First hummingbird

I saw the first hummingbird of the season at the backyard feeder today.

The fathead experiment continues

I saw several fatheads zipping around the garden pool today.

Amazing how they survive against all odds.

Transesterification

Grease is transformed into fuel through a chemical process called transesterification, which removes glycerin and adds methanol to the oil, leaving a thinner product that can power a diesel engine.

- AP/Miami Herald (link here)

I had no idea that grease was so valuable.

Gilbert Brown was ahead of his time.

Whitman Farms

http://www.whitmanfarms.com/default.asp

When they say they are growers of unusual trees, they mean it.

Moosewood

Acer pensylvanicum

The Moosewood, as it is called locally, was the first Stripe-Bark Maple to be described, and still holds its own among a vast number of exotic Asiatic species. Bold, lobed foliage unfurls in spring green, later turning butter yellow before dropping. Then is exposed a phantasm of striking, finely striated, phosphorescent bark of white and green. These are seedlings from our trees, that we raised from seed collected in Antrim County, Michigan in 1987.

- Heronswood (link here)

Add this one to my wish list.

Spam

Sales of Spam — that much maligned meat — are rising as consumers are turning more to lunch meats and other lower-cost foods to extend their already stretched food budgets.

- AP/Star Tribune (link here)

I like Spam.

Grilled spam with a slice of Vidalia on a fresh-baked roll.

Not bad at all.

Uncle Jim's Worm Farm

http://www.unclejimswormfarm.com/

He is serious about his worms.

And I would like to do some worm composting.

Korean Evodia

http://oregonstate.edu/dept/ldplants/teda.htm

Vincent, M.A. 2004. Tetradium daniellii (Korean Evodia; Rutaceae) as an escape in North America. Michigan Botanist 43:21-24.

Uncommon Small Flowering Trees

Recommendations from the Plantations at Cornell University (link here)

Tetradium 'Danielle' (Korean Evodia)

Koelreuteria paniculata (Golden Rain Tree)

Heptacodium miconoides (Seven-son Flower)

Amelanchier grandiflora 'Autumn Brilliance' (Serviceberry)

Stryax japonicus (Japanese Snowbell)

Buying land on the moon

Williams, who describes himself as the "Lunar Ambassador to the United Kingdom", is the owner of MoonEstates. He claims to have sold around 300,000 acres of moon land since he and his wife, Sue, founded the Cornwall-based company eight years ago. One-acre plots of lunar turf go for about $40.

- CNN (link here)

I have not yet bought any.

The gardening conditions are very difficult.

Crabapples

Stunning display of blooms on the crabapple trees this year, the best in several years.

Maybe they liked all the extra snow last winter.

Smilax hispida

Also known as greenbrier, bristly greenbrier, catbrier, etc.

http://www.mobot.org/gardeninghelp/plantfinder/Plant.asp?code=A154

Sounds like my kind of vine.

Crazy ants in Houston

In what sounds like a really low-budget horror film, voracious swarming ants that apparently arrived in Texas aboard a cargo ship are invading homes and yards across the Houston area, shorting out electrical boxes and messing up computers.

- AP/Chicago Tribune (link here)

No crazy rasberry ants here in the garden yet.

Eryngium yuccifolium

Rattlesnake Master

http://www.hort.net/profile/api/eryyu/

http://www.2bnthewild.com/plants/H367.htm

It might be handy to have one in the garden just in case I want to handle some rattlesnakes.

Sunlight Gardens

http://www.sunlightgardens.com

Wildflowers, ferns, vines, etc.

"And as you know, dig a $10 hole for a $5 plant."

- quote from the Sunlight Gardens website

I subscribe to that view, but a great many others do not.

American Hazelnut

"Anyone who has tried to collect these nuts (also called filberts) in late summer has found that he is not alone in appreciation of them. Squirrels, chipmunks, jays, deer, grouse, quail, and pheasant usually get there first."

- A Field Guide to Trees and Shrubs, 2nd Edition (1986) by George A. Petrides

Recent Plantings

May 9, 2008

[1] Thymus praecox 'Coccineus' (Red Creeping Thyme)

[2] Euonymus fortunei 'Kewensis' (Dwarf Wintercreeper)

[1] Sedum kamtschaticum

[1] Carex spp. 'Bowles Golden' (Golden Sedge)

[1] Polemonium caeruleum 'Brise d'Anjou' (Jacob's Ladder)

Mallards

Five (5) male mallards in the backyard at once today, a new record.

Logan wins again

Logan Petro won his fight at Kickdown 50.

He is now 2-0.

We are all very proud of him.

http://mmabuzz.com/index.php/kickdown-50-results.html

Cichorium intybus

Chicory, AKA Coffeeweed

www.missouriplants.com (link here)

Dogfish Head Chicory Stout (link here)

Goldsmith

"An enlivening, handsome, well-behaved groundcover for shaded border or sunny garden alike."

- Heronswood (link here)

An exciting new variety of comfrey.

Easyliving Wildflowers

http://www.easywildflowers.com/index.html

Impressive list of selections.

Woodstock Wild Flower Nursery

http://www.woodstockwildflower.com/index.html

Lots of interesting selections.

Quagga mussels

Because of ideal conditions in the lakes on the lower Colorado River system with the right mix of food, calcium, dissolved oxygen and water temperature, quaggas have a reproduction rate three times that of those in the Great Lakes region. They reproduce six times a year instead of two, and a single female lays as many as 1 million eggs.

- Las Vegas Review Journal (Link here)

Interesting idea on the redear sunfish as a predator.

Nature deficit disorder

A term has been coined for the outdoors disconnect suffered by such children: nature-deficit disorder. The phenomenon is epidemic in a generation that spends more time indoors than out and is more familiar with YouTube and "Guitar Hero" than with tadpoles and pine cones.

- Denver Post (link here)

Pathetic.

Dog Strangling Vine

Vincetoxicum nigrum

http://tncweeds.ucdavis.edu/esadocs/vincnigr.html

http://www.omafra.gov.on.ca/english/crops/facts/ontweeds/dogstrangling_vine.htm

Seems like it should be worth growing just for the name alone.

Recent Plantings

May 7, 2008

[1] Sedum (Ewersii vsr. Homophyllum)

[2] Sedum reflexum

[1] Hosta x fortunei ('Patriot')

[1] Metensia virginica (Virginia Bluebells)

[1] Osmunda claytoniana (Interrupted Fern)

Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds

http://rareseeds.com/

92-pound carp

Bowfishing for gar from the shore in backwater above the Melvin Price Lock and Dam No. 26 on the Illinois side of the Mississippi River near Alton, Opel shot a 92-pound, 8-ounce bighead carp with a compound bow and arrow.

- Belleville News-Democrat/Miami Herald (link here)

I have shot carp with a bow, but they were just minnows compared to this fish.

Urban Farmers

(Thanks to Elizabeth for calling my attention to this one.)

This urban agriculture movement has grown even more vigorously elsewhere. Hundreds of farmers are at work in Detroit, Milwaukee, Oakland and other areas that, like East New York, have low-income residents, high rates of obesity and diabetes, limited sources of fresh produce and available, undeveloped land.

- NY Times (link here)

Very uplifting story.

Dying songbirds

The late, cold spring did more than try the patience of Minnesotans: It killed scores of songbirds in the northern two-thirds of the state.

They apparently starved to death because of a lack of insects caused by cold weather and late-April snow.

- Star Tribune (link here)

Not adaptively vigilant.

Weirder than we thought

Now, more than 200 years later, a team of scientists has determined the platypus's entire genetic code. And right down to its DNA, it turns out, the animal continues to strain credulity, bearing genetic modules that are in turn mammalian, reptilian and avian.

- Washington Post (link here)

Fascinating.

Klehm's Song Sparrow Perrenial Farms

http://www.songsparrow.com/default.cfm

They have an impressive selection of Japanese maples.

Recent Plantings

May 6, 2008

[2] Agastache hybrid (Color Spires Steel Blue)

[1] Chamaemeleum nobile (Dwarf Roman Chamomile)

[1] Tricolor Sage

[8] Pansy (Sun Devil Red Blotch)

[12] Pansy (Black Prince)

[4] Viola (Sorbet Select Mix)

[8] Linaria (Fantasy Mix)

[1] Artemisia schmidtiana (Silver Mound)

[1] Oriental Poppy (Allegro)

[2] Papaver nudicaule (Iceland Poppy 'Pacino')

[4] Snapdragon (Dwarf White)

[4] Snapdragon (Tahiti Mauve)

[1] Trifolium repens (Atropurpureum)

[1] Sedum (Ewersii var. Homophyllum)

Recent Plantings

May 5, 2008

[1] Cimicifuga (Hillside Black Beauty)

[4] Pansy (White with Blotch)

[4] Pansy (Chianti Mix)

[4] Viola (Blue)

[4] Pansy (Acquarelle Gelato Mix)

[4] Pansy (Bolero Golden)

Northern Orioles

A male Northern Oriole was working the orange feeders again yesterday.

And just after I wrote that sentence, there were two males and two females in the backyard.

But the Cooper's Hawk made a pass through the yard and ran them off.

Moss Acres

http://www.mossacres.com/default.asp

They love their mosses.

Robo-critters

Rocky is among many robotic critters worldwide helping researchers observe animals in their natural environments. The research could let scientists better understand how animals work in groups, court, intimidate rivals and warn allies of danger.

- AP/Denver Post (link here)

Way cool.

Wisconsin State Herbarium

http://www.botany.wisc.edu/herbarium/

Meadow Gardening

http://wildflowergardening.wordpress.com/

Ray Allen's Meadow Gardening blog.

The Wisconsin Cougar

Wouldn't you just know it? Chicago went and killed our cougar.

We so enjoyed tracking this beautiful creature's movement through southern Wisconsin. Then it made the mistake of crossing the state line into Illinois and, kablooey, got gunned down by the Chicago cops.

- Jim Stingl, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (link here)

We need more cougars

(Thanks to Elizabeth for calling my attention to this one.)

In Yosemite, the paper says, the direct cause of oak mortality is the high density of mule deer, which have been munching the oaks' basal sprouts and seedlings for nearly a century. Intriguingly, the mule deer's abundance stems not from a lack of predators--as with elk in Yellowstone National Park (Science, 27 July 2007, p. 438)--but from shy ones: elusive cougars (Puma concolor). The mountain lions keep the deer in check elsewhere in the park but avoid areas like the valley, where people congregate.

- Science magazine (no link provided)

Coprolites

A pile of dinosaur dung 130 million years old sold at a New York auction Wednesday for nearly $1,000.

- AP/azcentral (link here)

I sure wish I could find some valuable coprolites in my garden.