How to Grow Dill, Page 2 of 2 - Associated Content

How to Grow Dill, Page 2 of 2 - Associated Content

Mosquito Repellents Stress Me Out-Why That's a Good Thing - Associated Content

Mosquito Repellents Stress Me Out-Why That's a Good Thing - Associated Content

Healthy Cookware#slide_1

Healthy Cookware#slide_1This article is a departure for me. While I'm a passable cuisine artiste, I've messed up many of our pots and pans by misuse and ignorance. Here's the definitive article from the Martha Stewart web site.

Martha Stewart and Julia Childs are two of the world's greatest women, IMHO.

Gardening 101: How to get a soil test

Pittsburgh Gardening Scene Examiner 101: How to get a soil testI have to say I need to do this. I think of it every year and then don't. It's like needing a map when you're lost--you hate to use one. I have to think of myself as a master gardener completely without help from science. No matter that, without science, I would probably starve or freeze to death. Anyway, here's the deal for getting a soil test--how much it costs, etc..

"Julie and Julia" : New Film Ignites Interest in Julia Child Biography - Associated Content

"Julie and Julia" : New Film Ignites Interest in Julia Child Biography - Associated Content

Financial Incentives for Installing a Windmill on Your Farm - Associated Content

Financial Incentives for Installing a Windmill on Your Farm - Associated ContentHere's an appealing and expensive idea...interesiting all the same.

How to Fry Zucchini and Serving Suggestions - Associated Content#comments

How to Fry Zucchini and Serving Suggestions - Associated Content#comments

Some City Folk Are Mad as Wet Hens When Chickens Come Home to Roost - WSJ.com

Some City Folk Are Mad as Wet Hens When Chickens Come Home to Roost - WSJ.comAre you thinking of raising chickens? Lots of people are. Here's a story from the Wall Street Journal which is worth reading--for fun and business...

Garden Bears Inspection

Animated Garden Ornaments Create Excitement

Pennsylvania Monsoons Stimulate Deer Population

I don’t know what it is about this season, but the deer are eating plants that they normally aren’t much interested in. We’ve had plenty of rain and there’s plenty of new growth. I’m thinking of calling our joint the Emerald Isle Ranch—something like that. Leaves and grasses are prolific and the streams are swollen. Yet, the deer are eating things like Astilbe—only the flowers, however. They’re also munching on the Holly leaves, something the deer will readily do in winter but this is the first time I’d seen it in summer. The oddest thing of all is that they’re eating the tiger lilies and the coreopsis, usually nipping the tenderest parts, the buds.

I’m not angry at the deer and like them very much, enough to be willing to share our plants with them. I do have some pretty excellent deer repellant, made of an organic compound, but I’ve been hesitant to spray it because it hasn’t stopped raining. Here in Pennsylvania, we’re having a regular monsoon season.

But it’s nice to see the little fawns in spring, even though they are plant predators. The deer are one of the happiest things about Pennsylvania, second only to the variety of plant life. There is an article I wrote for Associated Content which may be of interest. Take a look at it by clicking on the headline of this article. Or pop it into your URL line.

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/978654/ten_deer_resistant_plants_for_deer_pg2.html?cat=32

Easy DIY Project to Protect Young Trees from the String Trimmer - Associated Content

Easy DIY Project to Protect Young Trees from the String Trimmer - Associated ContentThis is an article I wrote for another site about a totally cheap, easy, and effective DIY project to protect young trees from the string trimmer and the lawn mower. Once in a while something I invent actually works....

Swing Set

 

Early Summer Scene

 

I'd gone to a Cezanne and Beyond Exhibit in the big city--the Philadelphia Museum of Art, as a matter of fact. Naturally, you will see the Matisse/Cezanne/Kweigand influences...

Old Mill Pond

 

Appropos of nothing, I took a picture of this old wheat mill which operates by means of a water wheel. I missed this years opening but I've been to it before. It's a tremendous maze of wood, iron, and water wheels. The water makes use of early technology to take in the corn, grind it, move it alone, refine it further, bring it upstairs, drop it downstairs, back up again where it moves along a trough and is put into burlap bags. Our ancestors were almost as smart as we are, I've discovered.

The mill is beautiful, ingenious, and was capable of being operated with only one man.

The Tulip Poplar Has a Pretty Flower

 

I went out very early for a walk along an abandoned country road this morning. It's getting hard to find an abandoned country road around here but I managed. The beautiful bloom from a Tulip Poplar fell into the road at my feet so I took this photo. I wish it were in better focus. I had my dog with me and she was being impatient so I could not summon my fuller photographic skills. It's pretty, nonetheless....

Dogwood Days

 

I had such great luck at our old house with Dogwoods, yet the only ones which thrive in our new place are the wild ones. Fortunately, I took a picture of this one, may it rest in peace...

Catalogue Your Burpee Garden Seeds

 

I'm usually so busy that I often forget what seeds I've planted and where I've planted them. Of course, the most common way to address that is to stick the seed packs into the dirt next to the garden rows. Sometimes they dry up, get lost, fall apart in the rain or through watering so I've developed a better method. I have a combined printer, copier, scanner so I scan the seed packs into the computer --see the photos shown above. Sometimes I take a picture of the just planted furrows and insert text labelling there. As the garden grows, I add notes to the photos. It's also a good way to compare seed manufacturer's. Burpee seeds are everywhere but the seed catalogues have plenty of other brands.

It may see cumbersome to some, but doing it this way helps you with next year's planning. You know what worked, and what didn't.

Garden Spot for Quiet Contemplation

 

On the edge of one of our gardens is a quiet spot where we can solve the problems of the world. The bench came from a relative who moved, and the birdbath was bought from a place which specializes in molded concrete. I wish I oculd remember the name of the place, but it was located on Route 611 near Upper Black Eddy. Upper Black Eddy is just a few miles south of Easton, PA. It's a fun drive and a fun place to look at a variety of concrete molded statues and other objects.

Peony: Deer Resistant with Unique Foliage

 Peony are everywhere in the country. Aside from the beauty of the blooms, the deer will give them the go-by. I like the leaves a great deal, and they have an elegance even before the buds arrive. Our flower beds are 800 feet higher than the ones down the hill and are later to bloom, even when compared to peony just half a mile away, which are right now fully bloomed.