Hello! We traveled to Lexington, Kentucky as part of a Memorial Day weekend getaway. During our visit, we walked around the University of Kentucky Arboretum, where I saw this:
In the vegetable garden area, multiple heads of beautiful leaf lettuces were growing. As it was a hot day (the high of 90 was just one degree shy of tying the high for that date), my mouth watered at the sight of those crisp heads of lettuce. I joked that I ought to pick a head and tuck it under my shirt. Of course I'd never do this, and just as well, for my husband pointed to the security cameras mounted on the outbuilding next to this garden.
And there was a sign stating that the produce grown at the arboretum is distributed to those in need. I was glad of that, for I've often seen produce well past its prime at similar public gardens. Perhaps rotting tomatoes and greens gone to seed are meant to show the life cycles of the plants, but this has always seemed wasteful to me.
That was my fantasy lettuce garden. Then I returned home to the reality of my own lettuce patch:
I don't have space for a big vegetable garden, so I grow some of my produce in pots on my deck. I got the idea of a "lettuce bowl" - a large pot of mesclun - from some of the vendors at our local farmer's market, who offer a similar item. But why pay $13 bucks or more when I can easily do the same for far less? I have two bowls of mesclun, sown a couple of weeks apart.
The only trouble with my deckside "lettuce bowl" is the gang of neighborhood squirrels. They're fond of digging up my pots of mesclun! So I learned to drape these plantings with "row covers" (sheer curtains purchased at thrift stores). This worked well, but of course I'd have to uncover the mesclun when I wanted to pick it, and I couldn't see the pretty leaves of my crop very well either.
Then last fall I came across a tip that had potential: a woman's flower garden was beset by unwelcome visitors like squirrels and rabbits. Another avid gardener told her to place children's pinwheels from the dollar store around the perimeter of her garden. Supposedly the critters don't like the movement and shiny colors of these toys and so they'll stay away.
Shortly before Memorial Day, our local Dollar Tree advertised pinwheels, so I picked up a baker's dozen. Some were placed in my vegetable garden and others were placed in my deck pots. You can see the red and blue of one pinwheel in the left side of the above photo.
As a test, the pinwheels were put into place Friday morning of the holiday weekend, and we returned home the next Monday afternoon. I looked over my deck and garden plantings - not a single plant had been disturbed.
I was happy about this! In the past, besides row covers, I'd spent money on fake owls and snakes and various repellant sprays or powders. The fake critters have to be moved every so often and the repellant concoctions (some commercial, some DIY) have to reapplied after rains. But the pinwheels just sit there and spin around in the breeze, and look cute even when still.
So there you have it - gardening fantasy and reality, plus an easy tip to try out if you have critter troubles too. Here's to a good growing season!
(If you'd like more information about the University of Kentucky Arboretum, go here. It's worth a visit if you're in the Lexington area.)
Hello! I've traveled a fair share of US, but my international trips have thus far been limited to Canada. That latter fact may change someday, but even if it doesn't, I'm always good for some armchair traveling. And thrift stores are good places to pick up trip accounts, such as these three books I've purchased recently:
From top to bottom: Cafe Oc, by Beebe Bahrami; Grandma's On The Camino, by Mary O'Hara Wyman, and The New York Times Explorer Mountains, Deserts & Plains.
The first two books are somewhat similar in that the authors immerse themselves in European countries for several weeks (Wyman) to a year (Bahrami) at a time, which gives both women time to make new friends, learn the history and customs of an area, enjoy local foods and drinks, and observe flora and fauna.
Wyman doesn't have a car at her disposal, since she's "on the camino" - that is, a 500-mile route that starts in France but primarily traverses through Spain. Wyman was 70 when she set out on her 48-day walk, and was a solo traveler. I admired her for putting up with variable weather and sleeping conditions. She mentions others who made the walk easier by signing up with touring companies that arranged nice lodging and hauled excess gear. But even though Wyman was consistently beset by various foot injuries (she stops for medical services several times along the way), she rolls with the punches and keeps on walking.
Her book is presented as a three-part journal. Part One is the daily postcard she wrote and mailed to her five-year-old granddaughter. Part Two is her daily journal entry, and Part Three includes reflections she added for each journal entry after she had returned home. (Thus, each day's walk includes three entries.) Considering how challenging the walk was, I was impressed that Wyman kept to her writing schedule every day! I think I would have been nodding off the minute I stopped walking.
Bahrami doesn't have a car, either, when she settles into the town of Sarlat in southwestern France for a year. So she does a great deal of walking as well, both around town and in the countryside. She revels in local foods and wines, explores prehistoric caves in the region, makes new friends, brushes up on her French and meets with a group who gather to speak the local dialect, Occitan. This gathering takes place in Cafe Oc, the basis of Bahrami's book title. (By the way, "oc" means "yes" in Occitan.)
I'm a regular visitor to our local farmer's market, so I really enjoyed Bahrami's frequent trips to Sarlat's version of this enterprise. Such wonderful descriptions of such wonderful food! I swooned at the delectibles she brought back to her rental apartment.
The last book, the one produced by The New York Times, is very different from the first two books. Instead of one author who describes her adventures in (mostly)a single country, Explorer is a compilation of travel articles about locales the world over. Sure, there's write-ups of visits to US spots in Idaho (Sawtooth Valley), Georgia (Okefenokee Swamp), Alaska (Inside Passage region), and more. But there's also descriptions of trips to Peru (Machu Picchu), Chili (star-gazing hot spots), Germany (the Alps in the winter) and so on.
The articles are short and I found myself wishing they'd been a bit longer. I would have liked to have learned even more about each writer's experiences during their visits. But again, these articles had originally appeared in the travel section of a newspaper, where space was limited.
Explorer doesn't skimp on page quality or photographs though. Both are along the lines of what I'd consider a "coffee table book". I wasn't surprised to learn that brand new, this book was $40.00. I was happy with the $2.99 I paid at a thrift store.
So until my next big trip (a summer vacation out west is in the works), I'll continue with my armchair traveling.
