Why I Oughta...

Last week, I started my Winter propagation journey with a new bottle of Rooting Powder and talked about how I was planning on taking up some projects including using some cuttings (or, frankly...more like 'fallings' - because they just fall off the plant) of Burro's Tail and our Christmas Cactus.  I've had success with lazy propagation with my Burro's Tail over the years, but that was at my office on the 64th floor.  This post and photo from 2018 show a good look at the mother plant, a set of soil-rooted babies and a clear cup of water-rooted cuttings.   I have a series of pieces of this succulent that we've had laying in pots/containers for a number of months, but haven't really been dedicated to getting them to root and was mostly just leaving it to 'hope' that they'd take off.  So, I went off to YouTube to figure out what the *right* way to propagate these are - in soil or in water.  I learned that you should (ideally) allow the cutting to

I make exactly ONE "stunt pizza" at home.  It is a BBQ chicken pizza that I call the "Orange Bird" that features chicken and double application of a store-bought sweet bbq sauce.  First I apply the sauce to the chassis and then, post-oven, I squeeze on a drizzle (it is, I suppose, *more* than a drizzle, but less than a full slather) on top.  I've added this post-oven drizzle after I found the pice a little dry but that the sauce burns pretty easily when put on top pre-bake.  In this case, (once I de-pan the pie) I put down (first) a heavy hand of post-oven Romano scattered on top, then after waiting a beat, I put down this sauce which finishes with the heat off the top of the pizza.   Btw....you might be wondering what a 'stunt pizza' is?  Urban Dictionary has an entry that sums up the term pretty well , but that's not where I picked up the term.  It was from Pizza Blogger Adam Kuban - somewhere along the lines of following him online in various plac

On Friday, I posted a photo of my blue (foliage) grow light that I've set up for some of our houseplants this Winter.  These are all containers that I've kept outside during the Summer (mostly in spots with indirect light) or on our screened porch (that is enclosed) during the edges of the growing season.  One of the containers that I've had for 10 months now is my one-and-only (and first ever) Staghorn Fern.   I bought it - on a whim - from Home Depot for $10 last March .  It came in a nursery pot and despite researching how they're supposed to be *mounted*, I've left it alone.  The last time I showed a photo of the fern was in August of last Summer when it had spent a few months outside on the front porch - in shade.  At that time, I also made a move that I (sort of) consider a compromise between mounting Staghorn Ferns and keeping them in a container. There's plenty of folks who keep them in what I'll call a 'basket'.  My solve to get my contain

The largest park in Walworth County that runs a few hundred acres and gives visitors the ability to get down close to the White River during all seasons.  On this recent Winter visit, the River was a mix of frozen and moving.  I visited (and posted) about this very park last year in mid-January .   If you get off the main trail a bit, you can get down to enjoy the sights and sounds.  This visit was a reminder about being 'present'.  Spend a few minutes listening to the running river and you can forget about whatever is on your mind - both past and future.  And just be present.  Jimmy V's famous speech talked about doing three things everyday:  "Number one is laugh. Number two is think -- spend some time time in thought. Number three, you should have your emotions move you to tears." This sure feels like a spot to do #2:  spend some time in thought.  Our visit to Walworth County feels like a good reminder to do all three everyday.  Or try to.  Then, you'll have

On my Winter Gardening to-do list are a few propagation-related items:  Being more deliberate with propagating some of the Burro's Tail buds that seem to fall off of the main vines everyday and starting to propagate our Christmas Cactus .  To do both of those, I'm going to give this Rooting Powder from Bonide a shot.  For Burro's Tail, I've had luck WITHOUT this rooting hormone , but that all was when I was in a downtown high-rise window.   I'll post some photo updates when I get around to planting these small cuttings in their own containers and will experiment with how this rooting powder helps/doesn't help with getting them going. 

We keep the majority of our potted plants/containers/house plants in two places for *most* of the year. The first is outside.  And that usually is between about June and September.  The second is our screened porch.  And that's from September to January.  And again from about March to June. On the porch, we have a corner table that holds a few containers and the top of one of our firewood racks is the other spot for the pots.  The porch is useable for about 300ish days a year for us and about the same for our plants.  The porch gets a TON of natural light and the plants don't seem to dry out as much out there as they do once we bring them in the house. In year's past, we've brought them in the house in January and they've struggled.  These came in about three weeks ago and (knock, wood), they're doing ok (so far).  We've tried a few places - upstairs in a south-facing window. Downstairs in same facing.  Indirect light, direct light.  It seems that the best o

I was doing a little thinking/looking at this here online Weblog (or diary as I like to think of it) as it relates to the template.  It has been a number of years since I've done any real housekeeping and moving things around.  As part of that process, I thought I'd let some of the data lead the discovery process to understand how most of you are engaging with my diary.  First...let me say that I continue to be amazed that ANYONE reads any of these posts.  I do ZERO promotion of the blog.  I have no ads and cater the posts/topics to an audience of one:  me.  I write MOSTLY as a resource for my own sanity - and to flex my own publishing muscles.  Seth Godin calls it SUSDAT .  I call it SUSDAP.  Shut up, Sit down and Post.  Every.Single.Day. But, what are *most* of you using to read these diary posts?  By a large margin, you lunatics who are here are reading this post (and everything else) on your mobile device.   And, you're slightly more iOS than Android.  But, also slightl