Garden Greats

Gertrude Jekyll's Munstead photo courtesy Flickr

Thalassa Crusoe: compost your mistakes.

Vita Sackville-West: let plants stray over the path. Walk around them.

Gertrude Jekyll: leave tall plants in the foreground in some areas. Leave dead stalks in place over the winter: they house beneficial predators and break the wind, protecting tender shoots.

Two unknown English spinsters: “If it’s moving slowly enough, step on it. If not, let it go. It will probably kill something else.”

Other useful tips: drink most of a can of beer, then lay it on its side someplace inconspicuous in the garden. The few tablespoons of beer left in the can make it a good slug trap.

Slugs follow the trails of other slugs. Tap an approaching slug until it curls into a ball, then toss it off the property in the direction it was traveling. Eventually, there will be no trail for a slug to follow into the garden. My slugs liked to crawl into the prevailing wind.

A birdbath will support the pest-control committee.

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Holiday Safety Tip

Photo courtesy Flickr

The BBC reports that Hindus are gathering to celebrate a certain festival with the slaughter of 250,000 animals. A week or two ago, it was reported that Muslim families celebrate one of their holidays with the slaughter of an animal. Thanksgiving is the day after tomorrow.

I will be advising my friends with feathers and my friends with four feet to avoid hairless bipeds who want to party in November. If I knew any soybeans, I would warn them, too.

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A Very Fine Little Vegetable

Fyrefiend photo courtesy Flickr

Any time it’s over forty-five degrees, plants grow. In the Northwest, this means that vegetables grow nearly year around. One nutritious little weed grows itself: it’s smooth-leafed chickweed, a staple pot herb of the medieval garden.

Chickweed will tell you how good your soil is: the larger the leaf, the richer the matrix. If you compost kitchen waste by burying it in a corner of the garden, chickweed will grow itself. It’s delicious dressed with oil and lemon juice, makes a refreshing bed for cold cooked vegetables, and is good in sandwiches.

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More after the jump.