By Kylee Baumle

My husband and I have had a vegetable garden ever since we’ve lived here, which is going on 36 years. Over the years, we’ve grown the usual fare; peas, green beans, carrots, radishes, lettuce, corn, spinach, beets, broccoli, but in the last eight years or so, I’ve tried to plant something a little different, just to keep it interesting.

One of the first years that I tried to get creative, I planted an assortment of purple vegetables. We’re used to seeing green veggies, but imagine a garden full of purple or burgundy ones!

We had purple-podded beans (which turn green when you cook them), burgundy okra (beautiful plant and fruits, but we didn’t eat them), red Chinese beans (a.k.a. yard-long beans), purple lettuce, and even burgundy sweet corn (just as tasty as yellow). It was a beautiful thing to behold.

By Joe Shouse

This past weekend I lost something very valuable to me. I guess you could say I lost it, but actually it was snatched away in the middle of the night and there wasn’t anything I could do about it. What I lost was something we all lost; it was one hour. That magical time in the early spring when on a very early Sunday morning at 2 a.m., like a hidden thief, the clock springs forward one hour and it becomes 3 a.m.

I know it’s just an hour and I know we get it back in the fall, but there is something about losing it that I don’t like. Maybe it’s the idea of getting less sleep on that particular Saturday night. I’ve tried going to bed an hour earlier to help make up for the hour I will have taken from me, but it doesn’t seem to work. Or maybe it’s the idea of getting used to the morning when the sun rises earlier or is it later?

And, in the evening when the sun sets later, or is it earlier? You see, it’s confusing. Why do I have to wait for seven months to get my hour back?

By Kylee Baumle

In that order, plant them. Potatoes on Good Friday, peas as soon as you can work the soil, but what’s with the poppies, you ask. They’re a summer flower, right? Right. But if you don’t sow the seeds now, you might get a scant crop of bloomers.

There are perennial poppies – Papaver orientale – the big, blowzy flowers you see sometimes along the ditch banks in May. These you usually buy as plants at the nursery, sitting them carefully in your garden because they hate to be moved, and they come back every year.

Another perennial poppy we can grow here are the Icelandic poppies (Papaver nudicaule). These are sweet little things looking like the darling offspring of their Oriental cousins and come in orange, white, salmon, pink and yellow. As perennials, these are short-lived, most times only lasting for a couple of years in the garden, so allow them to self-seed if you want them year to year.

By Nancy Whitaker

IN CASE OF EMERGENCY

Most of us here at the office are organized; at least we think we are. When it comes to our desks and work stations, it is pretty much up to each of us as to what we want on and in our desks.

Of course there are the necessities we have such as paper clips, rulers, tape, scissors and rubber bands. Personally, I like keeping those items out on my desk, so I can have quicker access to them.

Of course, there is the phone, computer, and file folders on my desk which are items I use every day. I also see business cards, pens, pencils and a stapler. So far so good.

By Kylee Baumle

Throughout the year, I attend various home and garden shows, flower shows, and other horticultural events. Some of them I return to every year, which might puzzle those who aren’t as passionate about gardening as I am. If you’ve seen one garden show, you’ve seen them all, haven’t you?

Not by a long shot. It’s true that I’ve stopped going to a couple of them because the time, energy and the long drive to and from the events didn’t garner enough return on my investment. Some shows are more home than garden. I’m there for the garden.

By Nancy Whitaker

PEAS PORRIDGE OR DEAD RINGER?

There are so many old sayings, beliefs and old wives tales which are passed down through the years, sometimes it is hard to distinguish fact from fiction.

I know there is probably some type of story as to how each of these old sayings got started, so I did some research on the topic. I was very surprised to find out some of the stories behind some of the old sayings so I thought I would ask you, “Did you know?”

By Kylee Baumle

I went to visit my grandma the other day. At 98, she’s a treasure and a pretty amazing person. Though she’s in good health, she lives in an assisted living facility now. She’s done her fair share of gardening in her day and several years ago, I sat down to talk with her about it. I was curious as to how much or how little things had changed over the years.

She was a young girl in the 1920s and that’s a long time ago by anyone’s standards, even hers. But some things never change, especially when it comes to the affairs of Mother Nature. Seeds get planted, they germinate, and they grow.

By Nancy Whitaker

IN THE TRUNK

I am the first to admit it, I know nothing about the mechanics of a car. My main expertise is to put the key in it, press on the gas, shift the gears and go.

I am sure there are a lot of women who can check the oil, pump up the tires and put water in wherever it goes. I envy these ladies, because I am not even sure I would know how to get the hood up on a car. In other words, I am saying that if I had any car trouble, my only alternative would be to call someone who knew something about the internal and external workings of a vehicle. In other words, a repairman.

Now, in no way does that mean I don’t know how to drive. I think I am a good driver, at least I feel safe riding with myself. My husband and kids would probably beg to differ, but hey, their driving scares me, too.

By Jim Langham

Years ago, an old trick of the trade passed on by my father taught me that there is always one more picture left in a camera.

I have taken more than a few pictures with my camera over the years and gradually, the points where the batteries are located have become been worn and tattered. Consequently, there is not always a good connection when I put the batteries in the camera.

So here’s how to keep it going. This is what my father told me years ago. You are to moisten the batteries before putting them in the camera. Don’t ask me what it does, but it works. It’s a good way to stretch the batteries and get at least one more picture out of a worn camera.

By Kylee Baumle

Spring fever is hitting hard. The sun is shining more days than not, and even though we still have some snow now and then, the temperatures seem to be inching ever upward, even if it’s slower than I’d like. To make things worse, I look through the photos I’ve taken in previous years and I see that in less than a month, we’ll have quite a few flowers in bloom. But I want it NOW.

All things in good time. While I long for warm spring days, and even summer heat, I also enjoy the early walks in nearby woods, where I can watch the floor come to life, one wildflower at a time. In my mind’s eye, I can see it as time-lapse photography. First comes the skunk cabbage, we’ll end with the fire pinks, and by then it’s summer.