As you can see, the Backyard Garden is enjoying (?) a Snow Day today, April 21st. I tried taking a short video, so you could easily watch the snow still falling as of 9 a.m., DST — but I’m a poor videographer…fingers get in the way of the iPad mini camera, the picture shakes because my shoulders ache…you get (or in this case, didn’t get) the picture. But this still shot, taken through my single south-facing window, at least gives you the idea. I wonder how the seeds I planted last week are feeling about today’s weather?
So this is a good day to have a cup of Chocolate Coffee — empty hot chocolate mix envelope into a coffee mug, maybe just a teaspoon of cream, stir until blended and then fill the mug with hot coffee — and contemplate other topics important to the Current Administration. Health Care, for example.
Almost every gardener knows how it feels to get back in the game in Spring. We’ve been cooped up by winter for weeks, if not months. We’ve pored over seed and plant catalogs for so long that our fingertips still have some lingering ink stains from the printed pages. And then — once the weather improves for more than a couple of days in a row — we’re out there sprucing up beds, lopping off dead or intrusive limbs, filling compost bins or trash cans with garden detritus, and so on. To the point where we lose track of time (is it lunchtime already?) or get involved in a garden project that takes way more time than we thought it would. Suddenly, joints twinge, muscles throb, perhaps we feel a headache from being out in the sun so long. We’ve become “Green Ache-ers.”
But there are other health issues to be aware of as well. There are health reasons, after all, that gardeners are encouraged to:
= wear hats (reduce sun exposure on the scalp that could lead to skin cancer),
= don work glasses (protect vision from projectiles and unseen stabby things on plants),
= wear garden gloves (avoid cuts or scrapes when working with soil, and infections from microorganisms in said soil),
= don’t go barefoot (because of parasites and other nasties in the lawn and garden areas), and — this one’s personal…
= read up on the plants you plan on planting before you pay for them.
Case in point: Lima Beans. I like Lima Beans; they don’t give me indigestion like cucumbers do, and they’re a bit different from the usual Green and Wax Beans that Prior Administrations have planted in the Garden. So I bought seeds, plotted out where they would grow, and then started them soaking because I’d heard that — like beet seeds — they did better with a bath before going into the dirt.
Photo of soaking seeds: Beets in the middle, Limas on the end at right.
Then I went online to see what is the recommended length of time to soak seeds…and I found out something that I never knew about Lima Beans: They contain cyanide. Here’s a link to one of the articles I found that opened my eyes: https://davesgarden.com/guides/articles/april-20th-is-national-lima-bean-respect-day
Yep! Planting poison was NOT my intent when contemplating the addition of Lima Beans. I really need to have my EPA nominee confirmed by the Backyard Senate asap!
But if they’re poisonous, then how on Earth are we even eating these things? What must you do to make them safe? Well, you have to cook ‘em BEFORE you cook with them: https://www.wikihow.com/Prepare-Lima-Beans#Working-with-Fresh-Lima-Beans_2
What poisonous plants - food or ornamental - do you like, in spite of the fact that they are dangerous to your health?