To those who wait...

... answers come.

Last summer I came across these wildflowers and didn't know what they were. I snapped their picture in hopes of identifying the plant. I searched on the Internet, but that's a difficult way to identify a plant when all you know about it is that it's a tall, yellow wildflower. I didn't have any luck finding my particular flower.

But I didn't forget about it.

Recently I checked out a Peterson Field Guide from the library for Eastern/Central [United States] Medicinal Plants and Herbs. And what did I come across while perusing its pages, but this exact flower. The field guide identified it as elecampane, or Inula helenium.

I use elecampane root in teas that I make to treat the symptoms of cold and flu. Until now I have mail-ordered it from an organic source. Late last winter I started some plants from seed and in the spring I planted them in my garden, but the root is supposed to be harvested from second-year plants. The first year plants look nothing like the picture. They stay low to the ground, and the leaves spring out sort-of like a rosette. That's why I had no idea that the tall beauty was the same plant, only in its more mature, flowering stage.

So today, while walking the dog, I went back to where I had spied these flowers in late summer. I didn't know if I'd find them because by now the plants have died back, leaving only the root alive to send another plant shooting skyward again next year.

But I did find them, the withered, dried remains of stalks, leaves and flowerheads, waiting to be flattened by winter winds and heavy snowfall so that they can reconnect with the soil and become a part of it again.

The only way to be sure these plants were indeed elecampane was to dig up a root and smell. Elecampane root has a very distinctive smell. I took the dog back home, put him in the back yard with his little cup of doggie ice cream, got my shovel, and returned to the withered plants.

I chose one, dug, pulled, and was rewarded with a nice, fat root. I brushed the earth off of it as best I could, scratched at a section with my fingernail, and smelled. Elecampane! Ha!

Boy did I feel just like a wise woman of old, able to identify and find the plants I need in the wild.

I've had a lot of fun over the past couple of years growing more serious about learning the wise woman's ways. Soon I hope put up a post showing the things I've been able to find, or grow, and put away for later use, and the things I've made.

I absolutely love knowing about the things that grow around me and how to use them, gratefully, for my own benefit, or the benefit of others.

My garden, such as it is...

I had such plans for gardening this year. I was going to grow mostly veggies in the plot at the back of the yard, and prepared a new plot in a half-circle design in which to plant herbs.

Well, we left for our marvelous vacation at a bad time garden-wise, and in the rush of a million things to do (one of us didn't have a passport until three days before we left because this particular person had to send in more proof of citizenship before the passport was processed - slowly; and we had a large, dead tree taken down, the aftermath of which had to be cleaned up; etc., etc...), the grand garden plans became drastically altered.

The back garden plot didn't get turned or planted, and the new plot was barely prepared enough for me to throw seedlings into mere days before we left. The result:

Our only garden plot, a haphazard mix of herbs and veggies, before:

and now:

The veggies consist of four varieties of tomato - three of which we started from seed - peppers, cucumbers, zucchini, and I just planted some peas and some bush beans, as an experiment. They are sprouting as we speak and it will be interesting to see if they produce anything before the frost sets in.

The herbs here are medicinal, evening primrose, elecampane, holy basil, motherwort, calendula, and sage. The sage, of course, is also culinary, and we have a few other culinary herbs in pots around the patio.

In one large pot we have two types of basil and a pineapple sage. Here's the pineapple sage, not only is it pretty, it smells just like pineapple:

I also have a couple of gladiolas growing alongside the patio which are beginning to bloom:

Here's a bud ready to unfurl:

One of my favorite medicinal herbs that I'm growing is the holy basil it smells wonderful, I wish the picture was scratch and sniff:

And, of course, the calendula is always so bright and sunny. It just started blooming in the last week or so. It'll continue to bloom until the frost finally takes it:

Unfortunately, the Japanese beetles have been a huge problem this year. Whole trees have been denuded by the pesky buggers. They really like my evening primrose, too, darn it:

The garden plot in the back has reverted to the wild, but wonderful things can be found there if you take the time to look:

The black-eyed Susan is the state flower of Maryland, where I grew up. It's nice to have it make an appearance back there:

These tiny beauties, baby's breath, are a remnant of some mixed wildflower seeds I spread out back there several years ago, they were the only things to grow from the seeds I spread:

And so goes the gardening this year. I had such grand plans, the half-circle herb garden laid out so nicely, and wonderful veggies in the back. The reality turned out a bit hurried and mixed up, but there's always next year!

I've already got my eye on several varieties of heirloom seeds I want to try out in the back, and I'm planning on doing my little medicinal herb garden right, and with a few more varieties of herbs.

I was able to plant a small patch on the side of the house with some yarrow and two types of lavendar, which are doing very well and I hope they overwinter and come back in the spring.

In gardening, hope springs eternal.

In which we go on an ADVENTURE

My daughter and doggie and I headed out into the wild for an adventure. My daughter claimed that she had found a bubbling spring several months ago and she wanted to take me to it.

