by Winding Pathways | Aug 28, 2025 | (Sub)Urban Homesteading, Bugs, Garden/Yard, Garden/Yard, Nature
Early one humid summer morning we discovered lawn lace in the yard. Dozens of laces were scattered on the grass and mulch we’d put around trees. Dew drops on their tiny filaments sparkled in the early morning sunshine. What had we found? Who made them?
As kids we called them fairy rings and marveled at their delicate nature.
-
-
Fairy rings.
-
-
A delicate lacing on evergreen shrub.
Shelf Spiders
The hole reveals the entrance to the web.
They were crafted by industrious hungry spiders overnight. We call them shelf spider webs because they are positioned horizontally. Others call them funnel or tunnel spiders. Look closely to find a hole, usually toward the side, where the spider lurks.
The web isn’t sticky but has so many tiny filaments that a wandering insect often gets its feet tangled there, slowing it down. In a flash the fast-moving spider is out claiming its breakfast.
What Are They?
There are many species of shelf spiders found throughout the world in the genus Aselemidae. Some 111 species live north of Mexico. They pose no threat to people, but may pose a major threat to bugs, who often see the conspicuous webs but not their builders. The web’s architect and builder stay hidden. By late morning sunshine has usually evaporated the dew, making the webs hard to spot. They’re best enjoyed when the world is cool and fresh at dawn.
We usually think of shelf spiders as a September yard feature but in 2025 we began seeing them in July. We like them. Their dainty webs are as intriguing as they are beautiful. Perhaps more important, the presence of these spiders indicates that the lawn is healthy. It’s not been poisoned with insecticides. This allows harmless insects to thrive in the turf to feed the spiders.
Surrounded by Spiders
Many people consider spiders threatening, ugly, and undesirable animals. Come Halloween some even stretch fake webs in their porch to scare trick or treaters. A few spider species can inflict a painful and dangerous bite, but most species are tiny and hardly ever seen by people. They cause no problems and live in lawns, gardens, prairies and trees. They are beneficial.
Want to learn more? An interesting resource is spidermentor.com.
We enjoy watching brown creepers, nuthatches and warblers climbing tree trunks or flitting around branches. They’re often foraging for tiny protein-rich spiders. Even in the depths of winter dormant spiders provide food for hungry songbirds.
Be happy if some morning you spot lawn lace. Shelf spiders have been at work setting their intricate traps to catch a breakfast of tasty insects.
by Winding Pathways | Aug 21, 2025 | (Sub)Urban Homesteading, Birds, Garden/Yard, Nature, Reflections/Profiles
We savor our quiet yard moments.
One of our favorite nature writers, Joseph Wood Krutch, remarked that anything people do creates noise. It seems that the clanks and roars of life are increasing since he wrote those words years ago. Quiet is a rare pleasure. Unfortunately, noise doesn’t respect property lines. It does trespass into yards and homes. It’s hard to avoid.
Life Before the Industrial Revolution
Imagine life before the Industrial Revolution. No cars, factories or trains and no power tools. A 1700 era ship could glide by with only the rustling of the breeze in its sails.
Prior to machines the loudest noise to assault the ears was a crack of thunder.
We cringe as motorcycles roar past our home and shake our heads when we hear booming music from neighboring cars as we wait for a traffic light to change. Some people adore noise. We don’t. Audiologists warn that noise exposure can lead to hearing loss, stress, high blood pressure, sleep disruption and lowered productivity.
We believe it. Rich was exposed to extreme noise in army training, followed by years running vacuum cleaners as a custodian and chain saws in the forestry industry. It eventually caught up with him with diminished ability to hear sound, especially high pitched ones. Tinnitus is his constant companion.
Because we treasure our ability to hear well, we’ve learned how to best enjoy quiet moments, create quiet places, reduce noise we produce, and use technology to enhance hearing.
A Week’s Quietest Hours
At Winding Pathways and almost everywhere else the week’s quietest hours happen early Sunday morning. Roaring motorcycles of the night before are parked, factories are in passive mode, and fewer trains chug along. On many Sunday mornings we’re up early to sip coffee on the porch and enjoy the gentle sounds of nature unmarred by human activity. These moments are delicious.
Creating Quiet Yard Places
Nature offers ways to lessen the din. The quietest parts of our yard are surrounded by vegetation. Leaves muffle noise. So does topography. Our home and yard are on an ancient sand dune. The north side of our property is the backside of the old dune. It blocks some of the din coming from a highway to the north, shielding about half our property from road noise. Our house, itself, reduces decibels. The side opposite the road is often quieter than the other side.
