Rhizomes Rising

[horsetail pic borrowed from random internet source]


Spring may be slow in coming this year but one sure crop is coming right along. We’ve had an education in rhizomes this week.  Horsetail are prolific in heavy wet soils such as ours and a scourge that is seemingly impossible to eradicate.  Jim found out why when he got do digging down, down, down for their origin–rhizomes…”A continuously growing horizontal underground stem that puts out lateral shoots and adventitious roots at intervals.”  Two feet below the surface these tenacious ‘stems’ with their hard shell black nodes at intervals act like subterranean factories continuously supplying replacements for all the crazy bottlebrushes one weeds out up above.  But this year, at least for a little while, my potato bed will be horsetail free thanks to Jim’s tenacious rhizome ridding.

A much lovelier rhizome is one I miss seeing here.  It carpeted the woods of my childhood.  I had to ‘google’ this pic as I’m too many miles away to see if the Mayflowers have raised their umbrellas in ‘my’ little wood in time for Easter.  Perhaps it’s too early yet.  Anybody know?

What bit of nature reminds you of springtime? 

Here are some of my favorites:

Robins picnicking in the yard.  Their cheery chirrups are a sure sign that winter’s past.

And who can resent spring’s first dandelions with their bright faces?

T(This dandy fellow seems to be harboring a couple tiny spiders!)

My bleeding hearts have risen to fill their nook by an old stump…

Rhubarb doesn’t mind a cool spring. It always emerges with such enthusiasm!

In contrast, one of spring’s tiniest beauties… have not forgotten to bloom.

For they are ‘forget-me-not’s!

And that’s my bit of springtime blogging for now.  With the garden begging to be dug into there haven’t been many hikes this week. 

O death, where [is] thy sting? O grave, where [is] thy victory?…But thanks [be] to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord. I Cor.15:55,57


–LS