Tag: William Daniel Ross
-
How to Use Tanglefoot (And Why Fruit Trees Need It)
It’s time for a follow-up to my Organic Orcharding post, specifically a detailed look at how to use Tanglefoot for non-toxic pest control in a holistic fruit tree orchard. For readers wondering about zone compatibility and looking for a regional reference to help you evaluate the relevance of this post to your individual growing conditions,…
-
Radishes and Radish Greens
On this technicolor Tuesday I present to you one of our flashiest May garden treats, French Breakfast Radishes. Field and forrest foraged veggies — like stinging nettles, wild ramps, and fiddleheads — are nature’s charitable reminder that winter has once again yielded to spring. Then our vegetable gardens begin to awaken with asparagus and spinach that spoil…
-
Organic Orcharding
For the last few years I’ve made brazen claims about holistic, organic gardening and orcharding. No pesticides. No way; no how. Period. No exceptions. I’ve refused to spray our fruit trees to inoculate them against all of the baddies that lurk in an orchard’s tender places. I’ve refuted the discouraging oracles who assure me that I will fail; that a…
-
Bobcat Sighting
This handsome bobcat (Lynx rufus) was photographed with game camera in one of our meadows on January 2, 2016. Friend and Essex neighbor John Davis mounted the camera about a month ago. In addition to photographs of deer, turkeys, and rabbits he discovered four images (from two separate occasions) of this healthy bobcat. In fact, he thinks it might possibly…
-
Why Are My Cucumbers Orange?
Why are my cucumbers orange? They’re turning yellow-orange, to be precise… This summer we have enjoyed more productive cucumber plants than ever before, but recently the enormous fruit are discoloring from green to yellow to orange before we can eat them. Here’s the reason why. Cucumbers turn orange when they grow excessively ripe before harvesting,…
-
Snakes, Swiss Chard & Automobiles
A week ago today was a day for snakes. Though – sadly, I must add – it was not a day for living snakes… Rattlesnakes and White Tail Deer Let’s start with the good news. Or at least the benign-if-slightly-amusing news. To set the stage, imagine yourself walking across the still dewy lawn south of…
-
Broccoli Bonanza
For the first time in my gardening life I am enjoying homegrown broccoli from our vegetable garden. Better yet? It’s totally organic and totally pest free! That’s a broccoli bonanza! Our friend, neighbor and gardening guru Catherine Seidenberg asked me back in May why we weren’t planting broccoli. She had just agreed to join “Team…
-
Plum Premature Fruit Drop
For weeks I’ve been anticipating our first crop of plums. A small crop, but proof that the last few years nurturing our plum trees to health despite hail storms and severe Adirondack winters, Japanese beetles and a zero pesticide regimen was worth it. And then this! Plum premature fruit drop… Today is July 15, 2015…
-
Protecting Strawberries from Squirrels
Of all the ways that gardeners try protecting strawberries from birds, bird netting offers the best solution. Learn how to safely protect your strawberries. (Source: Bonnie Plants) I mentioned to Catherine Seidenberg recently that strawberry bandits persistently steal/damage our ripe strawberries. The first couple of years after we established our strawberry patch, we produced an excess of strawberries.…
-
Mid-May Grafting Update
Some discouraging grafting news this morning: all three apple trees that I grafted with my father a little less than a month ago appear to be rejecting the grafts. No, that’s a bit presumptuous. The trees probably aren’t responsible for the failed grafts, I am. I found no indication that any of our grafts have taken. Most of…
-
De-Icing the Duck Pond
Let me start by saying that we don’t have a duck pond. We have a lake. Lake Champlain. And although it pains me slightly to say it, we also don’t have any ducks. Not personally, at least. Lake Champlain, on the other hand, has plenty of ducks. And when the lake freezes and the ducks…