Our tall prairie plants, shrubs, and trees also muffle noise. A river birch tree in Marion’s labyrinth is close to the road. Its branches drape down over a bench surrounded by tall prairie plants. Vegetation offers intimate privacy and slightly muffled noise.
Using Technology to Reduce Noise and Hear Better
We’ve gone electric. Over the years we’ve replaced gas powered mowers, trimmers, chain saws and snowblowers with those fueled by batteries. The decibels they emit are a fraction of their gas counterparts but still make some noise. So do our vacuum cleaners. To protect our hearing we store sound dampening ear muffs near these tools and wear them when using them.
-
-
Using an electric mower helps create a quiet yard.
-
-
The electric chainsaw is quiet and efficient.
Fitting hearing aids is a process and building a relationship
Hearing Aids. Wow, they are expensive but miraculous. Hearing loss is a stealthy gradual condition. When Rich first bought aids he was amazed to hear the gentle sounds of walking in dry leaves, the creaking of the floor, birdsong, and better understanding of other’s speaking, music, and the television.
Audiologists usually provide a free hearing test. Rich’s advice – get a test and follow up with a pair of hearing aids if needed. The website of the American Academy of Audiology at members.audiology.org can help anyone locate a nearby professional who can help improve hearing.
Quiet Communities
Cities can do much to encourage quiet in their communities. Everyone benefits. Consider advocating with your local Council, law enforcement, and parks departments for developing a more quiet community.
Some people love noise but for most people it’s an annoyance. A quiet yard is a gem to create and enjoy.
by Winding Pathways | Jul 24, 2025 | Foraging, Garden/Yard, Nature, Pests, Trees
The white mulberry is a trickster tree. We match wits with it often at Winding Pathways.
“All Around the Mulberry Bush” may be a kid’s jingle but the tree is an ecological pest with some positive traits.
Our front hedge is an example. It’s a dense growth of privet. Few plants can live in its shade but the mulberry has a trick that lets it thrive. The mature tree craves sunshine to grow to its full height of 75 feet. We wouldn’t think they’d stand a chance growing under our shady hedge. But it has a trick.
White Mulberry Trick
Birds poop out mulberry seeds when they roost in our hedge. These readily sprout, and the tiny tree sends up a skinny stem that quickly grows through the thick, shady hedge branches to emerge into the sunshine above them. We don’t want a mulberry there so we need to frequently clip down their tall leggy stems.
Another White Mulberry Trick
It’s a trickster in another way. Although called the white mulberry, Morus alba, it can have ripe white berries but more often they’re red to purple. Don’t let the color fool you. And that’s not all. Most trees have leaves of just one shape. Not the white mulberry. It has three common leaf shapes. See the photo. An individual tree can have all its leaves one shape, two shapes, or a mix of the three.
While many people join birds in eating the sweet fruits, it’s an invasive species that seems to take root wherever there’s a bit of bare soil. Then it grows like crazy. Cut it down and the stump sprouts that can grow a couple of feet in a flash.
Range of the White Mulberry
White mulberry trees grow throughout temperate North America and on other continents. Silkworms feast on their leaves, and probably white mulberry trees were introduced around the world to create a silkworm industry. The tree liked living in America but silkworms didn’t. They died out and a hoped-for silk industry never took root here.
Telling Apart the White Mulberry Cousin
Closely related is the native red mulberry, Morus ruba. It’s hard to find and may be declining due to hybridization with the exotic invader. Here’s how to tell them apart:
White Mulberry: Relatively small leaves. The top surface of the leaf is smooth and often shiny. It grows fast in the sun. Common.
Red Mulberry: It’s more of an understory tree. The fruit is red. The leaves are big – three to seven inches long with a sandpapery textured top surface and somewhat hairy bottom. Uncommon.
Although Red mulberry is native to Iowa we’ve not found any here. All mulberry trees seem to be the white species or hybrids.
Mulberry Tree Benefits
Firewood: We love burning mulberry wood. It’s an attractive yellowish wood that burns with a pleasant aroma as it gives off lots of heat. For example, a cord of mulberry contains 25.8 million BTUs of energy. In comparison, white oak has 25.7.
Food: Kids love the sweetness of mulberries. The berries normally ripen in June. Birds also flock to ripening mulberry fruit. They love them so much that they’ll eat mulberries before nearby ripening cherries. So, having a fruiting mulberry can increase a cherry tree’s yield. Mulberries can be eaten fresh and made into pies. We love adding some to our breakfast oatmeal. The fruit’s robust color makes an attractive natural die in drinks. Because mulberry fruit is sweet and rather bland it is excellent when blended with rhubarb or tart cherries.
