HOW GREEN WAS OUR GOLDEN?
When Doug was a freshman in college, one of his roommates brought home a puppy, then quickly lost interest. Doug found himself in a human/canine partnership with an amazing mongrel. Raised in a household of male college students in the 70s, Yama was given free rein to explore his inner […]
PRAIRIE SMOKE COMEBACK BED
I walked up to my first prairie smoke plants last summer in Allerton Park outside Monticello IL, and it was love at first site. The Wisconisn Master Gardener Program has a comprehensive and beautifully illustrated page that will tell you everything you need to know about this gorgeous prairie gem […]
THE SCARIEST THING ABOUT BATS
When I open the barn door and step into our little greenhouse, I gaze lovingly at the plants growing there. Then I get down to watering them with a yogurt container and a 5-gallon bucket. I don’t pay attention to the concrete barn wall while I’m working. That’s why I […]
FIGHTING BACK AT BUCK RUB
It seems I live in a bad neighborhood, roamed by a destructive gang. The authorities are helpless. The gang has become too big and too powerful. When I see the wreck they are making of so many promising young lives, I am strongly tempted to buy a gun. I’m talking, […]
OUR FARM THIS FALL
It’s been a hot, dry October. Odd to watch the leaves being blown off the trees by such balmy breezes. But fall is fall — and that means crazed squirrel time. Winter is coming, and there are things to do before the ground freezes. With Doug teaching biology at UW-Platteville […]
GREAT OAKS FROM LITTLE ACORNS GROW–SOMETIMES
I caught the end of a radio gardening show in the car last week, and heard the tree expert tell a caller that transplanting young oaks from the woods was a touchy business. First you must dig under it and cut the tap root. Then leave it in place for […]
WHAT YOU DON’T KNOW ABOUT VINTAGE GLASS
A scene viewed in reflection on the surface of water–even very still water– can be transformed to something more beautiful than the actual trees, sky and clouds above it. I feel the same sense of wonder when I look at the world through vintage glass. This week (yey!) we built […]
HAULING MY WATER WITH A YOKE
It is 139 steps from the growing beds in our little lean-to greenhouse to our catchment basin/pond. I counted them Sunday on my fourth (but not last) trip between the two, hauling water to start our fall crop of cold-hardy greens. By the time we build our house, we will […]
CHILI PEPPERS IN HISTORY AND IN YOUR GARDEN
This has been a great summer for growing peppers in Wisconsin, and no one knows this better than Dr. David Baumler: by day — a post-doctoral researcher at the Genome Center of Wisconsin, University of Wisconsin-Madison, and by night and weekend — a master pepper gardener. Dr. Baumler spoke on […]
Digging in the Driftless 