wildflowers Archives

Posted on October 23, 2020 by Barb — Leave a comment

Outdoor Hour Challenge -Autumn Jewelweed Nature Study

Outdoor Hour Challenge

Jewelweed Nature Study

What makes the jewelweed plant so special? A hint is found in its other common name, touch-me-not. With just a touch, the jewelweed catapults its seeds out for dispersal! Would you like to see a video? Here is a link: Jewelweed Pods Exploding.

Use the lesson in the Handbook of Nature Study (Lesson 134) and the Outdoor Hour Challenge in the Autumn Ebook to learn about this interesting, beautiful, and useful plant that you may have growing in your area.

View the original challenge here: Outdoor Hour Challenge – Jewelweed.

If you have access to the ebook, there are two notebook pages to choose from for your nature journal.

Alternate study: You can complete a Weeds and Seeds challenge instead.

Sample to view: Outdoor Hour Challenge Autumn Nature Study 2015 Sample Pages

If you don’t have a membership yet, click the graphic above and join today for immediate access to the 26 ebooks and so much more! Remember that all levels, even the Discovery level membership, include access to all of the archived newsletters!

Topics in this ebook include:

Swallows and swifts
Catfish
Jewelweed
Prickly lettuce
Cockroach
Field horsetail
Catbird
Calcite, limestone, marble
Chicken
Turkey
Hedgehog fungi
Sapsucker
Brooks

If you have a membership, you may also look at additional wildflower ebooks available in the Ultimate Naturalist Library.

Posted on October 20, 2020 by Barb — Leave a comment

Autumn Weed Bouquet -Creating a Bouquet of Weeds, Flowers, and Grasses

Sitting on my desk is a small vase of flowers I collected a few weeks ago. Although they’re all dried up now, they are a fond reminder of an afternoon spent walking and collecting a few blooming things with my daughter.

This inspires me to share an idea with you readers. Why not go out on a crisp autumn day and collect a few flowers, weeds, and grasses from your neighborhood to enjoy in a vase?

Here’s a link to a post in my archives that will give you some inspiration: Weed Bouquets and Autumn Time.

Please feel free to use this idea as an alternate study to any of the autumn wildflower studies we have coming up (jewelweed and prickly lettuce).

Please check out all of the autumn themed ebooks available here on the Handbook of Nature Study.

Click the graphic above to view all of the topics covered.

Posted on October 1, 2020 by Barb — Leave a comment

New Member’s Printable-Autumn Weeds and Pond Study

Now available in the Ultimate and Journey level memberships:

1. Autumn Weed Notebook Page: This notebook page is a complement to any autumn weed or wildflower nature study. During the month of October, we will be studying jewelweed and prickly lettuce. If you don’t have either of those plants to study in real life, you can use this notebook page along with any weed or wildflower you want to focus on. You can get some autumn weed nature study ideas here: Autumn Weed Study.

2. Pond Nature Study Set-18 pages of notebooking pages included: As part of your family’s autumn nature study, you can start a year long pond study. Use the notebook pages in this set to follow up your pond time with a few of the more common subjects you may encounter. Topics include: dragonfly, damselfly, ducks, freshwater clams, mayfly, nutria, reeds, smartweed, water boatman, water snails, water spiders, water strider, whirligig beetles, aquatic insects, aquatic plants, pond fish, pond mammals, and tracks in the mud.

If you would like some pond study ideas, you can click over to see this study from my archives: Pond Study.

(See the end of this post for more information on how you can become a member.)

Print a complete list of printables available in the Ultimate and Journey level memberships by clicking the button above.

Members also have access to the Nature Planner pages in their library.

Print out this month’s page and use it to stimulate your weekly nature study time.

These are Amazon affiliate links to two books I have purchased and used with my family’s pond study.

Posted on September 25, 2020 by Barb — 3 Comments

Outdoor Hour Challenge: Field Horsetail Nature Study

I’m excited to be learning about the field horsetail this week for our nature study lesson. We have a patch of it that we’ve been observing on our street and along a favorite hiking trail. I hope to glean some new information about this interesting topic right alongside all of you.

It isn’t particularly pretty but it does have an interesting life cycle story. Use the Handbook of Nature Study by Anna Botsford Comstock (Lesson 196) along with the link to the original challenge below to learn more.

