Lil's Garden

  I am often inspired by Cindy Crosby's blog Tuesdays in the Tallgrass . This week her blog is entitled "A Bit of Prairie Hope." Discouraged by the events of the New Year, she goes to the characters of The Lord of the Rings for a bit of hope. Gandalf gives this advice: "Courage will now be the best defense against the storm that is at hand." He goes on to advise them to leave their trowels and sharpen their swords.  Perhaps a better word at the present would be to leave our swords and sharpen our trowels. At least that's where I have begun to find my courage. When Frodo later confesses his lack of courage, Gildor Inglorian reminds him that "courage is found in unlikely places."  This year has been one of extreme heat and drought, snow and freezes. The prairie and the plants have suffered. Our world and the people in it are suffering too. It gives me courage to see growing things. God's plan is still at work. Seeds die, are buried, germinate, r...

  Right now our new raised beds are covered with freeze cloths to protect them from our cold weather. Although we did not have a successful summer or fall garden (at one point in October the soil temperature was 100 degrees), the winter garden is looking much better. Before they were covered a few days ago, the beds held radishes, carrots, peppers, onions, cabbages, cauliflowers, broccoli, Swiss chard, kale, several kinds of lettuce, cilantro, parsley, rosemary, Mexican mint marigold, several kinds of basil lemon verbena, sage, thyme, blackberry bushes, sugar snap peas, sweet peas, blue and white mistflowers, and two tomato vines. We'll see what survives the freeze. Meanwhile...with the help of the Wilson County Extension Master Gardeners, we have completed the construction of a lasagna garden in front of The Bee and the Clover. It's called a lasagna garden, because it has layers like a lasagna, Our intent is to plant a demonstration garden of fragrant, white native plants. The...