Pork (Pork) by Delicious on Apple Music Song · 1995 · Duration 2:54

For a moment I thought you were singing this song from a local band back in the day. (The lyrics come at the end.)

The end of a branch of false indigo-bush shows a thick bunch of small, bright green compound leaves with long, thin stalks of flowers emerging from it, mostly not yet blooming, but showing some purple where a few flowers have opened at the bases of the stalks. In the background many other branches are visible against a clear blue sky, with the white trim of a house barely showing between leaves.

Today’s photo shows our false indigo-bush (Amorpha fruticosa), doing much better after last night’s freeze than it did after last spring’s late freeze that came when it was just budding out!

At the base of some of the flower stalks you can just see it beginning to bloom.

#2026photos #nativeplants

Yes! Actually that might be part of the difference for it - last spring it was still in a pot when the late freeze hit. We planted it last fall. It struggled toward the end of the season last year & didn’t look great when we planted it, so I’m glad it came out this spring & survived last night!

The chestnut oak & chinkapin oak seedlings are sad, but the shingle oak seedlings are ok… & all the bigger oaks took it well.

The false indigo bush & devil’s walking stick that got fried last year when budding out are further along this time & took it in stride.

#nativeplants #virginianativeplants

It’s so interesting (if disheartening) to see how different things took the freeze last night.

The dogwoods & serviceberries are fine, but the redbuds & sumacs took it hard.

The black cherry are great, but the sycamore is wilted.

The hickories look mildly inconvenienced, the walnuts look torched.

We’re going for a vernal pool type thing so woodland is a good setting, though ours will be much more woodland edge just due to property boundaries. Lots of figuring it out as we go is ahead though.

& this one at least has gotten tall enough not to be mistaken for poison ivy anymore! 😂

Well that & most people hate boxelder bugs in the house, & I spend the winter escorting them to little bottlecaps I’ve set out full of water for them to get a drink. 😂

We’ll have trees all around regardless - small lot & planting lots of trees, though there’s little shade yet.

…so inside it came!

Shortly after taking this photo, the trash can sprung a serious leak.

We now have a boxelder, in water, in a trash bag, in a trash can, in another trash bag.

And none of this is at all ridiculous.

🤷‍♀️

#virginianativeplants #backyardforest

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I didn’t know what to do with it so I stuck it in this trash can in a couple inches of water. I later read that one shouldn’t put tree roots in water for more than a few minutes - too late! Anyway it’s been happy. 🤷‍♀️ However, tonight it’s getting down to 29 & the water would freeze…

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A tall, slender sapling with a green, bamboo-like trunk and groups of 3 small leaves rises out of a large gray plastic garbage can with its rim covered in dirt. It is placed just inside a door with glass in the upper half, through which part of a cluttered enclosed porch can be seen. It is dark outside. The walls inside are painted a cream color and the door is a shade of white.

I did actually take a picture outside, but decided this should be today’s photo instead. It’s an eastern boxelder (Acer negundo) we accidentally dug up a couple weeks ago, then decided to try & save in case it might like to go by our pond, when we have a pond.

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#2026photos #nativeplants

Looks like you’re a little north of us do they may be coming soon! Or maybe they will wait another year to bloom? I think I planted these 2 years ago & it may be that one plant didn’t bloom last year.

Yep. Very easy to say from the outside, & ignores the hundred reasons a person might need to stay, or choose it out of a list of bad options.

The spent blooms of a heart-leaf golden alexanders plant appear as little green starbursts on each tip of the rays of a larger green starburst, the whole thing sitting atop a slender stem that emerges from a dense green cluster of basal leaves. The overall shape resembles fireworks.

Today’s photo, taken quickly so I could get in out of the wind, shows that heart-leaf golden alexanders (Zizia aptera) are even more interesting-looking after they’re done blooming than while in flower!

#2026photos #nativeplants #virginianativeplants

Hear hear!

Yours are farther along than mine!

Mine hasn’t had any activity yet either. I’m going with “the bees are not yet thirsty.”

& now that the other piles are moved to where this one was (already not an empty spot anymore!), we have space for our pond/vernal pool project to begin!

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We wouldn’t have moved this pile yet, but we needed to make space to move some other piles that were in the way, & I hadn’t really planned its location when I started it.

I was afraid we’d disturb a lot of critters today, but we mainly found snails, & relocated all of those to safer places.

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Despite the extended drought the pile was very damp inside, and smelled wonderful while we were moving it into the truck.

It’s hard to tell in this photo because it’s had time to dry, but we’ve found we end up with very healthy soil when we move a brush pile after a couple/few years.

