THE REASON FOR MY SNEEZIN'

BACKYARD WHITE PINE

MALE CONES BURSTING WITH POLLEN

YOUNG FEMALE CONES

Monday, 8:45 AM.  70 degrees F, wind SW, gusty.  The sky is clear, the humidity is down some at last, to 56%, and the barometer is still trending down a bit, currently at 29.51", but it is expected to rise soon.  It was a gorgeous morning at the beach with Buddy, who finally got a chance to really stretch his legs.  The beach blueberries are at least two weeks from being ripe.
   We had a violent wind and rain storm, complete with some hail mid-afternoon yesterday, that left .6" of rain in the gage.  I have a load of plants arriving at noon from Northwoods Nursery for the last planting job of the season, and it looks like we should get it done with the good weather in the next couple of days before the 4th of July holiday.
   My "sneezin' season" is at its height when the white pines, Pinus strobus, release heir pollen.  The  pollen grains are yellow and when the wind blows the air is filled with a fine golden dust that settles on every surface.  Pine trees are wind pollinated, and the male cones are produced heavily on the lower branches of the big trees, evidently designed (by God or evolution or a cooperative effort, take your pick) so that the wind wafts the pollen upwards to the higher branches, where the young female cones are waiting to receive it.  At the height of pollen release huge, dusty yellow clouds can often be seen blowing across the landscape.
   White pine trees are monoecious, bearing both male and female cones on the same tree.  The female cones take over a year to ripen, open and release their seeds.
  White pines are native to southeastern Canada and the northeastern US, further south in the eastern mountains, and west into the Great Lakes states.  White pines are easily distinguished by having five needles to a cluster, and by their size, up to two hundred feet in height and their age, up to 500 years old.  During the height of the logging era they were the most valuable lumber tree.
   Eastern (also called northern) white pine tends to be a disjunct species, rather than a climax species, often growing up in groves after some catastrophic environmental event such as fire, tornado, etc., and unless felled by man or nature can dominate the landscape for hundreds of years.

CHANGEABLE WEATHER, HIGHBUSH CRANBERRY AND 'ORANGE LIGHTS' AZALEA

FOG BLANKETS DULUTH'S HARBOR

HIGHBUSH CRANBERRY FLOWER CLUSTER

AZALEA 'ORANGE LIGHTS'...

...FLOWER TRUSSES

Sunday, 8:45 AM.  66 degrees F, wind SW, with moderate gusts.  The sky is mostly cloudy and we received another .25" of rain last night.  The humidity is 92% and the barometer is trending down, now at 29.68", with rain predicted for Monday night.
   We went to Duluth to shop for a new TV yesterday afternoon, and it was rather warm, 83 degrees, approaching Superior, and by the time we were driving over the Duluth harbor bridge ten minutes later the temperature had dropped to 57 degrees, and the harbor was enveloped in fog.
   The native highbush cranberry bushes, Viburnum trilobum, are not a cranberry (heath family) at all but are in the honeysuckle family.  They have been in various stages of bloom for about ten days and are at or past their peak of bloom now.  The large shrubs are very floriferous and the red fruits, which are visible all winter, are astringent but edible and their fall color is a brilliant orange red.  They are excellent as border landscape plants as well as for woods edge naturalizing.  Highbush cranberry is native to most of southern Canada, New England and the upper Midwest.
   The hybrid azalea, Rhododendron X 'Orange Lights', introduced by the University of Minnesota Arboretum, is in full bloom in the front yard garden. It stands out like a lantern in the shade.  The 'Pink Lights' azaleas did not bloom this year; it was a tough winter from the standpoint of both temperature  and snow load, and I even lost a 'PJM' Rhododendron, which is tough as nails, in the front garden. The insulating snow and the abundant moisture have benefited most woody plants as well as perennials but we are seeing a few odd responses to the weather.

A GOOD DAY ON THE WATER!

NICE FISH!

