Native plants for a Cape Cod garden

For once I kept to my every-so-oft promise of exploring some of the many walks and pathways we have on the Cape.  I enjoyed Mass Audubon’s Long Pasture on this atypical (at least for late January) sunny day.  Without the weekend walkers and dogs that one would normally encounter, I had a chance to enjoy the quiet of the leafless limbs and twists of the trees and underbrush.  Even with a harsh north wind blowing in from the bay  it is not hard to image the upcoming spring, especially with Symplocarpus foetidus (eastern skunk cabbage) emerging near the bubbling brook… Deer tracks are everywhere.  This does not surprise me as the old corn fields and farm lands have been reclaimed by brush and brambles, providing shelter and safety from the traffic on nearby 6A.  A couple more weeks and the many bird houses will have new tenants, and the smell of burning firewood will have dissipated from the air.