Prairie Garden Setback

It was a big year for helicopters

A day or so after our spring planting, including the new shade plants and more ambitious flowers for the prairie garden, a huge wind storm blew across the land and thousands of helicopters (really called samaras, as I learned from this Wikipedia article) dropped into the yard. There were so many that we had to scoop them up when we cut the grass but I had no idea how to get them out of the gardens.



At first, I was happy with all the green

Bob thought we should at least try, but I was afraid of disturbing the little plants that were no doubt preparing to erupt from the ground. Some of the helicopters blew away, but the rest seemed to settle into the earth so all I could do was hope for the best when we left for California.



Then I looked a little more closely ...

After our return, I was pleased to see lots of green in the gardens until I had a closer look yesterday after an all day rain. Much of the foliage looked suspiciously like maple leaves, and I first thought I must be mistaken -- but I'm a Canadian after all and I know a maple when I see one. Sure enough, hundreds of tiny maple trees were sprouting up, crowding the other seedlings.

I think I got a little too confident about my gardening skills after last year's beginner's luck. I've got a lot of weeding to do this weekend.