IRONWOOD

IRONWOOD, A FOREST UNDERSTORY TREE, ALONG THE WOODSY EDGE OF CHEQUAMEGON ROAD...

...WITH ELM-LIKE LEAVES...

...AND PANICLES OF SEEDS REMINISCENT OF HOPS...

FLAKY, PEELING BARK OF IRONWOOD (PHOTO FROM NOVEMBER 2014)

DORMANT MALE FLOWER BUDS, USUALLY OCCURRING IN THREES (PHOTO FROM NOVEMBER 2014)

Monday, 9:00 AM.  63 degrees F on both thermometers.  Wind SW, light with slightly stronger gusts.  The sky is partly cloudy with considerable haze.  The humidity is 95% and the barometer steady, at least for a while, at 29.88".  It should be a pleasant day.
   As I was driving down Chequamegon Road yesterday several pendulous, creamy-white, flower-like structures on a roadside tree caught my eye.  Seldom seen, unless walking in a late summer northern woods, they were the immature seed heads of the ironwood, or hop hornbeam.

   Ironwood, Ostrya virginia, in the Birch (Betulaceae) Family, is a common component of the northern mixed hardwood forest. A small understory tree, it seldom reaches a height of more than twenty or thirty feet under a canopy of oak, mapple, basswood and conifers such as balsam fir and white spruce.  

   The trunks seldom reach a circumference of more than six inches diameter at breast height, and the flaky bark of older trunks is a predominant winter identification characteristic.  Some of the entire, toothed, elm-like leaves often remain on the tree in winter, as do the dormant male catkins, usually appearing in whorls of three. The dormant buds are small and sharply pointed, the young twigs reddish brown. The flowers and seeds are borne on the new twig growth, and resemble those of hops; thus the other common name for this little tree, hop hornbeam.  As the common name ironwood implies, the wood is extremely hard and tough, with a very tight grain due to its slow growth, which also makes it excellent firewood.
   Carpinus caroliniana, also in the Birch Family, is another small,  forest understory tree that also has the common name of ironwood.  It is also called blue beach, or muscle wood, because of its peculiar, sinewy, smooth bark.  It is usually found somewhat farther south in Wisconsin but the ranges of the two ironwoods can overlap.  
   It is particularly helpful to use the latin nomenclature when discussing these trees, because of the similarity of their common names. 

   Both ironwoods can be used as hardy, small, slow growing street trees, and may be added to existing northern wooded lots to increase their species diversity.

FROM A PROBLEM PERENNIAL GARDEN TO A LANDSCAPE SUCCESS

A LANDSCAPE PROJECT THAT STARTED AS A HUGE DRAINAGE PROBLEM...

...IN TWO YEARS BECAME...

...AN ENHANCED, DIVERSIFIED, HEALTHY  WOODLAND...

...WITH PRESERVED SPRING EPHEMERALS..

...AND A BEAUTIFUL HOME  LANDSCAPE...

Sunday,  9:00 AM.  64 degrees F at the ferry dock, 62 on the back porch.  Wind light at ground level, stronger at higher altitude.  The sky is overcast with clouds but the sun if trying to shine through.The humidity is 93% and the barometer is still trending down, currently at 29.93". It should be mostly a nice day.
   All my recent complaints and problems regarding my own perennial garden have to be put into a larger perspective of positive accomplishment, such as the landscape project reaching completion on Chequamegon Road.
   It began two years ago, in the spring of 2013, with a large new house erected on a heavily wooded lot just outside of the city of Bayfield,  Built at the bottom of a long slope, the drainage problem around the house was severe, necessitating a great deal of drain piping and gravel filled ditching around the front of the residence.  The problem became an opportunity to use the concept of a "dry river bed" as the basis for the entire landscape design of the front of the structure.
   Of course the front of the home is only the most prominent aspect of the landscape.  Other elements revolved around emphasizing lake views and naturalizing woodland areas, removing dangerous trees and pruning other trees, planting new native and ornamental trees, and creating some specialty gardens, such as rhododendron plantings that thrive on the lakeshore.
   The overal design philosophy is a naturalistic but not necessarily native landscape, with an English cottage garden feel.  The enhanced woodland remains native and full of spring epherals, additionl native understory shrubs have been planted, and the diversity of woodland trees has been increased.  But a wide range of hardy ornamental varieties of woody plants has been mixed as needed into the foundation and other plantings to add color and variety to the palette of plants, particularly around the house.
   The owners of the property have been actively involved in all aspects of the design, which assures that their personal esthetic tastes and long range maintenance desires for the landscape have been met.
   As this project nears completion, it is evident that it has been highly rewarding personally to the owners,  and professionally to myself.

