Friday, April 10, 2009

Gardening begins at White House, Wyoming still a month (or so) away


In the High Lonesome, we're more than a month away from planting our gardens. Seeds have been sprouted, plans have been made, but the planting comes somewhere between mid-May and Memorial Day. Even then, we can get snow -- which isn't so bad -- and frost -- which is bad. This is why many of us plant container gardens. And the rest of us keep a ready supply of old sheets and other frost-defying coverlets. Watch the sky!

Meanwhile, in the White House low country, Michelle Obama and kids from Bancroft Elementary School were turning the soil and putting in the crops including heirloom varieties from jefferson's Monticello). A press release from FLOTUS (First Lady of the United States) had lots to say on the subject. Gardening is good for kids, it can help with the obesity epidemic, drives the wingnuts crazy. I made that last part up. It's true, but the White House won't say it in print. But the wingnuts start foaming at the mouth when any mention is made of ecology, gardening, Michelle Obama, locavore, global warming, peace & justice, etc. Almost anything can make them foam at the mouth.

I read an article the other day about people in more temperate climes replacing their water-sucking front lawns with vegetable gardens. I have contemplated this. But our growing season is so short that the blooms don't stay around and come October we're left with dried-up stems that looks like weeds. Better to have a brown lawn than a weedy rock garden. We're challenged to intersperse the plants with evergreens with rocks with ground covers and mulch and possibly some yard art. Looks better. But it's a chore.

I'm revamping my entire yard this summer. Stay tuned for the painful details.

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