Everyone who takes care of land from square foot gardeners to those of us trying to manage multiple acres has their most wanted list of invasives plants. The lists are getting longer. According to James Reinartz of the Southeastern Wisconsin Invasive Species Consortium , the cost to the U.S. economy […]
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 […]
I don’t even want to know how much chemical fertilizer, pesticide, fuel for hot houses and refrigerated air transport goes into “saying it with flowers.” My favorite option these days is just walking around my land, which is a constant profusion of flowering plants. When I have a minute, I […]
Amphibians seem to be under siege these days, but in our little pond, they are thriving, so I hate to mess with success. Nonetheless, I have watched the pond pack itself more tightly every year with some kind of pondweed. I thought it was Eurasian Milfoil, but what is growing […]
I have come upon fawns lying still as statues in a stand of grass on our land. Their survival strategy seems to be to freeze, allowing me to walk right up and study their perfect ears, finely chiseled hooves and delicately dappled camo patterns. Baby animals always bring out our […]
I like to spend Mothers Day communing with Mother Nature and planting. I used to content myself with converting our lawn into flower beds, but now Doug and I focus on plants that recreate the diversity of a natural community on our 44 acres. For Mothers day, we got 54 […]
Everyone has heard about the dark cloud over bee hives. In 2006-07 beekeeping operations lost 45% of their hives, and 2008-09 was no better. Everyone has also heard about the birds and the bees. Pay more attention to the bees. 70 percent of the plants in the world need help […]
There is a low mist in the wood – It is a good day to study lichens Henry D. Thoreau January is Bark Appreciation Month. It’s the time when the earthy gray blue and ochre patches of lichen become vivid accent colors. Snowshoeing in Governor Dodge Park last Sunday, I […]
When we lived in the Netherlands, we often watched village-dwelling farmers wearing wooden shoes bike out to their well-tended fields carrying some long-handled tool over their shoulder (yes, really). The Netherlands is a food exporting country, demonstrating that monster-sized agribusiness is not the only productive game in town. Those […]
Our prairie remnant on a sunny, south-facing slope just off the top of a ridge had been farmed for years and then planted by the owner before us in rows of pine and spruce. Some of the trees were 5 years old. Some were nearer 15. The older trees were […]
Digging in the Driftless 