Laughing Ravens

  What the heck is this?  Anyone who knows me would agree that organization is NOT my strong suit. Curiosity, absolutely. When May rolls around (and in April too!) and I start looking at signs of new growth in the garden, one of the first things I say is: "What the heck is this?" Sounds funny when I write it that way, because as anyone who has been around me for five minutes knows, there's a whole lot of profanity left out of that question. Why is this an issue and why should anyone care? Organization is a very personal thing... on the same level of personal as what happens behind the bathroom door. Organization is what separates everything (see what I did there?).  Years ago, when I first started gardening, I could remember all the names of all the plants I put in the ground. My neighbor, Marge, told me the name as I stuck the cuttings into the South Florida sand/dirt and that was that. The plant grew. The name was the name. Done. Then I got old. I gardened in lots of di...

Attempting to create order Sorting of seeds last year was a melange of the best of intentions meeting with the stark reality of not having enough time or resources to do it right. Luckily, the outcome of last year's attempt informed the changes I made this year. I am not sure if hording of seed is a trauma response or simply what happens to everyone who starts saving seed thinking that "next year I'll use it all". Last month, I sat down and resolved to sort through boxes and bags of seed packets, envelopes, etc.  One of the things I learned about saving seed: I don't need to save pounds of bean seeds. Even a nice wide row (over-planted in the extreme) of bean seeds couldn't consume 1/100th the amount of seeds I had saved. Luckily, bean seeds are mighty tasty after an hour in the Instant Pot.  The grocery bag full of lupine seed was a whole different issue. In early November, most of the pods were still tightly clamped around their tiny black seeds....