"PAINTED" ROCKS OF STOCKTON ISAND

THE MORNING'S CATCH

 Saturday, 8:00 AM.  64 degrees F, wind ENE, calm at present.  The sky is mostly clear of clouds but hazy.  There is .5" of rain in the gage, and the rain barrels are full.  The humidity is 91% and the barometer stands at 29.83".  We are due for more rain into the evening.
   Yesterday morning as I was walking Buddy, neighbor Jon pulled up in his truck and asked if I wanted to go fishing.  Not having been out on the lake as yet this year, and still without a license, I said, "You bet!" and within forty-five minutes I was licensed, grabbed a cup of coffee, and we were leaving City Dock in John's 23 foot fishing boat, along with his brother Bill and another friend.
   The morning looked stormy but it cleared somewhat and we fished around the east side of Madeline Island and later the south side of Stockton Island.  The northeast wind rendered most of the day chilly, and the water temperature was also cold, ranging from 42  to 48 degrees.  But the fish were hungry, and we caught eight; three lake trout and five brown trout, all keepers, the largest about eight pounds and 24".  At one point we had two fish on and a strike at the same time.
   It  was a good day on the water!

IT'S THE BERRIES!

BLACK CHOKEBERRY, ARONIA MELANOCARPA...

...CLUSTERS OF BLOOMS

WILD THIMBLEBERRY...

...SCENTED FOWERS, MAPLE-LIKE LEAVES

 Friday, 8:00 AM.  57 degrees F, wind NE, light to moderate.  The sky is partially overcast and there are scattered clouds.  The humidity is up, at 87% and the barometer is trending down, now at 29l,95"  It may rain this afternoon.  I am going fishing out on the lake, but we will probably be in before any bad weather.  I'll report on the fish population tomorrow.
   The first commercial strawberries are being marketed by local berry farms (although I haven't seen any wild strawberries this year as yet, and it may not be a good year for them).
   Wild thimbleberries, Rubus parviflorus, in the rose family, are blooming in fields and along roadsides.  This is a very attractive wild raspberry, bearing edible red berries. It is a spreading shrub of woods and woods edges.   Some folks do not like the taste of the round red berry but I think it fine.  Unlike many Rubus species, it is not thorny, and the leaves are not compound.  It is  a far northern species and grows only in the northern tier of Wisconsin counties.
   Wild chokeberry, Aronia melanocarpa, also in the rose family (not to be confused with chokecherry) is also blooming. It is a quite beautiful small native shrub of northern wet, acid bogs, lake shores and dunes.  Its dark, glossy foliage turns brilliant red in fall, and its very attractive flowers bear black, edible fruit in abundance.  The prefix "choke" refers to the highly acid and astringent character of the fruit, which is best used in jellies and jams.  It is very high in antioxidants so is very desirable from a health food standpoint.  It is a fine shrub to use in naturalizing, or even in foundation plantings, where tolerance to wet conditions is important.

LUPINES ARE NEAR THEIR PEAK BLOOM, AND ARE WELL WORTH THE TRIP

LUPINES...

...LUPINIS PERENNIS...

...ALONG HIGHWAY 13...

...ALONG HIGHWAY J IN THE ORCHARD COUNTRY

Thursday,  7:30 AM.  50 degrees F at the ferry dock, 46 degrees on the back porch, up from 42 degrees there an hour ago.  Wind N to NE, light at present.  The sky is clear, the humidity has dropped to 79% and the barometer is trending down, currently at 30.16". Today and tomorrow should be nice, with rainy weather developing Saturday night and Sunday.
   Our lupines, Lupinis perennis, in the pea family (Leguminosae) , are  blooming everywhere now, and should be at their peak here this coming weekend.  They are truly a magnificent sight all along Hwy. 13 from Ashland to Red Cliff and beyond, but are found on sandy soils all along the shores of Lake Superior and northern Lake Michigan and further inland, and also in the central sand counties of Wisconsin.  I think they are more prolific in the Bayfield peninsula than anywhere else.
   The common name Lupine, or the Latin Lupinis refers to the latin Lupus, the wolf, and comes from the ancient belief in Europe that the genus caused the soil to become poor, that it "wolfed" the nutrients.  This is because Lupines grow on poor soil, but being legumes they actually improve the soil by adding nitrogen to it.  They have been blamed for a crime they don't  commit.
   The species name, perennis, refers to the plants being perennial.  However they do not, in my experience, make particularly good garden plants, probably because garden soil is usually too rich a growth medium for them.  I also find that they move around, being in one place one season and showing up somewhere else in the garden another, so this is a wild plant I find best left to nature.  I also don't think it holds up well in a vase as a cut flower, so no matter how pretty and abundant they are along the roadside, I never bother to pick them.
   Blue is the dominant flower color, and when fully mature the flowers have a white lip, which adds to their presence.  Also, there are often enough pinks and whites in the mix to provide good color contrast.
   Our wild lupines are truly worth a trip north to see, and this is probably the best weekend to see them, although they will be blooming at least another week or ten days thereafter.

