Category: Interacting with nature

propagation

Winter is a good time to turn my thoughts to propagating plants.  Although I live in the south (Georgia) some days are really miserably cold, windy and rainy.  What better time to learn up on new propagation techniques. Oaks Oaks do not transplant easily.  Even young oaks seem to have interminably long tap roots.  And it is difficult to tell a small sapling young oak from a 5 or 10 year old sapling old oak since oaks are content to bide their time in the shade of larger trees until the Read more [...]

new growing area and contour ditch

In a previous post I mentioned the repercussions experienced from locating my muscadine grape plantings too close to my vegetable beds.  Just as the vines of the muscadine grow interminably so do their roots and the raised beds, tomato planting sites and other vegetable sites were mined by muscadine roots.  I relocated half (6) of the muscadines earlier in November and have now prepared a site for relocating the remainder. The site is on the slope of a small hill which has blueberries at Read more [...]

preparing for winter

Yesterday morning I did not need a weather forecast to know cold was incoming and that it was time to protect some of the plantings.  Of the 12 fruit trees installed earlier this year, the Gold Nugget loquat was the most vulnerable.  The loquat is suited for sub-tropical to mild temperate zones and freezing temperatures will kill the buds if not the tree.  My loquat did not do very well this summer, probably too hot for it, but I will do what I can to help it and first steps was to winterwrap Read more [...]

November tasks

No pics for this post since my camera informed me the battery pack had to be replaced and refused further negotiation. A pleasurable task, this time of year, is collecting the flower seeds. I did my first Cosmos seeding early 2010 and, from the seeds gathered last November and spread this past spring, I enjoyed a whole new expanse of Cosmos. By November 8, as was the case last year, most of the seeds have dried and spread and are easy to grasp in one's hand and release into a shopping bag. Read more [...]

succession

"Succession" has been in the news, more so in England than the United States, when last week (October 28) the rules for succession to the British throne were amended to ensure that the first born of any future monarch, whether male or female will inherit the crown. However, though related, this is not the succession I have in mind when I look at my yard, which previously was regularly scalped by a lawn mower, now transforming itself into an impenetrable mass of "weeds". When we selected a Read more [...]

walk in the woods

  During fall the woods provide different spectacles.  This morning I came across two large mushrooms.  I have placed a ruler alongside them and it appears their diameter exceeds 8" and likewise their height.  Not sure what type they are and am not planning to eat them.                             In previous posts I included photos of the lovely goldenrod and Read more [...]

pine beetles

A few days ago my neighbor mentioned to me that several of her pine trees were dying and she thought this was due to pine beetles.  We looked at the trees - their foliage had turned red as you would expect from deciduous trees in the fall, but these are evergreen trees.  Even at a distance we could spot white blobs on the trunk, which from a closer position, appeared to be a crusty excrescence.  This was a pine beetle attack.  There are two main types of pine beetle in Georgia Read more [...]

autumn has arrived

Today, September 23 is the first day of Autumn.  And our rain and weather the past week has been great - > 2.5" past 48 hours. I see so much activity among the fall blooming flowers that I googled macro photography and then downloaded my small camera's manual and discovered there is a setting for close up photos.  So I have been snapping away.  The drawback with my camera is I have to get real close and the wasps flew off before I got into range and the bumblebees also began to get irritated Read more [...]

trying to get smarter

A few evenings ago, after locking the chicks in the pen, I heard an unusual noise and went to investigate.  The coop is divided by an inner partition.  The two Golden Comets were on the one side on the roosting perch, which didn't surprise me since from the get go they were ostracized and even though now they appear to be accepted, they still act independently.  On the other side of the partition I saw an unusual sight - the other six chicks appeared to be shoving and tugging to get into a corner Read more [...]