GOOD, BUT NO CIGAR.

GOLDENROD ROUGED OUT AND A DOZEN PERENNIALS PLANTED

Saturday, 8:00 AM. 59 degrees F at the ferry dock and on the back porch as well.  Wind NW, light with stronger gusts.  The sky is partly cloudy and hazy, the humidity 95%, after a trace of rain which fell before dawn.  The barometer stands at 30.02" and is relatively steady.  The weather seems changeable but hopefully will be nice during the week ahead.
   I planted about a dozen new perennials in the garden  yesterday in place of the goldenrod I rouged out.  The rain saved me giving them another watering today, but they still have to be mulched.  All in all it was a much needed intervention, and hopefully I will be able to improve the garden more as it is put to bed later this fall.  The end result of my labors is, as they say...
   Good, but no cigar.

BUT NOT IN THE GARDEN!

THE SPRING GARDEN WAS OK, BUT...

ALONG CAME THE CANADA  GOLDENROD...

...IT TOOK  OVER MUCH OF THE GARDEN IN SHORT ORDER...

...REQUIRING GREAT EFFORT TO DIG OUT

Friday, 9:00 AM,  62 degrees F.  Wind variable, and calm to very light.  The sky is overcast and the humidity 91%.  The barometer is still falling, now at 29.06".  There is a chance of rain today.
   For a number of personal reasons, health and otherwise, this has been a difficult gardening year for me.  The early garden was not bad, with a lot of bulbs, Peonies and other spring color.  But events conspired to make the summer garden much less desirable, and it really went downhill when I neglected to rogue out  the Canada goldenrod that muscled its way in.  It took off and took over, and the only remedy was to dig it out.  I got started at it yesterday morning, and luckily got an hour's help from an excellent gardener friend, and with some additional preparation will be ready to replant today with some colorful fall mums and a few other perennials.
   The garden needs much more ongoing maintenance than I have time or energy for, but we will make the best of it that we can, and hopefully rejuvenate it next year. Part of my problem is my esthetic taste, which leans towards the wild side, letting plants assume their natural dimensions, with minimal pruning and mulching.  Learn from my experience and be careful not to create a larger perennial garden than you can maintain!
   TO BE CONTINUED...

JUST WHEN YOU THINK YOU'VE SEEN IT ALL...SURPRISE!

 WHAT DO WE HAVE HERE?...

...A MOUNTAIN ASH TREE, GROWING OUT OF THE STUMP OF A HUGE DEAD LOMBARDY POPLAR TREE

Thursday, 8:00 AM.  55 degrees F at the ferry dock, 49 on the back porch.  The wind is variable and calm, the humidity 82%.  The barometer is taking a nosedive from its high of 30.14".  It should be another nice but unseasonably cool day.

   In nature, when you think you've seen it all, you're usually in for a new surprise!  Washburn used to claim the state-record Lombardy poplar tree (Populus nigra var. Italica).  That tree is now a huge stump, perhaps fifteen feet high, that evidently was too big in diameter for someone's chain saw.  A few years ago a mountain ash seed took root in a pocket of earth in the crotch of the major branches of the deceased tree, and it has continued to grow there, sending its developing roots into the decaying tree trunk.  That sapling is now a tree old enough to bear fruit, itself perhaps fifteen feet tall.  

   I have seen seedling trees growing on a fallen log, but never anything like this.  The mountain ash (Sorbus sp.) seems perfectly healthy and stable at present.  It will be interesting to see how many years this odd partnership can be sustained (assuming someone doesn't take the whole strange assembly down).

DAY LENGTH RULES EVERYTHING

HIGBUSH CRANBERRY ...

