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| Foo Dogs |
So how am I going to get Foo
dogs, the Pope, elephants and kitty litter scoops into a garden column? Pay attention, everyone.
Off to Chicago’s annual Flower & Garden show at Navy Pier with a
friend, we found it somewhat
disappointing. As usual the water
features were great – beautiful koi and falls but of course these were
companies with something to sell. All of
the other exhibits’ plantings seemed a little sparse and fairly tired. Vignettes:
- Charming students from
the Chicago High School for Agricultural Sciences speaking of their school's
curriculum, their garden at the show and their sister school in Japan (which
some Chicago kids visit and vice versa).
- A rather confused
docent at one exhibit asking ME about plants in a neighboring exhibit: "And what are those big yellow flowers,
sir?" "Those would be tree
peonies, miss. They're perfectly hardy
here but don't cut that little three foot trunk down." "And what're those big grey flowers
behind them?" "Umm, miss,
those would be Chinese stone Foo dog statues." "I think I need new glasses, sir."
- "Good lord,
Sheila! Look at this tree. Young man [?!!], can you read the label up
there?" "It looks like it says
'Wilt Siberian Maple', miss." [The
amazing critter had green and white vertical stripes on its bark.]
- My friend , much
disappointed that the vendor selling exotic dried fruits, veggies and nuts was
not there this year.
- They saw 'SUCKER"
practically tatooed on my forehead when I passed the plant sale section. I bought two crinum lilies (one for my sister
in Kansas) mainly because I really wanted a bulb that was 15 inches long weighing
as much as a small baby. (Crinums have
pink/purple blossoms and can be kept as house plants.) Also snagged some tall purple alliums, fancy
daylilies and some pink lily-of-the-valley.
- I bought a subscription
to Chicago Gardening Magazine (& got freebie copies of sister mags from Wisconsin,
Iowa and Michigan).
- Talked to the folks
from Rich's Foxwillow Pines Nursery re which evergreens'd do better in the
city. (There is a theory that city
pollution is especially bad for evergreens because while deciduous trees shed
their [pollution-covered] leaves yearly, evergreens are stuck with
theirs.) You could, I suppose,
constantly hose them off but Rich's said they'd get back to us.
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| Tree Peony court The Painting Gardener Blog |
So there's a new pope who in his first major address said that people
should think of the poor and treat the
environment well. This probably is a
reflection of both his values and his new name , Francis (after Francis of
Assissi). Well and good but how does
this relate to a garden column? Bear
with me. The NY Times has of late been
emphasizing the horrendous slaughter of elephants for their ivory. (Ivory is, by the way, intrinsically
absolutely useless except for decorative tchotchkes.) The Forest Elephant, an African
sub-species, very near extinction has
been called a "garden species" because by way of their dung and habit
of making clearings they plant and spread many kinds of plants. St. Francis is known for many things but in
the popular imagination he is associated with kindness to animals. Also there is an unfortunate connection
between elephant ivory and Filipino Catholics - the Phillipines is the second
largest market for illicit ivory in the world ( after the Chinese market for
.... chopsticks). And the ivory in the
Phillipines is used for ? Crucifixes,
altar decorations, rosaries etc. Do we
see a connection now? The Pope could
wipe out this particular nasty scenario in three and a half seconds. Go ahead - petition him. I'm going to and I am not even Catholic.
Re my resolution from my last column to always include a recipe here's a
totally politically incorrect nonvegetarian salad.
"Wilted Salad" -
ingredients: spinach ( or any other new ) greens, green onions, bacon, rice
wine vinegar, sugar to taste. What to
do: fry bacon till crisp. Put bacon on a plate. Chop green onions. Add vinegar and sugar to bacon grease in
skillet. Re-heat if it has cooled. Throw in onions and greens. Cook a very short time - 2 or 3 minutes -
till greens barely wilt. Crumble bacon
on top. Serve immediately.
The neighbors and I have resolved to have a "RAT" meeting on my
patio as soon as the weather clears.
We'll ask all the property owners, the renters, the alderman and some
commercial exterminators to attend.
During some of the warm spells lately our resident rats have been building
foot tall mounds around their tunnels.
And I'm sure they're thinking of babies.
Stuck with all concrete or asphalt yards?
Check out "Learn to Grow a Straw Bale Garden" on Facebook or
buy the book "Straw Bale Gardens" by Joel Karsten. Also for advice debunking quack gardening
theories try Linda Chalker-Scott's blog "The Garden Professors".
Going to estate sales is a vice of mine but I actually get useful things
sometimes as opposed to water colors of Mongolia horsemen capturing wild
ponies. One place had scads of garden
tools but I have plenty so why was I drawn to another sturdy hand trowel
"$1". Why? Why?
Aha! Because I have four cats and
I'm always breaking those damn plastic scoops used to clean the (47?) litter
boxes. So a Smith & Hawkins device
late of Lincoln Park is now handily cleaning up after Arabella, Ajax, Ambrose
and Silver. How fallen are the
mighty. On the other hand ya couldn't
get much more organic.
~ The Fairy Gardener
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