Baseball Bats and Flying Saucers

(Originally published in "Highgrove Happenings" in July 2007) - Note the difference between the yard now and then -- see the next entry).

Well, I’m back. I had a great trip to Kenya, absolutely amazing and completely impossible to write about in a short column. I have completed my blog which I ended up writing after I came home, took me most of the month of May. I took sixty pages of notes in my journal, filled a small pocket notebook with other notes and took over 500 pictures. I have written it up on my blog – I would suggest that if you want to read it, that you start on April 21, 2007 and read forward from that date. I met wonderful people (Kenyans are remarkably warm and friendly – they actually like Americans there), beautiful children, gorgeous countryside and the highlight of the trip -- my photo safari to the Maasai Mara National Wildlife Preserve, where we saw all the large African mammals, many birds and made friends with two Maasai warriors (the guys in red who jump on the Wild Animal Park ad). The blog has all my stories, and lots of pictures – here’s the web address, the letters must be entered exactly as you see them here (no spaces, all lower case):

http://caljeanie-kenyainapril.blogspot.com/

But back to the garden. If you’re like me, and work all week, the weekend is the time to putter in the yard, clean up and fool around with your plants. This weekend was no different but I discovered in my vegetable garden that sometime during the week we had been invaded by a baseball team and aliens from outer space!! Under my zucchini plant I found three baseball bats! And under the patty pan squash plant I found a flying saucer about 8 inches in diameter! My goodness… whatever shall we do…I would like to find the cute baseball players who left their bats, however….

Last fall I threw a lot of sweet alyssum seed around the garden and was delighted that even without too much rain (actually, NO rain) it came up quite enthusiastically with just the sprinkler going once in a while. It had died off with the first warm weather but I sheared it back to about six inches high with some hand clippers, watered it good and was rewarded three weeks later with another beautiful bloom. It looks great right now. Other plants you can do this with are campanula, candytuft, carnations, cosmos, lobelia, nasturtiums, snapdragons and statice. (Keep moist after blooming and cut back by a third and most of these will re-bloom). Alyssum will self sow too, and you will have more next year – just shake the dead plants around the yard. Other plants that are notorious self sowers are African daisies, cosmos, calendula and California poppy. Many of the plants I put in last fall and during the winter are blooming as well – new lavenders, the roses, pale yellow daylilies and so on. Things are very pleasant right now. To my joy, the new patio cover seems to have given the back yard just enough shade in the afternoon to keep things from frying when it gets hot. We’ll see how things are in the middle of July.

Our tomatoes are enjoying the lovely compost I got for them and I have tons of green tomatoes but no red yet (mid-June) – we usually have our first tomato right around the end of June, first of July. I planted a few cherry tomatoes a couple of weeks ago and the little plants already have fruit on them. The first tomato is an event in our house and I always take a cell phone picture of it and send it to my niece in Arizona and my daughter in Texas!

Things will slow down a little now. I have most of my summer flowers in (some vinca and zinnias in pots to brighten things up). Some other flowers that do well in the heat are petunias of all kinds, marigolds, coreopsis, portulaca, celosia, salvia, dahlias, verbena and ageratum. Most of these you can still find in six-packs at the local garden stores and nurseries. My main concern will be keeping things watered and fertilized and clean up the mess in my potting shed. We are finally to the point in our garden where we have to really think before we buy a plant. We are actually running out of room. I don’t know what I am going to do.

This is also a good time to mulch your garden if you haven’t already done it. Two to four inches of shredded bark or other mulch works well to keep roots cool and slows down evaporation – saves water. Leave a space around the trunk of the plant to avoid disease. We have our entire “orchard” area covered with a nice layer of straw. Easy on the feet and keeps the weeds down too.

Here’s something to do with your zucchini “baseball bats” – maybe you can lure the baseball players back with this recipe…I made it for Bill on Father’s Day. I’m not sure what I’m going to do with the patty pan “flying saucer.” Kudos to my sister Joan for this idea.

Fried Zucchini

Take your huge zucchini (2 ½ - 3 inches around and 12 - 14 inches long) and slice it into 1/4 inch slices. Lay it out on paper towels and salt it to draw out some of the juice. Leave for 30 minutes, blot, turn over and salt again. After the water forms again, blot well. Prepare two beaten eggs and seasoned bread crumbs. Dip in egg, then bread crumbs and then fry in olive oil until brown on both sides and tender to the fork. Blot well and eat with ranch dressing. This is almost as good as Zorba’s fried zucchini…a lot cheaper too.

Joke of the Month:

A duck walks into a bar wearing a hard-hat, safety vest, and tool belt. He sits down at the bar and says to the bartender, "I'll have a beer." Flabbergasted, the bartender pours a beer and hands it to the duck. He tosses it back and orders another. The bartender can't believe what he's witnessing but pours another and watches as the duck downs it in one gulp. "Where're you from?" asks the barkeep. "Construction site across the street. One more please, and I'll be on my way." Pouring a third, he asks the duck, "Do you know how much money you could make with the circus?" "Circus?" the duck asks and slams his last beer. "What would the circus want with a brick layer?”

(Thanks to Prairie Home Companion)

Stay cool!

6-20-07