The Ranch (garden) Report
I would love to develop a cottage garden. "Cottage" has such a wonderfully pretty sound to it. If it's "cottage-y" it must be cozy and lovely, right? But "Ranch Garden" doesn't have the same ring to it. When I think of "Ranch Garden" what comes to mind is a slightly thirsty landscape covered in a nice bloom of dust. I think of arid deserts, cattle, and scrubby plants. Not very cozy and pretty, though I suppose it has it's own charm.
It's convenient too because I can tell you right now that my most recent gardening method has been to parch everything as a kind of test. Whatever plants are still standing at the end of this season will get to left there to rot all winter long-quite a privilege don't you think? 
Buttercup squash don't like to be parched so I only have about two maturing at the moment. I am in love with this one right here. You know, I have never actually eaten a buttercup squash but this is the third time I've tried to grow it because I was seduced by pictures of them in the Seeds Of Change catalog. I can't wait to eat this one. The Pink Banana squash, on the other hand, is capable of making it through a nuclear holocaust and is currently taking over my yard. I'm not sad about that because I've got at least five big ones developing and I know they're good because I've had them from my mother's garden.
This is a Caspian Pink, the winner of our first ever Williamson/Evich family tomato taste test of last year. The Black Krim have turned out quite good this year so we'll have to compare the two if a Caspian gets ripe enough before the Krim's are all gone. I seem to favor tomatoes with Eastern European origins.
There's been some good snail eatin' here at the ranch. These girls now expect to be given escargots every single day, unfortunately, now that I really have quite a lot of snails around, I can't seem to find where they're hiding now that they've caught on to what I do with those I find.
I keep Chick out of the vegetable garden. So while I'm watering she stands there looking devastated. She doesn't really want to spend quality time with me amongst the veg, what she really wants is to get out of our yard all together, which is something she can do in two and a half seconds.
Rudebekia are one of my favorite flowers. I love my mom's yard furniture too which we bought from Keith at the farmer's market.
And lastly, poppy seed pods. So this morning while Max and I were sitting in bed petting an enthusiastic Chick and Philip was trying to sleep, Max said:
"Wouldn't that be totally funny if Chick licked George Bush to death?"
Wow. And then while I was digesting that gem he popped this one into the room:
"No, wait, what if I talked George Bush to death? I would just talk and talk and talk and talk until he just died because I would never stop talking to him?"
Seriously George, even six year olds are sick of your shit.
Labels: garden, George Bush out of nowhere, hens, the dog, the kid, tomatoes