The plot thickens..

I know i'm going to regret wasting that title so early in the season. Ok, so maybe its not as catchy as i think it is.
But in any case, i went out and looked at my string beans.  Looks like "Provider" will turn out to be a well named bean.  My plants are covered with clusters of growing pods.  I only planted about a 4'x6' area but i'm going to be up to my ears in beans.  Which is fine because i like string beans.

I also planted those purple podded beans on July 4, and they are up now.  I planted them between the rows of corn that didn't germinate so well and are still way behind.

Tiny watermelon, this is a Pony Yellow

I think i have convinced myself that this is Swamp Milkweed and not hyssop like i was told.  That's ok because i prefer the milkweed to hyssop.

I like the idea that every plant in this year's garden came from seeds i planted.  It dawned on me last night that though i have spent plenty of time in hardware stores this year, i have not bought any vegetable seedlings. 
I think i can reasonably exclude the horseradish and JA tubers, grapes and berry plants- though i am trying to grow some of those from seed.  I'd like to start collecting my own vegetable seed and see if i can grow a totally independent garden some day, but from what i have read i don't have enough space to grow the number of plants to have a proper gene pool for each variety.  I am trying to use open pollinated types when i can, they are usually heirlooms and i am drawn to the history of these plants.  For now i can be happy to be a part of the financial support of the companies that offer these seeds.

^ Friday afternoon

Saturday morning:

So, i guess we are supposed to get some good rain today.  It has been over a week since we have had any and the heat was fierce for this time of year and area. I don't think we actually broke any records but we definitely met a number of them that had been set more than 30 years ago.

I watered the garden pretty deeply yesterday. I knew rain was in the forecast for today but where it was so warm overnight i wanted to have stuff watered deeply and early enough for the soil to warm back up.  I read in "Gardening When it Counts" that plants grow at night.  There is actually a bit of a  formula that can be used to estimate plant growth based on night time temperature.  Here is the excerpt from "Gardening When it Counts"

I don't know what i am going to do with my birdhouse gourd plant... well, i won't really be doing anything actually, but it is growing and spreading so rapidly.  It has already escaped its row and has made good headway into the next. I tried to train the vines to head out along the walkways, but the plant is so lush that its hard to walk in the paths without stepping on it.  I'm  thankful the leaves it grows are so soft and velvety.  I think if i grow it next year i will have to plant it against a trellis or i will have to put any defensive garden  fencing well away from it.  It invaded the electric fence wires about 3 days ago.  I haven't had the fence on lately anyway.  Last time i grew this plant was in my parent's garden when i was home from College.  My parent's garden is almost the size of the entire "New Yard" lot  we purchased.  A birdhouse gourd plant looks much smaller in a garden that size than it does in mine! :o)

I ordered some lawn edging from Ace Hardware yesterday. Its this stuff.  I was thinking of using landscape timbers or 4x4 posts like we did in the front flower beds. The drawback is that they need painting or staining most years. This terrace board stuff is ready to use, and its a nice brown shade. I usually only see lawn edging in black or what Thalassa Crusoe called "poison green".  I also didn't want wide edging since i will be literally standing in the mulch to do my work in the grape and berry row.  A wide board will probably get in the way and probably won't be easily secured.  The terrace board is just over 5" high and set in the ground a few inches and held with 10" spikes it should hold up pretty well.  Its also something i think i can handle installing on my own. Timbers or 4x4s would be too awkward and heavy and i'd have to borrow my dad's truck and rope hubby into helping me load and unload.  If it works out well i think we will nix the front boxes and install this stuff.
I do need to grab 4 of these so the ends won't pop up and i can get a nice neat shape.  The boards will be in next week.
I also used an Ortho product on the weeds where i will be extending the row. They are thick enough that it might be hard to get the landscape fabric to keep them at bay... even though i plan to till the area before i cover it.
Only issue with the Ortho product is that hubby bought it for me and i didn't read the label . It is a "season long" weed killer, which i guess means it is made to stick around longer. I did some research on the active ingredients to understand a little about how this works. The Glyphosate is the stuff that is a post emergent herbicide. Meaning that it damages stuff that has set its leaves.  The other ingredient is Oxyfluorfen, this is both a pre  and post emergent herbicide used mainly on annual weeds.  Glyphosate is generally used on perennials i guess.  Since it is billed as a "season long" product- the part i missed, i wasn't sure if i was even going to be able to plant there this summer!
I was kicking myself.  I always read labels.  I'm such a stickler for label reading that i get teased for it at times...  this time i didn't...  But when i did read the label it didn't answer my post treatment question, though the info on the label would have stopped me from using it there.  I emailed Scotts' customer service and they did reply with useful information:

