Three engineers...  

With five degrees, and it took all we had to get this up this weekend.

It should be clear why a 64' x 30' workshop was needed to support this structure.

Maybe it's time for Internet controls...

So Jan was sharing the latest hot topic on her garden blogs this morning.

To think I let her have my children!

Obviously not a vote...

In favor of our current farm policy.  It seems some folks are getting worried that we farmers will let them down in the fast approaching apocalypse.

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Survival Seed Bank
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor Fox News

But wait - there's more!

What’s so special about these seeds, you may ask? I’ll let them tell you:
·    “Non-hybrid seeds can be grown practically anywhere and have the ability to assimilate mineral and trace elements from the soil that man made plants just don't seem to have.”
·    “Each seed package is sealed in a special foil packet with a very expensive desiccant designed to keep seeds fresh for 20 years at 70 degrees.”
·    “More valuable than silver or gold in a real meltdown.”
·    “Hundreds of pounds of food for $.01 per pound.”

Let’s tackle these claims, shall we? We’ll start with the “non-hybrid” claim, which is the only one with any potential validity. Like all good scams, there’s a grain of truth to it, since hybrid seeds can’t be saved after harvesting and grow true to type next year, and heirloom seeds do contribute to sustainability in that way. And I can’t totally disagree with a point made by one of the most rabid seed survivalists, who bluntly claims, “Monsanto hates you.” But “man-made plants”? Give me a break. Don’t tell that to the birds and bees that have been cross-pollinating plants since the beginning of time, to poor Gregor Mendel rolling over in his grave, or even to the folks at Johnny’s Seeds who do such a fine job with F1 plant varieties.

Most of these companies don’t bother to explain why “non-hybrid” seeds are even potentially advantageous, and the whole thing is clearly marketed to the average American consumer in an attempt to profit from a combination of fear in this dreary economy and the home gardening trend. This is best exemplified in the generic selection of seeds for anywhere in the country. Sorry sweetheart, but if anything, heirloom seeds are most valuable when grown in their native climate. The one-size-fits-all tack taken by seed survivalists belies the low opinion these companies have for their customers. Nowhere on these websites are growing zones or germination rates mentioned. Someone planting that spinach in Georgia is in for a rude awakening when it bolts in the span of a week, and some guy in Minnesota isn’t going to have great luck with cantaloupe. [More of a great post]

I know I'm  looking forward to bartering my kernels for insurance and deodorant.  Wait - I forgot!  I'm growing "man-made" plants, which are only good for...the same thing as non-hybrid plants.

So what are you planting...

In your Imperial garden?

[More]

Bwahh-haaa-haaa



[via presurfer]

6,000,001...6,000,002...6,000,003...

I'm in charge of lady beetle eradication in our house.  Because I can reach the ceiling with the vacuum.  And I am an expert with that power tool, as with many household chores.

But how many of those rascals are there? And why have they moved in?

The little guys are called multicolored Asian lady beetles.They are related to our native ladybugs, but the name ought to be a tip-off that they are not American citizens.
Our native ladybird beetles spend the winter protected by piles of leaves or in crevices. The Asian cousins overwinter in cliff faces. Imagine how disappointed they were to come to Michigan and find a complete lack of cliff faces. So they took the next best thing, and that was large vertical surfaces called house walls.
In the early fall, they mainly land on southern and western sides of houses and squeeze themselves into cracks.
Eventually, they end up in the wall void between the outside wall and the inside wall. On sunny days, the wall void heats up and the little lady beetles pop out next to windows or under baseboards. Your tiny aliens aren't outside; they are already in and just coming in a bit more.
They are under the misguided impression that spring has come.
While they are wandering around, they don't eat or damage anything. The only damage may occur when you bash them and cause them to stain a surface with their bodily fluids.
And whose fault is that?
Since they are just coming out of dormancy, pesticides rarely kill them. Their metabolisms are too slow. Grab the vacuum and suck them up. [More]

Like kudzu, we most did this to ourselves.

