Is there any sunflower that deer wont eat? How are the pandurata and the prairie smoke?

They have not eaten the ashy one yet. As I said, the pandurata is not doing anything at all since it has been planted. Might as well be a plastic plant. I do not understand it. Prairie smokes are small, but looking good. It seems all mints and Monarda are going crazy.

Jay I went to homedepot and got some 1x6 wood, and made a square frame around 2x2', then nailed 1/4" hardware cloth to one side of it. A lot of people use 1/2" hardware cloth, either one is fine. Some people buy the sifters on amazon instead of making them, if you go that route get the sifter with 3/8" mesh. 3/8" hardware cloth is hard to find.

I get the Pine Bark mulch from Agway. Its hard to find pine bark mulch here too, the big box stores dont have it. I have to drive around 30min to get to the closest Agway. My town doesnt sort any of the mulch, their mulch is whatever they could fit in the chipper, including bits of plastic. Im not so keen on getting more of their mulch due to the plastic.

I use the same mix with 1/4" screened bark for potting mix and sowing mix. A lot of people just sift over a 1/2" screen for their potting mix, which would be a little faster to sift.

As an aside, if you dont want to pay to get rid of the brush, brush piles are great habitats for a lot of animals. Falllen logs are natures nurseries, the moist protected ground along the bottom of the log stimulates tree seed germination. Chop and drop is a big thing in permaculture, just leaving all the branches on the ground as mulch, it could work in planted beds that arent mowed.

I have multiple pipevine sprouts! They are driving their roots down into the soil and elongating with the seed shell still attached, hopefully they'll have enough energy to outgrow the seed husks.

The wild geranium is starting to flower.

I noticed my first penstemon volunteer seedling yesterday in the front.

There was a hawk on the ground when I went outside before, either a young red tail, or a coopers or sharp shinned which are more common in the woods around here.

Could you use bigger pieces of sifted wood in a pot? The mulch the city gives away here isn't the best quality either. My Geraniums aren't blooming yet. I will leave some brush and logs for the wildlife. There's too much to save it all. Nice pictures! Did any of your Mertensia bloom? Oh, I never submitted. I should have asked Al Tapla some questions but I was intimidated. I think I have 3/8 wire.

[https://www.houzz.com/discussions/peace-lily-serious-sudden-drooping-dsvw-vd~5680468?n=14[(https://www.houzz.com/discussions/peace-lily-serious-sudden-drooping-dsvw-vd~5680468?n=14)

The Mertensia does kind of go into shock when messed with. It's almost May and I'm doing more milkjugs.

I think the idea is to have all soil particles around the same size. How big is the container going to be?

Some of the Mertensia bloomed, I think they're a little shocked, the soil is kind of clodden because it never dried out. Will these plants stick around all year or do they go dormant in summer? There is one barely visible Mertensia bloom in this pic

The Mertensia and Sanguinaria and Dutchman's breeches will dissapear, but the Stylophorum will stay green all year. Their mounds get bigger later on. Raining all day again today. After these rains there should be an explosion of growth.

Pilcher Park
Mayapples

skunk cabbages and buttercup

the greenhouse.

natty dreadlock cactus

these are what the flowers on my Alternantheras would have looked like ,if the deer hadn't eaten them.

Perilla?

the grounds

a shrimp plant of some kind

the rain outside is about as bad

Great pictures! Where is this? Unless you got bored in the rain and installed a waterfall, complete with Koi pond.

Yes, I sure got a lot done lol. It's Pilcher Park woods and their indoor botanical garden. There are a lot of white Trillium grandiflorum in the park, but I didn't see any.

I could use some rain now. It was 87 degrees, so the little plants are drying out quickly. Saw some plants I have no idea about again. Might have to take some pictures for Name that plant eventually. My cardinal nest was raided by something last night. No egg to be found. Mrs. Cardinal is ok. She was complaining at me from the fence this morning. Poor thing. All this work for nothing.

The gutters are clogged, so the rain poured on one of my beds and washed away all the soil. The ugly lava rocks in the soil stayed in place so it's a big horrible mess. I'm going to have to use the 3/8 chicken wire for sifting mulch and soil. I should go see if the catnip floated away!

I am sorry to hear this. Like you don’t have enough to do. Did you sow your annual seeds? Passion vine is starting to flower. Got to say the shooting star looks just cute. Unless you look closer. The flowers are actually stunning up close.

