May 31, 2019
Why do we garden?
This was a question that was posted in a Facebook group I belong
to, and it received over 1400 responses.
The most popular were:
There's another benefit that many people often overlook: staying
physically active.
If you take a look at your Fitbit after spending time in your
garden, you'll realize it's a workout.
Brevities
#OTD It's the birthday of Charles McIlvaine born in Chester
County Pennsylvania.
He was a captain in the Civil War, an author and a mycologist. He
was born on this day in 1840.
When he was 40 years old, McIlvaine moved to West Virginia. He
started writing for magazines
like Centuryand Harpers.
However, McIlvaine is best known for his study of mushrooms. He
took copious notes which he compiled into his book
called, 1,000 American Fungi.
What most distinguished McIlvaine, is the fact that he experimented
on himself; eating hundreds of mushrooms and toadstools. This is
how McIlvaine came to be known as Old Iron
Guts.
Since McIlvaine had a love for writing before he had a love for
mushrooms, when he wrote about mushrooms his language was often
very flowery.
Consider what McIlvaine wrote about the Oyster Mushroom:
"The camel is gratefully called the ship of the desert. The oyster
mushroom is the shellfish of the forest. When the tender parts are
dipped in egg, rolled in bread crumbs, and fried as an oyster,
they're not excelled buy any vegetable and are worth of place on
the daintiest menu."
Here's the Vomiting Russella:
"Most are sweet and nutty to the taste. Some are as hot as the
fiercest cayenne, but this they lose upon cooking. Their caps make
the most palatable dishes when stewed, baked, roasted or
escalloped.”
Finally, I have to share a poem that McIlvaine wrote called Our
Church Fight.
"I'm that nigh near disgusted with the fight in our old church,
Where one halfs 'g'in the t'other, an' the Lord's left in the
lurch,
That I went an' told the parson if he'd jine me in a prayer,
We'd slip out 'mong the daisies and' put one up from there."
#OTD On this day in1920, Virginia Woolf was gardening with
her husband, Leonard, at the new home they had bought the previous
year.
She wrote about it in her diary:
"The first pure joy of the garden... Weeding all day to finish
the beds in a queers sort of enthusiasm which made me say this is
happiness. Gladioli standing in troops; the mock orange out.
We were out till 9 at night, though the evening was cold. Both
stiff and scratched all over today, with chocolate earth in our
nails."
#OTD It's the death day of naturalist, artist, and
taxidermist, Martha Ann Maxwell who died on this day in
1881.
She helped found modern taxidermy.
At just 5 feet tall Maxwell became an accomplished hunter.
One historian wrote,
"What distinguished Martha from other taxidermists of the day was
that Martha Maxwell always attempted to place stuffed animals in
natural poses and amongst natural surroundings. This talent was
what would separate her work from others and make her animals so
popular with exhibitors and viewers alike.”
People who saw Martha's exhibits of Colorado wildlife, doubted that
a woman had actually done the work.
Martha had heard these comments over and over. At one point, she
wrote the words "Woman's Work" on a small sign and placed it in
front of her exhibit.
Unearthed Words
#OTD Today is the birthday of Walt Whitman who was
born on this day in 1819.
When Whitman was 54 years old, he suffered a stroke that left him
paralyzed. He spent the next two years immersed in nature and he
believed that nature head help to heal him.
"How it all nourishes, lulls me, in the way most needed; the open
air, the rye-fields, the apple orchards.”
Here's an excerpt from Whitman's Poem called This
Compost:
"Now I am terrified at the earth! it is that calm and
patient,
It grows such sweet things out of such corruptions,
It turns harmless and stainless on its axis, with such
endless successions of diseased corpses,
It distills such exquisite winds out of such infused
fetor,
It renews with such unwitting looks, its prodigal,
annual, sumptuous crops,
It gives such divine materials to men, and accepts
such leavings from them at last."
Today's book recommendation: No One Gardens Alone: A Life of
Elizabeth Lawrence by Emily Herring Wilson
Lawrence was one of the premier gardeners and garden writers of the
20th Century.
Little is known about her personal life until this book - which
took the author over 10 years to complete.
You can get a copy of this book on Amazon using the link above for
a little over $3.
Today's Garden Chore
It's another Photo Friday in the Garden.
It's time to take a hosta inventory, recording the hostas that
you've forgotten you even had in your garden.
Something Sweet
Reviving the little botanic spark in your heart
In May 1979, Dr. Calvin Lamborn bread snow peas and shelling
English peas together to create the Sugar Snap Pea at Magic Seed
Farm in Twin Falls Idaho
Today, the farm is owned by Rod Lamborn, Dr. Lamborn's son.
When Dr. Lamborn passed away in 2017, Rod took over the farm. He
said,
"I miss my father.
I remember the night he died, I came in from the field and I was
talking about the peas, and for the first time, he wasn’t
interested. It was a peaceful moment because he knew it was all
right. He was like, ‘You got this.’ ”
Thanks for listening to the daily gardener,
and remember:
"For a happy, healthy life, garden every day."