These recipes are wonderful and they are old family recpies. Most of the fish were caught using the special Evening Secret (http://www.eveningsecretfishing.com/specialsecret/Fish_Recipes.php) for swarming fish, and catching them.
Armenian Baked Fish
3 lbs. whitefish-in the white fleshed bland fish may be substituted
3 fresh tomatoes or one small canned tomatoes
1 cloves garlic mashed
1 tbsp. flour
1 c. water
4 tbsp. minced parsley
1/2 cup olive oil
juice of 1 lemon
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
fillet and rinse fish. Spread the fillets skin side down in a buttered baking pan. Cover fish with tomatoes garlic and the flour mixed with water. Spread with parsley. Seasoned with salt and pepper. Pour oil and lemon juice all around fish. Bake at 325 after 420 to 40 minutes depending on the thickness of the fish. Spoon pan juices over the fish several times while baking. May be served hot or cold. Garnish with sliced lemon. Serves six.
Pine smoked trout
Use a wire holder to get a smoky flavor when cooking trout. The idea is to be able to turn the meat over like the type made to hold hot dogs or hamburgers.
Cut server pine boughs and place them on your campfire. Lay the holder with your trout directly on top. Light the pine boughs, then the fire will sear, cook, and smoke your trout in about a minute before burning out. Just turn the holder over to sear the other side - repeat the process. A couple of boughs and less than a minute for each side is perfect for a half-pound trout.
Pickled Bluegills
Use only a stainless steel pan for good taste.
Cut fish into small pieces - you will need about 5 cups of fish. Soak in a quart of water and one cup of salt for 2 days. Rinse fish in cold water and drain. Then pour two cups of white vinegar over the fish and put it in the fridge for another 2 days. Pour it off.
Next, cook the following mix for five minutes and let cool
2 cups white vinegar
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 tsp. mustard seed
1 tsp. whole black pepper
1 tsp. whole allspice
1 tsp. whole cloves
4 bay leaves
After it cools pour it over the fish, and place slices of lemon and onions on top. Refrigerate for 5 days, then remove the spices and pack into jars. It makes three pints.
Sunfish
Once you have skinned and filleted the Sunfish, try this recipe.
You’ll need:
1 lb. sunfish fillets
2 scallionis sliced thin
1 green pepper sliced thin
1 small jar of spaghetti sauce
1 chopped tomato
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup white wine
Pinch salt
Combine scallions, pepper and sauce. Cover and simmer for r10 minutes. Add fish, salt, tomato nad wine. Simmer, covered, for six minutes. Ladle over rice and rim with parsley.
When you are all done skimming and filleting your sunfish, plant the carcasses deep in your tomato patch or rose bed. They make excellent fertilizer.
Fish Loaf
After you fillet your fish, don’t throw away the bones. There is still meat attached to them, and you can make a tasty dish with the leftovers. Begin by either baking the backbone scrapings in a 350 degree Fahrenheit oven or steaming them over boiling water until they are cooked. While the fish is cooking, gather the following ingredients:
1 cup toasted break cubes
1 small onion, diced
2 stalks celery, diced
1 tsp. salt
1 egg, beaten
1/2 cup tomato sauce
3/4 cup grated cheddar cheese
Paprika
1 1/4 cups cooked, flaked fish (from the scrapings)
Mix all ingredients except paprika and one-quarter cup of the grated cheese in a large bowl. Work in the flaked fish until a uniform texture is attained. Spoon the mixture into a 9X5-inch bread pan and shape it into a loaf. Spread the remaining grated cheese over the loaf and sprinkle paprika on top. Bake the loaf at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for one hour. Let it cool five to 10 minutes before cutting.
Add chili peppers or hot pepper sauce as desired.
