It sure seems way to early to be so hot! The plants haven’t even acclimated, never mind us! Then again, I say this every year.

Chill, how? We remained cool in the dapple shade of The Joslin Garden. But also chill since it was only Nell and I in the garden. Our dedicated garden volunteers were busy. They were missed!

The Foundation had an event today from 1 to 4, so we decided to get back to the clearing out the Quadrants in the Formal Garden. Where I worked weeding a few weeks ago, unweeded itself.

I worked in Q2 and Q3. Calling them by their numbered Quadrants sounds fancy enough, but I need to look back to see how I named them. Anyhoo, Q2 and Q3 should be sufficient for now. I was pleasantly surprised to see so much Dutchman’s Pipe, Aristolochia spp. growing all around the Quadrants!

Did you know Dutchman’s Pipe is the host butterfly plant for the Pipevine Butterfly, Battus philenor?

As Nell and I were working the the Quadrants, we talked about Dutchman’s Pipe. The name comes from the look of, wait for it, a Dutchman’s Pipe. But do you know what a Dutchman’s Pipe looks like?

Mystery solved:

Nell shared with me, Pipevine Swallowtails come every year to lay their eggs. They frequent mine at home too. But we have not seen any yet. My friend Abby already has adults and eggs! Any day now!!

QUANDRANTS

COMPOST PILE

Perhaps I’m a little obsessed with our Compost Bin 1. I worked it. The City crew added grass clippings to the pile, and today I worked them in. As I dug down, I’m still finding sticks. Ugh!

I’m thinking of putting up a sign so folks know what they can and CAN’T put in there, along with penalties that reads:

Only cut up herbaceous plant material—no weeds.

Grass Clippings.

Dried leaves.

PENALITIES:

Sticks—2 hours of hard weeding. BTW, we have a wildlife stick pile right next to the Bins.

Rose clippings— Immediate removal by culprit with ungloved hands.

Weeds—I will personally remove them and plant in YOUR garden.

Ok, maybe not. Nell would never let me be so cruel!

On the way home from work, I stopped at Starbucks to see if they were still supplying gardeners with coffee grounds. Did you know, coffee grounds are a EXCELLENT Nitrogen source for a compost pile? Great stuff. The nitrogen helps break down the compost pile faster.

I use to routinely visit coffee shops for the used coffee grinds. I’m wasn’t sure if these shops were still doing this, so I stopped in a Starbucks to ask. I didn’t see any bagged used grinds for the Taking, as I would see in the past, so I asked about it. I never actually got an answer. What the barrister did do was pull her daily bag of grind waste with filters. Good Stuff. I’ll incorporated in into Bin 1 next week when I’m there.

Also next week, we need to have a come-to-bejeezers meeting with huge swaths of weeds. HUGE!

The chickweed is past getting rid of, but now that it is mixed with clever, we get to both at the same time.

Cleavers, Galium aparine. Cleavers get around. Cleavers are annuals with creeping straggling stems which branch and grow along the ground and over other plants. They attach themselves with the small hooked hairs which grow out of the stems and leaves. The stems can reach up to three feet or longer, and are angular or square shaped. The leaves are simple, narrowly oblanceolate to linear, and borne in whorls of six to eight branches.

There seems to be no end to the Creeping Charlie. It must go!

But worst of all, and my personal nemesis? Porcelain vine, Ampelopsis glandulosa var. brevipedunculata. Don’t bother learning its name, just get rid of it. Some folks mistake it for a wild grape. It is not. It’s a horrible invasive week and absolute beautiful iridescent berries in the fall. The birds love these berries and spread it everywhere. It is very hard to get rid of.

Until Soon,

Helen Yoest