Each Little World

One down, one to go

Last Wednesday morning Mark and I were nervously wandering around the house waiting for the crew who were scheduled to take down two old trees and do high pruning on a few others. Nothing was happening and then suddenly there were about six guys, all in neon safety vests and bright coral hoodies, standing in the snow at the base of the big Sugar Maple that was slated for removal. After a lot of looking and discussion, Cameron Lundin, of LundinTree decided that the snow depth and the problematic location of that tree meant they were going to postpone that job. They will likely have to block one traffic lane with their equipment to get that one down.

That decided, they immediately went to work on the tree that was more easily accessible to deal with. This giant bucket truck backed into the driveway almost up to the house. We watched them through the window of the bathroom that is located above the garage, giving us a great view. 

It was fun and instructive to be able to watch this arborist strap himself into the bucket and be raised up to begin work on the Austrian pine. All the trees that were planted when our house was built are approaching 60 years old. According to the Morton Arboretum, Austrian pines are not recommended for planting anywhere in this region due to susceptibility to many diseases and pests, and usually require removal and/or replacement. That has certainly been our experience with them. Our property had four big ones when we moved in and we're down to one remaining. 

He began by removing side branches. Though Mark did go outside to shoot some of the photos, I found it was a great experience being able to watch this process from the second story of our house instead of standing on the ground staring up; never a good idea for someone like me with inner ear issues.  

Then he topped one of the trunks of the tree.  

He topped the second trunk after all the side branches were removed. It was amazing to watch these men work with such precision. 

We were removing the pine because it was interfering with the growth and health of our Forest Pansy redbud growing beneath it. These guys never broke even a tiny branch off the redbud while they worked above and around it. 

While all this was happening in the front garden, another pair were high pruning the remaining Austrian pine in the back garden. This tree was affecting the growth of our Acer tegmentosum 'White Tigress.' This pine is still in good enough condition that we are leaving it in place. 

Once the side branches and tops of the tree were gone, they began to take down the two trunks in logs that were probably 12 feet long. 

Finally they were ready to remove the main trunk. I'd put stakes and pink tape around all the shrubs and rocks in that area knowing the crew would likely be working when snow covered everything. I did not want these underplantings harmed and I was equally concerned that the workmen did not get hurt by buried landscaping. 

This crew were amazing. They could do anything! 

Bye-bye big guy. I don't think we're going to miss you.

When they were all finished, the crew blew the driveway clean of any debris and sawdust remaining from their work. We've been more than happy over the years with the tree work we've had done on our property. But LundinTree have moved to the head of the class after watching their expertise and attention to our larger  landscape. 

May in the Midwest

A week ago our overnight low temperatures were bordering on freezing. As a result I was hauling my new plants in and out of the garage every night. Then the weather turned beautiful and I spent two glorious days planting.

Now we are back to days where the high temp is barely making it to the mid-50s. Two inches in the last two days and four inches total rainfall since Thursday. The garden is on steroids with all that moisture, but it is too wet to do anything — even weed. 

I would not really care except that I have a lot of plants that need to get put into the ground. Even in their pots, they are putting on a lot of new growth. Last Friday morning two flats (64 plants) of Carex pennsylvanica from the UW-Madison Arboretum were delivered to my front door. 

I am one of the lucky ones, as the Arboretum sale was cancelled due to COVID-19. Those of us who preordered received our plants directly from the grower. The Carexes that I planted last autumn are looking gorgeous. Can't wait to add these to the mix.

More signs of Spring

Despite the fact that I live in an urban area, prairies are a common sight around town. There is a city-maintained prairie at the end of my street which we have often walked through. The nearby University Reseach Park (URP) is landscaped with swaths of prairie surrounding the assorted contemporary office buildings. The land itself is gently rolling rather than flat which makes these landscapes of interest any time of the year. Should you drive by them right now you can clearly see how prairies are managed: by regular burning. This process helps to restore and enhance native vegetation which, in turn, filters and improves ground water quantity and quality.

We took a shortcut through URP the other day and discovered they'd burned the prairies and we missed seeing it take place. Mark has helped a couple of friends burn their prairies which is a pretty dramatic sight. 

The sign notes that this area is a "Native Habitat Planting" and says "Please do not mow, plant or dump" and describes the benefits of the planting.

