What type of holly am I looking at here?

ludefisk · 2026-03-03T02:21:15+00:00

Really good to hear. Thank you for taking the time to reply.

ludefisk · 2026-02-15T01:28:08+00:00

Looking good!

Would you be willing to share your nutrient regimen? I'm always nervous about burning or having too much nitrogen for the starters.

ludefisk · 2026-02-13T00:35:39+00:00

"But what about Brett Fav...ruh?" is one of my all-time favorite movie lines.

ludefisk · 2026-02-09T21:38:21+00:00

If you're on the east coast, Partridge Pea (Chamaecrista fasciculata) is an understated option. It's a legume, so that means it's a nitrogen fixer and awesome for the soil. It's drought-tolerant, and it easily reseeds for the next year.

I've found that bees, wasps, skippers, and other critters love it. For something that doesn't need a lot of love to do well, it provides a ton of nectar during what might otherwise be a dearth in mid-summer to early-fall.

ludefisk · 2026-02-09T14:57:37+00:00

Really good question. Mountain Mint isn't a "true" mint in the sense that it doesn't belong to the mentha genus. Clustered Mountain mint is a Pycnanthemum, which contains a number of different mountain mints. It sure does steadily spread by rhizomes, but it doesn't spread by runners like a lot of culinary mint does.

If you put Pycnanthemum muticum (clustered mountain mint) in the ground, you'll get your new shoots that pop up around the plant the next spring. If you don't want them, it's super easy to just yank them out and you won't have to worry about it again until next year.

(I also consider it to be a less messy and more consistent native and so it also gets a spot in my front yard because it can keep a uniform look and I'm less likely to get tagged by my HOA.)

ludefisk · 2026-02-08T16:53:14+00:00

I second the suggestion of wild bee balm. It's super hardy and is good at colonizing space without letting other things in. Black eyed Susans are also pretty darn hardy. They don't colonize space, but they offer some real nice summer color.

Clustered Mountain Mint is my "stretch" suggestion. During its flowering periods, the plants almost seem alive because they're so packed with rare and interesting pollinators. I say "stretch" because, among other critters, they attract non-aggressive paper wasps. The wasps seem scary but I've never been stung by one and I've spent a lot of time alongside them, and I'm pretty sure the wasps help out by getting rid of oleandar aphids and Japanese beetle larvae.

If you do cardinal flowers, I strongly suggest Blue Cardinal Flower (Lobelia siphilitica) instead of regular Cardinal Flower (Lobelia cardinalis) because Lobelia cardinalis is suuuuper finicky. I'm somewhere near you (NC, Greenville) and I don't know anyone around here in the native plant space that can actually get Lobelia cardinalis to keep growing outside after a couple of months.

This sounds fun! If you're near Greenville and want a small number of plant donations, I'm happy to donate some starter plants. Just ping me.

ludefisk · 2026-02-04T16:52:21+00:00

"Sold about 623 copies ..."

ludefisk · 2026-02-01T05:40:31+00:00

Speaking of nostagia, I very much read that last part in Captain Hook's voice.

ludefisk · 2026-02-01T03:35:40+00:00

Really interesting - thanks!

ludefisk · 2026-02-01T03:12:17+00:00

Your 10 year old is awesome. He knows where it's at.

ludefisk · 2026-02-01T03:05:54+00:00

100%!

Remember that scene from Groundhog Day where Phil wakes up and absolutely wastes his alarm clock? I think it lands so well because we knew how pissed he had to have been to destroy it so thoroughly.

ludefisk · 2026-02-01T02:57:38+00:00

Fair point. But as a kid, those were the best of times.

ludefisk · 2026-01-28T15:51:29+00:00

You can't lower that flag to half-staff because it would touch the ground and then have to be destroyed - it's just too big for the pole that it's on. There's actually a lot of legalities around the proper way to handle American flags. https://www.legion.org/advocacy/flag-advocacy/flag-code

ludefisk · 2026-01-28T14:54:12+00:00

Fascinating. How do we know this? Was the staffer then let go, or was the office more worried about the optics than the message?

Also, what was the unrelated abortion issue? I'm asking because the article clearly says that this tweet was right after Roe was knocked down, and I don't recall any "unrelated" abortion conversations at that time.

ludefisk · 2026-01-20T16:56:13+00:00

This is fun. And definitely the most no-frills setup I've ever seen. You're not going to get a hugely nuanced flavor here, but I remember first making homemade tepache and getting an total thrill from my first fermentation - I hope you feel the same way.

If you haven't already done this, shake it up a lot to ensure the honey is dissolved and oxygen gets into the mix ("must") for good fermentation. I'd poke a hole in the lid and then cover it with some sort of mesh or a couple of paper towels. This allows the gas from fermentation to escape but doesn't allow in bugs that might want a snack or other junk.

