Snoopin’ with the Snoop

1. Japanese Beetles like to eat my:
   • wild rose brambles
   • rose of sharon
   • lemonbalm
   • rhubarb
   • Hey! Japanese beetles love the taste of Bindweed leaves!
   • velvet leaf
   • okra
   • sunflower
   • purple thistle

   Beware of using traps, as they tend to more often attract the beetles:

   A question I am often asked is whether Japanese beetle traps provide control,” says Jones. “Unfortunately, research has revealed that frequently many more beetles are attracted to a trap than are actually caught. So, using traps can have the effect of increasing your beetle problem, rather than eliminating it. (University of Illinois, “Japanese Beetles: A Real Pain for Everybody”)

   And though the same article says that the damage is more localized than widespread, that statement totally depends on your field of reference. Sure, if you’re a corn or soybean farmer with hundreds of acres of fields, then yes, their damage swath is localized. It’s much harder for the small gardener to consider lost plants as localized damage when the plot total equals a handful of plants.

2. Margined blister beetles love(d) my Tiger-Eye Amaranth. They devoured the plants until, back in the beginning of August, I uprooted a stand of three-foot grass on the edge of the garden, which happened to be about five feet from the T-E Amaranth. They disappeared immediately, and I didn’t see them until weeding out more grass on the other side of the garden yesterday. My T-E has since recovered, though each plant is still only about 6 inches tall. I haven’t seen the blister beetles munching on anything else since they deserted the amaranth, but apparently they’re still in the garden.
3. Monsanto.
4. Not a garden pest, but we have moles in our yard. Sigh. Their foraging tunnels look like mini-chaotic-crop circles all over our backyard. I have flooded their tunnels (which according to the article merely forces them to the surface but does not get rid of them); however, given that they eat bugs and grubs, I’d like to keep them around, but know that is probably not acceptable to anyone but me. If only they didn’t cause grass root damage.

My contract with the NCC ended on May 2. While I wait for my Americorps education award to arrive so that I can enroll to get a math education degree, I’m focused on cleaning my parents’ house. They are helping me by offering me the job so that I can not pay rent while working towards my degree, and I’m doing a lot of dejunking/painting/organizing for them. For wanting to be outside all the time, I’ve spent most of my time inside the last few days since getting back from Vegas. Playing Guitar Hero III. Re-leveling up to expert. I’m not sure if I’m having such difficulty because the only TV in the house is from the early 80s and does not even have composite jacks, or if I’m really the out of practice. I have the PS2 system hooked up to my computer via a PCMCIA card that has a jack that converts the composite to a digital. The card inserts where it is supposed to and relies on a program that would allow me to watch TV and VCRs on my computer. Thankfully, it also allows one to play games via game systems on one’s laptop. In addition to only being at Medium at the moment, I’m really good at covering up the IR wireless connection on the guitar as I’m playing, and usually only realize why I failed after I fail the song. Grrr.

But back to the title. Stumping.

Last summer, I tried to eliminate a stubborn tree from the wildflower garden, by cutting off all the shoots and leaving it under a black plastic garbage bag all summer. Guess who’s back. Well, this year, after learning everything that I learned while with the NCC, I took out the gosh darn stump. Not the stubborn one yet, but the stump of the same kind of tree that WAS in the front of the garden. That was a nice little work out last evening. Though the climate is humid here, I barely broke a sweat. And I had so much fun with the pick mattock, half axe, axe, saw, spade, and clippers. I did realize though, this morning, that from May 2 – May 14, when I was getting a lot of cardiovascular exercise and using my legs a lot, that my upper back strength waned a bit. But between gardening and painting, the muscles will stick around.

Speaking of the (vegetable) garden, I’m dumbfounded at the amount of lambs quarters aka pigweed (Chenopodium album L) that has taken root. A green carpet of lambs quarters. At least the stuff is edible (and in the same family as spinach). I don’t really have to buy any salad greens at the grocery store. The entire garden is covered with the green fuzzies. Although I usually let a patch grow, I have a huge task in front of me. The garden is about 30′ x 50′. I am surprised that the mustard didn’t come back though. A few onions came back, but that’s about it. I’m waiting to see if the buckwheat crossed with the bindweed, and what sort of disaster that will be…

A genealogy blog, and the second thing I do is write about my garden? Yeah. [23 May 2008 - I no longer consider this a genealogy blog, though I do have a genealogy category...]

I planted buckwheat in my garden this year, and they warned not to let it go to seed because it easily becomes a rampant weed. But I like so-called weeds, especially ones that attract butterflies and birds, which buckwheat does. When it first came up, I noticed its leaves looked an awful lot like those of bindweed. Then today I noticed the bindweed flowering with flowers much like the buckwheat, and I had the horrible notion that they would cross? (Note: I do not like bindweed, even if it does attract wildlife of the winged type, and it’s in my garden in places I can’t access … like among other weeds or wrapped around my squash plant.)

The buckwheat I bought from Bountiful Gardens is Fagopyrum esculentum.

Using the USDA Plants Database, the best I can tell is that ours is black bindweed of scientific name Polygonum convolvulus L., which would indicate they won’t cross. Whew.

Hold on!

At an ibiblio page, they have reference information on Fagopyrum dibotrys, commonly called Perennial Buckwheat, and name its possible synonyms as Polygonum dibotrys (D.Don.), Polygonum chinense (Misapplied), Fagopyrum cymosum ((Trevir.)Meissn.).

There is also this “Kjo (Japanese) 1879 (46) Fagopyrum esculentum Moench [reported as: Polygonum fagopyrum L. ]” at Historical Common Names of Great Plains Plants: K.

If buckwheat can also be classified under Polygonum, then I’m in trouble…