I am an expert in digging holes. That I can do. There is no shovel Olympics but if there was I could at least bring home the silver. Every hole I dug began with a certain anticipation of what I would find. There would be dirt and rocks and sometimes a few …
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January 25, 2023
The thimbleberry represents one of those fruit plants with a certain mystique around it. Many people throughout the world know this plant in its northern arboreal habitats including many mountainous regions within the United States. It is one of many circumpolar plants found on several continents. Yet, no one cultivates it. Why would you? There are …
Continue reading “Cultivating a Wild Plant the Thimbleberry Way”…
January 21, 2023
My two year old peach and apple trees grown from seeds. Soilicious made it not only possible but highly probable that the trees were going to live through that critical first year without water or tending in any way. Forty years ago it was difficult for me to establish trees in my open pasture. Now …
Continue reading “Soilicious for Establishing Trees in Open Fields”…
December 16, 2022
When I started my farm after college in the early 80’s I soon found out that my limited resources was not going to allow me to plant a typical orchard of grafted fruit cultivars let alone a barn to work in or irrigation. (That took me another decade to accomplish.) I began to look for …
December 12, 2022
You might be surprised at the shenanigans of the nursery industry. I wince when I think my own problems I encountered let alone scaled up versions of the same or different issues running a small business. Most are just odd things that occur but they all taught me valuable lessons. When I closed my nursery, …
Continue reading “Nursery Confidential: You Might Be Surprised”…
November 28, 2022
The Milkweed Forest On one of my family’s Christmas tree farms a great expanse of milkweed existed. This was due to an over application of Simazine herbicide which sterilized the soil for several years. This not only wiped out all existing vegetation, it prevented everything else from germinating. Apparently milkweed was immune to this. The …
November 17, 2022
It all started with jury duty. In this case, it was purgatory with magazines. The waiting room was stacked with magazines as it was the era before cell phones. A Smithsonian article on corn and its possible origins caught my attention. I dove in. Apparently a scientist discovered a species of grass unrelated to corn …
October 24, 2022
Last seen on Belle Isle, Michigan in 1896, the thicket bean established itself in the thickets of this island in the middle of the Detroit River. It was never seen again. “If native, this was surely at the northern edge of the range for this species” wrote Edward G. Voss in Michigan Flora Part 2 …
Continue reading “The Thicket Bean Makes a Return to Michigan”…
October 18, 2022
Not too far from this wonderful slippery elm tree on my family’s farm was a great field of rye my father and I created. Like this tree, the rye field idea was latent and was not discovered until later in life. Who knew it was there all along? The field was the last thing we …
October 12, 2022
To grow a pear tree as a source of wood for musical instruments seemed like a long shot when I first started. I got the idea initially from a Hohner pear wood recorder I purchased in high school. I had quit playing trumpet and needed another avenue. Please note I was not aware of Miles …