Tiny Purple Beans With Emerald Centers

In the 90 degrees plus heat, the garden keeps putting out sustenance. Tonight I harvested a handful of bright purple string beans, a handful of basil, two scallions and three cherry tomatoes, mixed in some feta balsamic dressing and yum. That is one of the virtues of the garden, the freshest of the world's food at my fingertips.

Seeing Michele Obama's garden on the South Lawn almost made me weep. It is small but it there, an outward and visible sign that food comes from the earth and not merely from styrofoam sleeves in the supermarket.

Assasins All AAARGH

I came out at dawn to revel over the tiny tomatoes that were being produced despite the global warning, Hades-like temps that have rendered the landscape a seared mass of detritus. And YIKES, the tiny tomatoes had been denuded. The lush vines were sticks poking the gray sky. And on each stick was a thumb sized green tomato horn worm. I cut off the branches and dropped them into this bucket. Then I thought, do these become butterflies??? Have I killed soul images? Every solution seems be have consequences these carmageddon days.

For Crinum Out Loud

. She has big strapping leaves with gaudy pink purple flowers that throw up their heads and scream "look at me." And I do. The Southern Bulb Company labels her Ellen Bosanquet and says she can get out of control easily.A passionate plant given to Bacchanalian excess. Her sorority sisters across the yard throw white blossoms that look like horticultural fireworks or big bow debutantes. According to the bulb gurus they all die back in the winter. Ah, yes, So much beauty for so little effort.

Neon Mormons Glean Ortega

Pear, pears, glorious sand pears everywhere. Great pear butter, jam, chutney. Folks just don't use the bounty that is theirs. Grate a little ginger into a crock pot full of pear slices, add lemon and honey and cook all night. The next day, blend the pears. Yum.
The Neon Mormons are Robo and me. We ride in a pair with our neon bike jackets. I heard one little boy tell another," They are the Neon Mormons." The name has stuck.

Rain Glorious Rain

Big juicy drops are falling from the sky and then there is a rainbow. We have been dry too long and so each drop appears as a liquid diamond; puddles are landscape jewelry of the antique excellent variety not paste gems. Why is it that only scarcity lets me value daily doings like transpiration and photosynthesis???? Without either of them, it is Gotterdamerung as Ashley said at Twelve Oaks.

Smoke Gets in the Garden

Too much smoke to toil and till. I race to the black river still. Paddle as silent as shadows now. I escape the smoke somehow.

Scarlet's Flower Double

O.K., I confess, I grew up in Jonesboro, Ga., a town of 305 in which we were the NEW people for nine years. Jonesboro’s claim to fame was its mention in Margaret Mitchell’s book Gone With the Wind, a book that has sold almost as many copies as the Bible. Indeed, for lots of middle aged Southern women, GWTW was the Bible. It provided chapter and verse about things the average belle could and could not do and remain on the barbeque A-list. Anyway, Jonesboro was the location of the main character’s home, the mythic Tara.

Because of my upbringing, I tend to see many of my garden plants embodying the characteristics of GWTW folks. That my crinum lilies for example. They always remind me of Belle Watling, the lady of ill repute with heart of gold according to Rhett Butler. According to Mammy, Belle was a dyed hair woman, a type consigned to the lower level of Dante’s Inferno.

My crinums thrust themselves on the garden scene around May. Their purple red flowers look “dyed” in that they are an uber bright red pink. They are all business, dense and prolific. Their wide strap like leaves, offer excellent contrast against the azaleas and the rosemary. Indeed, they will take over any part of the garden not visited regularly by the weed whacker.

Today, I found three young crinums in the mulch path. I will dig them up and replant them next to the Red Butler daylilies. They might enjoy one another.