View the original challenge here: Outdoor Hour Challenge – Field Horsetail.

Please note that the original challenge and the ebook have the wrong page numbers for the Handbook of Nature Study. The correct pages are 706-709 or just look for Lesson #196.

If you have access to the ebook, there are two notebook pages to choose from for your nature journal.

Alternate study: Take your outdoor hour time and look for any autumn weeds you have, especially those with seeds. Contrast your weed with what you learned about the field horsetail.

Sample to view: Outdoor Hour Challenge Autumn Nature Study 2015 Sample Pages

Topics in this ebook include:

Swallows and swifts
Catfish
Jewelweed
Prickly lettuce
Cockroach
Field horsetail
Catbird
Calcite, limestone, marble
Chicken
Turkey
Hedgehog fungi
Sapsucker
Brooks

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Posted on September 23, 2020 by Barb — Leave a comment

Oregon Wildside-Autumn Update

Now that autumn is rolling on in and I’m winding down my garden season, I thought it was time for an update to my July entry on what was going on in my yard’s wildside. To get you up to speed, you can read the first entry in this wildside series here: Keeping A Wildside – Oregon Style.

Mostly, autumn is a time of mowing and cleaning up what’s left and reflecting on what I might do differently next year.

The whole idea of a wildside is to keep an area of your yard “wild” to see what grows there naturally. This provides a natural habitat for your native bees and birds to use for food and shelter. Allowing the plants to go to seed will keep your wildside growing from year to year.

I left a large patch of plants growing along the fence until I knew for certain what they were. It turns out they were prickly lettuce. They aren’t an especially pretty plant and I’m thinking next year I’ll pull them up when they sprout in the spring. (There will be a prickly lettuce nature study coming soon!)

My lovely mullein has sort of taken over the one side of our berm garden. I love mullein but we had so much of it that I went ahead and pulled it up by the roots to clear a space in the garden for some more yarrow. Don’t worry, there’s still plenty of mullein for our family to enjoy along with the birds and bees.

The experience of allowing a wildside allows for me to change my mind about a particular plant once I identify it. I allow something to grow until I can see if it’s a native, if it’s beneficial to birds or birds or other animals, and if it isn’t something that’s going to completely take over the area. It’s a lot more work to allow things to grow before you decide if you need to weed them out, but I learn a little more each year and I’m getting much more proficient at knowing what should stay and what should go.

We mowed most everything down once it went to seed so we’re sure there will be a new crop of dandelions, yarrow, tansy mustard, purple dead nettle, and collomia once spring comes again.

We have one thing left to do this year before the weather turns too cold and the ground too hard to dig. We’ll be transplanting some native grasses from one side of our yard to fill in a bare spot. The grasses will help create more of a “wildside” on the side of my husband’s shop. Transplanting grasses is fairly easy and as long as you get a good root ball, they take off growing like nothing ever happened.

Observations

The ground squirrels are all back in their burrows until next spring. I’ll miss them periscoping up out of their holes to scurry along the tall grasses. Their holes are all still visible but there has been no sighting of them for weeks.

Our swallows and bluebirds are all gone from their nesting boxes and we’ve cleaned the nests out for the season. I find nests so interesting. Each species of bird has their own way of going about building a nest and with our attempt at keeping a wildside, I think it helps the birds have the right kind of nesting materials they need to successfully raise a clutch of eggs. You can see how the bird artists use the grasses, leaves, and twigs gleaned from our yard.

Good night wildside. We shall see you on the other side of winter!

Read the July 2020 entry that highlights our Oregon Style Wild Side Garden.

These are resources I have in my personal library that I flip through for information and inspiration in building my wildside garden.

Please note the links above are Amazon affiliate links to books I purchased with my own money and highly recommend.

Posted on July 28, 2020 by Barb — 2 Comments

Keeping a Wildside – Oregon Style

I’ve wanted to share a little bit about the process we’ve gone through as we have designed the landscaping on our half acre plot here in Central Oregon. When we moved here 3 years ago, there was a large expanse of lawn and not much else. My husband loves green grass in the summertime but even he admitted there was way too much to mow and water.