If you used the Season Long ready to use formula:  (which i did)

TREES & SHRUBS - 2 Weeks
ANNUALS* - 4 Weeks
PERENNIALS - 2 Weeks

If you used the Season Long CONCENTRATE:
TREES & SHRUBS - 4 Weeks
ANNUALS* - 8 Weeks
PERENNIALS - 4 Weeks

*Sensitive annuals, such as be begonias and petunias, may NOT recover if transplanted into treated areas to soon.

If you wish to plant a sensitive annual, you may want to test your soil with a radish test. The radish seed is a very fast germinating seed, and when planted in a treated area, the seeds will germinate in 7 - 10 days if the area is clear of herbicide. If the radish germinates, it is safe to plant your sensitive plants. Do not eat radishes grown for these testing purposes.
Again, thank you for taking the time to contact us and for your interest in Scotts. Please feel free to contact our company anytime we may be of assistance.

Using radish seeds to test the soil is a great idea.  Only thing is that by the time they emerge, the area will be ready for me to plant anyway.  I used the stuff sparingly and i'll be tilling the area under, so i'm sure that will help.  The berry plants won't be yielding anything edible for another whole season at least so i'm not really worried about contamination.

I did a short crop walk of my own this morning before the rain came and i took some pictures.  I love having a blog to record all this stuff.  I get to compare growth photos from one year to the next and the blog setup allows me to easily recall the information by date or keyword.
Ok, so here are the pics:

One of the Aurora Mix French Marigolds

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I swear these weren't this big yesterday before i watered. I wish i had a yardstick to put in the pictures to independently gauge the daily and weekly growth.

Birdhouse gourd,  trying to take over the world. I tried to use a broken baby gate to see if i could direct its march, i think i only encouraged it.

Horseradish plants recovering in the absence of woodchucks.

I did it.... i pulled off the flowers of Marechal Foch....  here is the proof.

Here are the row-by-row pictures. Looking East

Tomato and corn (and now purple string beans) row.

Kale, cabbage, and stuff. A couple lettuces still hanging on.

Parsnips, onions, shallots, a couple swiss chard plants, fennel.

Carrots, beets, rutabagas and bush beans.

Cucumbers, winter squash, melons, watermelons and gourds.

Asparagus from seed look pretty good now.  But the weeds are totally taking over again!

Jerusalem artichokes are behind the horseradish.

From the other direction...

The corn end of the Tomato and Corn row

Peppers and eggplant at the end of the cabbage, broccoli, kale etc. row.

Burdock, globe artichokes and summer squash.  Beyond is the fennel, onions & shallots and parsnips.

Salsify, rosemary, whats left of the Brussels sprouts and purple cauliflower, then string beans, rutabagas, beets and then carrots.

I never did write down the name or company the purple string beans were from, so i remembered now.

 Rhubarb.  Never did move it to the perennial corner of the garden.

Just picked these before the rain gets them muddy.  First of the summer squash today. :o)

I did end up digging out the Suffolk Red grape and i put it in a 5 gallon bucket. I'll try it as a container plant this winter.

I think that's pretty much it for now.

Perennial Vegetables.

I was buzzing around the Amazon bookstore hoping to find a decent priced copy of This Book.
One of the recommendations listed along the page was a book on perennial veggies.  It sounded interesting so i went to the site. Here.  The site gives you a list of edibles that should be perennial in the area you choose from the left column, under the "Resources" heading.

Here is the list for my area:

 Cold Temperate
Cold Temperate: East, Midwest, and Mountain West

This is a large and highly populated region covering much the eastern and central United States, as well as much of the warmer parts of Canada. This region corresponds with USDA Zones 4–7, and Sunset Zones 2–4, 6, 11, and 32–43.

