| Mrs. Boro: Excess vs. simplicity: my most common dilemma |
|
By: JEANNE BRAGG
|
Posted: Monday, June 29, 2009 11:01 am
|
 Email  Print
|
The first days of summer have been beautiful – preceded by a soggy but equally beautiful spring.
Today I read the newspaper outside and was surprised at the soft breeze and lack of humidity. Recent rains have made the trees and shrubs so lush that they sparkle as the wind blows through them in the sunlight.
I haven’t been into planting many flowers lately.
The arrival of spring coincided with the arrival of a grandbaby, and prior years of experience dealing with critters devouring my efforts have taken the fun out of it.
There’s nothing more disappointing than awaiting the ripening of your first tomato, only to find that a raccoon or squirrel has waited until it turned red, too, taking a big healthy chunk out of it.
I hate to write this for fear of “jinxing” things, but my Annabelle hydrangea is about three feet tall now and blooming beautifully. Last year it was munched to the ground by some varmint, but blessedly not this year.
I haven’t seen any deer or their evidence lately, and my hosta and dahlias have been mercifully spared.
Slugs, however, continue to thrive. Putting crushed eggshells on the soil is supposed to deter them, but I keep forgetting to do that. I have also found that burying a jar lid full of beer just above soil level works, but have you ever seen a dead slug lying in beer? It is not pretty. I’ll start with eggshells.
I love green sweet potato vine. The slugs do, too. I decided to try to grow my own this spring without success.
I cut sweet potato tubers into slices, put toothpicks in the sides and suspended them in water. I seem to remember my mother did that.
But all I got was moldy water and shriveled tubers.
Martha Stewart gave this “recipe” on her show: Put 2 inches of dry peat in a shoebox, place the tubers in the box and cover with peat. Then mist the top once a month and store in a cool dry place. I might try that next year.
The two sweet potato plants I did buy are really growing. I might try rooting a slip in water and see what happens.
I’m also closely watching a rosemary bush with a trunk about two inches round. It takes up so much room that I want to cut it down, but provides me with such great rosemary in the winter that I can’t bear to part with it. It appears to be burying its top branches in the soil, so hopefully it will re-root itself.
Rosemary is my favorite herb. I sprinkle it on pork, tuck it under the ends of chicken and add it to any potato dish. I use the stems as skewers for kabobs and use it as a floral bouquet with basil, sage and chives in a white pitcher – a fragrant arrangement that lasts a long time.
I finally planted the containers by the kitchen door with a sprengeri fern, some basil, white petunias and green coleus. I’m enjoying the lack of color and harmony of the plants, but most of all I enjoy having the basil right by the door.
I’ve yet to be successful in growing parsley. I buy one of every cultivar (curly, Italian, cilantro) but they must all be on their second year because they go to seed within weeks. If the seeds germinated, that would be OK, but it hasn’t happened yet.
Excess vs. simplicity: my most common dilemma.
I’m exchanging one set of problems for another set for one more gardening year.
‘Til next week.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Login and voice your opinion!
|
Digg
Facebook
MySpace
Yahoo!