First, an update on the Garlic Mustard culinary experiment. Last night we made a garlic mustard pesto. We adapted our usual pesto recipe, substituting GM for half the basil. We also included some ground GM root, per the advice of one website. The root has a horseradishy flavor that gave the sauce some heat. The verdict? I still prefer straight basil pesto, but this stuff was fine. Just slightly on the bitter side. I'd eat it again. We want to try making tabouli with the stuff next.
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I spent most of my weekend out in the plot where I will try to revive my native plant meadow. It didn't turn out so hot last year. Crabgrass took over before I recognized what it was, and our seeds only sprouted in a fairly small corner of it. The started plants we put in were fine, but they were spread thin.
Last summer, I didn't pay close enough attention to the meadow. I'm making it a mission this summer. Over the weekend, I raked or burned all the dead stuff left from last year, and pulled a bunch of crabgrass. I will need to smother a couple of chunks of thick crabgrass and carefully weed one section where we had good success sprouting black-eyed susans, woodland sunflowers, and foxglove. I want to plant some seeds by the end of the week, and hopefully have a new load of started plants to put in next week.
My first attempt at a controlled ground burn turned out well. Not wanting to torch the neighborhood,I initially planned to burn only a small patch. I cleared the edges of it, and kept a hose at the ready. The small patch burned very slowly with a low, steady flame, so I cleared and lit a few other areas, raking as they burned to create an even spread of tinder.
There's a lot of grimy work ahead with this thing, but I'm looking forward to it. It's a little odd to say that, since as a kid, I hated nearly all forms of lawn and garden work. Some I still do, but the list is shrinking.
Gardening; Nature; Food
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