Smart Red
Garden Master
- Joined
- Jan 10, 2012
- Messages
- 11,303
- Reaction score
- 7,395
- Points
- 417
- Location
- South-est, central-est Wisconsin
Hi, all! Although I have been a member for quite some time, I 'forgot' you were here and didn't actively participate. Steve has made the error of asking me to introduce myself here. BIG mistake!
I love to write, I tend to wax verbose when the mood hits, and as a retired educator, I love to learn new things and share my knowledge with others.
Real name - Linnae Byrns. The Linn Bee is a concession to internet friends who had trouble with the real thing on a trading list. Mrs. Bee was often used by school staff and students to politely get my attention, so it is a name I feel comfortable using.
I am recently retired from 30+ years of elementary education in a small, mostly rural school in southern Wisconsin - where I still manage to keep myself involved as a "Guest" teacher from time to time.
As a child, I had always loved the time we spent at Aunt Claris or Uncle John's farms in northern Wisconsin and I did get a chance to help in their gardens from time to time but, alas, I was a city girl born and bred.
My first real garden was in 1971, the year I married my perfect DH (Of course he was far from perfect then). Together we had built a house in the woods on just over an acre in the country. DH spent our wedding day installing a toilet and vanity sink - our only running water - while I pleaded with the truckers to deliver our new bedroom set - our only furniture - in a raging blizzard. Despite our less than auspicious beginning, the vows took and we have been married for nearly 42 years. I find it hard to believe living together like this is legal and he still curls my toes.
There was a small opening in the tree canopy and I tilled this glen for my first garden. Not the most productive, but all mine and I loved it! I also planted flowers around the southern side of the house. Not many that first year, but enough that I became addicted to gardening. Lucky for me, my beloved believes that "one of everything is a good start" and he indulges - indeed enjoys - my affliction and has his own garden areas.
Then, one evening at supper, gardening disaster struck! Our house was sold out from under us. Literally! We had a phone call from a realtor friend who had the house sold - it was not for sale - and how much did we want for it? DH couldn't refuse the generous offer and we bought a duplex in town - a corner lot with lots of shoveling, but no room for a garden.
There we lived (I hated being back in the city) while we searched for another rural building site. Finally we purchased the west 30 acres of the Jens Hogan farm. In this old community, the easiest way to give directions is still to tell them to drive to the Jens Hogan farm and we've been here for 38 years.
If the first house had been built with selling it in mind, this house was built for me and mine. I expect I'll be here for a long time and tell everyone I want my ashes added to the garden. Together we worked on the building. DH would mark out a wall and I would assemble it while he was at work. Come evening we would stand up the wall and he would mark out another one for tomorrow.
We did almost all the work ourselves as we could manage and afford it. We built it with energy efficiency in mind way back then, with 6 inch walls, triple pane windows, and an overhang that kept out summer sun while letting the winter light shine in. It turned into a house much like Johnny Cash's new car (we built in 1975, 76, 77, 78, 79, 80, etc). We were living in the basement and working upstairs for a few years and then trying to get the rest finished in between work and life. Of course I would NEVER tell anyone, but I know each and every spot that still isn't quite finished. As Confucius says, "When a man finishes his house he dies." Not much chance of us ever getting it finished 'cuz I keep coming up with new projects to keep DH hopping.
Right along with the first wall went the first garden bed. Way too big, way to much for a novice to handle, but we worked weekends and managed to put up a lot of produce - something I learned from family and books. . mostly Organic Gardening magazine and other Rodale Press publications. From the start I have always tended to go organic when food for my family was at issue. Don't know where I got that from, it's just the way I feel about my Land.
We were told that our property was either heavy clay - all the land on the other side of the road - or solid limestone - the land on our side of the road, but we were blessed to find we were situated on an alluvial deposit of sand deeper than the nine foot basement walls. We also owned the side of the property that had been used as a pig forage area for the past 50 some years! Talk about black gold, our soil is nothing but black for better than 4 feet and the gully out back holds the topsoil eroded from all the neighboring farms.
The gardens, veggies, orchards, and flowers, grew by trial and error, library books, and eventually a Master Gardener class we took together into over 42 dedicated plant beds. There we 'learned' that we couldn't grow blueberries here in Rock County (ours were 10 years old and as big as a thumb) and it was a waste of time and money to plant azaleas or rhododendron (ours were topping 7 feet tall by that time). These Rhodies are DHs special interest and he has plans for developing more areas for this plant family.
The now perfect DH spent the summer two years ago clearing out a couple of acres we now rent to a neighbor. Did it all, grubbing every weed, shrub, bramble, and tree, out by hand. Last year he spent his 'free' time doing the same with the overgrown gully out back. This year his project is clearing all the junk brush and junk trees out of the woods outback. Still using only the grub hoe and elbow grease, this 76 year old phenom is my pride and joy. Sure wish he could say his wife was in as good a shape after 42 years as I can say about my husband! The rascal weighs the same as he did in high school, when he entered the army, when he left the military behind him, when we married - in fact, a recent physical had him down two pounds and we both laughed at the doctor's malfunctioning scale.
Well, I could go on, but DH wants to go to town for a bite to eat and a visit to a late renter so I'll bid you all a good day and get to know all of you as we 'meet' on this site.
