GuardNGuy.blogspot.com

The unusually warm weather we’ve had recently has been a real treat.  Farmers who couldn’t do the field work they wanted to do last fall because of the rain that turned too quickly into snow were able to play catch-up, and a lot of fields are ready to plant ahead of schedule, and some planting has already been done. Because we live in Wisconsin, most of us feel like there is a shoe left to drop, and that shoe will take the form of a blizzard, complete with a few feet of snow and below zero temperatures.  There is no meteorological basis for this expectation, just a feeling that something good is usually followed by something bad when it comes to weather. I think people in the Midwest see the world that way more than other folks.  On a perfect day in June, you’ll hear people say, “we’re gonna pay for this later!”  I’ve never heard people in San Diego make the same prediction. Well, I may pay for it later, but last weekend I got a start planting our garden.  Most ...

  I Sat With the Cat Not to get all Seussy or anything, but this morning I sat on the cement next to the garage with our cat, Barney. We’ve had a number of cats over the years but now Barney is the sole survivor, and he is showing his age. He is named Barney because he lives in our barn. Before he belonged to us, he belonged to someone else, which we know because he had been “fixed” (a poor choice of words) when we found him. Or when he found us. I was up in the barn loft on a winter night when I saw something out of the corner of my eye. I asked, “Is there a cat up here?” It turns out there was, and he meowed very conversationally for several minutes. It was a month or more before he’d hang around with us. We started to feed him on some very cold winter nights, even though he’d been fending for himself for who knows how long. Our horse vet at the time gave the cat his shots and verified that he was neutered. Then we named him (the cat, not the vet) Barney. He has unhappily c...

So many seeds – so little space! We have a pretty big garden, considering that there are just two of us at home these days. We do give food away to our daughters and some other relations and neighbors, but the garden is pretty big. And yet, every year some seeds and plants get crowded, or I’ll look up and realize that we’re out of space with a couple of seed packets left over. It seems like an impossible space to fill when we start, and not big enough once the planting is nearly done. By the same token, we can, freeze, and dry food frantically during the harvest season. We don’t pretend to be self-sufficient, but the way things are going these days, it doesn’t hurt to be prepared for such a circumstance. Now, with days getting longer, we look at our mostly full shelves and freezer and wonder how in the world we’ll be able to eat it all. Of course, that is a wonderful problem to have. So, how do we go about turning stored food into tasty meals? One idea is soup. Lots of soup. ...

  There are so many quotes about gardens and gardening. Most of them have lots of flowery (pardon the pun) language about being one with nature and such. Here are a few quotes that resonated with me, and I thought you might like them too. “A weed is a plant that has mastered every survival skill except for learning how to grow in rows.” -- Doug Larson   “A man has made at least a start on discovering the meaning of human life when he plants shade trees under which he knows full well he will never sit.” -- D. Elton Trueblood   “Everything that slows us down and forces patience, everything that sets us back into the slow circles of nature, is a help. Gardening is an instrument of grace.”   -- May Sarton   “Weeds are flowers too -- once you get to know them.”   -- A. A. Milne “Gardening is not a rational act.” -- Margaret Atwood “What a man needs in gardening is a cast-iron back, with a hinge in it.” -- Charles Dudley Warner ...

  The seed displays have been up at Farm and Fleet stores for a few weeks now. Probably at Fleet Farm stores too. Somehow it’s wrong to have Christmas merchandise up in September, but gardening stuff showing up in January is just fine! Seeing the seed display is both funny, because of the snow and ice outside, and nice, because it confirms the optimism that spring will eventually come. By now I have my standby seed choices. In the green bean world, I like either the Slenderette or Tenderette variety. I can never remember, so I get a pack of each. I always buy things to start indoors, like peppers, tomatoes, melons, etc. The truth is that my luck as a seed starter hasn’t been very good, although last year I grew some very impressive umbrella-shaped mushrooms. In the past I’ve made the mistake of buying seeds for some really beautiful flowers without reading that, in some cases, they “will blossom in 320 days.” Since we live in Wisconsin and not Florida, 320 days to blossom is ...

  The Christmas blizzard of 2022 is revving up in Southern Wisconsin. The snow blows across the white landscape, drifting here and there over the rows and beds of the now resting garden. I’m listening to Christmas songs – mostly new takes on old songs. Take Six, Pentatonix, The Bird and the Bee, Home Free, Over the Rhine… groups that didn’t exist when I started gardening. I used to make mix cds for my extended family. I liked doing that. Now nobody has CD players anymore, and parts of the family aren’t really connected anymore. There is a sadness to the Christmas season that comes into focus as the years pass. In fact, many of the songs have a sad side to them. “Through the years we all will be together, if the fates allow.” Not until my dad died did I understand the truth to those lyrics. Now our children have their own growing children. The traditions of Christmas are passed along to them and we feel blessed that we are a part of that passing along. I only hope they will tell...

Hello garden friends!  The link that follows is to my other blog. The post includes photographs from the past few years that I thought you might enjoy. https://peterwallace.wordpress.com/2022/12/14/something-different/  -Peter