Blog-azic

As you can see from my list at right, there are many wildflowers that are blooming right now. In clearings outside of town, and planted in borders and gardens in Athens, you can find daffodils just beginning their spring showing. They are one of my favorite flowers of any season. I love them not only for their diverse and vivid colors, but also for their unique, abundant fragrance. Daffodils, also, are excellent for arrangements because they remain vibrant for weeks. In the moist, rich forests surrounding Athens, you just might see some bittercress in bloom by now (I'll have to check for myself this weekend). They can survive almost any habitat in this region, largely because they are dormant by the time our summer droughts start. In your yard, you may see purple-dead-nettle pushing out it's teeny, tubular flowers. The name may seem to suggest a poisonous plant, but it is part of the mint family, and I have often heard that all members of Lamiaceae are edible. How about on you...

Libraries are like daycare centers. At least, they were for my parents. You know, it's amazing all the things you'll end up reading if you're stuck in a library with nothing to do. It's like that episode of the Twilight Zone where that one guy is the only one left on Earth, but he's got all those books. Then his glasses break! It's just like that, except I don't wear glasses. And, it wasn't the apocalypse. And, it was in color, not b&w. Well, one day I found a couple shelves full of a new and exciting kind of book that changed my life forever: choose your own adventure! I did what most people end up doing with those books, keeping your finger on one page while you check out the different paths to see which one is better. I think those books are a cultural bond that my generation shares. So, for a little fun, I've set-up an adventure for you! This is pretty basic - just two options. But, it's just a test, and there may be more adventures in th...

As spring approaches, I've begun working the garden in earnest. Of course, with a garden the size of ours, there is lots of work to be done. Almost half of our entire yard is devoted to growing medicinal plants and herbs, garden foods, wildflowers, and rare and native plants. During the growing season I spend nearly all of my free time working around the house. There's constant weeding, watering, raking and trimming. The very large compost bins we just built must be turned once a month. Brick walkways need dug-up, weeded and reset. Rain barrels should be emptied. Then, there's the grapevine, which needs delicate pruning, training, not to mention picking. Out of all the work that I do the most enjoyable is transplanting wildflowers into our garden. There's just something about sneaking out someplace (perhaps somewhere you shouldn't be) and covertly up-rooting a precious flower (very gently, of course). Then, back at home, finding that perfect spot, setting the flowe...

Yesterday evening, I uncovered the leaves in our front garden at ACME house. I had put the leaves there in late fall to protect the plants from winter's icy bite. Then, yesterday, I was just sooo curious. And I got out the rake. And I found spring had sprung right outside my front door! Daffodils have been peaking out of the soil for over a week now. Tulips, too. And, crocuses were up in January - I kid you not! During one of our warm intermissions from winter's gray drama, I was quite surprised to observe clumps of crocus leaves on our garden stage, like so many thin, green actors leaping to action before their cue. But, where green actors wither in a cold reception, a green crocus leaf preservers through the chillest of airs, and by that sheer determination, our temperate patrons (air and precipitation) have warmed to them! And, today the crocus are costumed in a fine shade of yellow. Their open blossoms regal me to an unspeakable joy, and it is my pleasure, then, to official...