Here's a brief video of what that controlled burn process looks like at URP. 

 

The URP prairies are localized plantings and generally smaller than what many people are doing with prairie restoration projects in the country. Curtis Prairie, at the UW-Madison Arboretum in Madison, is the world's oldest restored prairie. When it is burned it is quite a sight (below). The Arboretum was recently listed in the National Register of Historic Places, recognizing its significance as the birthplace of ecological restoration.

The beauty of winter

I saved photos from last summer's garden visits to use on the blog this winter. But here we are still in February and I've posted them all. So I've resurrected a few of my favorite winter scenes that Mark shot a number of years ago.

Winter trees at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Arboretum

Jens Jensen's iconic prairie tree, Cockspur Hawthorn (Crataegus crus-galli), planted en masse in a park in Kohler, Wisconsin.

The Bur Oak at the end of our driveway. This winter's snow is piled much higher up on the trunk.  

Home again, home again jigitty-jog

We got home Tuesday afternoon after eight days out East visiting with my sisters and extended family. Once upon a time I used to drive by myself from Madison to my parents' home in Buffalo — all in one day (approx. 700 miles). These days Mark and I usually stop overnight on the way out to our destination of my sister's place on Chautauqua Lake in NY state. This time we also decided to stop on the say home as well.

We drove almost seven hours before stopping at the Morris Inn in the middle of the Notre Dame University campus. Unlike UW-Madison which is in the midst of the city, Notre Dame is self-contained. You drive in to a spot that is filled with great grassy fields criss-crossed with sidewalks for walking since there are no vehicles allowed. The Inn and campus buildings are mostly pale brick and surround what is virtually an arboretum. I had Mark snap this photo of me next to a gorgeously mature weeping Beech. 

This is a London plane tree with pale gray exfoliating bark at the top that reveals an almost white trunk. To really get a good shot of this extremely old and tall tree, I think one really needed to lay flat on the ground.

We both love evergreens so we were very taken with the pines with multiple trunks, twisting branches that swooped up and, in this case, down almost to the ground.

I would not want to stay on campus on a football weekend as I know what those are like after 40+ years living in Madison. But in summer — with as many tourists as students wandering around the campus — it was a lovely place to spend some time. 

Arboretum jumping worm survey

The UW-Madison Arboretum is working with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources and the University of Vermont on a survey to determine how extensively the invasive Asian jumping worms (Amynthas spp.) have spread in the state. I've taken the survey and it is quick and easy to do online. There are lots of opportunities to add more detailed information about your experiences with the worms. There is also a shortened version if you want to get involved but don't actually have these worms in your garden or on your property. Take the survey here. 

 

The worm has turned and is also being surveyed

Earlier this week I dug out an old shrub that I planted years ago because I remembered one growing at my grandmother's. I decided the memory of it was much nicer than my actual ratty shrub taking up a piece of valuable real estate. It took me a good two hours or more to get that monster out of the ground. The worst part of the job, however, was that there were Asian jumping worms (Amynthas species) in every spade of dirt I turned over. Now when I see a worm it is always an enemy siting. It was a very depressing afternoon. 

The next day Mark and I cleaned up the east side of the house where our garden work area is located. Mark is going to make me a new potting bench but we needed to get all the junk out of the way so he could get started. Piles of prunings, bags of garden debris, old pots and a pile of soil he bought in early spring to re-pot our waterlilies made the space a disaster area. We dealt with all the piles of junk and then lifted up the piece of plastic that had been covering the remains of the dirt pile.

It was immediately apparent to me that jumping worms had been working there. If you look at the photo above you can see how the soil looks like the proverbial "coffee grounds" texture we've been hearing about. The pale spot by the rock in the photo below shows the untouched soil. There's lots of pebbles and debris in this image but I think the difference in soil texture is noticeable. This is the first — and so far only  — place where I have seen any effect from the jumping worms, though this is at least the second year I have seen them in the garden. The number of worms I am finding appears to be higher than last year. 

