Quit griping about the weather

Let's start with the awful leaf miner explosions and all the leaves on the birch trees turning yellow prematurely in early August. It was like one of the Biblical plagues and seems to me was all over the place last year and the year before. Show me a miner's track in a leaf this year!

Hey, surely you remember all the aphid sap that covered your car, the kids' bikes and anything else left out under a birch tree for just a few hours during past years. The black soot that grows on it and colors the white birches is proof. Even portions of lawn turned sticky and gray. It was a mess, that is for sure. But again, not this year. I haven't seen an aphid on any of our birches, come to think of it.

And, of course, since there haven't been any aphids, there have been no wasps or yellow jackets hanging about every time you barbecued or drank an ice tea in the backyard this year. My wife likes to think it was the fake nests that I hung up near old haunts, but I know it has much more to do with the almost nonexistent aphid population. Again, I haven't seen any yellow jackets or wasps on our property. For someone who carries around an EpiPen in case of a stinging, it is also very good news.

In fact, there has hardly been a bad day of even mosquitoes this year and we surely won't be seeing any for the rest of the season. No wasps, yellow jackets, aphids, leaf miners and add to that the state bug. Why is everyone complaining?

Moving on, I've already talked about mushrooms this year. This is turning out to be an even better season than I thought. As long as you are just looking and not eating (unless you know for sure), you can't go wrong studying our mushrooms this year. A good book (pick one up at a used book store) will help, but is not necessary to enjoy the variety and beauty of these fungal fruits.

Similarly, it has been a great season for lichens. Lichens? Yeah, those "corn flake" things that give birch bark its texture and greenish colors. They also come in other sizes and shapes and forms as well as colors. We happen to have a fantastic variety here and they are absolutely beautiful this time of year and in particular, it seems to me, this year.

First click on Google and go to Google's "images" and search for lichens. Get a feel for what to look for and then go out and seek. Ye shall find. Lichens are everywhere. You will find absolutely beautiful lichens on wooden fence posts, rocks, trees, porches, cement, metal, tree trunks and limbs and even those that are blown down in the wind. If you start looking, you will discover an incredible diversity and beauty, enough so, again, you might consider a book to help your identify these strange, symbiotic structures. They do very well here and this has been a great year for them.

Mosses too, are doing exceedingly well this year. I know you don't really want them in your lawn, but surely you have them somewhere else where they are worth keeping. Many should be in their fruiting stage right now. (You can see nodding "sporophytes.") Most make excellent indoor displays. Just scoop up a bit and put in on a thin layer of good compost and keep it slightly damp. It will spread and make terrific "bonsai" scenes.

Finally, this has been a great year for some of the best gardens in Alaska, which happen to be out at the State Fair Grounds in Palmer. To me they are every bit as impressive as the giant vegetables. Both seem so out of place on a rainy visit. Actually, the gardens at the Fair Grounds are all full of things you could be growing in your own yard. Take pictures and bring along some paper so you can take notes. Most of the goods are labeled.

Jeff Lowenfels is a member of the Garden Writers Hall of Fame. You can reach him at teamingwithmicrobes.com or by calling 274-5297 during "The Garden Party" radio show from 10 a.m. to noon Saturdays on KBYR AM-700.