Both Dwayne and I love rhubarb.  We have been trying to figure out where we can put some rhubarb without changing his mowing pattern.  We got the opportunity this Spring to help someone thin their patch down.  So… we had to figure out where we were going to put the rhubarb.  Dwayne went to the person’s house, dug up a bunch of rhubarb and brought it home.  We decided to put it in an area between our two new raised beds, since it was out of the mowing path and we could still get into the raised beds when needed.  But first, some things had to move.

We moved a hibiscus to be closer to it’s relatives.  Dwayne got the two big hibiscus at a local pop-up nursery years ago and the smaller one came from our friend, Betty, down the street and around the corner.

This is the low spot in our yard so it stays a little more moist, which they love.  Now we will see next month if the move hurt it.

The other items dug up were a peony and a yarrow, both of which will be making the trip to Belle Plaine on Friday for the Benton County Master Gardener’s Extravaganza on Saturday (8-9 is the plant sale and other events go through Noon, First Lutheran Church).  If you are interested in checking it out, check out the Benton County Master Gardener’s Facebook page.

There are also a few irises and a couple of rogue trillium in the bed.  They all seem to be doing well.  And the rhubarb seems happy, too!

It is already about three times this size!  Of course the rain and cooler temps helped.  Now we just have to wait a couple more years before we can really enjoy.

Posted under Spring

The oldest section of our garden has gotten old and ratty-looking.

This is from August of 2009 where it is somewhat controlled:

This is from July of 2010 and everything is taking over

Dwayne says everything is going.  I told him not to touch my fern peonies, clematis or trillium.

I have two different clematis climbing two different areas.  One is on our metal globe structure and includes my Pope John Paul II clematis that I love (the light one in the photo).

I need to find out if I can find more to plant along the fenceline, since I don’t know how successful a transplant would be.  It is really too late to transplant them now since they are starting to grow.  And I’m not sure we would get enough root structure since these have been in this spot for several years and may have roots down to four feet deep.  We aren’t moving everything just yet, so we can’t dig that far down.

The other area of clematis has already had one change.

The arbor took one too many wind storms so we took that down last year and moved our butterfly house and pole to the spot.  We also put up a metal trellis, but the whole set up doesn’t really work for us, so we will probably be trying to move these next year, too.  I like the way these two colors work together, too.

Last week Dwayne started the transformation.

He left my fern peonies along with his sedum (I think it is Autumn Blaze) as well as the yuccas. The little green growth by the stump is a stokes aster and Dwayne seems content to leave it and it’s sibling in place.  They are pretty nice plants and the butterflies and bees love them, so I am happy to hear that.

My Knock-out rose didn’t have any rootball to it so it didn’t make it.  I’ll have to find another one to add to my already-too-large rose collection!  The goldenrod gets dug up along with the (not so) obedient plant.  And an old aster that isn’t doing so well is getting the heave-ho, too.

That is all that got dug up last week.  Dwayne has his eye on more digging this week, although Mother Nature may keep him out of the garden with some showers and storms on his days off.  Although, I am getting into the restructuring, too.  I am digging up a bunch of irises this week to take to the Benton County Master Gardener’s Extravaganza in Belle Plaine this weekend.  (It’s at the First Lutheran Church on Saturday from 8 to Noon-ish if you want to head out there).  At least they will be going to some good homes, since I don’t have a good place to move them.  I’ll hit other places plant sales next year!

Dig it!

Posted under Spring

The Bull thistle (Cirsium lanceolatum or Cirsium vulgare) is a member of the Aster family.  The flower certainly looks a lot like the asters I have in my garden.

Plus the butterflies love it.  Too bad it is one of Iowa’s Noxious Weeds.  The Bull thistle is a biennial which means it grows the greenery the first year…

…followed by the flower and seeds the second.

Bull thistles form large, coarse plants with spiny leaves, large taproots and heavy stems that can grow 2 to 5 feet tall.

The leaves are deeply lobed and spiny.

The flowers bloom June through October and then produce the seeds that provide the next year’s rosette.

Bull thistles grow best in poor, open turf and more often during cooler seasons.  You can control them without chemicals by maintaining good turf density and health.  You can use postemergent herbicides in mid Spring to early Summer or mid to late Autumn while the plant is actively growing.  Some of the herbicides you can use include 2,4-D, clopyralid, dicamba and triclopyr.  Hoeing deeply, cutting the taproot before the seeds mature can also control the spread of Bull thistle.

