tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5138459729531944998.post1802300152180701242..comments2024-03-11T02:25:25.123-05:00Comments on Living Low in the Lou: The slow transition to autumnSLClairehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17307602613058790026noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5138459729531944998.post-49063553735485518272015-09-05T05:50:00.403-05:002015-09-05T05:50:00.403-05:00Hi Claire,
No worries, that is a good system for ...Hi Claire,<br /><br />No worries, that is a good system for replies - to be honest, I only have so much tolerance for screen time.<br /><br />Yeah, batteries aren't all the same and I stick to quality "Eneloop" NiMh (Nickel Metal Hydride) rechargeable here and they operate at a lower voltage than alkaline batteries so it can be a nuisance from time to time.<br /><br />Your lettuce plants are interesting to read about because they self-seed here and are even starting to turn up in paths and garden beds, but are happily growing right now. I wonder about the benefits of selecting seed from the best growing lettuce from your garden and seeing what happens over a few generations? You never know.<br /><br />I do hope that you enjoy a garden fed, fresh rabbit! Yum!<br /><br />The dam held, but overflowed severely and caused flooding downstream, but with the exception of the unusually cold winter the weather here has been mild - so far.<br /><br />Really good to read about the frogs and wrens in your garden as they will work very hard for you. The decline in the butterfly population is a bit of a worry though. Do you get many caterpillars in your garden?<br /><br />You can either purchase or make insect hotels and they will significantly increase the diversity and resiliency of your garden. The first year that I brought bees onto the farm, the fruit set increased quite markedly.<br /><br />Cheers. ChrisFernglade Farmhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06950962122594709186noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5138459729531944998.post-87953825839364925202015-08-31T18:56:12.091-05:002015-08-31T18:56:12.091-05:00I just direct-sowed lettuce, spinach, and cilantro...I just direct-sowed lettuce, spinach, and cilantro in our St. Louis metro yard (St. Charles County.) My first time trying planting for a fall crop. I'll let you know how it goes.<br />lovevaleriehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15526218377088001472noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5138459729531944998.post-41360786364007417542015-08-30T17:58:11.595-05:002015-08-30T17:58:11.595-05:00Hi Chris,
Always good to hear from you! I think I...Hi Chris,<br /><br />Always good to hear from you! I think I'll adopt your system of responding to some comments in the following post. I tend not to check for comments till I start on the next post - in fact, I don't use the computer every day, especially during the growing season.<br /><br />You'll have seen above that I did get the camera to work. I felt a bit silly about the cause, to be truthful. It was entirely my own fault. Whether or not the difficulty with Blogger is my own fault as well is unclear at this point.<br /><br />My other camera is a 33 year old Canon SLR film camera. It takes far better photos than the digital camera, which is a point-and-shoot type that is a hand-me-down. The film camera needs a little repair work. It has a light leak that can be fixed but is only now moving up far enough on my personal priority list to get the work done. <br /><br />The rabbits are wild rabbits who know a good place to live when they have found it. I don't mind their being here at all as long as they stick to eating herbaceous plants outside of the vegetable gardens. In fact, I enjoy watching them go about their rabbit business. Yes, I do have to fence them away from young shrubs and trees; they bite off part of the trunk if it's small enough for them to get their mouths around. Any woody plant that small has a circle of hardware cloth (like chicken wire but much smaller openings and much sturdier) around it that is tall enough to keep the rabbits from biting the trunk. Once the trunk is big enough around I remove the hardware cloth. So far the rabbits have been content to leave the bark on the trees and shrubs alone or at least not eat it the whole way around the trunk. I fence in the vegetable gardens, but not well enough to keep out all the rabbits. This is the first time they have eaten the carrot crop; next year I'll be prepared for them. (Later this year, when rabbit hunting season opens, I hope at least one of them finds its way into a meal. Mike has a hunting license, and I and rabbit stew go a long way back.)<br /><br />I'm sorry to hear about the flooding in NSW. Not at all good. Hurricanes can bring that level of rain to the US, and sometimes training thunderstorms bring several inches or more to this area in a day. It's always bad flooding when that happens. Hope that dam in NSW held.<br /><br />My meditations will include musings on potential housing for pollinators. Mike has made houses for wrens (small insect-eating birds) and might be interested in making housing for other critters. We already have southern leopard frogs living on our property and I have found wasp nests the hard way as well as the preferable way of seeing them first. We leave wasp nests be as they are helpful predators. I see plenty of bees of different kinds around the herb garden already but I need to learn if I can improve on the habitat for them. We used to have lots of butterflies - sadly, butterfly populations seem to have gone down a lot everywhere, not just in our yard. We still see butterflies but lots less than in past years.SLClairehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17307602613058790026noreply@blogger.com