Planning Day

I just needed a break. Not a McDonald's break! A library gardening book break. I have a stack here that I want to go through for ideas, and have already this morning ordered 3 of them that will be useful to have around.

Easy Care Shade Flowers - Patricia A. Taylor

Landscape Problem Solver - Jeff and Liz Ball

The Natural Water Garden - Brooklyn Botanic Gardens

I'll spend the afternoon at the kitchen table ( my planning center; it's just a dream to actually HAVE a planning center) Reading/skimming as the case may be. Ordering, or taking notes, or deeming unuseful and putting in the library return bag.

I might even move out to the deck table as it warms up outside. Sweet tea, gardening books, paper and pen - nothing better!

This year I am not making the mistake I've made every spring since I had money to spend. I have always gone to all the greenhouses (and there are many many in our area!) the first week they're open, and bought whatever caught my fancy. Then, back at home, I'd look for good places to put them. Often, I'd wait too long and end up just sticking them in the ground somewhere, anywhere, without thought or plan. Hence the Monarda, Joe Pye and Spice Bush in a dry sunny spot where they've languished until that wonderful Bog Day. Instead, I'm researching and planning - garden bed by garden bed, plant by plant - with an eye to the BEST plan for our place. As ideas pop into my head, instead of running out and doing them, I'm writing them in an idea file and studying them, to complete when I'm SURE they'll work well.

In the middle of the night, I had the idea to run outside, dig up the scattered Lunaria plants, and transplant them to the front (west) wooded area. They WILL do well there. They do well everywhere, LOL! They transplant easily at this stage. I can't imagine any reason why I shouldn't do it. But, I didn't run out and move them this morning. The task/idea is written on that idea page, so I can think about it in the light of day. Probably I'll move them tomorrow. Who knows, maybe tonight.

It's odd (to me) that nothing grows on its own in the wooded area except the trees. AHA! I know why I should WAIT to transplant them! Larry will want those leaves mowed/mulched and he'd mow right over anything in that area. Either I need to rake away the leaves to a spot where he can mow freely, or I need to mow them now, myself. But not today. I'm signing off to read.

Got Shade - Carolyn Harstad

Landscaping With Wildflowers - Jim Wilson

Covering Ground - Barbara Ellis

Michigan Gardening Guide - Boland, Coit and Hair

On a later date (maybe one of the upcoming deluge days this week) I plan to list all the gardening books I own.

I was perplexed to realise, this Spring, that I had donated my older gardening books to Goodwill, and now have mostly herb gardening books. Useful for my herb garden, but that's only one fairly small bit of the property. What was I thinking???

Now I'm building it back up, but in specific categories - a book for each garden I'm going to be cultivating. And I will read each book first (from the library) to make sure it is truly useful. That's probably why I donated the old books last year - found them not useful. Or else, I had the tunnel vision idea that the gardens, landscaping and all, whould be done with herbs.

I can see clearly now, the rain is gone!

It's fun when you can pun a song like that! LOL! No rain at all today, and maybe not tomorrow.




I got the bog planted as much as I can at this point. It now has Joe Pye Weed and Bee Balm filling the west end, with a rhododendron just behind them. In the center I put witch hazel cuttings (almost right in the water of the pond) and they are already sprouting leaves!

In the front (south) are primrose (3) and a painted fern.
My neighbor gave me a Ligularia today.
[Aegopodium podogarium ‘Variegata’ (Bishop’s Weed)]

I planted it center facing south. It will be 15 inches high and should spread.

The Spice Bush is at the east edge of the bog, and a ditch willow grows on the north side of the pond.

There is still about half the bog to fill. I'll be adding cinnamon and Ostrich fern, daylilies (could use what I have but don't want orange there), Blue Flag Iris more cattails if possible and astilbe.

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A River Runs Through It

Yes, through the basement, today, a river runs. Well, more like a small shallow creek.