After experiencing the process of removing lawn in our previous yard in California, he was very open to not expanding the lawn, and eventually removing quite a bit to make way for more native plants and shrubs. (You can read about our California wildside here: Keeping it on the Wildside – Part 1 and Nature Study on the Wildside – Part 2)

It really takes a change in thinking to adjust to the idea of less lawn to make room for more native plants. He still pushes back on my desire to keep the dandelions around the edges of the lawn. We have many, many dandelions here, so the compromise is to keep them to one side of the yard, in my Oregon “wildside”.

What is my “wildside”?

I define my “wildside” as a place to allow the natives to grow until we can identify them. Then we decide on a case by case basis whether to pull them out by the roots or to nurture them into beautiful plants that add such variety to our yard. This means a shift from calling a plant a “weed” to viewing them as a valued plant in our garden plan.

Restoring a wildside where we remove lawn and transplant native grasses and other flowering plants is also a part of the broad plan to create more natural habitat in our new place.

Short List of My Wildside Plants

Dandelions

Purple dead nettle

Mullein

Tansy Mustard

Yarrow

There are still some plants I have yet to figure out if they’re on the “pull them out” list or the “to keep” list. It’s truly a learning process as I gain knowledge and understanding of the new habitat I live in.

I have one main wildside area in the yard and then several smaller pockets of plants that I’m also allowing to grow and make decisions about as we go through another summer season.

One area of wild things is alongside the driveway and I’ve had so many friends comment on how I’m letting the “weeds” grow and I should pull them out. (They are trying to be helpful.)

Secondary List of Wildside Plants

Strawberry blite

False dandelion

Collomia

Silver phacelia

The past three years have been a season of observation. We take daily walks around the yard and as each new plant matures, we identify it and then decide if it’s a good fit for our garden. It involves a lot of careful weeding, but in the end I think we’ll have a variety of plants that will be beneficial to the habitat in some way.

mammal hole wildside — This is one of the holes that something, probably a ground squirrel, has dug in my wildside garden. I need to put up the critter cam to see who is digging here.

What do I mean? We think about whether a particular plant is attractive to pollinators, provides food and shelter to birds or other animals, or is a showy plant that provides color for us to enjoy.

Where we are pulling out the lawn, we’re replacing it with native shrubs that will grow and thrive in Central Oregon. I’m hoping to support the birds and insects that have started to visit and reproduce here. It is so joyful to look out and see the nests being built right within sight of our back widow.

We daily see bees, moths, butterflies, and other insects visiting the flowers.

The birds are using the native grasses as nesting materials, eating the seeds and berries from the plants, and taking sips of water from the puddles left in the dirt and on the rock walls we built.

So there you have a brief overview of how we’re creating a new wildside in our Central Oregon space. There is so much more to share, so I will save that for a future post. It’s a hobby and a passion that I could work on during the time isolated at home during the COVID-19 pandemic. It doesn’t look like the “staying safe at home” time is ending very soon, so I will probably update you dear readers later this fall with any changes or outstanding observations we’ve made.

Follow me on Instagram for more of our Oregon gardening and nature related posts.

Right now there is a discount code for $10 off an Ultimate Naturalist Library membership.

Discount Code: SUMMERNATURE

Code expires: 8/1/2020

Posted on May 6, 2020 by Barb — Leave a comment

Wild for Wildflowers Nature Study

Wild for Wildflowers Nature Study Printable

-From the Newsletter Archives

For many of us, spring is a time to look for wildflowers. The world comes alive with color and it beckons us to get outside and walk a local trail. I invite you to download, print, and use the ideas in the printable I’m sharing below, Wild for Wildflowers.

As suggested in the printable, take time to identify even just one wildflower this month. Make it a topic of your nature journal. Or, use one of the many ideas in the chart to deepen your wildflower knowledge in a way that sounds fun for your family.

Download: Wild For Wildflowers

This printable is from the June 2013 Newsletter found in the archives here on the Handbook of Nature Study. If you have access to the newsletters, you can download and read the complete edition that features even more ideas for wildflower study.

The newsletter archives are available in every level of membership here on the Handbook of Nature Study.

Use the discount code SPRINGTOGETHER to receive $10 off an Ultimate Naturalist Library membership.

