Green Beans and Lettuce

I just couldn't resist planting more green beans in the garden. My grandson Blake just loves to eat the tender baby beans. He tells me, " Nona, I am really, really hungry!" I offer him choices but the only treat that will do is to pick a tiny bean and than pick another...and another. Lettuce is another crop that can be planted now. I found lettuce seeds for five cents apiece and planted some in containers. They have already popped out of the ground after five days! What vegetables do you like to plant in July?

June's Tune

Today marks the end of June plantings. I wanted to share the bountiful blessings of having a garden. Some of the plants growing in my garden now are Strawberries, Tomatoes, Sweet Peas, Morning Glories, Marigolds, Trombochini Squash, and one Zucchini. The herbs are Lavender, Parsley, (Italian and Curly), Cilantro, Basil, Oregano, Sage, Dill and Chives. I am disappointed that the Moon Flower seeds did not survive the cold evenings but everything else has flourished! Some highlights are the Blue Storm Petunias, red Fibrous Begonias, violet and pink Impatiens, purple and red Snapdragons, and white, pink and lavender Dianthus from six-packs. The native Iris are done blooming but were so spectacular. My daughter Aurora gave me two Tuberous Begonias and my other daughter, Colleen, gave me some Sages. I can't wait until the three-day week-end to garden! What is growing in your garden?

Gardenicide: a response

Yeah, I admit it. I’m the dirt killer. It was greed, I tell ya. Greed and maybe a pinch of pride led me down the dark path to gardenicide. The desire to have bigger plants with bigger yields, so I could crow about my superior garden growing prowess drove me over the edge of reason.

It took months of mixing rich redwood compost with chicken manure, sand, wood ashes, the finest coffee grounds Starbucks had to offer, and egg shells to create the perfect mulch milieu. Any organic gardener will tell you that we really don’t feed plants with fertilizer. Rather, we feed the living soil with material that the worms and microbes love to munch. The product of our earthy partners is water soluble food that can be immediately absorbed by plant roots. All the nutrients necessary for plant life are available, in the soil, in the correct amounts, and are carried to the plant, above ground. The sun magically combines them with chlorophyll in the process of photosynthesis to create the plant structure and the fruit. So wonderful, so simple, such a gift from God! Why would anyone, in their right mind, tamper with such a perfect process??

I couldn’t leave well enough alone, though. Noooohoho, not me. I had to try to goose the plant growth and production, with some man made concoction to satisfy evil urges of greed and pride. I mistook the “Weed and Feed” lawn fertilizer for high-nitrogen lawn food and fed the poison to my beautiful, trusting plants. Watching them wilt and slowly starve to death was unbearable. I tried everything to thwart the poison but to no avail.

It was a painful lesson. I’ve been properly chastened and I’ve resolved to repent from my foolish ways. I’m naming my garden, “East of Eden” as a reminder to avoid any more deadly sins. Most of them, anyway…
submitted by a gardener under the pseudonym of " Gardenicide"

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Weed and Feed

Have you ever done something and been amazed by your result? It may sound simplistic but reading the instructions are crucial before applying any fertilizer. I have a good friend who spent hours creating organic soil for his vegetables. He gathered coffeegrinds and ashes and mixed them with some fine humus. The vegetable seeds were carefully selected and an array of wonderful seedlings established. In one of those moments we all like to forget, he decided

to add some commercial fertilizer. He did not plan on adding "Weed and Feed" a fertilizer for lawns that includes a weed killer. Ooops! Let us just quietly pray that the vegetables will overcome this setback because my friend is feeling pretty low today about this unintentional blooper. A gentle reminder to all of us:

" read the instructions and fine print before adding fertilizer to the garden! "