Forcing Broccoli

 

Now, I know you do not grow broccoli to eat. You grow broccoli for the lovely yellow flowers. You did not go out in the garden two days ago and cut broccoli thinking you could bring it inside and wait a few days to eat it. You put it in a glass of water on purpose just so you could have broccoli blooms. You were not attempting to keep the broccoli fresh and ready for stir fry. This was intentional and you will do it again. So will I. Wink-wink

Yeah Lost is Back

Signs you might be a lost nut.

You have a special pillow to sit on to watch Lost.
There is a moratorium on speaking during Lost in your home.
You have converted your family members into Lost fans.
You have all the past seasons of the show on DVD.
People who know you are a Lost fan avoid you Thursday mornings.
You rewatch and freeze parts of the show to read all the text on props in the show (milk cartons) Same thing goes with photos on desks and walls.
You are still trying to figure out what all the numbers mean.
You feel really sorry for Hugo.


Are you a Lost nut?

New Day

Okay, I am not a political creature. I don't belong to one party or the other. I have voted in every election since 1982. Well, there was that one where I didn't see any options that I could support. But anyway, wasn't today exciting? Regardless of which "side" each of us may be on, our citizens seem to be invigorated and ready to get down to the work of fixing, yes I said fixing, our mess. I feel hopeful. I hope you do too.

Talking In My Sleep

Apparently, the three month long crunch of holidays, parenting issues, volunteer overload, and having a ginormous extended family have finally caused me to crack. According to his report, this morning, Manly Man had to deal with this when he arrived home from work and tried to go to bed.

He found me on his side of the bed being very possessive of "his" pillow.

Him, "Could you give me my pillow?"
Me, "No, I have to take a picture of it for the master gardener website."
Him, "Could you move over a little?"
Me, "NO, can't you see I'm typing?"

He finally got me to roll over, but I would not give up the pillow.

I don't remember anything.
Enjoy this little view into my subconscious.

Do you walk or talk in your sleep? You know you really want to tell me.

My Imaginary Garden

In my last post, I admitted that I have an imaginary garden. When I am trying to fall asleep, I ponder on it and make plans.

My imaginary garden has no weeds. The flower beds are all in full bloom and are perfectly mulched. There are no lost tools or toys in the imaginary garden. In this garden, I do not trip and fall down.

Here are a few items that are in the imaginary garden.
1. A really comfy beautiful hammock. It is strung between two beautiful deciduous trees. It is in the shade in the summer and in the warm sun during the winter. I read and nap in this hammock.
2. A pond with a fountain. There are healthy plants and wonderful fish swimming around. The sound of the water is charming.
3. There is a boarder of roses and pomegranate trees between our home and the neighbors. Because we are good neighbors, there is an archway we can walk through to visit each other.
4. There is a sweet little ornamental grass plot on the corner of our yard. A very large bolder is the center piece of this little area.
5. In the side yard there is an old wheelbarrow planted up with blooming annuals and flanked by an antique rose bush.
6. Every fence is covered with blooming vines in this make believe landscape.
7. There is a native dry shade border out back. These plants live under my passion vine.
8. A very sweet little garden shed complete with window boxes and flower beds is in the back corner by the vegetable garden.

The birds are singing, the butterflies are floating, the cats are sleeping under the rosebush, and the Monkeys are perfectly behaved.

Tell me about your imaginary garden.

Light Therapy

 

Winter is hard on many gardeners. Cold, wet, dreary weather just don't make for a happy Debbi. Add multiple family stresses and a flood, and I am pretty much a basket case. A basket case that cannot break down because, well who would raise the Monkeys if I broke down. It seems my little salt lamp is helpful, but just not enough.

Yesterday, was pretty and I was able to spend about an hour in the garden. Today was just as lovely. I was in and out of the house all day. After a while, the sunshine made me a little sleepy, weird. In my imaginary garden, I have a wonderful hammock strung between two deciduous trees. It is in the shade in the summer and in the sun in the winter. This imaginary hammock would have been perfect for today. As a alternate, I decided to layout on the Monkey's trampoline. I must have been a sight laying out there, but boy did basking in the warm sunshine do wonders for my mood.

Here is a hint. Trampolines and garden clogs can create quite a static charge in a middle aged woman. The shock when I touched the metal frame was painful and LOUD.

The rest of the afternoon in the garden was very enjoyable. There is one thing that is puzzling. Where are all the songbirds? I have put out seed and I actually cooked homemade suet for them, but very few have shown up. I am beginning to get worried. I did see some bees buzzing around some broccoli rhaab blooms and hen bit flowers. Their wing sounds were very pleasant.

Did you notice the picture? Abby got all excited and knocked over my plant stand. Somehow she broke a plastic pot. Goofy beast.

Anybody else missing songbirds?

Bottle Tree

 

 

 

 

While my coworker and I were looking at pictures of bottle trees on the internet doing really important official library research, I was inspired to do a little garden decorating to liven things up. I rebuilt my pot teeter-totter (obviously don't know what that thing is really called) and made a mini bottle tree out of a dormant hardy hibiscus. There are at least two other hardy hibiscus that I can also use as bottle trees so this one may get taken down. When I was stacking the pots, I noticed that some sedum was growing in the bottom of the lowest container in almost no soil. Now I know for sure that sedum is not only tough, but stays evergreen for me here in north Texas. I am going to get out a bunch of my empty pots and plant sedum in them over the next few days. Maybe I shouldn't, I don't want to have to buy more containers when spring gets here. What the heck, I can never have to many containers.

After work and a birthday party, I was able to do about an hour of gardening today. The temperatures soared back up into the sixties and the wind was finally quiet. My battery feels all recharged and stuff. If it is pretty tomorrow I will spend all day out there.

Hope you have some pretty weather too.