Dutchman's Breeches and Penny's Bend

Over the weekend we had Internet problems, still dropping off too much. Meg and I went on a nature walk at Penny's Bend Nature preserve on the Eno River on Saturday. Dutchman's Breeches, Dicentria cucullaria was one of our targets. We found an entire hillside covered with Dutchman's Breeches most had already bloomed, yet I managed to get these photos.


Below is an Eastern Comma Butterfly I found on Friday here while strolling the grounds.


The Gemmed Satyr below was also found at Penny's Bend, our first for the season.

Painted Buckeye is currently in full bloom, usually our hummingbirds return when these are blooming. We saw lots of buckeyes in bloom but no hummingbirds.

On Friday I also found this Twin-spotted Spiketail next door. These are spring flying dragonflies one of the biggest we see in the spring. I saw one flying, but never saw it land. This one a spotted perched and it allowed all the photos I wanted, they are not at all wary when resting.

Our first salad greens from the garden on Saturday night. The greens included mixed salad greens, mustard greens, arugula and curly kale. On Easter we made a salad for 8 and all was eaten up right away.

Tilling dirt and chopping up roots

Here are some wild morning glories that sprouted in our new garden bed. The soil was tilled up and placed in the garden back in early February. I figured chopping up the roots would just add organic matter. But I was wrong the chopping just helped the morning glories spread to every part of the garden. Usually when tilling I try to remove as much root material as possible, especially wild onions and mints. This time you can see the results below.

Above are 6 pieces of morning glory root I pulled up by hand. You can clearly see how new plants just took off from the small pieces of root.

I recall a long time ago at our river camp on the Ohio River it had wild morning glory roots 1 - 1 1/2 inches wide that came to surface every time the river washed away the soil. You could break off the roots like sweet potatoes, I had read that Indians ate the roots like potatoes in fact.

On a brighter note here is a Bleeding Heart from our garden today. A mild freeze is expected tonight, but there is nothing in our garden to worry about yet.