Maggie's FarmWe are a commune of inquiring, skeptical, politically centrist, capitalist, anglophile, traditionalist New England Yankee humans, humanoids, and animals with many interests beyond and above politics. Each of us has had a high-school education (or GED), but all had ADD so didn't pay attention very well, especially the dogs. Each one of us does "try my best to be just like I am," and none of us enjoys working for others, including for Maggie, from whom we receive neither a nickel nor a dime. Freedom from nags, cranks, government, do-gooders, control-freaks and idiots is all that we ask for. |
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Monday, July 6. 2015Hydrangea Season and Hydrangea ConfusionJuly is Hydrangea bloom around here. A wonderful thing. Gardeners want their shrub and/or perennial borders to have fun blooms to look at for as long as possible, and that takes thought and planning. (May is Azaleas, June is roses, etc). Hydrangeas want more sun than is often claimed, but too much will give them daytime wilt which weakens them. As their name indicates, they like some water (but the Oakleafs don't need it). It's complicated.
Even the pros get confused about how to grow the hundreds of cultivars of the beloved Hydrangea family of flowering shrubs. Each Spring, I renew my confusion - especially when it comes to the topic of pruning the different categories. Not to mention the newer ever-blooming types. Most nursery plants are Asian in origin (obviously with plenty of genetic engineering applied to them for blooming purposes), but the old-fashioned Arborescens group derives from the North American wild plant. My favorites are the lacecap types, but I admire them all. Here are a few things I have learned, none of which applies to all Hydrangeas: - Hydrangeas like water, and generally do not prefer full-day sun. At least half-day is fine, preferably in the morning. Full shade does not work. - The pink and/or blue hydrangeas are indeed acidity-sensitive in flower color - Planting them where they are free to attain their full size without normal pruning (other than that all deciduous shrubs, once they are established and healthy, benefit from removal of 1/4 to 1/3 of the plant down to the ground, or at least the leggy or woody stems, each year) eliminates a lot of complexity. - Save the dang plant label in a file (best to do with any new plant) - Hydrangeas do not like much nitrogen fertilizing: it makes them grow leaves, not blooms. - If you trim or prune your plant wrong, or at the wrong time, you won't get any bloom. Some bloom on new growth, some on last year's growth, and some seem just to do their own thing. Here's a very basic Identify your hydrangea. Here's Pruning your Hydrangeas. Here's more info on that topic. Here are some basics on growing Hydrangeas Photo on top: A lacecap, "Blue Wave" Some pics from this week, below the fold - we went through a Hydrangea phase before our Hosta phase before....well, gardening never ends. Continue reading "Hydrangea Season and Hydrangea Confusion" Saturday, June 27. 2015Fruit Tree Care: Summer Pruning
I have never heard the concept, but it makes sense. I'll give it a try today. My peach tree does tend to get terribly overloaded.
Sunday, June 7. 2015At our family mountain retreatMountains are gorgeous! Not used to Spring greenery out here in the Sierras. Some rain, which is blessing - the Pacific currents re now favoring us! The photo is the largest clump we have seen in many decades of the rare Snow Plant (Sarcodes sanguinea) which grows in the thick humus of coniferous forests between 4,000-8,000 feet after the snow melts. We saw these at 7,100 feet on the road to our cabin. It is a root parasite, fleshy and nonphotosynthetic!
Posted by Gwynnie
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Sunday, May 24. 2015Life in America: Spring hobby plantingIt's a little early, but I put in tomato plants today and seeds for yellow beans, yellow squash, pumpkin and sugar baby watermelon. While we were working, a neighbor brought over a plate of ribs he had been cooking since morning. Nice. We have good neighbors. You just have to do the planting when you have the time, and hope for the best. Thanks to a daughter and her beau for helping me turn over the entire veg garden today. Many hands make light work. Their payment? I'll cook some fat Costco ribeye steaks with watermelon/mint/feta cheese salad, and, for dessert, vanilla ice cream with rhubarb (compote) from the garden. Then they can all (both daughters, and 2 beaus) spend the weekend reading on the porch and kayaking while we adults have our social schedules. I will need some meat tonight. Holiday or no, my trainer demon will be there 4:45 tomorrow morning and I have never missed. He wants me holding 150 lbs. on the bench. Thursday, April 23. 2015Daffodil and Narcissus toxicityLive and learn. Nobody would eat a daffodil bulb on purpose, but if you do it's bad news. Also, - Some people are highly allergic to daffodil sap. - Most other plants cannot tolerate daffodil or narcissus sap. They secrete something which prevents other stems from absorbing water. That's why you never see bouquets or vases with daff or narcissus cuttings shared with other flower or plant cuttings.