It poured all day. I got ready for church this morning and came out to the kitchen to the noise of mopping. Larry was down in the basement. So I changed clothes again and made him breakfast, a big hearty breakfast. He ate it silently and headed back downstairs. I followed him down to see more water than we've ever had down there. He had been filling the big mop bucket, carrying it up the stairs (!) and dumping it outside, but I couldn't even tell he'd done anything. It pours in as fast as it can be mopped up. He said, "Is that sump pump drain pipe buried under water now??!! It's making an awful noise and I think the water is flooding back down the pipe as fast as it pumps it out!" He added that we needed a ditch out there from the pond to the woods, to free the pipe from being under water. Then he went back downstairs. So. I went out and dug the ditch. The more I dug, the more the rain poured, the more the pond filled the more the pipe was buried. I was soaked, the ground was soaked, the pipe was gasping each time it tried to empty because it was buried under water. I dug a 15 foot ditch, and then a branch ditch off of that about 5 feet long. Finally the pond started to empty enough that the pipe was above the water again. I watched it. It never stopped pumping water, there wasn't a second when the water wasn't pouring out. Still is as I type, and it's still raining. I went back into the basemnt and told him the ditch was done and the pipe was free. Then I cried - over the rain, the basement, the pond, the swampy yard, the water in all the low places that was beginning surround the property like a moat, the ditch I had to dig, I went back outside where family wouldn't see me upset, and heard the pipe gurgling at the house where it leaves the basement. I stood and watched the water spewing out BEHIND the pipe and down the basement wall. It had dug a hole there. So, I began trying to uncover the pipe so I could find the "leak". Went back in because I couldn't tear away the Ivy, so I got pruners and a saw. Carrie and I went at it, and then Carrie finished digging up the pipe and duct taped it back together. It still leaks but not as much.

I was trashed. I came in and spent maybe an hour in a hot bath. Larry gave up on the basement and said we'd just have to wait it out. He says it's hydrostatic pressure causing the water to come in, and it will keep coming until the water table drops. So basically the water table is higher than our basement floor.

It will be raining almost nonstop through this coming Sunday. We have roads that are washed out (ours in fact, but a couple miles from us.)I am worn out, physically and emotionally and I really need to go to bed. But I also want to blog about today before I forget what I want to say.

At least the bog is ok. It has standing water on it, and rivulets have left a track of sand through it in the shape of a tiny stream - actually quite attractive. Hm. There' standing water in front of the house, on both sides, and in the the field behind the house, and the wetland grows every time I look at it.

The whole place is boggy!
That could be a problem - I don't have that many bog plants.

Blogging the Building of the Bog

Or, A Bog Building Blog?

Friday I broke all my own records. I've been planning a bog garden, back by the little pond that has formed from sump-pumped ground water. It's never been this full before, but our water table rose this spring, and the pump runs constantly. If that pump ever fails we'll have a happy creek running through the north end of the basement! The perfect day - up to 70 degrees, and sunny. I got up early, ate my oatmeal, and loaded up - with a lawn chair, a small table, radio, tools, gloves, hat, pictures and books to guide me, a huge insulated cup of water, and optimism......which didn't last long. We live on top of the sand home of the mother of all greenbrier. Greenbrier has "nutlets" that support their growth, and they can be as much as 50 feet down, on sandy soils. Ours are surely much deeper, because I believe this greenbrier colony came from hell!

It's evil!

I'd crawl along pulling and cutting, stop to rest a minute, and there it would be, behind me, sneaking up with its evil green arms barbed with thorns! I spent 3 hours crawling, cutting, standing and tugging with my full body weight, cutting again......I destroyed the gloves because of the thorns. I destroyed the pruners on the tough stems, springing them so bad, they had to be thrown away. I'm covered from the elbows down with angry red scratches and a couple of cuts deep enough to bandage. I look tatooed! LOL! I WAS wearing a long sleeved heavy denim shirt, but the thorns got through it.

Even when I was "done" clearing the bog area, I kept finding greenbrier popped up where I know I had cut it all out.

That took 3 hours, solid work.

