PRACTICAL PARSIMONY: Silly tends a garden

Tuesday, July 5, 2011

Silly tends a garden

Who else tends to weeds? Waters them? Protects them from chickens? Sprays them for pests? Yes, I even staked one of the plants. Okay, I put a tomato cage over it. No blossoms? I thought it would take off any day. This morning I had a three-foot weed. And, several more. Okay, you can quit laughing now!

not a tomato in the lot

I had a 4'x4' box for "square foot gardening" constructed, planning all sorts of goodies. Nothing was ever planted. So, I just used it for compost, knowing I would have rich soil, if nothing else. This year, I thought I had a volunteer tomato. Then, another familiar plant grew.

potato plant

anyone have a clue what this is

poke salat

This morning, I was laughing at myself while I was talking with the man who mowed my lawn. He exclaimed that one was a potato plant and the other was poke salat. I have a free meal! Poke salat scrambled with eggs and potatoes...green vegetable, protein, and carbs.

I can even recognize poke salat, not this time! But, it was not growing in a ditch, by a fence, or just as volunteers elsewhere. Out of its element, it was vaguely familiar but unrecognizable to me.

Four tomato plants sit, waiting to go in that spot and another spot by the back porch. Now, I want so badly to see what I can grow that I will not pull it up. I think I remember that potatoes and tomatoes should not be planted together.

For now, I can uncage the potato plant! It has been so hot that I have severely procrastinated planting anything. Too late? Oh, no, not in my opinion. I just won't have a large yield.

For your information, potato plants look suspiciously like tomato plants. I really really really want to pull up the potato plant and see what has grown!

The whole setup looked neater when exbf could weed eat around it. Plus, the guy who mows did not go between the box and the fence this week. Can you see the wisteria starting to climb onto the chicken wire? Messy!

I feel silly

Your turn
Have you ever lovingly tended weeds, thinking that you had another desirable plant only to find it was a weed? Have weeds ever turned out to be desirable plants?

3 comments:

LindaMJuly 5, 2011 at 10:38 AM
LOL! Only you would actually get something edible out of this experience! We had/have a purslane infestation. One day I saw a plant in the nursery called running phlox that looked just like it. Clever me, I decided to transplant the purslane into pots because its very pretty and I thought it was running phlox. I transplanted it to all sorts of places-all over our land. And thats how we got an infestation. I have to try eating it I guess:)
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DmarieJuly 5, 2011 at 5:41 PM
*chuckle* I never weed...can't tell one thing from another. until it lands in my kitchen that is! ;)
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Practical ParsimonyJuly 5, 2011 at 10:42 PM
Not weeding is a clever idea...lol. Okay, but I thought of it second...lol. Weed? Me?
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Okay, hoping the annoyances have gone away.

The Cast

Fancy is my favorite hen. She is one of the three youngest hens I adopted. Because she is so gentle and friendly, she may be the one I rescued when she was being pecked to death after she could no longer stand. She got to live in the house in a box. Sometimes, I let her sit in my lap while she was convalescing. Now, she comes to sit in the swing with me, cuddling up to my body like a cat or dog. She died in February 2012.

Fancy follows me begging, complaining, needing me to do for her. She talks to me in various voices. She allows me to pick her up and carry her. When she became an adult, her head was a darker red and her body was light brown. Around her neck were tips of black feathers. It appeared she had a necklace of jet around her neck. When I showed this characteristic to a friend, he said, "Oh, you have fancy chickens and plain chickens."

Chessie has a broken toe. I broke it! She had a habit of jumping really high and almost sticking. A raccoon ate her in October 2009.

Thelma is the blonde. She is also the largest hen and the alpha hen. I suspect the gigantic eggs are from her. She often squats and presents herself to me. She is top hen, but I suspect she knows she had better be deferent to top feeder of the flock--me.

Louise is the auburn-feathered hen. She looks like the true Rhode Island Reds in pictures. She is almost as large as Thelma. Some days I suspect she is trying to be top chicken. When I got Pepper, I found out Louise is the Alpha hen.

Pepper came here from the same home as the first four. We were discussing putting red pepper on their food, wondering if it really would increase egg production. Pepper is the only name we agreed on. She is terrorized each day by Louise. Even after the worst was over, she was and is still filled with terror and very wary.

Linda is owned by four hens. They allow her to fetch for them. She loves them dearly, so she allows them to boss her around. Linda comes out in the rain to perform chores for them and make sure they have food and water. She begs scraps from all sorts of places to make sure they have fresh fruits and vegetables.

Parsimony is not a vegetable

Parsimony is extreme care in spending money. Stick around and learn about my random thoughts on accomplishing goals economically--dumpster diving aka safari, gleaning, do-it-yourself, sewing tips, recipes, and whatever is happening in my life.

Okay so maybe "parsimony" is not your thing. How about thrift, frugality or just plain saving money? I try not to go the tightwad route as that seems to imply others will suffer from my habits.

Some of my not-spending habits have very much been a part of my lifelong habits. Other habits are newly acquired and are an extension of my lifelong not-spending habits.

I am very imaginative when it comes to substituting or making instead of buying. I will tell you about making a heater for the chickens' water. Not one dime was spent since I had everything I needed right in my basement.

Practicality must rear its head alongside parsimony. For example, I will use the dryer in bad weather or because of allergies in the spring. But, I will not wash clothes in a tub as long as I have a washing machine or can find one.

You may hear more about my four Rhode Island Red hens than you care to hear. They lay delicious brown eggs.

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Tuesday, July 5, 2011

Silly tends a garden

3 comments: