Charming, old-timey garden book
A few weeks ago, a dear lady with the you-couldn’t-make-it-up name of Melba Tingle gave me some time-honored advice passed down from her grandmother: save your banana peels, cut them up, and sprinkle them at the base of your rose bushes. Fast-forward to today. I took Melba’s advice, and not only am I brimming with potassium, but also my Knock Out roses are truly knocking me out. Maybe it’s the anti-fungal spray. Maybe it’s faithful watering. Maybe it’s the fertilizer pellets from Earl May. Maybe it’s the innate hardiness of the Knock Outs. But I prefer to think it’s the banana peels, don’t you?
Categories: Home | Tags: beauty secrets, folk remedies, gardening, gardening books, hydrangeas, Indian Pudding recipe, Louise Riotte, love potions, Native American lore
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Are You Going to Scarborough Fair? All About Edible Herbs
I wish I liked to weed as much as I like to read; it would improve my garden much more than reading about gardening, which I’ve been doing lately thanks to several books that have floated into my ken.
One is The Beginner’s Guide to Edible Herbs: 26 Herbs Everyone Should Grow & Enjoy. Bit sweeping, that subtitle–I suspect Paris Hilton would rather prance around with her dressed-up chihuahua than transplant hyssop after all danger of frost has passed. Still, one prefers an excess of enthusiasm in a writer to the drear of a dutiful tone, and Charles W.G. Smith is nothing if not enthusiastic about herbs. “Experiment!” he enjoins herb growers who might feel timid about branching out beyond basil and parsley for pesto, “You’ll be amazed by the pesto possibilities!”
Categories: Home | Tags: gardening, gardening books, goat cheese, herbs
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