Happy Thanksgiving!
I hope today is a celebration of your own harvests!
Our freezer, pantry and refrigerator currently hold lots of good veggies for today’s big meal: potatoes, sweet potatoes, green beans, peas, broccoli, beets, and pumpkin for pie. We also have a bag of chestnuts for roasting, courtesy of a friendly neighbor.
There are also plenty of gourds and non-edibles for decorating the table. I do miss the bittersweet we used to pick every Thanksgiving in Ohio to decorate with – haven’t found it growing wild yet around us, but someday we may plant some of our own.
Hope you all have a Happy Thanksgiving!
November 22, 2012 - 7:53 AM
Oh, I agree that bittersweet adds to Thanksgiving. We used to have a native bittersweet shrub growing beside a creek and I miss harvesting a few branches to brighten the table. I have my eye on a couple of bushes on nearby farms but haven’t gotten around to begging quite yet. I was offered an Oriental bittersweet but found out they are invasive here (evidence on both sides of Rt. 8 between Riner and I81)and passed up the offer.
I burned off a little of the walnut praline cake this afternoon by planting a hundred more daffodil bulbs. I also potted up 6 clay pots with a variety of pass along bulbs and buried the pots in a raised bed. I haven’t tried this before but the article I read said that unlike with forcing bulbs, this method doesn’t weaken the bulbs. When they get ready to bloom in the spring, I can place the pots wherever I need a splash of color and later replant them. My clay garden soil would be too heavy and wet in the pots so I used a layer of gravel and Promix. I did completely cover the pots with about an inch of compost so they won’t dry out. I may end up with a good supply of pot shards, but hopefully this will be an easy way to spread that daffodil joy.
KH, I think I read that fall was a good time to plant the choke bulbs, so I want to try a few. You or anybody else that can spar a few would be most appreciated.
After doing more checking, it seems spring, not fall is the best time to plant. Also as you mentioned, fall is when you dig them. Not being a good keeper totally lets them out for summer use. Maybe I don’t need them afterall.
If you ever get around Greenhill Park in west Salem, turn in, take the road to right that goes all the way up and look at the bush at the picnic shelter. Is that bitter sweet?
I just wanted to mention that the seed catalogs have started arriving. I am like a kid with a toy catalog at Christmas – so many tempting varieties.