Foliage Friday - Eastern Redbud

Happy Foliage Friday! Holy cow, is it really Friday? And really the end of September? Time is flying! But luckily for you, something that always stays the same - is your Foliage Friday. :)

Ready for a Foliage Friday update? I hope so! Here is your friendly plant post, where I talk about a plant I love and hopefully convince you to either plant it or just be more knowledgeable about it.

Plant: Cercis canadensis, Eastern redbud

Eastern redbud flowering in spring

Why: Not sure if you read comments from other posts, but my lovely cousin, Stephanie, commented that she wanted to learn about "those pretty trees with pink flowers in the spring that I want." First of all, this made me giggle because there are a bunch of trees with pretty pink flowers in spring... and I can't remember which one she liked the most! So today I picked one of the pink flowering trees to see if I was right. If not, I'll try again until we find it. :) And of course, hugs to Stephanie for actually commenting/reading/and making a suggestion! Steph and my dad are the best for humoring me haha.

Landscape uses: I forgot to mention this before.... but I love this tree. Love. This. Tree. I'm not 100% sure why. I do remember that it was one of the first plants I learned about in my woody plant ID class. Maybe that was part of it!

Overall, the Eastern redbud gets between 15-30 feet tall and 25-30 feet wide when it reaches maturity. Yes, this is a little on the shorter side compared to some of the trees I have written about. This makes it a lovely ornamental tree for a lawn or need a building since it doesn't need a large amount of space for its crown or spread.

Eastern redbud in summer

Its leaves are heart shaped (vocabulary: cordate means heart shaped when referring to leaves.) and it has zig-zag-gy (I just made that word up) delicate branches as well. In spring and summer, the leaves are a common green and in fall are yellow.

Heart shaped leaves of the Eastern redbud

As you can imagine by the name, it flowers! But not red, it's more of a deep pink. The flowers bloom before the leaves open, so it makes a striking statement in spring. You'll see the flowers typically between March and May, depending on the weather and which zone you live in.

Close up of the pink flowers of the Eastern redbud

It does best in well drained, fertile soils and doesn't require a lot of watering once established. Prefers to be planted in full sun to partial shade. Keep an eye on the leaves scorching if the leaves are splashed with water during high peaks of sunshine.

Other uses: I didn't know this, but after reading a little bit, I learned that the flowers and flower buds can be added to salads, breads and even pancakes! They are very high in vitamin C. Who knew? The seed pods can also be eaten and prepared in a vareity of ways: raw, boiled, sauteed. Also, if you boil twigs from the redbud in water, they produce a yellow dye. This would be an interested experiment to see if the dye is strong enough to dye an Easter egg!

Fun facts: Looking for a pretty flowering plant that attracts animals? Here is your plant for bird attraction! And as a perk, deer are moderately resistant to this tree. If you garden, you certainly would not want to attract anything else closer to your house!

Habit of the Eastern redbud

Couldn't be anymore excited to research and read about this beautiful, low maintaince tree! I actually planted one in my parent's backyard. I can't wait to see it grow into something as beautiful as this!


Information and pictures from: http://www.wildflower.org


Now, is there a plant YOU'D like to hear about next week?

Foliage Friday - Willow Trees

Happy Foliage Friday! Did you miss me last week? Sorry about that!

Ready for a Foliage Friday update? I hope so! Here is your friendly plant post, where I talk about a plant I love and hopefully convince you to either plant it or just be more knowledgeable about it.  

Plant: Salix babylonica 'Pendula', Weeping willow

Why: Did you read last week's update? Probably not because I didn't write one. ;) But the one before that I asked what sort of plant you wanted to learn about next time. And my wonderful father asked to hear more information about the willow tree. This makes me laugh because I really believe that he knows enough about them, but I will humor him and post about willow trees! Because the willow genus is huge, I picked the weeping willow since its relatively common and my mom loves them!

Landscape uses: This popular tree grows between 70-80 feet tall and is a relatively fast grower. However, it is has a short lifespan. In spring the leaves are a silvery green and in fall turn to a golden yellow. This cultivar is known for being a little bit stronger than other willow trees and is overall more disease resistant than others. This helps offset the short lifespan! The flowers are pretty small yellow spikes. The trees are either male or female, so cultivation is a little trickier to establish. They prefer very moist soils and can be found naturally near ponds, lakes, streams, etc. This is not very ideal for landscape uses because of its short lifespan and need for constant water.

