June: Maintenance Month

Gary, Jim and I were at the park on all four Sundays this month. We were joined by Robby on the 11th. All this month, we have basically looked after our planting. In particular, to make sure the bindweed is kept at bay from our plants. We've also pulled up young blackberry shoots along with lots of Herb Robert.

It is impossible to remove all the morning glory so we've not done much outside our planting areas. Below on the left, you can see it climbing around the columbine. On the right, note the blooming honeysuckle in the back along with one ripening salmonberry. These were taken on June 4, as was the photo of the mock orange that we just planted in April. We were happy to see it bloom already!

On June 11, I dug out quite a root so I had to take a photo it. This goes to show you why bindweed is everywhere--the roots are going in all directions!

We took a break from this to walk to the main trail where the leaning Norway spruce finally fell. This is right by Meridian Creek and the South Pond. I couldn't resist taking a photo of the babies in the pond, too. The last photo was taken from the other end of the fall. Since it was obstructing the trail, I emailed Parks with couple of photos. When I got home, I learned from neighbors the tree had fallen on Thursday, June 8. I don't know if it had already been reported. The path was cleared couple of days later.

On June 18, I noticed the ocean spray we planted in the fall of 2015 had begun to flower:

On June 18, Jim figured out that the seeds on our clothes are aven seeds, I broke open a head (ovary?) and all these little seeds fell out. Since I've been picking off these sticky little seeds as much as I could off of my clothing, I guess I've been spreading avens here and there.

 Parks (most likely Tony) did a nice job clearing the downed tree. Also, there's now a log across the creek.

Today was hot, 90 by late afternoon perhaps. I think we only picked one bag of morning glory between us since Jim spent most of the time tackling black locust shoots. I took a photo of the cottonwood shoots in the Southern Forest. They are starting to crowd into the path but we decided we liked their shade value.