A Stone in the RiverGarden Dreaming
Autumn was long and warm, and then suddenly it was over. Upper 30sF one day and the next 20F with single digit wind chill. My body was not ready for such a drastic change. Mid-morning at work I’d get ravenously hungry. What’s going on? And then I remembered, oh yeah, biking in the really cold weather takes more energy. At night James and I would fall into bed, exhausted. I’m not sure I’ve completely acclimated yet, but I’m getting there.
Before the cold hit we managed to finish all of our outdoor chores and get the chicken coop winterized. On the last truly nice weekend day we even managed to meet a friend for breakfast. And now I am ready to draw inwards and slow down, hibernate a little.
Thanksgiving at my house this last Thursday was a quiet affair, just James and I. James made our “traditional” vegan meal of enchiladas and pumpkin pie. The pumpkins we grew in the garden this year. The variety is naked bear, a pepita pumpkin that is also sweet enough for pie, an uncommon 2-in-1! I grew Lady Godiva one year and got several huge pumpkins full of delicious pepitas. James tried cooking the pumpkin flesh and it was so bland that no amount of spice could save it. Sadly, naked bear is an f-1 hybrid, but I saved a few seeds anyway and we’ll see how they grow out.
The seed catalogs began arriving several weeks ago. I planned on saving them and not looking at them until Thanksgiving. How long do you think that plan lasted?
I must say, I was pretty proud of myself for making it an entire 24 hours before tearing through the first arriving catalog. The second one I managed to make it a couple hours. The third one, I took it out of the mailbox and immediately started paging through it.
But even though I looked through them all sooner than I had planned, I still sat down Friday morning and looked through them all again, going to the websites and creating my wishlists as though I had all the garden space and time for working in it in the world.
After lunch it was time to look reality in the face. I began to whittle things down. Then I compared prices across seed companies. And then I whittled some more. I saved so many seeds last year that I was’t planning on buying much this year. But I recently decided that I want to include more herbs and medicinal plants in the garden, and that plumped up my seed list significantly. It plumped so alarmingly that it has taken some deep thought about what, exactly, I am hoping to accomplish.
With the help of some kind folks on Mastodon, the Plants For a Future database, and Midwest Medicinal Plants, I decided to cut out everything that used only roots and bark or that required tinctures made with alcohol. We are a sober household and making medicine with vodka is a hard no. That still left quite a few plants for teas and salves.
Next I cut out ones that are potentially invasive, take up large amounts of space, or prefer moist areas—something my sandy soil cannot offer. That still left a lot. So then I decided to favor plants that could grow in shade or part shade, had culinary and medicinal uses, are easy to grow, or just had pretty flowers attractive to pollinators. And that did the trick. In a year’s time, I can get seeds to some of the ones I cut from my list this year.
In addition to food, herbs, and medicine, James is reading a book about night time critters and asked if we could grow some flowers for moths. After doing some research I came up with a list and will be getting seeds for moonflower, evening stock, evening primrose, and nicotiana.
I’ve not placed any orders yet, it’s still early. And I may cut a few more things from my list. I was going to try growing collards and Swiss chard but do I want to do both? And if I only do one, which one? I have zero luck with beets, will I have better luck with chard? I also have zero luck with cabbage. Will I have better luck with collards? I suppose there is only one real way to find out.
Also, I can’t decide whether I want to try growing long beans. Has anyone grown them? Are they worth it for more than their unusualness?
While the weather outside is frigid, spending my long holiday weekend garden dreaming has been lovely. Once I finalize my seed list, I will be sure to post it here.
On a side note, I am very behind in replying to kind comments y’all have made. I will endeavor to catch up on that in the next few days!
Reading
- Book: Dwellings: A Spiritual History of the Living World by Linda Hogan. Hogan is a member of the Chickasaw Nation as well as a poet. These essays are beautiful and full of wisdom.
- Book: The Serviceberry: Abundance and Reciprocity in the Natural World by Robin Wall Kimmerer. A slim book with lots of things to think about. It began life as an essay for Orion Magazine. I am glad Kimmerer got the chance to expand it. It is an anti-capitalist book about the gift “economy” that nature offers us as an example of how to live in right relationship to earth and each other.
- Essay: Only the Plants Can Save the People by Samantha Harvey. Humans putting themselves in charge of the world have really mucked up the place. Harvey asks, “What might the world look like if we actually sought leadership, with renewed reverence and kinship, from the dirt beneath our feet?”
- News article: Patches of wildflowers in cities can be just as good for insects as natural meadows—study. The Guardian reports on a recent study that found small patches of wildflowers in cities are hotbeds of insect diversity. Allow this to inspire you convert lawn to flowers!
- News article: An upward spiral—how small acts of kindness and connection really can change the world, according to psychology research. Please allow this to also inspire you. Every person can make a difference. As Hogan, Kimmerer, and Harvey say, it’s all about relationships. Be excellent to each other!
Quote
“To name the world as gift is to feel your membership in the web of reciprocity. It makes you happy—and it makes you accountable. Conceiving of something as a gift changes your relationship to it in a profound way, even though the physical makeup of the “thing” has not changed. A woolly knit hat that you purchase at the store will keep you warm regardless of its origin, but if it was hand-knit by your favorite auntie, then you are in relationship to that “thing” in a very different way: you are responsible for it, and your gratitude has motive force in the world. You’re likely to take much better care of the gift hat than of the commodity hat, because the gift hat is knit of relationships. This is the power of gift thinking. I imagine if we acknowledged that everything we consume is the gift of Mother Earth, we would take better care of what we are given.”
~Robin Wall Kimmerer, The Serviceberry, page 22-23
Listening
- Podcast: Planet Critical: The Plastic Crisis with Jane van Dis. Jane van Dis is a medical doctor specializing in obstetrics and gynecology. When her patients started having more and more medical issues, she began investigating the effects of plastics and petrochemicals on our health. If you’ve been on the fence over cutting down plastics in your life, after listening to this podcast you will be horrified and motivated to change. James and I have been cutting out plastics but have hit a plateau. I feel another plastic purge coming on.
- Podcast: The War on Cars: Cars are done with Adam McKay. McKay is the director of the films Don’t Look Up, The Big Short, and many others. McKay thinks the age of the car is over but people just haven’t realized it yet. He also talks about his movie directing career and what led him to do Don’t Look Up.
Watching
- Movie: Paterson (2016). Starring Adam Driver as a man named Paterson who lives and works as a bus driver in Paterson, New Jersey. It is a beautiful, quiet movie that takes place over the course of a week. It’s full of poetry and the small details that make up a life. James and I both loved it.
James’s Kitchen Wizardry
James has been making magic these last couple of weeks. We’ve had spaghetti squash chow mein, and of course our Thanksgiving enchiladas and pumpkin pie (best vegan pumpkin pie recipe ever from Vegan Pie in the Sky). And week before last he made up a recipe for what he called a cookie cake: chocolate cookie on the bottom, peanut butter cookie in the middle, and chocolate chip cookie on top. Mmmmm
#collards #longBeans #medicinalHerbs #mothGardening #pumpkins #seedCatalogs #swissChard
Brent Lineberry
salado_plant_traders
♠️♥️Lazcht♣️♦️
Sean Gillies