WASHINGTON HAWTHORN

WASHINGTON HAWTHORN...

....CLUSTERS OF BEAUTIFUL  BLOSSOMS...

...DISTINCTIVELY LOBED AND TOOTHED LEAF

Wednesday, 8:00 AM.  49 degrees F, wind NE, light to moderate.  the sky is overcast but at least it isn't foggy.  The humidity is down to 83% and the barometer is still rising, at 30.13".  Tomorrow should be a nice day.
   We were in Ashland at noon yesterday and the fog and mist and cold NE wind made it feel like a blustery November day.  The ice is reportedly gone from Lake Superior now, but I imagine there are still some bergs floating around out there after seven months of ice covering the lake, the longest on record.
   The Washington hawthorn, Crataegus crus-galli var. inermis, is a thornless hawthorn, which makes it a suitable, even desirable smaller landscape and park tree.  It blooms well,  somewhat later than the flowering crab-apples to which it is closely related; it has decorative, useful fruit, and the orange to purple-red fall color is excellent.
   However, it has a wide spreading growth habit and the branching is low, so it is difficult to use as a street tree without a lot of constant pruning.  Most other hawthorns, although quite as beautiful, are usually too thorny for general park use, although they are fine for naturalizing on woods edges and so forth.  Hawthorns have a rather distinctive fragrance, which some folks don't appreciate, although I do not find it unpleasant.

PAGODA DOGWOOD, WILD ASPARAGUS AND BEING "ON THE BORDER"

YES, WISCONSIN IS A BORDER STATE!

PAGODA DOGWOOD IN THE WOODS...

...PANICLES OF FLOWERS

FERN-LIKE FOLIAGE OF ROADSIDE ASPARAGUS...

...MINUTE FLOWERS

Tuesday, 8;00 AM.  49 degrees F, wind ENE, light.  The sky is overcast and it is very foggy.  The humidity is 98% and the barometer is at last rising, now at 29.91". The day at last turned nice yesterday afternoon, with some beautiful cloud formations over the Apostles and the big lake.
   Bayfield County and Wisconsin's north shore are actually on the border with Canada except that the vastness of Lake Superior makes us forget the fact (although we should be reminded when we see the green and white border patrol trucks roaming the back country).  Minnesota, North Dakota and the northwestern states are all border states.
   What would it be like here if thousands of illegal immigrants, including unaccompanied children and pregnant women, were invading our remote, small communities, and we had to deal with the influx, basically on our own? What would it be like if farmers and orchardists and commercial fishermen and loggers had to worry constantly about their homes, families and property?  What if our churches and schools suddenly became sanctuaries for undocumented, unchecked people of all kinds that we were overwhelmed with?  What if our remote Indian Reservations suddenly became havens for illegals of every stripe, including drug dealers and terrorists?  How would we respond to a federal government that turned a blind eye to the problem, or actually encouraged it?
   If you don't think it could happen here, think again.  If Mexico is a safe haven for such illegal border activity, will Canada be able to stop it if it wells up there?  Things to think about, and reasons to Stand with Texas!
   Pagoda dogwoods, Cornus alternifolia, are blooming in the woods.  The pagoda dogwood is an attractive small tree that has a rather unusual, oriental-like appearance due to its branching structure.  It blooms prettily and has an excellent red-purple fall leaf color.  It is available from nurseries but I have had trouble transplanting it, and it also seems to be susceptible to a fungal branch die-back.  Worth trying in your landscape, but it may be a disappointment.
   Wild asparagus, escaped from gardens, is blooming in roadside ditches.  Long past the edible stage, the fern-like foliage and tiny yellows flowers identify it well and one can mark the spot to collect the edible shoots as they emerge next spring.  The attractive red berries are usually eaten by birds before we see much of them.

