Some like it hot!

I think the vetch  growing in our fields is hairy vetch (Vicia villosa). It's coming into bloom, as are more and more of the large beardtongue. All in all, though, I doubt we'll see a lot of wildflowers among the grasses this year. It's not like some past years when the sandy soil benefitted from lots of spring rains preceded by winter snowmelt. The current, extended, unseasonably hot, dry, windy period isn't helping either.

hairy vetch

Photo by J. Harrington

According to the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, "The average number of days in a year to reach at least 90 degrees is 12.9." We've exceeded 90℉ on June 4, 5, may reach it today, and are forecast to exceed 90℉ Monday through Friday next week. That would yield 7 or 8 days of at least 90℉ before mid June. It's no wonder the "spring" yard work is taking longer to get done this year. I think we've missed a planting window for the three sisters garden we wanted to try, but after I knocked down lots of pocket gopher mounds and cut the grass, the Better Half scattered some wildflower seeds we've been accumulating onto the bare earth where the gopher mounds used to be. We'll see if anything grows this year or next.

dame's rocket

Photo by J. Harrington

The dame's rocket flowers have been visited by bumblebees, hummingbirds and butterflies during the past few days. This gets us into the question of distinctions among non-native plants. The Minnesota Department of Agriculture is responsible for the Minnesota Noxious Weed List which includes: 

State Prohibited Noxious Weeds listed as either

• Eradicate
• Control
• Restricted, or
• Specially Regulated

Then there are separate county and federal lists. Dame's Rocket isn't listed on the Minnesota Noxious Weeds lists. Buckthorn is and yet the state seems to do little to control infestations in state parks or wildlife management areas. Plus, the implications and adaptations to climate breakdown have the potential to disrupt most of the efforts to stabilize plant communities through restoration efforts. It's once again time to dig out and refresh our memory on Beyond the War on Invasive Species, A Permaculture Approach to Ecosystem Restoration.

Native Trees

By W. S. Merwin

Neither my father nor my mother knew

the names of the trees

where I was born

what is that

I asked and my

father and mother did not

hear they did not look where I pointed

surfaces of furniture held

the attention of their fingers

and across the room they could watch

walls they had forgotten

where there were no questions

no voices and no shade

Were there trees

where they were children

where I had not been

I asked

were there trees in those places

where my father and my mother were born

and in that time did

my father and my mother see them

and when they said yes it meant

they did not remember

What were they I asked what were they

but both my father and my mother

said they never knew

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