contentednaturalist.blogspot.com
The Contented Naturalist: My Gardening Goals for 2017
http://contentednaturalist.blogspot.com/2016/12/gardening-goals-2017.html
Finding and sharing amazing bits of nature. My Wild Back Yard. Saturday, December 3, 2016. My Gardening Goals for 2017. After reviewing what I did wrong. A late season harvest from 2014, one of the best years so far for my garden. My goals for next year fall into three main groups: techniques I want to try or continue; specific crops I want to grow; and results and motivational hopes. Garden Planning and Techniques to try. Arrgh, so much for fresh fall and winter salads. Next year. Speaking of cover crop...
contentednaturalist.blogspot.com
The Contented Naturalist: My Wild Back Yard
http://contentednaturalist.blogspot.com/p/nature-in-your-back-yard.html
Finding and sharing amazing bits of nature. My Wild Back Yard. My Wild Back Yard. Here are some of my posts about helping and interacting with my yard's inhabitants. Let me know if you have any questions about your own yard habitat and animals that I might answer! Caterpillars from Poop to Pupation. Lots of Sightings to Share. My (first) Butterfly Big Year. Expanding My Butterfly Garden. Build a Log Pile For Wildlife. Subscribe to: Posts (Atom). Montgomery County, Maryland, United States. C and O Canal.
contentednaturalist.blogspot.com
The Contented Naturalist: How to make Homemade Hot Sauce
http://contentednaturalist.blogspot.com/2016/12/how-to-make-hot-sauce.html
Finding and sharing amazing bits of nature. My Wild Back Yard. Wednesday, December 21, 2016. How to make Homemade Hot Sauce. My very own hot sauce! After years of growing hot peppers, I finally tried making my very own hot sauce this fall. I did lots of research online, reading chili grower message boards and perusing dozens of recipes from Pinterest and my favorite food blogs. Finally I felt like I had a good enough idea to give it a shot. The pepper I grow is called Hot Lemon. Have some milk handy to q...
contentednaturalist.blogspot.com
The Contented Naturalist: My Dill Dreams Come True
http://contentednaturalist.blogspot.com/2011/09/my-dill-dreams-come-true.html
Finding and sharing amazing bits of nature. My Wild Back Yard. Friday, September 2, 2011. My Dill Dreams Come True. I went into the garden this morning, planning to have a mellow photography session with the basil flowers and whatever bees came to nectar. But only a few pollinators came by, and I wasn't getting any decent shots. Then I happened to glance at the leggy, almost-dead dill plants and discovered the one bug I most hoped my garden would host:. A Black Swallowtail caterpillar! I even messed with...
contentednaturalist.blogspot.com
The Contented Naturalist: Raising Caterpillars
http://contentednaturalist.blogspot.com/p/caterpillars.html
Finding and sharing amazing bits of nature. My Wild Back Yard. I love watching caterpillars turn into butterflies! I grow a lot of dill and carrots in my garden, so I get Black Swallowtails ovipositing (laying eggs) on those plants every summer. To make sure the caterpillars safely turn into butterflies, I bring them inside as soon as I find them. Here's what I've written so far about my adventures with caterpillars, including how you could try it yourself. Dill, carrots, fennel, and Queen Anne's Lace.
contentednaturalist.blogspot.com
The Contented Naturalist: December 2016
http://contentednaturalist.blogspot.com/2016_12_01_archive.html
Finding and sharing amazing bits of nature. My Wild Back Yard. Wednesday, December 21, 2016. How to make Homemade Hot Sauce. My very own hot sauce! After years of growing hot peppers, I finally tried making my very own hot sauce this fall. I did lots of research online, reading chili grower message boards and perusing dozens of recipes from Pinterest and my favorite food blogs. Finally I felt like I had a good enough idea to give it a shot. The pepper I grow is called Hot Lemon. Have some milk handy to q...
contentednaturalist.blogspot.com
The Contented Naturalist: Caterpillars 2016-- I Might Have Gone A Bit Crazy
http://contentednaturalist.blogspot.com/2016/11/caterpillars-2016-i-might-have-gone-bit.html
Finding and sharing amazing bits of nature. My Wild Back Yard. Wednesday, November 23, 2016. Caterpillars 2016- I Might Have Gone A Bit Crazy. This year was a weird one for raising Black Swallowtail caterpillars. It's been six years now that I've done this (see here. The first two caterpillars of 2016 (that I found.). It was pretty nerve-wracking for a while, I was afraid it had died sometime during the winter. The same photograph as above, cropped to show the teency caterpillar better. I guess all baby ...
contentednaturalist.blogspot.com
The Contented Naturalist: Garden Reflections 2016: Three mistakes I made
http://contentednaturalist.blogspot.com/2016/11/three-garden-mistakes.html
Finding and sharing amazing bits of nature. My Wild Back Yard. Saturday, November 19, 2016. Garden Reflections 2016: Three mistakes I made. 1 Letting my spring crops take over the summer. Lacinato kale turns into monsters if you let grow from spring all the way through fall! My Red Ace beets, delicious despite the late harvest. Definitely a good keeper variety. Also I may want to look at planting even earlier in the spring: the beets and carrots in particular were slow growing so didn’t seem ready ...
contentednaturalist.blogspot.com
The Contented Naturalist: February 2016
http://contentednaturalist.blogspot.com/2016_02_01_archive.html
Finding and sharing amazing bits of nature. My Wild Back Yard. Saturday, February 27, 2016. My first butterflies of 2016. I went to New Orleans for Mardi Gras February 4-10 with a bunch of friends (including of course my husband). That was fun and we thankfully had sunny, not-terribly-cold weather on Mardi Gras itself for our marching in the Rex parade. We march with a great bagpipe band, Kilts of Many Colours. I'm holding the flag. I'd never seen these in the wild before. Tons of charismatic species, bo...
contentednaturalist.blogspot.com
The Contented Naturalist: Be a better gardener next year: how keeping a garden journal will improve your garden skills and results
http://contentednaturalist.blogspot.com/2015/11/keep-a-garden-journal.html
Finding and sharing amazing bits of nature. My Wild Back Yard. Wednesday, November 4, 2015. Be a better gardener next year: how keeping a garden journal will improve your garden skills and results. To get started, all you really need are a notebook, a pen, and of course your beverage of choice. When should you start a garden journal? You can also talk to other gardening friends (and bloggers like me! Did almost everybody's tomatoes take forever to start producing due to a long cold spring? Any special ca...