An excerpt from Guardian’s Race
“What if I flew your dragon in the race?” Fia asked.
“What if I turned you into a little stone statue and you never spoke again?” the stabler replied, pulling the knots tight around the man’s wrists.
Month: August 2020
Edible Flowers in the Landscape
If you squeeze the sides of a snapdragon blossom, it opens its little mouth and says “rawr rawr.” Or maybe that’s me. These flowers are edible, though flavor ranges from bland to bitter. Probably best as a garnish. In Missouri, the plant will stay green through November.
KNOW THY ENEMY: Japanese beetles
Male Japanese beetles will fly to plants where females were feeding, or pretty much anyplace where the females are. In the morning, when the females climb out of the holes they’ve dug to lay their eggs, a bunch of males will fly over and land and try to mate with her. And she’s like, “Dudes, I just woke up, geez.”
Tomato Plant Diseases and General Afflictions
One way of outsmarting tomato diseases may be to plant a wide variety of disease-resistant tomato plants, not just one variety. Even if you lose one or two tomato plant to the disease, the other varieties could resist it. Also, space the tomato plants well apart from each other. My tomato plants were scattered around the garden, well apart from each other, and this probably saved some of my plants.
The time my Rose to the Occasion book was plagiarized…
Somebody used my book to write theirs. I just felt this cold-water feeling go down my body when I realized that.
Late-Summer Planting for Fall Vegetables
To keep the ground cool while the seeds are germinating, shade it by placing a board over your rows, raising it off the ground with two flowerpots or bricks. Or use shade cloth or even sheer curtains to help keep the plants cool. When the seedlings emerge, remove the board, then mulch the ground with a half-inch of grass clippings or straw. Add more mulch once the seedlings are 1 to 2 inches tall.
Edible Landscaping
It seems a shame to relegate food plants to second place in the garden. They aren’t as tidy as ornamentals, but they were bred to produce bountiful crops, but they can also look very good, and many of them can fit in well in a mixed border.
August List o’ Things to Do!
August is the hottest month — allegedly, as it started out as pretty cool here in Missouri, but now the heat’s finally showing up. At any rate, the vegetable garden is going like gangbusters right now. Here’s a little list of chores for the August garden, just to keep you up to speed.