Field Boss

My mother is the queen of lists. The Things I Get To Do Today when I'm visiting her frequently gets longer by the hour. The reasons for that are perfectly okay. She's nearly ninety two. The fact that she is not physically able to do all the work but can make a list for me to do what she wishes she could is okay, too. I'm grateful to be of assistance to her.

Today we planted potatoes and carrots. Her instructions were: use the post hole digger to make the hole for the seed potato, put in the sprouted potato being careful to protect the tender sprouts, add a tablespoon of potash, cover with soil making a little mound so she could see where each hill of potatoes would spring forth in a couple of weeks.

She apologized for being bossy. I knew she was just talking out loud as she "saw" herself doing the planting as she had done for the last eighty five years. "Naw," I said, "you're just being a good field boss."

A Triangle of Onions

I seldom do what most folks do.  Grew taller than most women (6' 1")--that set the bar right off--which was really out of my control, but gave me the foundational premise from which to work.  Admitting right up front here, however, that it took me at least 40 years to ease out of the need to conform, to slide into the joy of being myself, to expand a bit more every day into possibilities.

Waiting for imagination to strike--to be planted soon

Wow!  What that has to do with onions is yet to be revealed.  My bag of 80 onion sets has been waiting on the kitchen counter for a month nearly. They were white onions.  I was waiting until a convenient trip out to buy sets for yellow onions.  Done.  The bags (3 all together=240 onion sets) have sprouting slowly into the Things I get to do today for at least two weeks as other things pushed to the fore. Daily promises to the three-bags-full were broken.  But today I got a firm grip on my determination, and though it was time for a dinner I had not yet prepared, I planted onions.*

Triangle of onions

Contrary to the instructions on the bag, designed to keep all of us in conformity and an ordinary state (boring, same-old-same-old, mundane, unimaginative, uninspired, dull), I planted the onions in my flower bed, and not in rows, either.  I thought waves would be nice. I planted two two-row waves.  And then I planted a triangle--between the larkspur and the peony.  They told me they would be happy there.  I believe them.




*After sharing with neighbors and friends and planting a few to fulfill my promise, there are plenty left to tuck here and there about the yard in the sunny spots.  Just too fun for words.

It's a Slippery Slope

Once you get started, you're a goner.  This gardening/yarding thing has me outside so much I missed my Tai Chi class last Thursday--plum forgot all about it until 3:15 in the afternoon.  Today I remembered, but when I got back, I took all that focus and relaxation right out in the dirt as though I'd never been away for a minute.

Empty slope fit for only weeds.

Right out of my yard catalog of Things I get to do today is make a space to plant my Critter Mix.  I found Critter Mix in my seed catalog.  The folks at this company make available at a reasonable price a whole pound of greens seeds like collards and kale and lettuces that you can grow to feed your chickens.  That is so cool I can hardly see straight.  My problem would be, here in the city, limited lot size without the quarter acre needed to grow all these goodies for the girls. The garden beds are for growies for us people to eat not for the hens.

Old treated posts and 2x4's--a nuisance to store

So I started looking around in the yard for space of hen kale.  And there it was:  totally useless space in its current configuration, but totally perfect space if I were to gather together a pile of rotted off posts and 2x4's from an old berry trellis and a fistful of rusted rebar stakes.

The project got much worse before it got better--pretty typical of projects.
However, Handy Andy's know that and simply shift into compound low.
Slimy folded stuff is nasty, old landscape fabric found five inches down.

Armed with this equipment I spent the rest of the afternoon making terraced beds on a slope that has grown only weeds for the past 30 years.  Wow, does that feel good!  And better yet, it isn't slippery any more.

Ready to plant.  Oops! Better order the seeds, do ya' think?

Holiday Delight

Frost in the air means Holidays:  Winter Solstice, Christmas and Hanukkah celebrations.  And parties.  When I think of all those lovely people gathered together, I think of food.  Warm, fragrant, spicy, yummy food.  It may be cold and windy or rainy or snowy, but the warm hearts, warm drinks and warm food melt the chill, heating body, heart and soul.

Bird in the Beauty Berry Bush

While the frost was still on the garden this morning, Mr. Cheery Robin Redbreast stopped in for a bit of breakfast.   He's been visiting me regularly for a week or so.  I don't think he cares about Christmas or Hanukkah or Kwanza.  Warm fires, hot drinks and spicy food probably aren't on his list of favorites either.  He may not even know much about his relatives or family.  He has his own way of celebrating--every day, live fully in each moment.

 Sharing this moment with Mr. Cheery is one of the first Things I get to do today.  And the second thing I get to do is watch him enjoy is feast of Beauty Berries--his version of a Holiday Delight.  The third thing I get to do is find out if people can eat them.*


*Having done that, here are the results:  Beauty Berries are edible, but I have to say they are not tasty.  Bitter and bland as they are, Robin Redbreast need not be concerned about my picking them before he gets his fill.  To each his own.

Blazing Berries

Fall is gosh-awesome gaudy.  No doubt about it.  Why in my yard alone there is enough color to make Tammy Faye Baker look pale.

Barberry

Knock-your-socks-off gorgeous in the far corner by the hen pen is barberry with it electrically sharp spines.  Bright, lipstick red leaves will bring the whole plant to center stage by Thanksgiving.

Harlequin Glory-bower or Clerodendrum

For now it is watched over by the Clerodendrum whose elegantly, old-fashioned-sweet summer blossoms somehow translate into crazy jester hats for Halloween and fall.

Porcelain Berry Vine

The summer preview for Porcelain Berry Vines is more about sound and honey.  The tiny, barely-noticeable clumps of flowers are honeybee magnets, causing the whole vine over our back patio to humm-m-m-m during daylight all summer long.  But fall pops out these purple, pink, blue and gray jewel "beads" that flickers find tasty.









Beauty berries are just natural show-offs.  A table center piece with orange-ripe persimmons and clumps of these near-fluorescent berries is stunning.  In January the bush is a banquet for migrating birds.




There are few words to paint adequately the portraits for these wonders so letting the pictures speak for themselves is one of the Things I get to do today.