Saturday's Musings

Good afternoon, come on in and sit a spell and let's talk. I so enjoy our chats together and you could talk back to me by scrolling to the bottom of the postings and dropping me a line. That would be great, for then I wouldn't think I am talking to myself. You know that is dangerous only if you start answering yourself but sometimes, I catch myself doing that also. I am older, however, so lots of things than can be excused as old age, right?

My garden was planted yesterday! At least what passes for a garden here at our house for I do container gardening at this stage of my life. I have large black plastic buckets and a couple of large plastic storage bins filled with potting soil in which I plant tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers and squash or squishes as we used to call them. It is much easier to water and fertilize in containers and surely much easier to pull the weeds, if any there are any.

I also planted a long plastic planter, which is about 6 inches deep, with a variety of lettuces and 1 package of spinach seed. This is going to be my salad bar. We haven't done this before, so it will be interesting to see if it grows us a salad. If it does well, I hope to continue to plant this particular planter all summer, for I have it in the shade on the patio for lettuce doesn't like the hot sun.

Maybe it will all do well for I waited until 2 days before Easter to plant for daddy says until after Easter, you will have cold spells. Also, the pecan trees are leafing out and they are usually a great sign of "true" spring. They don't leaf out until it is going to stay warm according to the "old timers."

Now our grandmother always planted by the Farmer's Almanac. Her tried and true formula was plant vegetables which bear above ground in the rising moon and plants like potatoes which bear under ground, by the waning of the moon. Daddy with his Mississippi State degree in Agriculture used to laugh at her doing this, but even though her plants may not be as big as his, they would have as much or more produce. Maybe a big degree is not as good as watching the moon! She had a green thumb and everything would grow for her.

Around the front porch were always the most beautiful flowers and petunias grew everywhere. Her begonias were her pride and joy and the leaves would be as large as dinner plates. Now her secret was in the fertilizer. She had a big barrel under the drain spout to collect rain water and she would take chicken manure, put it in a crocker sack, tie a string around the top and drop it in the barrel to soak. She called it chicken tea and she fertilized all her house plants with it and they would grow extremely well. It's a wonder they didn't cluck and crow with pride in how pretty they were.

They fertilized the garden and the yard with cow, mule, horse and chicken manure and if you want to grow really pretty plants, try it. It will be a lush green and have lots of flowers or vegetables. Just be sure it is dried out and not "green" or fresh for it will burn your plants up. It doesn't smell as badly when dry unless you like the pungent aroma of fresh manure. If you do, you may need to check with the local "head doctor" for you may be slightly "teched."

I will post pictures of my "garden" as it grows and I encourage you to at least try some tomatoes in containers and bell or hot pepper do well also. In fact, the pepper plants are pretty in you flower beds but then most vegetable plants are pretty so why not inter-plant with you flowers?

Happy gardening and nuff said,

The Georgia Peach