I started measuring where I wanted the bog to be, just "in front" (south) of the pond. The soil there is loose and rich so it wasn't hard digging, but I had to stop every 10 minutes or so and sit for a couple of minutes. Then I lined the hole with plastic and back filled with the good soil from the diggings. Had to add 2 wheel barrow loads of black soil on top of that, but Carrie dug and wheeled the dirt over to me, so I only had to shovel it in.

Filling the bog with water was easy, since the pond was refilling itself every minute or so. I just made a little ditch from pond to bog and didn't have to work at all for....maybe ...ten minutes.

The last job was moving Witchhazel, Spice bush, Pussy Willow and Honeysuckle from their unhappy homes, to the bog area where they really belong.

There are other plants waiting to be moved. They are also plants that have been growing very poorly in other, drier spots.

- Monarda Didyma [Bee Balm]
- [Joe Pye Weed]
- [Rhododendron]
- [Fern]

I bought several Primrose plants, a Painted Fern and a fun funny Funcus today, [oops! I meant Juncus!]

that will go in the bog. The Juncus will get a special setting I think. ...I just can't resist it! More later on that with pictures.

Total: 6 hours from bog to blog. After it settles and I can cut and cover the plastic edges I'll take pictures.

Bog Day

At the library today, I hit paydirt!

I found "The Natural Water Garden", published by Brooklyn Botanic Garden.

It's so helpful I may buy it from Amazon. It's also available for 1 penny, and that's an important factor.

The list of plants I found in this book that will grow best in bog gardens was amazing!

Among the list -

Pussy Willow [Salix discolor]

Mine is actually a "ditch willow", dug from a ditch along one of the dirt roads.

Cinnamon Fern [Osmunda cinnamomea]

Astilbis

Cattails [Typha latifolia]

Witchhazel [Hamamelis]

Blue Flag Iris [Iris versicolor ]

Spicebush [Lindera benzoin]

Ostrich Fern [Matteuccia struthiopteris]

Joe Pye Weed [Eupatorium]

Daylily [Hemerocallis]

Bee Balm [Monarda]

These plants are all already growing on our property and many of them very poorly. I won't even have to buy anything to start a beautiful bog garden.

I can hardly wait! I'll be out there before sunrise tomorrow the way I feel now!

Joe Pye weed and Bee Balm grew along the damp banks of our creek when we lived in Pennsylvania. It was a little "generic" creek like the hundreds all over those Appalachian ridges, and wasn't named, so the girls named it Sparkle Creek, and the island it split around (which was maybe 8 feet around) they named Sparkle island.

I hadn't been there very long and had hardly even been outside because I was caregiver for my MIL and she..........made it a 24 hour a day job, and a terribly stressful job, because she didn't want me there and did everything she could to get me to leave. Larry wasn't there since he still had his job in Indiana, and had to sell our Indiana home. One day my MIL told me, "I love the girls and I want them to stay here, but you need to leave! I want you to leave!" The girls were ages 8 and 3! One day I just walked out with them, when they went outside to play and went for a short walk along the creek. I was so alone and thought even God wasn't aware of me anymore. Then a breeze came up and I was overwhelmed with the smell of Earl Grey Tea. I followed my nose, until around a sharp corner a HUGE patch of brilliant red fireworks ambushed me, and I knew that the God who protects a wildflower and makes it so flourish was taking care of me. I have, ever since, called Monarda my Promise Flower.

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Joe Pye weed, along that Pennsylvania creek bed, grew up 7 feet tall. Here it barely gets 3 feet high, doesn't bloom, and dies off early. Bee Balm does the same thing. Though it sometimes blooms, the blooms are scraggly, and it dies early.

They are both up about 5 inches already and I can't wait for morning so I can dig the 3 feet deep area, line it with plastic, fill with good soil, and saturate with water.....THEN, transplant my poor babies while they are still barely awake.

Witchhazel and ferns will come from the woods, dayliles from just about anywhere on our property, the poor tiny Spice Bush that is barely alive from the herb garden and astibe and iris from various beds around the house. I can do it all at once without even shopping; without even SPENDING!

HOW COOL IS THAT????????????

A Day For Discoveries

I planted the Pussy Willow today, and dug out all the grass in its bed.