Sunday, April 19. 2015"Lenten Rose": HelleboresSaw these Hellebores in a springtime garden yesterday. Some varieties bloom in the snow, but most varieties bloom during the Lenten season. Unique plants. Here's Hellebores: An Introduction to the Genus Helleborus
Sunday, March 29. 2015More on pruning: How to deal with over-grown, leggy Mountain Laurel (and other things)
Cut 'em down. Replace it with something else. Mountain Laurel grows to 10-12 feet, and tends to be naturally leggy in its natural Northeastern Oak woodland habitats (see photo above). If it's "overgrown" that way in your around-the-house landscaping in places where it is meant to look green and full, it's because it was planted in the wrong place. It wants to stretch out, unless in full sun. With plenty of sun and rich, slightly acidic soil, it grows like this: Another alternative is, again, to cut it down to about 6-10" sticks in the Springtime, and let it re-start its growth from the bottom. Regrowth, though, will take far too long for most people to put up with. The same principle applies to leggy Rhododendron maximum, ("maxies").Come to think of it, also applies to leggy Lilacs. Shrubs get leggy naturally. Friday, February 13. 2015"I can’t make a living as a small farmer." Nobody told these people that they were creating a hobby farm, not a real business: What nobody told me about small farming: I can’t make a living You need to have spare money to run a hobby farm, whether it's vegetables, pigs, cattle, sheep, goats, etc. Often, such things are set up as tax dodges (agricultural land), never expected to make any meaningful profit themselves. Sunday, November 23. 2014What is Rye?
When I was discussing the crops of the early north American colonists, I wondered what exactly Rye is. It's not ryegrass. Rye.
Sunday, September 28. 2014This weekend is about your last chance to get your lawn in shape around hereAt least in the northern climes, it's the last chance to aerate or plug, overseed, and fertilize if you want a half-decent "grass garden" which is suitable for walking and dog abuse. As I always say, lawn grass is a garden. It's not natural, and needs care just like any garden. Lawns benefit a great deal from fall fertilizing. If lawns are walked on at all, they require aerating. It's not a rug. If you have a small lawn, you can do that by hand with a hand aerator or a spade: stick it in, wiggle it, and pull it out. A Spring or Fall aeration or plugging, a Fall overseeding, and three fertilizations per year ought to be good enough for any grass lawn, with or without irrigation but using a mulching mower. Readers know that I top-dress in Spring, but it might not be necessary for everybody. I like doing it. (The only purpose of irrigation is to make a lawn green when it doesn't want to be green. It's fine for ahow, but spray paint might be cheaper.) I advise doing those chores all at once. Do it now, and if you have a crabgrass problem, you can deal with it in the Spring with crabgrass-preventer. (You can't overseed and use crabgrass-preventer at the same time because the weed-preventer will prevent germination of your grass seed.) Best, most logical plan? Minimize your lawn and grow lots of trees and shrubs, and mulch the heck out of them. It's a shame that the "gracious lawn" became the American Way, as if our little 1-2-acre plots were English estates. Heck, all anybody needs is room for Croquet and Badminton, some walking paths and maybe a cool little putting green, but the American lawn has become the expected standard.
