Gardening and Plants

Had another exciting day in the garden. We got our dirt delivered by the Fenway Garden Society--a whomping 20 bags of dirt and 5 bags of manure. It took eight trips in a rickety decrepit wheel barrow to haul the load into the garden. As Ms. Drapkin, commented later, 25 bags of top soil and manure for $46 was truly dirt cheap. Besides the delivery, I put the finishing touches to our boxes.

some interesting things we have discovered are the names of two plants which we were wondering about in the fens. The first is "Bloody Dock", which we have two of planted in our lettuce patch. The second was in one of the front gardens (which I refer to as the show-off gardens). We were passing by and saw two beautiful pink flowering plants, turned out they were Dahlias.

Both of these plants are perennials, meaning that they live for more than two years. I like the idea of this over annuals, which are only alive for one growing season. Annuals are kind of a pain in the ass. Every year, you have to go back in, replant, water, wait to grow and then harvest. Perennials you just let them do their own thing. Wikipedia also had an interesting piece about the benefits of perennials over annuals:

"Perennial plants often have deep, extensive root systems which can hold soil to prevent erosion, capture dissolved nitrogen before it can contaminate ground and surface water, outcompete weeds (reducing the need for pesticides), and help to mitigate global warming by carbon sequestration. These potential benefits of perennials have resulted in new attempts to increase the seed yield of perennial species[4], which could result in the creation of new perennial grain crops."

What are perennial grain crops? Could these new grain crops be a solution a more sustainable food source? Could wheat or corn be adapted to become a perennial? The implications could have a major impact on the environment and the future of food consumption.

Found this song today and will certainly be humming it tomorrow as we begin planting veggies.