Where's the fire when you need it?

As I watched the 6 o'clock news about the deadly fires in Australia, I thought about all the energy I expended today trying to get my brush piles to burn.

I started the day with three piles. Two of the piles were each about the size and volume of a two-car garage. The third was smaller, about the size of an automobile. After a full day of trying to ignite the piles with burning tires, old crankcase oil and diesel fuel, the only pile that was reduced was the small one. The two large piles remain essentially in tact. I even tried the old trick of using a leaf blower to fan the flames.

Even though it hasn't rained in a week, I knew the wood in the piles was still wet, but I thought it would burn if I could get a hot enough fire going. No dice.

I'm always amazed at the stories of forest fires, how easily they are started. When I called the U.S. Forestry Service to get my burn permit, the ranger said there would be a slight wind in the afternoon so I shouldn't leave the fire unattended. Though I tended and tended, I still have my brush piles.

A better home for butterflies

The gardening books say the time to prune butterfly bushes (buddleia davidii) is immediately before spring growth starts (large photo). Seeing the forsythia and Bradford pears starting to bust out in today's 63-degree weather sent me to the shed for the pruning shears.

Now, here's the problem. I have a somewhat deserved reputation in pruning circles as Darth Vader. If one is supposed to prune with the skill of a surgeon and scalpel, I am closer to a lumberjack and chain saw. But I've been reading my pruning books and I vow to do better. Our butterfly bushes in our front yard attract butterflies by the hundreds.

One pruning book says to cut the old butterfly canes all the way to the ground. Another says to leave 3 to 6 inches. I tried to do 3 inches (small photo). The last butterfly bush I pruned, it had to be replaced. I hope I have done this year's bushes correctly or Madame Butterfly will likely take the shears to me.

Soil test is back. Now what?

With great excitement I opened the letter containing the results of my soil test. Did we flunk or do well?

After looking at the single page of numbers and tables, my first urge was to shout "I majored in journalism, not agriculture." I saw names which I had not seen since looking at the Periodic Table in 10th-grade chemistry. I was as lost then as now.

A cup of tea calmed me down and sent me to my library. After a few hours of study, here is what I think I know about my soil:

* Soil pH is 6. My goal should be to get it to 6.5-6.8. I need to add lime.
* I'm significantly low in phosphorus and calcium. Potassium and magnesium are close, but could use a slight boost. Should be able to adjust this with proper fertilizer.
* Soil is too acidic for everything except blueberries. I need to carve out a special spot for blueberries and back down the pH to around 5.
* If I don't do better in my garden than I did in chemistry, it will be a lean harvest.

The ways of wood

Since we are experiencing low temperatures in the teens, the subject today is wood, specifically firewood.

One of the many skills I wanted to learn when we settled on our land is to be able to identify trees by leaf, bark and grain. I'm not there yet, but I'm getting better. I try to identify each piece I put in the stove.

Here are some thoughts on how different types of wood burn:

* poplar -- Easiest to start but burns quickly like pine. The best wood for kindling.
* ash -- burns much like poplar and probably a little hotter.
* locust -- Don't even attempt to burn this without at least six months of cure time. Burns hot, too hot for lightweight stoves.
* hickory -- One of the best overall stove woods. A piece of green hickory will burn all night.
* hackberry -- Burn all you can. The cross-grain of this wood makes it useless for anything else.
* sassafras -- Looks like locust, but doesn't burn as hot.
*oak -- I don't have any except for one enormous red oak at the top of my orchard hill. The woodcutters said it's at least 150 years old. I hope to care for it so it can live another 150.
* walnut and cherry -- I hate to burn this wood because of its beautiful grain, but I do have some in my woodpile. The smoke from walnut and cherry is a sacrament to the heavens.

Natural fertilizer

On the day before the big snow I did get something done that should help in garden preparation. My late father-in-law always said the best source of organic matter to add to a garden is chopped-up leaves from the lawn.

I don't have much of a lawn, so I'm sure Deerfield residents were surprised to see me mowing the woods in front of the house in the dead of winter with the leaf-catcher attached. In less than two hours I was able to fill the cart more than a dozen times with chopped-up leaves.

I spread the leaves evenly over the garden spot. If I can do this a couple of more times before I plow the ground, I should have a better soil. My soil test is not back yet from the lab, but I'm sure it will call for more organic matter.

The snow pack will help the leaves decompose. I can feel that earth bubbling already.

At last, a snow worth its salt

Our Groundhog Day snow is the first one to give us a proper covering since we moved here in 2006. The wet flakes attached themselves to our dogwood trees at the side of the house giving us spring-like faux blossoms.

In the photo at right you can see our white boxer, Willie, quizzically looking out the window. Willie is 3 years old so this is his first snow.

I had intentions of sowing grass seed when the forecasters first told us about the possibility of snow last week. Just before a heavy wet snow is always the best time to sow grass because it pulls the seed down the correct distance into the ground. Then we were told the storm was going around us so we wouldn't see any accumulation. Alas, the seed is still in the sack.

Twice warmed

The writer Annie Dillard says that firewood warms you twice -- when you cut it and then when you burn it.

We had a neighborhood firewood cutting and splitting party this weekend. We were warmed significantly as we filled a large wagon twice with nice chunks of locust, poplar, hickory and hackberry. It will be cured and ready for burning next fall.

I helped my neighbor build a Taj Mahal of a woodshed this summer. I need to get something built before the next wood-burning season. My wood is stacked hither and yon around the place and covered with tarps, plywood and anything else handy.

Firewood needs a nice place to season before it follows through on its second warming.