HAWKWEED, DWARF CORNEL, AND "LEAVING THE NEST"

ORANGE HAWKWEED

A LARGE PATCH OF DWARF CORNEL...

...FLOWERS

Monday, 7:30 AM.  50 degrees F, wind ENE, light.  The sky is mostly cloudy but seems to be clearing rapidly, and we do not have the heavy fog of recent mornings.  The humidity is still 96% and the barometer is trending down, now at 29.85".
   Buddy grabbed a baby robin on the ground before I could stop him this morning.  I took it from him but I think it was already dead.  He is, after all, a "bird dog," and cannot be blamed. But I felt a real compassion for the parents as they fussed and protested in the branches above us, and it if I can have that much empathy with robins, how much more will I have for human parents.
   "Leaving the nest" is a time of great peril for the young of any species, and it upsets me more than I can say to see the children, unaccompanied by their parents, flooding across our borders.  They have not left their nest willingly, I am sure, but have been cast out to fend for themselves and ultimately survive or not depending upon luck and our American humanitarian efforts. Many are destined to suffer the same fate as this morning's baby robin, I fear, and we will all suffer along with them.
   Two diminutive flowers are blooming now, one quite common here, the other seldom encountered by most folks.  The former is the orange hawkweed, Hieracium aurantiacum, in the sunflower family.  The orange to yellow flowers grow on about a 6" stalk from a flattened rosette of fuzzy leaves.  It is very pretty.  It can be considered a lawn and garden weed I suppose, but it is really only abundant in nutrient deficient, sandy soil.  There are about a dozen different introduced species, this one common in the north.  The ancient Greeks gave the genus its name as they thought hawks fed on the plants to aid their eyesight, and many of the hawkweeds were used in the Middle Ages for diseases of the lungs, such as whooping cough, and other ailments.
   The latter flower is the dwarf cornel, or dwarf dogwood, Cornus canadensis, a low-growing northern woodland ground cover plant in the dogwood family.  It has a quite beautiful white flower very much like that of the iconic flowering tree of the southern and southeastern U.S., the flowering dogwood, Cornus florida.  Both species bear bright red edible fruits about the size of a cherry, but shaped more like a diminutive football.  The fruit has a quite pleasant but not very sweet taste and should make great jams and jellies.  There are will be enough  fruit in this large patch for me to harvest some if I can get to them before the bears and birds, and I will report further on their edibility.
 

MAYBE THE SIGN SHOULD JUST SAY "BRIDGE OUT"

HWY. 13 BETWEEN BAYFIELD AND CORNUCOPIA IS CLOSED

THE PERENNIAL GARDEN IS FINALLY LOOKING NICE

Sunday, 9:00 AM. 46 degrees F,  wind ENE, light.  The sky is overcast and it is quite foggy, but the sun is trying desperately to shine through and it will probably clear up in a couple of hours.  The humidity is still 98% and the barometer is still steady at 29.93".  The garden is starting to look like summer despite the very cool weather, Iris, columbine, poppies and now lilies blooming, with peonies soon to follow.

   Highway 13 is closed between Bayfield and Cornucopia due to bridges over several streams being replaced.  Thru traffic to Superior has been detoured at Washburn,  being diverted onto Hwy. C from Washburn to Cornucopia.  Hwy. 13 is still open to Bayfield and Red Cliff, and Star Route is open from Bayfield to Cornucopia for local traffic. The road should be open in another week, and all work completed by the end of July.

   As most of my blog readers may know, the Northland is heavily populated with folks of Scandinavian heritage, and Sven and Oly  jokes are very much part of the culture. Even though it is Sunday I did not think it inappropriate to tell the following:
    Sven is the pastor at the Swedish Lutheran Church, and Oly the pastor at the Norwegian Lutheran Church, directly across the road.  The two churches and their pastors are often at odds, but one Saturday morning they are out on the road, admiring a huge sign that they have erected,  which reads:

“Sinner, you are going down the road to destruction! 

