More poetry from our own Carl Wayne

Oh my gosh!  No posts here for soooo long - sorry, we've been vacationing (right at prime gardening season, but more about that later.)

Here's a poem from Carl Wayne:

Expensive Mater Pome

Carl Wayne June 14, 2006

Organic gardening is a beautiful thing
Taking care of Mother Nature's good earth
Growing maters and taters with taste and smell
Whatever it costs it is worth.

But organic gardening is not cheap my Dear
If you want that good old taste
My price per mater has risen too far
I tell by the look on Mimi's face.

A five dollar pot and 4 dollars of mix
Wire cages and cute two dollar stand
Expensive crystals supposed to retain water
Mimi said it's getting out of hand.

But I had not finished my buying spree
I bought gallons of expensive soil soup
And SeaTea and bone meal and various sprays
Composted chicken and black cow poop.

For a ten dollar bucket and 9 buck bag
Of organic alfalfa pellets
I could brew my own tea for almost free
But Mimi said she couldn't tell it.

I'm hoping for a large mater harvest
Maters that smell and taste so sweet
And accept the fact that they cost me
Somewhere around ten dollars apiece.

Maybe next year I'll plant in the ground
And have more maters to glean
And reduce my cost to less than a buck
And fertilize with triple thirteen.

You say to-may-toe, I say to-mah-toe

Everyday we receive an email with the day's Writer's Almanac, edited by Garrison Keillor of Prairie Home Companion fame.

Today's edition contained a fascinating discourse on whether the tomato is a fruit or a vegetable.  Did you know that even the U. S. Supreme Court has weighed in?

It was on this day in 1893 that the Supreme Court ruled that the tomato was a vegetable, not a fruit.

Gardening and Needlepoint - the Big Bang

Don't you just love it when two of your passions collide and create a new passion?  That's how we felt when we read about a book called Embroidered Knot Gardens in the latest newsletter from Amy's Golden Strand.  OMG. 

Alas, we didn't follow our instincts and immediately contact Amy to reserve one of the two copies she had on hand.  We could get a copy on Amazon, but we're trying to shop local, so we'll wait until she gets the next order.  It's not like we don't have anything else to do...

We've found that gardeners frequently have other artistic interests, and needlework is a common one.  Gardening and needlework are both meditative, they both allow self expression while requiring a certain amount of technical expertise, and the results can be shared with others.

Here are some other images from the book - and yes, these are needlepoint!

Can you believe it?  This book is a must-have for us.  And if you haven't been to Amy's on Summer, well.  You're in for a treat!