Spring has occupied our living room.
For a couple of weeks Peter worked industriously in the basement, planting vegetable seeds and watering them. Then it was time for them to face the sun. He found some old wire shelving and set it on a large plastic sheet to catch the drip drip drip of the watering can. And then he moved the seedlings into the living room, without even signing an executive order!
Peter started with garlic, it being the hardiest seedling as well as his favourite spice. He continued with zucchini, butternut squash, swiss chard, and 3 varieties of tomatoes. He mentioned that he was going to plant extra this year because, he said, we had run out of chard and tomatoes too early. Oops, I thought, to myself as I ran downstairs to search in the chest freezer. There, buried at the bottom, were several leftover bags of garden produce. My mismanagement was discovered! Would I be fired?
As he talked about his vegetable goals for this year, Peter also mentioned that he might try growing Russian kale, but I vetoed it – not politically correct. I asked for curly kale instead but he vetoed it – too attractive for the rabbits. And so our talks have stalled. We did agree on growing corn but it is as much loved by deer as it is by us. And they can even sneak in by jumping over our fence at the border.
My field of expertise is flowers. Peter has already put in a request for zinnias which apparently help with pollinating HIS vegetables. But they require lots of sun and most of my flower territory is shady. I already have to expand my only sunny space, the rose garden, to include an adopted rose bush from a friend. I thought Peter might consider trading some zucchini space for roses but so far no trade agreement has been reached.
I have a couple of other gardening challenges this year. One side of our back yard has been invaded by garlic mustard. This is not the kind of garlic that Peter likes. It’s an offensive vine that pokes up everywhere through our lovely periwinkle ground cover, trying to take over the periwinkle’s domain. This year I am going to be ruthless and deport those vines to the compost bin.
All winter I secretly tried to resurrect a beautiful plant given to me by an American friend last summer. It was an illegal alien, but the flowers were a glorious shade of orangy-red. I brought it in from outside last fall and I have been secretly nurturing it in my sun room. Just last weekend it showed signs of life. Apparently, it has been waiting patiently in the background for a time to announce itself. Now I am wondering if it’s planning to take over the garden.
Meanwhile I have been doing some research on herbs. There are lots of useful ones like camomile flowers to boil into a pot of de-stressing tea, mint for Mojito cocktails, alum for skin cream, and white oleander flowers for poisoning political enemies. Retract! I didn’t say that! Never in the history of our country did I say that! Time for tea.
Sue
Seventy In the City 
Isn’t gardening together fun! But sounds very springy to me!
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Urgent, Sue – do not compost your garlic mustard! When you pull it up, reach as far down as you can, pull it up – you must see an S on the root near the stem. Then I put mine into black plastic and let the sun bake it to death. Then it can go into the garbage. I pulled up enough last summer out of the woods here to give me back ache. Filled bags of it! On 300 acres…a losing battle. 😦
I commend both of you for your enterprising seed planting and great use of space. You inspire me to plant a few (basil, parsley, squash) – I have a large table with lights my dad put in. We ODed on pattypan last year.
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I have a compromise for your flowers. There are a number of edible flowers that are both attractive in the garden and in your salads or to decorate your plate. Pansies, certain marigolds, borage flowers (borage also flavours soup) and several others. Gary always plants garlic cloves in the fall and leaves them to winter over. They then come up on their own in the spring. This will give Peter more room to grow things in the living room. Hopefully the weather will warm up soon and Peter can plant his seedlings. Happy Gardening.
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As always, enjoyed reading your blog. Since you were talking about politics: What about trying to take over your neighbour’s garden should you run out of space? 😀
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Hi Sue,
I read your blog this morning and just had to reply.
Garlic mustard is not an offensive vine. It is an invasive plant. Please do not put it in the compost, or you will spread it everywhere. The Bruce Trail Conservancy often has work parties to get rid of garlic mustard on the trail. It will take over native plants.
And by the way, periwinkle is another non-native invasive plant. I don’t know if you ever listened to Ed Lawrence who had a gardening show on CBC Radio. He called these plants garden thugs and they will duke it out. As you have seen in your own garden.
Periwinkle will spread and take over, so if it’s near any other favourite flowers, they may not stand a chance. Bill and I had it in our garden, but we took it all out. There are lots of other native groundcovers.
This is just a heads up. If you can keep the periwinkle contained somehow, you might be ok, but seriously, it’s called invasive for a reason.
This sounds like our garden. Bill had the vegetables and I had the flowers!
Barbara
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