Posted under Plant Identification, Weeds

The Iowa Weed Law says that all thistles in the Carduus and Cirsium genus are considered noxious, so there are several on the list.  The first to come up in this series is the Canada thistle (Cirsium arvense).

Canada thistle has an extensive root system so it is very difficult to get rid of.  Each plant has a fibrous taproot along with wide spreading horizontal roots.

Each small section of root can form a new plant which helps the weed to spread quickly.  They can also spread by seed.

The seeds are small, light brown and tufted for dispersal by the wind.  Another reason this thistle is on the list, the seeds remain viable in the soil for over 20 years!  That means that the seed can sit in the dirt for several years and wait for the right conditions to grow.

Lots of purple flowers produce those seeds.  Those flowers are produced between June and September.

The leaves attach directly to the stem, are deeply divided and, as you would expect with a thistle, are prickly.

Canada thistle can grow 2 to 5 feet tall and are split between male and female plants.

And the seedlings look like you would expect and are probably your best bet at getting all of the roots.

Canada thistle invades natural areas, like prairies, especially if there has been some disturbance to the soil already.  Once it is established, it spreads quickly and displaces native plants, growing in circular patches t hat can spread 10 to 12 feet in one season.  It has been declared a noxious weed in 43 states and is one of the most tenacious agricultural weeds.

While this weed is hard to get rid of, there are things you can try.  You can repeatedly pull and mow which will weaken the roots, especially if you mow just as the flower buds are just opening.  Late spring burns (May and June) will work, but do stimulate seed germination, so burning consecutively for 3 years is prescribed.

You can also use spot application with glyphosate, clopyralid (aka Stinger, Transline, Reclaim) or metsulfuron.  If there is an infestation, though, this may not be a good alternative.

Bull thistle is up next….

Dig it!

Posted under Plant Identification, Weeds

The next in the Noxious Weeds series is the Perennial sowthistle (Sonchus arvensis).

There is an Annual sowthistle (Sanchus oleraceus).  They look similar to me, but the annual (S. oleraceus) has a taproot while the Perennial (S. arvensis) has rhizomes.

The stem is smooth, erect and unbranched, except at the top.  The lower leaves are often lobed with the upper leaves are not.

Lower leaves can be 6 inches to a foot long and deeply cut while the upper leaves are more slightly toothed.  The plant can grow from 4 to 6 feet tall and reproduces by seed as well as horizontal roots.  The rhizomes can grow 6 feet in a single growing season, so they can spread fast!  The roots can survive winter temperatures to around zero, but if there is mulch or snow to act as insulation, it will probably have a pretty good lifespan in Iowa.

The stems are hollow with leaves that clasp at the base.

Both the leaves and stems will excrete a milky latex when broken, which is what distinguishes them from true thistles.

The flower looks a lot like a dandelion and can get up to 2 inches in diameter.

Before it opens up, though, it has that thistle-like look to it.

The seeds look similar to dandelions, too.  They are reddish-brown with the tuft of white to help them blow along to their new planting ground.  I haven’t spent a lot of time looking at dandelion seeds, but I seem to recall that they were rather smooth.  Perennial sowthistle seeds are ridged and wrinkled.

Most  sowthistle isn’t found in your yard, but can be found in fields.  Cattle and sheep will graze the weed and help reduce an infestation in irrigated pastures.

You can use herbicides, but will want to be careful if you have livestock in the area.  You can also till the soil to try to bury root fragments about a foot deep, or you can leave them on the soil surface to dry out.  Using this form of control will require repeated cultivations for most infestations.  The best time for cultivation is when the plants are in the 6 to 9 leaf rosette stage.

Repeated cultivation and grazing help to control infestations by depleting the root energy reserves of the plant.  Hopefully you don’t have to control this weed, but if you do, I hope these tips will help.

Dig it!

Posted under Plant Identification, Weeds

Ah. Quackgrass.  My husband’s nemesis.  That infernal weed that only an all-out plant killer will take out.  Or, I suppose, we could spend our lives trying to dig every little bit of that evil little plant out of our lawn.

Quackgrass has the scientific name of Agropyron repens or Elytrigia repens depending on which article I came across.  The former is the name given in the Iowa Weed Law while most articles I came across used the latter.  Either way, it is a cool season perennial in the grass family.  Crabgrass can look similar, but is an annual growing from the previous year’s seeds, and has a more shallow root system.  You can find more info by clicking here.

