GuardNGuy.blogspot.com

Sometimes I think it would be good if gardeners got garden-amnesia each spring. It would help us enjoy the enthusiasm we have with our clean slate of soil without throwing in last year’s memories of weeds and deer and Japanese beetles. Or maybe we do have a little amnesia already. Where I live the mosquitoes won’t be a problem for a few weeks. We do have little insidious flies that bite behind our ears and itch a lot. When the mosquitoes come out, we’re always a little surprised, even though it happens every year. Selective memory. There are about a dozen things I really wanted to get to last year but didn’t. Guess what? There are still the same dozen things. Since we’re in the rain-every-other-day season, those 12 things aren’t getting done yet, but I still hold out hope.  One of these days I’ll bring home some plants and really get things started, keeping in mind that it’s not recommended to plant until Memorial Day where I live. For now there are still lots of things to cl...

There it is. My April Fools' Post.  Well, it isn't from April 1st, but from some time in April some year in the pasts. I think it's a pretty good April Fool's Day joke to have snow on the ground two weeks after having a 70 degree day. Mother nature either has a great sense of humor or none at all. I earmark this day each year to start my plants indoors. As I look at the labels, some should have been planted a month ago, and some probably shouldn't be planted for another month, so I figure I've got it about right. My success with plants started indoors has been spotty. Some survive, and thrive. Some get too spindly and collapse under their own weight like a seven foot tall 8th grader playing basketball. We have new grow lights this year, so I hope that will help. One year I had six trays in one of those little greenhouses covered with heavy plastic. I put them outside on a sunny day which, unfortunately, was also a windy day. Many of those survived after I stuck ...

 ( This post is from a newspaper column I wrote in 2015) Last Friday we went to the Wisconsin Public Television Garden Expo in Madison.   It was a much needed journey into the realm of green things, and the possibility that perhaps winter will someday end. If you haven’t ever been there, I recommend it.   In addition to lots of exhibits by people who would like to help you and/or sell you something to make your home and garden nicer, there are tons of workshops on gardening, composting, landscaping, preserving foods, and all sorts of related topics. This year I went specifically to see a fellow talk about back yard maple syrup production.   He wasn’t a botanist or anything, but just a regular guy who has way more energy and initiative than I do, and who wanted to make maple syrup from two silver maple trees in his back yard.   My father-in-law, who passed away last June, had been making maple syrup for a number of years.   In fact, though he was very ...

 

We're ready for the snow.  Well... as much as anybody is ever ready for snow.  Our flower and vegetable gardens are pretty much properly put to bed for winter. It's so easy not to do the post-frost work. The days are colder, the wind seems more bitter, and, well, it's kind of the gardening version of doing the dishes.  The meal is done, but there are all the dishes. Is there more we could do?  Sure there is.  Maybe I'll do some of it, but if I don't, it's not a big deal. When spring comes along again, there won't be too much to do to get things ready to plant. That's a good feeling. Thanksgiving happens tomorrow, and some of what we will eat has come from the garden. Almost every night, it seems, we eat something we've grown and frozen/canned/fermented/dried. What we do with our garden is nothing compared to many people, some of whom do podcasts about their work. I am somewhat in awe of them, but I don't have the energy or desire to do the hard w...

  I like blueberries. There: I've said it. I've taken a pro-blueberry stand. Oh, but you say, blueberries aren't political. But then, I counter, why are they anti-free-radical? They obviously want to lock up all the radicals, and if that isn't political... So, to review, I like blueberries. I find that I can't eat too many at any one time anymore. It turns out that they are like ball bearings in my digestive track, but I sure do like them. It seems like 20 years ago or more that I first planted blueberries. Just a few plants, mind you. My idea of planting bare root stock is to dig a hole, stick the root stock in the hole, and then fill in the hole. In other words, especially back then, I wasn't as diligent as I could have been. But, it didn't actually matter. Over the first five years the blueberry plants were mowed off by rabbits, deer, and sheep. Not free-range sheep, mind you, but sheep that got loose. After building a fence around the plants, ...

 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 ...