Golden Days

Angus Bull in early evening

It is that golden time of year. That one or two weeks in late September and early October when the corn and bean fields turn golden on their way to turn brown and ready for harvest, and the trees begin to change color.  The angle of the sun is a little different and mornings and evenings become golden glowing times.

 

Soy Bean Field in mid afternoon.
 

The sassafras and sweet gum trees are starting to change color. I think its going to be a good year for strong reds and oranges in the leaves. I'm looking forward to collecting leaves and preserving them with glycerin for Thanksgiving decorations.  The October 2013 issue of Martha Stewart Living magazine has direction on page 167.  The Halloween decorations from tattoos are wonderful as well. Check it out. Can't wait to try them.

Volunteering at my Garden Club

I belong to several non-profit social clubs that do good things for the community.  I get a lot of personal satisfaction from belonging to these organizations and although my museum work keeps me busy a lot of weekends (as well as my farm work)  I try to be a good member and volunteer when I can.

Connie Tunnison and Chris Earnhart  of Town & Country Garden Club serve guests..

Recently I volunteered for my garden club, selling drinks and snacks to visitors to Thomas the Tank Engine.

The Lebanon Council of Garden Clubs owns and operates the Lebanon Station at the corner of Broadway and South Streets. The city of Lebanon owns the tracks and leases the tracks to the LM&M Railroad to operate excursion trains between Lebanon and Mason.

Years ago that corner of Broadway and South Streets was an eyesore with a rotting old abandoned train station greeting folks as they came into town from the south.  Doris Corson and a lot of other garden club members worked tirelessly to raise the money to replace the rotten building with a new attractive train station styled building in keeping with the historic look of downtown. Long time Lebanon Garden Club member Lynn Ankerstar told me that Doris and the others wanted a pretty building surrounded by a garden  that would grace the south entrance of Lebanon while providing meeting space for the garden club members. Most people would agree the garden club's Lebanon Station is a major asset to down town Lebanon.

Who wouldn't want their kids pictures here?

Our garden club members work throughout the year to raise funds to maintain the station building and its lovely garden.  One of our best fund raisers is selling drinks and snacks to Thomas the Tank Engine visitors.  Thomas the Tank Engine comes to town each year for two weekends in September.  Hundreds of families come to ride the excursion train and have "A day out with Thomas". 

The Garden Clubs are responsible for many of the public gardens around town, but the garden around the station is our pride and joy.

There are three garden clubs that make up the Lebanon Council of Garden Clubs.  I belong to Town & Country and we are always looking for new members.  Cedar City Garden Club and Lebanon Garden Club also welcome new members. We provide many services to the community including scholarships to horticulture students and we support several national service projects. We meet in the evenings for a short program on garden topics, coffee and dessert.  Anyone interested in joining us can contact me at the museum at 513-932-1817.

Tinkerbells and Copter Ghosts

Ragweed, ironweed and wild white aster had taken over my pastures, so for the last month I have been slowly and carefully driving my tractor and "bushhog" mower in ever decreasing circles around and around 40 acres of open fields.  My constant companions have been insects and barn swallows; the insects because the tractor disturbed them and the barn swallows to feast on the insects.

Praying Mantis from National Geographic site

By far the most prevalent insects have been grasshoppers, many kinds of grasshoppers. They seemed to like the ragweed best. I spotted a few butterflies, mostly the little yellow or white ones, sometimes a swallow tail or monarch. Butterflies were mostly on the red clover. There were also lots of very big bumblebees. Bumblebees preferred the purple flowers of the ironweed.

Every now and then I'd see what looked like golden brown fairies flying out of the grass and into the trees on the pasture's edges. I didn't have a clue what they were so I named them tinkerbells.  They were anywhere from 2 1/2 to 3 1/2 inches tall and had golden green and brown fluttery wings.

As the unmowed area of the field became smaller and smaller the insects became more concentrated. I was able to see one of the tinkerbells land in the grass and to my surprise it turned out to be a praying mantis.  I had always thought of praying mantis as those green "walking stick" creatures you would occasionally see, if you looked carefully, on a plant in your flower beds. I had no idea they could fly or that I would see hundreds of them flying around a cow pasture. I Googled praying mantis and found out they are voracious killers of grasshopper and other insects. Nationally geographic had a nice article about them and I copied one of their pictures here. The article emphasized what terrible killers they are with amazingly strong front pincher like legs with barbs on their legs for holding prey which they eat alive. Nationally Geographic was glad they are just a small insect and not as large as a cat.

I snapped this picture of a copter ghost on my back porch.

The other insect that intrigued me was one I named copter ghost.  When it flew up out of the grass this bug looked like a fluttery little white helicopter. They were too big for the barn swallows to eat on the wing so they flew around and around the pasture before landing re-landing in the grass and weeds.  Again, as their unmowed territory decreased, I was able to spot a copter ghost in the grass.  It looked like the picture of an insect I had found on one of my back porch posts. I believe it is a katydid.


Poinsettia Update

The two poinsettias I kept from last Christmas spent the summer in a well protected, shady flower bed with an east exposure.  They lived happily among hostas, astilbe, violets, Jacob's ladder and other part sun, part shade plants.


Here's Zeke checking out a hosta with the two poinsettias in the background.

One of the poinsettias lost its leaves in April, I think because it didn't get watered on time. I trimmed it back to about six inches of stems, kept watering it and waited. By May it was sprouting new leaves.

The other plant kept its red leaves until I put both plants outside in June. Over the course of a month its shed its red leaves and put on new green leaves.

The plant that shed its leaves in April is now the smallest of the two but its new leaves seem bigger.

This is the largest plant, it kept its red leaves until the end of June.

I left the plants in their plastic pots and fed them some time release all purpose house plant fertilizer. That seemed to make them happy.

To keep the pots from falling over, I sunk them halfway in the garden soil and kept an kept watch on their water needs. When it wasn't raining every other day like it seemed to all summer, they needed watering a couple times a week but otherwise were easy care.  Neither showed any signs of disease or insect damage and they look nice in the garden.

Now its time to begin their light and dark treatment to attempt to get them to "bloom" for Christmas.
Beginning the first of September (and I've missed it by two weeks, but we go on anyway), they need twelve hours of dark and twelve hours of light each day.   As long as the weather holds I plan to cover them with black plastic garbage bags. From 7:00 pm until 7:00 am when I do my morning farm chores. There is no guarantee that I'll have red poinsettias at Christmas, but I think even if they remain green I will enjoy them as house plants this winter.