This and That

Today’s post will be about a little bit of this and a little bit of that. Hang on, here we gooooooo………

O’Hare Airport, Chicago. Memorial Day 2023

Today is July first. The anniversary month of our country’s independance, rolling in on nearly 250 years! I am proud to be an American. As Herbert Hoover said:

“My country owes me nothing. It gave me, as it gives every boy and girl, a chance. It gave me schooling, independence of action, opportunity for service and honor.”

As an educator, I have worked with kids of all ages and adults from all over the world. Anyone who works hard can make a difference in their life and the lives of others. There are many countires on this great earth where their people are not allowed these freedoms. God Bless America!

High school Fife and Drum Corps in Granby Connecitcut Memorial Day parade

I was in Connecitcut over Memorial Day this year. As a colony state, they are proud of their history in the making of our great nation. I got chills down my spine watching this fife and drum corps march by.

An update on the garden: If you’ve read previous blog posts, you know that we put landscaping fabric on our garden to control the weeds. And it works!! We weeded and watered the whole garden in ONE hour! Wowza! The yellow arrow points to milkweed, which gets a pass in our garden. We don’t pull them out and the butterflies say thanks!

There’s a quirky, fun little independent bookstore in Rock Island, Illinois that is so community oriented that it is always finding ways to interact with people, near and far. This bookstore is the first place I had a reading and book signing. I love this shop and am honored and excited to be a presenter at their summer series. Another author and I will present zines. We will share what they are and we will make some with our participants. I hope to see you there!

I have made zines to go along with each of my novels. I give them out for free. If you’d like one (or more) email me at: nadinemrothauthor@gmail.com I will be happy to email the zine and folding instructions to you!

And while I’m talking business, did you know I have a website? You can visit me at:

NadineMRoth.pubsitepro.com

There you’ll find information about me, my books, and other fun things. I’ve also been dabbling in a quarterly newsletter where I discuss my writing progress, my goals, upcoming events, and books I’ve been reading. You can email me if you’re interested in receiving that, too.

I’m going to close with a shout-out to my daughter’s family. My son-in-law, a major in the USAF just returned home from a four month deployment.

Little Rock, AR Air Force Base. Home of the C-130

When a soldier deploys, so does his or her whole family. For the first month he was gone, their youngest daughter, a 3 year old, told her mother daily: “Actually. I miss daddy.” To watch a 3 year old work through missing someone is hard. All four of the children had their rough moments, but overall they all did a great job of keeping the home fires burning. I couldn’t be more proud of my kids. And, as a beautiful and unexpected gift, their community was so supportive. I was touched by the blessings that were given by so many people.

Until next time,

Be good to yourself.

~Nadine

“To plant a garden…

is to believe in tomorrow.”

Actress, (and apparently gardener,) Audrey Hepburn said that. I agree with her. The action of gardening IS believing that tomorrow will come, and in that, there is hope and vegetables to harvest!

But between planting day and harvesting day, a lot of ‘ground work’ (see what I did there?) 🙂 must happen. First, when the earliest hint of spring comes to your area, you run as fast as you can to your local garden center to paruse the seed packet displays. This is when you more than likely will buy more seeds than you have room to plant– or is that just me? Just looking at the packets of seeds makes me excited!

Next, when it gets a little warmer, the land must be prepped. That means removing ground cover, such as grass or weeds, then tilling the land. There are a variety of ways to till. We are fortunate to have a tractor now, before that, my husband used a rototiller.

On planting day, Tim gives the soil a fresh turn.

Now that your soil is ready, you must decide where to place your plants and seeds in the garden. I always draw up a plan on a sheet of paper, naming where the plant is located and its maturity date. This helps me remember what I planted where, and when it will be ready to harvest.

My diagram for this year’s vegetable garden.

Now it’s time to put those plants and seeds in the ground. It’s time consuming, but so worth the effort. And if you’re fortunate, like I was, your planting day will be a sunny one!

Now, my dad was a master gardener. He went to great lengths to make an aesthetically beautiful, as well as productive garden. I am not as patient nor as particular as he was, but I did learn everything I know about gardening from him and my grandmother. My dad would have planted rows that were arrow straight. Mine are straight-ish. My dad’s garden never had a weed more than and inch high in it. He weeded and we weeded regularly- almost daily, really.

