Tag: environment

  • Bee Nature; Be Nature

    Please feel absolutely free to share this postvwith others who may bee interested. 🙏🌱🙏 Bee Nature; Be Nature: As for pollinators… In the Casper Wyoming area, my OLLI 4 hour Pollinator Garden class is on Sat July 13, 2024 from 10am to 2pm. Call the Casper College OLLI Office to sign up! 307.268.3401 For everyone,

    Read more

  • Special Order Plants: Just Breathe…. Elderberry for Heart and Respiration

    From the rich, deep blue-black of the ripe berries to jam simmering on the stove…from full, lacy umbrellas of tiny, creamy white flowers steeped for tea, this native is so beautiful in texture and color and grows amazingly well even in the Wyoming salty clay soil. The Elderberry shrub is native to the entire northern

    Read more

  • New USDA Zone Map: Critical Thinking and Your Observations Are More Important

    New USDA Zone Map: GIS and 30 years of data and over 30,000 collection points still requires that you use your elegantly evolved powers of observation.  This map is “general” within the millions of years of the planet, and general to your personal portion of the landscape. But it is important for a trend, a

    Read more

  • Squashland… where pollen feeds the workers…

    And the fall approaches… the pollinators and I are both preparing for winter. The Squash plants are buzzing, trembling with bee wings. This year will include some Yellow Crooked Neck Squash, a Yellow Winter Squash hybrid (seeds from last year) and firm, large zucchini. I love the hybrid. Easy to carve out and the skin

    Read more

  • Everbearing: Time and Space

    A humid, wet spring ends your hope for Red Currants, but a few warm, clear days gives you baskets of Black Currants. A monsoonal down pour destroys the Native Plum blossoms, but the tiny, hidden green flowers of the Valiant Grape give you pounds of grapes in August. Honoring diversity of plants and temporal and

    Read more

  • The Flowers of Late Summer

    Late summer is so important for the plants, for the pollinators, and for our harvest. These flowers provide food for pollinators that are getting prepared to hibernate; food packed as tiny pellets placed in pollinator nests with their eggs in hollow stems and underground to feed newly hatched babies after spring thaw… food to prepare

    Read more

  • Radical and Root Have the Same Origin

    Most folks who follow me have no ‘edge’, no passion for the radical approach. Their gardening comes more from the institutionalized Master Gardener dogma perspective. I engage with them believing that there will be a moment when the light will go on and they will realize how strong they can be from seeing their place

    Read more

  • Spring Into Action 2

    Tasks for April 18:Pasture Management – move cows into Hayfield #2 to graze cheat grass and foxtail coming up. Duck Mulch – continue cleaning out duck pen and shelters and move to storage to compost. Also reduces mice, which reduces snakes close to the cabin. Rain Capture – install new parts for 250 gallon poly

    Read more

  • Spring Into Action 1

    Spring Task Series:Welcome to Spring at the Refuge!! A lot of the things you see here will be things you might also be doing around your landscape and gardens. Activities for April 16, 2023Plant herb seeds in window pots – #basil and #cilantro (how I miss homemade #pesto!!) Hook up all rain barrels- NOAA has

    Read more

  • Pressed Between the Pages: The Reading List

    I’m one of those folks who just has to have a real book in my hands to get “in the flow”. I have always had a library, and still love used book stores. I miss them terribly.  There’s nothing like sitting on the hard wood floor with a large mug of deep black coffee, shelves

    Read more