This liminal moment: summal, fummer? August 35th?

Good morning September.... it's slowly becoming August lite here. Still hot, rapidly whirling toward my birthday and the equinox. I have been gathering the late summer bounty- tomatillos, peppers, tomatoes.
I've also begun sowing the fall bounty and back to work in the gardens....





Here is what I'm doing: I'm picking up clearance annuals. I've planted dill plants and ornamental peppers and nasturtiums! They are beautiful, enjoy the heat/cool dynamic we will be rocking out with for another few months (?) or weeks.
On August 15, I planted my first crop of the fall garden. I planted green bibb lettuce and red leaf lettuce. I also planted a row of Ruby Red chard, pulled out my old kale, planted a small plot of carrots and some rows of spinach. As usually happens in this liminal moment, this threshhold moment, some seeds were so fertile and ready to grow that the 90 degree days didn't phase them. The spinach promptly told me to go to hell, though. So I replanted more this weekend. I can take rejection.

Seed germination basics: they don't like hot weather and will germinate more evenly in sub 85 degree days! Keep the seed bed evenly moist. If the seed dries out, it's dead. I watered every late afternoon- not ideal, but it works for me. Once you see dichots, keep the watering even and don't let them dry out. They are very tender. If they are being attacked by critter (insect, pests, birds), use a floating row cover to protect. Choose seeds that are meant for the time you are growing. Don't start tomato or basil seeds in late summer for a fall garden. Don't start melons. Here is a great list of what to start when! It is from K-State and is the gold standard. The first pages are how many seeds to plant for the yield you want. Page 3 is the calendar.

My sweet potatoes and okra are happy. My calendula needs cool and looks burnt out. The comfrey offered a second bloom and I collected it! The wild original roses, the old ones, are putting on the second show. The nasturtiums like it dry and coolish- so they offer their bubbly presence. And the freaky, perennial rosemary?? It's decided to bloom. I mean, this plant shouldn't be wintering over. But it's moved into sub-shrub territory!

On the docket this fall-- I'm going to interview my yoga teacher, Sharyn, and get the good info for you on some of the poses that have been reinvigorating me. What about stimulating the thryroid by locking my throat bandha, jalandhara bandha? What poses might support my liver, kidneys and adrenal glands? Also, I found this wonderful article on the psoas muscle. It's a profound eye-opener for me, one of those muscles that does so much.

Have you read this much-shared article about the link between gut flora (pro-biotics HEEEYEEE!) and mental illness/ mental health? It is really good support for the notion that we, adults, should support our gut flora in as many ways as we can. We should identify and eliminate foods that are allegens to us and which make us feel crappy. Then, we should help our guts repair themselves by eating lots of probiotic foods/ probiotic supplements. I don't actually take any supplement but I do give them to my kids. The second part of the article is that gut flora is made or broken in childhood. FEED YOUR KIDS FERMENTED FOODS- like good unsweetened yogurt, kefir, kombucha, fermented vegetables (uhm, good luck?). Or use a probiotic supplement.

Update on RAGWEED (which I keep writing as rage weed. Yes. Rage. Weed.): the ragweed tea, not infusion, is very helpful to me. I do not have intense ragweed allergies this year. The tea has kept my histamine reaction to a minimum! What I did was make a large jar of it. I pruned off ragweed leaves and put them in hot water. Very complex. Then I steeped it for  20 minutes or so. I drank a couple cups every few days. Pleasant. Surprising.]
I know that some people who have bad allergies to Ambrosia (that's the botanical name for all ragweeds) should NOT DO THIS. But for those of us with sneezing and itchy eyes who seek relief without pills, it's pretty nice. 
[Please consult someone knowledgeable before picking random leaves....  I mean, you know that. But consult me, send me a message with a picture if you don't know ragweed by sight. I'm here to help!]


Again a list of what I've linked above:
The K-State garden calendar. All pertinent info about vegetable seeds, when to start, how to gauge yield, perennial/annual status, warm/cool season crop and a basic calendar.
The yoga, psoas muscle article.
The link between gut flora and mental wellness.

spring here...Nettles!

One of the most wonderful parts about spring is the fresh herbs/ food that becomes available. Pretty much everybody is on the farmer's market/ csa train, as well as the "plot of one's own" block party. But there are also wild foods available to us....
Why? Nutrients, minerals, energy right from the source. No cost involved. Adventure. Engagement in my own well-being. Nothing's a mystery- well, lots of stuff is a mystery. But not in a mysterious white pill!
What does it supply? Okay, let's start with Nettle. Urtica dioica. This grows wild everywhere. Bane of farmer's lives- stinging nettle. Old men HATE it (as a rule). Spring time is its heyday. Ohmygoodness, I love nettle. Natural source of Vitamin K, Selenium, Magnesium, Calcium, etc, etc, etc. What I'm suggesting is not new to natural food- Susun Weed advocates and writes about Nettles brilliantly. I'm saying, get some gloves, scissors, a bag and go pick some!
How? Make an infusion. One ounce of dried nettle, steeped in boiling water in a quart jar for four hours is a strong infusion. This is like a tea, but for real. Tea tastes pleasant but has little of the nutrients of the plant in it. An infusion really gets the good stuff from the plant!
Where? Partial sun, wild spaces, near water (creek beds, moist bottomlands) are a haven for this plant. I pick mine right off the levee in North Lawrence. Along the mown edge of the green, before the trees start is a small jungle of ground covers and stinging nettle.

What to look for: Serrated leaves, square stem, hairy neck, STINGING! Do not be afraid of the stinging. It doesn't feel great but have a conversation with yourself about it, wear gloves or deal with the itch. It is an old wives remedy for arthritic joints- lash the offending area with nettle and all the prickles are supposed to release the uric acid (hope I got that one right; it's from memory there) and lessen the pain. Always look for the sting to tell you you have the right plant. There is a wild vervain/ verbena type thing that looks similar but no sting and a round neck. Not poinsonous and not dangerous but look for the sting!

I took Greer in the Ergo and Myrna on foot to get it. It felt fast- after all the hustling the girls out of the car in the cold blowy morning; it took only minutes to walk around the gate, down the levee, spot some medium tall plants and walk down for a closer look. I tend to trust the levee plants because they don't spray. Poison ivy and all sorts of other wild plants live down there relatively undisturbed. The nice thing about spring Nettles? Nearly no sting- Myrna was nervous and put on my gloves. But I cut it all, tucked it into my pocket and we went off. Too cold to walk further but fun to find something useful amid the wild strawberry, spring violets (also a great eating herb. Myrna loves to eat the flowers!) and periwinkle vine (an invasive domestic gone wild?).