Adventures in Gardening– Part 1 (of many)

I had big plans this morning to go to the Farmer’s Market and get my garden plants, but it rained like a son of a gun most of the day, so it kinda blew that idea. Maybe tomorrow.

I’m going to be more realistic in my planting this year, which is a nice way of saying that last year I went ape-shiz and crammed every square inch of my raised beds with all manner of things I’ve never tried before, to decidedly mixed results. Not to mention the marigolds I over-planted in the corners of my boxes. The idea was to discourage veggie-eating bugs, but actually I think what happened was that the dang flowers were so huge the insects couldn’t even SEE my tomatoes. So I guess it worked. I think my favorite thing (besides the obvious–hello, tomatoes!) was the many varieties of lettuce that I grew. That was fun. I loved getting out my blue pottery salad bowl with the chickadee on the side and padding out to the garden in my bare feet to fill my colander with butter crunch and red leaf and baby romaine and curly endive… actually I may over-plant that again!

I also hope I can find another tabletop-sized gardenia like I did last year. I set it out on the coffee table in the gazebo and it smelled heavenly– just like the Jungle Gardenia perfume I used to wear in the 10th grade that my poor dad hated so much that he drove me to school with all the windows down even in the dead of winter. Good times. Anyway, I’m hunting for another one.

Here’s what it looked like:

Well, I’ve got the news on and it is full of dire predictions about BAD SCARY STORMS marching our way, so I may not make it to Farmer’s Market tomorrow either.

(P.S. OK, I was on my way to pick up Madi from a track meet, right? And right in the middle of the Brentwood ‘burbs, sitting on a freshly mowed green lawn just as gorgeous as you please was a red fox, just calmly sitting there watching the cars go by while scratching behind his ear with his little red foot! I almost hit a mailbox! How cool is that?)

4 Responses

  1. gracelynn

    LOL Tori. You and my mother. She loves planting and gardening too. She was just saying today how she had to get the tiller out and go work those strawberries she planted a few weeks ago. (That doesn’t include the new plants she just ordered – well let me rephrase that – I ordered for her online LOL the other night. She has no idea how to use the Internet for purchases bless her heart!) I always thought it would be neat to plant lettuce but we never did that in our garden. But we do plant TOMATOES! My mother LOVES tomatoes too! LOL Tomatoes, cucumbers, kale, okra, watermelon, canteloupe, green beans, etc. Oh and corn – can’t forget the corn! Mom does the gardening – Dad handles the fruit trees and bushes. So we have plenty of fresh produce.

    I sure hope you can find your gardenia. The picture is beautiful.

    And let’s not mention these scary predictions! I was just listening to the weather channel and their dire stories of these massive tornadoes hitting across the US. It is frightening. I mean, we just had one hit approximately an hour from us this past week when it hit Suffolk, VA! That’s all I need is to be driving home from Saturday Academy and teaching my handful of students and see a tornado coming.

    Glad you saw the fox and enjoyed it. As long as he doesn’t come near my dad’s chickens, he is beautiful. But if he comes on this farm and tries to have a buffet on them, he probably will not survive.

  2. LindaB

    Oh Tori! I LOVE GARDENIAS! I love them so much, that’s what I carried in my wedding bouquet centuries ago. I love the smell of gardenias, but I don’t remember if my husband rolled the windows down in the car on the way to the reception or not. He could have…..in a last ditch effort to escape!

    I am getting planting fever too! Really bad. I’m beginning to eye anything concave that might hold dirt that I can “seed”. A few years ago I was at a garage sale and this house had a row of garbage cans in the back yard with garden plants growing profusely in them. The lady there said she planted them for her 84 year old father who was wheelchair bound and missed gardening so much. He could wheel his chair up to the cans and weed and care for his “garden” with ease! I thought that was a cool idea! She just filled a thirty gallon garbage can with first a layer of stone, then black dirt! And you wouldn’t have the bug problem (like those little worms that crawl along the ground and eat right through your plant stems) with the plants being so high off the ground.

    Hey, I think that’s a good idea for ME! And since I’m always running here and there with the car, I could line those cans all along the driveway and roll the window down on my way out, stick my arm out, and tend the “garden” as I leave my house! (Would that be a “drive-by weeding”?)

    We have a silver fox run across our yard occasionally, and at first, I thought it was a dog. Then I noticed that his beautiful fluffly silver tail was as long as his (or her) body! They are a beautiful animal! I know what you’re thinking! And Charlotte! But, Tori, don’t try to make a pet out of one——-or you’ll be cleaning up more than a little “puddle”!

  3. rockin robyn

    Hi Tori,

    I happened upon your blog on Russ’ website… The Mom blog thing is pretty neat stuff… I’m not a mom but can relate to mom stories and troubles raising kids today… (I’m #3 of six children in my family) As well, I helped raise my three of my God children while their dad was doing his duties for our country years ago… the children are grown now and alot of them chose roads I wouldn’t have and now they are dealing with their own struggles in life… I have a niece whom I had a wonderful relationship with until she became a preteen and under the influence of a mom who isn’t a responsible mom and our relationship now suffers because I don’t want the trouble and sin that follows her mom….

    I love gospel music — it preaches to me and fills my soul better than any preacher can (I told my pastor that recently) and I am a big fan of Russ and the Taff writings and I know very well that includes you…. I just wanted to drop you a line of hello and say thank you to you and Russ for filling me when I need it most….

    I hope I can pop in every once in awhile to say hello…

    the redfox you came upon — well how awesome is that…. I’ve got a cardinal that thinks my black suv is his mirror — if I don’t fold the side mirrors in when I come home he has them all “pooped” up just a preaning, and dive bombing into my vehicle to get a look at himself or thinking it’s a mate he’s seeing…

    well enough of my rambling… thanks for your time!

  4. belinda

    You girls are making me want to plant a garden and Troy said we don’t have any room sigh……..Guess I will just have to go to Farmers Market every Saturday and buy all my stuff that other people plant. I love all of the fresh stuff you all have mentioned. There is nothing better than the fresh stuff you can go out and pick from your garden. I’m really jealous of all of Tori’s lettuce. I would replant all of that Tori, along with tons of Tomatoes to go with that lettuce and all the other stuff too. You go girl! Your garden looked great last year.

    We had some of those storms around here too, they got a little too close. In fact they were building a new hotel in Owasso and the winds did a number on it. It is all completely smashed and 4 stories are now laying on the ground. It is amazing what that wind can do.

    I bet it was cool to see that fox. When we go visit my sister in NM they have all kinds of Gods creatures around their house. I always have my camera out snapping pictures. It is just cool!

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