Deep thoughts from Ollie's garden

Little flatters a gardener more than having a toad establish residence, save having two or more set up housekeeping.

Our father, an lifetime member of the NRA who flirted with the John Birch Society, taught us to love arugula.

Cable ties get the job done when trellising cucumbers.

Comments

[Phoenix Woman]

My garden consists of an enamel-metal washbasin and a 3'x6"x6" plastic tub. Such is life in the big city!

The washbasin has eight plants crammed into it: Two alpine strawberry plants (think I'll skip those next year - they don't produce much), a thyme plant (hardy as hell), a basil plant (ditto), a spinach plant with a bit of purslane that came along for the ride, a dill plant I somehow haven't killed yet (Kill Dill, Vol. 2), and a chile plant that so far has produced exactly one chile.

The long planter is more promising. I planted that one to be one-half regular tomato plants, one-half cherry tomato plants. The cherries matured first and have several green tomatoes on them. The regular 'maters probably won't start to blossom for another week yet.

Ollie replies: Any toads?

[CHC]

Ah yes, toads. Even in my most stoic days, a toad sighting will bring a smile to my face. In addition to the toad-in-residence we now have a new family of frogs just recently discovered by our itty bitty pond. I took the opportunity to show them to our 7 year old grandson who was a bit apprehensive at first. His knowledge of frogs must come from National Geographic or the Discovery Channel because he was afraid they were poisonous. I tried to convince him that they were ok but he had to think about it for a while. Because his mind is like a sponge he did finally recall that poisonous frogs live in jungles and fortunately, "we don't live in a jungle".

CHC