Master Gardener

There's a monster in the front yard.  A couple years back I planted a root mass of New England Aster (Symphyotrichum novae-angliae), one of the most common aster species in Southern Ontario, you find it along roadsides and in meadows, and have probably seen the purple blooms come fall.  The small piece of root that I planted has grown to an impressive multi-stemmed giant over 2m tall and this year had well over 200 flowers on it.  The neighbour across the street, Old Man Newfoundland I call him, tends gingerly to his row of pansies and marigolds, and I wonder if he misses the past owner of my place who kept a conservative patch of goutweed and daffodils (not to mention a couple of staked and pruned European buckthorn in the backyard).

Speaking of invasive species, Ontario is re-introducing the proposed Bill 167, the Invasive Species Act.  One component of the Bill which is long-overdue (in my opinion) involves banning the sale of certain aggressive invasive species like periwinkle, water soldier, you know, the stuff that inevitably escapes and decimates natural habitats. 

Whoa!  Realtime news, I just discovered this app (iphone/Android) called EDDMapS Ontario that lets you report occurrences of invasive species.  Looks pretty cool.

I digress.  Here are a few pictures of asters from my garden this fall.

New England aster, bees dig it.

Sky blue aster (Symphyotrichum oolentangiense).  It's disgusting that I can type out scientific names to asters just as fast as I can type out my own name.  This aster is often found growing in prairies and is a pretty good indicator that you're into something good.

Here we've got a European dronefly (Eristalis tenax) on willow aster (Symphyotrichum praealtum) S2.  Willow aster is listed as Threatened both provincially and federally, I got to know this aster well hanging out in and around the Ojibway Prairie Complex in Windsor.  It looks similar to the common lance-leaved aster (Symphyotrichum lanceolatum) but has glabrous (waxy) stems and a distinct netted vein pattern on the underside of the leaves.

Reading up on droneflies, check out this fact from the Wikipedia page:

"The larva of E. tenax is a rat-tailed maggot. It lives in drainage ditches, pools around manure piles, sewage, and similar places containing water badly polluted with organic matter.  The larva likely feeds on the abundant bacteria living in these places."

If you're looking for a new insult to hurl, may I suggest rat-tailed maggot?  By the way, my backyard is nicer than what's described above.