Category: Garden

Posted on

Dandelion

There’s an incredible amount of dandelions this year.  And I can’t deny their charm, as their happy yellow blooms dot the landscape–a prelude to my daughter’s romp through their seeding masses, almost colloidal as they hang in the air.

Yet a part of me cringes as I watch countless potential dandelion progeny drift throughout my yard.  I’m conflicted.  Do I despise them as a blight, or tolerate them for their aesthetic/medicinal value?

Like all exotics, they’re unstoppable

I considered buying an herbicide, and I admit, I use Roundup.  But despite the dandelion’s invasiveness, I’m opposed to fighting nature with such overkill tactics.  History has proven that such measures always yield unforeseen, and undesirable, consequences.  So I began removing them manually.

What is this, Chinese steel?

But the weeding tool proved inadequate.

And so I debated.

Many times have I learned that fighting the natural world results in only temporary victories, that instead I should either appease or compromise.  Such was it that I’ve preserved many a garden crop by planting instead tastier alternatives for the neighborhood rabbits.  So why should I dwell on the humble dandelion?

Nay, I shall harvest this plant.  I will use this formerly unwanted bumper crop to instead experiment with salad and tea.  Stay tuned!

–Simon

Posted on

Showing Restraint

Tomato plants can be quite ungainly, amusing since once upon a time they were European garden ornamentals.  And the indeterminates I find especially difficult to corral, as they quickly overtake any type of cage or post to which they’re lashed.

Definitely looking petulant

Perhaps its their collective personality, much like a petulant child’s–they don’t know what they want, just that they know they don’t want what you gave them.  So I’m trying something different this year–a net.  Now they can grow free from linear vertical restriction, or at least they get two dimensions instead of one.

If I placed it along the property line, would the kids stay out of my yard?

I wonder if it will be strong enough to hold up the vegetative mass.  Soon to find out, I suppose.

–Simon

Posted on

Essence

The uniqueness of this molecule is undisputed, from its polarity to its illogical density/temperature relationship.  And as I peered down from above, upon this microcosm of natural beauty, I contemplated how such random perfection could allow the genesis of terrestrial life.

The organization and order, juxtaposed to the surrounding chaos!

Okay, it’s just water, but it sure looks cool–enough so as to warrant its own post.

Incidentally, I later researched motion-activated sprinklers in my ongoing non-confrontational cold war against the neighbor and his children.

Water!

–Simon

Posted on

Edging

To further beautify the house, we got some expensive edging.  I’m kind of ashamed to say how much the edging costed, so I won’t.

But we needed something, and as was evidenced by the fact that I pulled ancient plastic edging out to install the new–cheap plastic edging is ineffective (and ugly).

So after much digging, behold!

Fancy-ass edging.  That is all (I mean, I’d talk about it more, but it’s edging.  And I’m not paid by the word here).

–Simon

Posted on

Strawberry Garden Upgrade

Last summer, we constructed a strawberry garden out of old wooden boxes.  It worked, but it was quaint, and Liz wanted a real strawberry garden.  And I like strawberries and gardens, and I was itching to finally use that saw that’s been sitting in a box in my garage since we bought the house, so this seemed like as good a reason as any.

So after procuring some 2x8s and a work table from Lowe’s, I had a perfectly respectable setup, ready to butcher some lumber:

My blood coursed with suburban manliness (and histamine–Spring allergies that did not appreciate the sawdust)!  I really only needed to cut a single board in half, but it was the manliest single cut I could make!

The majority of the work was far less creative and primarily involved grunt labor: digging trenches and hammering stakes.  But I had no intention of installing a garden that would shift and become unsightly, so all boards were carefully leveled and secured with corrosion-resistant deck screws:

Okay, it just looks like a box (because it is), but soon it’ll be growing delicious fruit and look way cooler.

–Simon