Baked Ciscoes
10 ciscoes, filleted
1 1/2 tbsps. Lemon juice
2 cups heavy cream
1 cup light cream
1 1/2 tsps. Flour
1 tbsp. butter
Salt and pepper
Buttered toast
Quarter the fiillets. Place fish pieces in a buttered flat baking dish. Sprinkle with the lemon juice. Heat butter and flour in saucepan. Add the two cups heavy cream and the cup of light cream slowly. Bring to boiling point, stirring constantly. Pour sauce over fish and sp rinkle with salt and pepper. Bake at 325 degrees Fahrenheit for about one hour. Serve fish and sauce on (or with) buttered toast.
When it comes to competitive swimming there are various strokes and distances that can be competed in at most competitions. Competitive swimming started to become increasingly popular in the in the 1800’s , and due to its popularity is and has been for a long time one of the most popular events in the summer Olympics.
Competitive swimming has an international governing body that goes by the world recognised name of FINA. The governing body of FINA includes local sub groups such as Amateur Swimming Association (ASA) and Swimming Teachers Association (STA) in the United Kingdom ,USA Swimming (USAS) and United States Masters Swimming (USMS) in the United States. FINA regulates the four swimming disciplines, swum over different distances as outlined below.
Freestyle, also known as ‘front crawl’, can be swum using any technique or style the swimmer chooses, although front crawl is swum 99% of the time, and thus in swimming competitions bares no restrictions on what action the swimmers use. The only exception to this is when the swimmer is swimming the freestyle part of an individual medley event. The following events are held for freestyle in distances of 50 m, 100 m, 200 m, 400 m, 800 m and 1500 m. All of these can be swum in regular competitions and major games.
Butterfly events require that the swimmer’s actions are equal at both sides
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Do you know the origin of basketball?
The origins of the game of basketball can be traced back to a gentleman by the name of Dr. James Naismith. In 1861, Naismith was born in Almonte, Ontario, Canada. During his early school days, Naismith would play a game called duck on a rock whereby the child would endeavor to knock the duck off the top of the rock with a toss of another rock.
Later on, Naismith would go on to McGill University in Montreal and would later become McGill University’s Athletic Director. He would subsequently move on to YMCA Training School in Springfield, Massachusetts and in 1891, the game of basketball began.
Given the cold Massachusetts winters, Naismith needed to find a recreational activity that could be played indoors and he preferred a sport that would develop skill and one that was not exclusively relying on strength. The first game was played with two peach baskets for goals and a soccer ball.
Further to his credit, Naismith became a medical doctor specializing in sports physiology and a Presbyterian minister. Naismith was able to see his beloved sport of basketball, gain acceptance in numerous countries through the YMCA since 1893. As well, the sport of basketball was brought forth at the Berlin Olympics in 1936. As we speak, the game of basketball has become a very popular professional sport.
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Remember when you were in High School. So many characters and personalities. Here’s one I think you’ll relate to.
Gillie was the Paul Bunyon of my neighborhood. He had 20-22 biceps, and a neck almost as round. Weighing 220 pounds, he stood six feet one inch and had no fat on his body. I had never seen any one like him in my life. He ambled when he walked. The kind of walk someone has when they know they have nothing to fear. His nickname was Mr Clean. He looked a lot like the cleaning icon. Except Gillie had no earring.
On the baseball diamond, Gillie was awesome. His fungo shots to the outfielders in pre game warm-ups touched parts of the sky usually reserved for small engine planes. He scared the other team. He looked like Mickey Mantle, Harmon Killabrew and Ted Kluzewski all rolled into one.
Smacking a softball was where Gillie excelled. His shots were legendary. He was one of a handful that hit the ball over the right field fence. The fence was 270 - 280 feet away and climbed 40 feet high. He was the only person I ever saw that hit a ball that soared over that fence onto Goldsmith Avenue. His hits seemed to gain height as they cleared the fence.
For me, Gillie always represented strength, dedication and just being a real good guy. He never used his size and strength to put others down. It was his way of building himself up.
Burton snowboards have been making sure boarders get the best ride down the slopes for many years. Burton’s reliability and credibility are etched in stone. Two boards you may consider are the Burton Bullet and Baron.
The Burton Bullet has a giving sidecut and snappy flex which offers increased pop and an incredible ride for a wide board. This all combines to give you a fast, responsive, versatile, snowboarding experience.
