Bill Stickers is Innocent! [/random inside joke for some of you]

[stoney321]

Well obviously the news that Michelle Obama is putting in a vegetable garden on the White House's South Lawn makes me giddy with joy. Especially as she says everyone, and she means everyone in the family will be pulling weeds. I don't think I can express fully the awesomeness that is the image of Obama with his shirtsleeves rolled up pulling out hen-bit. It kind of makes my heart hurt with love.

*cough* One little complaint I have though is the perpetuation that organic foods are some how healthier, aka more nutritious, than other foods. They're not. The same amount of vitamins, minerals, fiber, etc. are in both types. Organic is less damaging to the environment, it does not mean more healthful. [/end rant] (You can read these rants I wrote a few years ago about this very topic here.)

Yesterday I put in my green beans and a veggie that I am so excited to try and grow, Chinese long beans. Dude, they get well over a foot long. \o/ We actually eat more of them in our house than traditional Western green beans. (Some shrimp paste, fish sauce, fresh ginger, Rooster chili sauce sauteed with them beans? Heaven. Esp. if you sprinkle dried shrimp over the finished product.)

• Peas (snap)
• Peas (English bush) <-- makes me want to make a dirty joke because I'm broken inside
• Tomatoes (Roma)
• Tomatoes (Cherokee painted - heirloom)
• Tomatoes (grape)
• Bell Pepper (red)
• Bell Pepper (orange)
• Onions (1015, mmmmmmm)
• Taters (we're the most excited about these)
• Swiss Chard
• Lettuce (Bennie Simpson)
• Zucchini (I cannot wait to roast the flowers stuffed with ricotta and oregano, in a little puddle of homemade marinara)
• Cucumbers
• Green Beans (pole)
• Long Beans (I have no idea, we'll find out as we go, wheee!)

This does not include the peach tree, the grape vines (I have NO idea where they came from!) and hopefully a soon to be planted fig tree. Mmmm, figs.

I still have jalapeños to put in, and probably a few more tomatoes, because you can never have enough tomatoes. And here's the thing: all of this is just tucked in amongst the flowers. I don't have raised beds or dedicated plots for this, because I can't with my HOA. Also, when you tuck your veggies among flowers, you increase the chance of bees going to town with the pollinating, which means higher yields.

I spent a goodly portion of this past weekend (on my vacation, I know, I'm dork city) talking with an old friend (2nd picture!!!) about how the real dream is to have acreage because I want to grow my own wheat and grind it. You can take the girl out of the apocalypse-preparedness cult, but you can't take the apocalypse-preparedness cult out of the girl...

And we did talk also about what to do when the zombies rise up because he's a smart guy and knows it's coming. *taps temple* You have to think about this stuff, you guys, or they will eat your brains and then where will you be?

Last thing related to nothing, but it made me laugh and laugh. I've been on a Golden Girls kick, because I <3 Sophia. Funniest Sophia line I heard in a while, "Advice for you young girls: Wear half as much makeup and twice as much underwear." And it's STILL TRUE. Ahahahaha. "PIcture it: Sicily, 1922!" I'm going to sit outside with my coffee and watch the bees on my bluebonnets now. YAY SPRING!


I'm a spazz. Sue me. Wait, don't, because that would suck. Also, that's a terrible waste of the court's time. So I found this gorgeous icon on kushi_icons site and it immediately made me happy and immediately made me sad. 16 years ago I moved out West to live among My People (turned out? not so much my people after all) but I lived in the mountains for years and I miss them so much. This is where I met the BFF and we practically lived in Zion's National Park. We'd go hiking along the river, find a cliff, strip off our sweaty, dusty togs, and go jumping in. We'd float down the river otter style, our feet out in front of us, bouncing off the rocks. (Better than your head, right?)

In the summer during college I worked in the Tetons National Park, just a short hike from Hidden Falls. Moving water is what I'm talking about. Mossy boulders that fell from thousands of feet up, now partly covered with pines and scrub brush, little eddies with a leaf swirling at the base, the feel of bare feet gripping the lichens that take hundreds of years to form a proper colony... I mentioned that I live in Texas, right? We have that stuff, just not where I live. And nothing like the mountains of Wyoming or Utah. (And as a child we spent a goodly portion of our summers in those mountains at my Grandma's.)

