Here is my sincere wish that you will all have a happy, peaceful, and worry free 2012!!!

To Christmas Or Not To Christmas?

I am not a big fan of Christmas anymore - besides my usual complaint ( that it arrives in the cold season, and I just can't be too excited over anything that happens in Winter), the holiday, for most of us, is full of rushing around, stress, and too much work! Most of the true meaning of Christmas has really been lost, but some of it is still around.... for the past few weeks, I hear the greetings exchanged between many types of people, in many different locations and jobs. "Merry Christmas!" "Happy Holidays!" "Season's Greetings!" - It's like everyone suddenly realizes that we should be a little kinder and a little more considerate towards one another - too bad it doesn't last!

Unfortunately, there's a very silly (IMHO) controversey going on in this country nowadays - some people are dropping the "Christmas" in greetings, claiming that it's referring to Jesus Christ, and that should not be forced on others who are not religious or who may not BELIEVE in the Christian faith. For me, it is just a pleasant, friendly greeting that has been around for decades - that's all. It is like saying, "God Bless You" when someone sneezes - when I say it, do I actually THINK that evil spirits are being expelled and I have to say ia phrase to keep them away? Seriously? Of course not! It has just been around so long it is considered a polite thing to say. Some of those people are even complaining about "Christmas" trees! I think they really need to find something else to concern themselves with! 

Is this my favorite holiday? No. Am I religious? Not at all. But do I have a "Holiday Tree"? Noooo...I have a Christmas tree! What do I do when someone tells me "Merry Christmas"?  Do I chase them down the street and tell them I'm insulted by the phrase? NO! I either say "Thank you! The same to you!" or "Merry Christmas!" back! All I know is that someone took the time to tell me something nice, and I really appreciate that.

I have and will say "Merry Christmas" to many more people, now and in the future. And if you are Muslim, or Jewish, or belong to the church of Scientology, please take it in the context it is given - I am just expressing a kind greeting to you, same as if I would say, "Have a wonderful day" and I hope you will reply in kind.    

Pieces Of The Past

I really think my Grandmother (my Dad's mother) was pretty cool. She had a great sense of humor, a unique fashion sense, and was very easy going. Now, actually, I can't prove much of that - she died many years before I was born.

How cute! You go, Grandma!

Grandma and Grandpa's wedding picture.

Unfortunately, I don't know the date or time frame for any of these photos. No one noted anything on any of them. I do know they both died very young - she at the age of 44, he at 54. What my father told me was that after she passed away, he was so heartbroken that he died a few short months later.

 Grandma was very petite -under 5 feet tall. Strangely, her three children were all enormous babies - the two boys were around 14 pounds, and my aunt Carol around 12 pounds! I always assumed that was the key as to why she didn't live very long.

I think it's great that she would actually smile in these photos - everyone else back then looked like their dog just died ( like the unidentified lady on the left) and always posed very stiff and uncomfortable - but not her! She's all relaxed and looks like a real human. Maybe she knew that a descendant of hers someday would need to imagine what she was really like without ever meeting her....

A painting of Grandmother by her son (and my father)....:-)

An Unexpected Oasis...

 

One morning, along my route to one of our garages (notice the red and white sculpture that is in front of it) during my workday, i ran across a fairly large vegetable garden. .....Wait.....VEGETABLE GARDEN?! What's THAT doing in the middle of Downtown Toledo?

Walking through the mulched walkways across the garden, i saw cabbage, tomatoes, squash, cucumbers, even Sunflowers and Marigolds around the border.  

 

 Located in completely direct sun (which is what veggies love) in one of our hottest summers we've had in a while, everything still looked healthy, clean and well watered.

 Rounding a corner, I ran across a sign - oh-oh, probably says, "NO TRESPASSING - OR WE LET THE HOUNDS LOOSE!"

  

 ...But that was NOT what the sign said. It was cute and friendly and even informed me I could TAKE something if i wanted to! What an awesome surprise on a mundane work day!

