Category: <span>native plant gardening</span>

July 19, 2011July 19, 2011

THE SANGUINE ROOT VEGETABLE GARDEN: JULY 2011

Isabelle picks cherry tomatoes in the Sanguine Root vegetable garden, Viola street, East Parkside, Philadelphia — Isabelle Dijols picks cherry tomatoes in the Sanguine Root vegetable garden, Viola street, East Parkside, Philadelphia

So the three tomato plants are now producing fruit. Â We have not been watering them regularly. Its been hot and dry for the most part. Â The tomatoes taste so good. Â A garden grown tomato cannot be matched. Â This is great, since we have been too busy to dote over the garden, and yet it is doing very well this year.

Our one cucumber plant in the Sanguine Root vegetable garden, Viola street, East Parkside, Philadelphia

Our cucumber patch consists of one plant. Â Does anybody want a cucumber? For us its cucumber salad with a few slices of tomato with a little olive oil, pepper and balsamic vinegar. Â And for lunch its Rye bread with a bit of olive oil, cucumber slices and some freshly ground pepper. Â Anymore said will put us at risk of becoming a foodie blog at this point. We are not gardeners or foodies, but we feel strongly feel that if you can grow your own food when you can or if you can, go for it and to not miss this important part of living on this earth.

Native wildflowers in the Sanguine Root vegetable garden, Viola street, East Parkside, Philadelphia

Of course, most of the property is devoted to native sun loving wildflowers. Someday more vegetables may be grown, as we build up the raised beds and continue to improve the place.

A kind friend of ours gave us root segments of the native Wild Bergomat and the Tall Coneflower a few years ago, which have taken off and have created a beautiful setting for our vegetable garden.

Bed of green beans in the Sanguine Root vegetable garden, Viola street, East Parkside, PhiladelphiaÂ

This is our green bean patch. For some reason, most of the bean seeds we planted did not grow. Â However, the 5 plants that did grow have provided us with a massive amount of beans! Â We have been chopping them up with onions and garlic and sauteeing them. Also just eating them right off the plant on site is very enjoyable.

The bricks that line these raised beds come with a heavy heart. Â They were at one time the building blocks of once majestic Â buildings in the neighborhood that we would rather have standing today. However the economic situation in the city of Philadelphia in the past 50 years has blighted sections of the neighborhood Â and has led to the demolition of some once grand Victorian-era homes.

June 14, 2011June 17, 2011

WELCOME TO THE DELAWARE RIVER VALLEY-POINT PLEASANT COMMUNITY PARK

THE DELAWARE RIVER VALLEY IN BUCKS COUNTY HAS MUCH TO OFFER. WE WERE LOOKING FOR A QUIET AFTERNOON STROLL IN A SECLUDED RAVINE WITH AN ABUNDANCE OF WILDFLOWERS, IN A PLACE WE HAVE NOT BEEN TO, WITHIN AN HOUR OR SO FROM PHILADELPHIA.

Point pleasant Community park, Bucks County, Pennsylvania

It was Memorial Day weekend and we had the place to ourselves. It turned into a 3 and 1/2 hour hike along a rocky trail.We moved slowly examining the plants, shrubs and trees along the way. Â We admired the varieties of ferns growing along the path and up the steep hillside. There was a parking area, with Mayapples, picnic benches, a charming town park. Â A trail led us out of this setting and it became increasingly wilder, with steep rocky terrain hosting a great variety of herbaceous forest understory plants that kept us fully entertained for the first hour. Â Keeba was very happy to be in a new terrain. Our goal was to find and photograph the Trillium cernuum that Â Anne Rhodes and Timothy Block mentioned seeing in their book The Natural Areas Of Bucks County. Â The above picture is a happy one indeed, because we got to see Trillium cernuum growing in its ecosystem. We would love to have this species in our garden, but have not yet found a nursery that propagates it.

The Christmas fern (Polystichum acrostichoides) figured prominently in our walk. This time of year we can see the fertile section of the frond. Â We saw these growing tall and abundantly.

If you ever dream of having a rock garden, this is the place to get ideas. Â It is always informative to see which plants grow together in nature and what the conditions are. After dealing with the Â race car track mess in Morris Park, it was great to come to this peaceful ravine where the value of the land and its use has been settled and is now enjoyed by all for what it is and has been for millennia.

The rocks and ferns together make for a pleasing visual composition. Â There are some areas in Pennsylvania where there are rocks Â that Â are hundreds of millions years old that can be split in half to reveal fern fossils. Â Ferns that grew in that exact spot in a time that is difficult to imagine. Ferns are so old they are found in the rocks.

Woodland phlox graces the trail. Â It is so important to see other parks and natural areas, to see what is growing there, and how the surrounding communities and friends groups are restoring and maintaining them. This gives us an education on what works the best and what mistakes not to make. Sometimes one has to leave home in order to appreciate it and to have a better understanding of how to improve it. Â This place was full of serenity. Â To have an experience like this is what we needed to have so we can enjoy the beauty of our region, and feel tranquil about it. Â Somebody worked very hard to create this park and others work hard to maintain it, and we just show up to enjoy it.

The convenient parking area is right at the trailhead. In the springtime you will be greeted by a patch of Mayapples.

