I’m having second worst year ever for tomatoes in my back yard. What’s worse is we are going to visit her parents in the country Saturday and he will have baskets of them to give us. J Oh well, he won fair and square and Mimi says she would like to eat at least one big red tasty tomato this year.

We picked from the Collierville Victory Garden and delivered to the Collierville Food Pantry on Thursday and Page Robbins Center on Monday zucchini, yellow squash, butternut squash, watermelons, banana peppers, jalapeno peppers, bell peppers, and tomatoes. Total year-to-date is 690.1 lbs. We (that being an editorial we) dug water line and installed three spigots so we now have glorious water at the garden. Previously we had to drag five hoses to reach the garden and were losing water pressure. Sure has been hot and dry. I saw a pair of accipiters of some kind Monday morning. They had a falcon silhouette but were not kestrels. They were not any of the hawks I usually see and were not Mississippi kites. I wonder what they were.

We three Pontotoc County writers have a new free country email ‘zine which will begin bimonthly in September. Subscribe to the Bodock Post at: http://www.bodockpost.com/ or send me an email.

Teacakes in the Afternoon: 2008 Mississippi Gulf Coast Writers Anthology.

http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/results.asp?WRD=teacakes+in+the+afternoon

I have a story in it. While my story is clean and humorous, the language in some of the stories is not for children or your sweet granny. It’s available at Barnes & Noble.

Granddarlings are staying busy. Kristen has soccer practice. Corey has baseball pitching practice. Karli and Kristen stay busy with church youth group. Courtney and her daddy Scotty have gone to the Spring River in AR camping and canoeing yesterday and today.

Column / Short Story:

Zinnias June 6, 2008

“Whats not to like about a zinnia?”

~Carl Wayne

Zinnias are just about the best flower. They are easy to grow and need very little maintenance other than an occasional drink of water. They come in all sizes, heights, and colors, and have both annual and perennial varieties. They love full sun, and you don’t have to weed a thickly sown zinnia bed. Anything that saves me work is a winner.

They grow easily from seed, and will reseed themselves for a nice new crop next year. Or sprinkle seeds on a new patch of ground where they can have good soil contact, cover them with a little dirt or sand, keep them moist until they sprout, and you will be rewarded soon with a gift that keeps on giving. Not only will they reseed for next year, they will reseed this year giving you flowers until frost gets them.

My inlaws, Ralph and Opal Graham, used to have large beds of zinnias, which were the talk of their community. People would drive by and stop and ask about them. Their thickly sown beds would grow a riot of colors and heights, and be covered with butterflies, bluebirds, and goldfinches. A joy to behold. Both them and their zinnias.

Zinnias are grown by organic gardeners, too. Like squash used by the American Indians in a Three Sisters configuration with corn and beans, they shade the ground enough to discourage unwanted plants from growing. This is why thickly sown zinnia flowerbeds don’t need weeding. Neither do gardens with thickly sown zinnia planted in the middles between the rows but not so close to your veggies so as to shade them.

An additional benefit for veggie gardeners is they attract pollinators such as bees. Zinnias and sunflowers in your garden will attract both bees and birds, and the birds will not only eat seeds, but will catch a fat bug or worm they spot fixing to munch on your peas or tomatoes.

I love tall zinnias in a rich assortment of colors, but I find three varieties especially lovely: the lime green “Envy”, any of the multicolored dahlia-like ‘Swizzles”, and the “White Wedding”. Probably because like most gardeners, I enjoy the bragging rights of new and unusual plants.

Aint God good!

Carl Wayne Hardeman, Master Gardener

mymaters@yahoo.com

An OLD column/newsletter:

Eat Local July 17, 2007

“It’s difficult to think anything but pleasant thoughts while eating a homegrown tomato.

~Lewis Grizzard

Mine and Mimi’s parents in Pontotoc County MS raised much of what they ate, using natural fertilizers gleaned from barns and chicken yards and cotton gins.

They raised pigs and chickens and an occasional beef cow.

They had fresh eggs and what are now called free range chickens. They had fresh milk from their cows fed on corn and hay they had raised.

My generation raises much less of its own food. We eat food from cans and packages sold in grocery stores, balanced with eating out.

We don’t get as much nutrition as found in fresh food.

The meat, eggs and milk we buy are produced on farms by animals given growth hormones and fed non-organically produced feed.

The produce we buy is often shipped hundreds, if not thousands, of miles. Thus much of the nutrition is lost.

To make matters worse, the animals and produce are fast growing hybrids, easy to ship, long shelf life, and are not as tasty or nutritious as fresh local products.

There are several “green” movements stirring: return to eating natural products, using sustainable farming and farming practices, and eating local. Here’s one in TN:

http://www.barefootfarmer.com/lhcf.html

Another growing movement is the opening of many farmer’s markets across the USA. You will support the local economy, get fresher and tastier and more nutritious produce and meats, have a wider variety of products, and save the planet by reducing the vast amount of fuel burned shipping food from far away.

Some of us believe eating local produce grown in local air and dirt and sunshine, in season, will attune our bodies to the rhythms and harmony of earth and improve our nutrition and health.

Good reasons to eat locally grown products:

http://fogcity.blogs.com/jen/2005/08/10_reasons_to_e.html

http://www.shorelinebeacon.com/News/323844.html

Someday government officials will appreciate having a farmers market so we can eat local is as important a quality of life issue, if not more so, than parks and greenbelts.

Maybe someday Mimi and I will not have to drive 20 miles, as we did last Saturday morning, to buy fresh local

sweetcorn, squash, okra, purplehull peas, butter beans,

lady peas, sugarbaby watermelons, and cucumbers.

Try it; you’ll like it. Visit a local farmers market and have a meal of all locally grown produce. Eat some of it uncooked. Even the kids will like their veggies.

http://www.eatlocalchallenge.com/

Ain’t God good!

Carl Wayne, Master Gardener

mailto:mymaters@yahoo.com

Web Gleanings:

Humor:

6 minute wedding party dance:

http://www.metacafe.com/watch/1030697/weding_party_dance/

Hillbilly tank top (G rated):

http://www.pheistyblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/03/redneck-tanktop-thumb.jpg

Science & Ecology & Medicine:

Abundant cheap fresh water could let us farm deserts and feed the world: