The Organic Mechanic LOVES to go camping. Ever seen these before? They are known as "Beech Drops", (Conopholis alpina) emerging in spring through duff on the forest floor. A miniature conifer look-alike, these plants grow and feed on Beech tree roots...a parasitic plant used in earlier times as an astringent and for other medical uses.
They were so tiny we almost stepped on them! These were photographed in the Tuscarora State Forest...a great place for primitive camping. The forest floor felt like a trampoline on 1/4 mile walk from our parking spot to our camp site! It felt even more wild, secluded, and peaceful to camp in a forested area where the worms have not decimated the duff layer.
Taking a look around our campsite, it was on a northwestern facing slope, with mostly hardwoods, a few hemlock, and a healthy layer of undergrowth. Did not see any invasive plants, except garlic mustard - which was only around the parking spot for our campsite...go figure. We pulled every garlic mustard we saw...and burned them! Garlic mustard has a tendency to complete seed growth even if they are pulled and let on the ground to rot and die.
Did you know garlic mustard, like all plants in this family, do not form mycorrhizal bonds with plant roots? They actually repel mycorrhizal fungi! (Mycorrhizal fungi form mutually beneficial connections between plant roots and the surrounding soil. They help the plant absorb more water and nutrients...and the plants provide the fungi with carbon and other food sources) So...if garlic mustard plants repel mycorrhizal fungi, and yet they are starting to run rampant in the woods of North America...what does this mean for the mycorrizal species we need for all our native plants that exist in the forest? Yet another problem...only one solution...pull all the garlic mustard you can (burn it or trash it) when you see it in wild places. You know where the wild things are...
Amazing what you can see while enjoying a walk in the woods.
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Well, we're always making moves...but this time I actually moved. Why would I decide to move in the middle of spring you might ask? For a family of horticulturists...it seemed better on paper than practice, but we had to move into a bigger place since we are adding to the family! We stayed local, only moved about 5 miles from our previous place, but we are a world apart from the hustle and bustle of downtown West Chester, PA.
We moved into a 200+ year old farmhouse! Between the natural area across the street, the wood stove on the first floor, the plant shelves built into every window, the perfect piedmont outside landscape, and the four floors of space...we had to say yes! So, this spring has all the usual busy times, plus housecleaning and gardening on top of all that, and you can probably guess why I havent been blogging like I thought I would!
We are now committed to getting most of them in the ground ASAP. The nice thing is we can move the containers around in the garden space for a while before finally deciding on a final landscape plan. We plan to use Burnout herbicide from St. Gabriel Organics, http://www.stgl.us/ to knock back the areas we want to plant. Burnout uses food grade ingredients like clove oil and citric acid to combate unwanted plant guests in the garden. I'll post more on that project after it happens to show the results of using an herbicide without glyphosate as the active ingredient!
I am really looking forward to developing this property into a paradise. It has all the makings of an outdoor retreat for visiting friends (and ourselves). Now we just have to make it happen!
However, the town of Capron was only a marker on the way to the final destination – the family farm my grandparents owned while I was growing up. As we passed the corn fields that stretch from horizon to horizon, I felt the farm drawing close as familiar signs appeared…small bridges, neighboring barns, and finally the farmhouse appeared where I spent so many summers growing up.
While some things had changed, most of the surroundings were still familiar like an old friend. The vegetable garden was still there, though moved from its original placement nearest the chicken coop. The majestic Bur Oaks still stood as welcoming sentries on the walk down to the creek where I spent many days fishing with my grandfather. The walk to the creek had changed…where there were once simple hillocks of native grasses, there was now an entire native meadow planted by nature and nurtured by time.
The Organic Mechanic LOVES to go camping. Ever seen these before? They are known as "Beech Drops", (Conopholis alpina) emerging in spring through duff on the forest floor. A miniature conifer look-alike, these plants grow and feed on Beech tree roots...a parasitic plant used in earlier times as an astringent and for other medical uses.
They were so tiny we almost stepped on them! These were photographed in the Tuscarora State Forest...a great place for primitive camping. The forest floor felt like a trampoline on 1/4 mile walk from our parking spot to our camp site! It felt even more wild, secluded, and peaceful to camp in a forested area where the worms have not decimated the duff layer.
