Category Archives: Garden

Garden, Literature

Quack Will Inherit the Earth

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42  bar steady 30.28  0mph WNW  windchill 42  Autumn

Waxing Gibbous Blood Moon

That damned quack.  It has begun to overtake our new plantings.  So, purity to the wind.  If it warms up to 60 degrees, we’ll hit it with Roundup.  Then again.  And, probably, given the tenacious qualities of quack grass, again quackgrass_rhizome2300.jpgnext spring.

Over the years I have become a grudging fan of these hardy herbaceous plants, the weeds.  Without sophisticated gardening intervention they thrive; in fact, they often thrive in spite of it.   They are true survivors and give succor to anyone worried about humankind’s ultimate effect on the planet.

Herbicide us.  Nuke us.  Poison Gas.  Plague.  Quack grass and creeping charlie will soldier on.  I have not yet read The World Without Us but if it’s honest, it will tell the tale of a world dominated by weeds.  Only they will not be weeds anymore, since a weed is a plant out of place.  No, The World Without Us will be quack world, dandelion heaven, creeping charlie nirvana.  Long may they reign.

Until then, however, I want to get the damned stuff out of my young orchard.

Right now I have no Sierra Club responsibilities, except my last rounds of stranger phone calls ever.  I have no tours for which I have to prepare.  My sermons have left the computer and entered the world.  So for the next week or so I can devote myself to finishing up gardening chores, cleaning up my spaces infected with piles and perhaps catching up on a bit of reading.

Speaking of that, I have a recommendation for those of you who like literature and mysteries:  The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, by Swedish author Steig Larson.  A smart mystery and an intriguing look into contemporary Swedish life.

Faith and Spirituality, Garden, Great Wheel, permaculture

Senescence

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60  bar rises 30.07  2mph N  dew-point 59  sunrise 7:06  set 7:00  Autumn

Waning Crescent of the Harvest Moon  rise 5:12  set 6:05

Today and tomorrow will be full gardening days.  There are bulbs to plant: daffodils, hyacinths, snow drops, many tulips and garlic.  Sprinkler heads need coaxing.  Mulch sits over at the Anoka County Landfill.  Some of it has to come here in the trailer.

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While documenting the orchard installation, I also took some shots of the vegetable garden in late September.  This photograph has our heirloom Cherokee Purple tomatoes in their senescence.  The asiatic lilies with the tall tan stems of wilted leaves look much the same in terms of their life cycle, but in fact are different.

As annuals, the Cherokee Purples put all their effort into fruit, then the plant dies.  As a result, we have had a bumper crop of tomatoes, all raised from four seeds planted in April of this year under the lights of the hydroponic system.  Continue reading Senescence →

Garden

Moving–Logs, Day Lilies

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75  bar falls 30.07  2mph E  dew-point 59  sunrise 6:58  set 7:13  Lughnasa

Waning Gibbous Harvest Moon  rise 9:58  set 1:37

Couldn’t get chipper this morning, so I spent some time moving logs, then went on to plant daffodils.  After the nap Kate and I worked on transferring day lilies to a front bed.  She wants them to block out weeds and they should do a good job.  That took most of the afternoon.  Tomorrow I can get the chipper so we’ll do that AM.  After, I’ll plant more bulbs and more lilies.

Garden, permaculture

A Splitting Morning

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63  bar rises 30.11  2mph NW  dew-point 54  sunrise 6:58  set 7:13  Lughnasa

Waning Gibbous Harvest Moon  rise 9:58  set 1:37

A crisp morning, tending toward a warm afternoon.  Great for outdoor work.  Have to split logs so I can use the chipper on them Monday.  Then, plant bulbs and move hemerocallis.  Plenty outside labor for the crew here at Vineland Place.

Check in later.

Garden, Our Land and Home, permaculture

Peace and Calm

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64  bar steady 30.16  0mph NW dew-point 56  sunrise 6:56  set 7:17  Lughnasa

Waning Gibbous Harvest Moon  rise 8:32  set 11:01

September will be a full out garden and landscaping month.  I have bulbs coming from White Flower Farms, a tree to finish cutting up, then two trees to mulch.  Then I’ll be working with Eco-Gardens to plant and install our new orchard and near kitchen window plantings.

Again, on the economy.  Peace and calm.  Fear kills.