Posted on May 1, 2020 by Barb — Leave a comment

Brand New! Outdoor Hour Challenge Big Sagebrush Nature Study

The sagebrush habitat is filled with interesting plants and animals, least of which is this week’s subject, the big sagebrush. Looking out over a sea of sagebrush gives the impression of it being an empty, dry wasteland. But upon closer inspection, it becomes a richly interconnected collection of living things all coexisting in a harsh landscape. Sagebrush is the thread that holds it all together.

You may wish to view my picks for resources to learn about the sagebrush habitat in this entry: High Desert Resources.

Use these ideas to get you started with your sagebrush study:

Choose your resource for learning about big sagebrush (Artemisia tridentata). You can use one of the resources listed on page 5 of the High Desert ebook. Or if you prefer, look for resources at your public library, perhaps a field guide for wildflowers or shrubs.
In addition, look up these online resources for facts and a range map: USDA Forest Service or USDA printable.

Note that an alternate study this week could be done for rabbitbrush (found in the Forest Fun ebook).

Please note that I will not be posting the complete challenge here on the blog, but you will find the detailed challenge in the High Desert ebook that’s available both in the Ultimate Naturalist and Journey level memberships. Sign into your account and download the ebook for the details, more links, and notebook pages.

If you don’t have a membership yet, you can click the graphic above and join today for immediate access to the 25 ebooks and so much more! Remember that all levels, even the Discovery level membership, include access to all of the archived newsletters!

Topics in this ebook include:

Bitterbrush
Sagebrush
Greater sage-grouse
Succulents
Mountain Lion
Coyote
Pocket Gopher
Bristlecone Pine
Elk
Turkey Vulture
Juniper
Snowberry
Golden Mantled Ground Squirrel
River Otter

Use the discount code SPRINGTOGETHER to receive $10 off an Ultimate Naturalist Library membership!

Posted on April 27, 2020 by Barb — Leave a comment

Our Early Spring Wildflowers

Last month I posted an entry discussing the emergence of spring wildflowers…the early ones. Read that entry here: Wildflower Succession and Ephemerals.

I’ve been on the lookout for our early spring wildflowers and the list is rather short so far.

Dandelions – The dandelions in our yard and down by the river are very short. They don’t grow very tall at all and I assume that’s because of our cold temperatures. They are still such a happy sight after the winter grays and browns.

Tiny White Flowers – The pasture behind our house has lots of miniature blooming white flowers. I’ve tried in the past to identify them, but so far I’ve had no success. If you don’t look closely, you’ll actually miss them, they are so very small.

We took a drive on a long, dirt forestry road this week and we spotted the green Manzanita blooming already. The insects were buzzing around all of the pink flowers dangling from the branches.

Those three flowering plants are really the only ones I’ve observed so far.

As I look at my records for the past two years, I notice that the bushes bloom before the wildflowers here in Central Oregon.

But, there are plenty of signs of flowers that are coming. From our recent wanderings, we’ve noted the promise of a few more flowers.

There are thousands of wild purple irises beginning to sprout their green flat leaves. We see them everywhere on our daily walks and they promise to bring beautiful flowers in the near future.

The bitter brush is starting to leaf out and it will soon be loaded with small, yellow flowers.

The wild wax currant bushes are also leafing out with their bloom time following closely behind the leaves.

I realized this week how anxious I am for some wildflower beauty in my life. With our short growing season, the flowers bloom consecutively all summer long and end with a flourish of golden rabbitbrush color in the fall.

Learning the bloom patterns of the natives in my neighborhood is a project I really enjoy.

Have you noticed any wildflowers blooming yet?

Posted on March 16, 2020 by Barb — Leave a comment

Wildflower Succession and Ephemerals

Wildflower Succession and Ephemerals

Wildflowers take their “turns” as they bloom through each season. This idea came to me years ago as I hiked the same trail many times a month and I noted that a certain meadow always had a flower blooming. The wildflowers don’t all bloom at the same time but they do bloom in the same order each year. This “cycle” or succession of flowers gives us a way to mark time.

In the early spring, the meadow comes alive with popcorn flower. Next to bloom are the shooting stars, the California poppies, and the purple Chinese houses. Making observations of the meadow has become an annual activity for me and it is enjoyable to know which flowers to anticipate as the season goes on. The early spring wildflowers make their appearance before the surrounding trees leaf out and make shade. These plants quickly flower and go to seed, waiting for the next year to bloom again.