Fall color

Other uses: The bark has been used in ancient Egypt as remedy for fevers and aches associated with it. There is a compound called salicin that resembles aspirin and can relieve headaches and stomachaches temporarily. Bark can be used for baskets, wicker, brooms, etc. In natural circumstances, willow branches are used for decorative fences in gardens, etc.

Fun facts: There are over 400 species of willow trees! Cut branches of the willow tree almost always take root into the ground if the conditions are right. That is fascinating to a plant nerd. :) If you google willow trees, you will find a ton of legends about its uses and benefits. I won't
 bore you too much here, as a lot of it is scientific-y biological-y. :)

Pendulous leaves of the willow tree.

Thanks for joining me this week! What do you want to learn about next week?

Down on the farm

I think I've mentioned before one of my favorite things about being back at home is being close to the farm. I missed it a lot while I was at school and work for the past 5 years. Now I get to be a morning feeder and I absolutely love being able to hang out with the livestock and get dirty. I actually don't mind mucking manure! :) Along the way, I like to snap some pictures with my phone because the animals do some funny things, hehe.

This was the first picture I took this summer. It was approximately 90 degrees at 8am and Otto, our steer, came over to the spicket to get a drink and cool off! I thought it was hilarious and adorable!

After a few weeks of getting back into the habit of feeding, I volunteered to milk as well. I mean, I was going to be there anyway! This is Heidi, our milking shorthorn. She is a sweetheart and VERY patient!!!

I think Otto is just one of the cutest cows ever. He likes to follow me around when I'm out in the paddocks! Be careful, he's a licker!

One morning, Erin asked me for a picture of the ducks and I joked around with her and sent her a picture of "cow butts." Hehe. Ducks. Cow butts. They rhyme! It made me laugh.

 

This is an unflattering picture of our new heifer, Bertha. She's a little shy and wont let me get near her face, so I had to settle with a shot of her back end!

The same time we received Bertha, we also got 3 more pigs. I snapped a pig of the small pink one. We haven't had pink pigs in so long!

This is another one of the new pigs. I giggled because she immediately jumped into her food trough to snarf down the food I dumped in.

This pig is now our veteran pig (we just recently cleaned house and purchased new ones) at just a year old, and she has only been here for a month or two, but she is wonderful! I think she is pretty sweet!

And to end this picture post of cute animals, here is a shot of some pig butts. Aren't animals butts so cute?

Next time I'm at the farm, I'll try to get some pictures of our horses and fowl. I just love being there and am really lucky to get to go back to help out! Piggies are my favorite. :)

Foliage Friday - Ohio Buckeye

Happy Foliage Friday! Thanks for joining me. :)

Ready for a Foliage Friday update? I hope so! Here is your friendly plant post, where I talk about a plant I love and hopefully convince you to either plant it or just be more knowledgeable about it. 

Plant: Ohio Buckeye, Aesculus glabra

Why: Surprise! Yet another tree, and yet another option for my parents to consider for their front yard if we replace their ugly silver maple. Now, honestly this tree has a few liabilities, which I'll explain in a bit, but I had to go over it anyway. First, my mom is from Ohio, where their state tree is the buckeye. Second, this tree is commonly overlooked because of its fruit liability, but it has some lovely qualities as a landscape tree! And third, I tried teaching Erin about this tree when we were in Central Park in April... I thought it would be fun to jog her memory. :)

Ohio buckeye in mature form

Landscape uses: Starting off with its form, I can only describe it as a lollipop. Do you remember drawing trees as a kid? Stick for the trunk and a green, round poof for the leaves? That is sort of what this tree looks like from afar. Classic form! It is usually 30 feet or so tall, but can get up to 80 feet.

In the spring and summer, the Ohio buckeye has a deep green leaf color, and in fall typically has orange-ish, red-ish leaves. Refreshing from the commonly seen yellow leaves!

Fall leaves of the buckeye

Springtime also brings a bright yellow/green raceme flower. I honestly believe the flower is overlooked in this tree. It's definitely unique and a great spring addition to your yard. Oh, but I will warn you - it doesn't smell the best!

Early flower of the buckeye

Overall, the buckeye can be tolerant of shade, and can survive any shade your house or buildings cast on it. But it does best in full sun. As I mentioned above, the fruit of the tree (the buckeye) are a bit of a liability. That basically means the tree produces something undesirable at some stage of its season. The buckeyes are bigger than a large marble and drop to the ground beneath it. This can create an issue when mowing or landscaping under the canopy.

Dried fruit of the buckeye

Because of the crown size of the tree, it does best in larger areas where it can thrive. Be sure the area of your yard is big enough if you consider it for around your house.