...FRUIT AND LEAVES

GARDEN TOMATO

RIPENING FALSE SOLOMON'S SEAL BERRIES

Wednesday, 8:00 AM.  58 degrees F at the ferry dock, 53 on the back porch.  Wind N, calm at present. The sky is crystal clear, the humidity 79%.  The barometer is still rising, now at 30.17".  It appears that we are in for some nice weather for the rest of the week.  It's about time!
   While driving along Hwy. 2 yesterday it was evident how one species replaces another in prominence along the roadside as the summer progresses into fall, in an almost seamless fashion.  For example, black-eyed Susans first dominated most roadsides, followed by tansy, and now goldenrods, all virtually in the same locations, the average driver seeing only a blur of golden-yellow, where there was actually a progression of blooms of different species of plants, over a period of a month or six weeks.
    Despite this August's unseasonal cool, even cold, weather, most plants seem to be on essentially the same calendar track as last year.  The highbush cranberry in the back yard, Viburnum trilobum, in the Honeyusuckle (Caprifoliaceae) Family, berries have turned red; our few garden tomatoes are ripening; and the maturing false Solomon's seal berries (Smilacina racemosa), in the Lily (Liliaceae) Family; are all at virtually the same stage of development as this date last year.  Temperatures mean only so much; day length rules everything.

AZURE ASTER IN BLOOM

PERENNIAL ABOUT THREE FEET TALL...

...ASTER AZUREUS ASTER FLOWERS

Tuesday, 55 degrees F at the ferry dock, 51 on the back porch.  Wind W, light with slightly stronger gusts.  The sky is overcast and cloudy, the humidity 81%.  The barometer is on the rise, now standing at 30.01".  Storm clouds should begin to clear out as the day progresses.
   Last weekend was a terrible time in Bayfield County for vehicle accidents; one killed, several injured just south of Bayfield on Hwy. 13, one killed on Highway C between Washburn and Cornucopia, and two killed in an accident with a Spooner school bus (fortunately no children hurt).   Please, slow down and live!
   The azure blue aster, Aster azureus, in the Sunflower, or Aster (Compositae)Family, is a robust perennial, this one about three feet tall, with a many-flowered inflorescence.  The central disk flowers are yellow, the ray flowers light blue to sky blue (the yellow center has begun to fade in these photos).  It is a fall aster common to central North America from Ontario to Texas.  It grows in full sun to light shade, in moderate to dry conditions, in various types of soil.  There are about seventy species of asters in North America but I am pretty confident of its identification.
   The Aster scientific name has recently been changed in some of the literature to Symphyotrichum oolentangiensis (after the Olentangy River of Ohio), but I will stick with the old nomenclature.

SOME DETECTIVE WORK AT THE BEACH: WE DON'T DEMAND OF THE GOVERNMENT WHAT THE GOVERNMENT DEMANDS OF US.

DIEING WHITE CEDAR AND DEFOLIATED PAPER BIRCH...

...DEFOLIATED TAG ALDERS...

...AHA! THESE PHRAGMITES PLANTS HAVE BEEN SPRAYED WITH AN HERBICIDE!

Monday, 7:30 AM.  51 degrees F at the ferry dock, 48 on the back porch.  Wind NW, very gusty.  The sky has a high overcast, with additional black rain clouds.  The humidity is 78% and there has been a trace of rain.  The barometer is rising, now at 29.76".  It feels like November.
   There was a terrible accident involving three or four vehicles just south of Bayfield Friday, on Hwy. 13 and Weber Road.  A number of persons were taken to hospital and one local man died when his vehicle exploded and burned.  The accident is where a three lane road narrows to two lanes, and there is also a very bad sight line to the south.  It is a stretch of road where people drive to fast.
   Yesterday morning I took Buddy to the Sioux River beach, which is on the end of Friendly Valley Road off of Hwy. 13, for a much needed run, and upon leaving noticed a brown, dead looking white cedar and a defoliated paper birch on the north side of the road.  On the south side was a long row of defoliated tag alder.  I was mystified.  The defoliation of the birch and alder could have been from an infestation of gypsy moth larvae, but the brown cedar foliage was either the result of heat (as from a hot truck exhaust) or an herbicide. No idling trucks likely there.  But why an herbicide?
   As I stood looking for evidence of caterpillars, I noticed a faint but very regular  browning of the leaves of a row of reeds, (Phragmites communis), a "nearly cosmopolitan" (quote from Gray's Manual of Botany, Fernald's1950 edition) Eurasian grass common to ditches, pond margins, etc. throughout much of North America.  It is considered an invasive in Wisconsin and elsewhere.  There is a species, australis, that is considered native (in spite of its name).  I would not be able to  tell them apart without considerable study.
   In any case, someone obviously has identified the reed at the beach as invasive and has taken to spraying it, not being too careful what else gets sprayed.  I would like to know what was used, as this  is almost directly on the lake shore.  I would certainly question the use of Roundup right next to the lake.
   I think any action such as this should require signage indicating what was done and why, and what chemicals were used.  After all, when commercial lawn maintenance companies spray herbicides on lawns they are required to put down warning flags along the perimeter to warn of danger to children and pets.
   Buddy was running through the sprayed area.  Was he exposed to toxic chemicals? I think too much spraying, logging, etc. is done by government agencies or well-meaning volunteers without enough public knowledge or input.
   We don't demand of the government what the government demands of us.
   The Forest Service has a rather exhaustive account of both native and non-native Phragmites and their control, including the use of fire,  on its web site.  Access it via Google.

