Self-tutoring about wild plants and fungi: the tutor mentions a find. Visiting the compost today, I noticed a shiny black thing with numerous odd-shaped lobes. Nearby, a second one presented. I bent down to examine one. I assumed it a…
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Category: yard work
Lawn care: the tutor gets specific about lime
Self-tutoring about lawn care: the tutor looks up a definition. For years I’ve bought what I call “lime” and spread it on the lawn to reduce soil acidity. The product’s name that I buy is actually dolomite. Yet, what is…
Yard work, exercise and fitness: the unintended work-out
Self-tutoring: the tutor shares about yard chores. Yesterday, I thought perhaps I wouldn’t get enough exercise. I thought wrong. For the seeds I found in our shelves, I decided to open up more garden space from a rectangle of the…
Lifestyle, yard work: watering reflections, part 0
Self-tutoring about watering: the tutor reflects…. I can’t remember when summer 2018 started (see my post here about when summer starts); irrigation is in full swing. (I began about this year’s watering efforts in the post here.) I’m no pro…
Tagged with: yard watering ideas
Biology, composting: immobilization vs mineralization
Organic groundskeeping leads to self-tutoring. The tutor defines two terms connected with composting. In a properly functioning ecosystem, nutrients are constantly recycled – they are used by one organism, then released back to the soil to be retaken by another.…
Biology: what is a cultivar?
Horticulture can lead the amateur to self-tutoring. The tutor discusses the idea of a cultivar. Cultivar literally means “cultivated variety.”1 In my mind it refers to a plant commonly grown, that you, also, can buy and grow, either as seed…
Lifestyle: when to harvest apples
Lifestyle is continuous self-tutoring – for me, anyway. The tutor comments about when he chooses to pick apples from the tree. When my first son was born, we planted him an apple tree. Without having to compete for sunlight, or…
Tagged with: when to pick apples?
Lifestyle: watering the lawn: best time and way
I’ve recently taken self-tutoring about lawn watering. The tutor shares some discoveries. On the west coast, summer is often very dry. Typically, if the lawn isn’t watered, it will go brown. Where I live, we have watering restrictions. On the…
Tagged with: when and how best to water your lawn
Oak trees: do red oaks produce acorns every year?
The tutor shares the answer to a question he’s long harboured. Generally, red oak acorns take two years to mature. Does that mean the tree drops a crop of acorns only every second year? According to Cathy Blumig of outdoorlife.com,…
Tagged with: do red oaks produce acorns every year?
Botany: black walnut: juglone
The tutor researches the effects of juglone from black walnut trees. Juglone is a toxin produced by the black walnut tree; it’s found throughout the tree and in its leaves, shells and nuts. Apparently, to humans eating the walnuts, the…
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