So thank you to the United Way and Toledo GROWS, and if no one else appreciates your efforts, i really do! i already have harvested a couple of tomatoes from it (i may have to prune a few of those large squash leaves to cast, too), and plan to use part of my lunch hour one day to pull a few weeds in appreciation =-)



The Rant Of Summer

Yes, for years the breeders have been making sweet corn more and more sugary, but i never thought it was necessary in the first place.  i loved sweet corn since i was a child, and while i do like the "new" varieties a LITTLE better, they are almost too sweet at times. So, breeder guys, it's OK to stop now!

What i really want is a sweet corn plant that bears multiple ears! i know corn plants are extremely heavy feeders and that one huge stalk is there only to produce that one lonesome ear of corn (sometimes two), but that really needs to be addressed, especially for us home gardeners who don't have room for a FIELD of corn! So there it is.

 "Your mission, Jim, should you decide to accept it,

is to produce five eared corn plants. As always, should you or any member of your I.M. Force be caught or killed, the secretary will disavow any knowledge of your actions. This tape will self-destruct in five seconds."

"Mmmmmm....cornnnnn..." Did i sound like Homer Simpson?

 

Now, the breeders had a great idea when they worked on seedless watermelon!  

Hey! Let's scare the kids!

i had my complaints about that too, especially in the transitional years, when, oh sure, the hard black seeds were gone, but thousands of tiny immature seeds took their place, the kind that were impossible to eat around or spit out!

They would advertise that those seeds were so tiny and soft that you wouldn't know you were eating them, but unfortunately, some of us DID. i would say that just in the past two seasons, i finally have eaten an actual SEEDLESS watermelon! Ahhh, my life is complete.

....Oh, 'cept for that CORN business....!

How's Things With YOU? ~ Midsummer Status Update 2011

The last 2-3 years, my beloved vegetable garden has really not produced anything. Why? Well, i have a large perennial garden, i have my Creative Castings nature art business that i can only work on in the warm season and have to keep up inventory for the summer art/craft shows, plus i worked full time with only 2 weeks of vacation. It was fine without the art stuff, but that takes up a lot of hours, about as much as a part time job! Yes, i do love it, it just takes up time, time that i could be using to plant, weed, and water. 

This year is a little different; i decided to cut the art shows to one per month, plus i have one more week of vacation. So the garden looks a LITTLE better.



Cherokee Purple Tomato Plant

Things ARE behind, such as the tomato plants that are just starting to look like anything, plus a couple of things didn't germinate, my cucumbers and zucchini were planted late and were slow to come up, so they're both about 6 in. tall



Squash on the left; cukes on the right



 (i have faith in them, though, especially the zucchini - i expect to have many to give away, if it goes as zucchini usually goes!). Just planted bush beans VERY late (where the other seeds did not come up), but there should be plenty of time for them to mature. PLUS, after a horribly wet May, downpours every day or two.....My spousal unit and i agreed back then that we would probably in a drought situation come August. Well, by June it stopped raining, and as of this writing we have been completely without rain for 3 weeks, and the few showers before that did not amount to more that a tenth of an inch - so we're DRY! It's a pain to have to water daily, but i try to look at the bright side - few weeds and few mosquitoes! If you garden or farm, one thing is certain - you can water constantly, but it never has the same effect as one good rain! Plants will look 3 times larger the day after a rain, but so will the weeds! After a couple of good mid summer rains is usually when the weeds overtake the garden so much that i can't keep up, and if i DO have time to weed in the evenings, the 'skeeters won't allow me to! So, yes, i have to water, but i control it, so it's not all bad!

i have also rediscovered old fashioned gardening ~ that is, I have a tiller, and sprinklers to hook up to the garden hose, and all kinds of garden gadgets (remember THIS thing?)

but this season i've just been tending the garden quietly, watering with a watering can, hand picking the weeds or hoeing them, and mulching, reconnecting intimately with the garden soil. So, a slightly more relaxed season so far...

*****Late news flash ~ we DID just manage to get about an inch of rain two days ago, so that helped a bit!******

Bean There, Done That...

i collect things. i collect all KINDS of things! Salt dips, coins, Hostas, stamps ~ anything that comes in different colors or patterns. When i first discovered beans (OK~ i knew about beans long before that, but not THESE beans!), opened a catalog consisting of heirloom plants and saw names like, "Jacob's Cattle", "Snowcap", "Orca", and "Molasses Face"....well, i was hooked!

