A naturalist in the garden

 I’m not the gardener in the family. I just dig the beds with a shovel, turn the soil with a fork and follow orders with a smile. The orders are to weed the garden and prepare the beds for fall plantings.

When biologists talk of “disturbed” soil, they are thinking of me — a fellow with a shovel and with a wife who dreams of gardens. Two of the native plants that take advantage of disturbed soil are partridge pea, in genus Chamaecrista, and rhomboid mercury, Acalypha virginica. I’ve pulled and dug hundreds of them out of the vegetable beds. Dandelion, Taraxacum officinale, comes in a distant third.

Of the trees: sweetgum, tulip trees, pines and oaks put out seedlings in the broken ground. They are listed by order of frequency. There were more little sweetgums than all the others combined. I found one winged elm,Ulmus alata, which has a new home in the woodlot.