Hops 2010

I built a hops trellis this past weekend. The neighbors acids the alley stopped by to ask me what I was doing. I told th I was planting hops. They said why? I said because I wanted to. They said, no is there a reason why you planted them here. I said yes. There was a pause. They said no why here? WTF!! What a buz kill this person was. So that went on for a bit. But let me tell you about my hop trellis. It's awesome! It's huge! I think it's about 10 feet tall. I just put the wires on tonight and fed the vines up them. I think I broke one. I was peved. There are about 15 vines. I'm psyched! There was strange pile of animal hair in front of the trellis this morning...do you think it was my neighbor? Hmm... I hope we don't have to go there.

Our Black Swallowtail Caterpillars

We had 4 tiny, tiny caterpillars munching away on our dill plants. I transfered them to a jar along with the clumps of dill, cut a couple holes in the top of the jar and put it on the table in the three seasons room. I forgot about them for a couple days...when I went to show them to my daughter they had quadroupled in size! I did some research and found another website ( a quitling website!) with an entry about swallowtail butterflies on her dill plants. She had some great pics and indeed they were the same as the ones we have. I did some furhter research and found out they are Black Swallowtail butterflies. How cool!

- Black Swallowtail caterpillar -





- Black Swallowtail butterfly -


Links:
http://www.glorious-butterfly.com/black-swallowtail-caterpillar.html

My Backyard Hops

We have hops! My neighbor gave me a Willamette rhizome which I planted in the alley. One month later I notice that in addition to the Willamette we have another crop of hops growing! And it's a bunker crop. I must have ripped them out the first year we moved in (this is our 2nd year at our new house). Here are some pictures:


Hop Vines




The hops will produce cones. Here are some of the different types:

Native Plants

One year ago, we bought a house with a big backyard in Evanston, Il.. This year we have tried our hand at gardening. The garden stretches along the north side of our yard against a white plastic fence. More on the garden later...what I want to talk about are the strange native plants (oxymoron?) that pop up around our house.

- Pokeweed -
This sucker is prehistoric indeed! It can grow up to 10 feet tall if you allow it too. It has a gigantic maroon like stalk that is hollow. The leaves are large and green and it produces little white flowers that eventually turn into berries. At first I was enamored with it but later I learned that they are invasive. Birds like the berries.


- Hops -

We have wild hops growing in our alley. They have very sticky stems that will poke you at touch. They love all the sunshine. Very low maintenance - I haven't had to water them once! I'm going to start a separate Hops post. Here's what they look like.