How My Garden Grows

Friends of Mighty Distractible know that I love to dig in the dirt. I've posted about my garden and/or my desire to be gardening many, many times - and this year was no different. I was lusting over seed catalogs and dreaming of putting plants in the ground before the ground was even defrosted.

The early spring and subsequent great weather has made this year a gardener's dream. My plants got in early (although still later than my more industrious neighbors) and many things are already starting to flower or fruit.

Happy Buddha = Happy Garden

When one lives in a relatively urban setting, one looks for any nook or cranny to plant in. I'm forever impressed by people who live in real cities, like NY or Chicago, and find empty lots or rooftops to cultivate. I'm lucky in that I have a pretty decent sized lot which allows me a yard for my dogs and spots to plant fruit, veg, and flowers.

My standard plantings include tomatoes, cucumbers, herbs, basil (which gets its own plot), and arugula. One corner of my little plot only gets afternoon sun and I've tried for years to find the right plants to grow there. A few years ago I stumbled on the cucumber/arugula combo which seems to work fairly well. Once the cukes get high enough on the fence, they get more sun and they thrive very well. The arugula is always a bit puny but there's enough for a few meals anyway.

Any strip of ground is fair game

This basil will end up 2.5 feet tall and overflow this space

This "weed" along the edge of the basil is edible purslane

It looks a mess but this is my herb garden.

I was lucky enough to inherit two gorgeous plants when I bought the house - a prehistoric rhubarb and a likewise blackberry. Both of these plants are HUGE and prolific, keeping me in fruit for months.

I'm also lucky in that my thyme, oregano, and chives (of course) keep coming back each year so I haven't had to replant them in a while. My parsley was also perennial until this year when it inexplicably died. So, a new flat-leaf parsley went in this spring. I also decided to plant a raspberry to go along with the blackberries.

Then, for some reason, I went a little nutty. Maybe it's because, for the first time, I cultivated some items from seed. I grew things I'd never grown before - without thinking about where they might actually get planted. These actions led to this:

Greens, greens, and more greens

Eggplant, chard, & zucchini

Beans and peas

There are plants EVERYWHERE. Every container that I had laying about in the garage or the shed now has plants in them. And, when I ran out of containers, I went and bought more.

So, now I've got eggplant, zucchini, swiss chard, rainbow chard, two types of lettuce, spinach, two more varieties of basil (besides my normal plot), bay leaf, two more containers of arugula (because I want more than just a couple of meals out of it), green beans, yellow beans, and sweet peas. WHEW!

My first-ever green beans!

On top of this, I have my flower beds. Most are on autopilot now, having planted lots of perennials, but I did end up with a volunteer lupine that needed attention and I put in a few new flowers to fill in some gaps.

Clematis in the foreground and my lily & iris bed in the back

I had to do something to distract from the back of the garage!

Overall, I'm pretty happy with the garden this year. I'm excited to see how much yield I get from my vegetables and how well all these things are going to grow in pots.

I'd love to hear about our readers' gardening exploits. Do any of you have favorite plants you put in every year or a "best practice" you'd like to share? Let us know!

- Farmer Alex

Magical Beans

http://normandapito.deviantart.com

As our regular readers know, Cassandra and I rather love spooky stuff like Halloween, Ghost Hunters, Catholocism, and psychics, just to name a few.

As a kid, I was already indoctrinated into the idea of the paranormal through the teachings of the church. Virgin birth, coming back after you've died, "knowing all" from some throne in the sky.... Then, as a young, disenfranchised teen, I acquired a "next to the cash register" book called Everyday Witchcraft. It was a pocket-sized paper-back with a black cat on the cover and it contained a short history of witchcraft, definitions, and a bunch of spells. While I can't speak to the authenticity of any of it and will admit that I never actually had the guts to really try the spells, there was always something comforting about the idea that I could control my world with these simple conjures. Witchcraft also puts all the power at the hands of women so...you know... that was pretty appealing too.

Not my original book

Recently, Cassandra and I had the opportunity to speak with Miss Cat Yronwode of the Lucky Mojo Curio Company. Lucky Mojo sells all the bells and whistles you need to do magic. The site describes itself as follows:

Lucky Mojo is both an online magic shop and a real magic store that you can visit. We carry a full line of hand-made spiritual supplies, including occult oils, incense, powders, candles, herbs, mojo bags, spiritual soaps, books, and spell kits for those who cast magic spells, love spells, money spells, and protection spells in the African-American hoodoo, Pagan magick, and other Witchcraft traditions. We also import and distribute folkloric magical, occult, herbal, and spiritual supplies
from Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East for those who work in Hindu, Buddhist, Catholic, Protestant, Muslim, and Jewish religious and magical traditions. We sell retail and wholesale, both on the internet and at our old-timey, small-town occult shop.

www.luckymojo.com

We love Lucky Mojo for many reasons, not the least of which is the gorgeous use of retro graphics on the site. We are also very enamored of Miss Cat for her generosity of spirit and her amazing business brain. To get a great sense of Miss Cat and her milieu, please listen to her podcast The Lucky Mojo Hoodoo Rootwork Hour - I promise you'll be entertained.

In our conversation with Miss Cat the other day, she suggested that Cassandra and I participate in the Rootwork Recipe Roundup. It's best to explain this by quoting from the site:

All recipes submitted to the annual Rootwork Recipe Round-Up are collected into a small "church cook book" format publication prepared by the The Ladies' Auxiliary of Missionary Independent Spiritual Church.

The recipe must contain ingredients that, through their magical ascriptions, will address some condition. For example, basil is meant to promote a happy home and family, lemongrass is a cleansing herb, and fennel is used to "keep the law away."

I started looking at the food ascriptions and realized that I have one recipe in my regular rotation that, with a couple of minor tweaks, would basically contain all ingredients for luck and protection. So, without further ado, I'd like to present you with our entry into the Hoodoo Foods! Rootwork Recipe Roundup. Seeing as it's a church cookbook, we couldn't help but go with a one-pot dish... Enjoy!

- Alex, The Enchanter

One Pot Protection

• 2 cans of cannellini beans (or dry beans soaked overnight*) [good luck]

• 1 small, sweet onion diced  [protection and energy]

• 2 (or more) cloves of garlic diced  [protection from evil]

• ½ a bunch of collard greens, stems removed, cleaned, coarsely chopped or cut into strips [luck with money]

• 3 (or more) tablespoons of mild yellow mustard [protection]

• A few drops of honey or a pinch of high-quality sugar

• Olive oil to cover the bottom of the pot

• Horseradish to taste

• Salt and pepper to taste

Heat the olive oil over medium heat. Add onions and cook until translucent. Add garlic and cook for approximately one minute stirring constantly. Add the chopped collards and cook, stirring constantly, until greens are wilted and slightly soft. Add the mustard, sugar, and horseradish and stir to cover the collards completely. Continue cooking until the mustard has “caramelized” on the collards – approximately 2-3 minutes. Add the beans and stir well to combine.* Cook until the beans have heated through. Serve hot with a nice piece of bread.

This recipe has the added protection of being low-fat, low-sodium, and great for lowering your cholesterol!

*If you choose to use dry beans that have soaked, you may need to add some additional moisture to the pot. A little veggie stock or simply water would probably suffice.