Mark Reed

pollinator
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since Mar 19, 2020
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SE Indiana
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Recent posts by Mark Reed

I garden on a much smaller scale, and I don't use anything except mulchy stuff that I find around the place, a lot if it is just weeds I pull or chop down in the garden itself and the spent vegetable plants, also leaves raked up from the yard each fall. A lot of time, I just let low growing ground cover weeds like purslane or creeping Charlie do their thing, especially under tall plants like corn or okra.

I might be more sensitive that others, but I think plastic has an unpleasant chemical smell, especially if it's left out in the sun so I don't like it. I do use some plastic pots but that's because I haven't found a better option, yet. I collect them for free and after sitting out for a long while I figure most of the outgassing is done, or at least that's what I tell myself.

I think cardboard is pretty gross too. I did a short stint receiving product, mostly from China into a big distribution warehouse.  My oversensitivity may be in play again but the smell when one of those trucks was opened was unpleasant, at best. Even if the production of cardboard and inks used isn't an issue, which I don't believe, whatever might have been used to protect against infestations certainly is.

I let big-rooted weeds like dandelions, thistles and dock along with things like radishes and turnips do most of my tilling. If more is necessary, I use a shovel or hoe. I don't like the roar and stink of gasoline powered machines and enjoy my gardening lots more since abandoning them. Getting rid of that big tiller was the best thing I ever did as far as making things easier.

1 day ago
I've never been good at record keeping. I've resolved lots of time to do better at it, but I never have so I'm officially abandoning the idea and just go by memory like I always have. The only exception is my sweet potatoes which I breed from true seed. I have a very detailed little book on them with lots of photos and notes.

Overall, I'm scaling my garden down some, not really in area planted, I'm just focusing more on the things I know I can grow and dropping most of the more novel and experimental stuff. I am trying to plan a little better this year so as to maximize production of staple crops.

I don't get into the political stuff much, don't see the point in it. Plus, I don't have any pies and don't really want any as I don't like cooked fruit, but I am real fond coconut cream.
3 days ago
Also, in Hawaii there is a highway called the saddle road.  It runs at high elevation between the Mauna Loa and Mauna Kea volcanoes. Our tour book said the ancient Hawaiians considered the area sacred and taboo. It seems the mountains are entities, not especially fond of one another and it's just prudent not to get between them. The book also said it was a poorly maintained road and infrequently traveled and again best not to go there, so we did. We saw just one other car during the whole ride, as it got dark the night sky was even better than in the Tetons and the silence and solitude were intense.  It is very eerie and wonderful place. Maybe the old Hawaiians were right.
3 days ago
I love that photo of the night sky posted above. It rivals when we camped in a high valley in the Tetons beside a small river. I think it was the Buffalo River, but I don't remember for sure. The valley was fairly narrow at about 9000 feet and the mountains went up another thousand or more on both sides giving a view of a slice of the sky bisected by the galaxy, with so many starts they were individually indistinguishable. One of the coolest things I ever saw, up there with liquid rocks running out of the ground on Kilauea volcano.

I think the coolest ever might have been the blue air over Blackcomb Mountain in Canada. Apparently if it isn't masked and turned gray by the effluents of civilization oxygen and oxygen compounds refract light in the blue range of the spectrum. In any case the mist and thin clouds, were blue. Even the air seemed to sparkle with blue. The shadows on the other side of the mountain were blue. I could hardly believe I got to see it and stood there looking at it for a long time before pointing my skis downhill. I had read about that phenomenon in the Smoky Mountains but that it disappeared soon after WW2, when the recreational V8 engines came roaring through.  

Sorry no photos, I have some, but they predate the digital era, and they have faded.
3 days ago
There are different levels of regulation on public land here. Closest to me is some designated as a Fish and Wildlife Area.  It is largely for hunting but foraging for mushrooms, berries and the like is allowed, you can also collect seeds. Digging things up is frowned on, as I believe it should be. Other areas like state parks and those designated National Wildlife Preserve are much more restricted and I'm fine with that as well, although no one is going to care if you pick and eat a blackberry beside the trail, just don't wander off the trail and take them all. Some particular plants like ginseng are very protected, even collecting seeds is a no no, I think.  

As far as right to roam, I'm pretty sure we don't have that, except along the river. I don't know it for sure, but I have aways operated that as long as you get there by boat instead of land, you can camp about anywhere you want. No one has ever complained but I only choose spots where no one would even know I was there anyway. I wouldn't test it by pulling my kayak up to camp beside somebody's boat dock.
4 days ago
We don't get out into the parks nearly as much as we used to. I've spent many days and nights off trail in the Smoky Mountains back when back country permits were available, don't know of that still the case.  Isle Royal in Lake Superior is great, Grand Teton in Wyoming and Volcanoes National Park in Hawaii are two that really stand out in memory. Now we stay mostly closer to home an enjoy hiking and fishing around Lake Monroe in central Indiana.

There is a tiny state forest, just 300 acres or so near where I live, I won't name it because not many people know about it, and I like it that way.  Some fellow in the late1800s bought it up and protected it from loggers and development and his widow gave it to the state. It's full of really big trees and wildflowers with a small river running through. We went there to see the total eclipse a couple years ago and it worked. The eclipse was total for over there minutes and I so glad we got to see it. The few other people there were there for the same reason as us, to experience it a natural setting and everyone remained perfectly quite during it and for a while after. Then we walked down to the river and found a big hunk of clean, yellow citrine quartz.  
1 week ago
I'm pretty sure Virgina Creeper is a parasitic vine. Roots along its growth attach to things like trees or house siding, that's how it climbs and how it damages things. I don't know that it would climb well on a trellis, might depend on what it's made of.   It's also perennial and wants to get bigger every year. Its growth is very similar to poison ivy.

In the situation you described, I might go with fast growing annuals like morning glories or even pole beans, maybe a row of sunflowers each year, a foot or so from the wall, or even corn.  
1 week ago
O' wow, that's the first time in years and across two or three forums, I've seen anyone besides me mention peanuts. They are easy to grow at least in my climate and the best nitrogen fixers I've ever seen. I just thought nobody else was interested in them.
1 week ago
A few days ago, there was a quick minute when the site was down. I'm guessing it was related to the server change. When I say a quick minute, that's because that's all it was. Probably some freak coincidence that I just happened to log in at the same time, I forgot about until now.