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I wandered out behind the house this week, braving the thick bog-dwelling mosquitoes to photograph the native flora. The pink ladyslipper orchids [pictured] (Cypripedium acaule) are just past their prime but appear to be thriving. No doubt the blood-sucking bugs reduce the amount of foot-traffic parading over their bed of reindeer lichen.
The wild shrubs such as low-bush blueberry, low-bush cranberry [pictured] (lingonberry, Vaccinium vitis idaea), bunchberry (Cornus canadensis), and Labrador tea are flowering now.
I have planted a Bailey's compact highbush cranberry in the yard (no flowers this year) and there are wild raspberries, pincherries, and Saskatoon berries already growing in the yard. I haven't the patience to pick pincherries, but I do appreciate the pincherry jelly that is made around here. The local berries make for delicious waffle-toppings!
I also have been searching Blogger for other gardening blogs, but haven't yet found many companions into true cold-weather northern gardening (you folks in northern California think you have it rough, but you're zone 5a for goodness sake!). Let me know if you find a real do-it-yourself adventurous gardeners with a photoblog.
