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Published by www.EPlusPromotes.com www.TheCatoctinBanner.com The Catoctin Banner Newspaper May 2016 Page 37
Christine Schoene Maccabee
pollinators then pollinate the flowers some limits. Some control is needed,
of my tomato, potato, green beans, but mostly we work cooperatively, to
everyone’s benefit.
peas, and whatever else I have time to
On The Wild Side plant as a food crop. I guess you could for you, but I just want nice neat
Okay, you say, that is well enough
say we are having a happy symbiotic
relationship!
I did not plant there. To tell you
I rarely see weeding as a chore rows free of all the weeds…the things
anymore. Rather, it is a process of the truth, I respect that approach,
The Joy of Weeding discovery. Wherever I can, I leave too. I am simply trying to clarify
the importance of giving wild plants
a large Queens Ann’s Lace where it
planted itself (a non-native, but then space to grow in a person’s garden,
For some people, the perpetual fountain of plant life so am I), some purple clover wherever if they have the space. There is a
oozing from the earth is a source of total frustration, I see them (I use their flowers in teas concern among many naturalists that
but if seen for what it is—an awesome miracle—one’s or eat them on the spot), and of eventually, much like the languages
opinion of green and growing things may be transformed course milkweed wherever it comes of small groups of indigenous peoples
in a most profound way, and weeding becomes a Joy! up. One year, a mullein plant decided around the world, many essential
to grow in my green bean bed, and
wild plants and their value will be
— from Garden Ramblings instead of moving it to another exterminated, sadly disappearing
place—as I sometimes do—I let it forever, unless some of us care
There is a small, but growing, and butterflies and other pollinators grow there, getting fuller and fuzzier enough to get to know them and
movement in the world of people, was being destroyed daily by as the summer went on. It grew to appreciate their worth and beauty.
who we will call “ultra-organic development, so I made it my mission be nine feet tall! Mullein leaves are Due to lack of space in this
gardeners.” This term is not my to explore and preserve as much as excellent in a tea for coughs in the column, I cannot expound further
own invention, but as defined possible on my eleven acres. winter; its flowers are food for bees, upon why these plants are so
in my excellent book called The I am learning that it is possible to and its seeds feed small birds in the important, but perhaps you might
Natural Garden Book. Ultra-organic work cooperatively with most of the fall. It is a win-win plant—so many of like to, at least, begin to explore
gardeners tolerate “weeds,” use plants already in my soil. They are all them are. these matters more in depth.
no chemicals whatever, and are there just waiting to be recognized. So, did I read all about this stuff? There are many opportunities
generous with patches of wild habitat Every year, my daughter and I eagerly A little, but mostly I used good ID to do so available to you, one of
in-between cultivated plots. This await spring so as to pick violet books to find out what the wild which is by coming to my seminar at
method, also known as permaculture, leaves and flowers, high in vitamin C, plants were good for, be they simply the Thurmont Regional Library on
has actually been employed naturally to put in our salads. We add edible as food for pollinators, seeds for Wednesday, May 4, 2016, at 6:00
by many indigenous cultures around chickweed, which is delicious, to the birds, or medicinals and edibles for p.m. There are also good books, like
the world since the beginning of salad as well, and give it permission human use. I now allow St. John’s The Natural Garden Book by Peter
time until, sadly, in more recent to grow in out-of-the-way places and wort, vervain, mullein, evening Harper, and ID books so you can
times, large agrochemical companies frequently right in the cold frame. primrose, peppermint, purple clovers, explore on your own .
convinced many of them of a “better From the cold frame, I get full salads white clovers, chicory, daisy fleabane, This year, enhance your
way.” every day, consisting of spinach, a variety of wild asters, golden rods, relationship with wild growing
For those of us who work quietly lettuce, tah tsai (mustard family), and milkweed, phlox, wild spinach, things, and as you do, perhaps you
with the earth, who frequently find kale. and many more too innumerable to too will experience, as I have, the
ourselves in the prayer position, However, it is in my main garden count, to dwell here with me, within JOY of weeding!
and whose pant legs are holey in where the magic really begins. Over
the knees, garden magic is most the years, I have rescued Canadian Christine is a Master Naturalist in the State of Maryland and welcomes any
fully revealed. When I first came to asters and wild Bergamot from being
my mountain valley home, getting mowed along the sides of back roads, questions or stories of your own about gardening for food or for wildlife. She
to know all the wild plants that transplanting them into my gardens, can be reached at [email protected]
were already here was of critical and there they still reside in islands
importance to me. My interest in between my many vegetable beds.
wild herbs and wild edibles was When they bloom in summertime,
well established in my psyche over bees and butterflies are drawn to
my lifetime, so I knew many of the them like a magnet, as well as the
plants by name and knew their uses. hummingbirds and hummingbird
As well, I knew that habitat for bees moths (ever see one?). These
Christine Schoene Maccabee
pollinators then pollinate the flowers some limits. Some control is needed,
of my tomato, potato, green beans, but mostly we work cooperatively, to
everyone’s benefit.
peas, and whatever else I have time to
On The Wild Side plant as a food crop. I guess you could for you, but I just want nice neat
Okay, you say, that is well enough
say we are having a happy symbiotic
relationship!
