Violinist and hobby fiber artist who didnt like dirt or grubby things woke up one day with 4 kids and realized growing things would feed, teach and keep the kids busy. 9 fruit trees, 6 nut trees, 11 out of town acres, one medium suburban garden and 2 angora bunnies later, Katherine and her whole family are eating, learning, and fully occupied.
I expect our temps in Southen Indiana to jump around like a college kid at a football game. Its my first year tapping my own trees, and I've only done this is Northern Wisconsin before, where it didnt usually fluctuate enough to make it hard to decide.
Would it bad to tap them now and leave the tap open for a few weeks while it runs and stops and runs and stops?
Because of this thread and the excellent info/advice here, my angora bunny is often ignoring his pellets, frisking friendly, and thriving. His fluffy fur is gorgeous.
My great thanks!
Are there some representative vegetables/plants that you would recommend beginner gardeners to grow for the purpose of learning about some aspect of gardening or horticulture?
Hey!
I found out SO MUCH about pollination by having various winter squash in my garden.
I had 1 hill of butternut squash in my new suburban Indiana garden and no fruit set in late July. I sat there thinking and realized I had literally never seen a bee. So I learned to hand pollinate them. And to plant flowers early in the year to draw pollinators. And the next year we had so many bees, they stole all the pollen before i woke up and didnt pollinate the female flowers, so I learned to tape up a male flower the night before I thought a female would open. I got some that year, but they were small.
The next year I learned about their root systems and how to dig a pit for extra compost for them...
Hey guys,
I just bought some rose fiber to spin. Its soft and lustrous; nicer than silk, in my opinion. The same storefront sells Mint fiber from peppermint! They say it is cooling and breathable, which in zone 7, I value... but how did the fiber get out of the rose or the mint? Do we think the same way as processing nettle? All I know is, this is very cool and I want to be able to do it myself! Ideas, pointers, certain knowledge, all welcome.
Hi there!
I've always loved orchards and we just bought some acres to play and grow in. It's all well and good to buy fruit trees, but I really want to learn to graft my own trees. Ideally, I'd like to be able tk start from scratch; grow my own rootstock; graft; prune; etc. But I have a problem. I cant get a good answer for the fundamental question.
Scott Stiller wrote:Thanks Matt!
I see no reason why it won’t work. I’ve been using tall cedar posts for years, this is just an improvement. Please keep us posted on how yours are going and any improvements you make. I’d love to see it.
I have 2 table grape vines and limited space. They are only in their second year so I havent trellised them yet. This seems absolutely ideal for my situation but I cant visualize it at all and Matt's pictures are only clearing up a little. Can you upload some pictures of your situation? How should I train my rampantly growing, very happy vigorous young vines? Do you prune them in the summer or just in the fall?
Thanks in advance for your help!
We moved all the time so we never had a garden, but when I was about 8, we were at my grandparents cabin in mid-Michigan and took a walk. We went up past an old abandoned homestead and found an enormous patch of ripe red raspberries. We ran home to get every possible pail. Old margarine containers, saucepans, every bowl in the house. We picked heaps of berries and then made the best red raspberry jam I'd ever tasted.
This has sparked a lifetime of berry foraging and jam making.
There was a bumper harvest the year my brother got married and we gave jam as party favors.
My husband moved us to Seattle as newlyweds and spent 4 years going to get blackberries at Discovery Park every weekend and making jam in our tiny apartment kitchen.
Now, we've just bought some land and the first thing I did was plant elderberries, huckleberries and blackberries.
All because of a walk on a summer evening.
Re: the possum idea, we have a local wildlife rescue which you can allow to release animals on your property. We asked them to release possums on our 11 acres. It may help...