The End is near!

 Turn yourself around now, before it is too late!”  

    Just then a car speeds past, and an occupant rolls down the window and yells, “You Scandihoovian religious nuts know what you can do with your sign!”
   The two pastors can only watch in dismay and disapproval  as the car careens down the road and out of sight. Shortly thereafter they hear the screech of tires, followed by a loud crash.
    Oly turns to Sven and says, “Ja, Sven, dat iss da tird von diss morning!”
    To which Sven replies, “Ja, you betcha, Oly."   "But you t'ink maybe da sign oughta yust say, 'Bridge Out'?”

STAND WITH TEXAS!

REMEMBER THE ALAMO...AND STAND WITH TEXAS!

TEXAS BLUEBONNETS, LUPINIS TEXENSIS

Saturday, 7:30 AM.  49 degrees F at the ferry dock, much colder on the back porch up here on the bluff.  The wind is from the north, very light.  The sky is overcast and foggy, the humidity is 98% and the barometer is steady, at 29.93".
   The crisis on the southern border of the United States continues, now with tens of thousands of children, many very young and unaccompanied by an adult, flooding across, almost fifty-thousand since the beginning of the year.  The response of the Obama Administration has been to put them on buses and send them to Phoenix and other large cities where they eventually simply disappear.  The President himself has encouraged, if not actually caused, this crisis by his policies and statements. I cannot fathom why this crisis has been allowed to occur, and neither can Texans, where most of the children are crossing the border.
   Some have characterized this only as a humanitarian crisis, for which we are somehow responsible.  I would ask of  these perhaps well-meaning but delusional folks, "How many of these children will you take and adopt?"  I say delusional because this "crisis" is no more than a criminal enterprise; smugglers, "coyotes," being paid thousands of dollars to get these Central and South American children across the Mexican desert and into the United States where of course they will be cared for and given asylum and ultimately citizenship, and their parents and relatives hope to follow.
  I say criminal also because many of these abandoned, bewildered youngsters will end up in slavery, probably already bought and paid for, as prostitutes, drug dealers, gang members and domestic servants. And they will hate America for what it allowed to happen to them.
   What kind of naivety can deny that this is the ultimate fate of many, if not most, of these children who have been abandoned by their parents?  Parents that have the money to send their children on this criminal mission are no more than criminals themselves, and should be prosecuted by the governments of the countries where they live.  And, who cannot believe that many of the coyotes are being paid in advance by persons here in this country, who desire to enslave and abuse these helpless youngsters?
   The president and his administration are aiding and abetting child abandonment, illegal immigration, slavery, prostitution, and as we will undoubtedly find out, the injury to and murder of these children.  They should all be prosecuted, convicted, and imprisoned for aiding and abetting these felonies.
   What should the United States do?  I say, seal the border, take care of the children and return them to their country and their misguided parents.  And kill the coyotes.
   A country that cannot or will not enforce its borders is not a nation, but a mere geographical territory open for the taking by whomever can overwhelm it by stealth or force.  We need to look no further than   Ukraine, Iraq and many other so-called nations.  President Obama may wish this to happen, but Texas will not allow it.  Texas will enforce its borders to protect its citizens and its territory from drug dealers, slave traffickers, thugs and smugglers using innocent children as their cover and victims.
   Be prepared to watch the coming battle with the fools and worse in Washington, D.C,....REMEMBER THE ALAMO, and STAND WITH TEXAS!

HORSE-CHESTNUTS AND WIND SURFING

HORSE-CHESTNUT FLOWER SPIKE...

,..AND PALMATELY COMPOUND LEAF WITH FIVE TO USUALLY SEVEN LEAFLETS

WIND SURFER ON CHEQUAMEGON BAY AT ASHLAND...

...HAVING A GREAT TIME!