Other uses: The buckeye nuts contain tannic acid (which is poisonous to animals and humans), but this acid can be used for leatherworking by Native Americans.

Fleshy fruit of the buckeye before drying

Fun facts: Ohio State University uses the Buckeye as its schools' nickname. All parts of the buckeye, leaves, fruit, bark, flowers, are toxic when consumed. Be careful when around this tree! The dried buckeye is often carried around with a person in their pocket and rubbed for good luck.

Information and pictures from: http://www.hort.uconn.edu, http://www.cirrusimage.com



Thanks again for joining me! Now come on... let's give me a suggestion for next week! What do you want to learn about?

Nursery Tour

I realized that I talk about the nursery a lot in my blog and quite a few people don't really know what I'm taking about! Since I'm there every day at work, I took some pictures for a little mini tour so you can see what my nursery really looks like. (Ha, my nursery. It's definitely not MINE, but I am in love with it!) Plus, Erin asked for a mini tour, too!

Ready? Please keep all hands and feet inside the tour bus. We'll start off the pump house.

 

This is where all of the tools, pump, and first aid kits are kept. Every morning Brian from the forestry crew opens up the pump house and we work out of there all day long. I usually close it up at the end of the day. It looks sort of small, but it keeps all of our tools nice and organized!

Inside of the pump house is a set of cabinets where I specifically keep my tools for volunteer groups, etc.

 

Only my boss and I have keys for these cabinets since these tools are expensive and important for the success of volunteer work days. To the right of the cabinets is the big pump for the water source. There's a dial to turn and then the pump starts up and sends water to all of the hook-ups in the nursery.

We'll be moving past the pump house now, to see more of the nursery. Next is the man-made pond that the water is drawn from when the pump is turned on. There's actually a sign that says, "DANGER, sharp drop off. Stay out!" Again, I feel like this was directed at me. Haha.

Now we go to the actual planting beds that I work in every day.  There are 20 sun beds and this is a shot from the very end of the beds. As you can probably see, most of the sun beds are up on a raised bed. When I weed, I just throw the weeds off the side of the bed and scoop them up once a week into the compost pile.

 

Here is a shot of the East planting beds. This was right at 7am so a lot of it was dewy and flattened down. It usually perks up around 11am. Right now we really only have yellow growing in the sun beds!

Here is a shot of the West planting beds. For some reason I spend less time in the West beds because of East beds are a little more needy and delicate. But the West beds are full of sunflowers which are so fun!

I just thought this was pretty in the early morning. :)

I also have 8 shade beds that I take care of, as well. They are right next to the sun beds, but are not raised. Here are the East shade beds. It's fun to work on these beds when its sweltering hot! The shade canopy is made to simulate the sun breaking through the upper canopy of a forest.

And here are the West shade beds! Recently I've been putting a lot of time in these beds because many of the seeds are ready to collect! The white signs indicate what was planted in each bed and where you can find them. Very helpful!

I ALSO have 3 extended beds that are full of little bluestem grass. It's funny - one of the forestry crew seasonals accidentally tilled all three of these beds under when he was tilling between the tree rows. He didn't realize that I was growing grass in these beds! So the grass is a little short, but doing ok after that incident lol.

And because I talk a lot about the forestry crew and their role in the nursery, here are a few pictures of the rows of baby trees. :)

There are a MILLION trees all over the nursery. These are just two shots near the planting beds that I work. It's fun to see them grow from teeny tiny to bigger trees that can be put in the preserves!

And to wrap up our audio tour of the nursery, here are some beautiful pictures of some flowers and plants that are headlining right now:

Sunflower

Yellow coneflower

Great blue lobelia and silky wild rye

Cardinal plant

Thanks for joining me on the nursery tour! I hope you enjoyed what I work with each week! Have a great day! :)

Foliage Friday - European Beech

Happy Foliage Friday! Heeeeere we go!

Ready for a Foliage Friday update? I hope so! Here is your friendly plant post, where I talk about a plant I love and hopefully convince you to either plant it or just be more knowledgeable about it.

Plant: European beech, Fagus sylvatica

Why: I'm still in my tree kick and am going through my 3 inch binder from my undergraduate tree class, page by page. I came across the European beech and remembered how much I pestered my dad to consider planting one in our backyard. And yes, if you're wondering, our backyard is really not that big for this tree, but I just LOVE it. It's the ultimate climbing tree and I always wanted one of those in my backyard as a kid.

