April 3, 2011 by

Spring

6 comments

Categories: General, Tags: , ,

Two days late on books and I don’t care!

I just planted a backyard bounty. I forced my mother to accompany me to Navalet’s where I proceeded to load up a cart she was pushing with 5 kinds of tomatoes, Walla Walla onions, leeks, basil, sage, 2 kinds of blueberries, raspberries, and blackberries. Also much dirt. And one hanging garden planter to test on 1 tomato variety.

Hanging tomato garden! More pictures of planting here.

I very carefully consulted my Plants of the Bible book by Allen A. Swenson when I got home–from the library. Because I was curious. Out of everything I bought, the only 2 from the Bible are leeks and sage.

“The Roman emperor Nero was said to have held leeks in great esteem, eating them every month. Behind his back he was called by his detractors ‘eater of leeks’.”

Those Romans–SO insulting!

The sage is less rude biblically:

“When pressed flat, sage is likened by Biblical scholars to the seven-branched candlestick which is the traditional Jewish symbol, the menorah.”

Because it has 3 leaves on each side of a central stalk apparently. There’s a whole passage about it in Exodus (37:17-18).

So that is my gardening news.

In related home-making news I also cleaned the bathroom (be impressed) and added a 5th “bookcase” (2 small bookcases stacked on top of one another) to my bedroom and rearranged all the furniture in there. It’s kind of crowded now–big surprise–and the 5th bookcase only marginally helps with the ridiculous amount of books. Still, I’m pretty pleased. Especially since the entire undertaking was mostly done because the fan broke and it was plugged in behind a bookcase and I couldn’t remove it without moving said bookcase. It was a stupid place to plug it in. The new one is not plugged in behind a bookcase. I learn.

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6 Responses to Spring

  1. Kristen

    That is AWESOME! I am so impressed. Also, crap, it’s time to plant tomatoes, isn’t it? I better get on that this week.

    I’m curious why you checked out Plants of the Bible.

  2. michele

    curiosity. it was there.

    basically i went to the library knowing all the gardening books were in 635. i crouched down there and looked at spines and then grabbed everything that looked interesting. i have quite the stack of plant books here next to me now. =) anyway, i just wondered if it would give bible passages and talk about the history of the plants going back thousands of years (which it does somewhat) so that was cool.

    isn’t this why you hired that lady to plant all your stuff for you? isn’t she going to do that?

    i’m relatively sure the stupid squirrels are going to destroy all my new pretty plants. stupid squirrels. i’ve got my eye on them.

  3. katy.l.vigil

    Way to go, farmer Gibney!

    Yeah, in bible times, all the tomatoes were over here in the Americas, and I think the berries were maybe up north in Europe and also some here (blueberries and blackberries). But they did eat some wheat then, I think. Like we do now. And of course….sheep!

    I think the garden will be awesome and the squirrels will leave it be. But I haven’t really met your squirrels. The squirrels at my mom’s house eat the apricots, but none of the vegetables.

    To keep them from the apricots, she hangs mesh in the trees around the fruit. But she leaves some for the squirrels, ’cause she’s a softie.

  4. michele

    hee. “farmer gibney”. i like it.

    stupid squirrels. SO FAR they have not eaten anything. but i still don’t trust them. i’m buying netting if they show the slightest inclination for munching. they have already shown a predilection for eating the avocado tree and the leaves of some of the succulents. they also tend to bury nuts in the planters, which disrupts the root systems obviously. maybe i should stop giving them nuts (i am also a softie).

  5. Kristen

    When I was little I used to sing “Farmer Grover” to the tune of “Old MacDonald.” And that is the information I have for you on this here topic. Also, it is astonishing to me that you have never yet contracted rabies, you freaky animal lover.

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