This species was possibly established in North America as the result of introductions into the United States in an attempt to control the spread of aphids. Whatever the source, in the last two decades, this insect has spread throughout the United States and Canada and has been a prominent factor in controlling aphid populations.
In the U.S., the first attempts to introduce it took place as far back as 1916. Repeated efforts were not successful. In the early 1980s, aphids were causing significant problems for growers of pecan trees, so the United States Department of Agriculture again attempted to bring the insect into the country—this time in the southeastern United States, using beetles brought from their native region in northeastern Asia. After a period of time, USDA scientists concluded that their attempts had been unsuccessful. However, a population of beetles was observed near New Orleans, Louisiana around 1988, though this may have been an accidental introduction event independent of the original, planned efforts. In the following years it quickly spread to other states, being occasionally observed in the Midwest within 5–7 years, and becoming common in the region by about 2000. The species was also established in the northwest by 1991, and the northeast by 1994, in the former case quite possibly involving additional introductions, rather than reaching there from the southeast. It is reported that it has heavily fed on soybean aphids (which recently appeared in the U.S. after coming from China), supposedly saving farmers vast sums of money in 2001.
Many people now view this species as a nuisance^[4], partly due to their tendency to overwinter indoors and the unpleasant odor and stain left by their bodily fluid when frightened or squashed. (It is also currently increasing in Europe to the detriment of indigenous species, due to its voracious appetite which enables them to out-compete and even eat other lady beetles, as it also does in the United States.)
In addition to its household pest status, it has been reported to be a minor agricultural pest (contaminating crops of tender fruits and grapes)^[5] in Iowa, Ohio, New York State, and Ontario[3]. The contamination of grapes by this beetle has been found to alter the taste of wine^[6]. [More]

I can tolerate them dropping off the ceiling into my supper dish, but I draw the line at wine contamination - especially our cherished Iowa wines.

 [Source]

I suspect milder winters aren't helping. And to be fair, I haven't had to spray for soybean aphids yet either.

Still, cute wears off after a few million.

Eat 'em while you got 'em...

As if we haven't been waiting all summer for tomatoes to finally ripen here in the soggy, cool Midwest, just as we begin to enjoy the fruit of our (ahem - Jan's) labor, a nasty problem has developed.

The latest trouble is the explosion of late blight, a plant disease that attacks potatoes and tomatoes. Late blight appears innocent enough at first — a few brown spots here, some lesions there — but it spreads fast. Although the fungus isn’t harmful to humans, it has devastating effects on tomatoes and potatoes grown outdoors. Plants that appear relatively healthy one day, with abundant fruit and vibrant stems, can turn toxic within a few days. (See the Irish potato famine, caused by a strain of the fungus.)
Most farmers in the Northeast, accustomed to variable conditions, have come to expect it in some form or another. Like a sunburn or a mosquito bite, you’ll probably be hit by late blight sooner or later, and while there are steps farmers can take to minimize its damage and even avoid it completely, the disease is almost always present, if not active.
But this year is turning out to be different — quite different, according to farmers and plant scientists. For one thing, the disease appeared much earlier than usual. Late blight usually comes, well, late in the growing season, as fungal spores spread from plant to plant. So its early arrival caught just about everyone off guard.

And then there’s the perniciousness of the 2009 blight. The pace of the disease (it covered the Northeast in just a few days) and its strength (topical copper sprays, a convenient organic preventive, have been much less effective than in past years) have shocked even hardened Hudson Valley farmers. [More]

Jan tells me her garden websites are full of blight news - and it's been detected in Indiana and Wisconsin.  Even better it's related to the same fungus responsible for the Irish potato famine, so potato growers are being clobbered too.

2009 is going to be one for the books.

Some crops are pretty good this year...

The wet weather really stinks (no kidding - where the water stood this week in our yard, it's really rank!) but the strawberries are phenomenal. These are the red-all-the-way-through-no-sugar-needed kind, too.

Let's hear it for llama-poop compost!



[Note: I parked our lawnmower on them for scale]

Of course, the poles could be cornstalks...

How morning glories grow.



Shot 1 every 10 minutes.

[via Neatorama]