WeedWhackers vs. Nature

Think twice before you get your weedwhacker out and get carried away cleaning up your property.
These machines may be useful in making your property look like the suburbs but they can do alot of damage to nature. If you live in the country, do you really want your property to become sterile?
An example of this problem relates to a plant known as the common milkweed (Asclepias syriaca) which grows along your fields and back roads. This plant produces very sweet smelling, nice looking, pink flowers and is the sole source of food for the monarch butterfly's larvae.
It seems to me, that there is no point to planting the popular butterfly bushes and in your garden to attract butterflies and then whacking down their reproductive food chain, in the name of a tidy yard.
All in all, weedwhackers are bad for the environment and property owners will miss out on many interesting local plants. If you feel the need to use weedwhackers, please be thoughtful when you use them.

Blueberries and Huckleberries

Blueberries are on the list of the 10 healthiest foods to eat. This is mainly due to the fact that they are high in antioxidants.
Huckleberries are wild blueberries and are even higher in antioxidants than commercial or bush blueberries.
Wild blueberries mainly grow in the very northern states of the U.S., such as Maine. The mountains of West Virginia are one of the very few places that they grow, south of the northern states.
We are fortunate to have this resource close to us in the Potomac Highlands.
If you like to get out in nature for the day and get some sun, they are fun to pick.
Huckleberries make great jam and are delicious to eat while you are picking them.
Since huckleberries like to grow around rocks and in areas where the bears live, you should not pick them if you are afraid of snakes and wild animals.

Ferns of West Virginia

According to the site www.gardenweb.com "there are 50 different species of ferns in West Virginia". "The most widespread fern in WV is the Christmas fern (polystichum acrostichoides)."
The Connecticut Botanical Society has an informative site at www.ct-botanical-society.org
I am including a picture of this recognizable fern, that I viewed at the above site.

Eastern Mountain Wild Plants

I am interested in the wild plants that grow in the mountains of the Eastern U.S.

I am especially interested in the edible and non- edible plants found in West Virginia.