Wednesday, May 28, 2008

Karma and Morning Glories

I have been gardening most of my life. As I have said before, I was introduced to gardening by our grandfather, Daddy Jake. I used to spend spring break with my grandparents on their ranch. If you have ever visited a farm/ranch in March, you know it is one busy place with gardens going in, lambs being born, cattle to be worked. It was a lot of work. I loved following Daddy Jake around while he put in the vegetable plot. My love of gardening started right there in central Texas.

Although I have been gardening a long time, I have made some monster mistakes along the way. The mistake I make every year is over planting. Crowding is just something I cannot seem to avoid or learn from. Morning glories are another one of my weaknesses. I love morning glories. My favorite is heavenly blue, although Grandpa Ott’s purple is a real beauty. We have some that come back every year that are a different pink. I think there must have been some cross pollination between the Ott’s and something else.

The first time I planted morning glories was along the fence in my first vegetable garden. My dad had a peach tree a few feet from this fence. My morning glories grew right up off of the fence and into the peach tree. Dad wanted to pull them out. I had a fit and fell in it, so the vines stayed in the tree. Did I mention that I was 13 and a real teenage drama queen?

This was the same garden that our Great Dane, Missy, decided to jump around in on a fine afternoon. Ever tried to stop a 100 pound Great Dane from dancing on your squash? Good times. That same dog had thirteen puppies a few months later. Karma paid her back.

Ok, here is the real rookie mistake I made about four years ago. I was out for a walk and came across a really pretty blue morning glory growing on a fence out in the middle of nowhere. I really liked this little blue morning glory, so I gathered some seeds and brought them home with me. I dutifully scattered them along the fence of my vegetable garden, just like I had done with the heavenly blues that grew into the peach tree in my first garden. That’s right; I intentionally planted wild morning glories in my tiny garden. I didn’t know. I really had no idea that they would try to take over the universe. I did not know that they make a bazillion seeds and these seeds spread everywhere. So now, every year for months and months, I try to get rid of all the wild blue morning glories. Looks like Karma paid back that teenage drama queen.

19 comments:

  1. I wish you could come and weave some magic in my garden, Aunt Debbi!

    Thanks so much for coming to my little blog and leaving some comments. It's so nice to see that people come to read, and stay to comment.

    Kurt's blog is great too! What a champion. I wonder if he would mind if I left him a comment to encourage his blogging? Or would he freak out with a strange woman from Australia commenting on his blog?

    GdeE

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  2. Ha!!! Another classic story. My happiest childhood times were spent up at my grandparents', too, riding across their farm with my grandaddy on his big white horse (mine was considerably smaller). And my Grandma Simms's gardens were the inspiration for mine. And I love morning glories, too. I just bought a whole flat of different ones at Jim Weaver's last weekend, and will post about them and my adventures at his nursery this weekend, as soon as I can catch my breath...

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  3. Hi GdeE, I stumbled across your blog and just loved the title. I've enjoyed reading. Kurt would be happy to read your comments. You might not be able to tell, but he loves attention.

    Hi ofb, Oh don't get me started about the horses. I loved the horses. Please do tell about the morning glory mix. I might be encouraged to make an even bigger mess of my little garden.

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  4. Hey Debbie ... there is nothing like the smell of horses eh ? .. I remember the first ride when I was about 3 or 4 .. I was on Carmel and my sister was on Peaches .. I'll never forget that.
    Back to Morning Glories .. hum .. I have 4 or 5 "pots" with bamboo hoops waiting for those to scamper ? up .. soon ? .. just darn well break the soil by now .. it is still COLD here .. BIG sigh !
    WEIRD Spring .. or just Canadian .. EH ? hahaha

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  5. That is not so monster of a mistake. I am sure the flowers are pretty but wish you luck getting rid of them. Why can't plants behave? btw, I ALWAYS overplant just like you.

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  6. Do not get me started on morning glories. We have them choking out several of the rose bushes. We didn't plant them. Not to say we haven't done other silly things--like letting the bronze fennel go to seed. Hmmm, we should have a "Who has made the silliest garden mistake" contest.
    --Curmudgeon

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  7. Is that what I ate?

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  8. Hi Joy, we are in the 90's now. We think spring is over.

    Hi tina, it wouldn't be so bad if they were not so invasive.

    Hi Nancy, it took years, but I got my payback.

    Okay Curmudgeon, how do we plan this little contest?

    Yes, my lovely friend that is what you ate.

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  9. What a lightning comment you put to my foxy post! Thank you :)

    This one made me smile too.

    We've had storms this week over on this side of the pond too. Nothing like the tornados we've seen on TV over here from around Kansas though

    I see we're back in the land of Blotanical too...

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  10. I've bee gardening 40 yrs and I STILL overplant, and I love morning glories too. :)
    I have a 2000 sq. ft. veg garden.
    One year I saw the cutest little vine growing on the fence...it sort of looked like little minature morning glories, except the leaves were wrong. The flowers were white with a purple tinge....
    I let them grow and they covered that fence in no time and started creeping into the garden. The next spring we tilled.... Suddenly, little minature 'morning glory' plants were EVERYWHERE! I started yanking and pulling and digging, but just could not manage to pull the WHOLE root out, they always broke. I had piles of this stuff almost as tall as me! It was vining up the corn, the tomato plants... You get the picture.
    One day I stumbled across a picture of my little 'morning glory'. OMG - it was BINDWEED.
    I ended up MOVING my garden spot because of it. I solarized that spot for 3 summers and STILL it's alive in spots. Grass is growing there now and we're considering building a salt water swimming pool there next year. Maybe the bulldozers can kill it. :(

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  11. Hi VP, loved the post. We are all pretty shocked about the disaster over here in some of the tornado alley locations.

    Vonne, yikes, bindweed is even worse, so I've been told.

    Deb

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  12. Umm, maybe the morning glories keep popping up to help you get some extra exercise??? You know, trying to be helpful.... Ha!

    My grandparents had a farm when I was younger, but I never "got" to help them. They sold it before I got too old though. I do have many great memories with them though.

    I overplant every year too. I just can't help it.

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  13. Hi cinj, overplanting seems like something a lot of us can't help.

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  14. It makes me feel like a better person to come over here!! Really..except today--I planted Morning Glories last week--they have seeded nicely and will grow up my back bannister. I'll let you know if they catch the burglers who tried to break in.

    I also found out this week that I planted something else like--umm--Bishod Weed? that I think weedwacking's said was bad? So anyway--I may have just ruined my new gardens. Live and learn. I'm 50 and been gardening for 30+ years and still learning bad stuff.

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  15. Our dog has taken to sleepimg in the onion bed - the soil is soft and warm - but the onions get laid on too!

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  16. Ou dog has taken to sleeping in the soft, warm soil of the onion bed. The onions are getting flattened!

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  17. Hi Anna, I thing the Dr. Van Fleet rose would be an awsome choice to keep out the bad guys. We have used it successfully to keep in teenagers.

    Hi topveg, flattened onions and smelly dog, so sorry.

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  18. I just love morning glories. Planted some this past week along with moon flowers.

    I need to go google bindweed though. I have a vine coming up that has similar but smaller leaves to the wild morning glory. Hope its not that.

    Sam

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  19. Hey, Sam. If it is get it out early and often.

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