The Escaping Onions!

   I have a habit of cutting the root end of any onion that I use deeply so I can replant the thing.  Onions are some of those fine plants that will happily grow from just a severed root.  These plants are not in a row in the vegetable garden but sit in any vacant spot in ANY garden.  I like onions.  Not only do they make food tasty, they have lovely blooms, to my way of thinking.  So...there are onions in just about every flower garden in the yard.

  I noticed this morning that one onion plant was going to seed.  That is fine by me but I promise this particular onion must be kin to one of those "walking onions".  That type actually does not need to ever be replanted.  Once the tiny bulblets form on the top of the stalk, it bends over and lets the bulblets take root.  The stalk dies off and the old plant continues life.  The newly rooted bulblets start their new life as full blown onions about a foot away from the parent plant.  These things are escaping the confines of the gardens!  Onions are everywhere!  They are taking over the yard and send up the most pungent smell when I cut the grass.  This all came from one white onion from the grocery store.  

  It has become apparent that I need to get rid of a whole slew of the onions, chives and garlic in the gardens.  I hate wasting the things but since neither Mark nor Son care to eat them, something has to be done.  Onions, onions everywhere!

Let The Worm Turn

   Yeah, I know the title does not exactly fit the story but, if you really think about it, the worm is turning...or in this case, a caterpillar so maybe it does.  I went to the vegetable section of the Small Gardens this morning to do a bit more clearing of the spent plants.  As I went to pull a ragged tomato plant from the ground, something caught my eye.  Oops.  Can't pull that one!  Right on the tip top of the tallest stalk was a tobacco horn worm.  Yes, I do usually pull the worms off of the plants and get rid of them but, this time, it was different.  The season is gone.  There are no more tiny tomatoes on the plants so why not let the critter have its fill of the last few leaves?  The worm can then change into a moth that will help pollinate plants.  Yes, I know that this caterpillar will change to a moth that will then lay eggs and make more caterpillars....that eat my plants!  Still, that "live and let live" motto started buzzing about the head. Go for it, caterpillar!

  That said, the garden will have to wait a bit before being fully cleared and prepared for a fall planting. One caterpillar just changed the whole plan for the day.  One caterpillar postponed a chore.  One caterpillar will probably come back to haunt me by laying a billion eggs that will eat next year's tomato plants!  One caterpillar...oh, well.  It is what it is.  Chow down in peace, little one.

"Hippie Gardening"

  "Hippie Gardening"!  I had never heard that phrase until a good friend used it to describe a method of gardening he had come across during a shopping expedition.  Perhaps he knew it long before but he mentioned it when telling of the vegetables and fruits at a market.  Hippie Gardening was the words he used to describe the habit of using co-planting or at least that was the way I understood it.  Co-planting or companion planting is a nifty idea  about planting flowers or other aromatic plants in the vegetable garden to cut down on pests.  This goes on to knowing which plants do well as neighbors or which do better far away from the others.  The idea of planting flowers such as marigolds and nasturtiums around vegetables that are attacked by bugs is an old one that many folks had forgotten.  In recent years, there has been a huge resurgence of planting "old-style" and that is a good thing.  "Back in the day", folks did not use insecticides or chemical fertilizers so companion planting was a method that came in handy.  Knowing which plants would tolerate being next-door neighbors and which preferred to be off by themselves was a necessity.  Another long-forgotten bit of good farming was crop rotation.  To keep the ground from becoming depleted of certain nutrients, crops were never planted in the same spot year after year.  Crops were rotated to assure that nutrients were replenished before replanting.  For instance, Pop would never plant peas in the same field year after year.  The pea rows were alternated with other crops and after harvesting, the dead stalks were plowed into the soil to replenish the used nitrogen.  Plowing old plants of any kind into the soil added organic matter and kept the garden soil from becoming too hard.  Methods such as these can go a long way in having a healthy garden.

  At first, I giggled at the term "Hippie Gardening" but then I realized that I was snickering at myself.  I do companion planting.  My gardens are filled with vegetables, flowers and herbs.  The tomatoes are grounded by marigolds, the bell peppers are best friends with the basil plants and the cucumbers were in love with the nasturtiums!   Not only are there flowers in the vegetable plots, there are vegetables stuck in the flower beds!  The whole garden space is one mishmash of plants...but they are happy plants.  

  I never thought of this as any certain "type" of gardening, I just followed along with what Pop taught me as a kid back on the farm.  It worked then...it works now.  It is all a matter of knowing which plants can coexist and which are detrimental to the others.  Getting back to some of the old ways is not all bad no matter what it is called.  Co-planting, Hippie Gardening, Commonsense....whatever works.

Flowers and Veggies!

  I have a bad habit of planting flowers in the vegetable gardens and veggies in the flower gardens.  Here on the Bayou, the gardens are one big mishmash of whatever!  Anything goes.  If it grows, then it grows wherever it wants.  I have morning glories and moonflowers in the tomato patch.  I have squash in front of the moonflower fence row.  There are nasturtiums in with the radishes and bell peppers in between the tea olives.  Chives blend right in with the roses and zinnias!  Marigolds are everywhere!  Wherever there is an empty spot, there is a plant of some sort.  That suits me to a capital T!  Perhaps the gardens are fine and it is me that is discombobulated!

  It is this habit that caused one good thing and yet one bad thing.  Bad thing first.  After I put in the new garden fence, a bright idea struck. On one side, tomatoes were planted and on the opposite side, four o'clocks lined the fence.  Wow!  That looked nice! All was well until some moth decided to lay her eggs on the four o'clock leaves.  About a week later, caterpillars were turning the leaves into a lace!  Holes were everywhere!  Not good as these caterpillars simply took the jaunt across the fence to attack the tomatoes.  Oh, no you don't!!!  While I do not mind spraying flowers with insecticides, I am a stickler about keeping the veggies pure.  I do not want to eat a bunch of chemically laden garbage.  It took a while before the answer came.  Wasps! Yep, those same critters that make the nests up under the eaves of the house seem to love caterpillars. Paper wasps were feasting on the tiny leaf-munchers. That was good enough for me!  Wasps are now off the bad list and onto the good guys of the garden list.

  The good thing about my four o'clock/tomato arrangement is the early morning/late afternoon blooms sure make the place smell delightful regardless of the copious amounts of cow poop lying around under the tomato plants.  The sweet-scented blooms fill the air and mask the stench quite nicely.  If you do not know, cow poop stinks when wet.  The nighttime hours on the Bayou are rather humid which gives the manure the idea that it is ok to start reeking.  Thankfully, the four o'clock blooms have that covered.  Four o'clock blooms are stronger than poop!  Their scent completely blocks the otherwise stinky garden smells.  Four o'clocks for the win!

  I am sure Pop looks down from Heaven and cringes when he sees my patchwork gardening style.  His fields were impeccable and his flower gardens were to perfection.  He probably wonders where he went wrong when raising me!  Nah, Pop was easy going and would certainly agree about the four o'clocks.  He may have something to say about the morning glories that have their own tomato crates in the garden but, all in all, he would enjoy seeing the plants regardless.