Posts Tagged "goldenrod"

A Goldenrod Safari

Posted by on Sep 14, 2020 in Unmowed Blog | 1 comment

A Goldenrod Safari

A hungry predator crawls through a leafy jungle. Slow cautious movements make no sound. The well-camouflaged predator waits, motionless. Powerful forelegs stretch wide to grab its unwary prey. Beware the goldenrod jungle! A single goldenrod plant is a complex habitat, the leaves, stems, and flowers providing food and shelter for a bewildering variety of strange, hidden creatures. Spiders, insects of all shapes and sizes, even birds use the goldenrod plant as a hunting ground, preying on the thousands of species that come to drink the nectar or eat the leaves. Tiny dramas of life and death...

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Goldenrod: Bird Seed

Posted by on Mar 11, 2015 in birds, seeds, Unmowed Blog, wildlife, winter | 0 comments

Goldenrod: Bird Seed

It’s been a long tough winter. And even though it feels a bit like spring–Daylight Savings, birds cautiously chirping–this is the worst part of all. The last gasp of winter is a tough time for wildlife. The sun is making efforts to warm us up at noon, but it’s still frigid at night. And there’s practically nothing left in terms of food for hungry birds. Good thing there’s still a bit of goldenrod in the back yard. Goldenrod, a native plant, still has a few seeds left on the winter stalks.

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Goldenrod Safari

Posted by on Oct 8, 2014 in fall, flowers, insects, Unmowed Blog | 2 comments

Goldenrod Safari

A hungry predator crawls through a leafy jungle. Slow cautious movements make no sound. The well-camouflaged predator waits, motionless. Powerful forelegs stretch wide to grab its unwary prey. Beware the goldenrod jungle! A single goldenrod plant is a complex habitat, the leaves, stems, and flowers providing food and shelter for a bewildering variety of strange, hidden creatures. Each goldenrod plant has thousands of tiny blossoms crammed together, their nectar providing a vital late-summer source of nutrition for butterflies, moths and bees. Take a safari along the length of a goldenrod...

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Goldenrod: Fill Up the Feeders

Posted by on Dec 15, 2013 in birds, seeds, Unmowed Blog, wildlife, winter | 0 comments

Goldenrod: Fill Up the Feeders

Big winter storm! For once the weather hysterics were right, and we got a lot of snow, even more than they threatened. A winter wonderland which is great for kids (tough luck it’s on a Sunday, guys, could have been a snow day…). Great for skiiers. Great, in fact, for all snow lovers, including mice, red squirrels and meadow voles who can tunnel safely beneath the drifts and avoid predators. But deep snow is tough on some types of wildlife. If the seeds are all hidden underneath a blanket of white, what’s a bird to do? Looks like it’s shaping up to be a long cold...

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Goldenrod: Does Not Cause Hay Fever

Posted by on Aug 9, 2013 in fall, flowers, photos, summer, Unmowed Blog | 0 comments

Goldenrod: Does Not Cause Hay Fever

GOLDENROD DOES NOT CAUSE HAY FEVER. The first sight of goldenrod’s yellow blossoms means summer has reached its high tide. Now we’re on the downhill slope to fall. Fall, the time of gorgeous color, and goldenrod is the first bright splash of paint on autumn’s palette. And there’s some mixed metaphors for you. Goldenrod is a native American plant, great for wildlife, beautiful to look at. And yet it’s wildly unpopular. The poor innocent plant has been wrongfully implicated in a crime it did not, and never will, commit. GOLDENROD DOES NOT CAUSE HAY FEVER. This fact cannot be repeated often...

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