Serving Proudly As The Voice Of Valley County Since 1913
Serving Proudly As The Voice Of Valley County Since 1913
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We're on our annual winter trip to "sunny" Florida to have the Christmas holiday with our middle daughter and her family. So far, while we have seen the sun off and on, it hasn't been particularly warm. The beach trip may not happen (sorry, Todd). We didn't pack enough pants and long-sleeved shirts! We've already spent a day at an icy-cold hockey rink watching the middle grandson play in a couple games. (The oldest grandson, in college, has skipped hockey this winter.) We've also spent an...
I wrote so much about my growing poisonous plants, I didn't have room to include these great recipes. I'm not cooking with any of those plants. I'm not sure how much you'd have to ingest to get beyond an upset stomach, and I'm not willing to experiment. Besides, Dennis reminded me he doesn't eat greens! This first one comes from a Facebook page a friend inadvertently introduced me to when she shared a recipe from it on her page. It's a way to "lose weight by eating," authored by Audrey Johns....
This week I'm going to maybe bore you with the info I've gleaned on amaryllis plants. Aren't you excited? These bulbs are ubiquitous in the Christmas season. They are 'forced' to bloom during this time of year, when we long for that burst of color to cheer us in the blah-ness of the onset of winter. Normally, left in nature, these plants would bloom in the spring. In fact, the word amaryllis is taken from the Greek amarysso, which means "to sparkle." It also means "pride, determination, and...
Let's start this week with some of the previously threatened "too much info" on plants. I have a Flamingo Flower, also called a Flamingo Lily or Tailfeather. It's similar to a Peace Lily, but has red, pink, or purple flowers rather than white. The flowers are called spathes, and the yellow center, which grows up at a 90 degree angle from the flower, is called a spadix. The flowers are waxy, look plastic, and are a single heart-shaped petal. The leaves are also heart-shaped. Flamingo Flowers...
You may be wondering why I titled this week's column as I did. I could have used a number of synonyms (assortment, conglomerate, hodgepodge, jumble, medley) but then I wouldn't have the built-in rather lame joke about olio not equaling oleo. One is based off the thick Spanish stew made of meats and veggies while the other refers to the various fats and oils used to make fake butter. This week's scribblings are neither a thick stew nor a fat fake. So, on to my hodgepodge: First, I'd like to...
We attended the most recent NAN (Northeastern Arts Network) concert held up at the Glasgow High School last week. There are four concerts held here each winter. You've now missed the first two. The next one will be held Feb. 6, and is "a modern-day folk trio inspired by the music and legacy of Peter, Paul, and Mary" called The Band Called Honalee. Really, more people here should make the effort to attend these events. How often do you get quality live musicians giving concerts up here in the...
I'm afraid winter is here to stay. Our Opheim snow-birds have or are preparing to fly the coop. The last of the couples have just deserted us for warmer climes. I can't blame them. I'm starting to dream of our annual Christmas trip to sunny Florida. I won't miss this brutal cold or that blanket of snow. The two days of ice-fog up here did make everything sparkly and pretty. But sparkly and pretty isn't at all warm. I'm sure the deer that are dining on my lilacs (the leaves didn't get a chance to...
We arrived back home in time to enjoy the last of the beautiful fall weather. (I do hope we get more, but I won't hold my breath.) Didn't we all enjoy a rare relatively warm (and snow-free) Halloween? Costumes didn't need to include snowsuits. We were away on my family reunion trip (and to see our youngest and her family) when those of you still here in lovely northeastern Montana got that first taste of winter's return. We saw the dregs of that first snow lingering in sheltered areas and on...
Editor's Note: This column was submitted on Oct. 22. We are currently out of state, at my family reunion in Nebraska. My father was born and raised in Ponca, Neb. His dad was a railroad man, with a small farm on the side. His mom was a German immigrant. Dad had three brothers and one sister. Dad dropped out of high school, lying about his age, to join the Navy so he could fight for our country in WWII. By the time I was born, WWII was long over and dad had switched to the Air Force. Because of...
Editor's Note: This column was submitted to us Oct. 8. There was ample warning, for those of us who check weather forecasts, that a hard freeze was coming. This forced me to stop (some of) my procrastinating. I'll always have something I'm putting off doing until forced into action. I spent two full days (actually, two afternoons: I still had to cook a noon meal and haul it to Dennis in the field) getting the houseplants sorted out. (This should be a clear warning that I have too many plants.)...
I'm much too good at putting things off. Who wants to think about pulling all the tomatoes when it's still pushing 100°? Even though we're now into October (!), it hasn't seemed like fall. And so, having legitimately earned a Masters in Procrastination, my houseplants are still grouped on the front deck. The dahlias haven't been dug. The gladioli bulbs haven't been trimmed and bagged for winter storage. Shoot. I just had another picking of green beans a few days ago. I say pshaw to fall. (I...
The calendar says it is officially fall, but you wouldn't know it with the return of such warm temperatures. I lucked out and didn't lose my entire garden to frost, even though our thermometer read 31.5° last week. I think all the trees that surround my garden kept enough warmth in there to counteract the brief time it dipped below freezing. There were a few leaves on the pumpkins that curled and turned black. I'm really grateful it wasn't worse since I hadn't covered anything. I'm still...
As much as I hate to see summer go, I cannot prevent fall from arriving. I hate seeing fall because we all know what follows, usually much too quickly. I'm giving in to reality, though, and starting on my regular fall clean-up-the-garden chores. I have all my houseplants that spent these past months outdoors gathered together on the front deck. If a frost threatens (and we've lucked out so far and not had one, although we did drop to 35° a couple weeks ago) I can easily get them covered....