Wisconsin DNR Invasive Plants and Earthworms Outreach Specialist Bernie Williams said in the WHPS June newsletter, “The best way to get rid of the worms at present — if you are finding one of the adults — try and grab and bag as many of them as you can. At least that way, you’re alleviating that pressure of having the cocoons in your soil. If you put them in a plastic bag and then put them in the sun for 10 minutes or so, you’re going to have a congealed mess of worms ... the humane way to put them out. And then just dispose of them in the trash.”

I used this technique when I was digging out the shrub I mentioned at the top of this post. I had three lunch-sized ziplok baggies each with about a dozen worms. Put the bags on a rock in the sun for the afternoon and then into the trash. So many worms it was hard to decide if I had a chance of making any kind of a difference in my garden in the long term scheme of things. 

I am on a list for email updates from the UW-Madison Arboretum. The Arb has been at the forefront locally of dealing with, learning about and researching jumping worms. They sent me the notice that I've pasted below in its entirety. It came right after my recent jumping worm experiences and definitely got my attention. I am passing it on for anyone who might want to volunteer since so many of us locally are already dealing with this issue.

Invasive jumping worm (Amynthas species) photo from (NTL-LTER) and the UW-Madison Arboretum 

 Volunteers Needed

for Invasive Worm Survey

The North Temperate Lakes Long-Term Ecological Research site (NTL-LTER) and the Arboretum will be surveying Madison properties for the invasive jumping worm (Amynthas species) on September 10. We need volunteers for two opportunities—both will be great learning experiences for those who want to know more about jumping worms:

1. People to help survey properties on September 10 
2. Madison homeowners who do not know if they have the worm and would like their residential site to be part of the survey

If you are interested in either of these opportunities, please keep reading and get in touch by the dates listed below. 

. . .

The North Temperate Lakes Long-Term Ecological Research site (NTL-LTER) and the UW–Madison Arboretum are seeking volunteers to join the Madison Citywide Jumping Worm Survey on Sunday, September 10, 2017, from 1–5 p.m.

Background

The jumping worm is an earthworm native to East Asia, but invasive to Wisconsin. This pest was found in Madison in the fall of 2013, and researchers and land managers are concerned about potential negative effects on soil and plant growth. The jumping worm is also of considerable concern to local gardeners and homeowners who worry about potential damaging effects to their property. This fall, our team seeks to learn about the spread of the invasive jumping worm in the Madison area.

Project Goals

The project's research goal is to get a first assessment (which could be repeated in subsequent years) of the distribution and abundance of Amynthas spp. in the Madison metro area. Specifically we aim to determine:

1. What is the current distribution of Asian jumping worms (Amynthas spp.) in the Madison metropolitan area? (i.e., where are the worms?)
2. How do the presence and abundance of Asian jumping worms (Amynthas spp.) vary with land-cover categories? (i.e., what habitats do they prefer or avoid?)

Volunteer Information

We are seeking volunteers to help us survey for jumping worms in residential, park, prairie, and forested sites throughout the city of Madison. We are also looking for additional Madison residential properties to include in the survey, especially from homeowners who do not know if their property contains the jumping worm.

If you are interested in having your Madison property surveyed as part of the Madison Citywide Worm Survey and you are unaware if you have the jumping worm, please email your name and contact information to Kelly O’Ferrell by August 28, 2017. *Note: Residential properties will be randomly selected from responses until we have met our site quota.

If you are interested in participating as a survey volunteer in the Madison Citywide Jumping Worm Survey on Sunday September 10, 2017, from 1–5 p.m., please email your name and contact information to Kelly O’Ferrell by September 1, 2017.

Thank you!

The Madison Citywide Jumping Worm Survey Team

. . .

Here is a link to the The North Temperate Lakes Long-Term Ecological Research web site if you are curious as to who they are. 

Prunings transformed into art and architecture

Seen and noted at Olbrich Botanical Gardens and the UW-Madison Arboretum in Madison on the recent blogger meet-up here.

You can only see it here

In the Midwest, on public and private land, prairies have almost become a landscape cliche. People often "plant" a prairie before they know much about that unique ecosystem or what's involved in creating and sustaining one.

But here in Madison you can learn about prairies as well as experience the essence of this unique landscape at the UW-Madison Arboretum. At this time of year I always try to visit the famed Curtis Prairie. These photos were taken there when our little blogging group made a stop at the beginning of September. 