The Burton Bullet is constructed with a wider waist width which allows riders with a size 10.5 or bigger foot to power through, speedy turns. Those with big boots will find the Bullet fun to ride and long lasting.
The Bullet’s slantwall construction provides bigger-boot riders a controlled snow feel and durability. A 70’s muscle graphic looks great on the board which includes a silver metallic detail print.
Next is the Burton Baron ES. It offers incredible stability and control, from groomers to hips, to off-piste stashes. Riding the Baron hard all day is a snap.
Burton has created the Baron for larger-footed riders. Its implanted Carbon I-Beam and added Dual Warp Lite Triax fiberglass ensure high speed. Its Dragonfly core is designed according to a specific strength to weight ratio, as well as Pressure Distribution Edges. This increases the boards snap and edge control.
Sports is filled with Rights and fees. Who has the right to broadcast and reproduce sports, and how gets paid? College Universities always hold local radio rights for their sports programs. Satellite radio has caused a conflict with these schools due to the amount of the local broadcasts going national over satellite systems.
Many universities believe that the local radio stations should receive some proceeds from these broadcasts. However in many cases, they are not currently getting any money from Satellite Radio Services.
Negotiations have occurred at some level but not for every one, it has been a league-by-league issue. XM, for example, deals with several major conferences, including the Pac-10. However, Sirius negotiated individual deals with Southern California and UCLA, and these are all creating a conflict between the companies and their respective teams and leagues. And although these fees are not very large, with a growing subscriber base and increased satellite radio popularity, the fees and the battle to control rights are definitely going to increase and heat up!
It’s going to be very interesting as the fight to control content gets more heated, we have seen it happen with TV and traditional radio, and now it’s satellite radio’s turn.
There is positive talk of post-season tournaments for West Virginia University.
Surprisingly, that talk has nothing to do with the football team.
While the boys on the gridiron have already accepted an invitation to the 2005 Toyota Gator Bowl, the 2004 WVU men’s basketball team is looking towards making a storybook run at the NCAA Tournament. Reaching college basketball’s elite tournament is something the team hasn’t accomplished since 1998. That year, they were one of the tourney’s Cinderella stories, making it all the way to the Sweet 16.
Getting to the tourney will not be an easy task. WVU plays in the Big East conference, considered by many to be one of the toughest in all of Division I. The Mountaineers’ out of conference schedule is no pushover, either: they play Louisiana State at Baton Rouge, and have a huge showdown against ACC powerhouse North Carolina State in Raleigh.
“We don’t want to be sitting there on bubble night saying, I wish we had played a tougher schedule,” said Mountaineer coach John Beilein. “We might not get to the bubble, but we won’t know unless we try.”
If Beilein’s coaching history is any indicator, then a tournament trip would seem likely. Beilein’s previous three coaching stops (Division II Lemoyne, Canisius, and Richmond), all made the NCAA tournament by the end of his fourth year as coach.
Finding positive things to say about West Virginia’s basketball program was once a struggle.
That was, before Beilein arrived.
The Mountaineers did not have a memorable 2001 campaign. They started the season strong, going 7-2, but finished the year with only eight wins. Their lone conference victory was unhappily sandwiched between two nine-game losing streaks.
According to Bruce Feldman of ESPN the Magazine, players lost respect for the coaching staff that year, led by Gale Catlett, a 2004 WVU Sports Hall of Fame Inductee. Things got especially bad after players saw several assistant coaches at local bars.
“How do you look at [coaches] the next day if you just saw them doing shots and hitting on some 20-year-old,” one player asked in Feldman’s article, Moving Mountains. Catlett resigned after that season. His replacement, Dan Dakich, was supposed to bring boot camp-like discipline to the ball team.
He bailed after only eight days.
Enter John Beilein.
“His game plans are innovative, and he instills fundamental play in all of his teams,” ESPN analyst Jay Bilas said of Beilein in 1998. “When you hired Beilein, you didn’t land some nightclub comic to get boffo ratings on his TV show; you got a hell of a coach.”