Quackgrass forms in patches and is a course, textured grass that spreads by white, long-lived rhizomes.  These rhizomes develop 2 to 8 inches deep and are ringed with root hairs every 3/4 to 1 inch.  The root system is very fibrous, too, which makes it very difficult to dig up completely.

If left on its own, it can grow up to four feet tall!

Quackgrass stems are smooth and are more upright than crabgrass.  The blades are flat and may have a rough edge to them.  It can be dull green to light blue-green and it will taper to a point at the tip.  Another way to tell if you have quackgrass versus crabgrass is to check the point where the leaves/blades touch the stem.  Quackgrass will have a claw-like structure called an auricle.

While the leaves/blades are generally smooth, you can find sparse hair on the upper and lower surface.

If it gets to the point of flowering, you may see narrow, dense flowers in the spikes that can be 2 to 6 inches long.   Bloom time is from May to September, so they have plenty of time to produce more seeds.

The main trouble with quackgrass is the deeper root system that is very hard to get rid of.  It is an aggressive grass that is found in many lawns throughout the growing season, especially in the cooler seasons of Spring and Autumn.  It loves well-drained soils with a slightly acidic pH and does best in thin, dry lawns.

So, how do we get rid of quackgrass?  It won’t be easy, but if you don’t want to use chemicals, you will need to remove as much of the plant as you can. That will not be easy due to the nature of the root system.  Since they don’t really like a lot of shade, keep your lawn at a higher level.  If you cut your lawn no shorter than 3″, that will provide a lot of shade for lawns.  It keeps a lot of weed seeds from being able to germinate, and small existing plants can’t get enough sunshine to their leaves.

If you want to go the chemical route, there is no selective control you can use.  Whatever you use on the quackgrass will kill whatever else it touches, too.  That means you can use glyphosate, also known as Roundup or GlyphoMax,  on growing plants.  My husband has threatened to use this option. The glyphosate will be soaked up by the leaves and will kill the plant, so make sure you are only hitting a plant that you want to kill.  If the offending plant is next to one you want to keep, use a piece of cardboard as a shield, but make sure it covers the entire favored plant.  Glyphosate becomes inert when it hits the soil, which means it won’t kill seeds, but make sure you know where every drop is hitting so you won’t be surprised when something starts to turn brown.  Also don’t apply on a windy day.  And as always…. ALWAYS read and follow label instructions!

Good luck, Lawn Warrior, on your crusade against the evil Agropyron repens!

Dig it!

Posted under Plant Identification, Weeds

Now that Mother Nature has seen fit to let stuff start growing, it is time to start looking out for all those weeds.   With the ground still wet, these should be easy to pull out.  Dandelions are nice to see as color after our long winter, but nobody wants them in their yard.  Clover is not wanted either, but it IS an indication that your lawn is lacking nitrogen.  Start treating that deficiency and you will take care of the clover.

Now, to most people, a weed is just a plant that is growing where you don’t want it.  But, did you know that there is an Iowa Weed Law?  This gives each county the authority to destroy weeds that are classified as noxious by the state of Iowa.  You can read the Iowa Weed Law here.

The Iowa Noxious Weeds list includes names that are considered invasive in the state of Iowa.  Some of these may or may not sound like they should be in a garden.. and they can be, but you should be aware that if you don’t take keep them in check they could pose problems for not just you, but your neighbors, too.

The following list is split up into Primary or Secondary weeds- but only because of the Iowa Seed Law, which defines how many weed seeds can be present in certified crop seed. They are all noxious weeds to the State of Iowa.