MOUNTAIN ASH BERRIES ARE RIPENING

MOUNTAIN ASH WITH RIPENING BERRIES...

...CLUSTER OF RIPENING BERRIES AND FEATHER-COMPOUND LEAVES

Sunday, 9:00 AM.  58 degrees F, wind N, light to moderate gusts.  The sky is mostly overcast with some rain clouds, after .24" of rain in a thunderstorm last night (Buddy was not happy).  The humidity is 85% and the barometer is on the rise, currently at 29.59".  We went to the beach early where last night's storm left a lot of evidence.
   Summer is waning when the mountain ash berries begin to ripen.  There are two species of mountain ash native to northern North America;  Sorbus americana and Sorbus decora, in the Rose (Rosaceae) Family, and several sub-species.  Both grow natively in northern Wisconsin and are extensively used in landscaping.  The European mountain ash,  or rowan tree, S aucuparia, is also an escapee here from horticulture.  All are very similar in appearance, all are small trees, all are very decorative in the landscape.  Americana and aucuparia have orange berries, and decora berries are a deep red when fully ripe.  The berries of all species are edible but I find them quite bland, even bitter, but they are excellent food for birds, as they stay on the trees all winter.  There are a number of crosses of European mountain ash with other edible fruits such as hawthorn and chokeberry that are hardy and edible but I have no further knowledge of them; much of this hybridization was done in Russia in the last century..
   The easiest way to tell American from European mountain ash that I know of is that americana has gummy dormant winter buds.  There are also differences in leaflet structure.  The Korean mountain ash is a very beautiful tree, somewhat larger than the other species.  Its berries are pinkish orange, and it has simple rather than compound leaves.
   Mountain ash are so-called because most species have pinnately compound leaves, somewhat similar in appearance to leaves of the true ash, which is in the Olive Family.  The two species are not related, and mountain ash is not attacked by the Emerald Ash Borer.

FROST ASTERS ARE IN FULL BLOOM

...FROST ASTER'S CLUSTERS OF SMALL, DAISY-LIKE FLOWERS

THE FROST ASTER; A LARGE, BUSHY PERENNIAL...

RIPE BLACKBERRIES

Saturday, 8:30 AM.  68 degrees F at the ferry dock, 62 on the back porch.  Wind N, light with stronger gusts.  The sky is mostly cloudy with some overcast.  The humidity is 81% and the barometer is falling, currently standing at 29.85".
   The common frost aster, Aster pilosus, is now in full bloom in fields and along roadsides.  There are other similar asters, in the Aster (Asteraceae)Family that it can be confused with, especially Aster ericoides, the heath aster, but the later has flowers with far fewer ray flower "petals."  The asters can be quite confusing, so I limit my comments to a few species that I can be certain of.
   The frost aster is a robust perennial plant, quite bushy, and very floriferous. It is not very fussy about soil, will tolerate dry conditions and prefers full sun.  It is widespread throughout North America and beyond, and is a good plant for a wild garden, but probably too large and vigorous for the perennial garden.
   We picked blackberries at the Larsen camp yesterday evening.  There were lots of ripe berries and more ripening, but they were not as large and sweet as last year's crop.  I don't think we had enough rain during their development.  We picked about a quart, and that will suffice.  Picking blackberries is blood sport (mine).