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An area of bare ground consisting of dirt and old plant matter is surrounded by grass and weeds. In the background are a bag of mulch and two piles of dried & cut plant stems.

Today’s photo shows where one of our brush piles used to be! More a waste pile, really: pulled grass, clumps of sod, old vines & weeds, & a little actual brush too.

3 trips to the landfill later, & it’s gone!

(It doesn’t go *in* the landfill, but to be used for mulch.)

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#2026photos

It was a good time! The day before we were at a park pulling garlic mustard - lots more moving around & struggling through brush but it comes out of the ground so easy it’s pretty rewarding. 😂

A wooded setting with scattered low green plants in the foreground surrounded by dry leaves, and a much thicker carpet of green plants among the trees in the background.

The results of a couple hours’ work with @blueridgeprism.bsky.social yesterday at the Arboretum at JMU! When our little group started, the foreground looked much like the background: thick with invasive periwinkle (Vinca minor). A couple hours’ work freed the native plants to spread out!

I saw today that this one is now big enough to bloom… and has proven to be the native flowering dogwood! It feels like a huge reward for patience, & gives me hope for the other seedlings.

So that’s today’s picture!

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#nativeplants #virginianativeplants

Then a year or so ago another got big enough to bloom, and turned out to be a kousa, so after nurturing it for years, I cut it down. I have yet to find any clear-cut way to distinguish the two species when they’re small, so I still just nurture them, and wait and see.

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#backyardforest

Partially hidden by bright green leaves with curving veins and tapering shapes, the wide white bracts of a dogwood flower spread around the light greenish center, with some pink at their edges. The flower looks a little past its prime and the bract on the right is folded toward the camera against a leaf. In the background are pale rock groundcover and a paved driveway.

A little background on today’s photo:

We have a number of little dogwood seedlings popping up, and for years I assumed they were all native flowering dogwood (now Benthamidia florida, but the Flora of Virginia still has Cornus florida) because I knew the first one was.

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#2026photos

If anyone has an argument for why this sassafras is perfectly fine staying where it is, about 18 inches from a small shagbark hickory, please share it! I would love not to have to disturb this little one (or dig up the spiderwort clump it’s growing from!)…

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#virginianativeplants

A bunch of bright green sassafras leaves emerges from a central point, the ones in the center still appearing very small while the outer ones are larger and spread out. Some of the leaves are roughly oval, some are mitten-shaped, and some have three lobes. Beneath them are dark green grass-like spiderwort leaves and violet leaves that are dark green and rounded, as well as a bed of dried leaves. A section of wire grid fencing appears behind the little sassafras.

Today’s picture (shared a bit late!) is the newly opened leaves of one of our little sassafras trees (Sassafras albidum), which I swear were buds smaller than the smallest of these leaves just a few days ago.

I love how this bunch shows all the leaf shapes!

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#2026photos #nativeplants

Throwing Shade VA Program Help us plant more native trees and expand biodiversity throughout Virginia. Native trees and shrubs provide food and habitat for wildlife, especially important pollinators, and their benefits to wildl...

We got both trees a couple of years ago at a local garden center through the Throwing Shade program from @forestryva.bsky.social - which is still going on for another couple of weeks, so go get a tree if you’re in Virginia!

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The top of a very young tree is shown with dark gray bark and short branches extending to the sides at only a slight upward angle. There are leaf buds emerging at the tip of each branch, from various points on the trunk, and from the very top. The buds are large and have a pointed shape similar to a candle flame. They are very pale green in color with tan or rusty edges on the individual leaflets that are wrapped together, and they have a sheen like silk. In the background is intermittent green grass with brush piles and cleared areas interspersed.

Today’s picture is one of our two shagbark hickories (Carya ovata) getting ready to leaf out. The buds have been growing visibly for just a few days but really made progress today. I love the silky sheen they have right now!

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#2026photos #nativeplants #virginianativeplants #backyardforest

A shallow blue glass bowl sits atop a metal stake. In it are several smooth, round stones in shades of tan and gray and rose, with water surrounding them partway up their sides. Behind the bowl a mass of wide, ribbed, light green hosts leaves emerges from under a dark green boxwood shrub. At ground level are parts of decaying limbs.

Today’s photo shows our newly set up bee watering station, hopefully to provide a nice safe place to get a drink for all our bees.

I checked every few minutes all day to see if the bees have found it yet.

The bees have not found it yet.

#2026photos #pollinators

Commuter's Lament, Times Square Subway Station YouTube video by bridgeandtunnelclub

Reminds me of the delightfully grim “Commuter’s Lament”:

youtu.be/-jyRqVLKtFY?...