Posted by The Barrister
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Sunday, September 14. 2014How they hay those steep Alpine meadows, reposted
It was haying season when we were in the Italian alps and the Dolomites last September, so many of the meadows looked almost like golf courses. You can't get a baler on the steep slopes, so they store it loose. They don't let a scrap go to waste. They use equipment like this: Identify that garden flowerThe purplish one on the long stems, on the left (from somebody's garden in Wellfleet)
Friday, September 12. 2014Bird Dog's killer peach chutneyI finished off the peaches with something like this tonight - my own recipe: I had only around 20 peaches from my tree left after my previous chutney cooking last weekend. Skinned and roughly chopped them. There were plenty of bad spots. Then threw in the pile of chopped peaches to brew on a high simmer for around 40 or more minutes to simmer some of the juice off and to blend the flavors. Wish I could tell you how this smells, and how that sauce tastes. Spicy indeed. I'll call this one Ginger-Pepper-Peach-Garlic Chutney. It will cure cancer and chase away the Devil - and Mrs. BD loves it on grilled or broiled salmon. The modern wife likes to be well-taken care of by a farmer spouse while she tends to the young'uns. I'll freeze doses of this in freezer bags. Now I have a winter supply of mildly-peppery, and of highly-peppery, home-grown ("organic"!) peach chutney. Do you know how good this stuff is with cheese, meat, or even on crackers with cream cheese?
Posted by Bird Dog
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Thursday, September 11. 2014The story of the terrible Red Delicious appleThe Awful Reign of the Red Delicious - How the worst apple took over the United States, and continues to spread At the Maggie's HQ, the current favorite seems to be Fuji but I am fine with the old MacIntosh.
Posted by Bird Dog
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Tuesday, September 9. 2014Harvest time: Peach ChutneyAs I mentioned, we emptied the peach tree just in time to keep the possums from eating them all. Some were ripe (the peaches, not the possums), some still hard, and some over-ripe with moldy or mealy spots. The ripe ones are for eating today. The semi-hard ones go on the table in the sun. The hard ones, and the marred or half-bad ones, are for chutney. Some had a worm but I cut them out along with the bad spots. Worms do not eat much, and I don't bother spraying. This year, I am making some of it with light brown sugar, slivered red onions, cider vinegar, roughly-chopped jalapenos (lots - 5 of them in that pot), roughly-chopped fresh ginger so you can bite into a piece (lots), a big box of golden raisins, a little salt. I use recipes as rough suggestions. For hot peppers, I always triple whatever they say. Best not to overcook a chutney (or it will taste homogeneous and gooey like Major Grey's), and best to use it fresh. I'll freeze the excess - no need to can it. Too much trouble, and comes out tasting less fresh. Go easy on the vinegar, and add more if needed because peaches produce a lot of liquid themselves especially if they are near-ripe or over-ripe. Peach Chutney - good with fish, steak, chicken, pork, or on a ham or turkey sammich. Google it and find a wide variety of recipes. Below is a pic of a slightly-cooked one with a light honey sauce and a splash of vinegar, and a little chopped cilantro - some restaurants will make it like that, fresh every couple of days, as a fancy condiment for sole or chicken:
Posted by Bird Dog
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Monday, September 8. 2014Peach Season"If you don't want my peaches, don't shake my tree." That's a line from one of the versions of Blind Lemon Jefferson's perfect song from 1927 - "Matchbox Blues." I don't think Albert King used those lines in this version with Stevie Ray, though. I could listen to Albert all day long. Our peaches up here in Yankeeland begin to ripen right about now. I get a good crop from this tree every other year, but this is the second great year in a row. I see peach pies in my near future, and maybe a year's worth of canned peach chutney. Also, a good supply of fresh peach chutney, which is better than canned: takes about 15 minutes to make. Photo is from this afternoon:
Got em all picked tonight with a pal - on ladders in the dark while Mrs. BD held failing flashlight. Then saw this: Ancient peach stones offer clues to fruit’s origins
Posted by Bird Dog
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Sunday, August 17. 2014Hummingbirds love it
They do love my Trumpet Vines. I have a red one too.