This cycle of flowering and then seed dropping fascinates me. I imagine all those seeds layered there in the soil just waiting for the conditions to be right in order for them to start their blooming cycle again the next year.

Spring ephemerals: Ephemeral means short lived or lasting for a brief time. In the case of wildflowers, these are usually the first flowers to develop stems, leaves, and flowers. They spring up quickly, bloom, seed, and then disappear once the temperatures heat up and the trees grow overhead. They don’t really die but go dormant.

Here are some from my Sierra Foothill habitat in California:

¨ Blue Dicks, Dichelostemma capitatum

¨ California Golden Violet, Viola pedunculata

¨ Elegant Brodiaea, Brodiaea elegans

¨ Hooker’s Evening Primrose, Oenothera elata hookeri

¨ Mariposa or Butterfly Lily, Calochortus venustus

¨ Miner’s lettuce, Claytonia perfoliata

¨ Miniature lupine, Lupinus bicolor

¨ Owl’s Clover or Valley Tassels, Castilleja lineariloba

¨ Pretty Face, Triteleia ixioides

¨ Rose Globe or Fairy Lily, Calochortus amoenus

¨ Shooting Star, Dodecatheon jeffreyi

What are the spring ephemeral wildflowers in your area?

Activity

Wildflower Succession in Your Neighborhood

Choose a wildflower that grows in your neighborhood to watch each spring. Create a long term record of its initial bloom time each year. Use the data and compare the dates from year to year. Did weather– rainfall, snowfall, temperature– affect its blooming?

Wildflower Related Citizen Science Project Opportunity

Join Nature’s Notebook and make observations of a specific plant (or animal) in your area. By submitting data to this program, you will be helping scientists in their research. See the website for details and instructions. Click here for more information: Nature’s Notebook.

This article first appeared in the April 2016 Handbook of Nature Study Newsletter.

You may wish to download one of the wildflower ebooks from your Ultimate Naturalist Library and use it this spring and summer for your nature study time.

Here is a list of the wildflowers included in those ebooks:

Ebook #1: Field mustard, Wild radish, Shooting star, Lupine, Purple Chinese houses, Yarrow.

Eboook #2: Henbit, Cow parsnip, Columbine, Chicory, Cocklebur.

Ebook #3: Fireweed, Salsify, Forget-Me-Not, Paintbrush, Common silverweed.

If you still need a membership, click the graphic above to find out more about joining now.

You can also find many more wildflower nature study challenges on the Wildflower tab on the website.

Category: wildflowers

Outdoor Hour Challenge -Autumn Jewelweed Nature Study

If you have a membership, you may also look at additional wildflower ebooks available in the Ultimate Naturalist Library.

Autumn Weed Bouquet -Creating a Bouquet of Weeds, Flowers, and Grasses

New Member’s Printable-Autumn Weeds and Pond Study

Print a complete list of printables available in the Ultimate and Journey level memberships by clicking the button above.

Outdoor Hour Challenge: Field Horsetail Nature Study

Oregon Wildside-Autumn Update

Keeping a Wildside – Oregon Style

Right now there is a discount code for $10 off an Ultimate Naturalist Library membership.

Discount Code: SUMMERNATURE

Code expires: 8/1/2020

Wild for Wildflowers Nature Study

Download: Wild For Wildflowers

Use the discount code SPRINGTOGETHER to receive $10 off an Ultimate Naturalist Library membership.

Brand New! Outdoor Hour Challenge Big Sagebrush Nature Study

Use the discount code SPRINGTOGETHER to receive $10 off an Ultimate Naturalist Library membership!

Our Early Spring Wildflowers

Have you noticed any wildflowers blooming yet?

Wildflower Succession and Ephemerals

Outdoor Hour Challenges for families since 2008!

If you have a membership, you may also look at additional wildflower ebooks available in the Ultimate Naturalist Library.

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Print a complete list of printables available in the Ultimate and Journey level memberships by clicking the button above.

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Right now there is a discount code for $10 off an Ultimate Naturalist Library membership.

Discount Code: SUMMERNATURE

Code expires: 8/1/2020

Download: Wild For Wildflowers

Use the discount code SPRINGTOGETHER to receive $10 off an Ultimate Naturalist Library membership!

Have you noticed any wildflowers blooming yet?

Outdoor Hour Challenges for families since 2008!