So for a few years i grew as many kinds of beans as i could find, dried them and saved them in jars. Did i EAT them? Oh, no! i don't really LIKE beans!!! i love snap beans, but i don't really even like dried beans in chili!

CANADIAN WILD

JACOBS CATTLE

MOLASSES FACE

ORCA

RED VALENTINE

SNOWCAP

i just harvest the beans, collect them (there's that "collect" word again!) in clear jars, and look at them, and i'm happy with that!

Do any of you grow beans for this reason? What are your favorites?

Can Or Can Not?

When i was young , i was spoiled when it came to veggies. Not spoiled by the usual definition, such as i got whatever i wanted and had access to all the types and varieties. No, i mean "spoiled" meaning my love for decent vegetables was spoiled forever because of the processed, canned junk my mother always served. Now, she seasoned everything well, i could never complain, i pretty much liked her cooking (except for those hideous potato pancakes! Blech!), but it was only after i left that house that i realized that all fruits and vegetables could be grown and eaten FRESH. Except for tomatoes, sweet corn, and watermelon, which are plentiful in our area in their just picked form at all the little roadside stands every summer, i pretty much had canned veggies all the time.

 Generally, even to this day, i prefer canned over fresh. i have taught myself to like fresh snap beans (fried in bacon grease, leeks and/or onions! mmmm), and i'm just beginning to appreciate fresh asparagus, but really not much else.

i was not even aware of home canning till my MIL showed me how. Still, freshly canned beets or pickles?

 Naw. i would rather eat out of those ubiquitous cans and jars at the grocery store. i don't really like peas, but if i do eat them, they're canned. i have even grown my own and could not get used to the taste (too much trouble shucking them, too!).

Don't worry ~ i've adapted, but if you see my garden and wonder why it's not more diverse, well...

Pain In The Grass

First, i really apologise ~ the last few entries in this blog seem to have been complaints and/or rants, and oops, here's another one! Don't get me wrong...this is Spring, and for the most part, it is definitely the happiest time of the year for me! We've even had cold temps and way too much rain, but the flowers are coming up, the trees are blossoming, and the grass is that "brand new" shade of green, so it's still awesome.

BUT, let me say right now, i will NEVER plant another large ornamental grass on my property FOREVER!

They are pretty from midsummer to late Fall, but then they're nothing but problems. i see a lot of landscapes incorporating grasses, and even though they are not tended to, they grow tall and straight through rain, sun or wind, but mine always have to be tied or staked or trimmed or SOMETHING. i do know that if they are fertilized they can become soft and floppy ~ they like "poor" soil ~ so i never fertilize them, and they still flop all over.

 

THEN it is always mentioned to leave them as is over the cold season for "Winter Interest". AND for awhile they do add to the landscape ~ that is, until the first ice or freezing rainstorm that we get! Of course, i live in a smaller lot in Middle Suburbia ~ if the grasses were out in the back 40 it wouldn't be so bad. But here i am outside in the cold beating the poor things with a shovel to break the ice off them so they don't fall into the driveway. They can only take so many ice or snow storms, then they're down for the count and look sloppy till the weather gets nice enough to cut them back.
 

                                                  But wait, there's more!

We don't get "nice enough" weather until at least April, so the dead straw colored grass is breaking apart in our very windy Spring weather and is scattered all over the yard, in the pond, and in all the flower beds. i have dug out a few of my grasses, but after just a few years, they develop a rock hard root mass the size of Maine! Then after all that work cutting them down, there's a problem with what to do with all the huge piles of dead grass! Hey, i'm all for the ecology ~ the perfect answer would be to chop it up and compost it, and i would tell you to do that, but it's a huge mess, and most grasses have tiny hairs that act like cactus thorns ~ you know, the ones that are too tiny to find in your finger (or hand, or back, or feet!) but are large enough to drive you crazy until they work their way out (and/or become infected)!

So, basically, for smaller yards, i recommend you save the stress and do without unless you have lots of time on your hands!

Toad Day 2011

About a year after we installed our watergarden, on an early warm day around mid April, i heard an odd sound that i had never heard before in my suburban garden. Was it a bird? It was a pretty trilling sound, but it seemed to be coming FROM the pond! i soon discovered little frogs or toads creating the sounds. Well, they must be frogs, i thought. Spring Peepers. maybe? Sounded too pretty for toads. A little reseach online and i was very surprised to find out that they were indeed plain old American Toads, and even though i grew up in this area, this was something i had never experienced before! More and more toads began their calling, and i was thrilled! Toads migrated into my yard from the road, up our driveway, right to the water, some already er, "paired up" while hopping to their destination!