I'm very happy with it, but I think I need to get used to seeing it there before I decide on other plantings in that bed.

I also planted a new Sweet Woodruff and a pink Primrose in the Hemlock Garden. As soon a I get the Azaleas and plant them I'll post a picture. It already looks good - simple, but restful. And I still plan to add Hostas and some other shade plants.

Then I was worn out so I wandered the property and sat a while in the Herb Garden. That was where I found my great discovery! The wild garlic is back and twice as big, and after a year of no show, the Angelica has returned! Why?

A Day for Pansies

We went shopping for other things today, but Menards had pansies !

[Viola tricolor hortensis]

So now I need to make a new planter box for the East deck, paint it gray to match, and then plant the Pansies.

I also bought several shades of red Geraniums

[Pelargonium]

These will be inside nights for awhile, but that's no inconvenience when I get to enjoy them shining brighter than the lights in the evenings.

A few of last year's geraniums survived the winter inside, but the plants are very small, and don't really look nice. They'll likely go in the planter box after the pansies get tired.

There was a very pretty Sweet woodruff

[Galium odoratum].

It is all in bloom and thickly grown, so I hope it takes off and spreads. I will research more before planting, because I've tried it in several places in our gardens and never had success for more than one summer.

Nettles and Nicer Things

Nettles
Neil Munro (1864 - 1930)


O sad for me Glen Aora,
Where I have friends no more,
For lowly lie the rafters,
And the lintels of the door.


The friends are all departed,
The hearth-stone's black and cold,
And sturdy grows the nettle
On the place beloved of old.

There's deer upon the mountain,
There's sheep along the glen,
The forests hum with feather,
But where are now the men?

Here's but my mother's garden
Where soft the footsteps fall,
My folk are quite forgotten,
But the nettle's over all.

My first experience with nettles was when I was a young adult, and visited a house my friend wanted to buy and restore. The house was over 100 years old and what had been the yard was weeds nearly head high. At the edge of the weeds, I sniffed mint and maybe catnip, and I was on the hunt! I had no idea that there was a plant like nettle. Oh, in a fairy tale once, as a child, I had read about a girl weaving a nettle shirt for her beloved, who had been bewitched and turned into a swan. But no one ever explained what nettle was.
When we got back to the car my legs were on fire, everywhere. I thought I had walked into a nest of fire ants. The first time I read about nettles and their painful properties, I knew exactly what I’d experienced.

It’s understandable that your first painful experience with the plant would lead you to want only information how to stop the burn, and kill the plant. It helps to know that dock, which often grows with nettle, can be rubbed on the sting to cool the skin and ease the pain. Some say that the juice of the nettle stem will do the same thing. Having picked the nettle today, and getting the inevitable sting, I tried the juice of the nettle stem, and it worked!

But the information and lore about nettles is prolific, and interesting to read. http://www.gaias-garden.co.uk/Herbs/Nettle.html
There are many recipes available as well, but nettles cook up just like spinach and are used in the same way – except of course you never serve nettles raw in a salad, unless perhaps the person you’re dining with talks too much!

Today was my first Nettle hunt of the year.
Every early Spring, I search the moist rich areas of the property, and pull all the nettle. I wear gloves, but still I always get stung. It is a Spring right of passage into gardening weather. Note that I “pull” the stuff, I don’t leave the roots behind. But it doesn’t matter. It comes back every Spring. I generally get a couple of stir frys out of the harvest, and one year I put it all into a bucket of water and made nettle fertilizer tea. WHEW! You may think you’ve smelled rotten nasty things, but you have yet to smell anything worse than fermenting nettle. http://www.gardeningdata.co.uk/soil/nettle_manure.php
I put it in the compost and it got used that year on the garden, but I don’t think I’ll try the tea again. Why not just rot it in the compost heap, if it’s not going into a recipe?

