped up the explore. I had the camera with me to take pictures of mystery flora and fauna for later identification. The Rutherfords’ front yard rhododendron has one beautiful fuchsia bloom at the bottom, but those on the front and sides have yet to open. The hostas are all looking fuller throughout the neighborhood, and the Vendervilles have a new flowering development in their front yard. I took its picture, so hopefully I can ID it later.

Upon re-entering the house, Yanni plucked a sprig from the chokecherry in the front yard. She shook it to get the rain off, and some of the tiny white flower petals fell on Joy’s head. That’s the answer to yesterday’s mystery—what was that tiny white stuff raining from the trees yesterday? Chokecherry blossoms. To which Yanni replied, “Chokecherries are a pain all year round.”

By the way, I was never convinced that those were chokecherry trees. I remember studying them two years ago, and coming to the conclusion that they are actually wild black cherry trees. They really fit the description. The actual berries, which, thankfully don’t fall every year, are nuisance enough for the chokecherry name to stick around here, though.

5/14/04 This morning we just beat the rain around 10:30. Taking our usual path, the first thing I noticed was the smell of blossoms in the air. Our wild black cherry tree is aromatic in the front yard. I then started looking at other trees that I thought were cherries and I noticed that the Venderville’s tree doesn’t have the same flowers as ours, and that new neighbor across the street has a tree with the same flowers at the top, but not at the bottom.

The Brodes have a tree that is covered with blossoms, like ours, in their back yard. I also went in closer to examine the Brode’s pansies. They have solid color ones as well as the two-color variety. They are very pretty, and they are complimented by a whole selection of other flowers and bushes by the front door. The native plantscape beside their garage is sporting new flowers everyday, and I am not able to identify them.
Not much change at the Rutherfords’. Their front yard rhododendron still has just the one low blossom, but the backyard one is now in full bloom. Despite my pictures and my field guides, I was unable to identify either the mystery flowers by their trees or the purple flowers by the back door. I think I’ll just ask Mel. Their backyard dogwood tree is now raining flower petals. The yard is covered in the thick white petals, which Yanni said looked like snow. Joy walked around just as one was blown off the tree, and she tried to catch it. I regretted not having my camera then!

5/17/04 We have concluded our week for the ‘naturalist paper,’ but I don’t want to stop observing, etc., so I’ll talk about today. I picked up four flats of annuals from Gay Deering, of the swim club on Friday. I was itching to get them in the ground all weekend, but didn’t have the time until I just took it this morning.

After Maureen picked up Xay, I took the girls out to plant with me. I’d managed to get in a row of marigolds around my bulb garden last week, so I was done with that, at least. Today I had to do the backyard flower bed and the window boxes. At Yani’s suggestion, I took the garden weasel and dug up the bed. I don’t have any new mulch, but I didn’t let that stop me. It took to the weasel very well, and I only turned over one root that needed cutting. Before the weasel, I forgot, I dug up all the little trees and weeds and grass trying to grow in the bed. After the ground was tilled, it was very easy to dig holes and plant.

 I just wasn’t sure of the pattern I wanted. I got some coleus, for the first time, as well as multi-colored impatiens. Yanni had suggested I plant the coleus around the outside, and the impatiens in the middle. I had thought of alternating each plant in rows. We decided to go with Yani’s plan. Half a flat of coleus did the trick, but we needed more than half a flat of impatiens.

I am splitting the flats with Mommy, so that could have been a problem, but she said I could take a few more if necessary. It is hard to plant too close to the tree, because of the huge roots, but we did the best we could, and when we were done, it looked pretty neat. I am hoping for a bushy bed this year, and I am still not sure how many flowers equal bushy. I will probably have to go to Meijers to fill it in. . .

In the front yard, we started the window boxes. We got pansies for the first time this year. They were already robust in the flats, and very pretty. I noticed that they don’t have the variety of color that I have seen at the Birchmeiers and the Brodes, but they are still pretty.

We decided to dump the dirt from last year’s window box treatments, and to fill them with new potting soil. We didn’t have enough potting soil to support the flowers, though, so we ended up filling in with the old dirt. The boxes are pretty small, so they were full, and we had plenty flowers left over. I decided to plant them in my new ‘bush bed’, by the hose.