The Mountaineer basketball program Beilein inherited in April 2002 was a train wreck. They had no upperclassmen in the starting lineup, and only seven players on scholarship.
With the odds stacked higher than Spruce Knob, the team found a glimmer of success, finishing 14-15 and earning a spot in the Big East Tournament.
Year two under Beilein was rocky off the court. Forward Drew Schifino, a 2003 third-team All-Big East member, was suspended from the team in midseason after comments he made in the press. After skipping practice while on suspension, Schifino was subsequently dismissed. At the time, he was the team’s primary scoring threat, their only player with over 1000 career points.
Facing another considerable challenge, Beilein and his players survived the mid-season shakeup. With a regular season record of 15-11, the Mountaineers again qualified for the Big East Tournament, also earning an invitation to the post-season National Invitational Tournament (NIT).
In the NIT, the Mountaineers made some noise, defeating Kent State and Rhode Island before losing a close contest to Rutgers in the third round.
The season was a great improvement over Beilein’s first campaign. Junior center D’or Fischer demolished the school record for blocks in season with 124, and sophomore forward Pat Beilein, the coach’s son, set a school record with 32 consecutive free throws made.
Despite the successes of the 2003 campaign, the Mountaineers encountered another bump in the off-season. Freshmen Tyler Relph and Jerrah Young - two bench players who saw significant minutes during the season - transferred out of the program.
“Our basketball staff appreciated their efforts this past season and their honesty in wanting to transfer,” Beilein said in March. “While I am disappointed at their decision, I understand that it is a part of college basketball today.”
With their 10 remaining players, the Mountaineers made a trip to Europe in the summer of 2004. The European tour gave the Mountaineers a chance to play national teams from Germany, the Czech Republic, and Holland. On the tour, they welcomed the debuts of redshirted forward Brad Byerson and forward Mike Gansey, who was finally eligible to dress after transferring in 2003.
“The team took another stride toward being a bigger and better family,” said Beilein. “We have pretty good sense of chemistry on this team and a strong sense of commitment to each other.”
Gansey was the biggest surprise of the trip, leading the team in scoring with an average of 15.6 points.
“The scoring surprised me because I didn’t know what to expect,” said Gansey. “I didn’t know how much I’d play or how much they’d let me do. To play that well really boosted my confidence.”
Four other players also averaged over 10 points per game, including junior guard Johannes Herber. In 2003, Herber accumulated a 4.0 GPA, earning him Academic All-American recognition. Herber spent the majority of his summer playing for the German National Team, and will play a key role in WVU’s ‘04 success.
“He can now play four positions,” said Beilein. “I love having a kid that can do that.”
In addition to upgrading Byerson and Gansey to active players, the 2004 Mountaineers also brought in freshmen Luke Bonner and Darrius Nicholls.
Bonner, a 7-foot, two time Gatorade High School Player of the Year in New Hampshire, averaged 14 points and 15 rebounds per game his senior season. He is one of three players on WVU’s roster that towers at higher than 6-feet 11-inches, including starting center D’or Fischer and junior Kevin Pittsnogle.
“We’re tall, we’re long, and we block shots,” said Rob Summer, another 7-footer who is ineligible to play this season after transferring from Penn State. “It’s a great asset to have three guys at that size who can shoot the lights out.”
Nicholls, a point guard, averaged almost 25 points per game his senior season and was named All Timesland Player of the Year by the Roanoke Times.
On paper, this Mountaineer team looks to be one of the best in Morgantown’s memory. A team that two years ago was one of the youngest in all of college basketball now has an abundance of veteran leadership.
“Everybody is going to be more involved this year,” said Pittsnogle. “I think the scoring is going to be more spread out. We have a lot of people that can score and are looking to score.”
The Mountaineers feature a deadeye perimeter shooting attack, which finished fourth in the Big East in 2003. In addition to their height under the basket, the Mountaineers are going to be a difficult team to shut down offensively.
“It’s a huge asset to have shooters on the perimeter,” said Bonner. “With shooters out there, I feel very comfortable moving the ball around. Who are teams going to leave?”