The sign could use a bit of straightening. Â Perhaps some dark stain and more white paint in the lettering. Â The invasive exotic, noxious Japanese knotweed Â surrounding the sign needs to be controlled. Maintenance is always the issue when it comes to park signage and infrastructure, as well as environmental restoration. Â However, what a great afternoon in a spectacular park!

May 26, 2011May 26, 2011

MOUNTAIN LAUREL BLOOMS IN LEWDEN GREEN PARK, NEW CASTLE DELAWARE

A TALE OF THE TWO DELAWARES: AMIDST Â CITIES AND 8 LANE HIGHWAYS, OIL REFINERIES, MEGA-MALLS AND MINI-MALLS, AND SEEMINGLY ENDLESS LOW-DENSITY SPRAWL IS A NATURAL LANDSCAPE FULL OF NATIVE TREES, SHRUBS Â AND FLOWERING HERBACEOUS PLANTS, BIRDS AND BUTTERFLIES.

Lewden Green Park, New Castle County, Delaware

KALMIA LATIFOLIA

The contrast of natural landscape to urban sprawl is back-to back in New Castle County Delaware. At the intersection of Airport Road and Appleby Road is a mini-mall, a gas station, large swaths of parking, an apartment complex, lots of turn lanes and asphalt. Â This is the place that is driven through day in and day out. Â A place to merge on to the highway in order to get onto I-95. A place to buy gas. Â However, there is an amazing woodland that almost exists in a alternative reality, in almost exactly the same spot. Â This is the place where if you ever imagined what it must’ve looked like at this gas station 1000 years ago, at this exact spot, what was it like? Â Well, here at Appleby and Airport roads, All one has to do is cross the street, 150 feet and you are there, 1000, years ago.

Lewden Green Park is the pre-strip-mall Delaware. Â It is hard to believe that such a place can even exist in such close proximity to such a thoroughly disturbed urban area. Yet Lewden Green Park is so rich in diversity of trees, shrubs and understory herbaceous vegetation, it must be accepted as fact.

The above-pictured Kalmia latifolia is flowering in abundance in the Lewden Green park. Â There are mature shrubs in full flower all over the park. Â The woods is a joy to see: from the trails off into the forest is a shrub layer of blooming Mountain Laurel as well as maple leafed Viburnum. Oaks, Hickories, and Sweet-gum are in the canopy, and as we get closer to the Christiana River that flows through the park, there are Red Maples, Sycamores and Dogwood.

The Mayapples, Hay-scented ferns and False Solomons seals are on the forest floor.

What did this spot look like 1000 years ago? Â It could be argued that the overabundance of white-tailed deer can explain the hay-scented fern patch pictured here, being that the deer don’t like the hay-scented fern. Evidence was noted of the deer, in that the Mayapples were in some areas reduced to leaf-less stems, a familiar scene in Morris Park, Philadelphia.

Just a glance into the forest reveals blooming shrubs under a canopy of mature native trees and a vigorous layer of Â ferns and herbaceous plants, all native, which means they most likely have been living in this exact spot for thousands of years. Â Imagine that a place in the forest can have stability for such a long time. The blooming Mountain Laurel pictured here is a descendant of Â one that bloomed in this very spot 2000 years ago. The original Delaware, The natural lands that co-exist somehow with the developed areas are still holding on. Â Imagine that the neighborhoods surrounding Lewden Green park could remain as stable as the park. Imagine living on a block of houses, where the inhabitants have been living there for 5000 years and thought little of it. The blooming Mountain laurel has been doing that for much longer and has no problems with that , just see the next picture:

This absolutely magnificent flowering shrub has the answer. Â How many millions of years of evolution created this beauty? Â So, in this very spot, here in New Castle County Delaware, what was it like two hundred Â years ago in 1811? Â How about Â 300 years ago in 1711? 400 years ago in 1611?

Ok then: 2000 years ago in just plain old 11? Â Was this bush blooming just like it is here, right in this spot? In Delaware?

Maple-leaved Viburnum blooms!

Whoever is helping maintain this park , you are doing a great job. This park is a treasure.

The invasive exotics Multiflora rose, and the Asiatic bittersweet, as well as the party spots with the beer cans Â and garbage, (also, the axe Â hackings of that poorÂ mid-sized Â oak tree next to the pond ) are Â troublesome problems In Lewden Green Park.

So do not be fooled by all of the miles of asphalt and industrial facilities in Delaware. There are Mayapples and Mountain Laurel blooming in the hidden forest remnants. In fact, Roger Tory Peterson writes in A Field Guide To Wildflowers: Â “The best remaining natural flower gardens I have seen along the East Coast are in Delaware.”

Delaware will enrich any itinerary of wildflower viewing in the Mid-Atlantic region. The birds like it here too.

Garden of the Sanguine Root, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

So these two pictures here are not in Lewden Green or even the Mt Cuba Center or Bowman’s Hill Preserve. Â They are in fact in our backyard. Thats right, this blooming beauty was purchased at a plant sale at Bowmans Hill Wildflower Preserve. Â These shrubs are great garden specimens. Â Rather than buy yet another Asian Azalea, perhaps your yard could be graced with this exquisite native shrub. Â If you want birds in your yard, the insects that will visit the Mountain laurel will attract the hungry birds and pretty soon you will have a natural ecosystem happening in your own yard. Â At your local native plant nursery, be sure to ask for Kalmia Latifolia. The latin name insures that you will get the right plant.