 I didn’t want to put them directly into hose traffic, or in the middle of the chrysanthemums, so I made a little arc of them just beside the mums. I was almost done planting these when I remembered that I was supposed to put them over in that bed by the driveway. Oh well, that means I definitely have to make a trip to the Meijer garden center!

Anyway, while we were working on the window boxes, Jan Christiansen came by with Lilly. (Lily is her little dog). We’ve been seeing her everyday that we are outside now, and she is very friendly. In fact, we’d seen her while working on the back yard bed, too. (She is our neighbor behind us, who encourages us to walk through their yard to get to Mel and Joy’s).

Anyway, she told us two good nature stories. One, is that they cut down the big ‘junky’ tree from their front yard, a sassafras, and have replaced it with another tree of which I can’t recall the name (alder?), and are planning a new gardening project for that part of their yard. Will love to observe what they do.

Also, she said they had some real morel mushrooms growing by their pathway, by their garage. She’d said that her husband had gone morel hunting up north (?) to no avail, but found them at home! They’ve already eaten them. They are black mushrooms, she said. Anyway, she said she thought they had come from the new mulch they’d bought to put in that path by the garage.

Yanni is planning to do this week’s paper on mushrooms, so maybe we can add to this information later. As we were out in the yard, a breeze blew a wave of helicopters to the ground. Seems like a new seed/petal, something is blowing in the wind daily.

6/14/04 Well, I was right about the Venderville’s yard. Here it is a week away from the technical beginning of summer, and their yard is full of beautiful flowering bushes, container gardens, flower beds—everything is in bloom! Her snapdragons tempt me to try them, but they do get much more sun than we do. Case in point: her daylilies are all in bloom, and her spirea and that other bush like we have have been blooming for quite some time.

Good news in our yard: our spirea burst out with beautiful light pink flowers, and our mystery bush (another type of spirea) has also started to bloom—darker pink blossoms! The coleus and impatiens in the back yard bed are looking pretty good. Maybe a few more trays will yield the bushiness I’ve always wanted back there.

I’m thinking of planting impatiens and or begonias in the front by the hose. The pansies there are not blooming any more, and it is a full shade area, what with the cherry tree there. I think impatiens will look nice there; just have to figure out what to do with the hose. We have that caddy, but can’t use it without that little extra hose part that is missing in the basement. More on that later.

The Brodes have the most gorgeous vegetation over there! They have a bunch of pink bushy flowering things, kin of like the white mystery thing over at Venderville’s, that Janet has promised to give me some when she divides them. They do look like they spread, so that could be good. Their native plantscape is also looking beautiful, so good things come to those who wait. . .

11/16/04:  Well, garden season is over, but I’d like to finish the story of how our flowers did this year. I ended up with a bushy bed in the backyard, after all! I don’t know how many trips to the garden center did it, but I think that backyard bed is a 3-4 flat bed. . .

The flowers in the window baskets died, and I replaced them with pink wave petunias. I was very pleased with how they held up all season. . .
I did end up planting both begonias and impatiens by the hose. I think it was only one or so begonias; Mani picked that one out; other than that, it was red impatiens, like I’d wanted in the back yard a few years ago. I also planted a winding row of dusty miller.
I’d bought a whole flat of dusty miller, and I used some of it to fill in my marigold border, which had started to flag by summer’s end. . .

. . . and three dusty miller plants made their way to the back yard to fill in the coleus part of the impatiens bed.

I had bought two stand alone orange zinnias for the stoop, but they died during Esteban’s labor and delivery period.

The last big effort I made was in the large bed in front of my office. I bought hostas and daisies, and a few new bushes. I planted a couple new spirea bushes, and another evergreen bush to even out that look.

By fall, the mums were big and bushy, very beautiful. I just pruned them last week, and they’re still in bloom. My burning bush turned completely red! And it has berries, too. Actually, all the little green (non-flowering) bushes in the front have little red berries. We have two boxwoods, two yews(?), and that burning bush.
I was really pleased with all my gardening efforts this year.