Perennial in all of the Cold Temperate zone:

Allium fistulosum Welsh onion-- have

Allium tricoccum ramps --plan to get

Allium tuberosum garlic chives

Apios americana groundnut

Aralia cordata udo

Asparagus officinalis asparagus --have

Bunias orientalis Turkish rocket

Camassia cusickii Cusick’s camass

Camassia leichtlinnii Leichtlin’s camass

Camassia quamash camass

Camassia scillioides wild hyacinth

Chenopodium bonus-henricus good king Henry

Cicorium intybus chicory

Crambe maritima sea kale  --have been looking for

Dioscorea japonica jinenjo

Dioscorea opposita Chinese yam

Helianthus tuberosa sunchoke  --have

Hemerocallis daylily

Laportaea canadensis wood nettle

Levisticum officinale lovage --have

Malva moschata musk mallow

Matteuccia struthiopteris ostrich fern  --have

Nasturtium officinale watercress

Oenanthe javanica water celery

Oxyria digyna mountain sorrel

Petasites japonicus fuki

Phytolacca americana pokeweed

Polygonatum biflorum canaliculatum giant Solomon’s seal

Rheum rubarbarum rhubarb --have

Rumex acetosa French sorrel

Rumex acetosa ‘Profusion’ sorrel

Rumex acetosella sheep sorrel

Rumex scutatus silver shield sorrel

Sagittaria latifolia arrowhead

Scorzonera hispanica scorzonera

Sium sisarum skirret

Stachys sieboldii Chinese artichoke

Taraxacum officinale dandelion -- who doesn't have this?

Tilia spp. linden

Urtica dioica nettles --have

Some of them i have, some of them sound interesting and some are...uh?  Like Linden. Flowers i understand are good for tea... but the nuts, i have never seen listed as edible.
I don't quite consider tea a vegetable.  Dandelion....  yes i know it is edible. I have eaten it and i would try making wine from the flowers if i dared to allow it to get out of hand that far.  I have seen seeds for a garden type, the leaves are larger, more tender and less bitter, but i think hubby would quit on me...as in no more help in the garden!  lol

Though it is not on the list, somewhere along the way i saw mentioned Walking Stick Kale.  Pinetree used to carry the seed, but it looks like they don't anymore which is too bad.  I did find a couple places that have it, so i will put it on my list for next year.   During that search i did enjoy looking through Baker Creek's website. I got their catalog last winter but i don't remember looking at it much. I tried to find it- i keep my favorite catalogs in plastic sleeves in a fat 3-ring binder.  Its the best way to keep them from being ruined or thrown away before they expire.  I might have to put myself on their mailing list to make sure i get a catalog for next Spring just in case i am mistaken about getting one.

Back to the perennial veg...  I didn't see Purple Sprouting Broccoli.  I have never grown that before, but i was under the impression that it was hardy enough to be planted around this time of year and it would survive the winter if mulched and be one of the first things ready to harvest in the Spring.
I plan to try it so i need to know. My idea is to have a few bites of broccoli before the incoming woodchucks discover my garden.
I guess i'll have to do more research on that.
I guess that is it so far on this subject.

There are things going on, but trying to write something about them isn't all that exciting.  They are little tidbits like:

The globe artichokes are growing very slowly, i wonder why.  Its my first year with them so i have no basis for comparison. Maybe this is normal?

and

The corn is growing like crazy i need to remember to give them some blood meal and side dress them with some fertilizer which i have yet to buy.

There are a bunch of things i need to do still, like harvest castings from the indoor worm bin.

The roller brush with the herbicide....it hasn't happened yet.

Things i need to complain about, like how Triscuit seems to think they invented some "Home Gardening Movement"....  puhleease....  home gardening has been going on in my family since half my ancestors came over on boats and before that my other ancestors were already here and had things figured out quite well, thank you very much.  Triscuit, who sells a box of crackers for almost $3, made of ingredients that costs them less than 3 cents a box wants to encourage me to 'eat healthy'... Without getting into it too much, i'll just say that a load of manure has more potential nutrition in it than a Triscuit.

