Coffee

[Gardening with Rabbits]

I love hollyhocks! Are they growing wild?

I bought seeds years ago and started them inside and for several years they were reseeding pretty good, but they kind of started getting thinned out and I let DD dig some up one year and she ended up with more than me, so last year I started more and got them in the ground pretty early, so I am hoping those will bloom and I started a bunch in Feb. this year and they are the kind that might bloom the first year.

 

[Gardening with Rabbits]

they are not native to north america but can spread or escape from gardens or be moved around by animals, wind, water, soil...

as a two year plant they don't seem to persist in many areas unless there is some kind of soil disturbance and the native plants are not apex forest trees.

that said, i just double checked myself and yes, they are determined to be invasive, so gotta keep an eye on them where you plant them (they haven't become so here because i've removed a lot of them in the past 20yrs but also rust disease took them down quite a bit).

I wish they would be invasive here. lol They have popped up in strange places, but if I find them I dig them up and move them and sometimes they live. If I left them in the middle of the yard they would get mowed down. I threw so many seeds around last fall that they might look invasive this year, but i just put them along fences or walls.

 

[Gardening with Rabbits]

Another sunny day. It did get cool last night and we had to start another fire. We had about 2 nights without having to have a fire in the woodstove. It is 46 right now and could get to 55, but down to 29 tonight.

 

[digitS']

Up a little later this morning with knowing that we will have a rainy day and not suitable for a fair weather gardener .

Thinking about @Marie2020 's question about making vinegar. I am assuming that she means apple cider vinegar. I have made hard apple cider twice — once good, second time not. I should have been inspired to continue based on the quality of the first batch. Hate to throw consumables away and that was the 2nd experiment result.

There are yeasts specific for cider, one called Safcider . I don't know that it was around at that time and the experiments preceded my success with beer brewing. We need our brewers to weigh in!

 

[Dahlia]

Up a little later this morning with knowing that we will have a rainy day and not suitable for a fair weather gardener .

Thinking about @Marie2020 's question about making vinegar. I am assuming that she means apple cider vinegar. I have made hard apple cider twice — once good, second time not. I should have been inspired to continue based on the quality of the first batch. Hate to throw consumables away and that was the 2nd experiment result.

There are yeasts specific for cider, one called Safcider . I don't know that it was around at that time and the experiments preceded my success with beer brewing. We need our brewers to weigh in!

When I made hard cider I think I used wine yeast? This was like 20 years back. I made 3 different batches with different types of apple juice and honey. They all turned out quite good!