Month: August 2013

Posted on in Gardening

Digital Flowers

Anemone hupehensis var japonica_Japanese Anemone_BellevueBG-WA_LAH_6758.nefWe name our computers. Doesn’t everyone?

No, we don’t consider them pets. (Although we do name our chickens, and they are pets to a great degree.)

We name our computers because we have so many. I work from home, Pete’s ministry occupies an office in town that he shares with co-workers, and we’re all networked together—hence, lots of computers. They have to have names so the network can tell them apart. And while we could have given them any names at all, that just seemed boring. We decided to stick with a theme.

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Posted on in Birds

Flow-through Ventilation

Snow Geese_BosquedelApacheNWR-NM_LAH_6899.nef

I was watching a skein of geese flying south for the winter, individuals arranged in a typical V-shape, each bird pumping its wings up, down, up, down, hour after hour after hour. Just watching them, knowing how many hundreds, thousands, of miles they had to go before they reached their destination, made me exhausted.

Then there are the songbirds, who migrate so high that we don’t even notice them. How do they travel such long distances, exerting themselves where the air is so thin? Even more, they can fly and vocalize at the same time. (When I’m hiking at high elevations, it’s all I can do to gasp for air; I can’t even talk, much less sing!)

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Posted on in Gardening, Green Gardening Tips, Landscaping, Xeriscape

Stop Fighting Mother Nature

Penstemon 'Red Rocks' @ExtDemoGarden 2008sept25 LAH 264Alkaline soils, sparse rainfall, extreme temperatures, low fertility. Colorado doesn’t exactly sound like a gardener’s paradise. Few places do. Lamenting the current drought and expected summer water restrictions, I often dream of gardening in a place with ample rainfall. Wouldn’t it be wonderful?

Then I visited my daughter in western Washington. She and her husband live in Everett, north of Seattle. They have a view (on a rare clear day) looking east to the Cascades. These impressive mountains form a barrier blocking clouds that would otherwise move on into eastern Washington and Idaho. As a result, my daughter’s area gets a lot of rain.

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Posted on in Birding Trips, Birds

Why I Didn’t Get the Shot

BrettGrayRanch-CO_LAH_1893-001Last spring, our Audubon chapter organized a field trip to a Nature Conservancy property, the Brett Gray Ranch. Located out on the short-grass prairies east of Colorado Springs, the ranch has widely diverse habitat. Dry grasslands, riparian cottonwoods, marsh and pond attract birds from miles around to eat and drink at this oasis on the plains.

Our group included several “power birders,” luminaries who excelled at spotting and identifying rarities. I was eager to follow in their footsteps. Lugging my largest lens and bulky tripod, I just knew I was going to get spectacular photos.

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Posted on in Veggies

Too Much Zucchini?

  • Zucchini - large @DBG LAH 355Are you growing zucchini in your garden?
  • Are your plants… prolific?
  • Do your neighbors hide when they see you coming?
  • Do you sneak over at midnight to leave it on their porch?

You might be showing signs of zucchini overabundance! Luckily for you, I have some suggestions for dealing with an onslaught of squash. (And if you don’t have too many zucchinis, check out my post on squash pollination.)

If you’re going to use up zucchini, you have to prepare it in appetizing ways. No one wants to stare at a mess of soggy, overcooked squash day after day after day. For best results, vary your recipes enough that no one notices the main ingredient stays the same. Here are some suggestions to get you started…

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Posted on in Plant Profiles

Sneezeweed

helenium-sneezeweed-csutilxeriscapegarden-9aug2006-lah165rWhy would you grow a flower called Sneezeweed? Picture a striking, three-foot high perennial covered with 2 to 3 inch daisy-like flowers of yellow, orange, red, rust, and copper. The leaves are six inches long, lance-shaped and dark green. Actually, the name comes from the use of the dried leaves and flowers as snuff; the pollen is unlikely to cause hay fever. However, handling the plant can cause an allergic reaction, so it’s wise to use gloves. Also, the plants are bitter and toxic, so keep them away from small children and pets.

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Posted on in Veggies

Tiny Black, Jumping Leaf-chompers

Flea beetle damage on bok choy_BlkForest-CO_LAH_3411 Our family loves bok choy, so I always plant at least one block of the baby variety. And every year I harvest bok choy that looks as if it’s been peppered with buckshot. I can explain that I washed the leaves and they’re perfectly safe to eat, but really—who wants to eat leaves that were eaten by something else first? Ewww.

The culprit behind all those holes is an aggravating insect called a Flea Beetle. No, they aren’t really fleas, and they only bite plants, not people. If you look closely, you’ll see they’re shaped like beetles (fleas are vertically flattened). Still, they are very small, dark brown to black, and they can jump—just like fleas. And just like fleas, they can drive you crazy.

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