It's growing season, I'm on vacation for the next couple 'o months, and so, naturally, I'm mucking about in the muck of the garden.

Here are a few interesting tid-bits to start off...

First - purely decorative. As a general rule I don't do flowers. If you can't eat it, drink it, or smoke it, my interest wanders. However, there are a few notable exceptions. This is one.

I found this old cast iron Franklin stove somebody had dumped on the far end of my vast estate where it borders on state land (I think it's part of the Mackinaw State Forest, but I'm not sure). Instead of being pissed at the dumping, I dragged the thing home. It sat in my garage - mush to K'Roe;s annoyance - for a few years until I decided what to do with my salvaged treasure.

Soooo... I put it on the back deck and planted some flowers.

fireplace.jpg

Next, a little experiment.

I used to keep an enormous garden, which I tended lovingly until it was time to harvest.

At which point the deer ate everything.

Currently I'm experimenting with container gardening up near the house where the deer seldom go. Here is my tub-o'-taters:

taters.jpg

The plants are, as you can see, doing just swell. But... will there be spuds enough to feed the family? Only the future will reveal this hidden knowledge.

And finally (for now) here is my current obsession - water gardening.

I don't have a pond, currently, although plans for one are drawn up and money is being stashed to buy materials, so I am enjoying water gardening in tubs:

water-garden.jpg

One watery pot has a red, hardy water lily (Nymphaea "Attraction"), and the two others you can see clearly have tropical water lilies - a blue one (Nymphaea "Geena") and one that should have blue, or red, or possibly white flowers (Nymphaea nauchouli stellata, a wild variety from North Africa). The smaller pot that you can partially see in the lower left hand corner has three Sacred Lotus plants (white, going to pink at the tips of the petals - Nelumbo nucifera) that I am growing from seeds.

These I am growing for the reason that water lilies and lotus are about the most beautiful flowers I know. The lotus leaves and flowers grow up above the surface of the water. The tropical water lilies produce leaves that lay flat on the water, but the flowers rise above the water on stalks, while the hardy water lily's leaves and flowers float on the surface of the water.

If you have't fallen asleep yet, you may remember that earlier I wrote that I'm not particularly interested in flowers - my focus in on plants that can be eaten, drunk, or smoked.

Oddly enough, Lotus and water lilies are used for all three of these. The lotus is farmed extensively in Asian countries for the root and the seeds. Roots are used in cooking, and the seeds are popped and eaten like popcorn. The Sacred Lotus and the water lily flowers are also smoked, or steeped in wine, and are reputed to produce an strong feeling of relaxation, and, let us say, a Viagra-like effect.

If you do a quick internet search for "Sacred Lotus" or ""Egyptian Blue Lotus" (really a water lily) you'll see all sorts of dried flowers, extracted resins, and various nostrums offered for sale for those purposes.

I've never tried any of them myself, and I don't recommend recreational drug use (unless you've watched someone else use the drug and they didn't die). I'm just growing them for the flowers.