Serendipity Trees

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Serendipity trees are one of the joys of native gardening! I have 3 different kinds in my yard.

The oaks are from ‘squirrel planted’ acorns – probably from my neighbor’s red oak. Most of the time I mow the seedlings but there is one that is growing in the place where we had to cut down a pine (it fell on its own really). The oak is growing well and is no longer much shorter than the plants around it: iris, beautyberry, gray-headed coneflower, and newly planted elderberry. My plan is to enlarge the bed as the oak grows so that most of its leaves will fall in places that will never be mowed! In the front yard, there is a younger seedling in the native plant garden that is shorter than the Missouri evening primrose beside it! It too can continue to grow and the bed can be expanded over time to receive its leaves.

There is a dying redbud near the neighborhood stormwater pond, but it is leaving its progeny all over the neighborhood – seeds probably transported by birds. Some are growing as shrubs near the holly…and other is growing in a good place to provide some nice afternoon shade to our deck in the next few years.

The hackberries are also bird planted; there is a big healthy tree near the dying redbud with lots of seeds that I see on the sidewalk in the fall. I have several that are coming up in the bed with the hollies and with a Japanese barberry. The Japanese barberry is not native and somewhat invasive so I will be cutting it down repeatedly until it dies – making room for the hackberry!

I like the serendipity trees. It akin to a savanna replenishing itself naturally.

Ten Little Celebrations – June 2026

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The beginning of the month was very hectic….but I recovered in the later weeks. There was a lot to celebrate.

Violet leaves with spaghetti sauce. It’s such a joy to simply walk outside in the back yard and cut a few leaves to eat almost immediately!

Microplastics talk to Missouri Master Gardeners. The audience was not large, but they made up for it in enthusiasm. I celebrated that I’d gotten it done!

Clumps of mushrooms around native plant garden. The edges of the oak mulch are evidently perfect for mushrooms. I celebrated that they looked like a natural ‘edge’ to the bed.

Hummingbird and squirrels and chipmunk seen from my office window. Hurray! We finally have a chipmunk visiting our yard…the first time I’ve seen one here. The hummingbird is coming to our feeder regularly and the squirrels run along the fence tops and through the pine to get to the holly just out of my view.

New glasses. I celebrated new single vision glasses for distance….and really like them for driving.

Hellbender tour. The hellbender conservation lab at the St. Louis Zoo was a great opportunity to see an animal I’d heard about but never seen….and the two flamingos on nests were another sight to celebrate.

Audubon Center at Riverlands. It was too hot to truly enjoy Riverlands and confluence of the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers…but I celebrated that it will make a great birding trip for next winter.

Telecon about data centers in Missouri. I celebrated an interesting telephone conference on data centers in Missouri; I now feel more knowledgeable about the issue.

Yellow and white wildflowers between Missouri and Texas. The yellow and whites along the roadside are the colors of summer along my route…celebrating the season.

Glorious summer yard. There are so many good things happening in my yard – so many reasons to celebrate native plants!

Gleanings of the Week Ending January 11, 2025

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The items below were ‘the cream’ of the articles and websites I found this past week. Click on the light green text to look at the article.

Dogs trained to sniff out spotted lanternflies could help reduce spread – Dogs sniff out egg masses that overwinter in vineyards and forests. This is some good news in the fight against this invasive insect.

Farmers are abandoning their land. Is that good for nature? - Small-scale farmers with rocky soil, steep hills, or scarce water "give up because they cannot compete." By one estimate, the area of farm land that's been abandoned around the world since 1950 could be as much as half of Australia. Without people, cattle or sheep around, meadows filled with wildflowers and butterflies give way to shrubs and trees, which ecologists say are often less biologically diverse. There is an effort in some regions where humans are moving out to help wildlife move in (i.e. rewilding).

Seven proven ways to help the planet in 2025 – Some of the ways are easier than others. I have done 3 of the 7 for at least the last 5 years…and maybe now I should think about what more I want to do. The beginning of the year is always a good time to take stock on things like this.

