Investigating the Inane: Backyard Soil and the Plants that Survive Lawn Mower Brutality

Interesting morning. Interesting in that it was inane. I never knew what I didn't know until I scooped my backyard's soil into a collection jar. I also collected small pebbles which seem to span the entire surface layer of soil, and 9 plant species coexisting in just about every square foot of the yard. And I don't know anything about any of it!

I noticed that there were many of tiny crawly and hoppy things, some with wings, in the soil. They have yet to be collected. In the soil there was a speckling of off white and I wonder if those happen to be larvae of one of the species. The rocks appear to be metamorphic but I have no idea if they are something to consider of geologic importance or if they are an off-site addition to one or another of the iterations of the house.

But the plants ruled the morning investigation. They utilized a variety of strategies to make their claim to turf. There were 2 clover style runner plants, 2 grasses (at least 1 of which was a runner, but I suspect they both were, though the one suspected was very delicate and difficult to excavate entirely). There were different root strategies, one dropping water tubes straight into the ground, the others all using the classic branching root system. Some seemed to have a tube that protruded plant on one side and a root system on the other. Some roots were long and bifurcated (and delicate), others more branching at the base and shallow.

That is to say nothing of the leaves and stems, and such. Those still need to be learned. I only resolved them enough to determine that they were different.

I layed out the collection on the work table to document. Already the largest plant removed was starting to wilt and I don't have high hopes for its endurance until tomorrow, when I guess I might be able to further do something to preserve the specimen. I hope to possibly go in and put the plants in a press today sometime, but we'll see being that futbol is on today, and it's a family day and all. Ah, vacation!

A least shimmer of glee, I found a beetle on what I'm currently calling catalpa (though I am totally unsure that is what it is--ascertained from a web dichotomous key almost certainly in error, as it was memory and I don't think memory was serving me well that evening). The big question to be answered there is who is eating the plant and at what stage. The oddity is that the plant looks as though it has some leaves that grow as one pear shaped pointed lobe and others that grow as 3. I looked at budding leaves and saw that many inner leaves have been "lobed" and now I wonder if the leaves are eaten at a young stage and then grow with the scars of early trama.

• Inane, I know, but yet to be seen.