Too Much of a Good Thing? Probably, Yes
While the spongy moths have stopped destroying the tree canopy for this year, it’s a banner year for Red Actea or baneberry.  Collect the seeds to sow in the woods for future flowers. 
Photo by Dee Salomon

Too Much of a Good Thing? Probably, Yes

A last word, for now at least, on the spongy moths; my friend Spencer asked if the open tree canopy created by the caterpillar destruction had caused a  plant growth spike here. Well, yes, I had noticed that the trees had grown vastly taller than in years past. That leaves were larger — wild strawberry leaves the size of my hand.  And that there was barely a bare patch of earth. But I had done such a thorough job with the dastardly caterpillars, scraping off the egg sacs all fall and winter and spraying the BT from the moment they hatched, that the damage was minimal except to the tallest oaks (no small thing); the tree canopy was largely intact.

I have a different hypothesis to make sense of this year’s explosive plant growth and, while I have not heard or read anything similar, I believe it may be true.

Last year we had a massive infestation of Asian jumping worms. They were crawling everywhere and devoured almost every inch of topsoil on our property (for the full disgusting story, read “Don’t Look Down” in the February 2022 issue of the Cornwall Chronicle at www.cornwallchronicle.org/wp-content/uploads/February_2022.pdf).

In the digestive process, the worms had released way more nitrogen than the soil would in its normal decomposition. This — that Asian jumping worms release nitrogen in the soil — I can verify with standard Google searches.

For plants, nitrogen is the key to growth. So it makes sense that, with the release of nitrogen into the soil, I am seeing extravagant growth this year.

Other vital nutrients have been depleted by the worms, so the impact remains to be seen.

And another factor is also at play: The worms have churned up seed that had been buried underground for years and, all of sudden, could germinate.

Areas that had been meticulously weeded for years now are carpets of both native and non-native plants. While the Trillium are 3x last year, the narrowleaf bittercress are 8x.

As I sit on the woodland floor to pull the bittercress I become aware of something that is not here : the culprits themselves! Where have the jumping worms gone?

I thought at first that this had to do with the bone-dry soil, but after the rains last weekend I pulled bittersweet and burning bush on at least 10 different areas and still found not a single one. It is still too early to tell, but could it be that, having sucked everything nutritious from the soil, they are not able to make a go of it this year?

NB: Two days after writing this, I found two worms, each about 3 inches long, while weeding in the near woods.

At least where I am situated, in Litchfield County on the shores of the Housatonic, it is a banner year for Actaea Rubra — the baneberry that boasts bright red berries on upright stems. On our property, I am picking the berries, not to eat, as they are poisonous, but to sow back into the woods.  I have been harvesting and planting this seed for years; it is easy to do and works well.

Same for Actaea Pachypoda, the doll’s eye or white baneberry that is a bit rarer and whose seed matures later in the season. I always leave a few berries on the plant for the birds and mammals that eat them; soak and separate the seed from their fruit using a colander and my fingers (some people are sensitive, so gloves are a good idea).

In the fall I will spread the seed in the woods. It takes a year or two to germinate; the result is glorious. A spare, horizontal set of leaves and an elegant vertical spike that ends with a white filigree of flower. The flowers become bright red berries that gracefully arch the stem. Look out for them …

Dee Salomon “ungardens” in Litchfield County.

Latest News

All are welcome at The Mahaiwe

Paquito D’Rivera performs at the Mahaiwe in Great Barrington on April 5.

Geandy Pavon

Natalia Bernal is the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center’s education and community engagement manager and is, in her own words, “the one who makes sure that Mahaiwe events are accessible to all.”

The Mahaiwe’s community engagement program is rooted in the belief that the performing arts should be for everyone. “We are committed to establishing and growing partnerships with neighboring community and arts organizations to develop pathways for overcoming social and practical barriers,” Bernal explained. “Immigrants, people of color, communities with low income, those who have traditionally been underserved in the performing arts, should feel welcomed at the Mahaiwe.”

Keep ReadingShow less
Living with the things you love:
a conversation with Mary Randolph Carter
Mary Randolph Carter teaches us to surround ourselves with what matters to live happily ever after.
Carter Berg

There is magic in a home filled with the things we love, and Mary Randolph Carter, affectionately known as “Carter,” has spent a lifetime embracing that magic. Her latest book, “Live with the Things You Love … and You’ll Live Happily Ever After,” is about storytelling, joy, and honoring life’s poetry through the objects we keep.

“This is my tenth book,” Carter said. “At the root of each is my love of collecting, the thrill of the hunt, and living surrounded by things that conjure up family, friends, and memories.”

Keep ReadingShow less
Clued in

The first play in four years returned to the Webutuck Auditorium Friday, March 28. The production of Clue was put on entirely by students from the Webutuck Middle School and starred an ensemble cast of, from left to right, Jacob Dean as Mr. Green, Caroline Eschbach as Mrs. White, Brooke Bozydaj as Yvette, Liam Diaz as Wadsworth, Nolan Howard as Colonel Mustard, Mariah Bradley as Miss Scarlett and Lois Musgrave as Mrs. Peacock who is pictured on the floor of the stage.

Photo by Nathan Miller