My shooting star should be blooming in a week or 2. I think it might be purple. I cut up a bunch of milkjugs and found some other plastic containers. I still need to drill the drainage holes and finish them up. Still quite a few annuals to sow. The river was about ready to flood when I took that picture. Sorry to hear about your cardinal nest. Once they made a nest in my Clematis. Please show me your mystery plants before before you ship them out.

I will! Currently looking at images of stink bugs. I posted something yesterday in the butterfly forum and was pretty certain of what I saw. So much to learn!

There are a couple stink bugs that kill cats right. I found one or 2 cats too late.

Sorry about your garden bed Jay, and your Robin, Iris. I pulled out a wheel barrow full of flowering garlic mustard in the 25min before the sun went down. Thats about 1/4 or 1/5 of the infestation. I see the mile a minute vine and stilt grass already germinating. I didnt bother trying to pull the first year garlic mustard rosettes. Id probably be better off putting garbage bags over the plants i want to keep and then spraying everything. I did notice some boneset from last year coming back, and of course all the pokeweed. Lots of poison ivy and geum canadense. The geum would make a good ground cover if it was better at smothering other weeds.

I still don’t understand that I haven’t seen a single garlic mustard. Seems I have everything else. I guess I should count my blessings.

I think its a cool climate plant. It has a very narrow growth window, pretty much april-june, then it withers up and dies or just hangs around as the little rosette.

Why do they say not to put garlic mustard in compost? It would give me more incentive to attack that huge colony down the road. Skip, does that area in the front that gets standing water. Does it dry out comepletely in summer. My Pennsylvania sedge seems to form clumps and not spread by rhyzomes. I think if you want an area covered with it you have to plant a lot of plugs. Don't overdo it Skip!

Garlic mustard, like stilt grass, has the amazing ability to grow when its barely rooted in the ground. A lot of the plants I pulled came up without any effort. I threw a pile of garlic mustard on the concrete pad last week, and today it is still green, the flowers are still fresh and theyre pointing up at the sun. The flowers will continue to develop into seeds as long as the plant is mostly intact. If you throw it in your compost pile you will end up with a million seeds in your compost. It is also allelopathic.

The area with the water during heavy rains does dry up. I planted my willows in there.

The three mulched circles are the willows. It mostly viloets in between them. Im thinking of spraying grass-specific herbicide in there if its not too toxic, hoping then it will be ALL violets. Closer to the fence I have the baldder nuts, I might transplant some of these to different areas in time.

It's looking really nice! Very cool selections. The skunk cabbage wet area was awesome in person. The pictures don't do them justice.

Skip, this is looking great! Wonder how hard it is to identify willows. I have the bad habit of sticking plants that are in the way or getting too big in pots. Either to find other places or to give away. Last year there was something very willow looking coming up in two of them. They survived the winter. Maybe they would be worth planting somewhere in the yard.

Not sure about IDing them, Salix discolor is easy because it flowers first in the year. Willows are good host plants worthy of planting in a wet area far away from your sewer and drain lines, septic, etc. Aggressive roots and fast growing trees. Salix discolor and humilis are shrubs at least.

Happy Mayday everybody! The sun is shining. We've all made it this far. Now, the real excitement begins. The skunk cabbage is also a host plant. It grows in swamps with swamp milkweeds and swamp sunflowers and swamp loosestrifes. It's nice getting a break from watering.

https://www.illinoiswildflowers.info/wetland/plants/skunk_cabbage.htm

I can try making more Smilax vines by rooting cuttings. They changed the name of the native Smilax I have from Smilax hispida to Smilax tamnoides. So far the 2 vines I've come up with for shade are moonseed and Smilax. Skip, have you found any Smilax in your brush patches, patch?, patches?

https://www.google.com/search?q=gardens+using+smilax+hispida&tbm=isch&ved=2ahUKEwiVvZ3Su_rhAhVEZ60KHf2KDf4Q2-cCegQIABAC&oq=gardens+using+smilax+hi&gs_l=mobile-gws-wiz-img.1.0.33i299.51433.52583..54377...0.0..0.139.390.0j3......0....1.TIVXQI_SKFY&ei=7KLJXJWXJ8TOtQX9lbbwDw&bih=530&biw=320&client=ms-android-verizon&prmd=isnv

The sun went away. There's a bunch more rain coming from a huge system that's in Arkansas right now. The jack in the pulpits haven't emerged yet, but this rain should trigger them. It's 55 now. Absolutely no rain on the east coast.