PURPLE LOOSETRIFE

PURPLE LOOSETRIFE...

FLOWER SPIKE...

WILLOW-LIKE LEAVES

Friday,  8:30 AM.  60 degrees F at the ferry dock, 51 on the back porch. Wind SSE, calm with light to moderate gusts.   The sky is clear, the humidity 80%.  The barometer is beginning to fall, now at 29.92". It looks like a perfect ten day ahead, leading to showers tomorrow evening.

   Purple loosestrife, Lythrum salicaria, in the loosestrife family, the  Lythraceae, is a European native long used as a garden perennial and now escaped into the wild in North America, where it has become an invasive nuisance which competes with native wetland vegetation.  There was a time when it was so pervasive that it appeared to be taking over many of our Wisconsin cattail marshes and was present in every roadside ditch.  Beautiful as it may be, it became too much of a good thing.

   Efforts to control it have been many, including herbicides and mechanical destruction, but it wasn't until biological controls were introduced (several European weevils and beetles and their larvae that feed on loosestrife roots, leaves or flowers) about twenty years ago that progress was made.  I can attest  that since these controls were introduced into our local loosestrife populations  the once very large areas occupied by purple loosestrife have receded significantly, and it has become much less prevalent in the Bayfield area.

   Biological control of loosestrife or any other plant population is a complicated and expensive undertaking, but it is ultimately more effective and environmentally neutral than chemicals and mechanical eradication.  In Wisconsin and elsewhere much of the hands-on work has been done by volunteers, school groups, and Indian tribes,  although the effort needs professional planning and guidance.  The following paragraphs are quoted from the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources web site:

    "The DNR and University of Wisconsin-Extension (UWEX), along with hundreds of citizen cooperators, have been introducing natural insect enemies of purple loosestrife, from its home in Europe, to infested wetlands in the state since 1994. Careful research has shown that these insects are dependent on purple loosestrife and are not a threat to other plants. Insect releases monitored in Wisconsin and elsewhere have shown that these insects can effectively decrease purple loosestrife's size and seed output, thus letting native plants reduce its numbers naturally through enhanced competition."
   "A suite of four different insect species has been released as biological control organisms for purple loosestrife in North America and Wisconsin. Two leaf beetle species called "Cella" beetles that feed primarily on shoots and leaves were the first control insects to be released in Wisconsin, and are the insects available from DNR for citizens to propagate and release into their local wetlands. A root-mining weevil species and a type of flower-eating weevil have also been released and are slowly spreading naturally. The Purple Loosestrife Biocontrol Program offers cooperative support, including free equipment and starter beetles from DNR and UWEX, to all state citizens who wish to use these insects to reduce their local purple loosestrife."
   "The length of time required for effective biological control of purple loosestrife in any particular wetland ranges from one to several years depending on such factors as site size and loosestrife densitys. The process offers effective and environmentally sound control of the plant, not elimination in most cases. It is also typically best done in some combination with occasional use of more traditional control methods such as digging and herbicide use.
   "Though purple loosestrife is almost certainly here to stay in Wisconsin, we should be able to efficiently protect our wetland ecosystems from domination by purple loosestrife by simply restoring some of the natural checks and balances that can result in diverse, healthy environments."

     One of the virtues of biological control of plant and other invasive populations is that complete eradication of the target population is neither necessary nor desirable, as the biological agents being utilized need a residual host population to maintain their own numbers.  It is not like trying to eliminate every dandelion in a lawn, which creates a monoculture that itself is unnatural and therefore vulnerable to other destructive agents.  Biological controls seek a natural balance, which in the long run is the most economical and least intrusive of efforts.
   I often criticize the environmental bureaucracies, both federal and state, for being overly controlling and intrusive in our society.  The biological control of purple loosestrife is, however,  a very positive story.

A SHORT, DISAPPOINTING BLUEBRRRY SEASON

BLUEBERRIES ARE THROUGH AT...

...WISCONSIN'S LARGEST BLUEBERRY FARM...

