If you can grow flowers, you can grow (a few pots or bushes of ) ...

Tag : flower pots

Well, if you don't have moss growing somewhere in your pots orflower beds at this point, you never will. I am growing moss. Ithas been raining s-o-o-o much. I am all for getting the rainnecessary to make our world green, but this summer has been a bitout of hand.

My schedule has not coincided with even a partially sunny day, sothe weeds at my house are doing really, really well. My husbandwill have to "hay" the lawns soon. Oh well, no help for it, Iguess.

Over the past month, I have designed and overseen the landscapingat the new Turner Town Office and a lot of thought was put intoirrigation. At this point, that seems like a lot of unnecessaryworry. New plants need a lot of water and they don't need blazingsun day in and day out, but they do need some sunshine to getestablished. Hopefully, they and the rest of us will get somebefore the leaves begin to turn.

I also know that many local growers are having the same problemwith their crops that we are with flowers. And that thought is whathas led to this column. Newspaper articles and stories on thenightly news almost on a daily basis concern our energy crisis. Andeveryone, I really do think just about everyone, is trying tofigure out ways to do with less, to live greener and to end ourdependence on foreign oil.

Well, this column will deal with how you, as a gardener, can helpyourself and your community in that effort.

A little story may help you understand why I don't usually writeabout vegetables. Early in our marriage, my husband was a bigproponent of vegetable gardens. He would till the ground,contemplate which seeds to plant, plant them, put in the markers -and then, lo and behold, it was like the garden didn't exist.

Weeding was not on his agenda. We were young, we were stupid and welived in the middle of a forest littered with critters. We had twoyoung children and not a lot of time. I remember running in and outthroughout the course of a day trying to weed while the youngestwas sleeping and the 3-year-old was occupied. I managed to weedabout two rows of zucchini. I was very proud of myself. The nextday, all of the plants in the rows I had weeded had been eaten.Nothing else, just what I had weeded. "Woodchuck," my husbanddeclared.

I soon discovered a real affinity for the local vegetable stand, asdid my 3-year-old who didn't like zucchini to begin with - orstring beans, which was about the only good crop we got.

Throughout the intervening 30 years, I have been a steady customerat local stands, markets and farms. It never dawned on me that noteveryone shops that way. Well, as the saying goes, the chicken hascome home to roost, and it has done so in more ways than one. Concerned about those 'cides?'

How many of you stopped buying spinach last winter, or roundtomatoes this spring or hamburger last fall because people weregetting sick? How many of you wonder about pesticides or herbicidesand every other "cide" you can think of when you put food on thetable? How many of you have checked the ever-rising price abovethose fruits and vegetables at the grocery store?

If you can grow flowers, you can grow herbs, vegetables and fruit.

I am not talking about a huge garden that takes every minute ofyour time and energy. I am talking about a few pots on the deck orfront steps, a few bushes planted behind the roses, some herbsmixed into the perennial border - and you can supply yourself withsome nice and safe products.
Tomato and pepper plants take really well to a good-size pot in thesunshine. I have a whiskey barrel that each year contains basil,flat-leafed parsley, thyme, sage, rosemary and usually somethingthat smells good like a lavender or lemon verbena. All of them,except the basil, can be dried for later use very easily.

Basil, which is good in so many things, can be chopped, mixed withsome water and frozen in an ice cube tray. When frozen, take thecubes out and put them in a plastic freezer bag. When you needbasil, voil