Garden Inspection

Blue Jay and I inspected the flowerbeds in our back yard yesterday, it being an especially fine and warm day. We looked at the flowering plant remnants that have not yet been removed. It allowed us to do some remembering of what plants were where and will probably help us with plant identification.

We have three flowerbeds in the back. All of them are slightly raised. This could and may be extended to four or five. But right now we have the 7’ x 7’ bed which is shaded much of the day year round. I’ll call this the “77.” The remaining two are mostly sunny. One is about 8’ x 8’, in the corner, and has a 5’ x 5’ triangle taken out where it meets the lawn. This one will be called “88.” The third runs along the fence with a little more sun exposure than 88, and is 3’ x 11’. It’ll be “311”


311 and 77 have rich histories of recreational digging. A famous picture of Pi Guy from about five or six years ago has him proudly posed with a shovel and absolutely covered in mud in front of 311. It is glorious.

More recently, Blue Jay and a friend discovered in it, a “time capsule” with my dad’s old metal detector. It was buried there about a year ago and forgotten. The "capsule" was a tin container with various treasures in it. So I offered the warning that these flowerbeds, once cleaned up for planting would no longer be the site of any more recreational digging. She agreed, and said she would tell her friends the same.

Then there is my part. Identifying which plants we’ll be able to find in the “wild” and which one’s that we will want to purchase, plant, grow, and harvest. For this end I have a list of the plants in Rita Buchanan’s book as well as James Lyles book. The Art and Craft of Natural Dying. This list I’m going to cross-reference with a book by M. Walter Pesman, Meet the Natives, A Beginners Guide to Rocky Mountain Wildflowers, Trees and Shrubs.

All of these books are available through Amazon.com, but Meet the Natives is also available at http://www.allbookstores.com/.