Black Thumb Banana: Anyway, so I harvested some basil from my garden and th [“CUT!” yells Kayak Woman]

Since when has there been anything approaching a “garden” here at the Landfill? Garden? Say what? I can haz garden? It’s true. Black Thumb Banana created a garden (sort of) this year. It isn’t much of a garden but BTB actually harvested some basil this afternoon. KW chopped it up in her ancient Cuisinart and threw it into a batch of lasagne sauce, which she is gonna freeze and take up to the Moomincabin.

So, how does BTB’s garden grow?

  • Four big pots of impatiens: A total failure. And an unexpected one because they are the one thing I am usually successful at keeping alive. All summer. This summer? Either The Commander is messing with me or Henry ate them. It’s fun to speculate about The Comm’s involvement but Henry is a more likely suspect.
  • More basil than I can use: Thriving like crazy!
  • Two hanging pots of unknown flowers that I bought to (sorta) make up for the impatiens fiasco: one of them faltering (it was a “manager’s special” over at Kroger), one of them thriving against all odds. Maybe because Black Thumb actually read the directions about dead-heading?
  • Rosemary tree from Mouse: seems to be doing okay. I wonder if it can live inside in the winter.
  • Clematis and morning glories for the New Arbor: growing in leaps and bounds (especially the clematis) and taking over the arbor, which is exactly what they are supposed to do. Yay!
  • Mouse’s strawberry and raspberry plants: looking good and I have seen strawberries but Henry eats them before they get ripe.
  • Front lawn: total disaster. We got it re-sodded and planted professionally but I don’t blame the contractor, I blame us. It was looking good until extreme heat, drought, and grubs got to it. That is, I am told that grubs got to it. I wouldn’t know a grub if I found it under my pillow.
  • Tomato plants? Producing tomatoes! Fingers crossed that they will become ripe when I am *not* out of town.
  • Lavender? Didn’t plant it yet. Supposedly it’s better to plant it when it’s cold? I dunno. Seed packs on my counter.

Some words about lawns. I am the antithesis of a lawn fanatic but since we have one, it would be nice if it were actually, you know, somewhat green. The back “lawn” is at least green albeit probably more from weeds than actual grass. [“Oops. Hi Chippy. Don’t run away, Chippy. I won’t eat you.”] Fortunately, we live on The Planet Ann Arbor. I am sure there are some people around here who are lawn fanatics. I know that there are McMansion-style housing developments around, the kind that have “associations” that exist to make rules about how tall your grass has to be. I’m sure there are probably neighbors who look upon our lawn with disgust. On the other hand, there are front lawns that are filled with six-foot tall weeds. The point is, the stereotypical Ann Arborite is actually thinking about I dunno, global warming, housing the homeless, getting their kid into the “right” college (or pre-school), organic food, alternative education, medical marijuana, building a train station for trains that don’t exist. You name it.

More and more often, I dream of hiring a landscaper / yard maintenance company to come and clean up my yard, get rid of some shrubs and things that have seen better days, fix the lawn, and then come back and maintain things. I am not talking Chemlawn. I know that there are folks out there who can do this stuff without toxic chemicals. (Oh hey, I just managed to actually turn on the radio in the back room! One small step…) I don’t even want a perfectly manicured yard. In fact I want a certain percentage of chaos. It isn’t that we aren’t able-bodied or don’t have the energy to do it ourselves. It’s more that we are spread way way way too thin with our careers and our vacation property(ies) and our gazillion other interests and and whatever. (I feel that way anyway.) I enjoy a certain amount of yard work but I don’t want to spend every non-working moment on it. And I don’t. And it shows.

So, how does your garden grow?

Yours truly,
Black Thumb Banana
(and Kayak Woman)

P. S. What I am LOVING about my yard right now? I’m sitting out in back and mama birdies are flitting back and forth to a couple of birdhouses feeding their babies! My yard may not be as beauteous as it could be but the birds love it. And I love when our birdhouses are rocking back and forth with chirping baby birds.

5 Responses to “Black Thumb Banana: Anyway, so I harvested some basil from my garden and th [“CUT!” yells Kayak Woman]”

  1. Margaret Says:

    Love birds–but I also adore green grass. Our summer has been very mild, so it’s been easy to keep it green. There are patches of moss or clover, but it’s not too bad. The lawn isn’t my top priority though.

  2. jane Says:

    yes, you can bring your rosemary in for the winter! and just a couple days ago I was noticing that very few people around here have actual green grass this year, which means many fewer than in prior decades are paying professionals to keep it up to snuff during this hot hot hot summer. or a few have in-ground watering systems perhaps. and really, I think they’re just happy they don’t have to mow very often. 😉

    my garden is suffering because of the heat, and the fact that for a few weeks no one was watering it AT ALL!

  3. Pam J. Says:

    The picture looks like Russian sage. Is it?

  4. l4827 Says:

    Or one can paint their lawn (environmentally friendly of course) ……

    http://realestate.aol.com/blog/2012/07/29/drought-stricken-lawns-get-a-makeover-with-green-paint/

  5. DogMomster Says:

    Looks like Russian sage – I have it in my front garden, and it is thriving (to put it mildly). Smells great when I do try to control it, but no idea if it’s safe to eat?