Love, Linn Bee (aka Smart Red) Gardening in zone 4b-5a, now 5b? -- anyway, I haven't moved. Im still in the same spot in south-est, central-est Wisconsin
I love to write, I tend to wax verbose when the mood hits, and as a retired educator, I love to learn new things and share my knowledge with others.
Real name - Linnae Byrns. The Linn Bee is a concession to internet friends who had trouble with the real thing on a trading list. Mrs. Bee was often used by school staff and students to politely get my attention, so it is a name I feel comfortable using.
I am recently retired from 30+ years of elementary education in a small, mostly rural school in southern Wisconsin - where I still manage to keep myself involved as a "Guest" teacher from time to time.
As a child, I had always loved the time we spent at Aunt Claris or Uncle John's farms in northern Wisconsin and I did get a chance to help in their gardens from time to time but, alas, I was a city girl born and bred.
My first real garden was in 1971, the year I married my perfect DH (Of course he was far from perfect then). Together we had built a house in the woods on just over an acre in the country. DH spent our wedding day installing a toilet and vanity sink - our only running water - while I pleaded with the truckers to deliver our new bedroom set - our only furniture - in a raging blizzard. Despite our less than auspicious beginning, the vows took and we have been married for nearly 42 years. I find it hard to believe living together like this is legal and he still curls my toes.
There was a small opening in the tree canopy and I tilled this glen for my first garden. Not the most productive, but all mine and I loved it! I also planted flowers around the southern side of the house. Not many that first year, but enough that I became addicted to gardening. Lucky for me, my beloved believes that "one of everything is a good start" and he indulges - indeed enjoys - my affliction and has his own garden areas.
Then, one evening at supper, gardening disaster struck! Our house was sold out from under us. Literally! We had a phone call from a realtor friend who had the house sold - it was not for sale - and how much did we want for it? DH couldn't refuse the generous offer and we bought a duplex in town - a corner lot with lots of shoveling, but no room for a garden.
There we lived (I hated being back in the city) while we searched for another rural building site. Finally we purchased the west 30 acres of the Jens Hogan farm. In this old community, the easiest way to give directions is still to tell them to drive to the Jens Hogan farm and we've been here for 38 years.
If the first house had been built with selling it in mind, this house was built for me and mine. I expect I'll be here for a long time and tell everyone I want my ashes added to the garden. Together we worked on the building. DH would mark out a wall and I would assemble it while he was at work. Come evening we would stand up the wall and he would mark out another one for tomorrow.
We did almost all the work ourselves as we could manage and afford it. We built it with energy efficiency in mind way back then, with 6 inch walls, triple pane windows, and an overhang that kept out summer sun while letting the winter light shine in. It turned into a house much like Johnny Cash's new car (we built in 1975, 76, 77, 78, 79, 80, etc). We were living in the basement and working upstairs for a few years and then trying to get the rest finished in between work and life. Of course I would NEVER tell anyone, but I know each and every spot that still isn't quite finished. As Confucius says, "When a man finishes his house he dies." Not much chance of us ever getting it finished 'cuz I keep coming up with new projects to keep DH hopping.
Right along with the first wall went the first garden bed. Way too big, way to much for a novice to handle, but we worked weekends and managed to put up a lot of produce - something I learned from family and books. . mostly Organic Gardening magazine and other Rodale Press publications. From the start I have always tended to go organic when food for my family was at issue. Don't know where I got that from, it's just the way I feel about my Land.
We were told that our property was either heavy clay - all the land on the other side of the road - or solid limestone - the land on our side of the road, but we were blessed to find we were situated on an alluvial deposit of sand deeper than the nine foot basement walls. We also owned the side of the property that had been used as a pig forage area for the past 50 some years! Talk about black gold, our soil is nothing but black for better than 4 feet and the gully out back holds the topsoil eroded from all the neighboring farms.
The gardens, veggies, orchards, and flowers, grew by trial and error, library books, and eventually a Master Gardener class we took together into over 42 dedicated plant beds. There we 'learned' that we couldn't grow blueberries here in Rock County (ours were 10 years old and as big as a thumb) and it was a waste of time and money to plant azaleas or rhododendron (ours were topping 7 feet tall by that time). These Rhodies are DHs special interest and he has plans for developing more areas for this plant family.
The now perfect DH spent the summer two years ago clearing out a couple of acres we now rent to a neighbor. Did it all, grubbing every weed, shrub, bramble, and tree, out by hand. Last year he spent his 'free' time doing the same with the overgrown gully out back. This year his project is clearing all the junk brush and junk trees out of the woods outback. Still using only the grub hoe and elbow grease, this 76 year old phenom is my pride and joy. Sure wish he could say his wife was in as good a shape after 42 years as I can say about my husband! The rascal weighs the same as he did in high school, when he entered the army, when he left the military behind him, when we married - in fact, a recent physical had him down two pounds and we both laughed at the doctor's malfunctioning scale.
Well, I could go on, but DH wants to go to town for a bite to eat and a visit to a late renter so I'll bid you all a good day and get to know all of you as we 'meet' on this site.
Love, Linn Bee (aka Smart Red) Gardening in zone 4b-5a, now 5b? -- anyway, I haven't moved. Im still in the same spot in south-est, central-est Wisconsin
!
