My thumbs are gettin' all green.

It always happens every spring. I trade in my pink polished winter thumbs for thumbs with a greenish tint to them. I start out guns a blazing of course. I talk the husband into tilling up every speck of ground we've got me following behind with some potted treasure picked up at a nursery somewhere. Trouble is, the days get hotter and the weeds tall and my blazing guns barely resemble a fire cracker, and a dud at that. I really want to do better this year. I am thinking small and lots of containers. I almost succumbed to the pricey ones at Lowes, some of them wooden and some in that plastic that looks so realisticly stone. But in a few months the wood gets a little rotty and the stone-looking ones don't look so hot anymore, so I went to Big Lots and picked up a bunch of cheap ones for the price I would have paid for one fake stone one from Lowes. I am going to try growing lots of different things in the pots. One year I grew broccoli in a pot. It did pretty well. but I do have a couple of small strips of tilled up space that I am going to use in the traditional way. I mean you have to have a few tomatoes growing or it's just not summer ya know?

I'm getting all herby again too. I use to have about 50 different herb plants-culinary, craft, and medicinal. I am the family witch doctor and am just fascinated with herbs for health mantenance and even for health related things that aren't serious. I made herbal massage oil for my pregnant girls' growwing bellies last summer and they loved it. I want to make some diaper rash salve and a few other things.Right now the only herbs I really have are culinary so I need to replenish my stash of medicinal ones. I know just the place to go too. It's an herb farm in NC. Getting there is an adventure in and of itself and I am going to try and talk the husband into taking me soon. I think the promise that he can use the 4x4 before journey's end might be an incentive to him. I can always hope.

Speaking of herbs: I've been reading and did you know that most of us have a goldmine right in our lawns? The humble dandelion my friends is an herb you should know. Plus, if you have a whole lot of them growing in your yard, ( and I do) on a sunny day they smell like butter. Everyone knows that you can eat them (unless you sprary your yard), but did you that the plant everyone loves to hate is also a natural diuretic? It is also a tonic and said to be good for gout,rheumatism, and stiff joints. One of my herb books even has what is called the "dandelion cure". Personally I think the malady that dandelion have the biggest effect on is the winter blahs. One of the first plnats to trumpets spring's arrival who can resist those sunny yellow flowers followed by the puffballs that are a mainstay of most childhood memories. So don't curse your dandelions folks, go outside, smell their fragrance, blow a puffball, throw some in your salad and have a little dandelion tea. It will be good for whatever ails you.


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