—-

Primary noxious weeds with the more common name first followed by the scientific name in italics and parenthesis:

quackgrass (Agropyron repens)

perennial sowthistle (Sonchus arvensis)

Canada thistle (Cirsium arvense)

bull thistle (Cirsium lanceolatum)

field bindweed (Convolvus arvensis)

horsenettle (Solanum carolinense)

leafy spurge (Euphorbia esula)

perennial pepper-grass, hoary cress (Lepidium draba)

Russian knapweed (Centaurea repens)

buckthorn (Plantago lanceolata), does not include Rhamnus frangula, glossy buckthorn

musk thistle (Carduus nutans)

tall thistle (Cirsium altissimum)

—-

Secondary noxious weeds include the following:

butterprint, velvetleaf (Abutilon theophrasti)

cocklebur (Xanthium commune)

wild mustard (Brassica arvensis)

wild carrot (Daucus carota)

sheep sorrel, red sorrel (Rumex acetosella)

sour dock, curly dock (Rumex crispus)

smooth dock (Rumex altissimus)

poison hemlock (Conium maculatum)

multiflora rose (Rosa multiflora)

wild sunflower (Helianthus annus)

puncturevine (Tribulus terrestris)

teasel (Dipsacus spp.)  (the spp. means all species)

shattercane (Sorghum bicolor)

buckhorn plantain (Plantago lanceolata)

A different website also included purple loosestrife (Lythrum Salicaria) and purple mistress (Moricandia arvensis), so I will include them in the series.  Another plant that is not on the list but is considered invasive in Iowa is Garlic mustard (Alliaria patiolata).

Since there are so many of these and they are all important, I will break each one down into separate blog posts.  Starting with the next post….

Dig it!

Posted under Plant Identification, Weeds

Late last fall I got about a ton of cabbage from one of my Urbana Farmers’ Market vendors.  Well, it wasn’t exactly a ton, but it sure felt like it when I was shredding it into a 10-gallon crock.  I ended up shredding 33 heads of cabbage, interspersing it with canning salt and smashing it all as I went. The smashing helps pack the cabbage into the container and also help pull out the moisture from the cabbage (one of the reasons for the salt).

I made a brine, put it in some gallon freezer bags which then went into a huge freezer bag.  That huge bag then went on top of the shredded cabbage and salt.  The crock went into the corner of the kitchen with a towel and a garbage can over it.  In order for the cabbage to ferment into sauerkraut, it needs to be in an anaerobic environment, which means no air can get in.  About the second week of fermentation, your house will be, um, blessed with the smell of gym socks.  A container of air freshener pellets helped soak up that scent.

While the kraut was fermenting away in the corner, we went through our collection of empty quart jars and realized we only had a few with large mouths.  I discovered after my last batch of kraut that large mouth jars are the ones to use when canning sauerkraut.  It stays messy, but you get more of the kraut in the jar with each pass while loading it up.  We had 14 large mouth quarts and bought two more dozen.  And I was still worried I wouldn’t have enough.

Last Saturday was the day.  I figured I would find out whether or not I would have to run into the garage to get some empty regular mouth jars.  I have a large pressure canner that I use for my tomato canning.  I can fit 7 quarts in it, so I filled it up with water.  I don’t use the top of the canner for sauerkraut because it doesn’t need the pressure.  It uses a boiling water bath.  I used the lid once by just setting it on the top without turning it to seal it.  It sealed anyway.  Due to my stupidity, when I took it off, it was not pretty.  I won’t go into details, but it involved hopping quickly into a very cold shower, pain killing medication and a lot of bandages.   The sauerkraut was great, but I learned my lesson!  This time I used a lid that wouldn’t seal to the pressure canner.  It came from a pan we have and fit nicely on top without falling in.

I got the kitchen ready for the main event.

Towels keep the hot jars from touching the relatively cool counter surface when they come out of the canner, the hot pad lifts the lid off the canner and the jar lifter, well, lifts out the jars.

The jars were washed, rinsed and ready to be filled.

Of course, any project in our house involves supervision.

The boys “helped” me by holding down the boxes from the quart jars so they wouldn’t go anywhere…

and by supervising the actual packing of the sauerkraut in the jars.

Okay, Clyde didn’t really help much.  And, after awhile, Barney lost interest…

When cabbage is fermenting into that beautiful sourness that is kraut, it will form a scum at the top that is not covered by liquid.  I scraped that off and put it into a couple of bags in a bowl.

After filling the first dozen jars, I moved them to the other side of the kitchen to wipe down the tops and put the lids and bands on.

Then they got thrown in the bath!

I put the jars in and made sure there were a couple inches of water above the top of the lids.  I keep a pot of hot water at the ready in case I need to add more.  I also have a small pot of warm water for the lids, although since the kraut is cold packed, it probably isn’t as necessary.  I just like to have them warmer.

While the full quarts were being processed, I continued filling the other jars.

