GuardNGuy.blogspot.com

 If you don't have Japanese beetles at your place, I'd like to strongly suggest that you look skyward and give thanks.  I've taken a pretty aggressive stance towards them this year, after clearly losing the battle last year.  I don't know if I'm winning or losing this year, but they have many more casualties than last year, so at least I've got a sense of doing some good. What am I talking about?  Japanese beetles made their way to the east coast of North America in 1916, and to my house in Wisconsin five years ago, I think. They are visually kind-of striking, with their metallic gold shell/wings.  That's it, in terms of the "pro" side of the ledger.  The "con" side includes their ability to swarm on and defoliate certain trees and vegetable plants.  I've read that they eat 300 some different plants, but in our yard they focus on raspberries, apple and cherry trees, grapes, courants, and have expressed some interest in green beans, a ...

To my way of thinking, vegetables should stay in the vegetable garden, and flowers in the flower garden.  I guess it's my personality type, or something.  I'm also partial to planting things in rows, and not with other things.  For example, I understand that planting squash in a corn patch makes sense, but it violates some rule in my head. My wife is more adventurous in that sort of thing.  She has encouraged me to expand my mind a little, and so last year I planted some vegetables in the flower garden.  And, as it turned out, I kind-of liked it. If you're thinking of doing such a thing, I'll tell you that the multi-colored Swiss chard looked really nice, and, due to a long fall, we were still picking it in December.  I'm told that the roots can be eaten, and that it can be left in the ground for next year, but I pulled it. Carrots have beautiful green tops, and since I'm very bad at thinning them out, the oval shaped bed with carrots looked lush and green....

With so many things having been banned from Facebook and YouTube lately, there is now even more room for interesting videos to enjoy that might pertain to gardening. There are two such videos that intrigue me.  Maybe you’ve seen one or both.  They involve using a few simple tools to make incredible things in one’s backyard. The first involves digging a large, rectangular hole and, by very clever planning, digging another rectangular hole within it, making a swimming pool and deck.  It’s amazing!  The video is done as a time-lapse movie, so many days are compressed into a few minutes.  The guy doing it has more energy than any five people I know.  He even carries water from a nearby stream to fill the pool.  The second video highlights a subterranean greenhouse.  It starts the same way, by digging a large rectangular hole.  Then some of the soil that was taken out is put back in, five feet or so below the terrain above.  Poles are p...

(Written in Winter 2005)    Never has a human malady had a better name than Seasonally Affected Disorder, or SAD.   It is a condition that people get in the winter, because apparently there isn’t enough sunlight to keep them cheerful.   Some people even get treatment in “sun boxes,” which are large banks of grow lights, or something, that help perk up SAD sufferers' spirits. One of the drawbacks of living in the north is that we really do get short changed by sunlight.   There have even been studies that show certain medical conditions have a higher incidence in the north, due to not enough vitamin D, which somehow comes from exposure to the sun. I would never make fun of anyone who has SAD.   I know some people who seem to have it all year around, though.   Maybe spring makes them sad due to the mud.   Maybe summer is too hot.   Maybe fall makes them sad because winter is just around the corner… Part of the problem is that a lot of peo...

 To me, gardening is largely therapeutic.  In a world of gray areas, a garden bed either has weeds in it, or it doesn’t.  Plants come up, or they don’t.  You win your battles against the deer and Japanese beetles, or you don’t.  No gray.  Black and white. When it comes to the vegetable garden, I’m most interested in getting the beds set up and planted.   Keeping them looking nice is also gratifying.   I have less enthusiasm for keeping up with the on-going harvesting.   This year my garden partner and wife (the same person) really kept up with the picking and preserving side of things.   We always do okay at that part of gardening, but this year she made it the best harvest we’ve had. As a result, almost every meal has something from our garden.   Pickled green beans, potatoes, frozen broccoli, apple sauce… it is gratifying to know that the work we put into the garden resulted in good things to eat.   I mean, that’s the who...

This isn't about gardening, but I hope you enjoy it. People talk sometimes about some year’s Christmas being the best one.   Actually, that phrase comes up a lot in commercials trying to talk us into buying something that will make Christmas great.   I don’t think that’s usually how it works. When I try to remember my best Christmas ever, my years as a little kid, with lots of toys under the tree, don’t rise to the top.   The years when, as an adult, everyone was there on Christmas morning, were really good.   Since then, my dad has died, and one brother-in-law is no longer around.   I could say that the last Christmas with my dad was the best, but I didn’t know it until he was gone. Since his death, and my mom’s passing 19 years later, that side of my extended family has fractured a bit, so gathering at Christmas isn’t likely to happen.   Of course, I have my own family with daughters, sons-in-law, and grandchildren to make the day festive and exciting...

Our gardens have successfully made the transition from autumn to winter.  What had been filled with pale greens and tans is now white.  Cold, and white.  Any thoughts of doing any more work out there this year have been dashed.  I hope the snow will stay, and be insulation for the plants that remain. I've been to all of the "Sun Belt" states, and I confess that the idea of spending a winter season without any coat, but just a light jacket, sounds appealing.  The thought of doing some gardening in January sounds good.  The thought of not shoveling snow is an idea I could get behind. That being said, there really is nothing like stepping outside on a crisp December morning with fresh snow and 20 degree air.  Twenty degree below zero air, with 20 mph winds is a different story all together, of course, but winter does have its charms. In an ironic twist, both the seed catalogs and the forms from our tax preparer generally come during the week before Christ...