Beilein seems to have his system in place, and the Mountaineers hope to be the surprise team in the Big East in 2004.
“If anybody said that after two years we’d be over .500 with a couple of postseason wins, I’d say they were absolutely crazy,” said Beilein.
Insanity is in style these days, isn’t it?
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Topped by snow and glaciers, Mount Shasta rises up above everything else when you approach it from the north.
As soon as I saw it, I wanted to be up there. We were coming south from Oregon, after driving across the country from Michigan. A detour to northern California before heading home seemed like a good idea to both of us.
“I wonder if we could climb it?” I asked. John just nodded his head quietly, agreeing not to the climb, but to the fact that he was wondering the same thing. I checked the map. Mount Shasta is 14,162 feet above sea level. I liked the idea of climbing that high.
“Have you ever climbed a mountain,” John asked me. I thought about it for a while. “Not really. A lot of hills though.”
Mount Shasta City
“Oh yes,” the old woman at the visitor’s center told us, “people climb Mount Shasta all the time.” John pointed out the glaciers on the map she had given us. “Oh, well, did you bring crampons and ice axes?” John looked at me, and I could only say, “I’ve heard of these things.”
We did have some gear: backpacks, sleeping bags, and a tent. John had good hiking boots, but mine were more like high-top shoes. Neither of us had ever used crampons or an ice axe, so we went the few blocks across town to see what the guy at the climbing store had to say.
“Have you done any climbing before?” he asked us.
“A little,” I answered, remembering the buildings we used to climb on as teenagers, and the rocks we had recently scrambled up in Oregon. I figured we were ready for Mount Shasta.
“Well, you can’t put crampons on those boots,” he said to John, “and you sure can’t put them on those,” he told me, shaking his head at my shoes. Crampons apparently need rigid boots - our mountaineering lesson of the day. We could rent them, but only if we rented real mountaineering boots also. “And you’ll need ice axes, of course.” I felt a pain in my wallet.
Backpacking On Mount Shasta (Too Poor For Climbing)
A speeding ticket in North Dakota had strained the budget, and Mount Shasta was another detour from the route and the budget. We could, we decided, hike up the mountain and do a little backpacking. Still, I had to ask, “Do people climb Shasta without gear?” The store owner realized that the sale was lost.
“It’s been done,” he answered impatiently.
“It’s been done,” I reminded John as we drove up the road to Mount Shasta. He didn’t answer, which was a good sign. I watched the Pine trees go by, and absentmindedly poked a finger through a hole in my shoe.
“Old Ski Bowl Trailhead,” John said. I looked over at the sign. “7,900 feet.” We were at the trailhead, along with forty other cars, and it was early enough to hit the trail.
Mount Shasta Poop Bags
We looked at the registration forms, and had a decision to make. There was a $10 fee to hike or climb above “Horse Camp,” at 8,400 feet. John pointed to a pile of paper bags, each with a handful of cat litter in it, and a plastic bag to put it in. These were for carrying our excrement off the mountain, a requirement above 10,000 feet. That clinched it. We put $10 each in the envelope and dropped it in the slot. We couldn’t pass up the opportunity to poop in a bag in the mountains. I took two for myself, in case of good luck.
An easy trail took us to the hut and spring at Horse Camp. We filled our water bottles. The dayhikers looked up at the mountain through cameras, while the climbers cooked noodles and discussed weather reports. They looked at my shoes and smiled at each other when I mentioned we might climb Mount Shasta.
After Horse Camp the trail gets steeper and rockier. The trees end at about 8,500 feet, leaving only grasses, flowers, and other tundra plants. Then the trail gets lost in the rocks just before the steep climb up to Helen Lake.
Wind And Rain At Helen Lake
There is no lake. Helen lake is a more-or-less level area of snow and ice. At the edge, overlooking Horse Camp far below, there are dusty clearings in the rocks where the climbers camp. We found an empty spot and we set up camp. The wind was howling. We were at 10,440 feet.
