The Yellow Farmhouse Garden

October 14, 2011

Egyptian Walking Onions

Filed under: Vegetables — bob @ 12:50 pm

The other day, a friend of mine gave me a handful of Egyptian walking onion sets. I hadn’t thought about them for years. The first thing I ever planted as a young adult with a garden of my own was a patch of walking onions.

Egyptian walking onions got their name from the unusual way they reproduce. A walking onion plant grows through the summer. As autumn approaches, they form a cluster of mini-onions at the top where you would normally see a flower. The cluster of bulbs, or sets, grows until they get so big that they cause the plant to bend and fall over –sometimes as far as two or three feet from the parent plant. The sets take root at that spot and grow into new plants. The following year the cycle continues –that’s how they walk across the garden. I don’t know about the Egyptian part of the name though.

Although it sounds like it, they are not invasive. They are easily tamed by picking the sets and moving them where you want them.

Autumn is a good time to plant these sets since it is the time of year when they “walk.” As a perennial, they easily survive our winter. Egyptian onions are the first thing that comes up in the spring and can be harvested and used like green onions.

: These Egyptian walking onion sets have been in the ground for ten days. Now they are about one and a half inches high.

During the summer, the onions grow a cluster of bulbs that are about the same size and shape as a shallot. Those can be dug up and used like a small onion. The taste is much more pronounced than most onions. By the way, the sets are edible too.

At one time it was hard to find Egyptian onion sets unless you knew someone who grew them. Nowadays they are available online.

Bob

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October 7, 2011

Harvest Basil Before Frost

Filed under: Herbs — bob @ 12:49 pm

Our Indian summer is here for several more days but it won’t last forever. Frost hit in some low lying areas a week or so ago but many gardens are still going strong.

Some plants in the vegetable garden can tolerate light frost; others have no resistance to it. Basil is one of those crops that can’t take even a hint of frost.

I’ve taken the time to collect some of my basil now before the frost hits here. In the past, I’ve dried basil in a food dehydrator. Many of the subtle flavors seem to be evaporated out doing it that way but it stores well and keeps most of its green color,

Last week I chopped a quart of fresh basil and poured olive oil over it to keep it fresh. There is nothing new to this method. For years, people have been preserving basil in olive oil. I found out just recently that botulism could form in the basil-oil mixture if it is kept at room temperatures for more than a few days. Even if the mixture is refrigerated, botulism can grow. The only safe way to keep basil and oil mix is in the freezer.

I froze a couple of pint jars and brought one out today just to check it. It’s frozen solid; I’ll have to let it thaw a little before it will be easy enough to scoop out.

: A jar of frozen basil-olive oil mix, right out of the freezer.

Some people put their basil-oil mix into ice cube trays and then freeze it. Later, they take cubes out of the freezer as they need them.

Next year I think I’ll watch out for ice cubes at the garage sales.

Bob

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September 23, 2011

Bringing Autumn Olive Under Control

Filed under: Shrubs — bob @ 12:47 pm

For several years now, autumn olives have been growing in the wild area of our property. Part of that area I want to turn into an orchard so most of the autumn olives have to go.

These shrubs were introduced into Michigan a few decades ago to improve wildlife habitat. Since then, they have invaded thousands of acres in our state.

Autumn olives produce a huge crop of berries that many species of birds eat. Each berry contains a single seed. Once a bird eats a berry, the seed passes through the bird’s digestive system. It then gets deposited in the bird droppings — sometimes many miles away — starting a new stand of autumn olive. Much of the fruit on the shrubs has ripened; that means the birds are eating them already.

: Autumn olive is an attractive shrub. Its bright red berries stand out among the silvery-green leaves.

In the past, I’ve tried chopping the shrubs with an axe or spraying them with herbicide; they always seemed to come back.

This year I bought a circular brush cutting blade for my commercial-duty weed whacker. It has only six cutting teeth that look like the teeth on a chainsaw. The outer edge of that blade spins a lot faster than any saw chain moves so six teeth are all you really need to do some serious cutting. Plus, there is no kickback with this blade making it very safe to use.

Once the shrubs are cut down, I brush full strength glyphosate herbicide onto the fresh stumps. The remaining stump and roots quickly absorb the herbicide and die.

I found out the hard way that autumn olive plants have very sharp spines that can puncture normal leather gloves. The very tips of those spines often break off deep into the flesh of your hands and fingers causing irritation lasting several days.

I’ve spent about six hours cutting and dabbing herbicide and have made a small but noticeable dent in the population. Looks like I’ll need several more days to finish that orchard area.

Bob

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September 2, 2011

Fresh Water Helps Honeybees

Filed under: Bees — bob @ 12:46 pm

We know that planting flowering plants will go a long way to help our local honeybees. They need more than pollen and nectar from flowers however. Providing a source of clean water will help them thrive.

As I was potting up plants the other day, I was reminded how important water is to honeybees. Bees were collecting water from a bucket I have sitting out near the potting bench. I keep this bucket full just so bees have a place nearby to collect water – they’re also fun to watch.

Bees use water during the summer to cool their hives. They spread the collected water around inside the hive. Then bees inside use their wings to fan air over the water causing it to evaporate quickly which cools the hive.

They like to keep the inside of the hive at about 93 degrees F. You can imagine how warm it can get inside of an enclosed beehive exposed to the summer sun. Even during cooler days, the hive temperature can rise due to body heat generated by all of the activity of thousands of bees – sort of like when thousands of sports fans get together inside a basketball arena with no air conditioning.

My bucket is out of the way where no one can bother it. Sometimes the bees are so intent on getting water that they will accidentally bump into people passing by.

I timed individual bees and found out that it takes just about one minute for a bee to land, fill up with water and head back to the hive. On a nice day earlier this week, the bees were drawing down one or two inches of water a day. I know that my bucket is just one source of water for this hive and that they were using much more water than that.

: As the temperatures approach the upper 90′s F today, more honeybee workers are assigned to the task of collecting water.

Even though we have moved into late summer, it’s not too late to provide your neighborhood bees with fresh water. Just be sure to change the water often to keep mosquitoes from breeding in it.

Bob

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August 26, 2011

Fall Webworms

Filed under: Insects,Trees — bob @ 12:45 pm

Fall webworms are back. They are really becoming more apparent as they grow and their webs get larger.

: Fall webworms nests start to become apparent in late summer.

This is not the same caterpillar we saw in the spring; those were the Eastern Tent caterpillar.

Because fall webworms emerge in late summer, they don’t have a chance to do much damage to trees but their webs sure are ugly.

Fall webworms feed on a wide variety of trees. In our area this summer, I’ve been seeing them on walnuts, oaks, mulberries, cherries and other trees.

There are a couple of options available for controlling these pests. The simplest method is to manually pull the webs down and destroy them. For those you can’t reach, use a chemical pesticide sprayed up onto the web. You don’t need much because they are easily killed by most chemical insecticides.

Some people recommend spraying the biological insecticide Bt. Bt works best when the worm are small.

Try to resist the urge to burn the webs in place on the tree. You’ll end up scorching twig bark causing more damage to the tree than the webworms.

Paper wasps are a natural enemy of the fall webworm. If a paper wasp nest is located in a place on your property where they aren’t disturbing anyone, think about leaving them there to help control the webworms.

Bob

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