I did not plant there. To tell you
I rarely see weeding as a chore rows free of all the weeds…the things
anymore. Rather, it is a process of the truth, I respect that approach,
The Joy of Weeding discovery. Wherever I can, I leave too. I am simply trying to clarify
the importance of giving wild plants
a large Queens Ann’s Lace where it
planted itself (a non-native, but then space to grow in a person’s garden,
For some people, the perpetual fountain of plant life so am I), some purple clover wherever if they have the space. There is a
oozing from the earth is a source of total frustration, I see them (I use their flowers in teas concern among many naturalists that
but if seen for what it is—an awesome miracle—one’s or eat them on the spot), and of eventually, much like the languages
opinion of green and growing things may be transformed course milkweed wherever it comes of small groups of indigenous peoples
in a most profound way, and weeding becomes a Joy! up. One year, a mullein plant decided around the world, many essential
to grow in my green bean bed, and
wild plants and their value will be
— from Garden Ramblings instead of moving it to another exterminated, sadly disappearing
place—as I sometimes do—I let it forever, unless some of us care
There is a small, but growing, and butterflies and other pollinators grow there, getting fuller and fuzzier enough to get to know them and
movement in the world of people, was being destroyed daily by as the summer went on. It grew to appreciate their worth and beauty.
who we will call “ultra-organic development, so I made it my mission be nine feet tall! Mullein leaves are Due to lack of space in this
gardeners.” This term is not my to explore and preserve as much as excellent in a tea for coughs in the column, I cannot expound further
own invention, but as defined possible on my eleven acres. winter; its flowers are food for bees, upon why these plants are so
in my excellent book called The I am learning that it is possible to and its seeds feed small birds in the important, but perhaps you might
Natural Garden Book. Ultra-organic work cooperatively with most of the fall. It is a win-win plant—so many of like to, at least, begin to explore
gardeners tolerate “weeds,” use plants already in my soil. They are all them are. these matters more in depth.
no chemicals whatever, and are there just waiting to be recognized. So, did I read all about this stuff? There are many opportunities
generous with patches of wild habitat Every year, my daughter and I eagerly A little, but mostly I used good ID to do so available to you, one of
in-between cultivated plots. This await spring so as to pick violet books to find out what the wild which is by coming to my seminar at
method, also known as permaculture, leaves and flowers, high in vitamin C, plants were good for, be they simply the Thurmont Regional Library on
has actually been employed naturally to put in our salads. We add edible as food for pollinators, seeds for Wednesday, May 4, 2016, at 6:00
by many indigenous cultures around chickweed, which is delicious, to the birds, or medicinals and edibles for p.m. There are also good books, like
the world since the beginning of salad as well, and give it permission human use. I now allow St. John’s The Natural Garden Book by Peter
time until, sadly, in more recent to grow in out-of-the-way places and wort, vervain, mullein, evening Harper, and ID books so you can
times, large agrochemical companies frequently right in the cold frame. primrose, peppermint, purple clovers, explore on your own .
convinced many of them of a “better From the cold frame, I get full salads white clovers, chicory, daisy fleabane, This year, enhance your
way.” every day, consisting of spinach, a variety of wild asters, golden rods, relationship with wild growing
For those of us who work quietly lettuce, tah tsai (mustard family), and milkweed, phlox, wild spinach, things, and as you do, perhaps you
with the earth, who frequently find kale. and many more too innumerable to too will experience, as I have, the
ourselves in the prayer position, However, it is in my main garden count, to dwell here with me, within JOY of weeding!
and whose pant legs are holey in where the magic really begins. Over
the knees, garden magic is most the years, I have rescued Canadian Christine is a Master Naturalist in the State of Maryland and welcomes any
fully revealed. When I first came to asters and wild Bergamot from being
my mountain valley home, getting mowed along the sides of back roads, questions or stories of your own about gardening for food or for wildlife. She
to know all the wild plants that transplanting them into my gardens, can be reached at [email protected]
were already here was of critical and there they still reside in islands
importance to me. My interest in between my many vegetable beds.
wild herbs and wild edibles was When they bloom in summertime,
well established in my psyche over bees and butterflies are drawn to
my lifetime, so I knew many of the them like a magnet, as well as the
plants by name and knew their uses. hummingbirds and hummingbird
As well, I knew that habitat for bees moths (ever see one?). These
