I’m planting Moonflowers because I like the name. Don’t judge!

This is not my house or my photo. This pic is by Bev Wagar [CC-BY-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)%5D, via Wikimedia Commons. Those white flowers on the vines climbing all over everything? Yup! THOSE are moonflowers.

I “play” at gardening, but I suck at it. Seriously. The only plants I can grow are the ones with a STRONG will to survive. That doesn’t stop me from tromping around outside in my red boots and hat. I enjoy getting my hands dirty, but don’t expect anything I plant to do well. I practice low expectations gardening. LOL

The fact that I’m trying to plant moonflowers YET AGAIN proves that I’m never going to be a proper gardener! Why am I planting moonflowers? Mostly because of the name!!! I mean, come on! Moonflowers? They sound like hippy flowers!!! “Dude! This garden is totally awesome. Sweet! Got any fertilizer? We’re getting the munchies. Duuuude.” And…they flower at night, which is great, since gardening in the sun doesn’t really work out so well for me. I hate turning into a crispy Juli. I’ve never had a tan in my life!

The problem is, I’ve TRIED to plant moonflowers before with ZERO results, hence the reason I don’t have my own picture on here. I suppose I could have taken a picture of the dirt, but that’s not very exciting.

Every year I stick those stupid seeds in the ground, I feel like I’m playing the lottery. Yeah…I haven’t won that either. Meanwhile, the seeds are soaking in a cup of water, something I haven’t tried before. Maybe I’ll get better results once I stick them in the ground? Not holding my breath.

Have a great day!
Juli

I Can Only Take Care of Half-Dead Plants…

Post holidays are my FAVORITE time to pick up new plants. While I’m a bad plant mommy, I KNOW there are others that are out there who are FAR worse. I picked up these sorry looking plants last night for only a couple of dollars. The others were “dead-dead.” These are only “half-dead.” These are the fighters, the plants that TRIED to survive in a department store setting, minus sunshine, water, and any care whatsoever.

Over the years, I’ve pick up a BUNCH of these abused misfits and stuck them in my garden. They’re ugly now, but give them a week or two in the ground, and they should pop back up, better than ever. I have trouble growing “healthy” plants, the ones that were babied and treated right from the start. These new guys will forgive me if I forget to water them or if I stick them in an iffy location.
They won’t know I’m a bad plant mommy!

Have a great day!
Juli

610 Kirby Street, I’m Writing Again.

I did some writing last night, nothing exciting, but I did feel inspired to write again.  It’s been a while.

I blame my new weird fascination/goal.  I’ve been trying to improve my mind by learning something different.  I wanted to learn about something I previously knew nothing about, something that would be “new to me.”

Last night, I tried to watch Lectures 3 and 4 of the Permaculture Series I’ve been studying, hosted by NC State University.  Maybe my Internet connection was slow.  Maybe that site was just REALLY popular on a Tuesday night.  Really?  I mean…umm…sure, really!  Why not?  Who knows?  Regardless, the lectures kept cutting out on me about 20 minutes before they were supposed to end.  I’d have to go back, reload the page, wait, then try to find the spot I left off at.  What a pain!  But…you get what you pay for, I suppose.  In this case, FREE.

Anyway, between learning about Garden Ecology in Lecture 3 and 610 Kirby Street in Lecture 4, I had a LOT of down time waiting for stuff to load up, so…I wrote.

BTW, Professor Will Hooker, the Permaculture teacher at NC State University, has an interesting website where he uses his own house as a model:  http://610kirby-permaculture.org  There are videos on his site that explain what Permaculture is, and how to put it into practice.

I also started thinking about “stuff.”  As a person who plays at writing, I read a LOT of blogs written by other writers.  Some of these authors use pen names.  Most of them walk a tightrope.  They want to be available to their readers, but there seems to be a fear that goes along with this as well, a fear that their readers will suddenly show up on the author’s doorstep.  To do what, I’m not sure, but that seems to be a genuine concern among a majority of them.  Heck!  A few of them seem to be terrified by this notion!!!

In contrast, I think it’s fascinating that Dr. Hooker ENCOURAGES people to check out his home, and even lists the street address as the name of his website!  I’m sure there are authors who would like to argue that there are “crazies” in the universe, people who might be upset with something that’s been written, hence the need for anonymity.  This might be true.  But one could use the same argument for Dr Hooker, maybe even more so.  I don’t know.  Maybe he’s foolish to be so open, but I also think he’s VERY brave.  It takes GUTS to say “Hey!  Look at what I’m doing!!!”  I like people with “guts.”  :)

I don’t know.  Two weeks ago, I’d never heard of the word “Permaculture.”  Two weeks ago, I just wanted to get out of this writing slump I’ve been in.  Saving the world wasn’t exactly on my “to do” list.  ;)

Have a great day!

Juli

Disconnected

Is it just me, or does it seem like everyone’s become disconnected in regards to how their food gets on their plate?

