The Garden Bloggers Challenge, continued!

Now, where were we?

Oh yes, my last post was about the Garden Bloggers Challenge sponsored by GardenComm, and I believe I ended that post with May 5th.

Shall we get caught up?

For May 6, the prompt was “the first edible plant I ever grew was…”

Well, I claim to have started gardening when I was about two years old. No, not twenty-two. Two.

And the first edible plant I grew was probably peas because I always helped my dad sow seeds for them in the spring.

After that, if I consider what I first planted as an adult with my own garden, it would still be peas because those are the first seeds I sow in the spring.

On to May 7th, which has to be the dumbest garden day event ever. World Garden Naked Day. And the prompt was “do you dare?”

Next prompt!

May 8 was “Love an Author Day” and we were supposed to share or review a new or old favorite gardening book. I have far too many books that are favorites! Don’t make me pick one!

But I guess if pressed to pick one book, I think it would be the one I kept checking out of the library as a kid, How to Grow Fruits and Vegetables by the Organic Method by the editors at Rodale Press.

After I published my first book, Potted and Pruned, I attended an author event at the same library where I used to check out that book—and they still had it on the shelf!

So, of course, I posed my book with it. Rodale published so many editions of this book that this probably isn’t the exact copy I checked out, but it looks just like it. And I should know! I still have two copies of it on my bookshelf because I buy it whenever I see it for sale at an antique store or used bookstore.

Onward!

For May 9, we were reminded that May is National Salad Month. How are we marking #YearoftheSaladGreens? I hadn’t planned any special activities, but I do plan to pick some homegrown lettuce later this morning and pull a few radishes that look ready.

For May 10, which was National Cactus Day, the question was, “Do you gr0w any cactus inside or outside?”

Outside, I used to grow prickly pear cactus which is hardy here, but I finally yanked it all out because those little spines hurt if you get poked with them. But that’s not the real pain. The real pain is caused by the little hair-like, barbed things called glochids. If you bump into them, they will immediately and painfully stick to your skin and are hard to remove because they have barbed ends.

Quick tip if you have to pull out cactus like that. Wear heavy leather gloves and use kitchen tongs of some kind. Don’t try to handle them with your bare hands or while wearing thin gloves. You’ll be sorry if you do.

Next and final prompt for today, May 11, is “the tree that I would love to grow is…” I have some nice trees in my garden but the one I would love to grow successfully, and have failed in doing so twice, is the Carolina silverbell, Halesia carolina. I would and should try one more time, but honestly, I’ve run out of room in my garden for another tree. Although… stop. No more trees!

And no more time for this post. It’s time to get out into the garden to pot up and plant out.

It’s time to garden!

(That little viola pictured above is a close-up of a variety called ”Tiger Eyes,’ which came up voluntarily from seeds I scattered in the garden in late winter.) Look at the veins on that pretty thing!