Friday, 8:30 AM.  Wind NE, light. The sky is overcast and  drippy, and we have .25" of water in the rain gage.  The humidity is 96% and the barometer is still trending down, currently at 29.97". It is an eerily quiet morning, almost bereft of birdsong, the most prominent sound being the doleful moaning of the fog horn on the breakwater.  It will be a good day to do some reading, and to catch up on desk work.
   The horse-chestnut tree, Aesculus hippocastaneum, in the buckeye family, is a common European shade tree probably introduced to America in colonial times.  It is a handsome tree that grows to perhaps sixty feet in height and almost as wide.  It bears upright spikes of white flowers tinged with red, and of course the horse-chestnut nut, one to three of them being encased in a prickly, leathery pouch.  It is not related at all to the edible chestnuts and the nut is not fit for human consumption but has long been used as fodder for horses and cattle.  It is native to Greece but is quite hardy north.  It is a handsome tree for parks and estates but it is far too large for streets or most city lots.  The species name translates directly from the latin to its common name in English, "horse chestnut."
   Horse-chestnut nuts have long been used as a tonic for horses, and extracts of the nuts and bark are now used in herbal medicine for the treatment of leg vein problems in humans; leg and ankle swelling and varicose veins.  I have used it for many years for leg cramps and better leg circulation, particularly in the spring. Horse-chestnut trees are fairly trouble free except for  fungal problems on leaves in wet and humid summers, which can cause early leaf drop and unsightliness but do no permanent damage.
   This past Wednesday there were high winds out of the north and a pretty good surf was up in Ashland,  and this wind surfer took advantage of it.  He was quite skilled, repeatedly making 360 degree turns after running parallel to the beach for a quarter of a mile or so.  As he turned he would often rise out of the water ten or fifteen feet into the air.  He wore a wet suit and the water is shallow where he was surfing so he was  being quite safe as he had a lot of fun.  If I were still a kid of fifty or sixty I might give it a try.

SPRUCE BUDS AND FALSE SOLOMON'S SEAL

COLORADO BLUE SPRUCE BUD SCALE...

...NEW NEEDLE GROWTH IS VERY FRAGILE

FALSE SOLOMON'S SEAL IN BLOOM

Thursday,  8:00 AM.  57 degrees at the ferry dock, much cooler up here on the bluff where we catch more of the gusty NE wind off the lake.  The sky is covered with a high overcast.  The humidity is 53% and the barometer has started to decline, now at 30.14".  We will probably get some rain later in the day or this evening.
   The new needle growth of spruce trees is protected by a bud scale that loosens and eventually is shed as the young needles mature.  Just before, and for some time after, the shedding of the bud scales the new growth is very tender and can easily be broken off the branch it is attached to.  Spruce (pictured is Colorado blue spruce, Picea pungens , or P. glauca pungens) should be transplanted before the buds of the new needle growth enlarges and the bud sheath falls away.  They should not be moved or handled unnecessarily while the new needle growth is fragile, as the tree can be disfigured, and the mortality  rate of transplanted trees is higher as well.
   The false solomon's seal is blooming, the plants often forming a beautiful understory mat in and on the edges of our mixed conifer/deciduous woodlands.  This plant is a far northern species of Canada, New England and the upper Midwest.  Its prominent flowers are followed by yellow-orange spotted  berries about the size of a blueberry,  that eventually ripen to a mottled red.  The berries are said to have a pleasant acid taste, although I have never tried them (I will do so when they ripen and report back) they are not poisonous,  the bears eat them, and the plants have had a variety of folk medicine and Native American uses in the past, particularly for female problems.

HOW GREEN IS MY LAWN...HOW DEAD IS MY TREE

A SUPER GREEN AND WEED FREE LAWN...

