The Gardeners Anonymous Blog

“I resign.”

I resigned from motherhood and wifehood a week ago Thursday.

But I only quit for about thirty-six hours. I figured if I didn’t take a break, I’d have to check myself into a voluntary-rehab program.

Not that I have a drug problem, just a touch of testosterone poisoning. I got it from my husband and sons. I needed to cut myself off from the source before a touch of the poison became a lethal dose.

So I left the piles of clothes, the dirty dishes, the unmade beds, the dirty pet cages, the unfinished homework, the bickering, the calls home from teachers—and I made the three hour drive to El Dorado Hills (sounds so nice) to see two of my oldest and dearest friends in the world.

My friend Mary just moved to a house that has a peaceful little garden–a place where she, too, could recover from a tumultuous time in her life.

My friend Jenny works her stress out in her garden. She has a fabulous garden, which she and her husband John thoughtfully designed and installed themselves, spending countless hours perusing nurseries filling their garden with a the perfect mixture of trees, shrubs and perennials.

Jenny doesn’t subscribe to the method of garage sales, hand me down plants and the shovel-and-the-side-of-the-road technique that I had perfected. She actually lays things out on paper–weird.

Here is a little tour of Jenny’s garden.

Jenny's yard 3 years ago                                       

Jenny's yard today

3 years ago                                                             

Today

3 years ago                                                            

Today

Thanks for the tour Jenny.

Stumble It!

Happy Earth Day 2009

From Gardener's Anonymous and boys and dog.

 

Green Thumb Sunday

Gardeners, as well as plant and nature lovers, can join Green Thumb Sunday every Sunday. Visit As the Garden Grows for more information

Stumble It!

Good and Evil

It is Poppy Time here in California.
This orange poppy (Eschscholzia californica) is our state flower.
The poppy in this photo just happens to be growing next to some.

This poppy should reseed and make many more little poppy babies next year. Unfortunately it is growing next to this Scotch broom, so eventually the broom will choke out the poppy, and neither it nor its babies will likely survive.

For a couple weeks a year we forget what a horribly invasive and evil plant Scotch broom (cytisus scoparius) is. It is blooming now and the swaths of yellow that these shrubs paint into the landscape can really be quite breathtaking. But their encroachment is alarmingly rapid.

Scotch broom originally came from Southern Europe. People then moved it to Scotland.

How did this evil invasive plant get here from Scotland? The fact is, when you have bad habits, bad things happen. Take drinking, for instance. We all know it’s bad—especially hard liquor such as whiskey.

During the gold rush, the miners worked hard and played hard. And they liked their whiskey, so demand was high. It was shipped from Scotland to the Gold country. Being the 1800’s they were low on packing popcorn and bubble wrap so they used what was handy and plentiful. You guessed it. Scotch broom.

When the whiskey was unpacked the broom was discarded.

The Scotch broom took off, loving the mild California climate.
If you look up Scotch broom you will most likely find it described as a noxious weed.

According to Wikipedia, a noxious weed is a plant that has been designated by state or national agricultural authorities as one that is injurious to agricultural and/or horticultural crops and/or humans and livestock.

Scotch broom is especially troublesome and difficult to control. It spreads like the flu and chokes out indigenous plants along the way.

I do my part and try to eliminate it from my yard and property but it is like pushing oatmeal uphill. It comes back with a vengeance every spring.

So, if you see Scotch broom, pull it out, stomp on it, drive over it, burn it, but definitely, definitely don’t ship your whiskey in it.

Stick to beer, wine, and vodka. It’s better for you and your garden.

Happy Easter

From Gardener's Anonymous

Blue Zones, Longevity, and Gardening

Although I don’t watch Oprah very much, I do like to watch Oprah when Dr. Oz is on—and that cute interior designer, Nate.

I did watch part of a segment about “Blue Zones.”

Blue Zones is a project of a longevity researcher named Dan Buettner, who studies the regions of the world where people commonly live active lives—past the age of 100 years.

These longevity hot-spots include Sardinia, Italy; Loma Linda, California; and Okinawa, Japan.

In each of these communities, people have certain routines and peculiarities. Here are some of their lifestyle details:

In Sardinia, the indigenous people are culturally isolated, and they get constant moderate physical exercise. They eat fava beans, whole grain bread, they drink goat’s milk, and they also drink a special dark red wine that is high in polyphenol.

The people who live in Loma Linda have very active social lives—a lot of which are centered on faith. And they eat locally grown fresh nuts.

In Okinawa, they have no sense of time urgency. They consume a lot of soy. They don’t drink alcohol, and they eat a lot of tumeric.

Besides a common emphasis on family and eating a plant-based diet, guess what else they all share?

Yes. They all spend time in the sun and enjoy gardening.

Gardeners live longer!

We are so smart.