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Purple Hyacinth Bean:
The purple hyacinth bean, one of Thomas Jefferson’s favorites I first saw the purple hyacinth bean when I visited Monticello with my best friend in the fall of 2007. This past spring, my brother, with whom I am always swapping seeds and garden talk, sent me home with a handful of beans to plant on the boys’ teepee. I’ve really enjoyed watching this vine grow. It is far more aggressive than the other pole beans, though it took longer to…
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Open letters to plants
Dear extremely lazy tomato plant, I hope you realize that you had all summer to produce offspring, and why you decided to wait until the end of September to make a tomato is beyond my understanding. Was it that the climbing squash vine was cramping your style? As you can see, waiting until the cool weather was a very poor decision. No, I will not be eating your nasty rotten fruit, nor will I be saving your seeds. Dear bi-color…
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Morning Garden Walk: Mystery Greens and Pest Problems
At the end of summer, I started scattering seeds: radishes, parsnips, romaine, arugula, spinach, bok choy, baby butterhead, black seeded simpson, carrots … you get the picture. Every seed packet that allowed fall planted was scattered over several plots. As I waited for seeds to sprout, and as they failed to or the sprouts were shriveled in the heat, I seeded more. I added straw. I watered. Then, the tropical rains came. I had no idea what was planted where,…
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Weekend Garden & Pottery Recap
Spurred on by the change in temperature, Joe and I spent a good two hours ripping out tired squash and bean vines and all the wire remesh used for the tunnel and dome. Although the okra was still happily producing, I pulled it out too so that I could begin tilling up the plots to let them rest for the fall. The lettuces that were scattered in various beds have been consolidated to a couple central locations, although I doubt…
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Flowers on Pots
I’ve never been girly. My favorite color to wear is navy blue. I rarely accessorize. However, something is happening to my pottery: See those little flowers? Where did they come from? My theory is that my love of gardening, which is expanding from just veggies to include flowers, is sneaking into my pottery. I’ve never been one to put embellishments on my work, but these make me smile. It reminds me of when I placed a Cosmos flower behind my…
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Chips and Dip, Anyone?
This new glaze is “Indigo Float” by Amaco Potter’s Choice. I bought it a year ago thinking I’d use it much sooner than this past weekend. Joe asked me if I would get back into pottery if the glaze came out well. Joe, I’ve thrown four new pots! See a couple more from this firing here.