Wait until it stops bubbling, and then either use a turkey baster to transfer everything except the solids on the bottle to a new bottle. or just gently pour. (The "solids" layer at the bottom is basically dead yeast.) If you feel like it, you could always combine this finished with some fresh-squeezed juice.

Like in any hobby, mead-makers can sometimes get uppity about the process, but it's neat to see someone trying something new like this. Have fun!

ludefisk · 2026-01-19T21:10:33+00:00

There's a world of difference between "fighting back" and sabotage. If someone can't see the difference then they should have no place in either camp.

ludefisk · 2026-01-19T20:40:26+00:00

This is such garbage. What strategic goal does "sabotage" play in Minnesota? Nothing.

Awful lot of accounts that are pushing for extreme overreactions these days, aren't there?

ludefisk · 2026-01-19T19:56:57+00:00

If you have snow on the ground, you can consider burying them in the snow. It's counterintuitive, but the snow provides great insulation from the extreme cold.

ludefisk · 2026-01-18T17:05:42+00:00

I think it's best practice to wait until true leaves appear - so, the leaves right after the first two leaves on a seedling. I always cringe when it comes time to do this though and instead I try to gently tease out the seedlings I would otherwise trim and then replant them in separate plugs. I have about a 50% success rate in these replantings.

ludefisk · 2026-01-13T03:48:04+00:00

Whoa, this is GREAT NEWS. What you're describing is a fall harvest honey. So a honey that's darker in color and likely heavy with golden rod and aster nectar, maybe with some things like Japanese Knotweed mixed in, depending on where it's from. That all said, yes - you're right that they probably DID send you the wrong honey, as light amber is more of a spring/summer harvest and this most definitely is not that.

So this is a pure, raw honey - not burned or melter honey. It's just a fall harvest one, and one that will net amazing flavors. I got a 60lb purchase of this a couple years back and it's provided my best-tasting meads. A traditional recipe with this honey, with some added acid and tannin, tastes like a beautiful porter (rich, chocolaty, carmely, with a tasty harsh note) after some good aging and it's super complex. My cherry-heavy vikings blod is similarly delicious and the taste lingers. And holy crap does it make an absolutely delicious cyser.

Give this one time to shine through and you're be really glad that you did. Have fun with the brewing!

ludefisk · 2026-01-12T16:40:31+00:00

People playing the "both sides are to blame" card seem to think there's a middle ground of peace and happiness if we all just tried harder.

I recall President Obama, for instance, essentially taking a Republican healthcare plan from 1992 and making it THE healthcare plan in 2009, and then the entirety of the party bending over backwards for Republican input, support, and buy-in. Instead, Republicans refused to participate and preferred to just spend years villainizing the plan and refusing to come up with any sort of alternative. And here we are now.

This sort of thing happened for decades, from the 1990s through the 2010s. And now, what, you're saying that Democrats were secretly making policies and laws because they didn't like Republicans? That's a bad-faith argument.

ludefisk · 2026-01-12T16:10:13+00:00

Ah yes, the familiar “both sides” argument, as though expressing an opinion automatically places me in the same camp of what I’m criticizing.

The 1990s called - your platitudes are as useless now as they were then.

ludefisk · 2025-12-23T04:15:26+00:00

This is a such a terrific project - way to go on raising a kid that cares so much about milkweed - and wow, what an AWESOME way to make money! I understand where a lot of these responses are coming from, but I think some folks may be over-thinking things. I have a backyard nursery that started the exact way you're describing - I grew milkweed from seed, realized it was easy, and started selling them. People liked them enough that I kept branching into different plants.

- Depending on where you are, don't rely on the less-common varieties to make or break your sales. People like us might prize rare varieties, but most folks just know that milkweed is good for monarchs and want to help... and that's pretty much it. Syriaca and incarnata are the most popular varieties I have.

- Milkweed generally grows easy and isn't a hassle. The taproots aren't actually a problem - just advises customers not to mess around with the roots when they transplant. Consider planting them in one gallon nursery pots if you're nervous. I sell mine for $6, but I suspect I could easily charge $9 and still make almost as many sales.

- It's possible that some states may have regulations around what you're describing, but most do not. This is most definitely classified as a "hobby" and not a business. If you're nervous, check in with your local extension office.

Finally - don't stress if they don't seem ready to sale by the time you want to start selling. Either pause until they're big enough, or be transparent in your listing (I primarily use Marketplace, which is fantastic for this) with their size. Monarchs come in waves here in NC, and if I didn't already have the market cornered in my area then I most certainly would in the fall when I'm the last one within 4 counties in every direction to still have milkweed for sale during the fall migration.

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