At Partridge Road and Illinois Avenue 6/21/2010
The intersection of Partridge Road and Illinois Avenue is less than 1/4 mile south of our home. When we and the dogs take each other for walks we usually walk to this intersection and then east on Illinois Avenue for about 3/4 of a mile before turning around to retrace our steps.
Partridge Road is a paved county road, and Illinois is a township road with a river gravel surface. Because the ditches along township roads are not mowed very frequently, Illinois is a better place to observe wildflowers in bloom than Partridge Road is. A case in point is the fact that the county mowers passed noisily by our place after we got back from our walk this morning.
I know without looking that the one lone devil's claw plant that Lexi invariably finds irresistible is gone. Every time we passed it, she would sniff it with great interest, then drop down and roll over in it, even wiggling "just so" to scrape the top of her head directly over the plant. I wonder if it has insect repellent qualities. I know it is strongly scented--not particularly pleasantly so, in my judgment. Lexi even took the cluster of buds at its growth tip into her mouth, but didn't really bite it off. Most people are familiar with the wickedly hooked ends of the devil's claw dried seed pods, but I'm told that the immature seed pods are edible and can be prepared like okra. I've never been hungry or curious enough to try it.
Several wildflowers have come into bloom since my last report. They are Daisy Fleabane (annual), Cat's claw Sensitive Brier, California Loosestrife, Showy milkweed, Wavy-leaf thistle, Spiderwort, and Wild Hemlock. Fleabane and Hemlock are white, but everything else in the "new" list is somewhere on the pink through lavender-blue spectrum. The bright gold of Plains Coreopsis is filling drowned out spots in the wheat fields with arresting color. Purple Poppy Mallow (Winecup) is still in bloom, as is Yarrow.
An article in our local paper this spring announced that the county was operating on a crown-only mowing policy. That is, they would mow the shoulder of the roadside ditches and leave the remainder as a refuge for native wild plants. This was to be a money-saving measure, as well as a place for Kansas' native grasslands to reassert themselves. My observation tells me that the people actually doing the mowing have failed to get the memo on the new policy. or they define "crown" very differently than I do. In practice, the mower flails everything, except a narrow strip on the far edge of the ditch right next to the adjoining field.
I know that hay fever sufferers like my mom applaud the old road-to-field mowing method, and I think some farmers don't appreciate how cheatgrass gone to seed in the ditches invades nearby wheat fields. But I think the crown-only policy is great, and I wish it were faithfully implemented. Mile after mile of green shredded vegetation offers very little in the way of aesthetic value, unless monotony has qualities to recommend it that I'm not attuned to. Far better to leave intact the variety and diversity nature provides than to wrest it into uniformity at the expense of its form and color.
Partridge Road is a paved county road, and Illinois is a township road with a river gravel surface. Because the ditches along township roads are not mowed very frequently, Illinois is a better place to observe wildflowers in bloom than Partridge Road is. A case in point is the fact that the county mowers passed noisily by our place after we got back from our walk this morning.
I know without looking that the one lone devil's claw plant that Lexi invariably finds irresistible is gone. Every time we passed it, she would sniff it with great interest, then drop down and roll over in it, even wiggling "just so" to scrape the top of her head directly over the plant. I wonder if it has insect repellent qualities. I know it is strongly scented--not particularly pleasantly so, in my judgment. Lexi even took the cluster of buds at its growth tip into her mouth, but didn't really bite it off. Most people are familiar with the wickedly hooked ends of the devil's claw dried seed pods, but I'm told that the immature seed pods are edible and can be prepared like okra. I've never been hungry or curious enough to try it.
Several wildflowers have come into bloom since my last report. They are Daisy Fleabane (annual), Cat's claw Sensitive Brier, California Loosestrife, Showy milkweed, Wavy-leaf thistle, Spiderwort, and Wild Hemlock. Fleabane and Hemlock are white, but everything else in the "new" list is somewhere on the pink through lavender-blue spectrum. The bright gold of Plains Coreopsis is filling drowned out spots in the wheat fields with arresting color. Purple Poppy Mallow (Winecup) is still in bloom, as is Yarrow.
An article in our local paper this spring announced that the county was operating on a crown-only mowing policy. That is, they would mow the shoulder of the roadside ditches and leave the remainder as a refuge for native wild plants. This was to be a money-saving measure, as well as a place for Kansas' native grasslands to reassert themselves. My observation tells me that the people actually doing the mowing have failed to get the memo on the new policy. or they define "crown" very differently than I do. In practice, the mower flails everything, except a narrow strip on the far edge of the ditch right next to the adjoining field.
I know that hay fever sufferers like my mom applaud the old road-to-field mowing method, and I think some farmers don't appreciate how cheatgrass gone to seed in the ditches invades nearby wheat fields. But I think the crown-only policy is great, and I wish it were faithfully implemented. Mile after mile of green shredded vegetation offers very little in the way of aesthetic value, unless monotony has qualities to recommend it that I'm not attuned to. Far better to leave intact the variety and diversity nature provides than to wrest it into uniformity at the expense of its form and color.
posted by Mrs. I at
10:43 AM
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