I have not seen any smilax yet, just lots of virginia creeper, poison ivy, rubus, and honeysuckle vines. Maybe virginia creeper would work for you in the shade, although it does spread a lot along the ground, not as bad as trumpet vine!

Yeah, i can't i believe i never thought of that, and there's more than enough VC around. I just dug out a few buckthorns, a couple white mulberries, and a big wild grape vine by the shed. The big double tree stump wasn't even connected to the ground anymore. It just fell over. That's good news because I thought I'd have to work around it. There's a few bushes that won't come out, I'll have to use chemicals. Almost ready to start planting in there with divisions from the other place. I should be getting most of the other deliveries in the next couple weeks. I need to decide where to put the 2 Amorpha fruticosas. After all the rain and cool weather my bluebells look more perked up today. The ones that were transplanted.

My new mail lady just told me that I am her favorite house to deliver packages to. She said it’s so light, bright and colorful. How sweet. Made my day. And I appreciate a person that can overlook the weeds. Got some pictures later, even though looking at the numbers of comments here, I am already starting to worry.

Please go for it Iris. I'm in dire need of pics of some nice green plants. Temps have been way below normal here again and my yard is still a winter desert.

Jay-did your Blue Cohosh come up? It should be in bloom in your area I would think. Last year the Humming birds arrived on this date. I don't expect them for another week at least. And, my Sarsaparilla still hasn't emerged either. But it is good weather for digging and moving dirt around. No bugs, no heat, but 15 to 20 degrees below normal.

Skip-your place is looking good, and Iris you should feel proud after all the effort you've put in. The mail lady must be right.

The mosquitos were out in full force today. First time I needed repellent. This is one of the plants I am wondering about. Should flower soon.

I forgot. This does look like some sort of willow, doesn’t it?

Let's see how long we can go but I already have another thread waiting in the wings lol. Shark teeth. When the old ones give out new ones form. I have good, good pictures of a rich woods. Mckinley Woods this time. There's a lot of flooding already and another big system is coming. Dandy needs pics.

An elm species and sidekicks

Don't know what this is. Sending it to ntp.

A rue anemone with a pink caste.

Mayapples, no flowers or apples but it is May.

It's more of a hill, but it won't show up on camera.. I pulled up every bush honeysucker i saw.

It was so peaceful and quiet. I could hear the woodpeckers, or was it those aliens from predator?

Illinois and Michigan canal.

Ramps i think. I could barely detect any flavor. Not worth using now anyways. I'm thinking their flavor gets stronger over time.

By the canal

Allium cernuum, nodding onion and a toothwort

Virginia bluebells

Nabalus, formerly Prenanthes. An unusual Asteraceae member that doesn't look or act like one. I only saw 1 plant. It's rare. It is sort of a botanical mystery and anomoly.

Trillium. Illinois has 9 native species. I haven't figured out how to tell them all apart yet.

This is another plant with no id. It reminds me of a barberry. I hope it's something native.

The carpet!

Jack is back with a moving sermon!

Green!

Merrybells?

Merrybells?

Another unknown species to be submitted to the brilliant masters at name that plant.

This plant looked different. Maybe it's a native orchid. If it is I'll be on cloud nine. There seems to be no limit. Let's make it a photo marathon and blow up the transformer again LOL!

I just spent a long time fine tuning a comment and it went to limbo! I thought everything was politically correct. They better send it back. It had about 20 photos. I seem to recall this happening once before.

Oops. I think you already did. I see the canal.

Edited to say maybe something else is wrong since you mentioned the fine tuning.

Yep. It’s blank.

For Dandy

I was shocked to see garlic mustard flowering that was 1 inch tall. It wouldn't take long for them to choke out these toothworts. I pulled up or tried to pull up every bush honeysuckle and I got all the GM, but a couple broke off at the root, I really that, because you know it will be back!. What evil plants!

FOR DOUG!

Jay, I am not seeing pictures.

I'll start making a new thread now. I haven't had a chance to look at questionable plants yet.

I have a new thread. Look for it.