About the time the rain started, I realized it might have been a bad idea to talk John into bringing only a tarp, instead of the tent. The edges pulled loose in the wind again and again, until we pinned down one side with heavy rocks, and wrapped the other side around us. Dust blew in, despite the tight wrap and rain. I was enjoying the adventure more than John, who was very quiet. So I talked until he fell asleep.
Climbing Mount Shasta
“Apparently they start very early,” John grumbled. It was dark, but there were lights and noise from the tents around us. I stood up, and I saw lights on the mountain a thousand up. It was 5:30 a.m. Hmm… climbers start early. With that new insight, we packed our daypacks, hid our big backpacks in the rocks, and stepped onto the ice.
Helen Lake was a mile of ups and downs, through sun-dished ice. Then we reached the loose rock at the base of a steep slope, in Avalanche Gully. We started climbing Mount Shasta. an hour later, we quit.
“I can’t do it,” John gasped. “Can’t get enough air.” We were at about 11,000 feet, and we knew there was less oxygen, but this was the first time John had actually been this high on foot. I once drove higher in Colorado, but apparently driving wasn’t a strenuous enough for me to notice the thinner air. I noticed it here. We both did. We sat down and rested for a minute.
“Are you sure,” I asked. He was - I wasn’t. It was light now, and John didn’t see any problem hiking down the four hours to the car alone. I would go on to the summit, and then come back down by evening. I had to continue. Mount Shasta was my first mountain, and I hadn’t even used the poop bag yet.
Altitude Sickness
The “Red Bank” is a line of broken cliffs above Avalanche Gully. I scrambled, climbed, slipped on ice, and eventually found a way up and over. Then there were long steep slopes covered in loose rocks, with a few bamboo sticks marking the way. My route converged with that of the other climbers, who had come up the snow-slope route with crampons and ice axes.
After much climbing, I finally made it to the summit, which is called Misery hill, because it isn’t actually the summit. It just seems like it should be. There was still a mile of snow to cross, and then more rocky terrain. One snow field had three-foot-high peaks covering it, like a huge merange pie.
I rested a moment, and realized I’d been hearing a new sound. Bang! Bang! Bang! It was the inside of my head, which had never been so loud before. Hmm…interesting. I got used to the noise and pain after an hour or so.
I got used to the smell of sulphur too. Mount Shasta, it turns out, is a volcano. When John Muir climbed it more than a hundred years earlier, he had to huddle next to the hot sulphur gas vents to survive a night near the peak. He was alternately freezing and burning.
At The Top Of Mount Shasta
“So this is the top?” I mumbled lamely to the guy who had just told me the John Muir story. Clouds, and smoke from forest fires, obscured the view in every direction, but it felt good to be so high, and down to the east, I saw my first glacier, a few hundred feet below.
“You can write your name in the register there,” the guy told me, pointing to something in the rocks. Guestbooks on top of mountains? Another lesson for the day. I signed in, wrote some comment, and started down the mountain.
Sun cups, or whatever they call those depresions in the snow, fill with water in the warm afternoon sun - another discovery. I’d climb out of one ten-foot-wide bowl and slide into the pond at the bottom of the next. This was the pattern until I thankfully reached the ankle-twisting mile of rocks piled up below Helen Lake. Climbing down, I realized, is more difficult than climbing up, or at least more dangerous.
I found the trail, my headache disappeared, I reached the road, where John was waiting. By evening we were driving towards Michigan, Mount Shasta hidden in the clouds and smoke behind us. Oh, and yes, I did get to use the poop bag. Somewhere around 11,500 feet, I think, which I remembered when I was looking through my pack. “Pull over at the nearest garbage can,” I told John.
Outdoor gardening is so much easier when you know how.
Outdoor gardening is much more enjoyable when you know a few secrets.
Much of the enjoyment of outdoor gardening comes from the care and proper maintenance of the garden.
Not many plants will look their best without some help, and pruning is one of these techniques considered essential to outdoor gardening if plants are to flower and fruit well, and to keep pests and diseases at bay.