Native Red Mulberries Are in Trouble
The native red mulberry tree is in danger. It’s uncommon and apparently declining, possibly because it so readily hybridizes with white mulberry. Red mulberries tend to live in small groves in forested, bottomland areas. Look for their large sandpapery feeling leaves. Finding one is a treasure.
White mulberry trees are tricky, but they are plentiful, prolific, and useful. We have a few growing at Winding Pathways. As long as they stay out of our hedge, we like them.
-
-
White Mulberry Trickster Tree
-
-
Mitten, oval, “other shape”
-
-
Good firewood.
by Winding Pathways | Jul 17, 2025 | Garden/Yard, Pests
An Invasive Species
Anaconda of the plant world
Oriental Bittersweet is the Anaconda snake of the plant world. Few plants are as destructive of native vegetation. It is awful.
Like many invasive species, Oriental Bittersweet was deliberately introduced to the United States in 1879 as an ornamental plant and for erosion control. It failed in both roles and is one of our most ecologically destructive plants.
How It Thrives
This sun-loving plant gets its dose of solar energy by twining up trees and spreading its branches over their crowns. Vines can be four inches thick near the ground as they wind around a tree. Anaconda snakes wrap around their prey to suffocate it. Oriental bittersweet circles a tree as it grows upward, effectively girdling it.
Cousin
The plant has a native cousin, the American Bittersweet, whose berries were once brought into wintery homes to encourage romance. It’s ecologically benign but has become much less common than the destructive import from across the Pacific Ocean.
How Winding Pathways Manages
Oriental bittersweet is an uninvited guest in our woods at Winding Pathways. We let it know it is unwelcome. Rich cruises our woods a couple of times each week, armed with clippers and lopping shears. He snips off even the tiniest bittersweet sprouts. We rarely use herbicides, but sometimes spray Oriental Bittersweet.
Here’s our advice for protecting native plants from this invasive species:
Woods With Established Big Vines
In woodlands where Oriental Bittersweet has been climbing trees for years, cut off the vines at ground level. For one-inch diameter or smaller vines, a sturdy pair of lopping shears works well. For bigger stems, a bow saw or even a small chainsaw makes the work easier. Treating the cut-off stem on the ground side with an herbicide will help prevent regrowth. Also, clip off baby vines just starting to climb.
Woods Just Getting Invaded
It’s easier to kill bittersweet in the early stages of a woodland invasion. Clip off the young vines. They quickly regrow, so repeated clippings are needed as the season progresses. Herbicides also work, but often it’s difficult to keep the spray off nearby desirable plants.
About a year ago, we bought a battery-operated clipper. It makes snipping off Oriental Bittersweet vines easier and faster than with muscle-powered tools and is also helpful in pruning fruit trees.
-
-
Variety of tools
-
-
Bittersweet vines start small.
Keep Oriental Bittersweet Out!
Oriental Bittersweet is one plant we don’t want around our home or in woodlands anywhere. We work hard to keep it from climbing our oaks, hickories, hackberries, and other trees, but we wish it had never been brought to North America in the first place.
by Winding Pathways | Jul 3, 2025 | (Sub)Urban Homesteading, Flowers/Grasses, Foraging, Garden/Yard, Pests
A Variation on “The Four Horsemen”
A quartet of deadly and toxic plants lurks along trails and riverbanks in Iowa and some across much of the world. They are Poison Hemlock, Poison Ivy, Flowering Spurge, and Wild Four O’clock.
Poison Hemlock
We’ll start with Poison Hemlock. Socrates wasn’t the only person killed by it. The Greeks once used to execute criminals.
Poison hemlock isn’t related to the majestic hemlock tree. Rather, it’s a biennial herbaceous plant. In its second year it quickly shoots up to tower upwards of eight feet tall. In Iowa it prefers living in dappled sunlight where the soil is moist. That describes the land bisected by public trails paralleling rivers and streams—places where people go to recreate.
It’s deadly poisonous, but only when ingested. Walking or cycling by it creates no problem at all. But it’s wise to know about this potentially deadly plant. All parts of it are toxic to people and animals when ingested. Even dried, wintery stems are poisonous.
By early June, the tall green plants with feathery leaves begin bearing white clusters of flowers. Their prettiness is deadly.
