We have a Honey Locust in our yard that is thornless, but out in the wild, I find very thorny Honey Locusts.
As long as I don’t touch the tree, I like the look of these trees, just wouldn’t want to try climbing one.
Castor Aralia and Aralia Elata
I am trying a couple different thorny trees that are from Asia.
Castor Aralia(Kalopanax pictus) and Japanese Angelica Tree(Aralia elata).
Both look very ornamental so far.
Vernal Pool
I built my first Vernal Pool in the upland of the woods. It suppose to collect snowmelt and rain runoff and will slowly dry up during the year. Because they end up drying up, they do not contain fish, so are attractive to things like frogs and toads.
This is a good test to see if building these will help make more wildlife for Kleckner Oasis.
Ginseng Fruit
The roots of ginseng are said to be valuable in monetary terms, but the plant itself is attractive and valuable in the woodland landscape. Ginseng is especially beautiful in late summer when the fruit turns red.
I try to collect the fruit and plant it in other places in the woods, but sometimes the wildlife eats it before I get to it.
Too Attractive To Die
When raising goats, there are a lot of bucks that end up being born that will end up being eaten.
So what better way to make them last forever than taking a photo of them, especially when they are this beautiful!
In the background is a fast growing hybrid poplar I planted last year.
Summer Coming To An End
Summer is winding down and the plants in the garden are showing the end is near.
The Blood Butcher Corn grew to a tall height at maturity.
The Amaranth Flowers are still persisting. No wonder it is called the forever flower. Too bad this grain crop isn’t planted all over Iowa. Would be funner to look at than the corn and soybeans.
Llama Apples
When picking apples to eat, sometimes I run across some on the ground or on the tree that are bad for my consumption, so I find someone else that will eat them.
Daisy, our llama, doesn’t mind the opportunity.
Hungry For Duck
Looking into the bird yard, I can see we will have a plentiful supply of duck meat this winter.
A goshawk thought the same and it landed on one of those posts surrounding the yard, looking to take an easy meal. I quickly scared it off and it was never back to steal my dinner.
Green King Elm
The Green King Elm keeps on growing fast.
I think it should produce a lot of shade for the goats in a short amount of time.
Giant Reed
The growth of my Arundo Donax has been instant gratification.
Here is the photo of Gypsy, my German Shepherd, standing by this fast growing grass.