by Geoff | Dec 14, 2011 | Gardening
In October I wrote about the project that I did with Save Our Youth making self-watering planters out of reclaimed five gallon buckets. You can read the original post here. I decided to modify the original design and turn it into a strawberry planter. First a note about strawberries in Austin: They are normally planted in the fall here and treated as an annual crop. I’m a little late in my planting this year. The plants fruit in the spring, but rarely survive...
by Noel | Dec 12, 2011 | CobraHead, Gardening
The outdoor season is over for my 2011 Wisconsin garden. I may do a little more clean up, and possibly drag in a few leaves to cover up some north beds, but the frost has already penetrated deep and there is nothing left to harvest. There will be no more weeding or working the soil. All my efforts now are in preparing for next year. Gardening patterns and habits repeat themselves as you learn what has to be done to ensure a good harvest, but that hardly means...
by Noel | Dec 4, 2011 | CobraHead, Environmental Issues, Gardening
I posted recently about leaf burning and why I don’t think it’s such a great idea, even if it is allowed, but I was careful to mention that I’m not at all opposed to fires. Being a relative land baron out here on my almost rural four acres, I would have some major disposal issues if I could not burn prunings, deadfall, and other natural debris. Just a little over half our property is wooded. You can see a neighbor’s house to the east of...
by Noel | Nov 16, 2011 | CobraHead, Gardening
Anneliese took this picture of a young deer in the yard this afternoon. It was relatively fearless and Anneliese was able to get fairly close before it bolted. Fortunately for us, the deer have not been much of a nuisance this year and did no garden damage. I attribute a lot of that to Anneliese’s dog Zuri, who gets free day care with us while Anneliese is here working. We also see Zuri a lot on weekends, when Anneliese is out and about and we become dog...
by Noel | Nov 12, 2011 | CobraHead, Environmental Issues, Gardening
In the village that borders us a few blocks to the west and south, leaf burning is prohibited, but it is allowed and practiced as a seasonal rite in our township. I’m not advocating a ban on burning, but I really wish the neighbors understood what they are wasting. While I was working hard today to get as many leaves as I could into my garden, I could see at least four smoke trails in the neighborhood. Too bad for the leaf burners, they could be making...
by Geoff | Nov 10, 2011 | Gardening
Last spring I started some Agastache mexicana seeds indoors but got very spotty germination. I decided to investigate whether or not stratification would improve germination. I think that it will. Here’s the why and how: Many seeds have built in germination inhibitors. This prevents them from germinating until more ideal growing conditions are present. Stratification is one method of mimicking natural conditions that seeds are exposed to prior to...