AS WELL AS AT,,

THE SMALLER FIELDS

Thursday, 8:30 AM.  53 degrees F at the ferry dock, 60 on the back porch.  Wind N, very light.  The sky is overcast, cloudy and misty, with fog over the channel.  The humidity is 91% and the barometer is starting to rise, now at 29.66".
   We purchase a lot of blueberries, but since we have been gone so much the last few weeks we had not done so locally as yet this season.   Imagine our surprise, then, when we found all the blueberries gone when we went to put in a supply of both fresh and frozen berries yesterday.
   We couldn't believe the season was over,  it had hardly lasted more than two weeks.  The bushes had looked full of berries.  What had happened?
   I called Rick Dale, proprietor of Highland Valley Farm, Wisconsin's largest blueberry grower out on Sunset Valley Road.  Rick is also an international consultant for USAID, and travels the world advising small fruit growers.  He cited a number of reasons for the small berry crop this year: several winters of very heavy snow which depressed the branches and interfered with pruning; last winter's colder than usual and very erratic temperatures; and a very heavy crop last year which probably robbed the berry bushes of sufficient energy for a good crop this year.  Whatever the complex of reasons, he said the light crop was widespread, and not just regional, but that the bushes looked good and should be ready to produce a normal crop next year.
   So we will have to watch for fresh blueberries at the grocery store (it is now an international crop), and stock up on frozen berries as well.  Blueberries have become a regular part of what we consider a healthful diet, and we will doubtless be paying more for them until next year's local crop is produced.

IT WILL BE A BUMPER CROP

APPLES ARE RIPENING

Wednesday,  8:00 AM.  65 degrees F at the ferry dock, 61 on the back porch.  Wind N, light.  The sky is dark and stormy;  it has rained all night and continues to shower sporadically.  The bird baths are full.  The humidity is 95% and the barometer is steady for now, at 29.48".  It will be a rainy day.
   Apples are ripening, and the early varieties will soon be picked. Yellow transparents are already ripe, Johnamac and Gala will soon follow.  Farm fields and roadsides reveal old fashioned early varieties, their fruit already on the ground; and desert apples like lady apples can be found here and there.  All the trees are full of fruit, the branches bending under the weight.  It will be a bumper crop.

"TREE RIPENED PEACHES": NIP THE SCAM IN THE BUD!

A NEW BAYFIELD AGRICULTURAL PRODUCT! WOW! LET'S FIND THEM!

HERE ARE THE PEACHES! WHERE ARE THE TREES?

A THOUSAND MILES AWAY, UNFORTUNATELY

Tuesday, 9:00 AM.  65 degrees F at the ferry dock, 60 on the back porch. The wind is ENE, light with stronger gusts. The sky is mostly cloudy and overcast, the humidity 86% and the barometer falling, now at 29.95".  Rain is  likely tomorrow.
   Back in the '70's, when we lived and worked in New York, I was briefly involved with the management of a peach orchard in the Hudson River Valley.  The climate was very much like that of the Bayfield peninsula, with snowy but not overly cold winters.  The southern portion of the valley was located between the Hudson River and the ocean, much as the Bayfield Penninsula juts out into Lake Superior.  The peach trees were hardy and the peaches large, sweet and juicy when ripened on the tree. Locals and visitors waited eagerly to buy the tree ripened fruit.
   I don't know if peaches have ever been seriously grown in Bayfield, but I have always thought that one of the orchards should try to grow them, and just as do sweet cherries, they could provide yet another local tree fruit to augment the apples and pears currently currently grown.
   With this information as background, you can imagine my eager anticipation to find the "Tree Ripened Peaches" as we followed the signs from Hwy. 13 and Fish Hatchery Road all the way to the north-eastern extremities of Highway J and the Orchard Country.  As we drove into the orchard I looked for the peach trees.  I looked in vain, for as we got to the sales barn it became evident that the peach trees were a thousand miles away, in Colorado.
   I was furious.  A local orchard had enticed me to drive miles out of my way, in anticipation of a fresh local peach, to find it all a fraud, a scam.  I vented my ire on the orchard owner, who said the peaches were indeed "tree ripened," and she claimed she never said they were locally grown, all of which made me even angrier, since truly tree ripened peaches are much too soft to be commercially shipped.
   No peach picked days earlier and shipped eight hundred or a thousand miles will taste anything like a local peach that literally drops into one's hand as it is gently plucked from the tree. Now the peaches, of which she had a sales barn full of bushels, may have tasted O.K., but they weren't "tree ripened" and sure weren't local.
   When visitors come to Bayfield they expect to buy fruit grown right here, fresh and tasty.  Anything else is simply deceitful, deceptive, false advertising, and if this grower gets away with it others will be tempted to do it as well, and the entire local produce produce industry, which is a mainstay of the local economy, will be compromised.
   People are not stupid.  They will pay a premium price for a premium product, but do not wish to be taken advantage of and treated like dupes.  They will soon recognize the lie, and avoid the area as an expensive tourist trap.
   I contacted the Chamber of Commerce.  I hope they have the guts to nip this scam in the bud (no pun intended).