On to nicer things; an afternoon spent with Judy over Dr Peppers and under the clear blue sky and warm sun. After the Nettles, how nice!! She called me over for a surprise gift. She's always doing that - bringing home divisions, or potted plants, just on a whim that I would have a place for them. Of course, she knows I always do! Today she had for me a primrose,

PRIMULA ELATIOR, POLYANTHA PRIMROSE.

It is a surprise for me, so I'm still thinking where to put it. I think I'll put it in the border of the east bed where my favorite witchhazel grows. That's the same sun exposure hers have and they do well. That is also where the "Pink Forsythia"

[Abeliophyllum distichum roseum] will go (also a gift from Judy). I think that area will be focused on pinks and yellows.

I started out at this house in 1996 planning a friendship garden, but I have so many friends who've shared so many plants that every useable plant space is turning out to be a friendship garden! I just realised I need to start a plant list of gift plants, so when I start forgetting, it'll be there for posterity.

Judy also gave me a healthy little relative to my Sweet woodruff (Galium odoratum).

It looks like this, though it's not blooming and I don't know the flower color.

Such a productive day! The Southwest "garden", shaded by Hemlocks and surrounding woodland, is done except for removal of the piles of branches to await a safe burn day, and the planting of a couple of azaleas to add color.

Today I planted the Lily of the Valley, transplanted the Yellow Archangel, placed the bench and cleaned up branches. Oh, and that area is where the Nettle was so I removed that. It will be a quiet, not very colorful spot, with the only pop of color being the azaleas.

The front borders are done until the spring bulbs die down and I get a soil test.

April 15, 2009

The weather is just perfect for working in the garden but I have an uncooperative body, so I'm reading and planning instead of weeding and planting. Sigh.

Right now I'm reading 2 books that are garden related.

Odd Lots by Thomas C. Cooper; Seasonal Notes of a City Gardener. This was a gift from Carrie for my 57th birthday.

Color Echoes by Pamela J. Harper, Harmonizing Color In The Garden. This is a library book and I have no clue how I discovered it. Mostly I've been looking at the beautiful pictures!

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I guess it's good that I couldn't rush out and start digging and planting, because thoughtful delay has changed some of my original plans. I wanted my swing moved to the southwest wooded spot, but Carrie (my dd) showed me that a swing would be too busy and active in that dappled shade where the copse of Hemlock cradle the perfect spot for a bench. The only colors there right now are green and brown. So the coming flowering plants can be any color. I'm thinking the green and brown are the neutrals, the base on which to build.

The "Golden Dead Nettle" or "Yellow Archangel"

[Lamium galeobdolon] that grows behind the house dries out and wilts almost every day through the summer, so I want to move it to the southwest wooded spot, if the neighbor isn't worried about it moving through her hemlocks and into her yard. [This plant I bought in a small pot at a church garage sale. It....grew! LOL!]

I think the Lily of the Valley

[Convallaria majalis]I had planned for that area will not get enough shade. I can still put it over closer to Sedona Trail, where the trees are thicker and nothing else grows.

I want to consult with my neighbor [a landscape designer and nursery owner] about the other plant choices in this area; whether they should be all one color bloom, variations of one color or complementary colors. Already there will be white and yellow along with the green and brown - and perhaps the bright blue of her flowers, the Glory of the Snow [Chionodoxa] that are gradually sneaking in.

I will stop with these changes for this year at least, and get to know the new garden area, read a few good books on the bench, maybe find an old picnic table that blends in with the leaves and trunks. *MY* biggest challenge will be following through with watering.

I didn't work outside today [4/9/09] but I played! I spent quite awhile with my neighbor who is also a gardener and owns a nursery. We toured her yard, and saw that her Glory of the Snow [Chionodoxa ] is sneaking across the Hemlock border into my corner of the woods, and my Money Plant

[Lunaria annua] has moved into her front border!

We are both thrilled!

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On my way home, I met a little brown and yellow striped garter snake [Thamnophis sirtalis] side winding across the drive! I thought it was too cool for him to be out but he told me in no uncertain terms that the weather was perfect! I didn't name him, but I followed him til he disappeared in the leaves.

