Outdoors
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Questions for Rosie
The last three years I have had scale on my hollyhocks. They just start to bloom, and the scale appears and they die. Is there something I can use to get rid of the scale? After they start to die, I clean up everything and burn. — Irene Tarr, Paoli, Ind. I wonder if you… Continue reading.
Year of the sweet pepper
The National Garden Bureau has declared 2015 to be the Year of the Sweet Pepper! Sweet bell peppers are cultivars of Capsicum annuum. Sweet peppers are called sweet because they lack the gene that produces capsaicin — the chemical that gives hot peppers their heat. While the 3-4 lobed, blocky, bell-shaped peppers are most common,… Continue reading.
The slither of spring
A few days ago, I was sitting at my desk busy working away when I heard a knock at the back door. It was my wife, asking me if I would take time to come and look at something. Naturally, I asked, “What’s up?” She replied, “I’ve got a problem … a snake … a mean… Continue reading.
Ask Rosie
I need information on how to manage hops from the ground up and when and how to do what. Any information you can provide will be greatly appreciated, such as when to dig rhizomes, prune, storage, etc. — E. Colleen Duncan, via email Hops for production require good management through pruning, training and fertilizing and… Continue reading.
An onion to plant for Arbor Day
My landlords gave me a start of this plant (pictured). They didn’t explain what it is. I have looked in the seed catalogs and don’t see anything like it. Are the little bulbs edible? — Peggy Bair, Summitville, Ind. Excellent photos! This distinctive perennial onion is known as Egyptian, tree or top-set onion, so-named for… Continue reading.
Club METS and fishnet stockings
Years ago, I visited Club METS in late March. It is a location where you can find a lot of Indiana fishery biologists hanging out at winter’s end. No, Club METS is not white sand beaches and palm trees. It is the old abandoned wastewater treatment facility perched above Brookville Lake. The location’s formal name… Continue reading.
The shallow end of the gene pond
For years, I covered the bass fishing tournaments in the Midwest for a now defunct bass fishing magazine. Like the hundreds of anglers I interviewed, I, too, believed the largemouth bass to be one of the smartest fish swimming: an opponent which could be taken consistently only by an angler with Yoda-like knowledge. Only a… Continue reading.
An angler’s depth perception
Back in my boyhood days when I was first learning to fish, it didn’t take long for me to discover water depth had a lot to do with where to find fish. I had the advantage of swimming and wading every square foot of Big Flatrock River, and I knew the location of every drop… Continue reading.