Well, today I got most of my garden planted.
Then I put different kinds of peppers in two big pots, and I mixed sweet basil in the pots, too. One is a really old timey pan, not really a pot, with a bale handle on it. It is that gray marbley color? It was probably made in the 1920s. It had holes in the bottom, which was good for the water to drain through.
Papa is going out now to plant another pepper plant that I wanted in the garden, not in a pot. This will produce the huge green sweet peppers and the sweet red, too. (Papa had gotten a lemon tomato plant and he is planting that, also.) I think I can safely say that I have every kind of pepper planted now, just about every color and kind and shape. I just love to cook with peppers, and I love growing them.
I used the hay to put around my plants, and when I have potato peelings and all, I will hide them under the hay. Well, any peelings at all will do. I always feed my tomatoes and peppers like crazy.
Also, I have big bushes of comfrey. They are about five feet high. It comes up each year, but I will be cutting this down and using it to mulch the garden plants. We used to have rabbits and I would feed them the comfrey. I used to make alot of tea with comfrey. It is a cure all for most any kind of sickness, or used to be. Now they say, in the new herb books, it will kill ya. Well, it never killed me or my rabbits. My rabbits were the huge New Zealand Rabbits. I never had a sick rabbit; they were all as healthy as hogs. I guess in the old days folks used to feed comfrey to race horses. This herb has lots of vitamins and minerals. It has the large leaves and can be eaten in salads.
Also, up by the tomato and pepper plants is my Seven Sister Rose bush. It's an heirloom brier rose. I adore it, and I love decorating the house with the long branches of roses. They are long branches with clusters of dark pink baby roses on them. I hang them across the door sills and windows to dry. And I also make a lot of potpouri with them and let them dry in loosely weaved old fashioned baskets. I also add cinnamon sticks and cloves from the store and, sometimes, orange peels and other herbs, too, if I think of it, like the mints or dill.
Well, any flower can be dried and is, here at the Hultquist Homestead.
I also grow the rosehip rose bushes. I have a lot of fruit on it by the fall. And I will throw some of the hips in my potpouri, too. Right now, the flowers aren't even budding yet, but they will soon and then the rose hips come after the blossoms fall off.
I planted my moon flowers today, too. I will have to be sure I watch Papa, so he don't think they are weeds and pull them out. I have teased enough about it that I think he will be more careful the next time.
I am happy this evening as an old mother hen. My flowers are blooming and my garden is planted. All is well in my nest.
I still will plant a few more things, like different greens ... probably mustard greens and a few different lettuces. My garden theme is an Italian one. The romance of roses, and the sexy tomatoes for sauce, and the peppers to make spaghetti sauce. And oh! the basil, my luxury.
I must have several kinds of basil to plant everywhere. I have garlic planted, if Papa will leave it alone, and the onions he never leaves alone. He hates onions so calls them weeds and throws them out, long before they are big. Well, I wll try to get some again this year and plant them in a secret place.
But, oh, I could never have a summer garden without plenty of basil. I often put sprigs of basil in bouquets on the dinner table with roses mixed in. Well, and often mint, too, and catnip. Most of my herbs come up each year, but not the basil. You have to pretty much use that when it comes. I don't really like it dried very well. I guess I just prefer it fresh. A plate of freshly sliced tomatoes with basil decorating it is Romantic.
