Plants Archives - Page 2 of 5

Not strawcolor, but green. Not flat, but triangular. Not grass, but Sedge. Strawcolor Flatsedge displays a tangle of long slender leaves and bristly flower/seed stalks in the margin of the yard next to the sidewalk.

Sedges Have Edges: Strawcolored Flatsedge

Updated August 31, 2025

We’ve had a very wet summer. More rain than we’ve seen in years has fallen periodically an inch or two at a time–including those weeks when we’ve been away on vacation. The result is that the yard has remained green and lush all summer, and places normally dry are a bit soggy. The peppers have […]

Plants

You might think this an ordinary weed, climbing over the sidewalk, but it’s not. It’s knotweed.

Prostrate Knotweed

Updated July 20, 2025

Last fall we had some cement work done on the sidewalk leading to the deck. The ground had settled significantly in the 20 years since the house was built, and the cement sidewalk settled with it. This project was to correct that. In the process of completing the work, the ground next to the sidewalk […]

Plants

Plate-size umbels of tiny white flowers stand atop canes of Elderberry growing next to an Iowa cornfield. More flowerheads have yet to erupt.

Community Living: Elderberry

Updated July 11, 2025

On a bright, cool morning in early July, the landscape is a vibrant, nearly uniform green. We’ve had lots of rain this year, and everything is lush and growing. Against this backdrop of vibrant green, plate-sized clusters of tiny white flowers buzz with happy pollinators. The flowers are arranged in flat-topped umbrella-shaped clusters ten to […]

Iowa’s State Flower is a ditchweed. Flat, open pink flower with five petals and yellow center, it blooms on a stout shrub by a dusty roadside. Wild Prairie Rose is a hardy native, adapted to its sometimes-harsh habitat. Even though the virgin prairie is long gone, the area near the gravel road mimics the wild rose’s preferred conditions, and the plant flourishes here.

State Flower: Wild Prairie Rose

Updated June 9, 2025

On a beautiful spring day in late May, we took Dave and Clancy out for a nice long walk. Along the gravel road, we noticed a variety of little flowers adorning the ditch at the edge of the road in front of Owl Acres. One that caught our attention was the wild prairie rose (Rosa […]

Plants

Large pink flower stands out from dark green foliage. Peony blossom has dense, crepe-paper-like petals that form a soft ball atop a short stalk.

Protection Racket: Peonies

Updated June 9, 2025

Once when I was about eleven, my friend and I were walking to Mass at St. Mary’s Catholic Church when we realized we had forgotten our chapel veils. These circles of lace were mandatory as head coverings for girls at Mass. What to do? We spied some flowers growing next to the sidewalk and picked […]

Plants

Light purple, 4-petaled flowers grow in a cluster among green foliage in a close-up image of lilacs on Owl Acres.

The fragrance of Mother’s Day: Lilacs

Updated May 12, 2025

When I was a kid, we had a big lilac bush in the corner of the yard. You could crawl into that bush and hide. You could be just about guaranteed to get ticks in your hair if you did, though. Every spring around Mother’s Day, that bush would burst into purple booms that smelled […]

Plants

Virginia Waterleaf

Updated May 5, 2025

We were out in the yard, inspecting the blossoms on the apple and cherry trees, when sprays of little lavender flowers caught our attention. A patch of Virginia waterleaf (Hydrophyllum virginianum) was growing next to the shop. The plants were about a foot tall with long, deeply lobed leaves. Clusters of flowers hung at the […]

Steel cut oats in a white glass dish shine in the afternoon sun. Cook ‘em. Yum.

Food for All: Oats

Updated February 10, 2025

Just about my favorite breakfast is oatmeal. Steel-cut oats cooked on the stove with sorghum, raisins, black walnuts and maybe an apple mixed in. Add a pat of butter and a few sprinkles of salt for that little extra. I make up a batch on the weekend and then warm up servings throughout the week. […]

Karen is in the woods behind the house on a bright fall day. The trees have dropped most of their leaves. A large woody vine rises from bottom to top clear through the frame. It's the main stem of a river grape, its branches and foliage tangled high overhead in the nearby tree.

River Grape

Updated November 18, 2024

On a lovely Indian summer day in late October, we took a walk through the woods on Owl Acres. Most of the leaves had fallen from the trees, and the undergrowth was dry and crackly. Along with the boxelder trees, hackberries, wild cherry and walnut trees in the woods, some inch-thick woody vines climbed from […]

Plants

A stand of Jerusalem Artichokes blooms in August. 4- to 6-ft-tall stalks, bristling with rough hairs and alternating leaves. A 3-inch blossom with yellow radiating petals tops each stalk. Plants were seeded two years ago when we established our little prairie garden.

Pillar of the Community: Jerusalem Artichoke

Updated November 11, 2024

Several Jerusalem artichokes have taken root in our little prairie garden. They’re sharing the space with false sunflowers and other prairie plants. Blooming in August and September, their yellow flowers with yellow centers are buzzing with a whole constellation of critters. The story of the Jerusalem artichoke is that of an invasive that moved across […]

Plants