Warren is away from his laptop at the current time. This revised column ran in June 2013.
Hello from Toad’s Stool. Welcome to the month of June and with it … summer. Time to put the gardens in. Hopefully the last frost has come and gone, but as we all know there is no guarantee of frost here in Oscoda County.
We are planting tomaters, squash, onions, shell beans and several more plants that I cannot remember right now.
Dandelions have been up for a couple weeks now so anyone that wants to make some tasty jelly now is the time. You can also pick the young leaves for a nice addition to your salads.
I see dandelion leaves for sale at Meijer’s and I wonder why would anyone buy them when they are free in the yard?
To me dandelion jelly tastes like honey. Maybe even a little bit better than honey but please don’t tell the bees that. I don’t want to be stung.
My Lilacs a sure doing nice this year. I say that because we have such a hard time getting them to grow out here. I read somewhere that they need the air to flow through them to do well. So I took a tractor with a bucket on the front and scooped them out of the ground and busted up the group that was all of thirty years old and never got over four feet tall. They seem to be growing some now and are getting lots of blossoms. So maybe I finally did something right!
Remember that the free fishing weekend is June 5-6 this summer. A great time to take out the grandkids or your kids or anyone’s kids for that matter. Just please make sure that their parents know you have taken their children. Otherwise it could turn out to be a weekend filled with annoying cops scaring the fish away.
My son Caleb got a nice treat at his house in Mio. He was walking in the yard and found a nice bunch of Morel Mushrooms. It does pay to throw the wash water out in the yard it seems. Just make sure to check for the baby first.
While I don’t get Morels growing in my yard I have been truly blessed with a proliferation of birds this past month. Most notably are the Rose Breasted Grosbeaks. We usually have a visit or two each year but we have seven males and their mates all day long this year.
My father says that they have an extra amount of them also. Apparently they are doing well on the feed we supply them.
I have been slowly adding trees to my yard and am looking for a Mulberry or two. If you know where I may get some please call me and let me know. I would prefer them to be local, I know where to get them ordered from a grower but they are for warmer zones. I prefer to use stock proven in our area.
I am also looking for a Catalpa tree, also known as an Indian Bean or Cigar Bean tree. Potted or balled or in the ground I don’t care. We just would like to finally get these trees in the ground.
We have a Catalpa growing at Caleb’s house in town but it is not sowing seedlings and we have had bad luck trying to grow one from seed.
Well that’s all for this month. Good gardening and have fun in the woods and on the water.