For those inexperienced in outdoor gardening, pruning can often be a reason for concern.
Questions may arise, such as when is the best time to prune, and how, and where.
We prune our trees and shrubs mainly to increase flowering and fruiting, to control diseases, or to change the size or shape of the plant.
Some shrubs such as Forsythia need an annual prune of their older wood to help maintain vigor and to produce new flowering shoots.
These new shoots are produced from the base of the plant.
If Forsythia was left un pruned it could soon become overcrowded, allowing little room for new shoots to grow and flower.
I recommend that after flowering each year you cut out a good quarter to one third of the old wood around the base of the shrub.
A number of shrubs can be encouraged through pruning to develop larger foliage with no flowers.
This is usually done in late winter or early spring.
The shrub is either cut back to the ground, or cut back very hard whilst removing dead wood and twigs.
Some trees are suitable for this type of pruning, and this can totally change the appearance of these plants.
Ornamental fruit trees will produce much more flowers and fruit when pruned correctly.
As a rough guide for outdoor gardening the plants that flower early in the season should be pruned as soon as flowering has finished,whilst late flowering shrubs can be done at the beginning of the growing season.
Many shrubs are grown for the color of their stems, and will need to be pruned at frequent intervals if the color is to be kept.
A technique called “coppicing” where the shrub is pruned hard close to the ground is usually involved.
Coppicing is also used for the production of wood suitable for fencing.
In outdoor gardening however, it is used most often to stimulate fresh new growth in the colorful stems of trees and shrubs.
The shape of trees and shrubs in the outdoor garden can be changed by pruning and crossing branches that are close together.
The object here is to construct a natural open shape so that air can circulate freely.
If some of your older shrubs are getting a bit woody and ugly you could try cutting the plant back hard whilst trying to keep some leaves on the lower branches, before deciding to pull them up.
It’s worth giving the plant a feed and mulch at this time too.
What pruning tools will you need for outdoor gardening?
For outdoor gardening you will need secateurs for soft shoots and small branches, or loppers for branches that are too thick to be cut with secateurs, and a saw for even bigger branches.
Always use good quality tools and make sure they are sharp.
It is essential to the health of your plants that you prune correctly.
Cut out all diseased, weak and dead growth.
Always cut back to healthy wood, free from the staining of infected tissue.
Generally when pruning cuts are made on trees and shrubs it should be made to a bud, which will then grow away without leaving a dead stump.
You should choose a bud that is facing the direction you want the branch to grow away to, then make a slanting cut about 2 inches above the bud.
If the plant has opposing buds, then cut straight across.
A good tip for creating cleaner, easier cuts on lighter stems and branches with secateurs is to hold the stem in your free hand and bend it slightly with light pressure before cutting.
To remove a branch from a shrub or tree, you first need to cut the branch back to about a foot from the trunk. This will help to prevent the branch tearing.
Don’t however cut the remaining stub flush with the trunk, but leave a small swelling which can heal on its own.
Pare off ragged parts left on sawn surfaces.
Collect all your prunings and compost them if soft and healthy, but burn them if woody or diseased.
Enjoy your outdoor gardening by pruning successfully.
Make the right cut to improve your outdoor gardening skills.
I loved being around the baseball players when they had something to say that I thought would have a positive impression. Here are some of the quotes that I have enjoyed and have inspired me.
Bob Gibson
” I owe the public one thing - a good performance.”
Sandy Koufax
” Pitching is the art of instilling fear.”
Warren Spahn
“A sore arm is like a headache or a toothache. It can make you feel bad, but if you just forget about it and do what you have to do, it will go away. If you really like to pitch and you want to pitch, that’s what you’ll do.”
Stan Musial
“I love to play this game of baseball - I love putting on this uniform.”
“When a pitcher’s throwing a spitball, don’t worry and don’t complain, just hit the dry side like I do.”
Derek Jeter
“My dad had been shortstop when he was in college, and you know, when you’re a kid, you want to be just like your dad.”
“My office is at Yankee stadium. Yes, dreams do come true.”