Wednesday, October 7, 2015

A day with many, small pieces

Picture taken from beneath the swing set in an attempt to capture the effect of the rising sun on the dewy grass.
I have to finish mowing the grass.  I expect that this will be the last time I will mow in 2015.  We have some more wet weather coming so today is the "window".

Sunchokes, aka, Jerusalem Artichokes (Helianthus tuberosus) are a wild, perennial sunflower.
They produce edible tubers.
I found a stand of "wild" sunchokes.  "Wild" could mean that they are a legacy stand from local Native American tribes that frequented the area.  Sunchokes naturalize well and provide good screening.  I will plant these near the road.

Dosing the dogs


Today is the day I will de-worm the dogs.  They get dosed with Pyrantel Pamoate suspension for intestinal worms and ivermectin for heart worms.

They will also get dose for fleas.  I will change out the bedding in their house.  I still have a bag of oak leaves from last year.

This is not a good day if you are a parasite on, or inside, one of the ERJ dogs.

Digging potatoes


Yup, I gotta dig a row.  Mrs ERJ told me to.  We are out of taters in the house.

I also need to head out the rest of the Brussel Sprouts.  I am experimenting with the best time to head them.  I headed out half of them Sept 20.  I will do the rest today.  It will not be a very good experiment because the deer ate many of the leaves from the plants.  That will pollute the results.

Call a consultant


The Befuddled Bombardier is my consultant for all things "Pets".  He is more fun than a barrel of intoxicated monkeys. 
It is normal for bloggers to come across as experts on everything.  We are not.

I am need of help on my guerrilla gardening project.  I went to the local big box store to buy some clumping cat litter.  There were about 30 different types of cat litter.  I was baffled.  Is scoopable the same as clumping?  Everything had deodorants and enhancements.  Does anybody make unscented, undeodorized, clumping cat litter?

I have to pull in an expert, shown above.  He is already suited up for lobbing black walnuts and clayballs into swales.

Plant some acorns



The spring I married Mrs ERJ we planted an oak tree.  I want to have some seedlings from that tree on my property where I can keep an eye on them.  I planted many acorns from that tree over the years but I did not keep track of them.  I cannot point at any specific tree and say "That one is a seedling of our 'wedding' tree."

I plan to plant these in five gallon nursery pots.  Maybe ten per pot.  I need to put screen over them to keep the squirrels out.  Maybe I can keep track of these. 


The red berries are from a Jack-in-the-Pulpit plant that got clobbered by deer.  It was growing beneath chestnut trees.

Have fun out there.  I have a long day ahead of me.

3 comments:

  1. How long do you keep the potato's in the ground? Are there rot concerns? Do they freeze and go bad?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes, they can freeze and go bad. I can think of nothing that smells worse than a frozen potato as it decays.

      I figure I have until Dec 1 to get them out of the ground. I lose a few to bugs and roots growing through them, but not enough to be a big deal.

      I have planted in low spots where they rotted due to immersion. That is not a problem where I now garden.

      Delete
  2. Good luck with ALL the projects!

    ReplyDelete

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