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Ahhhhh, that's better...
Thursday, April 5th, 2007 05:05 pm"A lady's hands proclaim her habits."
This was one of those really strange sayings Great Aunt Nosy used to spout around me as one of her efforts to get me to stop biting my nails. Of course, the fact that I STARTED biting my nails in order to give her nothing to dig under and "clean" never occurred to her.
Well, if that's true, then my hands proclaim that I am in the habit of grubbing in dirt a lot, or getting into all sorts of messes, because my hands are often either covered in dry soil, because I just came in from trying to tame a garden gone wild, or spattered with ink, paint, food, whatever, because I'm always up to something. Whether I want to be or not.
Right now, I'm taking a breather from trying to rip out wild sunflowers from the places where we plan to put tomatoes, squash, greenbeans, pinto beans, peppers, and whatever else our greedy little stomachs suggest. Last summer was a bad year for my garden, one because of the drought, and two, because I was on bedrest all summer, and fortunate if I was allowed to put so much as my nose past the back door!
There are also various grasses trying to take hold in the vegetable beds, as well as squirrel planted pecan trees, and hackberry trees. I have a lot of work cut out for me, and darn it if one of the neighbor kids didn't run off with my grubbing fork!! I'm going to have to send the Impertinent Daughter to retrieve it, because I NEED the damn thing!
I also need to decide where I'm going to plant my moonflower seeds and the purple hyacinth beans. Maybe along the back fence. Should be pretty come August for the hyacinth beans. I'd like to plant the moonflowers closer to the house though. I love sitting out in the early evening when they start opening, and the fragrance starts floating in the air, and then watching late hummingbirds and sphinx moths fluttering around the big white flowers to sip nectar. If you wear a white shirt, the sphinx moths will flutter to you, too, and try to sip from you, which is hysterical. I've got pictures I might post later of the Impertinent Daughter holding these giant moths on her fingers, or standing while one flutters in front of her nose, nearly cross-eyed as she tries to focus on it.
I'm also hoping to find some night blooming jasmine that my parents used to have around our house when I was a little girl. We didn't have air conditioning (yes, in Houston, Texas, we lived in a house with no air conditioning until I was about 8), but we did have a big attic fan that drew cooler air into the house. We left our windows open at night, and my mom had the night blooming jasmine planted all around the house so that when the attic fan cycled on, it drew the sweet fragrance into the house. I'd like to plant it around our deck and back porch so that when we hang out in the evenings, we'll have that sweetness in the air around us.
There's another fragrant plant I'd like to get my hands on to plant around here. It's a Texas Mountain Laurel, and the flowers smell exactly like Grape Nehi. I swear, it does. The first spring after we moved to Austin, we were driving around with our windows open and I'd smell that smell and go nuts because I couldn't figure out where it was coming from. Then one day, we were at a mall, and parked next to this small tree with clusters of purple flowers on it and out of curiosity, I turned to sniff it and nearly had a cow. "This is it!" I shouted. "This is the Grape Nehi plant!!" I finally found out what it was when we were at the Wildflower Research Center, and I did a quick sketch of one when talking to a native plant specialist, and she laughed and said, "OH! Texas Mountain Laurel! We hear that ALL THE TIME!"
Well, I suppose this lady should get back to her dirt-grubbing habit. Perhaps I'll see if my gardening assistant feels like playing in the dirt... er... I mean... WORKING IN THE GARDEN with me! After all, I'm supposed to be staying off my knee (stop fussing at me, Alex, GEEZ!!) and behaving myself, but y'all know I never do that. I only LOOK like a grownup. I'm really just a little girl PRETENDING to be a grownup.
Perhaps I should finish plotting out my herb garden, too. Anybody want to help? Anybody?
*holds out gardening trowel invitingly*
This was one of those really strange sayings Great Aunt Nosy used to spout around me as one of her efforts to get me to stop biting my nails. Of course, the fact that I STARTED biting my nails in order to give her nothing to dig under and "clean" never occurred to her.
Well, if that's true, then my hands proclaim that I am in the habit of grubbing in dirt a lot, or getting into all sorts of messes, because my hands are often either covered in dry soil, because I just came in from trying to tame a garden gone wild, or spattered with ink, paint, food, whatever, because I'm always up to something. Whether I want to be or not.
Right now, I'm taking a breather from trying to rip out wild sunflowers from the places where we plan to put tomatoes, squash, greenbeans, pinto beans, peppers, and whatever else our greedy little stomachs suggest. Last summer was a bad year for my garden, one because of the drought, and two, because I was on bedrest all summer, and fortunate if I was allowed to put so much as my nose past the back door!
There are also various grasses trying to take hold in the vegetable beds, as well as squirrel planted pecan trees, and hackberry trees. I have a lot of work cut out for me, and darn it if one of the neighbor kids didn't run off with my grubbing fork!! I'm going to have to send the Impertinent Daughter to retrieve it, because I NEED the damn thing!
I also need to decide where I'm going to plant my moonflower seeds and the purple hyacinth beans. Maybe along the back fence. Should be pretty come August for the hyacinth beans. I'd like to plant the moonflowers closer to the house though. I love sitting out in the early evening when they start opening, and the fragrance starts floating in the air, and then watching late hummingbirds and sphinx moths fluttering around the big white flowers to sip nectar. If you wear a white shirt, the sphinx moths will flutter to you, too, and try to sip from you, which is hysterical. I've got pictures I might post later of the Impertinent Daughter holding these giant moths on her fingers, or standing while one flutters in front of her nose, nearly cross-eyed as she tries to focus on it.
I'm also hoping to find some night blooming jasmine that my parents used to have around our house when I was a little girl. We didn't have air conditioning (yes, in Houston, Texas, we lived in a house with no air conditioning until I was about 8), but we did have a big attic fan that drew cooler air into the house. We left our windows open at night, and my mom had the night blooming jasmine planted all around the house so that when the attic fan cycled on, it drew the sweet fragrance into the house. I'd like to plant it around our deck and back porch so that when we hang out in the evenings, we'll have that sweetness in the air around us.
There's another fragrant plant I'd like to get my hands on to plant around here. It's a Texas Mountain Laurel, and the flowers smell exactly like Grape Nehi. I swear, it does. The first spring after we moved to Austin, we were driving around with our windows open and I'd smell that smell and go nuts because I couldn't figure out where it was coming from. Then one day, we were at a mall, and parked next to this small tree with clusters of purple flowers on it and out of curiosity, I turned to sniff it and nearly had a cow. "This is it!" I shouted. "This is the Grape Nehi plant!!" I finally found out what it was when we were at the Wildflower Research Center, and I did a quick sketch of one when talking to a native plant specialist, and she laughed and said, "OH! Texas Mountain Laurel! We hear that ALL THE TIME!"
Well, I suppose this lady should get back to her dirt-grubbing habit. Perhaps I'll see if my gardening assistant feels like playing in the dirt... er... I mean... WORKING IN THE GARDEN with me! After all, I'm supposed to be staying off my knee (stop fussing at me, Alex, GEEZ!!) and behaving myself, but y'all know I never do that. I only LOOK like a grownup. I'm really just a little girl PRETENDING to be a grownup.
Perhaps I should finish plotting out my herb garden, too. Anybody want to help? Anybody?
*holds out gardening trowel invitingly*