There's a part of me that almost resents growing up. I can play with my children (Emily and I made worm hotels yesterday) but there's nothing like being a child, walking into the woods, and spending hours making little people out of sticks and leaves, building mossy-roofed stone houses for them, and imagining trolls and fairies and all sorts of things living in those woods. I spent almost all of my childhood in my head, mostly because what was happening around me was so unpleasant. (Yes, Pan's Labyrinth did a number on me because YES. I identify a lot with that concept.)

I want The Dark Crystal to be real. I want to finally go visit dovil and see the hobbits that caper about the New Zealand mountains like sheep. (Wait, those are just sheep, aren't they? Har. EH, we'll drink until they look like hobbits, knowing us.) When my dog barks at random places in the house, I want to believe that there is a whole colony of Fraggles in a hidden rocky cave with an entrance in my pantry.

*SIGH* Spring gets me wistful. And so... I garden. I'll just spend the afternoon imagining pill bugs are little tanks for weetiny creatures, I guess.

Comments

[dwivian]

There is the argument that organic foods won't be full of pesticides or additives as part of their management or harvest... won't that make them healthier? What is the acceptable level of bug-spray in a corn casserole?

[thebratqueen.livejournal.com]

I gleed when I read about the garden, GLEED.

[stoney321.livejournal.com]

Well, not really (and I just saw that I didn't link back to that rant, about to be fixed.) The use of pesticides is actually HIGHLY controlled. It's all broken down by the time the consumer purchases it and eats it, so you're not ingesting pesticides. I'm sure there's a shady outfit out there somewhere that isn't following protocol, but it's rare. "Silent SPring" did a LOT of damage to farmers, and most of it is just scare tactics. Mind, I'm an organic gardener, but not because it makes my food have higher concentrations of vitamins, because it doesn't. It's just easier on the native wildlife, which I'm in support of.

The problem with pesticides is the effect they have on birds, native plants, etc. It's not doing anything to YOU. (and the biggest waste of money is on organic bananas. Are you eating the peel?)

[stoney321.livejournal.com]

I LOVE THE GARDEN, BB. Love it. And your icon makes me want to smoosh it to my bewbs. BOONEES!!

[thebratqueen.livejournal.com]

Have you seen last Sunday's Big Love yet?

[azryal.livejournal.com]

I get you on the water thing. Moving water is my peace. I live between the ocean and a river, and can't imagine being somewhere with no water. Just visiting places like Nashville was enough to convince me that I need to be near the water. That park you speak of sounds like a peice of Heaven, and I've just added it to places I want to explore someday.

I also grew up near the woods, in the boondocks, to be exact. I remember the sun through the trees and birds calling, and filling my shirttail with blackberries (who cares about stains when there are fresh blackberries?).

Your entry is killing me.

Hugs and thanks for the wist.

Mae

[stoney321.livejournal.com]

I. HAVE.

And while they were 100% accurate with the whole temple thing, it made NO SENSE that Barb would go to get her Endowments for the first time, given that she and Bill had been married in the temple before (I'm almost positive I remember that from Season 1 as a throwaway line.)

Eh, tiny thing to bug me, but HUUUGE to LDS folks. Other than that, OH I LOVE THAT SHOW.

[stoney321.livejournal.com]

I never thought I was an ocean person, because I was all about rivers and streams. But that peaceful sound of waves crashing... Living where I could have both would be utter paradise.

I cannot recommend the Tetons or Zions ENOUGH. They are my happiest places on the earth. I honestly can't pick between the two. The former is just woodland mountainous paradise and the latter is the desert in all its shining, red-rocked glory. <3 <3 <3

Fresh blackberries!! Now I want to crawl into the book "Blueberries for Sal" and eat fresh berries all day long. Sigh.

[thebratqueen.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I figure they just hoped that not enough people would know/remember so that they could get the scene in.

[samwe1.livejournal.com]

It's great and all that Obama is getting out there with the fam pulling weed...

But what about the reason he is in the White House... you know, that important job of.... say... running the country? Just saying....

Also... my mom is putting in a garden... and I hate gardening. :/

[stoney321.livejournal.com]

? Uh, sorry, I'm having a hard time with your second comment. Obviously the man isn't dropping out of work just to putter in the frickin' garden.

[minstrel666.livejournal.com]

Chinese long beans. Dude, they get well over a foot long. \o/

Must... resist... making... penis... joke...

