Gardening Plans and Plants - The Evasive Bee Balm

This Bee Balm photo evoked a lot of discussion on Facebook because the readers thought the title -Flower or Weed? - revealed my question about the plant, not my warning to our helper against yanking the mint as a weed.

A lot of my Facebook friends grow or have grown Bee Balm, so one warned, "It can be evasive." I wanted to do a script on that typo, but I did not want to offend a stranger. Friends are easier to kid and so much fun.

GJ - Are you a Bee Balm?
BB - Monarda.
GJ - But you look just like the Bee Balm I have seen in catalogs.
BB - Horse mint.
GJ - Do not clown around with me. I know you are Bee Balm.
BB - Oswego Tea, prized for medicine by Indians.
GJ - We are getting close. So you really are Bee Balm.
BB - Bergamot.
GJ -  You are being so evasive. I will just yank you out.
BB - No you won't. Hummers love me. Bees love me. The very best insects love me.

Bee Balm cultivation - The flowers will bloom again when cut. The mature plants can be divided to multiply them instead of buying them at inflated prices on the Net. It does tend to mildew a bit but I would not run around with my hair on fire for that.

The wild garden began as the area closest to the utility alley behind our house, a no-man's land of hanging limbs, weedy vines, and stuff the kids and adults dropped over the fence. Like Niagara Falls, the backside of buildings is neglected because the owners and renters do not look at it. We do.

In that area I am growing a green fence of Sunflowers,Blackberries,Butterfly Bush, and Chaste Tree. For ground cover I have Buckwheat, Pigweed, and Queen Ann's Lace.

When the dead tree fell over and we lined up its pieces parallel to the back fence, but much closer in, I began planning a much larger, easy care, beneficial insect wild garden. Cardboard has to go under the pieces or we will have infinite stretches of weeds to trim.

• The flooring will be cardboard, with compost and autumn leaves holding it in place. The recycle barrel for cardboard is now storage for the flooring. Cardboard covers more area at once and should be harder for weeds to penetrate.
• I am thinking about perennial plants that are more upright and offer something to birds and beneficial insects. 
• Hardy bulbs might be fun for some early color contrast. I am inclined to use daffodils and grape hyacinth, which seem to be unattractive to the tree rats.
• The area will need solar lighting for the times I walk back there at night or want to see where Sassy is. 
• Some re-seeders will be great for this area - dill, feverfew, etc. They are great for beneficial insects and pollinators.
• I want to have a large section for Monarch butterflies - they need Butterfly Weed or Milkweed or both - for their caterpillars.

Thank You Gardeners

I really enjoy the comments and questions. Each issue sets me off on a new quest for gardening knowledge. 

For instance, Mrs. Ichabod said she liked Mr. Lincoln roses, a very old standard. I promised to buy some and I bought more of them than other varieties, the new, glamorous ones. I read about the many excellent qualities of this rose, but I was not prepared for its vigor, strength, and health.  I am looking at one stem with three perfect roses opening up, in a bud vase near the computer desk. The plant is flawless and the roses are fragrant.

Mr. Lincoln in full bloom.

From a Reader - WELS Patterns

I think the Martin Luther College students gave Jeff Schone
a parochial school skirt to wear.

Adult men, congregational leaders, dressed up as "church ladies" (resembling that of Saturday Night Live skit fame--itself a sarcastic slap)...

A male professor in his fifties wearing tartan boxer shorts over his pants, on stage, before an audience...seriously? How would that be go over in other academic locales? 

College-aged males dressing as parochial schoolgirls (a known subject of lurid fantasy) and striking overtly effeminate poses?

Is there a pattern to all this?

It is not that of employing a debased kind of humor which is myopically viewed  as "funny"?

Humor has long been used as vehicle to sway public opinion for better or worse, knowingly or unwittingly.

It is not "harmless"  or sophomoric as it is so often cracked up to be.

One professor warned against making light of sin by employment of warped humor.

It subtly encourages those  with a proclivity to act out,  to blunt the viciousness, and therefore normalize the perversity which is ostensibly ridiculed.

Martin Luther College, WELS -
your tuition money and subsidies down a rat-hole.

Ripening Tomatoes and the Lowered Blood Pressure

An owner placed his cat in a tree for the first time - pure joy.

A reader got me started on tomatoes ripening, and I am glad for it. Now the tomatoes are all over the vines but green, with another day of rain shutting down the supply of ripening sun. On the other hand, I know ripe tomatoes are tempting for slugs and fur creatures. Putting green ones on the window sill has not worked out very well.

The answer is - ethylene gas from apples or bananas. Sunlight will ripen them from the outside, but they ripen from the inside out using gas. This morning Sassy and I picked a large cardboard box of green tomatoes, put in our banana supply, and closed the lid. A paper bag can be used but where will I find one?

I had an interest in eating more cherry tomatoes - besides the taste. They are high in potassium and low in sodium Table salt tends to increase blood pressure, a problem I have, and potassium tends to lower it. Fast foods are long on sodium, short on potassium. Here are some natural high potassium, low sodium sources:

1. Oranges
2. Cherry tomatoes
3. White beans
4. Pork
5. Yogurt
6. Kiwi
7. Peaches and nectarines (also low glycemic)
8. Bananas
9. Kale
10. Red bell pepper
11. Broccoli
12. Sweet potatoes
13. Quinoa
14. Avocado

This list is a ration of sodium (first figure) to potassium (second one) in common foods,

• Spinach, 1 cup cooked 11:1004 
• Plain yogurt 172:531 
• Sweet potatoes 36:475 
• Broccoli 1 cup cooked 64:457 
• Cantaloupe 1 cup 26:427 
• Cherry Tomatoes 1 cup 7:353 Kale 1 cup cooked 30:296 
• Orange 1:232 
• Grapefruit ½ 0:166 
• Orange juice ½ cup 2:232 
• Romaine lettuce 1 cup 4:162 
• White bread 256:50 
• Bacon 2 slices 384:93 
• Hot dog 513:70 
• Pepperoni Pizza 2 slices 1354:372 

I am growing sweet potatoes for the first time ever, and the regular potatoes are done growing. Potatoes are a vitamin pill and comfort food rolled into one. 

Mrs. I likes all the high potassium foods on their own merit. 

The neighbor cat when Koine is rehearsing.