CURTIS PRAIRIE IS THE WORLD'S OLDEST RESTORED PRAIRIE and occupies 73 acres of Arboretum land. It's predominantly a tallgrass prairie and shows off many native species, including big bluestem and Indian grasses. If you're interested in prairies this is the Holy Grail of that landscape in terms of age and information.

Many classic experiments with planting techniques and the use of fire to manage prairies were conducted here during the 1930s and ’40s. Most of Curtis Prairie is a restoration, but the northeast corner is actually a small remnant of original prairie abundant with native species, according the Arboretum's website. There is nothing quite as restorative and romantic as walking through Curtis Prairie with the grasses waving in the breeze high above your head on a September afternoon.

On the opposite end of the garden spectrum is the Thai Pavilion and Garden at Olbrich Botanical Gardens. This gorgeous building — known as a sala — was a gift to the University of Wisconsin-Madison from the Thai Government and the Thai Chapter of the Wisconsin Alumni Association. UW-Madison has one of the largest Thai student populations of any U.S. college or university, according to Olbrich's website. I think that last bit of information was a big surprise to most of us who live in Madison. The Thai Pavilion is connected to the rest of Olbrich Gardens by an ornamental bridge which emphasizes the feeling of stepping into another world.

Salas are common in Thailand and are typically used for protection from the elements. The pavilion at Olbrich is more ornate than most roadside salas in Thailand and is more like the ones you might find at a palace. It was built in Thailand, taken apart and shipped by ocean transport, rail and truck to Madison. The Thai artisans who came to Madison to reassemble it arrived in Chicago on September 11, 2001. The building is only one of three to be built outside of Thailand and is designed to withstand our weather. 

The Olbrich horticultural director and staff have done an amazing job of creating a tropical garden around the building and along the approach route. You can imagine how impressive a feat this is in the Midwest. 

Water in typical Thai-style containers as well as in reflecting pools is an important feature in this garden.

The Thai garden also includes fountains so the sound of water adds to the atmosphere.

Olbrich Botanical Gardens and the UW Arboretum are wonderful assets to our community and to the Midwest in general. For my money, the Thai Pavilion and Garden alone is worth a visit to Madison. No matter how many times I visit it always takes my breath away.

Garden bloggers mini "Meet-Up" in Madison

Six garden bloggers from three Midwestern states met in Madison on Friday, Sept. 2 to tour our city's top venues for gardeners and nature lovers. We began the day at Olbrich Botanical Gardens with a short talk by director Roberta Sladky (below left).

She spoke about all the things we don't usually see or know about that go on at Olbrich behind the scenes, like the interns who work in many different departments at the gardens and the summer camps for young writers that use the gardens as inspiration. We got great information packets from Roberta so I will talk more about some of the special things they do in another post.

Judging by our expressions this was the most serious moment of the entire day which included lots of garden stories, plant i.d. discussions, mosquito repellent spray and laughter. The group included me (above far left), Lisa who blogs at Greenbow Gardens, Rose of Prairie Rose's Garden, Becky (Lisa's cousin/Rose's friend) who's taken a break from blogging and Danniel at Obsessed Midwest Gardener/owner of Botanica Fine Gardens and Landscapes. Beth of Plant Postings is taking the photo.

I'd met Lisa, Rose and Becky at the Chicago Fling in 2009 but had not seen them since then so it was a pleasure to reconnect. Beth and I had met in person last year but both Danniel and her blog were new to me. Erin of The Impatient Gardener and Jason (and his wife, Judy) of Garden in a City were unable to join us this time. Erin and I have had a chance to visit each other's garden but I only know Jason from his blog and had been looking forward to meeting him. Maybe next time!

We lunched at Rosie's Coffee Bar and Bakery on Monona Drive where one of the employees snapped this photo of us. Clockwise from Lisa (in the coral top), Becky, Danniel, Beth, Rose and me. Rosie's offers casual dining with an interesting menu (Grilled pear and brie sandwich!) and tasty food. 

The group made a stop at my garden before going on to the University of Wisconsin-Madison Arboretum. My husband snapped this photo of me and Lisa Bowman. It was so much fun to see her again as we have been commenting on each other's blogs for years now. You can see we share other enthusiasms than just gardening!