GuardNGuy.blogspot.com

Here we are.  It is officially fall.  In parts of the country that aren't on fire or under water, it is a very pleasant time of the year.  The leaves haven't fallen yet, other than a few of the over-anxious ones.  We've had one spotty frost, but most everything is still growing. It's a sad time, in some ways.  The sound of crickets is a constant reminder that, at least here in the Midwest, warm and friendly weather has been given the two-minute warning.  With a few exceptions, everything that can be eaten or preserved for winter has been.  It is time to enjoy the dwindling colors of the flowers, and time to tidy things up for spring.  This year, I joined several Facebook groups composed of gardeners.  I was in a group for raised bed gardeners for a while, but my meager beds look puny next to the beautiful and expensive raised bed gardens, complete with built-in fencing and a gate to keep out critters.  Some had pavers for aisles.  T...

(This was written about this time of year back in 2007.) I realized some time ago that my hobbies turn out to be nothing but different kinds of work.  In addition to my regular job, I enjoy teaching, free lance writing (such as this) and gardening.  Yes, gardening can be relaxing, but there is a lot of work to it, especially if you have a large garden. As with every other year, our garden looked great in May, very good in June, okay into July, but awful in August, and embarrassing by September.  Weeds are amazing, and it’s hard not to admire their determination to live long enough to reproduce.  Some anthropologists say at some level, that’s all any of us are really trying to do, but people can’t match weeds for their success. Last weekend was the beginning of the end of the gardening season.  It’s been longer than most this year, due to a temperate October.  It was nice to go out to the garden and pick some tomatoes or peppers in late October.  Bu...

My heart goes out to the folks who are engaged in war with fires out west.  I can't imagine what it is like for them to deal with the destructive power of those enormous blazes.  I guess part of the problem is that fire has been around far longer than people, and while we can do a lot of things to deal with nature's forces, this is one that is just too strong. Fires, hurricanes, droughts, tornadoes, and even volcanoes and earthquakes cause great devastation, and remind us that we aren't more powerful than Mom Nature. I call her Mom because, well, we've become quite close over the years.  Whenever I go outside, there she is.  It's been mostly raining over the past week after not seeing rain for much of  August.  That's not unusual around here.  Some years there are floods and windstorms.  Some years droughts.  All in all, we're pretty lucky in Wisconsin. We don't have a lot of natural disasters in Wisconsin.  We do have tornadoes.  T...

I belong to a few Facebook garden groups.  It's fun to see what people are doing with their gardens, what kinds of successes they're having and the failures. It seems like the biggest failure comes from animals or insects eating things up.  We've had that problem from time to time, but on a smaller scale than people who go out in the morning and see that one or more garden crops are just gone.  Discouraging! I've been gardening long enough now that I know the answers to a lot of the questions asked by inexperienced folks.  That feels pretty good. Of course, I still have questions of my own, like why do my cauliflowers look like this:  So, I posted the photo asking what I should do differently.  The best response was that I should grow something else.  In other words, there was no hope for me! Other responses provide some good tips which I'll try next year, before giving up forever.  After all, when you grow something, it should at least look a lit...