Today we took a walk in the park, checking out the wildflowers. It was a peaceful time with few people, some joggers and some birders mainly. The woods are fairly sparse at this time of year, with only the buckeyes sprouting leaves and the rustle of old foliage on young beech trees.
It was a beautiful day to be out, and the post winter landscape clearly shows the history of the land. Like many parks in central Ohio this was first woodland, and then cleared farmland and now given over to regrowth. You can tell the old fenceline trees by their size, and the horizontal scars on their trunks. This particular park has the same sort of land that I used to garden on in the city. This type of woodland is a clay over shale profile. Often the creeks are pretty with layered shelving of slate and shale. The wildflowers that were blooming at this time were mainly Bloodroot (Sanguinaria canadensis), and Claytonias (Springbeauty). Trilliums were leafed out but not quite blooming, and the Dutchman’s Breeches ( Dicentra) were just starting to open. There were others that were in bud, but I don’t quite know what they are until they bloom.
I know Claytonias bloom around here so maybe I can have a bit of wildflower plot sometime. I tried it once and lost all to drought. But now I have some sheltered areas that grow ferns around the little pond. Maybe I could start something there. This time I would want sure success. But this year I am concentrating on trees rather than herbaceous things.
I hope to have opportunity to work outside this week, it seems to be finally warming a bit, but the ground is still too wet to work well.