Garden, Our Land and Home, Politics

Lumberjack: The Home Reality Show

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57  bar rises 30.17  2mph NNE dew-point 51  sunrise 6:54 set 7:19  Lughnasa

Waning Gibbous Harvest Moon  rise 8:02  set 9:41

Enough ranting.  The fiscal world will go about its business; Kate and I made our decisions and have commitments that make sense to us.  In the political realm Obama has gone from looking like the candidate for change to staging a disappearing act in the media.  Will the economy help him re-emerge?  Don’t know.  Neither candidate seem compelling on financial matters.  Obama’s good luck is that he’s a Democrat with a tanking economy run by Republicans.  Sometimes luck is all that matters.  Napoleon famously wanted to know if his officers had good luck.  He promoted those who did.

Another episode in Lumberjack:  The Home Reality Show today.  The second acacia has to come down and I have to drop it in a narrow space.  I’m feeling confident.  I’ll let you know how it goes down.

Garden, Great Work, Politics

Sombre et Sol

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59  bar steady 29.98 2mh NE dew-point 53  sunrise 6:48  set 7:29  Lughnasa

Waxing Gibbous Harvest Moon  rise 6:15  set 3:35

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9AM Sun/Shade

OK.  All the sun/shade photographs have been printed and I will take them over to Ecological Gardens today.  Just looking at them myself, it is obvious that we have vegetable growing possibilities in the front yard, to the east.  That will affect the plan.

I will do candidate research on the targeted campaigns for the Sierra Club Northstar post-endorsement political activity today.  This consists of compiling information about the candidates and their stands on enviornmental issues.  Should be fun.

This weekend I have to design my Made in America tour.  I have a list of objects, but I have to do some research.

Also, the hemerocallis have begun to call to me.  Move us! Move us!  That has to happen soon.  An order for fall bulbs goes in today, too.  This will replace the daffodils I dug up to plant under the lily and iris plus add some new tulips,

Fall planting has a ritual feeling to me by now since this will be my 17th straight year.

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9 AM Sun/Shade

Faith and Spirituality, Garden, GeekWorld, Great Work, Our Land and Home, Politics

Change and Changes

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68  bar falls 30.06  0mph NNE  dew-point 38  sunrise 6:45  set 7:34  Lughnasa

First Quarter of the Harvest Moon   rise 4:49  set 12:17

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Corn, Bleeding Heart, Impatiens, Beets and Beans at 3pm

This morning I got up, ate breakfast and went straight outside.  Posting in the morning has begun to interfere with other projects.  Even so, I like to do it.  The posting gives a start to the day.  Just too long a start sometimes.

Till noon I cleaned up old wire fencing so we can recycle it on Saturday.  At noon I began the sun/shade survey for our ecological gardens project.  Instead of shading in a map I decided to use the digital camera and print contact sheets of prints shot at 9AM, noon, 3pm, 6pm.  I stand in the same location for each shot.  It takes about 20 images to cover the whole yard.

After the nap I went out into the wide world to collect meds and some ink for my Canon color printer.  This is the first time I have purchased ink for this printer, in fact it’s the first time I’ve purchased ink for any printer other than my HP L4 since 1991.  The cost of color ink impressed me.  High.  Ouch.

About a year ago right now Kate and I attended a conference in Iowa City, Iowa.  Focused on climate change and the issues involved, I came away convinced I needed to get involved in some direct way.  I made a list of things to do at the conference, but as the year has gone by I realize I have gotten a much better handle on personal action. Continue reading Change and Changes →

Garden, Politics

Red-Neck Socialism

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62  bar steady 29.88  2mph  WSW dew-point 54  sunrise 6:40  set 7:42

Waxing Crescent of the Harvest Moon   rise 1:14  9:58

And they packed up their bags, had one more martini for the road and dispersed to the south, east and west.  The elephants have left the state.  From way out here in Andover it hardly felt like they were here, except for the occasional dissing of Minnesota on the Colbert show. “Could Minnesota be any more white?”  I suppose the event will go down as historic primarily for the introduction of the female rottweiler, Sarah Palin.  She’s a gun-totin’, moose dressin’, pro-oil drillin’ and wolf killin’, state trooper firin’, gubernator and conservative from the only socialist state in the union*.

*”In the state of Alaska, … citizens possess the seemingly unlikely combination of a rugged individualist reluctance to have the government meddle in their affairs with a willingness to accept a nearly $2,000 per Alaskan handout from the Alaska Permanent Fund. I’ve heard this combination referred to as “red neck socialism” and it’s a very Jacksonian, very American attitude.”  from the Glittering Eye

Here’s a red-faced son of the soil, a citizen of the Cherokee Purple Nation:

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