This Week In My Garden

It's too early to plant anything, but on Monday [April 6] I did put a pail full of Jerusalem Artichoke tubers [Helianthus tuberosus]

in the ground, because they were starting to get soft. I hope they make it. Here on our sandpile, the ground is never undiggable, no matter how frozen.

When we lived in Angola,Indiana I had a thicket of Helianthus surrounding our burn barrel. I often dug roots in late autumn or winter and used them in stir fry. I thought they were unkillable. But when we moved here in 1993 I planted them and watched them die.

Monday I also raked the winter debris and leaves out of one the front borders which faces west.

I have Vinca growing there, and I don't want it to have to compete with ivy.

So I pulled out all the English Ivy [Hedera helix],
which is trying to take over the foundation all around the house.

It grows on the north side of the house with Holly [Ilex aquifolium]

and they look beautiful there, but the ivy is aggressive. I've even found pale, almost white tendrils in the basement around the window frames, and every month or so I have to pull the bits that have crept up under the vinyl siding. But I like the look of it where it belongs on the north side, and I really don't think I'd be able to eradicate it if I wanted to!
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Tuesday [April 7]I pruned the two yews [Taxus cuspidata]

and the lavender [Lavandula angustifolias]

in the front borders.

That was my first attempt at correct pruning [although I've hacked at a lot of plants in my time], and I think I did a good job. The yews look nice, but the lavendar looks dead. It's another plant that I love and can't seem to grow successfully here. I ripped out 2 Creeping Junipers [Juniperus horizontalis]

that were dead.

I planted them last year. Hm. Perhaps I need a soil test on that border.

In the afternoon, Tuesday, I walked the property with a rolling tape measure to get a fair idea of our boundaries. After stumbling more times than I could count I also got a fair idea of the number of dead trees, and after ruining my socks and snagging my coat I got a fair idea of the amount of Greenbrier[Smilax rotundifolia]

growing here.

There weren't many nice surprises. Although the young evergreens I planted when we moved here are still alive and healthy they are, unfortunately, over our property line, and thus on the neighbors side of the woods. Many of the trees are dead and full of woodpecker holes.

There are a couple of native Eastern White Pine [Pinus strobus]

which I'm pleased about,

and several lovely Native Beech trees [Fagus grandifolia].

I am jealously watching over these beeches, which are unmarked by knife or any human hand. In another blog I've written about being a guardian over this little grove of beeches, none of which bear people's names or hearts slashed with arrows.
EDGE OF THE WORLD
Mist that hangs like silk
Soaking in the rain
Trees that rise like ghosts
Bearing people's names
And a sea that takes me
Where I do not know
But I gladly go
[Lyrics from "Beyond These Shores" performed by Ionia]
http://www.iona.uk.com/newindex/2004_pages/albums_2004.htm

Sassafras [Sassafras albidum]

is a weedy tree that pops up everywhere here. I love the smell of its crushed branches and roots, but the tea made from them is not so pleasant. Our Sassafras are often twisted contorted things, leaning to the point of almost laying on the ground, and all have yellow fall foliage. I would love to add some with red foliage, like the ones that grew near my childhood home.

Witch Hazel [Hamamelis virginiana]

grows scattered around the property and often looks weedy. But the Witch Hazel just behind the house is beautiful, a fountain even when leafless.

When I sit on the bench underneath it, I feel like it's brooding over me. It blooms late fall with bright yellow fireworks and its seed capsules are works of art. Actually, the capsule-like fruit holds two shiny hard black seeds with white, oily, edible interiors. These nutty seeds were savored by Indians of the south. The flavor is like that of pistachio nuts. [That's a quote. I've never tasted them. But I will!]

There is one small maple tree somewhere on the second lot, but I don't remember where it is now.

