Weeding, the basic blocking-and-tackling of gardening

Three days of dry weather after a rain is the Goldilock's time before tilling, at least with the kinds of soil I am dealing with.

A woodchuck got in and had her way with the green beans and cucumbers and lettuce.

I tilled Southern Belle's garden today. It looks a lot better after running the tiller between the rows and touching up with the hoe.

This apple tree was buried in the hawthorn and honeysuckle. The gentleman who Southern Belle hired to clear out the brush agreed to leave this tree.

I am curious to test the apples after they ripen. Even if they are terrible, I can always graft over it.

And about that pear tree I grafted...

Everything about that tree screamed "PEAR!". The twigs. The tree form. How it suckered. Everything.

So I grafted Concorde and an early pear on to it.

Something seemed off...so I looked at it more closely. It is an apple tree. The Concorde pear is doing very well on it while the early pear is not thriving. Yes, I make mistakes just like everybody else.

I am not holding my breath. Incompatibility is often delayed. It will probably reject the Concorde grafts, too.

After finishing up at Southern Belle's, I tilled the home garden but I didn't pull weeds or touch-up with the hoe. I will do that tomorrow.

If any of you have suggestions for plants I can "plug in the holes" where several plants died then I am all ears. For example, I have some very spotty rows of field corn. Maybe black oiler sunflowers? I am racing against the clock. 

Red Pop

The Shekel has a post up about Faygo Red Pop. 

Growing up in Michigan, Faygo commercials were a regular feature of local TV programming. They really pushed Red Pop, maybe because the national producers didn't occupy that niche.

Fine Art Tuesday

Fridolin Leiber born 1843 in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. He died in 1912.

He specialized in lithographs which was an early form of color printing with limitations regarding detail and colors.

There was a large market for religious and moral images with book-marker sized and post-card sized images being big sellers.

Snobs would likely turn up their noses at his work, scoffing that they were "commercial illustrations, not art", but in modern language, Leiber' work was guided by "crowd-sourced knowledge" and was very well executed within the limitations of the technology. 

 

Hat-tip to nameless in unnamed, fly-over state