I have had big battles with weeds over the years.

I don’t like to weed, and I can put it off for far too long. More often than not, the weeds win. Sometimes, while weeding or harvesting, I silently apologize to my veggies for letting the garden get so bad. This year we decided to try putting landscape fabric between our rows. I was against this idea at first, thinking our garden was too big for such a plan, but Tim thought it would really help our weed situation.

We put down over 200 feet of fabric and used nearly 600 fabric pins to hold it in place. The more we worked on it, the more excited I got. I hope this is the golden goose for our garden. The weeds may win the battle a few times, but they won’t win the war!

Finally, water your garden. Our garden is located on farmland without access to running water. However, we have a creek nearby. We hauled five 5-gallon buckets of water from the creek and gave everything a good drink of water. We will water as often as we can, and otherwise pray for timely rain!

I’ll let you know in future blog posts how the garden is fairing. Now, I’d like to entertain and inform you on some pretty amazing garden facts!

*Links to these fun facts and more are listed at the bottom of this post!

We also planted pumpkins, catalope, and wild flowers, but I’ll save those ideas for another day. I encourage you to plant something. Maybe a garden plot won’t work for you. That’s o.k. How about some herbs in a pot on your step or in your kitchen window? Maybe flowers? Or maybe a nice leaf lettuce, such as Bibb or Slobolt, in a half barrel?

Let me know how your garden grows. I’d love to hear from you.

Until next time,

Be good to yourself.

~Nadine

• https://www.factmonster.com/math-science/health/fitness-nutrition/vegetables-fun-facts

More Bees, Please

And butterflies, too.

The industrialized areas of our world are having a negative impact on our pollinators. That is, bees, moths, butterflies, as well as many other flying insects. A decline in the pollinator populaton is a real threat to flora, including our food sources. If our crops are not pollinated, they simply will not produce, well, – our produce! In China, plants are hand-pollinated by humans using feathers to dust the plants. The bee poplulation is so low, natural pollination cannot happen in the numbers needed to sustain food for the population.

Click here for more about China’s pollination problem:https://iowa.pbslearningmedia.org/resource/vtl07.la.rv.text.beesdisap/disappearance-of-the-bees-whats-the-impact/

This decline in pollinators has produced a call for action among the land loving, nature loving community. Homes, as well as businesses are planting pollinator gardens. Gardens that attract bees and butterflies. I am one among the swarm! (Ha! couldn’t resist!)

Two years ago I decided to dedicate a four by six foot space in our yard to the pollinators. I did the research and found out what bees and butterflies in my area needed. Then I asked my handy husband to make a butterfly house for my little garden. He went to the Habitat Restore and got a piece of lumber that had a beautiful reddish hue. It was perfect.

My almost finished butterfly house made from reclaimed wood. Spring 2021.

Tim and I attached it to a metal pole (that we also got from Habitat Restore) and put it in the garden, along with a host of new plants and a watering dish, complete with rocks for the bees and butterflies to stand on while drinking.

After a couple of years of Iowa winters and summers, my butterfly house had turned grey. I knew that would not be a good draw for my pollinators. My daughter-in-law suggested I paint the butterfly house yellow. Anyone who has worn a yellow shirt in Iowa, in the summer, knows yellow draws insects!

Sunny Yellow!

This April, we were treated to some 80 degree days. I took advantage of the warm-and-not-humid days to spruce up the butterfly garden and paint my butterfly house. In the first picture, I raked up all the old mulch and we reused it later, on some newly planted evergreen trees. The second photo shows the butterflyhouse in its new yellow glory. Boy did that look bold. Like a beacon throughout the neighborhood, compared to the weathered gray wood. The third photo is of the finished garden: Flowers stenciled to the butterfly house, new mulch and a couple of new plants, too. Notice the watering dish I previously mentions is in the foreground.

It’s too early to tell if the butterflies will like their new and improved home, but I had so much fun doing this project anyway, and I think it really jazzes up the neighborhood! I love trying new and creative things. It’s fun to see what I can figure out how to do. Life long learning is crucial and I embrace it! You-Tube and Google make is so easy!

Until next time, try something new, something creative! I would love to see what you came up with. Maybe a new recipe? A new craft? Whatever you try, it will be worth your while!

And, as always, be good to yourself.

~Nadine