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Beaver Food Forest @beaverfoodforest.bsky.social · 6h

Aw I’m sorry!

Beaver Food Forest @beaverfoodforest.bsky.social · 6h

It may have ended abruptly, but it was quite a growing season! Does anyone have favorite birdhouse gourd curing methods to suggest? How do you like to cure them, and what do you like about your method(s)? #birdhousegourd #gourd #floatingwetlands #gardening 🌿

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Beaver Food Forest @beaverfoodforest.bsky.social · 1d

Feeling grateful for the opportunity to grow in this space, sad that it ended so abruptly, and curious and excited for what might be next year. It feels like a metaphor for life lately, to have tried to anticipate and be ready for the loss but to feel slammed by it anyway #farmlife #autumn #metaphor

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Beaver Food Forest @beaverfoodforest.bsky.social · 1d

Nice! Expanding people’s concepts of wildflowers too perhaps?

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Beaver Food Forest @beaverfoodforest.bsky.social · 2d

That is indeed a very fun fact!

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Beaver Food Forest @beaverfoodforest.bsky.social · 2d

What plant species is in this photo?

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Beaver Food Forest @beaverfoodforest.bsky.social · 2d

Classic autumn: The race to blow the water out of the irrigation lines, harvest things before they freeze, and prepare for snow — and so much beauty in between the craziness #autumn

A snowy hill with farm high tunnel and fields in the foreground— photo taken the morning after blowing water out of the irrigation lines

Snowy hill with grasslands in foreground

Green grass, blue sky, sunshine, puffy clouds, and yellow narrow-leaved cottonwood leaves

A car full of of butternut and other squash, flowers, and cucumbers, harvested during last light before a freezing night to come

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Beaver Food Forest @beaverfoodforest.bsky.social · 2d

Haha yes it could be worse for sure!! 😂

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Beaver Food Forest @beaverfoodforest.bsky.social · 2d

Interesting! I think it’s so neat that you asked and compared taxa. Comparing notes, oceans apart. The internet still amazes me. Yes, the key makes it pretty essential to dig up the whole plant. Perhaps someday someone else will write a new “digless” key for the Pacific Northwest!

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Beaver Food Forest @beaverfoodforest.bsky.social · 3d

Oh, and that’s after a week of draining the lines every evening just in case the weather freezes… the forecasts have been ALL over the map, so I couldn’t be sure

Beaver Food Forest @beaverfoodforest.bsky.social · 3d

Now’s the time to clear your irrigation lines for winter! At our farm, we had roughly 90 valves to open at once (to drain), then close at once (to be ready), then open and close one by one (to clear with compressed air), and now — it’s done!#gettingreadyforwinter #irrigation #farmlife 🌿

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Beaver Food Forest @beaverfoodforest.bsky.social · 4d

I have always been enamored with the low angle golden light of autumn. It captivates and soothes me. I’m walking with a reverent air. I hope it can do the same for you! I’d love to see what you’re noticing these days… #autumn #goldenhour

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Beaver Food Forest @beaverfoodforest.bsky.social · 5d

Also descriptions of rhizomes being “slender to coarse” for E. obscurum. There are a lot of examples of roots in the key within the Epilobium genus, in Hitchcock!

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Beaver Food Forest @beaverfoodforest.bsky.social · 5d

Another 2 have “roots without turions” (E. orgeonese and E. glaberrimum), with only the latter having “rhizomes or stolons often coarse and 2-6 cm with withered leaves.” Others refer to “fleshy underground turions,” sometimes specifically on main root or late in season, or turions absent or scaly…

Beaver Food Forest @beaverfoodforest.bsky.social · 5d

Then there is a whole epilobium section divides between “plants annual, taprooted” vs. “plants perennial, with or without taproot,” only one of which has “roots with compact, flesh turions late in season” (E. leptocarpum).

Beaver Food Forest @beaverfoodforest.bsky.social · 5d

It’s an interesting point — I’ve never considered the role of a key in the attitude of botanists toward permissions. Re. epilobium, there are several species with reference to being rhizomatous (e.g. E. luteum); between E. obcordatum and E. hirsutum, only the latter has “elongate, thick rhizomes.”

Beaver Food Forest @beaverfoodforest.bsky.social · 5d

My most consistent vegetable goal has been to grow cucumbers during as many months of the year as possible. My daughter loves cucumbers and even though she’s grown up and too far away to share often, I still want to grow them for her! #cucumber #greenhouse 🌿

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Beaver Food Forest @beaverfoodforest.bsky.social · 6d

Plant people! These plants are so lush and robust, I decided I’d be better off just enjoying them instead of thinking about how quickly winter may or may not be coming. I invite you to walk through the nursery with me, and this time we just soak up the beauty 🌿🌰 #nativeplants #autumnbeauty #peatfree

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Beaver Food Forest @beaverfoodforest.bsky.social · 7d

However, I will welcome the quiet of winter, when nature swoops in like the mother of a young child announcing nap time. I may think I don’t want to take a nap, but I bet you once I’m cozied in, it’s going to feel really good. And then a new growing season will begin.

Beaver Food Forest @beaverfoodforest.bsky.social · 7d

Feeling wistful during the last few days before the irrigation gets turned off for the season. So much has been accomplished, and so much remains to be done… #fourseasons #farmlife #nativeplants 🌿🌰

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Beaver Food Forest @beaverfoodforest.bsky.social · 7d

Neat to compare notes! We use Hitchcock and Cronquist’s Flora of the Pacific Northwest and it sometimes asks about the roots. I can’t imagine uprooting a plant without the landowner’s permission! Makes sense to protect plants on that level

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Beaver Food Forest @beaverfoodforest.bsky.social · 7d

On this site we had an Epilobium specimen that we collected without roots and were then unable to identify because we would have needed to look at the roots for one of the steps in the key. Not unheard of to be asked questions about the roots in Hitchcock. Yes, much more common to use a field press!

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Beaver Food Forest @beaverfoodforest.bsky.social · 8d

I agree, I’ve never heard of this as a general survey technique either. I do find it commonplace to collect a whole plant, roots included, to ID later — though we only take plants that are plentiful onsite. I’m curious, what would you do if you had a large site to survey and needed to ID later on?

Beaver Food Forest @beaverfoodforest.bsky.social · 8d

Since we had to take the whole specimen, with roots, in order to key things out later, I figure, why not also grow it? It doesn’t seem much different to me than taking a whole plant, including roots, without soil, to identify later. The ID process is so slow, we could never do it all in the field…

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Beaver Food Forest @beaverfoodforest.bsky.social · 8d

Classic #farmlife moment #blackwidow 🌿