Aesthetic Garden Blogs

Although I went through many blogs to assemble a blog list, the most beautiful simply will not cut and paste into the list. It is an illustrated blog ---
http://valwebb.wordpress.com/ An Illustrated Garden, Val Webb's Studio. This blog features Val's drawings. She features her botanical art. Look on the blog for a botanical art tutorial!

An Artist's Garden, has many photos of her garden in England. Karen Hall's exciting photos and observations feature:
March meet at malvern my garden my life ornamental grass photography rain sea seeds slide show spring spring flowers studio sunset texture thanks tulips turning year weather weekend walk wildlife wordless wednesday
Heirloom Gardener, set in Chatham, NJ, features the photos and lessons of a "full time mother of five."
"My garden is on a sloped less-than-half an acre and includes a Cutting Garden, a Rose Garden, a Children's Garden, and several mixed borders." The photos and lessons are in that space, and a rich space it is.

Jim Long's Garden showcases his photos of herbs---and his capsule descriptions of conditions at this time of year.
"The traditional winter herbs we think of around the holidays, such as sage, rosemary, thyme and hyssop, are herbs that warm the body. They're typically European herbs, coming from places that are cold in winter, places where winter foods historically included fat roasted goose, pork, bacon, ham.

"

Thoreau and Woodchucks

Woe Be the Wily Woodchuck!

"As I came home through the woods with my string of fish, trailing my pole, it being now quite dark, I caught a glimpse of a woodchuck stealing across my path, and felt a strange thrill of savage delight, and was strongly tempted to seize and devour him raw; not that I was hungry then, except for that wildness which he represented." ---Henry David Thoreau,Walden.

Thoreau was angry at woodchucks: one ate 1/4 an acre of his bean crop.The woodchuck has little reprieve from the wrath of other gardeners.
This is a quick review of the methods most often used to curb the woodchuck’s enthusiasm for garden areas.Shooting? '
There is a $99 fine for shooting the woodchuck out of season---but there is very little time that is out of season!

The season is :Sept.29-Dec. 6,2008-Dec. 15, 16, and 18-31; 2009, Jan. 1 to Feb. 16, 2009; March 2-Sept. 30.

Live Traps? Advice from many sources includes the observation that live-trapping chucks and letting them go causes their premature death. Their habits are inflicted on new people.
It’s also illegal to release a wild animal in NJ.

Woodchucks do not appear to be scared by motion devices, nor much by a scarecrow. Sprays and hot sauces appear to affect them little---and the home gardener much. The amount of time for reapplication and concern about the chemicals on produce was key here. Finally, the use of an electrified fence was seen as effective---as is a fence dug very deep under the ground. The fence needs to be bent outwards-and hung in a wobbly way so the critter cannot parade on top of the fence in front of you,taunting you with vegetables.

If the effort becomes too much, The New York Times featured a Thoreaurian way of dealing with the woodchuck:a recipe for Woodchuck au Vin , as well as a recipe for Peppery Woodchuck in Wine and Olives (June 05, 2008. ) Thoreau didn't have it as good!

Figs Again

Time for thinking about figs again! Overwintering them, starting cuttings, rooting twigs in numerous ways. Last year, my figs did not root. I had ten cuttings, in the soil recommended by Bill Muzinsky, with root hormone on the calloused tips, shielded by plastic from dryness---and they rotted.

The varieties used were: Mezzalina, Nero, Stella and the Brown T
urkey Fig. I had the Brown Turkey from two years ago---the others I bought in Nov. 2009 from Bill.
So armed with the knowledge of what did NOT work is a plan: use three varieties of rooting. Cuttings in soil, cuttings in a bag and cuttings in water.



I am using all four varieties, but being very careful about moisture. The California literature said to have the soil almost dry before watering again. I'll have to see how that plays out.


Some of the literature on this is at the links listed below:

Figs Tutorial: From Twigs to Figs: http://www.figs4fun.com/basics.html
http://www.crfg.org/pubs/ff/fig.html ---(12 inch cuttings)

http://nafex.org/figs.htm

CRFG Fruit Facts http://crfg.org/pubs/ff/fig.html and
CRFG Fig Specialist http://www.crfg.org/frtspec.html

Friends of Figs http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FriendsoftheFigSociety/