Friday, November 4, 2011

Wednesday, November 2, 2011

Gardening in November

Wednesday, November 1

Now for the first times in five months, the poles are down and the fruit is completely harvested -- twelve dozen Enchantments and four dozen Big Beef slicers sitting on the back porch, to be ripened on shelves in the basement. And now as I look out my window in the late afternoon, all I can see in that once abundant spot is the pile of dead pepper plants and tomato plants waiting to be bagged up for the refuse, and a ghostly white row cover along the front of the bed, protecting the radishes and green onions. But I can still remember how it looked in high summer -- tomatoes, peppers, and eggplants pendant on all the vines and bushes.



Monday, October 31, 2011

Tree of the Week



Ohio BuckeyeAesculus glabra Willd

DISTINGUISHING CHARACTERISTICS: Leaves once-pinnately compound, opposite; leaflets 5 to 7 in number (usually 5), 3 to 6 inches long, elliptic to slightly oblong, gradually tapered to both the apex and the base; margins finely toothed. WInter twigs stout, red-brown to gray, glabrous; leaf scars rather large, half-rounded to shield-shaped, bundle scars 3 or in 3 groups. Buds ovoid, light brown, with 5 or 6 pairs of dry brown scales, the terminal 1/2 to 2/3 inch long. Flowers yellow-green, perfect or imperfect, irregular, in panicles, appearing after the leaves in spring. Fruit a nutlike capsule 1 to 2 inches in diameter with 1 or 2 seeds; capsule wall thick and leathery with deciduous prickles; seeds large, dark shiny brown, with a single large, pale spot (hilum). Bark ashy gray, separating into scaly plates divided by shallow furrows.

SIMILAR TREES: Common horsechestnut, our only other tree with palmately compound leaves, has white flowers and obovate, coarsely toothed leaflets abruptly tapered to the apex. Several shrubby species of Aesculus are planted. In winter, horsechestnut has dark, sticky buds.

IOWA DISTRIBUTION: Native south of a line extending from Mills County northeast to Boone County east to Clinton County. Planted throughout the state and sometimes escaping.