Summertime Blues

Well, it's officially summer now. This is a good thing for many reasons. However, we have now passed the longest day of the year, and this means that the days are now going to begin getting shorter. Last night was glorious - even at a quarter to 10, the sunset hadn't completely faded. But now, as the summer goes on, you suddenly realize about the end of July that you don't hear many birds during the day, and it's dark by 9:00. In August, you notice that all you hear all day long is the hum of insects, and it's getting dark earlier and earlier. Before you know it, it's September. The nights and mornings are cooler and cooler, and it's dark by about 7:30. Yes, I know that we've got a lot of summer to go yet, but as Slim Pickens said in "Blazing Saddles", "I am depressed".

Another Good Reason to be a Locavore (as if you needed one)

We all know that news is currently pretty damn depressing. Sometimes, however, it's downright scary. The other day I heard a news story concerning food safety. Well, the bottom line is that the nation's largest food companies (prepackaged, i.e. Nestle) have frankly admitted that they are absolutely incapable of guaranteeing the safety of their products. Why, you ask? Oh, that would be because of corporate America's addictions to outsourcing and obscene profits. The corporations have outsourced production, which has been in its turn outsourced, and outsourced yet again, ad infinitum, until they literally have no idea what comes from where. All they know for sure is that most everything comes from places that have no idea of the concepts of quality control and safety inspection. And we are the beneficiaries (?) of this misplaced confidence. Which brings me back to my original point - if you've never thought much about the comparative benefits of eating locally (or at least regionally) produced food, think about it now. Your life may depend on it.......

Garden Study

I have determined this year to do a survey of my garden and figure out approximately what kinds of perennial plants I have, and how many of each. I will skip genus for now, begin with species, then (hopefully) document cultivars. It's something of an undertaking, because I am a plant collector, and I have a fearsome quantity of plants here. It's a good summer to do it, because we aren't really going anywhere to speak of, so I'll have the time. Unfortunately, I'll have to work from memory for the early spring/spring plants and bulbs, but since my husband is an inveterate record-keeper (to say nothing of a thoroughgoing packrat), I may be able to cull old plant/bulb orders for assistance. I'll post the list of species when it's done, and then some time in the future I'll come out with the cultivar list. I intend to include any annuals and/or biennials that have found the place to their liking year after year, so purists may scoff. Personally, I don't give a rip - I'm doing it for my own enlightenment and enjoyment, and that's how it is. And now that life has finally (!) settled down from My First Trip Abroad, I'm feeling the need to do some posts concerning garden adventures in the Netherlands. At least, as soon as I figure out how to post the photos..........

A Plethora of Plants

Due to a number of circumstances beyond my control, I have gotten way, way behind in all things gardening. At one point, between plants acquired by catalog, various outings and what I started by seed, I had 8 trays of plants sitting around the patio. I did manage to whittle it down over the last week to two trays (one of sun-lovers and one of shade-lovers). I was finally beginning to feel that the light at the end of the tunnel wasn't an oncoming freight train after all. And what did I do this weekend? Get more planting done and clear off the patio? Hell, no - I went out yesterday and today and - wait for it - bought plants. Yesterday some visiting relatives and I went out to an iris farm near here (dig your own) and came home with 6 (count 'em, 6) different Siberian iris. Couldn't help that. The man does a lot of hybridizing, and he had some beauties. Today, my garden club went on a tour of a small but elegant family nursery, and they had a couple of choice annual salvias and the variety of mockorange that my parents had, which I've been searching for for years. Well, I ask you - what else could I do but come home with them? They were not only speaking to me, they were bloody bellowing at me. All I can say is, stop me before I buy again!!

On the Brighter Side

Yes, I know - my last post was an outpouring of my misery. Grim reading, but just as sunshine follows rain, bright spots emerge in the shadows. I went out to dig some iris I had promised to a friend, when my eye started to wander around the landscape. Almost immediately my attention was grabbed by an unfamiliar splotch of blue in a bed where I didn't recollect having any. Closer inspection (I am beyond nearsighted; if someone hadn't had the foresight to invent the contact lens, I'd be using a dog and a cane by now) revealed the newcomer to be a Dutch iris! I last planted Dutch iris about 3 years ago; I assumed that it had died. What a lovely surprise. Patrolling the other beds turned up more delights - a "bomb' peony named 'Nancy Nora' with a ravishing scent that I've been searching for since my childhood; Penstemon pinifolium, a tiny penstemon from High Country Gardens not more than 3"-4" high that has finally deigned to bloom after 2 years. When I stuck my nose out front, I discovered that all of my roses are blooming lushly. Finding that my peas have finally come in was a big bonus - biting into a round green pearl of a pea is like candy, and such a welcome addition to our dinner salad. So I concede that perhaps Mr. Burroughs was right after all - I have been soothed and healed. My senses are once again in order.

Paging John Burroughs

I thought that after the garden tour, things would quiet down here. I was wrong. Last week we got word that the daughter of friends of our was murdered by her husband of only a few months. I will spare everyone the gruesome details, but suffice it to say that the circumstances were disturbing at best. She was soon to be 29 years old; a lovely girl, a brilliant biomedical researcher at an Ivy League school, working on stem cell research for cancer. Her family is totally devastated - they had known the young man for several years, and neither they, nor his parents, nor anyone who knows him saw anything like this lurking within him. Speaking for myself, I'm completely in turmoil. How could someone suddenly snap like that, and wreak absolute, evil destruction on so many hearts? A part of me clings to the hope that a phone call will say that it was all a terrible mistake, and she's OK. Yet she's gone, and the rational part of my brain knows that. And when it gets to be too enormous to think of, I'm reminded of the naturalist John Burroughs who said, "I go to nature to be soothed and healed, and to have my senses put in order." Well, it's a noble sentiment, and I'm trying mightily to find that soothing and healing - but at the moment, I'm not having much success.