Things that i am dreading, like pruning off the clusters of flowers from my Marechal Foch.  I know i have to, i intend to, i prepared myself mentally for the reality that grapes have to be treated in just such a way, especially up here where every bit of energy they gather their first summer must be  used to fortify themselves for the zone 5 winter ahead. But i want to see grapes. I'm also being a bit pessimistic in expecting the winter to kill the vines and this might be the closest i'll get to having grapes.  I want to see the process through.  But i have to follow the instructions on this.  Not anecdotal instructions, but ones that come from people who have worked with grapes for years, pruned plants on the order of millions....
Now i know i seem a little obsessed, but this is my hobby and some things take a certain amount of obsession to be done right.  I really get into things in the beginning, i take in all the information i can find, i think about it, mull it over.  Later, if i find that the information i have collected is good and following it has led me to succeed in that area, i let up on the obsession and let the guidelines i found become second nature.  If i hit a snag, i become obsessive in that one area until i get it solved.
If it wasn't for some of these challenges i think gardening wouldn't be so much fun.  No its not fun to see my prized broccoli and cabbages being decimated by a furry subterranean Houdini...  but researching, trying and failing to deter the creature, constructing, reconstructing, and deconstructing the the defenses gave me a challenge with a deadline.  The deadline was determined by the appetite of my  foe and the growth rate of my vegetables.  The irony is that in the end the solution (to this one single raider- it certainly won't work forever) was the first thing i thought of, but the last thing i expected to work.  This taught me to never leave any options out. 
Oh, did i say how i caught him? I went to a nice Messageboard made up from hunters and trappers in Michigan. I told them of my situation and that i needed a bait that would be more interesting and tempting than my fresh garden vegetables.  I was advised to load up the trap, groundhogs are greedy. A piece or two of store-bought broccoli was not going to be tempting enough, but a whole pile of delicious things would be visibly tempting.  So i used a small plastic plate and loaded it up with chunks of banana, muskmelon, watermelon, the sacrificed stubs of what had been some of my raided plants, peanut butter, fresh sweet corn, both grape and strawberry jelly....  Within 12 hours i had captured my little furry enemy.
I thanked the guys for their help and my garden has been untouched since.
The rule of woodchucks unfortunately is that there are always more where the first one came from, so i won't declare any sort of victory- ever. 
I wonder if my garden would be as interesting to me if Eden-like, it brought forth all manner of unblemished deliciousness.  I have thought about that often and i really think it still would.  Its that seed planting thing. You can plant a million seeds, but each time one germinates and breaks the soil, there is a thrill that does not get old. Even when things go without a hitch, there is always something else to decide, something to change or something to try out. A different plant, method or technique.

Every morning i go to the window and take a peek at my rows.  I normally don't get to escape the house and really take a close look until the little one has begun her nap or the oldest one has gotten up and can watch the little one for me. I often start my mornings with a journal entry here. I'll start at 6:30 and usually by 11 i can get it published.  I type between breakfast and cleanup...cups of coffee. The dog goes out and comes back in. I look out the window a few times and try to remember if i recorded some interesting (to me at least) observation about weather, plants, sky....  first sighting of what insect -friendly or ferocious, what flowers are in bloom- which ones have done extra well this year and which were duds.  I try to remember bare spots, crowded spaces and plans to change it. I look along the areas waiting to be planted and try to remember if i have planned to plant one thing or three things in that exact spot.  I stare at the sun and shade patterns as the season changes and try to decide if there will be enough sun there for the plants i want to grow all season.  I wish there was a way to chart it.  I wish i had time to chart it.  i am almost tempted to get some spray paint and trace the shadows at hourly intervals and then photo it for later reference.  Is that too weird?  Should i care if it is?  It will tell me what i want to know, so why not?
Obsession is only bad if it causes a problem.
I'm a failed perfectionist, i think that is why i feel the need to chart everything....

I did find this interesting webtool:
www.suncalc.net

I may even buy this gadget:
http://www.lusterleaf.com/SunCalc/1875.htm

It has good reviews.

I'm also researching the EasyBloom products which are more expensive, but also provide more than just sunlight readings.

So i might buy another gadget to play with.

Another thing i never got to was the pine litter i planned to gather for the blueberry plants. I was going to mulch them under the row cover with the pine to get the soil nicely acidic.  I could probably still do it, but coordinating it might be complicated.  I might simply buy a package of Job's Fertilizer spikes for acid loving plants.  That is if they acidify the soil as well as fertilize.  I'll look it up to be sure.

Its getting close to the time when i have to do something with the Suffolk red grape. I have been putting it off.  If i try making it into a potted plant i will have to find a winter home for it.  Even if it would make it through the winter, it can't stay where it is right now.  It messes up the pattern of plants i have along the fence. Its also in the way because i need to extend the landscape fabric down the line to add in my beach plums, autumn olive, goji and sea-buckthorn, etc.

I did get the cuttings of the porcelainberry vine and the silky dogwood. I don't know if they will root, but i guess it is worth a shot.  I might prune the silky dogwood down to the nubs again in the next couple of days and i just might try digging it up and moving it.  Then i'll have to move the purple smokebush over.  The hydrangea will have to be pruned hard since its getting far too big.  I wanted a short accent plant, not another tree sized hydrangea.

