What would a blog from the old hippie chick be if it couldn’t include a small rant, lol.  I’d like to blog about some things that are important to me, like growing things and remembering we are part of the earth.  So included in those important things won’t be the fact that a sports team sold for $2 billion.  We all have priorities, but some are different from others.  Rant over.  On to important stuff.

Above are 3 knockout roses that a couple of my former clients bought for me last fall before I retired, so that I’d never forget them.  I could never forget them anyway, and having these 3 beauties growing beside my patio will remind me every day of what kinds of things are important in life.  I was a little afraid for these plants cos I planted them late in the fall, and then we had our worst winter in decades, but they made it and will now be beautiful all summer.

There’s a story my father liked to tell about roses, and it was a story from his reading book in first grade, many years ago now.  It’s a  legend obviously, but a nice one and I like it.  The legend says that back thru time, roses didn’t have thorns on them.  Rabbits liked to eat them.  There was an Indian god who really liked his roses and also liked rabbits.  He didn’t want the roses eaten, so he put thorns on the stems.  The roses were protected and the rabbits had plenty of other good things to eat instead.  Legends are good stories.

The yucca above sort of has a local legend too.  People here call them century plants, cos it used to be thought that they only bloomed once in 100 years.  That’s not true, even in this climate, cos most will bloom here every 3-4 years.  These are one of the few desert plants that will survive our winters here.  There are some other yucca plants in the desert that are bigger, with much sturdier and sharper spikes, such that they will stick into your skin.  Some people in the desert plant them right outside their windows to deter people from getting around the house.

I’ve got some herbs doing well, one of which is sage.  I left one plant go to bloom cos the flowers are nice.  It’s not wise to let herb plants bloom cos it will change the taste of the rest of the plant,  with the plant concentrating on making flowers and possibly seeds then.  I just wanted one to be able to have its natural cycle.

I have one small peony plant for the first time.  This is an interesting plant that has a symbiotic relationship with ants.  The plant has evolved in such a way that it can not open its own blooms unless ants chew the buds.  The ants get their part of the relationship cos they like the syrupy juice they get from chewing the buds.  Years ago I had a relative who didn’t think the ants should be on there, and sprayed bug spray on the peonies.  He never got flowers, just green hard knots.  Let the ants have your peony buds, lol.

Tomatoes are doing very well, as are green beans.  There is nothing more fun to grow than beans,  the way each one presents itself to the world like it was an announcement.  https://sarasinart.net/2013/06/12/green-beans-are-fun-and-easy/

I have a few Lima beans up, and these are supposed to get 10′ tall.  We’ll see about that.

Also have a few cabbages and collard plants.  They are cousins and so closely related that it’s hard to tell which is which at first. Primary and secondary leaves are basically the same  and it’s not till 3 or maybe 4 set of leaves develop that they look different.  Collard leaves remain straight, but after several sets of cabbage leaves develop, the new ones start to curl in to make a head eventually.

Grow on, with whatever you’re growing, if you’re able to enjoy this important treasure of sharing the earth.  Remember that if you learn how to listen to the plants, they will tell you their secrets.  Enjoy the important stuff.