With our trip to the shore behind us, we are spending a lot of time wandering around our yard. As always, the madman spends a lot of time at the conifers, especially the hemlocks. He’s not really looking at the hemlocks, he’s looking at the Hemlock Woolly Adelgid (HWA). A Serious Problem “To steal from…
The year 2022, with its ups and downs, is coming to a close. It started with our usual trip to the Connecticut shore. As we watched the waves come and go, we talked about our plans for the year – remember, we made plans not resolutions for 2022. Plan Number 1 was to be present…
Here we are, one week from the Solstice – and the madman is waiting. For the next few weeks, we’ll have a little over 9 hours of daylight. But with all the Christmas lights, it seems it’s hard to find a dark spot around our house. As soon as the sun goes down, the lights…
The days keep getting shorter. On the other hand, shorter days mean the nights are getting longer. And that gives the madman more time to look up at the night sky. From our backyard, it’s easy to see Polaris. Polaris, also known as the North Star, is the only star that doesn’t move in our…
The madman has his eye on the birds. We finally took the hummingbird feeders down last week. You may think that’s awful late. Normally it would be, but the madman says it’s been a strange year. According to Journey North, some hummingbirds were late in leaving. There were reports of hummingbird sightings to the North…
The greenhouse came early, and the madman is loving it. That really comes as no surprise – he loved the other one. He thinks it gives him a chance to cheat Mother Nature, something he has been trying to do for a very long time. He calls it “extending the growing season,” not “cheating.” Seems…
Coming off a summer drought as we are, you may think it strange to consider a Rain Garden. But a friend asked us for help in creating one. The madman says, “Rain Garden is a misleading term.” I’m not sure if his “Bio-retention Facility” is any better. Very basically, a Rain Garden is a shallow…
It’s the end of a strange summer. It actually ends on Thursday, shortly after 9 p.m. And what a season it was! For those who play all summer, it was a dream come true. But for gardeners, it was a nightmare. The madman was sure Mother Nature had gone on vacation and had taken her…
During the summer, I often found the madman in the Milkweed patches. He would carefully examine each plant – turn over the leaves, look at the seed pods, shake his head: you know the drill. But he wasn’t out there practicing IPM (Integrated Pest Management) as described in this link, he was looking for signs…