I'm  tempted to use Roundup on the whole area and then start over.  I have some clematis that i don't want to lose though.  And i'd hate to lose my spring bulbs.  When i actually think about it, i relent, and that is why nothing gets done.

Today's weather started out dim, which is probably a good thing. If it was blazing sun the temp would be well over 85 by now.  The sun is just starting to peek out of a hazy sky. This is sunburn weather.  Humidity is 68%.  I will need to water this evening or tomorrow early. I planted two more celery stubs and 4 inches down the soil was a bit dry feeling.

I have been prepping some 2 liter plastic bottles to hold some of the seedlings i have yet to plant anywhere. They can't go into the flowerbeds yet so they are kind of stuck in the seed flats still.  I'll lose them all if i don't plant them into something soon.  I made the bottles into self-watering pots. Ugly but serviceable. There they can stay until later when i have space to put them.  I am still saving milk jugs for Wintersowing,  i'll save them until i use them all up.

The heat wave is almost over....

But first, we have to get through today. High humidity expected, its about 7:30am and the temperature is 80.  Humidity is 61%.   Tomorrow is supposed to be cooler, relatively, but after that one more day of extra hot.  Then thunderstorms.
I watered the garden as well as i could yesterday morning as i hoped to do, so it shouldn't really need it today.
I took some pictures of things here and there and for my records i'll post them.
I love seeing how fast the plant can grow once this type of weather hits.

Those berry plants i saw on the roadside... i did get to stop and photo them:

 In my original guess i was sort of half right.  I was wrong when i hoped it was Sea Buckthorn, but i'm confident that i was correct thinking that they are some sort of wild Honeysuckle.  I didn't realize that the berries also come in orange as well as red.

Its too bad they are inedible, there's so many of them.

I decided to buy one of those Japanese Beetle Traps yesterday. I know there is debate whether or not they actually attract beetles to your plants or away, but i had so many on my plants i figure it couldn't hurt at this point.  I have a porcelainberry vine in the overgrown flower beds and they attract the beetles most shamefully....  Within 2 minutes of opening the pheromone packet, they came swarming!  It was like a cross between Hitchcock's "The Birds" and Pearl Harbor rendered in Popillia japonica!
Not sure anyone else can make out the beetles, they are the tiny, white, somewhat blurry spots...  there were about 30 of them in the trap within minutes. I'm sure there are hundreds in there by now.

I have green tomatoes!  These are Polfast.

Swiss Chard recovering...  i think i need to pick some.

Slim Jim eggplant.  The leaf color is so deep its almost black. The camera did not capture the color.
I have been thinking that the beds that currently hold overgrown flowers might be better used as veggie or berry plots...  if i do decide to go in that direction, i think this plant would be a great edible/ornamental candidate.

Rutabagas.... Two naughty ones trying to go to seed....
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Provider bush bean flowers

Finoccio

Rosemary

Summer squash... hopefully this one won't fade away.

Sunburst patty pan squash, these are really yummy and best when small, so it won't be long before these are ready to collect.

Blogger is uploading these photos extraordinarily slow today....

Birdhouse gourd....  i think it is going for world domination here.

Watermelon, finally starting to get somewhere.  I forget which one this is... the others aren't as big as this.
.

If these flowers set fruit there should be enough time for them to ripen to eating stage before summer is over.  We usually run out of time with melons so i hope this year is going to be a good one.

Borage. This plant has struggled to grow, its no more than 8" tall, but it has a flower!

Marechal Foch in bloom. Fascinating teeny flowers.

Edelweiss making an unexpected comeback.

The big tree hydrangea budding up.

Marigolds from seed... finally blooming. These are in a large pot at the front door, there are others scattered throughout the veggie garden. They are also beginning to bloom.  The potted ones are Aurora Mix from Park Seed.

This rose came with the house. Its been hit pretty hard by the Japanese Beetles, but it manages to bloom nicely anyway.  I think i found the name tag that goes with it, but i don't remember for sure what the name is.  I think it might have been Mary Washington ...  its some historical American woman's name at any rate.

.Purple Smokebush. I need to move it someplace it can spread out. The silky dogwood is crowding it out. I might take cuttings of the dogwood and then use an herbicide on the rest.  I can't dig it out like i want to.

Not exactly sure what this is, i tried to get it ID'd at Gardenweb and i think they guessed "Nettle-leaved Bellflower" but this plant looks more hefty than the pictures i have been seeing online, but i think i agree.