Frost Damaged Apple Blossoms in my Garden

We had some REALLY gorgeous weather last week, and then a cold snap on Sunday.  I mentioned how rough my apple blossoms looked after the frost on Sunday.  They don’t like the cold!  Last year, the apple trees blossomed a good TWO months too early, then the cold weather snapped back.  Absolutely devastating for the local growers.  (Michigan is the nation’s third largest producer of apples.)  Last year, we had NO apples.  Period!  The local cider mills had to ship in apples from other states.

You would have thought this would have been in ALL the papers, but I barely saw ANYTHING written about it.  And yet…I know there are orchards down the street from us that may go out of business if they have another bad year.  But when I talk to people I know about this, it’s like they just don’t GET it.  They don’t seem to understand that the pretty red thing they stick in their kid’s lunch box has to come from SOMEWHERE.  Everything is all interconnected.  

If there’s a drought in the Midwest  and you can’t grow hay and corn, guess what?  It’s going to cost the farmers more to feed their livestock.  Their feed has to be shipped in, and that costs money!  So what does that mean?  The price of beef goes up!  The price of milk goes up!

I bought a book a couple of years back called, Can You Trust A Tomato In January?, written by Vince Staten.  It’s an informative little book.  There’s a page in there about “non-dairy creamer.”  All I can say is ICK!!!  It really is scary how much we take for granite at the local grocery store.   Barbara Kingsolver also has a GREAT book: Animal, Vegetable, Miracle.  She’s one of my favorite authors, regardless; but this is the story of her family’s adventures in eating food that was produced locally.  (My copy of her book looks like a train wreck  I’ve got sooo many pages bookmarked!)      

(BTW  In all likelihood  that poor little January tomato was probably grown in Culiacán Valley in Mexico, picked two weeks before it was ready to ripen, treated with ethylene gas so it would turn color, and has been off the vine for at least a week before it hits the local grocery store.  There’s a reason why most grocery store tomatoes have NO flavor.)  

Anyways…enough with the ranting!  We’ll see how my apple tree does in the weeks to come…

As a side note, yesterday I watched Introduction to Permaculture, Lecture 2: Ethics and Principles.  (This is one of the freebie classes one of my Facebook buddies recommended.)

http://courses.ncsu.edu/hs432/common/podcasts/  

Interesting stuff.  The instructor isn’t all doom and gloom.  He’s all about looking at the positives.  Like I said last week after watching Lecture 1, I had NEVER heard of the word “Permaculture” before I was sent the link.  I’m not looking to change the world.  I’m not looking to hug a tree.  :)  I just wanted to learn about something “new,” something different, make my tired brain work a bit.  Still haven’t purchased any course books.  

This week’s homework assignment was to grow “something,” preferably something you can eat, even if it’s in a pot on your windowsill or outside your front door, even if you don’t think you can grow ANYTHING.

Peas in a Pot.

I am a bad plant mommy, but I still TRY to grow edible plants.  I can grow peas in a pot!  That counts, right?  Of course, peas are probably the EASIEST vegetable in the world to grow.  Stick dried up looking peas in dirt.  Water daily.  Even I can do that!  ;)

Have a great day!

Juli 

   

 

Mother’s Day Reflections

Mother’s Day is a tricky holiday for me. You see, I lost my mother years ago to Multiple Sclerosis, and while my relationship with my mother was complicated, she was still my mom.

Since her death, I’ve had other women come into my life, other mothers who have helped fill the mom-shaped hole in my heart, a hole that began to form years before her death. (Her long-term illness affected our family in cruel a bizarre ways, but that’s neither here nor there.)

Since her death, I’ve also become a mom myself. I still have moments where this seems unreal! Life is strange. There’s NO instruction manual for ANY of this, though it seems like there SHOULD be one.

Anyway, I’m very grateful to have been surrounded and blessed with an abundance of mothers this year, my step-mom and my mother-in-law especially. This Mother’s Day I felt…whole and complete, an unexpected emotion all things considered. My sister and I talked about our mother, but I didn’t feel the ache inside of me like I have in the past. I still miss my mom. I still wish she’d lived long enough to have met her grandchild, but this year was different. I don’t know how this all works exactly. Maybe I’M the one who’s different.

People like to make quotes about time healing emotions, but I don’t think that’s true. I think you have to be actively engaged to heal yourself emotionally. I don’t think there’s an easy way out. I think you need to work at being whole. No one is going to “fix” you. No one is going to make you become a complete person. People you love and care about WILL disappoint you. You WILL disappoint other people. That’s life. And…I don’t think there’s a finish line, a place where you can say, “Ah ha! I’m all done!!!” You’re NEVER done. Life keeps throwing stuff at you. But I do think you can feel happy again, even after a loss. I do believe that if you WANT to feel whole again, AND you’re actively trying to heal yourself, you will eventually be blessed with people who’ve been there before, people who will help you get through it.

Have a great day!
Juli