We’re in a drought; at least we are here in Central Virginia. Albemarle County officials said they’d line us all up in a firing squad if they caught us watering our gardens or lawns. Fortunately, we had an inch of ran Tuesday night, which helped, but we’re still in a drought. The reservoir looks like Moses parted it and left it half empty. During dry weather, everybody worries about lawns and … [Read more...]

We had a most interesting plant in our yard this year. Nancy planted it in early summer and it survived the heat and prospered. We noticed as the tiny white blooms grew that ants flocked to the sweet smelling flowers, then bees, then hummingbirds. The plant is called – and I am not making this up – Hairy Balls. Hairy Balls (gomphocarpus physocarpus) is a milkweed plant, and as most know, … [Read more...]

They do it every year. They fall off the trees. Leaves. Every single one, which means get out the rake and get to work. Or not? For the past few years I have eschewed the rake and leaf blower and cranked up my lawnmower instead. Not only is this far easier than raking and bagging, it’s better for your yard. By mowing a few times each fall – and I don’t use a bagger – the leaves are shredded … [Read more...]

With a week to go in September, I finally picked the first tomato from my small, backyard garden. I had some coming along earlier, but a thieving coon with a fondness for unfried green tomatoes picked me clean. I figured that was it for my 2017 tomato crop, but the vines kept blooming and I now have ripe tomatoes. It makes me wonder if I should wait a spell before getting those tomato plants in … [Read more...]

“Come look at all the bees!” my wife had called. “What kind of bees?” I asked, wanting to make sure this backyard visit was worth missing part of the football game I was watching. “Honey bees?” she exclaimed. And they were! Real live honeybees, by the dozens, flitting their way between blooms on what was for us at that time an unidentified flowering plant. Our son Jimmie had given us … [Read more...]

  Next time you’re having a particularly rotten day and thinking that life has dealt you a bad hand, consider the fate of a fiddler crab. Last week while I was surf fishing at Nags Head, I looked down at my feet and saw little flicks of sand coming from a small hole. Intrigued, I continued to observe the spectacle underway. Finally, a tiny fiddler crab emerged from the hole and tossed … [Read more...]

It doesn’t take much to make me happy – a good cigar, an easy golf course, a new Sports Illustrated magazine on a Friday after work or frogs, preferably frogs in our lily pad pond. I find the little amphibians to be fascinating. We have had a series of frogs to come and go in our small, above-ground pond. Some came from tadpoles, which I captured with the help of my grandkids, and some just … [Read more...]

A couple years ago, some strange, weed-like grass popped up in our back yard. I’m pretty sure it’s an invasive plant called Dallis Grass. I see it on golf courses, sometimes, on tee boxes, fairways and occasionally greens. The stuff grows in coarse clumps. It’s nasty. I don’t know where it came from or how it got there, but I wanted it gone. Normally, I don’t mind a few weeds I my yard. In … [Read more...]

  Rabbits eat beans, raccoons eat tomatoes, and squash borers eat squash plants. What’s a backyard gardener to do? This one planted a mess of greens last week, three messes, actually – collards, turnip greens and spinach. Funny, but my critters don’t seem to eat greens. But I sure do. In fact, I just came back from North Carolina with three packs of Hobe’s Country Ham Skins, a perfect … [Read more...]