Saturday Night Rock: Lysistrata

Three day weekend and the weather is just warm enough to get the tomatoes and peppers in, while the flower beds are screaming for zinnias and petunias. Everything needs pruning, weeding, mulching, so this is going to be a busy three days. Nobody reads blogs over holiday work-in-the-garden weekends, do they?

For the late night music crowd, Todd Rundgren does Aristophanes:

Glorious spring!

Spring has sprung in my garden. Today the lilacs opened up with their intoxicating perfume, and next to it the pink dogwood went from tiny little nubs to full out bloom in the matter of a mere two days.

Ferns are popping up all over the shade garden, along with hosta leaves, columbine, and a bleeding heart just going into bloom. The tulips are almost past their peak, and the white and blue violets are artfully carpeting the stone borders of the beds.

I bought some pansies at Giant Eagle. noting how much more expensive they are this season. I expect that will be the way of it in every garden store this growing season. This might be a good year to divide some overgrown perennials and trade with other gardeners.

I did my first mowing today. I prefer shrubs, flower and vegetable space more than great vast expanses of lawn, so I don't need anything more than a push mower and an electric weed whacker.

The compost bin was ready for some attention today. I raked up some leaves that had been sheltering various plants over the winter and layered them over all the food scraps and coffee grounds. Which reminds me, someone asked me to plug their compost bin web site. I haven't had any need to look for a new compost bin since the Rubbermaid model I've been using for over ten years is holding up very nicely. However, I did visit the compost bin site and marveled at the wide array of types and sizes. The latest models on display here include some that can supposedly handle pet waste. I'd want to check into them a little more thoroughly before buying one, as I didn't think one could safely turn dog and cat waste into usable compost.

And finally, for something completely different in the way of growing your own produce, check out the Science Barge now docking in Manhattan. Can't you picture some of these going up and down the Ohio Canal each summer?

Sunday in the Garden

Something odd had been growing in one of the flower beds. If it was a weed, it was one I'd not met before. So I let it keep it growing and planted golden coleus all around it. This week, tiny bright bursts of blue appeared on the tips of the plant's stems.

Lifting up the sturdy stems, I noticed that the plant was spreading, and sending down roots at intermittent junctions. The plant was surrounding the coleus and looked like it could eventually smother them.

Time to find out what this plant is. It is easy to find pictures of plants when you are able to type in the name into a Google search. But how do you find a plant when all you have is a photograph? By typing in blue wildflower, I eventually found a match to my mystery weed. It is called the Asiatic Dayflower and is a member of the spiderwort family. The flowers only last one day.

Evidently the flower is considered more of a nuisance than something to show off in one's garden. It is known to spread eagerly once it has established itself. Yikes! I decided to sacrifice the flowering weed by tossing it into the compost box.

The rest of the garden looks fabulous. We've had three lovely days of glorious gardening weather. Check out the lettuce -- I've been feasting on it every day.

Lots of flowers on the tomato plants, and at least four growing larger every day green tomatoes.








This weekend I built up the bean pole structure and added some twine to the snow pea supports. Looks like more rain is due this coming week with not so high temps.


Finally, I have succeeded in growing gorgeous zinnias. Seems like every time I try, they get some kind of blight or are eaten up by hungry bugs. (No pesticides are used in Village Green's garden!) One thing I did different this year was to get the zinnias into the ground as soon as I got them home. In years past, the zinnias would sit too long in their six packs, and once they started to droop they never really got their full strength back. This year, they are tall and full of festive blooms. Nothing like a zinnia to set a happy mood in the flower bed!

The Omnivore's Dilemma, Part 2

Continuing on with Michael Pollan's provocative book about the food chains available to the human species, let's look at what he calls "Big Organic." This food chain markets the word "organic" to consumers with a conscience -- but it is still Agri-biz and monoculture-focused.

An example would be Rose the organic chicken, advertised as free of antibiotics and artificial hormones who are raised with "access to the outdoors," one of federal organic rules. The chickens are raised in long low sheds that have open doors that lead to a grassy yard. The only thing is, the chickens never venture outside even though the doors are open. For their first five weeks, they are kept inside, so they only know being fed and watered indoors. By the time they are five weeks old, their habits are formed and they would be terrified to go out into some strange outdoor environment. And by the way, after 7 weeks -- the chickens are slaughtered. So much for the happy free-range lifestyle for chickens.

Pollan gives us the scoop on the giant organic farm businesses in California, including Earthbound, a brand I used to purchase at the Mustard Seed. I've been very leary though, since the E.coli contaminated spinach was identified as coming from Earthbound. Wild pigs were reported as the E.coli carriers along with

"Samples taken from a wild pig, as well as from stream water and cattle on the ranch, have tested positive for the same strain of E. coli implicated in the outbreak, said Dr. Kevin Reilly of the California Department of Health Services."

It doesn't matter how organic and holistic one's farming practices are -- if the neighboring acreage is supporting unsanitary practices with its animals, the ground water is easily contaminated and wild animals help spread disease as well.

So now I am leary of vegetables grown on monoculture fields whether organic or not! I found an indoor lettuce grower online, but wow -- it is pricey. I'd like to figure out a way to make something out of recycled materials. Anybody have any ideas?

At least I have the egg problem solved. My mom sends along a picture of an actual free roaming and apparently happy chicken from someone who is raising chickens to sell their eggs. I won't be fooled by the organic advertising any more!