Project: Cork Board

Need a place to pin those special Valentines? Or maybe your favorite seed packets? Cut outs of plants you just have to have? Maybe a "revolving" vision board – whereas you replace vision as it is achieved? Just use tacks instead of glue. (To learn about creating a vision board, please click here to view a previous post.) Please consider a cork board. I admit this is a project I've yet to finish, but once again, I am going BIG. I am using a door (which my dad framed for me to use as a desk top since college – yikes – I used the hole for the door knob for wires). However, I have made cork boards for gifts by affixing gator board to the back of a premade frame (i.e. from Michaels or similar craft store). Here is my project in progress:

I am using wood glue for the corks. This seems to work since I, admittedly, began this project quite awhile ago and these corks are on there like cement! Well, this project has taken awhile because I am drinking the wine for the corks (okay, maybe for other reasons aside from the corks). I hope I have enough to complete this project. What do you think? This bag is full.

Now my family and friends actually save corks for me. Some of mine are synthetic – modernization. If I have any left over, cork only, I can shred them and use them as mulch in my garden. What I would use to shred them with, I am not sure. Perhaps a good chopping knife or old food processor? Or, consider throwing your wine corks in your compost. After all, cork is the bark of a tree and makes for good brown material. Just don't throw them away!

The best part of this project is drinking the wine, I have to admit. So, pour yourself a glass of wine, walk around your garden, look for signs of spring. Then take a picture, print it out and hang it on your cork board!

What's Growing (The Plan)

I spent most of the day yesterday planning my potager as the snow continued (and continues) to fly. I'm going to order seeds to make it a brighter day. So, here's the plan:

Every year I sketch out my plan so that I can rotate crops and also companion plant where I can. Of course, I am expanding some of the beds (where I've marked new).

New things I am going to try this year: broccoli raab, veronica cauliflower, some new varieties of mustard greens, chinese choy and cabbage, scallop squash, dragon carrots, soy bean, tomatillos, and peppers. I have never had luck with peppers so this year I am going to pack them in and really concentrate on them. Both my husband and I enjoy spicy foods and hot peppers add such wonderful flavor. Any advice from you professional pepper growers would be much appreciated.

Now if the snow would just stop flying and begin to melt instead!

Going Native: In the Dark About Nightshade

Once again, I have been fooled into thinking a plant is native! I truly thought the climbing nightshade I have growing on my fence was native. It turns out that while there are some nightshades native to my region, solanum dulcamara, was introduced. It is also known as bittersweet nightshade, climbing nightshade, or European nightshade (that last common name is a pretty big clue).

Well, I am in love with its bright red berries especially this time of year, but they are the reason why this plant has so successfully naturalized here. Birds eat these berries and expel the seeds elsewhere. Crows, eastern kingbirds, mimic-thrushes, thrushes, white-crowned sparrows, and waxwings eat the berries of bittersweet nightshade. In the Northeast, numerous other songbirds, game birds, and some mammals also eat the berries. Gray catbirds have been known to nest in bittersweet nightshade. But most interestingly, it is a recognized major food source for bumble bees and this I can attest to because it is rare to see one of its purple blooms (resembling a tomato flower) without a bumble bee clinging to it during the summer in spite of all the other plantings I have! Also, its leaves are quite "holey" throughout the summer so I believe them to be a food source for some type(s) of insects. The Nature Conservancy has given bittersweet nightshade a national ranking of "low" based on its overall low ecological impacts, but are moderately concerned about its widespread distribution and abundance.

Hmm, yet another native dilemma! A naturalized non-native that offers some wildlife value and a major source of food for bumble bees (who are declining). I think I will save a patch of this climber for now. As my garden matures and I add more berries and pollen sources (perhaps specifically for bumble bees),  I can slowly phase this plant out. I would be interested in knowing what you would do.

Sources for this post include Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center and the US Forest Service.