Category: Plants
-
Long Dirt Road: Why it Takes me an Hour to Drive 12 Miles
This is a post from a few years ago that I love, so I’m reposting it. We live down a long dirt road. This little facet of our lives is the main thing that makes or breaks most newcomers to rural life. It takes a long time to go anywhere, if you go slow enough…
-
Plant Walk & Nature Journaling at Wild Ozark
There are other plant walks in Arkansas, but this one is probably a little different. The trails we’ll follow are deer trails and logging roads. The drive to get here is gorgeous. And the biodiversity here at Wild Ozark is incredible. Our 160 acres is far off of the beaten path six miles from pavement.…
-
Ginseng and Art at the Alpena Studio
The Wild Ozark Studio is the place to find unique art AND wild-simulated ginseng plants
-
Showy Orchis (Galearis spectabilis) in Ozark pigments
Originally, I had planned to do a series of my favorite woodland plants in grayscale. But that was before I found the stone that gives me a sort of green pigment. So changed up the plans a little. Now I’m doing a series of our orchids in my full palette of pigments. First is this…
-
Book Review | Tree Beings
Tree Beings, by Raymond Huber and Sandra SevergniniForward by Dr. Jane GoodallExisle Publishing This book is a review copy from the publisher. I chose this book to review because of the title. Right away, I identified with the concept of ‘Tree Beings’. This is a book about the beings that live within the trees, the…
-
Hermit Diaries | May 2, 2020 | Wild Ozark
With the nice weather we’ve had for the past few days, I’ve been working in the garden. My hermit diaries really don’t reflect a life much different than ordinary life out here at Wild Ozark, though. The only real difference is the presence of Chloe and my new role as homeschool teacher and constant companion.…
-
Color from Osage Root Bark
Today I experimented with Osage root bark to see if it will make paint. Ordinarily, I avoid using plant pigments because they tend to be fugitive, meaning they fade or discolor with time. Some plant pigments, like the green I get from china berries, will completely disappear within a few days of sunlight exposure! I…
-
Wild Mountain Mint – Whiteleaf Mountain Mint
Wild mountain mint grows in abundance here at Wild Ozark. This particular variety is called White-leaf Mountain Mint. (Click the title to read more…)
-
Potted Ginseng Seedlings in Arkansas
So I have some help this year with the ginseng nursery from a pair of young organic, permaculture enthusiasts who are ready to learn about being good ginseng stewards. That means I will after all have some potted ginseng seedlings available throughout spring! They’ll have to be picked up in the Kingston square, by appointment.…
-
Early April in the Ginseng Habitat
Every year the same flowers bloom in pretty much the same order. And although I have hundreds of images in my files, I can’t help but start heading out with the camera. The blooms start in early April in the ginseng habitat. The first flowers that bloom are usually the toothwort (formerly of the Dentaria…
-
If the Creeks Don’t Rise… Springtime in the Ozarks
Wild Ozark will be at Terra Studios tomorrow. But with the rain we might get overnight and in the morning, the odds are looking poor. If I can’t make it there on Saturday, then on Sunday I should be able to make it. Springtime in the Ozarks usually means more rain. UPDATE: I made it…
-
Plant Pigments- in search of a stable green, the latest painting and the next show
Between getting the house clean today, since it’s raining and I couldn’t be outside weed-eating, I’ve been making a mess in the kitchen. People have to not take things at face value in this house. What looks like refreshing tea… just might not be. My kids know by now that not everything they see in…
-
The Color of a Plant Does Not Equal the Color of a Paint
I’ve been experimenting with local plants to get a nice, stable, green color for my handmade watercolor paints. Most of the things I’ve tried in my quest for green has resulted in gray or brown. Lamb’s Quarters, a common edible weed turned out to hold green promises. Blue is the other elusive color on my list,…
-
Oh no! The Virginia Snakeroot babies are all gone!
I went out to check on the Virginia snakeroot nursery the other day and was mortified to find nothing. Not. One. Plant. Virginia Snakeroot … What’s That? Now, you might be wondering just what’s so important about a plant that really looks like nothing much more than a weed in the woods. It’s a plant…
-
Learning the Difference: Ginseng or Buckeye?
Is it ginseng? No, it’s buckeye. There are a few plants that grow here in the Ozarks that make it really difficult for newbies to identify ginseng. That’s because these look so much like ginseng to the inexperienced eye. These are called ginseng look-alikes. One of the look-alikes is Ohio buckeye (Aesculus flava). This is…
-
Enjoy Nature: Phlox and Fiddleheads
Here’s a little inspiration to get outside on this beautiful sunny day and enjoy nature. Phlox is blooming and casting joyful purple splashes all around the Wild Ozark hills and woods, and the fiddleheads are unfurling.
-
Lousewort, Bumblebee Food and Medicinal Herb
Lousewort (Pedicularis canadensis) is an interesting plant. It’s a medicinal herb said to be effective at muscular pain relief. The bumblebees love it! An interesting find In May of 2014, I noticed an interesting plant. Well, I’m *always* noticing interesting plants, so it wasn’t the first time to notice an interesting plant, but the first…
-
2018 Spring Awakening Watch – First Native Flowers of the Ozarks
It’s mid-March 2018 and I’m watching for the first native flowers of the Ozarks to start blooming. I particularly love the ephemeral blooms of early spring, like the bloodroot and Dutchmen’s breeches. Scroll down to see pictures and keep up with what’s blooming at Wild Ozark. If you’re looking specifically for the ginseng unfurling/blooming, you’ll…
-
Vernal Witch Hazel Flowers and Hazelnut too!
Today I went out to take cuttings from the Ozark Witch Hazel in the hopes of rooting them. I wasn’t looking for an American Hazelnut, but that’s what I found! I found the Witch Hazels, too. But I already knew those were there. New finds are always so exciting to me, but I think most…
-
What is Nature Farming? What does a Nature Farmer Grow?
What I mean by ‘Nature Farming’ is not the same as ‘natural farming’, ‘organic farming’, or ‘natural farming methods’. Explanations for all of these things come up when you do a search online for ‘nature farming’. But nothing turns up for true nature farming. Hopefully this post will show up in the search engine results…
-
Virginia Creeper Seedling in my Ebony Spleenwort Fern
There’s a Virginia creeper (Parthenocissus quinquefolia) seedling creeping up toward the light in my spleenwort fern (Asplenium platyneuron) container. I watched it for a few days with a suspicious eye as it unfurled, because I thought it might be a poison ivy. Virginia Creeper This isn’t one of my favorite plants. I’m only fascinated with it…
-
Namesake of the Dragon – Another Green Dragon Drawing
Here’s the second of the Green Dragon drawings I’ve been working on. I posted the first part of it last week. This part is called the spathe (the hood) and the spadix (the long ‘tongue’) and it is the namesake of the dragon. This part of the plant is what becomes the cluster of red…
-
A Green Dragon Drawing
I’ve been working on a Green Dragon drawing for the cover of NANPS’s summer issue of Blazing Star. There will be another of the spathe and spadix to do next. That one will be used in the article. Here’s the photograph I worked from. I used more than one photo because I didn’t have a…
-
Build your Herbal Armory!
Useful plants grow all around us. It’s time to start building your herbal armory of plant allies now. My book, 10 Common Plants worth Knowing in a Long-term Survival Situation, will introduce you to ten at a time. I’ll help you make allies of them, enabling you to build your herbal armory. All-Heal Beebalm Echinacea…