We headed out into the old farmer's field whose last crop of corn was harvested seven years ago. It's now full of goldenrod (note, you may click on any of the pictures to see a larger version and then click on the back arrow to return to the blog):


A brave aster rose above:

We walked along a deer path while we could:

And still we were swallowed by the goldenrod:

In the field we spotted a garden spider busy on her web:

And a mantis with one green eye and one black eye:


Here's one with both eyes the same color:

When the deer path petered out, we made our own:

When we finally reached the forest, we were met by the muddy, upturned roots:

Of a new-fallen tree:

At times the forest gave way to swampy areas inhabited by tall, reedy grasses. Here are a few at the edge of a much larger patch:

A raccoon had crossed the still-muddy bottom of a drying creek bed and left his prints:

Bark on some of the larger trees formed interesting patterns:

Moss peeked through the detritus covering the forest floor here and there:


As did other interesting things:

My handsome doggie always loves to go for walks in the woods:

This mushroom looks as though something tried to eat it:

The colors of fall aren't up in the trees yet, you have to look around more closely to see the colorful bounty the plants have worked all summer to produce:

A large tree fall. We've seen this one before:

When we emerged from the forest again we encountered a type of thistle with the softest fluff:

And other interesting things:

This leaf brought to you by the letter "J":

My daughter captured this beautiful flower with her camera:

And that's not all that she captured:

Here is an interesting, if gruesome, story. Last winter in about a foot of snow, we trudged through the goldenrod field. At one point we noticed that our footprints were bloody. The blood was not from us. It was a large area in which the snow had been soaked in blood and then had been covered by fresh snowfall. Icky. Upon reaching the woods, my daughter spotted more blood. She found a deer with a newly missing leg which had somehow hobbled to a place underneath the branches of a fallen tree, lain down, shut its eyes, and died.

We don't know how it lost its leg, but it had traveled quite a long distance without it, as evidenced by the blood trail. We hadn't been back to that spot since winter, so we went to see what was left of the deer. We found its bones in the same spot, though they had been moved around a bit by scavengers:

We found the part of the leg bone with the trauma caused when the deer lost the rest of the leg:


Here's a comparison of the injured bone with the same bone from the other leg:

We don't know what happened. It looks more like a clean slice rather than something that might have happened in an encounter with a car. If a car or truck had done this, I would think that it would have been smashed, rather that have such clean-looking trauma. But I'm no expert. To us it's a mystery.

Well, we didn't find the bubbling spring, but it's been very dry here for the past few months. We'll go looking for it again after the fall rains have replenished the water table. We did, however have a run-in with one more deer. This one very much alive.

On the way home, we skirted the goldenrod field at its edge where we could make use of a deer trail so we wouldn't have to blaze one of our own. I said, "Thank goodness for the deer," and as if on cue a giant buck jumped up from its resting place not five feet away, off to the left in the goldenrod. He rose, facing us with a huge rack of antlers, then instantly turned and bounded off into the expanse of goldenrod, velvet hanging from his antlers and swaying as he leapt.

I will tell you that it was scary facing those antlers for that split second. My daughter remarked that it's getting to be rutting season and she was glad he wasn't feeling crazy enough to attack. We wouldn't have fared well in the encounter.

The goldenrod was too tall for our dog to see what had happened. He was so startled that he just froze. Usually he'll try to chase deer if he sees them. I'm glad he didn't this time.

It all happened so quickly that I wasn't able to get a picture of the buck, but I snapped this shot of his nest of squashed-flat goldenrod where he had been bedded down before we startled him. I know, it's not a great picture, but I was holding the camera up over the goldenrod in front of me so I could take it:

And that was our adventure. We made it back home, tired and full of little burrs, but happy. Thanks for letting us share our adventure with you.

Goldenrod - not just for meadows anymore

Back in my earlier post about making goldenrod salve when I said that it wasn't a miracle cream - I was lying. It is. No kidding. I had one of those tight muscles in my neck this morning. I put some of my goldenrod salve on it. Around twenty or thirty minutes later I noticed it was gone (the tightness and pain, not the muscle).

It usually takes a few days for those things to finally go away on their own. I love my goldenrod salve.

Bloom Day September!

It's bloom day again! Every 15th of the month it comes around. I love looking at other bloom day posts to see what's blooming in other people's gardens the world over. If you would like to see these posts, or if you would like to share what's blooming in your garden, head over to the May Dreams Gardens blog. To share pictures of your garden, leave a link to your blog in the comments section. Or simply follow the links already there to see some truly beautiful pictures from gardens the world over.

I'm located up here in northeast Ohio. This morning when I went out to capture what was blooming, I was met with a lot of debris from the stormy winds we had yesterday. The remnants of Ike blew through. I'm thankful that we only had to put up with gusts of around 60mph - they were potent enough for me. My heart goes out to all of those in Texas and in the Caribbean who bore the brunt of the storm.

A wasp's [edit here: this is a hornet's nest, which I knew, but typed 'wasp'. Carol pointed out the error of my ways - thanks!] nest had blown from a maple tree in my yard. See how some of the leaves have been incorporated into the nest?


Even a 'helicopter' seed from the tree became part of the nest:

Here's the entrance to the nest - there were still a few wasps [hornets] flying around:

Some debris from trees:

Sadly, my sunflowers didn't hold up well in the winds. I had eleven and now I have just three remaining:

Here's a sunflower that was going to seed that was blown down and landed amongst the zucchini. Apparently I have a slug problem too:

Here are some calendula that I haven't harvested yet to dry:

Ground cover showing some color:

A buggie in my Autumn Joy sedum:

In The Park Next Door

These pictures are not in my yard, they are from the park right next door. I always enjoy the wildflowers found on the untamed fringes.

The chicory is so resilient that even when it's mowed to a nub, it still blooms:

I have no idea what this wildflower is. It was about 3 or 4 inches high, and it was the only one I saw:

These flowers were blooming along the edge of the pond in the park. I thought at first that they were marsh marigolds, but the foliage isn't quite right. Does anyone know what they are?:

And of course there was lots and lots of goldenrod in bloom. The asters are just starting to bloom here in northeast Ohio and sometimes they mix in with the goldenrod. It was still a tad windy this morning so my goldenrod-aster mix picture shows the motion. The asters on the right are still a bit storm-worn:

That's all I have for bloom day September - thanks for stopping by!

If you want to take a look at a little post I did about a bog walk I went on a couple of weeks ago, just click here. You'll see a couple of carnivorous plants, some cranberries, and a few other things - yes, all of it here in Ohio!