The entire process of filling, putting lids on and processing the jars took about 4 hours on Saturday.  I only found two small pieces of sauerkraut on the wall and a few that hit the floor.  And I got 32 quarts of sauerkrauty goodness.  Yum!

As I mentioned earlier, the lid I used on the canner wasn’t supposed to seal.  It worked perfectly at not sealing, but it allowed the boiling water to boil over.  And sauerkraut water reacts with aluminum and turns brown and black.

Dwayne wasn’t too happy when he came home from work and saw this, although it looked worse than it actually was.

It cleaned up pretty easily, but it did turn the dishwater black.

All thirty-two quarts are now labeled, put back in the cat-less boxes and in our basement, waiting to be consumed.  If we don’t share, these should last about three years.  Unless we buy stock in brats.  Hmmm.

Dig it!

Posted under Canning

Mother Nature has seen fit to make this Winter last as long as possible.  My fingernails are wondering if I am mad at them since they don’t have any dirt, or mud, under them at the end of March.  While I can’t get to cleaning out my gardens or planting too much of anything, there are still things to do…

Make lists of all the plants I will have in my veggie and flower gardens (I’ll figure out how to fit it all in later).

Figure out where to put some rhubarb plants in our garden that we are getting from a friend.

Figure out where all the stuff is going in the Youth Garden.

Make it to Brucemore’s Cool-Season Plant Sale April 10-12.

If you haven’t been to Brucemore in Cedar Rapids, I highly recommend it.  They have a wonderful 19th century mansion that you can tour to give you an idea of life in the early days of the city.  Three different Cedar Rapids families have lived there.  You can wander around the grounds any time of the year.  They have events all of the time, both indoors and out.  And they have terrific gardens.  They also have a couple of greenhouses, one of which was was recently refurbished.  It was in pretty rough shape.

The Lord and Burnham Greenhouse was originally put on the property in 1915.  It originally had a small head house and 450 feet of glasshouse as well as detached cold frames in the rear.  They expanded the glasshouse in 1940 and doubled the size and moved the cold frames.  Those dimensions weren’t very conducive to the current state of interpretation or for growing, so the decision was made to return the greenhouse to it’s original dimensions.

The process was just completed last year.  For more information on the greenhouse, click here.

Brucemore’s Cool-Season Plant Sale will be held Wednesday, April 10th through Friday, April 12th from 5 to 7:30 each evening. It will be held in the Lord and Burnham Greenhouse so you can get a first-hand look at the way it was meant to be.

I have been informed by Brucemore’s Head Gardener Deb Engmark and Marketing and Program Director Tara Richards that a variety of cool-season plants will be available.  These will include pansies, cabbages, snapdragons, sweet peas and spinach.  Brucemore will also be selling early blooming perennials like Bleeding-hearts and Delphiniums.  This early planting will give them a strong root system for the upcoming year.  The Cool-Season Plant Sale prices range from $3.50 to $7.50 and all the proceeds will benefit garden and landscape rehabilitation projects at Brucemore.  If you have any questions or just want to listen in, the garden staff will be on hand to give expert advice on selecting, placing and caring for your garden’s new residents.

There will be Summer Plant Sale on May 11 from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. so make sure to put that on your calendar as well.  This sale will feature annuals, perennials, hanging baskets and herbs.

Not sure where Brucemore is?  It is at 2160 Linden Drive SE in Cedar Rapids.  You can drive past it on First Avenue  to get the full feel of how much space there is for you to enjoy when you enter the grounds!  For more info, call 319-362-7375 or check out their website.

Maybe I’ll see you there!

Dig it!

Posted under General, Spring

Saturday’s very warm temperatures had us in the yard cleaning up the old birdseed under the feeders.   While wandering around the house looking at various plants in the garden I noticed that the rabbits have been busy already on my roses.  And one of the roses in sprouting new growth.  More concerning to me are my oldest daffodils.

They are already poking out of the ground!  They are only two or three feet from the house on the west side and are protected to the south and the north by junipers, but THEY ARE ALREADY COMING UP!!!!!  No, no, no, no!!!

AND…. I have a hyacinth that has decided to see what is going on….

This was on Saturday when we were in the low 50s.  I don’t think they are liking the minus three degrees right now.  Now, I am hoping for about two inches of snow to help cover them up and help insulate them.  Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like we will see any good snows for a few days.

Hang on little guys!  And STOP GROWING!!!!

Dig it!

Posted under Winter