FUNKY OHIO

GRUESOME THREESOME: OHIO BLACK VULTURES PERCHED ON AN OLD SILO

BACKCOUNTRY BERRY FARM

THE LONGERBERGER BASKET COMPANY'S  ICONIC OFFICE BUILDING

THE MACINAC BRIDGE, ONE OF THE GREAT BRIDGES OF THE WORLD

EVEN FAST FOOD OUTLETS HAVE TASTEFUL LANDSCAPING IN OHIO

Monday,  9:00 AM.  65 degrees F at the ferry dock, 62 on the back porch.  Wind WSW, mostly calm with light to moderate gusts.  The sky is mostly overcast, the humidity 78%.  The barometer is relatively steady, now standing at 30.01".  It feels like rain, although none is predicted for today.
   We had a more-or-less successful Ohio trip, the details or which might be worthy of another post at another time.  We left Columbus, Ohio,  Saturday morning and headed home via Michigan, on I75.  Our route back to Bayfield was basically through north-central Ohio and then north through lower peninsula Michigan, across the Straits of Macinac (the waterway between lakes Michigan and Ontario) via the Macinac Bridge (one of the world's great bridges) and then west across the Upper Penninsula of Michigan to Wisconsin.  We wanted to get across the bridge the first day, and we did, but then found that there were absolutely no motel rooms for the night in the entire U.P.  We drove until 11:00 PM or so and finally stopped at a big Holiday Inn, where we were graciously invited to park in their parking lot overnight and to use their facilities.  That was very welcome, and more tenable than stopping along the lake shore somewhere.  We actually slept well, being tired, and got an early start towards home  Sunday morning.  Buddy thought it all a fine adventure.
   We lived in Ohio for five years before I retired from full time work, and are quite fond of that state, which has a number of large cities but a lot of exurban and rural countryside. Ohio is also arguably the center of the American nursery industry (along with New Jersey and California), so has a wealth of interesting landscaping and selection of trees, shrubs and perennials.  Even the fast food restaurants are likely to be beautifully landscaped.
   All this renders Ohio rather funky if one really travels across it.  Rural Ohio is more-or-less the vulture capital of the world, both turkey vultures and black vultures being present, and we found these interesting and somewhat sinister creatures everywhere.  There are small farms and rural sights everywhere between cities if one gets off the major roads.  The Longerberger Basket Company sells handmade collectable wooden baskets worldwide, and has one of the most interesting of any corporate offices, located just east of Columbus.
   To top off the trip, a gray wolf ran across the road about fifty yards in front of the truck on Minnesota Hwy. 28, on the western side of the UP, the first wolf we have actually seen in a long while.

 

VINEYARDS AND VOLCANOS

MILES AND MILES OF VINEYARDS

TOO MUCH MULCH!...

...VOLCANO MULCHING IN BUFFALO

Thursday, 10:00 AM.  Buffalo, NY,  It is a gorgeous day along the shores of Lake Erie, clear skies and  temperatures is the mid-seventies.  We are here on a mission to help our oldest daughter Greta replace her car, which expired here about three weeks ago.  This has necessitated a trip form Wisconsin to Ohio to here.
  Driving west through the Niagara Region yesterday we went through about seventy-five miles of vineyard country, the manicured rows looking very green and robust.  I believe these to be mostly culinary grapes, but I imagine they grow wine grapes as well, although the latter usually demand warmer, drier conditions than  exist here.  Anyway it is an impressive sight, probably ignored, and unknown to most of the travelers along I90.
   Here in Buffalo I came across some prime examples of "volcano" mulching; wood mulch piled in a cone around the trunks of trees, all as neat as can be.  Mulch should be no more than 4" deep over the tree roots, and kept clear of the trunk itself.
   Hoping to complete our task today, we will head back to Ohio tomorrow.