Poison hemlock could be confused with Queen Anne’s Lace that’s sometimes called wild carrot. Poison hemlock also often lives near wild parsnips. This plant is also toxic, in a different way. It can create a vicious rash in people who rub against it with bare skin and then are exposed to sunlight.
Where Poison Hemlock Originated
Poison Hemlock is native to Europe and is especially common around the Mediterranean Sea. It was introduced to the Americas, New Zealand, Australia, and Asia, so today, it is a toxic invasive species worldwide.
The Internet and YouTube are loaded with sites describing this plant. A good quick read comes from the National Park Service at nps.gov/articles/poison-hemlock.htm.
Other Troublesome Plants
Unfortunately, several other deadly and toxic plants often live in the same places as poison hemlock. Here are a few.
- Poison ivy often lines trails. It prefers living on the edge of woodlands where it gets some shade and sun. Unlike poison hemlock, poison ivy is a native plant that causes a contact reaction. That means if human skin brushes against it a nasty itchy rash can follow. And, if a pet wanders through the poison ivy and then comes inside where a human pats it, guess what? The irritating oils are transferred and the human gets a nasty rash. A friend of our discovered this earlier this year. Also, state parks are notorious for having poison ivy growing where people contact it – along unkempt trails and winding up trees in campgrounds even. Rabbits and deer eat it and birds eat and spread the seeds.
-
-
Birds drop seeds when they perch on campground posts.
-
-
Poison Ivy loves edges
-
-
Keep your distance from this beguiling, colorful plant.
Pretty and irritating
Flowering spurge is also common along trails. Cut the plant and get some of its sap on skin and a nasty welt is likely to result.
Unattended areas attract undesirable plants.
Wild Four O’clock also loves trail edges and is reported to be toxic.
None of these plants cause problems unless they are eaten or contact the skin. They won’t cause a problem for anyone just walking by
Be careful. Keep your distance.
by Winding Pathways | Jun 19, 2025 | (Sub)Urban Homesteading, Flowers/Grasses, Garden/Yard, Garden/Yard
Years ago, anyone attempting to create a diverse, native landscape in their yard sometimes experienced weed ordinance woes. Their local ‘weed commissioner” would order them to mow their “messy” yard.
Towns created ordinances to give them the authority to force landowners to remove what was perceived to be health or safety hazards. But, they were sometimes used to enforce conformity to the standard of neatly mowed, sprayed, monoculture lawns promoted by lawn product and care companies.
Cities do need the authority to deal with situations where landowners simply neglect their yards by not mowing, but they should not be able to use ordinances to enforce an aesthetic standard.
Changing Times – Responding to Declining Pollinator Populations
These days, homeowners everywhere recognize the importance of diversity. They are creating diverse landscapes of native plants even in tiny yards. Towns are responding by altering restrictive ordinances to allow the restoration of beautiful vegetation that supports beneficial wildlife, including pollinators.
Anyone who plans to diversify their yard in a way that makes it look different from their neighbors’ runs a risk of running afoul of their local town’s ordinance.
Guidelines To Reduce Neighbor or Municipal Friction.
- Research your town’s weed ordinance. Often, it’s printed on the town’s website.
- Develop a written plan and diagram of what the yard will become. It doesn’t need to be fancy or detailed.
- Cultivate and educate neighbors. Even towns that have old-fashioned ordinances rarely go out of their way to enforce them. Enforcement is triggered by complaints, usually from neighbors. Sharing a yard’s plan with neighbors before the change takes place may help them understand that what you are doing isn’t neglect.
- Start small. Maybe just replace a corner of a yard with prairie the first year and expand it gradually as the years go by.
- Make the yard look tended and not neglected. This can mean mowing pathways through tall grass, maintaining some lawns, and often being seen tending the yard tending the landscape.
- Avoid health or safety hazards. Avoid planting taller vegetation that will block a driver’s vision at intersections. Don’t allow allergens like poison ivy or ragweed to grow.
- Hiring a knowledgeable professional yard care company to plan and implement diversity.
Results
Restoring a gorgeous landscape of native vegetation is a delightful project that makes our world a bit healthier. Doing so is easier if it doesn’t irritate neighbors or invoke a stern town ordinance.
-
-
Native and cultivated plants brighten a front yard.
-
-
Families outside
-
-
Converting a yard to more natural plants brings joy.
This first appeared on the Sustainable Landscape Solutions Website at sustainable landscape solutions.org. The company is based in Iowa City, Iowa, and helps landowners create wondrous yards.