Yes, the picture is upside down. I couldn't reach through the raspberry canes (they belong to the nice neighbors but the plants have totally invaded my flowerbed) to get a picture any other way.

Clematis Henryi

My Bay Laurel might have enough leaves this year for me to harvest and use without killing the plant. lol

I bought some landscape fabric yesterday.  When the hot weather lets up i hope to start digging up the flowerbeds.  I'll have to use herbicide on some of the ornamental grasses that have overstayed their welcome and overgrown their boundaries.  Then i can use the landscape fabric to prevent things from getting so darn crazy so quickly.  It only took one year (the year i spent on the couch in recovery) for the gardens to totally get out of control.  I don't ever want to see that happen again.

Well, that is pretty much it. The rest of the day will consist of house work. I might take a roller brush with herbicide on it to the aisles in my garden. The weeds are harder to pull from there because the earth is packed. Some of the weeds are trying to go to seed and i can't allow that.

More hot days

Not that i'm really complaining.  Its 77.4 degrees out at 7am.  Last night was one of those nights where they say you can actually hear the corn grow. I guess it makes a creaking noise if you have enough of it. Of course we have those air conditioners going on, so that means i can't hear any outside noise at all. That is the main thing i dislike about the air conditioners, well that and the electricity they use. But i won't get into that.

I'm hoping to get out and put some water on the garden before 9am so it will have time to soak in really well before the sun gets too strong,  its supposed to be awfully humid so it might not make much of a difference.

I think the heat is making a few of my rutabagas try to bolt.  Its odd, i thought rutabagas needed to be made warm, then too cold, then hot again before they do that.  I seeded them in when it was warmer and i don't think we got a temperature drop below what induces them to flower...  in any case its just a few of them (like 3)  in a 4'x3' square.  This is my first try at rutabagas myself, so its possible that a few in each crop does this anyway.

The finocchio are looking good.  I was worried for a while that they weren't going to get anywhere since they were also getting nibbled by the groundhogs. I really hope they bulb up and don't bolt!

The Provider bush beans are in full flower, i like the light purple color. There are a lot of pretty flowers in vegetable gardens that don't get noticed.  My Red Eye and Carnival squashes have gigantic, brilliant yellow  blooms. I have some nasturtiums planted between them and the red and orange flowers look nice with the squash flowers.
I noticed that the tiny cucumbers that started about a week ago have not grown at all and a couple actually fell off.   We'd been having rain at the right times and i have watered a bit in between when necessary, so i don't immediately think it has to do with dryness, maybe heat?  I'll have to look into it, i am sure i read about it someplace but i have terrible memory. 
That first little summer squash i took a picture of a week back ended up melting away. I think a slug got to it.

The celery stump i planted seems to be continuing to look good, i have another package of celery hearts that i plan to enjoy with some spreadable brie, so i'll be planting a couple more later.  If i don't get full sized stalks i won't mind cause anything more i get from these stumps will be a bonus.  I am definitely going to try it earlier next spring by deliberately buying a bunch of celery  mainly for planting. We do use a lot of celery when we think to buy it. Its so good stuffed with cream cheese and olives or no-sugar-added peanut butter, and i like it diced and added to my chicken or egg salad.

Its looking pretty cloudy out right now and that is probably a very good thing. It would be much hotter already if the sun was out and strong right now.  I think we are expected to get into the high 90's but not into the 100's.

I have a few more things to plant, so as soon as the weather relents, i will be planting them.

Oh, the other day i saw a roadside plant that looks a lot like an Autumn Olive. I want to get hubby to help me get a closer look at it. Its not in anyone's front yard, its in a scrubby waste spot next to a big road drainage trench. I don't know what those are called, a large gully maybe...  Anyhow, i think i'd like to clip off a few pieces so i can get a positive ID and then try and root the cuttings. There are also a few other shrubs there with red berries, i'd like to ID those and get some cuttings if it is also an edible.  There is yet another plant i need to look closer at, this one is in the back yard, beyond our fence and on the nice mneighbor's property. Its in the scrubby corner where they don't go  and it will be hard to get a closer look, but i can see enough of it to try and decide what it is.  It looks like a familiar plant, but i don't remember what it is. I don't think its an edible, but i like plants that attract birds.  The red berries are double.... and i think its some sort of wild honeysuckle. They don't have much of a scent when they bloom, so it does not call attention until it gets those juicy looking (and probably inedible) berries.

I need to go out and take some pictures and edit them in later.

I guess its time for house work stuff.