Garden nattering

[wyld_dandelyon]

Progress, health wise, continues to be slow and unpredictable. For example, the air quality yesterday was worse than it is today, but to me it felt worse today.

We did get some gardening done, mostly weeding around roses and watering the old fashioned way, since we weren't able to replace the broken seep hose before planting peas and beans and sunflowers along the area where the hose would need to be dug in. Peas are going great, beans are starting to be big enough to notice, but the sunflowers seem to be totally absent. That's puzzling, since I bought new seeds. Maybe they just germinate slower than beans? Anyway, trying to plant the seep hose now would be likely to destroy some of the veggies, so we'll probably stick with watering in the evening for the rest of the summer.

I do have some green tomatoes growing now, and the cucumber and squash plants are growing. And we finally got the sweet potato seedlings that grew from an old sweet potato in the kitchen in the ground. They might not have enough sun and enough time to make big tubers, but any tubers would be really cool.

Today, now that the day lilies are just about done blooming, I worked on digging up day lilies and other weeds that were encroaching on a couple of the roses, and got My Angel to help with digging up some weed trees in that area. Then we gave the roses some compost and ash from the cooking pit and watered them thoroughly. I always worry when I'm weeding close to a rose, because disturbing the roots can make them unhappy, but the ones I weeded around and gifted with compost last year really set out a lot of new branches and had lots of roses this spring, so I'll keep doing that. And at least today I didn't see the rose moving when I dug the shovel in, which is a good sign.

I ate some mulberries and peas while I was out there too. It's nice to have snacks to pick when I'm out in the garden.

Comments

[ellenmillion]

GARDEN. I am hopeful your health progresses more quickly sooooon.

[acelightning73]

You can pick, dry, and eat daylily blossoms. THey're used in CHinese cooking, where they're called "golden needles". They're usually found in "moo shu" style Chinese dishes, and in vegetarian things (they're essential in "Buddh's Delight")

[wyld_dandelyon]

When I was researching edible flowers, I read that while traditional day lilies are edible, not all of the modern varieties are. But most of mine are descended from some my aunt cleared out of her yard, so I figured they would be safe. But I didn't research Chinese recipes. Maybe next year, since I'm pretty sure there won't be enough tomorrow to pick and experiment; there were almost none left today.

[acelightning73]

Well, you can go to the Asian grocery and look for a bag of golden needles among the produce. They have a faint fruity/floral flavor, and they get use a lot in dishes that include pineapple.

[wyld_dandelyon]

I've been mostly hiding at home since Covid showed up, but that is a possibility.

[acelightning73]

Next time I feel well enough to go to the Asian grocery, I'll buy a bag of them and mail them to you.

[wyld_dandelyon]

Thank you Ellen!

[kelkyag]

Nibbling in the garden is such a delight!

I hope your health keeps improving & picks up the pace.

[wyld_dandelyon]

It is!

Yeah, I'm so very done with this, emotionally, at least. Being done with it physically would be very good.