Second Black Dog Blog
Plant of the Week
One of my earliest memories from the Plantland files in the category "Hey, there's more out there than Norway maples and candytuft", happened during a walk through my uncle's property in upstate New York. There was lots of stuff to be intrigued with and distracted by there- the Willys Jeeps, the swimming hole, the occasional beaver dam, and lots of ferns. but then you'd run into these weird things out in the middle of the woods- green stalks supporting leaves and this strange, flop top cup type thing with this Jack guy in it, staying conveniently out of whatever rain might come along, but totally unable to preach to even the choir since the cantilevered canopy pretty much threw all the sound into the cone of silence he was standing in. This was, of course, Arisaema triphyllum, our native Jack-in-the-Pulpit in the East and Midwest. How was I to know that this was only the tip of the iceberg in arisaemaville? We didn't have the dungeons of the internets back in those ancient times, and I just wasn't that curious. My friend Kelly says that Arisaemas are done- i'd have to say: not on my watch, and i'm still watchin'.
Top Gardening Tip
Along with a variety of fruits and vegetables, figs had been grown fairly extensively in the hey day of Vashon’s agricultural history. The variety we have here, although as yet unnamed, comes from a plant that has fruited in an Island garden for over fifty years. It is a brown-fruited variety and very prolific.
One of my earliest memories from the Plantland files in the category "Hey, there's more out there than Norway maples and candytuft", happened during a walk through my uncle's property in upstate New York. There was lots of stuff to be intrigued with and distracted by there- the Willys Jeeps, the swimming hole, the occasional beaver dam, and lots of ferns. but then you'd run into these weird things out in the middle of the woods- green stalks supporting leaves and this strange, flop top cup type thing with this Jack guy in it, staying conveniently out of whatever rain might come along, but totally unable to preach to even the choir since the cantilevered canopy pretty much threw all the sound into the cone of silence he was standing in. This was, of course, Arisaema triphyllum, our native Jack-in-the-Pulpit in the East and Midwest. How was I to know that this was only the tip of the iceberg in arisaemaville? We didn't have the dungeons of the internets back in those ancient times, and I just wasn't that curious. My friend Kelly says that Arisaemas are done- i'd have to say: not on my watch, and i'm still watchin'.
Top Gardening Tip
Along with a variety of fruits and vegetables, figs had been grown fairly extensively in the hey day of Vashon’s agricultural history. The variety we have here, although as yet unnamed, comes from a plant that has fruited in an Island garden for over fifty years. It is a brown-fruited variety and very prolific.