Crataegus laevigata "Crimson Cloud", Chrystie Street
Flowering trees for May are up at Shelterpop...
Earlier, someone arrived on 66 Square Feet after googling 'are wisteria beans edible'. I paused when I saw this. Wisteria beans are poisonous! I felt like shouting, all the way to California. I looked at their search and saw that they passed over seven other sites which said exactly that before landing on this blog where I wrote about lablab beans, the pretty ones that bloom late in summer. I think they wanted wisteria beans to be edible and I really, really hope they did not try any.
On another note:
Some brainstorming input needed. If you were interviewing gardeners, from all over the world, from sidewalk gardeners to terrace to famous to unknown, what questions would you ask them? I know it's a bit tricky, not knowing who the gardeners will be, but I will be working on a series where I interview people who garden, to find out what lies at the er, root, of their plant love. I'd like to pose the same set of questions to each of them.
Any ideas?
Maybe...
ReplyDeleteWhat is the first plant you ever grew?
What is your first memory of a garden? How did it make you feel?
Who inspired you to garden?
The plant mania starts early, I find. It may lay quietly dormant for years, like oak root fungus, then all of a sudden a trowel magically appears in the hand, and all is lost.
Is there anything that can't grow where you live that you'd love to plant?
ReplyDeleteWhat does your ideal garden look like?
What's your favorite drink recipe that comes with food from your garden (eg, a rhubarb mojito with mint)
Are you gardening as a form of relaxation/meditation?
ReplyDeleteAny gardeners around you growing up?
Happy Memorial Week-end Marie :-)
I have to go out into my garden so I will think on this and be back soon.
ReplyDeletexo
Proudest gardening moment?
ReplyDeleteLeast favorite plant?
Most used plant in your garden?
Have a great weekend Marie!
What do you get in the garden that you get no where else?
ReplyDeleteWhat five plants should every garden include?
What plant(s) have you tried, but not liked?
What garden skill do you want to try, but haven't yet
Why do you garden?
ReplyDeleteIf you had to grow only one plant for the rest of your life what would it be?
What is the most important piece of advice you would give to someone who is considering starting a garden?
1) Where was the first garden you tended or remembered?
ReplyDelete2) Who was the first person who taught you about gardening?
3) If you saw your first gardens as a child but didn't garden until you were an adult, what drew you back?
4) How do you garden today?
My Answers:
1) When I was a child of about 6. I ate fresh peas out of the garden. I never liked cooked ones until I was on my own and realized they didn't have to be cooked to mush.
2) My mother and her helper (she wasn't able to dig, etc.). She loved plants and flowers. Encouraged me to eat well from the garden and to love what grew.
3) It was after my mother died. Tending my houseplants was a great consolation to me. It grew into the desire to garden and grow bigger things.
4) We have fruit trees, tomatoes, peppers, strawberries and peas. We live in suburbia in Arizona. If we had more time/land we might grow more, but are trying to do the best with what we have.
LOVE YOUR BLOG! Happy to help.
az3jz
I would say that we all pay attention to what grows above the ground but what are the best tips for nourishing what grows below the ground, ie the roots?
ReplyDeleteWhen do you garden? (whenever I get a chance more in summer less in winter due to lack of light and working hours)
ReplyDeleteHow go you enjoy your garden the most? ( cup of steaming hot tea first thing in the morning on a weekend wandering about in my dressing gown poking at things absentmindedly chooks pattering along behind me)
What does it provide you with that makes you want to do it? (food, headspace, calm, satisfaction...and it's fun!)
Your favorite plants and why?
Do the plants you like grow better for you than ones you don't?
ReplyDeleteWhat was your worst disaster or biggest disappointment in gardening?
Do you choose to garden cheaply or do you garden as you wish and not worry about the cost?
What is something you do now to garden that you did not do at first? Do you like it better? Why did you change your process?
The reason I want to ask these questions is that I recently read a book that suggested that plants respond to our feelings about them. Plants we don't like as much don't do as well in our garden.
The worst disaster or biggest disappointment question is designed to bring out a funny story.
The question about gardening cheaply or not worrying about expenses is because it seems to me that there are gardeners firmly in one camp or another.
The last series of questions about changing something about the way a person gardens is designed to learn from their trial and error and to see if they have moved to a more environmentally friendly type of gardening.
I love your blog, too.
What did you last plant? Why that?
ReplyDeleteLove these questions - thank you. More!
ReplyDeleteWhen I have whittled the list down to what it will be, I shall post and acknowledge the source with a link.
Thank you so much...
A terrific list of starters here! I'd like to add: was anyone forced by economic circumstances to begin gardening. ( I include this as it was, many years ago, a topic that came up in a garden talk. A then elderly woman had begun with one pelargonium in a bean can in WW ll and went on to grow an array of herbs)
ReplyDeleteAs for me...helping my mother and father from the age of about 3.
And how about a cooking-related question? Seems to me really good gardeners are also good cooks.
"What is the best thing about your garden right now?" This is an attempt to get at the time element involved in gardening -- my favorite things obviously change as the seasons (and years) progress.
ReplyDeleteAnd the basic "What zone do you garden in?" Living in zone 3-4, I always want to see if I can adapt garden ideas from warmer areas to my home.
Do you garden best alone? Or do you get more joy out of your garden when you share it (including the gardening process, not just the result) with others?
ReplyDeleteA little late to the party...
ReplyDeleteWho inspired you, instructed you, encouraged you -directly or indirectly.
Do you prefer to garden privately or publicly?
Do you have a gardening adventure story you would like to share?
Where does your garden cease?