Posted by Bird Dog
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Saturday, August 16. 2014A few classic floral stylesI've been given an education this week on classic, old-timey flower styles via Mrs. BD. I always like to learn new things and I like purty flowers. Who doesn't? Flower design is just ephemeral sculpture and I like seeing and smelling them around the olde HQ. Any old cabin like ours is enlivened by floral productions. Flowers are reproductive organs. This is English Garden Style (c. 1920s): More historical styles below the fold - Continue reading " A few classic floral styles" Saturday, August 9. 2014Globe Thistle An easy and tough plant for the perennial border, mid-summer bloomer. Comes in many varietals (races). Since I learned this week that talking about gardening is racist and classist (but is it sexist too?), I need to do more of it to offend our sensitive readers. Sunday, July 27. 2014Growing tomatoes in New England is retarded We must be stupid. Year after year, we invest gardening effort to produce delicious home-grown varieties - and, if we're lucky, get to eat them for maybe 6 weeks. And part of that time, you are elsewhere. Does that make sense? No, but it makes hobby-sense in the same way that trout-fishing does. Hobbies are not economic - which is why we term them hobbies. Do the math. All that those good garden tomatoes do, for a few weeks from August to September, is to make you hate store-bought cardboard ones and restaurant ones for the rest of the year. Nobody in my large gardening family has harvested a single tomato yet this summer (OK, it's been a cold summer due to climate change), not even a single cherry tomato. There are lots of vegetable crops one can grow successfully up here, and harvest sometime between June/July to frost in October: rhubarb, peas, beans, summer squash, winter squash and pumpkin, greens of all sorts, fruit trees of course and grapes, berries, root crops, onions, cucumber, corn, etc. Why bother with all that when those things are dirt-cheap at the store? What we really grow best in our gardens are fat deer, fat chipmunks, fat rabbits, and fat woodchucks. Tomatoes? Not a one yet. I love a tomato sandwich: white bread, mayo, salt and pepper, and fat slices of tomato hot from the garden. Why do we persist? I think it's about the power of intermittent positive reinforcement from a few of those tomato sandwiches. That's how fishing and hunting work, too. We New England Yankees may have no sense, but we have our traditions and our seasonal habits which are the fabric of our lives, rational or not. Well, not rational at all if you value your free time above zero. One tip for those in my situation: Buy big fat beefsteak tomatoes at the supermarket and grill them, sautee them, or bake them. Some flavor appears. Better than nothing. Sunday, June 29. 2014Hardy HibiscusA cool plant for those of us who live north of regular southern Hibiscus-land. It is aka Rose Mallow. They produce large, dramatic, July-Oct blooms, die back in the winter and return slowly - then quickly - from their large, deep, and study roots in Spring. Full sun, and water. If you like cottage-door (biennial) Hollyhocks, these are similar but reliably perennial, and just as popular with butterflies and hummingbirds. Some varietals grow 3-4' high in a bushy way, others 5-7' high in a hollyhock style. (This is not to disparage Hollyhock-lovers. I do understand. Everybody's grandma had them at the back door and they are a sentimental favorite, same as Delphiniums.) A northern shrub, Rose of Sharon, has similar-looking blossoms, but it's a real shrub, not a "flower". Wednesday, June 4. 2014Mint is a good flavorMint is a weed if you let it loose in your garden. It needs to be grown in pots, or out loose in a field but it is also one of the most pleasant flavorings which exist. In the eastern Med, it's a major herb. In Turkey and environs, they mix it with yoghurt for a sauce for roast meat and fish. In Sicily, they served boiled taters with chopped mint. Quite pleasant, and an improvement on parsley. No recipe needed. An occasional Mint Julep is pleasant, too, and I like to dry the leaves coated with sugar for treats on top of ice cream. Have to give those arabs credit for what they added to Med cuisine - but even more credit to the food explorers of the Americas: tomato, potato, squash, maize, avocado, peppers, beans, cocoa, etc., etc. These things were worth more than the gold, in the end, from a culinary standpoint. What the heck did they eat without those things?
Posted by Bird Dog
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