u/Livid-Hovercraft-123

My friend gave me this root ball in the spring. The foliage is nice and dark, and the flowers just started blooming.

I've just come back from the Bay of Fundy with all sorts of agates and quartz (multiple bags' worth). I'm hoping someone in Halifax has a rock saw and wants to cut a bunch of these in half so we can see what's inside. I leave on Sunday and don't want to bring all these home. Will pay you in rocks!

I'm hoping the brain looking thing is a coral fossil, but not too sure. The rest seems like a lot of jasper with quartzite bands, plus one really lovely pure quartz shard. But I'm not too educated on this stuff so any technical help you can give would be great. Am I supposed to split any of these in half?

Remember, every delicious mulberry you eat stops the spread of the terrible invasive hybridizer!

Plus they're high in iron and fibre.

I've been eyeing these seed pods for over a month now, waiting for them to get dry. I guess I missed the moment because I had to pick these little guys up from the dirt. I've never seen them before!

I'm going to just plant them right away, unless anyone has any better ideas.

So exciting! Bloodroot everywhere!

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ticks-in-canada-climate-change-9.7230828

A CBC article about tick migration into Canada repeats the old advice about keeping plants short if you walk through them.

But of course it says nothing about creating a habitat in your yard to deter ticks and eliminate spaces where they thrive:

https://davidsuzuki.org/living-green/rewild-your-yard-to-fight-ticks-and-support-wildlife/

Their main argument appears to be that encouraging animals that prey on mice will reduce tick numbers.

Elsewhere it's recommended that certain scents will ward them off: lavender, rosemary, the usual stuff. Not native but not invasive either.

I've also seen arguments between - plant trees to reduce temperatures and mitigate climate change to stop the spread, vs. increase sunlight and heat to desiccate ticks that thrive in humidity.

I'm not sure how much any of this has basis in empirical observations and decent methodology. Seems like a lot of "It stands to reason" concepts. But I'd certainly rather plant a defensive yard than walk around in long pants and boots and thick socks all summer.

I think this is the best roundup, which seems pretty unbiased:

https://1000islandsmastergardeners.ca/ticks/

We can all agree: barberry bad!!

What's your tick experience been recently? What are your strategies?

The end is going to be a big surprise to a lot of people.

Four or five instances of these two-eared "heads" on one plant. The mother plant never did this!

I know this plant can revert to a flat-leafed form, but this doesn't seem the way.

Normal? Weird? A different varietal altogether?

Zone 6b.

Img 1: Before

Img 2: After a mini spa: 4 hours in OxiClean Versatile, then wash with detergent.

Img 3: After a full spa: 12 hours in Resolve Gold + detergent, then wash with RG + D + ammonia.

What should I try next? This dirt is just from baseball and the backyard.

Every step is an improvement for sure, but I'd like to know if storebought white is possible.