I like to think that my humble efforts toward conserving resources make a difference in the big picture. I do not drive an SUV, which may cancel out Best Beloved’s. I try to fill the dishwasher up to the brim, and ditto with the washing machine. I attempt to buy locally grown meats and veggies and hope that my carbon foot print is shrinking every day. That said, I sometimes don’t recycle as much as I should. I blast the air conditioning. I do not own a clothesline. And most of the time I do remember to bring my own bag to the grocery store!
I read a fascinating article in the Wall Street Journal the other day about mixing vegetables and fruit trees and plants in my very basic herbaceous borders. What an excellent idea! https://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303592404577363801818533794.html?KEYWORDS=who+put+lettcue+in+my+daffodils
I am not sure the neighbors have yet forgiven me for the bed of sunflowers I planted one year to show the children how easy it was to grow the flowers from seeds. (Our neighbors are a little more traditional, i.e. stodgy. They grow azaleas, petunias, gardenias, clematis and their box woods are seemingly trimmed using the rigid guidance of a T-square.) Our front garden made perfect sense for the experiment because that’s where the best soil and sun were. It has a northern exposure, and is close to the hose, too. We also spent a good amount of time in the front yard, occupying ourselves playing basketball, riding bikes, rollerblading and sometimes, yes, weeding the garden. Eventually, we had an appreciable display of swaying 6-feet tall golden mop heads for a couple of weeks. Not Van Gogh arresting, but it was a satisfying sight nonetheless. And my point was proven. Of course, I wonder if they even remember.
I don’t think I will go all-out with this WSJ gardening notion, but I do have a new window box under the east-facing studio window, and all I have growing in there right now are some nasturtiums and some variegated viney things. I think I will add some strawberry plants to it this weekend. And maybe I’ll put some lettuces in the garden bed. They can nestle up against the hydrangeas and create an interesting accent. Real lettuce I can understand, ornamental cabbages always give me pause.
I have digressed remarkably today. The reason I have chosen to feature rosemary as an ingredient is because I have a pot of it right by the back door, in my minute container garden, along with some basil and thyme. This is my current contribution to improving the health of the world by growing some of my own food, well, at least an ingredient or two. A little rosemary goes a long way, and it seems impervious to my wretched tendency to neglect it. I hope it doesn’t give me away to the new plants going in the side garden…
Rosemary Potatoes
4 servings
3-4 medium potatoes, peeled, cut into 1/2″-thick slices
2 tablespoons olive oil
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
Fresh rosemary sprigs
Preheat oven to 400°F. Toss potatoes with olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Scatter rosemary sprigs over. Put potatoes pie dish and roast, stirring and turning occasionally once they begin to color, until browned about 30 minutes. Keep an eye on them, as they can dry out without much notice.
https://www.bonappetit.com/recipes/2011/05/onion-frittata#ixzz1syOpz3TK
https://www.food52.com/recipes/256_rosemary_thyme_pita_chips
“A vegetable garden in the beginning looks so promising and then after all little by little it grows nothing but vegetables, nothing, nothing but vegetables.”
–Gertude Stein
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