Can you imagine climbing the branches of this tree?

Landscape uses: The European beech can be a very large tree in its mature stage, and can be up to 120-140 feet tall! Because of that, it also offers a lot of shade, and you cannot grow much underneath it, there isn't enough sun. This would be a problem when planting in a yard, as the grass underneath can die. But this tree can be used as a lawn tree in a large open space. The beech also tends to have shallow large roots that can poke up through the ground but can be controlled by the method it is grown and planted. Because it can be so large and have such a large span, it is self pruning and the smaller, inside branches fall to the ground as it grows. Less work for you! In fall, it commonly gets a beautiful red color. It's flowers and fruit are generally small.

Can grow to be enormous trees! I'd love to read a book under there!

Other uses: The tar from the beech can be used to help treat bronchitis, and also on the skin for various irritants. There are a lot of theories about how the fruits (a nut) can be used in a variety of ways. I can't keep up!

Fun facts: The bark of this tree is a grey-ish color and is soft. Sometimes it's described as looking like an elephant's leg. I have to agree with that! The European beech comes in a few different popular cultivars, including one with purple leaves, gold leaves, and one that weeps. I'm a big fan of the purple cultivar. :) There are actually a few forests that are primarily beech trees. Note to self... find one and find bliss....

Can you kind of see the elephant leg? I do!

Thanks for tuning in this week! What would you like to learn about next week?

Information and pictures from: http://www.hort.uconn.edu, http://www.botanical.com

My first big purchase

Guess what I did last Monday?

I bought my first car!!!!!!!!!!! Holy macaroni! I know, I didn't see it coming either. But, after some discussion with my parents, it was determined that my brother would most likely be needing a car during his senior year. And to be fair, the car that I was previously using was bought for both of us, and he should really get it!

So that meant I needed to get out there and start looking at some car options. I knew I wanted something bigger than what I had, possibly an SUV because of the extra storage space for all of my gardening and lawn care tools. My awesome dad went with me to look at cars on Friday night and we started at Ford and Chevy. I know I wanted to try a Ford Escape and a Chevy Equinox. Of course I LOVED both of them! We went home that night because it was late and I went to be dreaming of a Chevy Equinox.

The next morning my accountant dad crunched some numbers according to my income and savings and realized that I could not afford a new car, as I previously believed I did. I was devastated! My dad suggested downsizing to a larger sedan and I just couldn't do it... I had my heart set on a SUV!

Luckily, he wasn't going to give up and brought me to CarMax that afternoon. If I really wanted a SUV, then I would have to settle for a used one! While that was disappointing after looking and driving a 2012 Equinox, I started over and looked at used SUVs at CarMax.  There was an awesome selection, and it made me feel a lot better. I looked at and drove a Jeep Liberty, a Hyundai Tuscon, and a Saturn Vue. I also looked at Fords again, as well as other models of Hyundais and Hondas. Our sales agent, Terrance, was excellent sticking within my budget and didn't let me look at cars I couldn't afford very long, let alone drive one. I really appreciate that!

After a few test drives, I decided I loved the Saturn Vue. My dad has a Saturn and I love driving it! It was very smooth and had great space in the back trunk. However, I did not love the color. Our CarMax only had black models. Ehhh, not my color. I preferred silver! We headed inside and Terrance pulled up all of the Illinois CarMaxes to see what other Vues were out there. Unfortunately there were no silver ones with acceptable mileage (I didn't mention that I had a long list of things I required of my new car!). But there was a red and blue one with my requirements. For some reason the blue one spoke to me! We ordered it to be delivered to our location and made a date to test drive it on Monday.

Monday night, we went back and I test drove the blue Saturn Vue.... and loved it. I was extremely critical of every inch of the body of the car, I felt silly, but I wanted to make sure it was in good shape! It was, and it drove wonderful. This time my mom and dad came and they both loved it as well! We went inside, and signed the papers, and I drove home my brand new car! :)

Here are some pictures!

My new wheels!

Front shot of my car. What do you think of the color?

One important thing for me was how comfortable the back seat was. I had my dad sit in the back seat of every car and let me know how they felt! He liked the Vue's back seat the best. :)

Obviously another big factor was the trunk space. And I cant even tell you how perfect this back seat is for me to start with!

All in all, I am VERY excited and grateful for my dad's help with this entire process. He remained very patient and supportive during the car shopping, researching, and paperwork portion. And of course thank you to my mom for letting us gallivant around to dealers for a weekend and for co-signing!

What do you think of my new car? What do you think of the color? What was your first car?