The rest (and most) of the trees are split oak. I haven't figured out yet if they are white oak red oak or something else, but they are nearly all split. Like this:

[person removed for privacy]

That is about all there is in the woods. Once we use Roundup on the greenbrier, removed the dead stuff and then get started mowing it, there will be a lot of space and easy walking. I'm not at all sure we'll even be able to call it a woods anymore.
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Wednesday [April 8] I dawdled most of the day, researching plants on the internet, and thinking. While wandering around outside [ I need to look at what I'm thinking about and it was a beautiful day to be out), I found a small stem in a flower bed, that had yellow cherry like berries on it. So I brought it inside and looked it up online. I love the internet! I'm not so fond of the plant that made that fruit, though. It is Horse Nettle [Solanum carolinense]

The berries contain solanin alkaloids which can cause symptoms if eaten in large quantities. It is often found growing in the wild in many parts of the world. Death is considered possible if large amounts are eaten, especially in children.

Headache
Nausea
Vomiting
Abdominal pain
Abdominal cramps
Dizziness
Burning throat sensation
Hallucinations
Loss of sensation
Jaundice
Dilated pupils
Fever
Hypothermia
Diarrhea
Excessive salivation
Weakness
Reduced temperature

The berries, as you can see look just like tiny yellow tomatoes. I remember seeing that plant there last summer and I didn't know what it was so I left it.
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It was my plan a few years ago to start a poison garden. There are many plants that grow wild here that are poisonous.

Pokeweed [Phytolacca americana]

Deadly Nightshade [Phytolacca americana]

Horse Nettle
Mushrooms

Wild Cherry trees [Prunus serotina]
The leaves, which contain cyanide, are toxic to cattle, sheep, goats and horses.
Some animals can die within an hour after ingesting wild cherry leaves. Wilted leaves are even more dangerous than non-wilted leaves, because the cyanide is more concentrated. We watched one of our Pygmy Goats go through the torture of cherry leaf poisoning and it was horrible. The tough old thing survived though. We had actually started digging a hole to bury when she got up and ran off.

Swamp Carrot or Poison Hemlock [Conium maculatum]
All parts of the poison hemlock plant are highly toxic to humans and animals and may result in death if ingested. Most of the recent cases of human poisoning have resulted from mistaking poison hemlock with edible species of the carrot family.

Poison hemlock is a lethally poisonous herbaceous plant (Conium maculatum ) of the family Umbelliferae ( parsley family). It
has rank, finely divided foliage, flat-topped clusters of small white flowers,
and a hollow, purple-mottled stem. Although native to the Old World, it is now
naturalized and common in parts of the United States. The poisonous principle
(the alkaloid coniine) causes paralysis, convulsions, and eventual death. Poison
hemlock was used in ancient Greece in executions; a famous example was the
philosopher Socrates. The related water hemlock (any species of Cicuta ) is
similar in appearance and as poisonous
The edible roots of wild parsnip were
consumed in ancient Greece and Rome while poison hemlock was used as a poison,
most notably known as the poison that killed Socrates. Both can pose health
hazards that many people may not be aware of.

Wild parsnip is similar to celery, but plant parts contain a substance called psoralen, which can cause a condition known as "phytophotodermatitis." This reaction occurs when plant juice gets on the skin and the skin is exposed to sunlight. The results are skin reddening, rash development, and in severe cases, blisters and burning or scalding type pain.

Wild parsnip burns often occur in elongated spots or streaks. Dark red or brownish skin discoloration develops where the burn or blisters first appeared and can last for several months. [another quote from that site; I couldn't get the link to post here.]

In another blog I have posted that Poison Hemlock grows on Harbor Island in Grand Haven. You can see it down near the river bank and near the entrance to Harbor Island.
Last year, after we brought in a load of dirt, we had a Poison Hemlock plant in our yard, in the dirt pile. I'm wondering if there will be more this year in that spot.
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Oh, by the way, I decided, within days after I first thought of a poison garden, that it would be irresponsible for me to do that...even criminal, if someone got sick from one of my plants. I guess I realised this the day my next door neighbor [with little children] showed me some pretty purple flowered vines growing rampant in her yard. They were Deadly Nightshade. She pulled them out after I told her, but they grew back quickly and I think she forgot they were there. Everytime I see it now, I rip it out and if I'm on someone else's property I ask if I can rip it out. It comes back every year on my own property as does poke and now probably Horse Nettle.