[ruthless1.livejournal.com]

I have a gardening question. Can you do that sort of flower/vegetable thing in big pots? I live in a 17 unit building and we just have giant pots. Would they be too small to mix and match? We dedicated two pots last year to a rosemary bush and one to basil. I wonder if we could sneak in some peppers or something with the flowers?
The rest of your post was just lovely. We had a fort in a patch of forest when I was really young. In Alabama - the trees were big enough to climb. When we moved to Colorado I kept asking my mother if the trees here were sick! Gotta love that desert climate!

[stoney321.livejournal.com]

AHAHAHAHA. Um, haven't we met? (Internet met, but you know what I mean.)

Dick jokes are ALWAYS welcome here.

[bastardsnow.livejournal.com]

FREE BILL STICKERS

[stoney321.livejournal.com]

Oh, you can TOTALLY garden in pots, that's what I used to do back when I was a young mom living in an apartment. There are lots of great books about it - look for things called "square gardening." That means growing things in one square foot. You can grow a "pizza pot" with basil, oregano, tomatoes, etc. or a "salsa pot" with tomatoes, cilantro, onion, garlic, and jalapenos. Go for it! Just keep in mind that pots will need to be watered often to keep everything thriving.

Oh, those big ol' southern trees. Live oaks? Mulberries? Magnolias? I loved my skinned knees of youth.

[stoney321.livejournal.com]

HE'S INNOCENT, I TELLS YA!

[ruthless1.livejournal.com]

You could grab a branch and HANG DOWN off the trees? If you do that here? The poor little branch will just snap! And you could make little beds and stuff in the forks of the trees - or just hang out and SPY on your siblings and the shenanigans they thought no one ever saw (ahem).
Oh my gosh - a pizza pot is an excellent idea! I will have to discuss this with my cohort in crime. The flowers we've been planting have been quite gorgeous but I want to devote a few more pots to FOOD!

[stoney321.livejournal.com]

There were loads of big trees up at my g-ma's house. Cottonwoods and the like. Those are great for climbing if you can reach the branch. :D

We had a mulberry tree on the side of my house growing up that had exposed roots and I made all sorts of little roadways and tunnels under it with my secret Hot Wheels. (My parents wouldn't give me boy toys, so my neighbor loaned me some.)

Do it, do it! There's nothing as delicious as food you've grown yourself.

[crazydiamondsue.livejournal.com]

Better pulling weeds for an hour on Saturdays at 1600 Pennsylvania than splitting logs for the cameras for 2 weeks in Crawford, I say...

[crazydiamondsue.livejournal.com]

I'm puttin' my maters and blackberries in this weekend. Woot! Possibly some peppers.

I just went to the grocery store with 2 babies for the first time! I rock. Jonah was chill in the baby sling (he tried to fondle broccoli, luckily, it was my broccoli) and Braden slept in the carrier. I thought of you when I bought my non-organic bananas and avocados. :)

Spring!

[stoney321.livejournal.com]

Lord above, I just put my hand to my heart, a smile on my face.

THIS IS WHY YOU WIN. *hands you a crown*

[solipsiae.livejournal.com]

And here's the thing: all of this is just tucked in amongst the flowers. I don't have raised beds or dedicated plots for this, because I can't with my HOA. Also, when you tuck your veggies among flowers, you increase the chance of bees going to town with the pollinating, which means higher yields.

I never knew this. Storing this away in my mental files - thanks!

[stoney321.livejournal.com]

HURRAH! Mmmmm, fresh food. There's nothing like fresh off the bush berries. (That's what she said. Wait, that didn't work...) My aunt, the one that now hates me (sad face) used to have a raspberry bush that grew along half of her fence (it was a looooong fence.) Goldens and reds, and all for the picking. So good.

Hahahahahahha. Organic avocados. Because you eat the peel? What?!

SPRING! It's so beautiful here today, I can't stand it. I wish I could read my computer screen out side...

[stoney321.livejournal.com]

Yep! Then you also won't have that real boring looking set of rows, etc. (Keep in mind that *I* don't find it boring, but I know others do.)

I'm waiting another week for all these buds to pop open for picspam of my garden. It's making me so happy to sit on my bench and just LOOK and SMELL. <3 <3 <3

HI BB! *smooch*