...AND A SUPER DEAD MAPLE TREE

LEAVES DAMAGED BY HERBICIDES

Wednesday, 8:00 AM.  46 degrees F on the porch, 52 degrees at the ferry dock.  The sky is mostly cloudy but the sun has just found an opening.   Wind NE, very blustery.  The humidity is still high, at 88%, and the barometer is rising, currently at 30.01".
   I, like most folks, appreciate the beauty and utility of the lawn.  Lawn lovers are certainly in good company since, as Sir Francis Bacon, the 17th Century originator of the scientific method and lover of gardens wrote, "Nothing is more pleasant to the eye, than green grass kept finely shorn."
   When, however, I see a super green, weed-free lawn, I immediately look for collateral damage.  Most herbicides target dicotyledonous plants; most monocotyledonous plants, including grasses, tolerate 2,4-D herbicides, which is why they are used to kill weeds in lawns.  Unfortunately,  dicotyledonous plants other than weeds are often caught in the cross-fire, so to speak, and are killed by "friendly fire."
   The young sugar maple tree pictured was either inadvertently hit with liquid weed spray or was simply overwhelmed by toxic vapors rising off the lawn after granular weed killer was improperly applied.  In any case it is probably dead, at a replacement cost of at least a thousand dollars at its size (expensive dandelions, those). Lawn herbicides also eliminate clover, which used to be a welcome addition to a lawn and added nitrogen to the soil, reducing the need for artificial fertilizers.
   Are dandelions a problem?  Keep your lawn properly watered and nourished, set your mower at 3.5" or higher, and always mow the flower heads off before they set seed.  If you wish to be more particular than that, use a dandelion digger, and eat a few dandelion leaf salads as well (but not if they have been sprayed).

RED MAPLE CONFUSION

'CRIMSON KING' MAPLE LEAF...

...THE TREE, ABOUT 3/4 GROWN...

ALONG SECOND STREET IN BAYFIELD

'SCHWEDLER' MAPLE...

BRONZE-GREEN LEAVES, TURNING MORE GREENISH IN SUMMER

NATIVE RED MAPLE, ACER RUBRUM, FALL COLOR

Tuesday, 8:30 AM,  55 degrees F, wind NE, light.  The sky is clear.  The humidity is 89% and the barometer is rising, now at 29.77".  We did not get the predicted rain last night, which is good, since the ground is saturated.  It is a beautiful day and we will get caught up on a lot of yard and garden work.
   Whenever anyone asks me to get them a "red maple," I always have to ask them whether they mean the maple that is red all summer long, or the native maple that has green leaves and turns red in the fall. That is the trouble with common names; they can mean different things to different folks.
   The trees pictured are the 'Shwedler' maple, a selection of the European Acer platanoides, that has bronze green leaves in spring that become more greenish during the summer and turn brown in the fall.  It is a cultivar that has been around a long time.  The 'Crimson King' is a further selection of the 'Schwedler' that has deep crimson-purple leaves all spring and summer.  It was introduced before WWII and was very popular during the '50's and '60's.  Bayfield has a lot of both varieties.  They have their place, particularly in a town that has a lot of mid-Twentieth Century houses.  Both are pretty good street trees, but they produce very heavy shade and it is difficult to grow grass or much of anything else beneath them.  They make a rather pronounced statement in the landscape, are somewhat garish and by and large I don't care for them, but a lot of people do.  Both are superior to the straight European species, which I see no reason at all to plant.
   The whole "red maple" question is further complicated by all the newer hybrids between red and silver maple, such as 'Autumn Blaze.'  More about them at another time.
 

THE LUXURY OF GREEN INFRASTRUCTURE

A "BIO CELL" CATCH BASIN

WATER PERMEABLE ASPHALT...

