Radiation Frost: Another Dimension of Microclimate
May 18, 2017 6:00 pm Leave your thoughtsThis year our late April-early May weather was quite normal, leaving gardeners and farmers alike wondering whether they had actually... Read More →
Author Archives for Lon Drake
About Lon Drake
This old guy's favorite large-scale conservation projects include integrating soils, water, plants, and animals, especially native species. I still bike through my South Sycamore stormwater management system from 2001.
Manage Ticks This Summer
May 11, 2017 6:00 pm Leave your thoughtsLast year I offered my method for avoiding getting bit by deer flies: Looking to Outmaneuver Deer Flies and it... Read More →
Midnight Birdwatching
May 4, 2017 6:00 pm 2 CommentsLarge flocks of geese pulsed high overhead this year as the warming days of February transitioned into March. Sometimes wave... Read More →
Leaflets Three, Let It Be…Maybe
April 27, 2017 6:00 pm Leave your thoughtsAbout six summers ago I was walking up a narrow ravine in River Heights with two guys while evaluating erosion... Read More →
Vinegar as an Herbicide
April 24, 2017 6:00 pm 2 CommentsIn March at Prairie Preview, Joyce Miller and I discussed her need to control weeds around a schoolchildren’s garden, without... Read More →
Gunter’s Chain Still Measures Iowa
April 17, 2017 6:00 pm Leave your thoughtsEver since the dawn of agriculture, people have marked out parcels of land to claim the fruits of their hard-earned... Read More →
Conservation Efforts Enhanced by Using Available Mulch
April 6, 2017 6:00 pm Leave your thoughtsThe Iowa City landfill, which also serves Johnson County, again has wood chip mulch available. In past years it was... Read More →
Honeysuckle Brush for Erosion Control and Habitat
March 30, 2017 6:00 pm Leave your thoughtsMany of today’s woodlots were originally left in trees because the parcel was too steep to plow, and most were... Read More →
Another Mark Twain Sunset
March 23, 2017 6:00 pm Leave your thoughtsMark Twain’s career began as an apprentice riverboat pilot on the Mississippi, but this crashed with the onset of our... Read More →
Searching for the Native Celandine Poppy
March 16, 2017 6:00 pm Leave your thoughtsCelandine poppy, aka wood poppy (Stylophorum diphyllum), is native to the forests of the eastern half of the US. Its... Read More →