As much as I hate to see summer go, it’s going to. I can’t stop it. And so it’s definitely time to be thinking of clearing up the garden. I’ve been pulling all the dead and dying vegetation. That mostly consists of flowers past their prime, plus the dill and cilantro that’s gone to seed. I’ve pinched off dead marigold blossoms and scattered them around my “volunteer flower” section. This is the area that is almost constantly shaded by the big tree on the southeast corner of the garden. There are many flowers I didn’t plant. Most of them libe...
I’m starting this week with a short lesson, the meaning of doldrums. It’s a state or period of inactivity, stagnation, or depression. The term is nautical, taken from sailors describing an equatorial region of the Atlantic. The shifting area features calms, sudden storms, and light, unpredictable winds. Synonyms are: inactive, quiet, slow, slack, sluggish, subdued, stagnant, crestfallen, glum, blue, despondent, woebegone, and bummed out. Almost all these terms apply to me lately. I’ve skipped depressed and despondent, and I hope I’m not sta...
The garden keeps on growing: it’s relentless as long as it has water and the temps stay above freezing. And even when the first frosts hit, I’ll blanket the plants I wish to save. Those plants always include the tomatoes and peppers. Sometimes the cucumbers gets preferential treatment, as will some squashes. I try to put chairs out amongst those squashes and cukes to hold the coverings up enough to keep the cold from traveling through to the leaves that are in contact with the covering. I’ll lay the tomato cages over and have stakes pound...
There have been a lot of trips to Glasgow this past week. The Florida grandsons as well as our daughter had to take in the county fair. Those boys were thrilled with the bouncy house attractions after initially being told there wouldn’t be a carnival. “What’s a fair without rides?,” they asked. They’re still young enough to be excited about being very active. So I give kudos to whoever managed to find and bring in the person(s) running those attractions. (I still miss cotton candy on the midway, though. It’s one of my guilty fair pleasures.)...
I must admit that the presence of our grandsons (and now our middle daughter) has kept my attention away from my yard and garden. We’ve been golfing, attended two productions at the Fort Peck Theatre (Always, Patsy Cline, and Suessical, the Musical - we highly recommend this current show), to Kiwanis Park for tetherball (mainly to blow off energy before the theatre), and dining in town quite often. The boys are learning to adjust their hockey slap shots into proper golf swings - mostly. This u...
Last week I had a mini-vacation: I flew to Florida for the purpose of bringing our two grandsons to Montana so they could have their own vacation. They’ll have fodder for the inevitable “what did you do over your summer vacation” reports for school, which starts Aug. 10! Of course, one doesn’t simply fly to Florida and return to Montana the next day. One must also spend a few days recovering from the whole airport/flight experience. I was able to enjoy family time with our middle daughter and her family. I enjoyed several fabulous meals a...
As others have noted on the Gardening in NE MT Facebook page, things have been slow in starting as far as the garden goes. We did have a long, cool spring. Very few of my corn seeds came up. Even the replanting was a bust, so I guess I’ll be buying corn later on. The peas are spotty, but are starting to bloom just as the heat hits (peas really don’t like hot weather). I think only one packet of my beans came, and since all the packets “melted” in the rains, I’m not sure which variety I’ll have! (I really should make a garden map each summer...
We’ve had more rain, plus lots of lightning and thunder, but no hail (knock on wood). With these last storms there have been some power outages, so I’m grateful for our generator. The extra wetness has made weeding easier. I’ve had plenty of grass clippings to put between the garden rows, so I don’t get too muddy doing the weeding. I was even able to dig out a lot of the volunteer grass alongside the walkway between the house and garage. I do hate spraying chemicals around. The garden has reached that stage of development where less weeding...
Last week, while buying yet more plants from the greenhouse (there was a sale! Who could resist?), a gentleman recognized me and remarked upon my being there. He intimated he was disappointed to see me purchasing plants because “you write a gardening column.” That got me wondering if others think I’m cheating somehow, so I looked up the definition of gardening. It’s the activity of tending and cultivating a garden, especially as a pastime, or the practice of growing and cultivating plants as a part of horticulture. The definition of a garden...
Not much has changed in the garden this past week. I’m still doing plenty of weeding: all the seeds blown in from the shelter belt trees (I’m looking at you, Chinese elm) are sprouting with wild abandon due to the rains. Those seeds nestled up against what I planted, so weeding involves a lot of crawling along the rows on hands and knees, pulling each tree wannabe individually. I keep reminding myself that this activity helps with my flexibility. Once in a while my brain protests that this is bunk: this activity is ruining my joints. I will say...
We're far enough into the gardening season that only maintenance is needed. Most of that maintenance is boring: mowing, weeding, and watering. The rain helps a lot, but then it is followed by too much wind, which takes the moisture right back out of everything. (It also brings in another maintenance chore: picking up the downed twigs, destroyed bird nests, and tree limbs torn off the trees that litter the mowing surfaces). And now the heat is here. I know it's needed, but it also restricts my...
It’s been a busy and productive week for me. The master procrastinator is maybe turning over a new leaf? Probably not. The main thing I’m proud of having accomplished is getting (almost) all the houseplants moved outside for the summer. A few (notably the Hoya vine, the newly started mango and avocado trees, my kaffir lily, and a couple other small ones) will remain in the house where the Montana winds cannot rip them apart. But just moving them outside isn’t the complete job - it’s also then getting the windows washed (both inside and out), a...