,..AN ENTIRE STREET AND INTERSECTION

STORM WATER/GREEN INFRASTRUCTURE EDUCATION

A RAIN GARDEN

CITY OF LACROSSE ECO PARK EDUCATION BUILDING

Monday, 9:00 AM.  62 degrees F at the ferry dock, much cooler on the back porch.  Wind SSW, very light.  The sky has a few scattered clouds, the humidity is 77% and the barometer has peaked at 29.84" and is trending down again, presaging showers for tonight.  The rain gage collected 1.2" of rain over a long weekend, but Ashland reportedly had 4"to 5" in that time.  This morning is beautiful and I need to get the lawn mowed before it rains again.
   Last Friday's Urban Forestry Council meeting in LaCrosse, Wisconsin was devoted to storm water management and "green infrastructure," the use of plants and natural systems to ameliorate flooding and reduce the need for hard scape engineering to control storm water.  LaCrosse was a good place for the meeting, as it is located on the delta's of two rivers which join the Mississippi River and flood control is a major municipal concern.
   So major that the city is experimenting with many innovative methods of flood water control, including what is now termed "green infrastructure," i.e., innovative water retention basins termed "bio cells," rain gardens, and water permeable asphalt, on a city-wide basis.  Part and parcel with the actual use of these innovative methods, the city is doing experimental work, keeping detailed records of its efforts, and educating the citizenry of those efforts.  It has even designed and built an entire educational park to demonstrate the practical use of "green infrastructure."  The public is receptive to the city's efforts, since they experience flooding, often major, every spring.
   At this point in time almost everyone is familiar with the concept of rain gardens, vegetation filled retention ponds built to slow down and absorb runoff water.  In my own experience these devices are effective, but their overall usefulness depends upon maintenance  to promote useful plants and eliminate weeds and trash.  Without maintenance they soon become non-functioning eyesores.
   Similar to rain gardens but a step further on the evolutionary ladder is the "bio cell," a fancy name for a more finely engineered rain garden.  In this device, several feet of sub soil is modified to actually absorb and slowly release water into the water table, further diminishing runoff downstream from the retention pond.  Here again, functionality depends upon maintenance.  If road sand and debris are not removed the designed sub-soil will lose its absorptive quality.  In any case the engineered subsoil has a life-span of about twenty years, after which it must be replaced.  Bio cells may have plants as do rain gardens, or may be mowed grass.  The entire concept depends upon proper engineering.
   And, with either rain gardens or bio cells, location as well as maintenance is of the utmost importance.  
Placed at the side of a road, parking cannot be allowed next to them, as anyone exiting the passenger side of a car will tumble into the depression.  There are other practical considerations as well, such as who is to maintain the plants, or mow the grass, or pick up the trash. These are all good concepts but  the devil is, as always, in the details.
   I found the most interesting innovation of all to be that of porous asphalt, which is designed to absorb water, eliminating much of the need for catch basins and storm sewers.  The stone aggregate is a little larger than that used in regular asphalt, and a polymer glue is mixed with the stones, eliminating the sand in the mix.  This allows the asphalt to absorb water, which then bleeds away slowly through the larger stones of the road bed.  We poured water directly on the asphalt surface and it simply disappeared.  We were told a fire hose could be opened on the asphalt and the water would be absorbed.  This technology is still in its infancy but the future is very promising.  It is as strong as regular asphalt from the standpoint of vehicle weight, but it is more sensitive to abrasion from plows and tight turning vehicles so location and traffic must be taken into account in its use.  Fine sand applied during winter can fill the interstices between the aggregate and reduce or stop water infiltration.  I think this technology makes perfect sense for parking lots and other specific locations, if not for general road use.
   Probably the most important fact I took away from the meetings and demonstrations is that green infrastructure has to be properly engineered and maintained.  Digging a hole and filling it with good intensions is mostly wasted effort, but properly designed and maintained green infrastructure promises to solve a wide range of environmental problems.
  One last cautionary comment on green technology, and one that can be applied to the entire environmental movement: in actual application, cost must be the determining factor. Not fuzzy math concerning eventual cost savings, but actual cost to design and implement new concepts.  Prohibitive cost, particularly when, as is often the case, new concepts are mandated by law, will stifle economic growth.   And if economic growth cannot keep up with the cost of new technology, the entire economy will decline, either causing new technology to be abandoned, or enormous public debt to be undertaken, the latter stifling the economy even more, causing a downward spiral into recession or even depression.
   I personally believe that much of our current economic malaise is caused by over regulation and the mandating of expensive and unproven environmental concepts and technology. A case in point are new, vastly more stringent Minnesota regulations regarding building and site development.  They are bound to stifle economic growth, particularly in manufacturing, or alternatively, new development will simply move elsewhere (think Texas).
   If there is one over-arching principle I have learned in a lifetime of work in the environmental field, it is that only a very wealthy modern society can afford clean water, clean air and all the other environmental niceties that we Americans enjoy. If the planet is to be as "green" as we would like it to be, the entire world must be wealthy; that requires there be freedom, individual and economic, everywhere.   Poor, hungry, uneducated, ill-housed and ill-clothed people do not have the luxury of worrying about green infrastructure.