Planting purple wave petunias concludes five days freshening flower beds
with seven cubic yards of hardwood fine mulch.
Stay at home! 2020
Tag Archives: spring
Spring Gardening or…
9 Aprwhat are they?
Spoiler alert: Amazon sells them. (That is how I discovered the name.)
I have been in garden centers often over the years and never saw one. I acquired them from an estate a couple of years ago. They are:
rotary tillers (with a broom type handle)
Applied testing: It does a nice job freshening up last year’s mulch and also works well mixing homemade compost with clay type soil.
Acorns: Spring planting
11 MarWe removed dozens of trees @ Owl Creek in 2019…Some had been dead for a long time… Some were volunteers too close to driveways or barn…Some were contortions of trees…bent, split, broken. Several logging projects in the past 50 years harvested hard woods…walnut, maple and oak trees. Our understanding is that oak seedlings are difficult to locate.
To get 2020 spring plants off to a bigger start, I gathered acorns from the backyard. Mostly green, squirrels had not run off with them.
“How to Grow Oak Trees from Acorns” Shelly Wigglesworth Oct 16, 2018, published in New England Today, Living
I like the idea of refrigerating with peat and barley in a sealed container over winter.
Shelly recommended discarding acorns with pin holes. They are made by “inch” worms exiting the hull. I believe the worms enter under the cap. After checking closely and drying about two weeks, I discarded 20 acorns of the 60+ I had gathered from our backyard.
Here we “grow” again…today March 11, 2020…
Responding to the loss oak seedlings ruined by squirrels going for the meat of the acorn…I have turn the table! Using a small cage to keep wild life out and protect future tree…rather than keep animals IN. 45 acorns in peat pots.
Hmmmm…what yield will we have?
First you hear them, then you see them
14 MarSandhill cranes 2019 spring migration.
Check out this video:
Sandhill cranes fly in a “V” formation at a fairly high altitude. The image is faint as they move from right to left across the screen.
We have been lucky to be outdoors in the early afternoon frequently this spring. It appears to be the best time to see them in flight…over a half dozen times (central Indiana).
https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Sandhill_Crane/sounds (There are 3 audio clips.)
View one of Indiana’s greatest wildlife spectacles at Jasper-Pulaski Fish and Wildlife Area. Each fall, thousands of Sandhill Cranes visit the area’s shallow marshes.
I was introduced to sandhill cranes 20 years ago at the Jasper-Pulaski Fish and Wildlife Area. They feed and stay overnight during their migration. Large groups are VERY loud and not a pleasant chorus. However, it is VERY impressive and you remember their chatter. I love spotting them on the move. You hear them first!
Look UP
9 May Lilac
Red Bus
Look DOWN
Hiden inside the clump of lovely daffodils…are they duck eggs? They seem to be large for duck eggs. I hope the little ones survived. I did not realize they were there until they were gone 😦
Friday Photos_____________I Ching No. 2 Earth
28 AprClinch Mountain overlook (Obviously a favorite photo…see header)
David Hinton translates hexagram No. 2 as “Earth”. Wilhem translation is “receptive”. Other translations include “field” and “flow”.
Field in spring
Eagle Creek watershed
Friday Photos: I Ching No. 3 Sprouting
21 AprSprouting melon seeds
The potential energy is astonishing! Each one of these melon sprouts can become a vine that produces a dozen melons which each have hundreds of seeds in their center! These sprouts are from one of last year’s melons, which was from seed Dad saved from the previous year. Tomatoes can be even more prolific!
Parts of seeds: embryo, endosperm and coat(protective layer) Notice in the lower left corner that several seed coats cling to the new leaves.
Looking forward to the fruit of these sprouts in mid and late summer!
“Sugar Kiss”, Sand Stone Melon Co. Inc.
Alleluia! Happy Easter!
16 AprFrom the south lawn…Happy Easter!
Crab Apple
Red Bud
Lilac
Weeping Cherry
Narcissis
Red Bud
Crab Apple
Crab Apple
Red bud
Tulips
Lilac
Friday Photos: I Ching No. 40 Unbound
14 Apr“Unbound” is David Hinton translation.
South lawn make over begins.
Lilac and Vibernum stumps
Day lilies, hostas and peonies: Divided from original plantings…critical mass part 2? Not shown: coneflowers, asters, plumbago, iris, holly
Hop to it!
11 AprSpring to action! I’ve been on a mission to have properly cleaned windows.
One part: Fun planter (a gift from years ago) as a “bucket” for supplies
Main part: New recipe for homemade window cleaner!!! (link below)
Three parts: Accessories…gloves, paper towels, window scraper
All by the door, ready to “Hop to it!”
Obviously not a bucket
http://www.livingonadime.com/homemade-window-cleaner-recipe/
This says the secret ingredient is alcohol…I thought it was Dawn dishwashing soap.
elfcroft 