A Few Answers to my Garden Questions

Good Friday to All,


I just got of the phone with Sunshine, sorry to hear you are off to a funeral tomorrow. Try to enjoy yourself, I know that sounds odd but I have been to some funerals where I had a great time! So anyway while on the phone with the Sunshine household I spoke to Sunshines Dad henceforth to be called Nonno. He tells me that I can start picking my swiss chard anytime. I am told to pick the biggest leaves on each plant from the base and after I pick the leaves to bury the open base with some soil from the garden. That way the plant should just keep producing more leaves.

If I hadn't been slaving in the kitchen making tonight's gourmet feast of french fries (out of a bag) and hot dogs I would of cooked the swiss chard tonight. So it will have to wait till tomorrows dinner, Nonno tells me to fry up some garlic in olive oil and then add the swiss the chard to wilt and coat. Sounds easy enough and it is usually how I cook my spinach so I'm feeling confidant.

Earlier in the afternoon my buddy KD came over for a visit, her two girls Mac and Cheese (grinning as I type cause I love my new nick names for them!) came to play and swim with the little one. Though the weather this summer has not been swimming pool weather trying to convince three little girls from playing in the water is pointless. KD and I caught up on our past week, I filled her in on the teenager and she told me how great Carabram was this past weekend.



We then got down to business and hacked the crap out of the Sage bush trying to divided it in half. Man was it hard, we really could of used a saw to get through the thick branches. Also I was fretting cause there was ladybugs on the sage (it is in the same garden as the aphid infested rosebush) and I wanted them on my rosebush not the sage bush. I paid good money for those ladybugs to eat the aphids not to think it was thanksgiving and eat my sage! After a lot of team work we were able to get a couple of sections with root intact out of the ground. I added the sage to the bucket I had of purple cornflowers, violets, oregano, tarragon and this nasty purple bell flower that has taken over my gardens (I will be happy to see that go!). I will be taking all of theses plants with us to camp on Sunday. After KD and I finished with the sage bush and tried to make it look a little better we talked about camp.

Last year KD and I spent a week at camp cooking and let me say any romantic thoughts of being a chef are GONE. In the kitchen by 6:00 am and not out some nights till 9:00 pm at night has taken all thoughts of being a chef and tossed them with the leftovers in to the pigs bucket! It was exhausting but we did have some fun watching the teenage staff and their crazy ways. Anyway my family goes to camp this coming week to help where ever needed and KD and her husband Albatross with Mac and Cheese in tow will be going in August for a week of fun and work. Mac is looking forward to sleeping in the cabins with all the other girls her age and being a REAL camper. Hopefully next year the little one will go for a week of camp and be a REAL camper like Mac, by then the thumb sucking habit will be broken and she wont be so self-conscious of it.

I have the garden dug up that's to go to camp, I have a good chunk of packing done, so I would say we are just about ready to go. Mind you after the camp director called me this morning to confirm when we are arriving she did let it slip that we can't have your earlier arranged cottage as an older couple are staying in that cottage till mid next week. So that means I have NO bathroom in my cottage. I will be paying close attention to this cottage stealing couple and they better be real old! I think our week at camp is starting to look more like a week on the mission field. Hard work, no pay and inadequate plumbing but I did hear they have Internet so I will try to blog while I am away.