"He hath made every thing beautiful in His time: also He hath set the world in their heart,
so that no man can find out the work that
God maketh from the beginning to the end."
Archived Journals - Spring 2008
August 8, 2008 - The National Prairie Conference took place this week in Winona. MN. We attended most of the days of the
meetings, and had a booth set up. It was good to visit with many other people in the same field (no pun intended)
and to get the bigger picture of the prairie wildflower world. We met many folks that we knew by name and voice on the phone,
but can now put a face to.
Our tomatoes began getting ripe this week! We picked many pounds of Cherry Roma
tomatoes, and got them ready for delivery to the restaurants. We also cut a few heads of cabbage, broccoli, and some eggplants.
The cabbage butterflies have not been too bad this year... not sure why.
Now we are seeing more wildflowers bloom like Meadow
Blazing Star (Liatris ligulistylis) and Joe Pye Weed (Eupatorium maculatum). Both of these species attract tons of butterflies!
August
1, 2008 - This week flew by! We worked a lot in the fields again; disking, mowing, cultivating, weeding, and harvesting.
We weeded out some of the new species that we planted this spring like Wild Lupine (Lupinus perennis), Red Sport (Rudbeckia triloba
var.), and Helianthus giganteus (Tall Sunflower). We also harvested a few things like Path Rush (Juncus tenuis), and the last
of the Harebell (Campanula rotundifolia). Harvest amounts have been variable this year; some species producing above average
yields, and some producing below average. In all we are getting a pretty average yield. Fall harvests will determine whether
or not it is a good year for us in the field.
Some species that are blooming now are: Wild Senna (Cassia hebecarpa), Lead Plant
(Amorpha canescens), Starry Campion (Silene stellata), Butterflyweed (Asclepias tuberosa), Long-headed Coneflower (Ratibida columnifera)
and Royal Catchfly (Silene regia). We also had four species of Poppy Mallow blooming: Purple Poppy Mallow (Callirhoe involucrata),
Clustered Poppy Mallow (Callirhoe triangulata), Bush's Poppy Mallow (Callirhoe bushii), and Fringed Poppy Mallow (Callirhoe digitata).
July 25, 2008 - This week we took it easy, and visited family in Washington state! We had a lot of good family times, and
actually got to go hiking up in the hills around Ellensburg. We saw a few familiar wildflowers, and some new wildlfowers in
the hills. Being the end of July, things are pretty dry and gone to seed already. We also saw a horned toad on top
of the hill. At first we thought it was a fat lizard of some sort. Other activities out west involved blueberry picking,
and seeing some of the fruit orchards.
Back home the wildflowers kept blooming, and hopefully are producing lots of seeds.
The rains for the month have been very good... 4" or 5" in July!
July 18, 2008 - This week we finished harvesting
a few of the cool season species. One was Prairie Blue-eyed Grass (Sisyrinchium campestre). These were in their first
year in this location (we divided them and transplanted them this spring), and so the harvest was small.
We pulled a lot
of weeds this week out of the Lead Plant, Starry Campion, Wild Lupine, and Nodding Fescue. These fields are all looking good.
We had a little warmer weather this week, but it was still only in the upper 80s. A few storms rolled through mid-week, which
dropped a few inches of rain. This will help out things a lot, as it was starting to get dry.
July 11, 2008 - We had
a lot of species that needed harvesting this week. These would be the cool season, early blooming species, that are now going
to seed. First we cut the Wild Columbines (Aquilegia canadensis). The heads were large and full, so we had a very good
yield. It is not all cleaned down yet, but we are thinking that it may be twice as much as we have ever gotten before!
Then we harvested the Plains Oval Sedge (Carex brevior) and Green Needle Grass (Stipa viridula). These were very thin, and did
not yield much seed. It may be that the fields are getting too old, and need to be started over.
July 4, 2008 - The
wildflowers are slow to be ready for harvesting this year, but the Fowl Manna Grass (Glyceria striata) and Awl-Fruited Oval Sedge
(Carex tribuloides)were finally ready by the end of the week. The harvesting went well, and we got a good amount off the Fowl
Manna Grass, but a so-so harvest off of the Sedge.
There are some more colors showing up now like white flowers in the Pearly
Everlasting field, Purple in the Harebell field, Yellow in the Coreopsis field, Blue in the Spiderwort field, and Pink in the Showy
Beardtongue field.
The rains this year have been good, but the heat has been on the cooler side. Many of the crops are
shorter and later than usual.