A little taste of what we hear in our backyard....

We really had to watch our step for awhile, 'cause they were approaching from every direction!

Oh, no! A two headed toad! i KNEW i shouldn't have dumped that toxic waste into...    - oh, wait, that's not it....

Hmmm..Will this be considered a porn site now? ;-)

That year, the toads appeared in full force all from morning till evening, and the next day it was like they were never there! Except for the many strings of tiny eggs attached to every plant in the pond! Only a few days later, the water was full of THOUSANDS of tadpoles, and a few weeks later, they left the pond. i believe frogs are a little larger before they are done with water, but not toads! i love to see the tiny, tiny, fully formed babies around the yard!

 This has happened every year since, on the first warm day around April 15th (i call them my "Tax Day" toads!) Sometimes they only last one day, sometimes several weeks, depending on the weather. A LOTof it depends on the weather. We often have one or two warm days this time of year, with the next few near freezing! I have already checked the watergarden on days like that, and had to net out the toads that didn't make it to land because they got too cold!

Super Plants

Had a (non gardening) co worker a few years ago who just moved into a different home. It was a primarily shady yard, and they could tell it had been fashioned into a garden, even though it was winter when they moved in, they could see there were lots of little plant markers in the yard with names on them. It was soon discovered that the previous owners were of my ilk, i.e., "plant maniacs"! When Jim wrote down some of the names and showed me, i immediately recognized most of the variety names ~ they were all Hostas!

Spring arrived, as She always does, and the Hosta, along with many other perennials, awakened from their Winter sleep. It was not long before Jim came in to work and asked me if i wanted some (or all!) of these Hostas, because they wanted a low maintenance yard. Now, much as my heart leapt when i heard "Do you want these plants?", i did the right thing and told Jim that if he wanted a "low maintenance" yard, NOTHING would be LOWER maintenance than those Hostas! Especially established, well taken care of Hostas! i told him not to mess with them. Alas, (she says, grinning evilly) they still did not want the plants, so i borrowed my husband's truck (WITH the husband) and made a couple of trips there to load up said truck! Jim and his wife did decide they liked several of the plants, and wanted to keep them, but still let me cut divisions from those, also. It was a situation ALL plant maniacs hope to run into at least once in their lifetime! AND it just so happened that we had cleared out a space that Spring under the flowering Crabapple, and it was a perfect spot for Hostas! i believe i came home with at least 25 plants that year.

But I digress ~ my description of my SuperPlants list *** 1) Comes back reliably every year 2) Does not need pruning or shaping 3) If they DO flower, it does not take a lot of time to deadhead them 4) Looks good throughout the season 5) Needs little or no cutting down before winter and 6) Is NOT invasive!

A small disclaimer ~ there are no plants that are NO maintenance! Once in a while your Hostas may be eaten by slugs, moles dig up your Poppies, the deer wipe you out, and the most well behaved plant may absolutely LOVE the spot you have it in, and takes over your yard! But ~ dem's da rules, folks!

1) So Hosta are the first on this list. Very cast iron plants! i even have shoved a division of Hosta through a piece of Styrofoam and floated it in my pond with the roots floating free, and they thrived, even after i left them frozen in the water thru the Winter!

2) Next are the Sedums ~ they can grow in sandy or poor soil, can take hot sun, some are tiny and creeping, some are upright and can be 3 ft tall,

and it's very difficult to PREVENT from thriving!

3) Hardy Spring bulbs are very carefree, although some people make more work for themselves by cutting back the leaves sooner than they need to (or braiding them ~ what's with that?) If you wait until the leaves dry out, they will easily come off when tugged.

 

4) Heucheras ~ i love these guys! Compact, a great variety of colors, looks good (a lot of them THROUGH a zone 5 winter). See my "Collectable Plant" post about Heucheras for more photos.

5) Poppies ~ Comes up in early Spring, blooms, fades away. No problem.

There ARE more! Will post soon.