This Mysterious Pyramid Dominated a Prehistoric Mexican City—and Still Guards Its Secrets – The Pyramid of the Niches in El Tajin….built by indigenous groups that predate the Aztec and Toltec. The Wikipedia article about site says it became a World Heritage site in 1992.

Aerial Photos Highlight Surreal Beauty of Kazakhstan’s Mangystau Plateau - Colorful canyons and mountains, dramatic salt flats, and surreal rocky outcrops…photographed by Daniel Kordan.

The Year in Energy in Four Charts - Solar is driving the shift to renewable power, and it continues to outpace the projections of both analysts and industry experts owing largely to China. Global EV sales reached a new high. In China, the sticker price for EVs is now generally lower than for conventional cars. Along with EVs, the growth of electric heating and cooling and the proliferation of energy-hungry data centers globally are driving up demand for power. Wealthy nations have all but stopped building new coal plants, and coal burning is expected to continue its decline in the developed world as countries move to wind and solar. We’re now moving at speed into the Age of Electricity, which will define the global energy system going forward and increasingly be based on clean sources of electricity.

Photos of the Year – December 30, 2024 – From The Prairie Ecologist

A Year of Climate Extremes, In Photos - 2024 … the hottest year ever, with warming reaching new extremes worldwide. These photos from Greenpeace show the profound impact of severe weather, which scientists are increasingly connecting to climate change.

Squirrels Are Displaying ‘Widespread Carnivorous Behavior’ for the First Time in a California Park – In California’s Briones Regional Park (not far from Oakland and Berkeley), California ground squirrels there are now known to hunt, kill, decapitate and consume voles. Squirrels of all ages and sexes took part in the vole hunt, an indication that this dietary flexibility is widespread across the species and may serve as a crucial survival mechanism in response to fluctuating environmental conditions

Vampire hedgehogs, pirate spiders and fishy fungi - the strangest new species of 2024 – New species are discovered every year….so much we don’t know about our world!

Spring Bulbs

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Before I went off to Carrollton, TX the last week of March, the bulbs I planted last fall were beginning to bloom in our Nixa, MO yard. We had some very cold nights and the flowers seemed to take a very long time to open. There were only two crocus; one looked battered and the other looked like it had been eaten! Some leaves of another bulb were eaten as well (maybe it was a hyacinth). The hyacinths were a bit deformed too.

A little over a week later when I returned home – everything was blooming profusely outside the window of my office. The daffodils are probably the bulbs that are doing the best and will come back year after year. The squirrels have left them alone too. My plan it to hold off mowing the area for a few weeks – giving the bulbs time replenish and grow….be good to bloom next year.

The days are getting longer. The sunrise is at its best around 6:30 AM when I am in my office to enjoy it so I am OK with daylight savings time again!

Hot Pepper Suet

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Most of the winter the squirrels quickly ate the suet we put out…with the birds getting a minor share. Now – the birds are getting virtually all the hot pepper suet! The spiciness does not bother them. My favorites are the blue jays which would sometimes visit our patio area but were never there for long. Now they come to the suet several times before moving on.

And the squirrels don’t like the hot pepper spiciness at all. I have seen a squirrel at the suet feeder, but they leave within seconds! Maybe this is the only kind of suet we’ll buy in the future!

Spoils of Halloween

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My son-in-law always hosts a pumpkin carving party for his research team before Halloween. This year, 10 pumpkins were purchased for the event; it took two carts to get the pumpkins from the store to the car.

My daughter missed getting a group picture of the results…sent pictures of the three they had on their steps for Halloween (with and without the lights inside).

Like last year – the squirrels are enjoying the spoils of Halloween pumpkins! They start with the carved parts…enlarging the eyes and mouth…small bites until there is almost nothing left to go into the compost! They apparently started with the pumpkin on the top step.