Echinacea is an herbaceous flower commonly called coneflowers. That means they are edible. Daisies have been my favorite flower since I can remember. Echinacea is in the daisy family and since being edible it is not harmful to pets. For this reason, I planted three flowers in my front flower bed two years ago. The flowers were ridiculously small the year I planted them, and I was not sure they would live over winter. The next year they came back and were a little bigger but still three plants.
This year they exploded all over my entire flower bed. I got so many compliments and my neighbor asked if she could get some of the seed heads for her flower gardens next summer. We trade flower starts a lot and she has given me several, so of course I gave her some. I also got a request for seeds from my sister-in-law and will be mailing them too her as soon as I am finished drying them enough to shake all of the seeds of them.
In doing some research this spring I also discovered that it is not only not harmful to pets, but some people make a tea out of it and give to their cats to boost their immune system and help with stress. I am careful with my cats, so I googled it and read many articles and they all said it was safe for cats if they nibble on it.
KitKat loving it
My sons’ cat, KitKat lives with me while he is in the Navy. She is the one that always wants to nibble at my house plants or if I bring in cut flowers. I research every house plant to make sure it safe because I know she will get into it. So, I cut one flower and put it in a vase where she could get to it jus to se her reaction. She started nibbling on the petals as soon as she set eyes on it, so all summer I have kept at least one fresh flower in that vase.
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In a previous post I spoke of how many generations in my memory have passed on their love of nature. My Grandmother Grace was the daughter of my great grands that owned the greenhouse. By the time I was born they were farmers. In our yearly trips to visit Indiana, where most of our relatives lived, we would stay on the farm with them. I was very young then and do not remember everything, but the memories of the love of nature and how to take care of the land and the animals was imprinted on me. My uncle and his kids lived across the street from my grandparents. Uncle was a hard worker and helped Grandpa with the farm work. He was quite a character. He had a nickname for everyone and joked around and laughed a lot. If you crossed him it was another thing, he could be profoundly serious, but I remember the joking fun side of him. Grandmas name was Grace Violet. I think all her siblings had a flower name for first or middle name as her parents had the green house and loved flowers. My uncles nickname for her was Gracie Purple.
I think the nickname game started with my Grandfather. He had a nickname for the first daughter of his three children. I have no idea how or why he chose our nicknames and they did not sound at all like our real names. Mine was Penelope. My older cousin was Deke and my younger cousin was Phoebe. I do not remember Grandpa calling me by my real name, but I did not care. I kind of liked my nickname and it made me feel special. For some reason I called him Obadiah. I was so young when I chose that name for him, that I have no idea why, but I called him that until he died and still do.
The Farmer’s Wife
Grace on the right with Dad’s mother
Grandpa and Uncle planted and acre of the farm in a garden for Grandma to put up food for the winter. Most of my memories of her are in the kitchen cooking the next meal and cleaning whatever food from the garden that would be canned or frozen that day. Grandpa went to work at a factory during the day and did farm work when he got home, grandma always had a big meal prepared for him when he got home. While he was gone, she might be cleaning a bushel of corn on the cob and preparing it for the freezer. Sometimes it was green beans to be canned or cucumbers being turned into pickles. In the middle of all that she also baked pies and cobblers from scratch. Mince meat pie for Thanksgiving if we happened to visit that time of year was not my favorite but her berry cobblers were the best I have ever tasted. I asked one time if she would give me the recipe, but she said she did not have a recipe. She just made it. Grandma often shooed us all out of the kitchen while she cooked. I vaguely remember a table where I would sit and draw pictures and watch her so I could see how she did things. If I were quiet and did not get in her way, she would let me sit there.  She even gave me one of her knick-knacks to try and draw. Grandma saved all the scraps from the garden and dinner when she was done for the evening. Nothing ever went to waste. They raised hogs, so all that went out to slop the hogs as she called it. Her days were long and busy on the farm.
The Farmer’s Strength Yet Gentle Nature
Obadiah
Grandpa had an office where he went to work on stuff. I don’ know much about that but I think it was mostly paperwork for the farm and doing taxes. The one thing I do remember is how he had papered the walls. Every wall was papered with newspaper articles. I do not remember what the articles were about, but I do remember thinking it was fascinating I enjoyed looking at the articles. We were not allowed in there unless Grandpa invited us, so I did not see it often. I also remember him taking me with him to do the evening chores after dinner. He had a dog named Mickey and his dog went with him anytime he was outside. Grandpa showed me the moon and said there was a circle around the moon and that meant it was going to rain. He showed me lots of things, but I always remember the moon and I think of him anytime I am outside at night and look up at the sky checking what the moon might be saying that night. We went back to bring the cows back from grazing in the fields to the barn for the night. I did not know much about cows before spending time with Grandpa. All I knew was that cows made milk and hamburger. Grandpa would call his cows by name and Mickey would help steer them toward the barn. To me they seemed more like a pet than a food source. They would come to him when he called their name and he would pet them like a big old dog. It was so obvious that Grandpa loved his animals.
What I learned from this second generation of nature lover ancestors is that if you take care of the land and the animals, they take care of you. I have tried my best to take the lessons from the Great Grands and the Grands and apply them to my life wherever possible.
Here is my latest example of gardening and recycling. I walked around my yard this spring finding things that were hidden behind Lilacs and Trumpet Vines and other such things, that more than doubled since they were first planted. All these plants were starts from other plants I already had growing in other areas. At the very bottom of the picture you will see Chocolate Mint. I can’t really remember how long ago I planted it. We have lived here about 29 years and I generally plant one or two new things each year. Mostly I just get starts from old plants Or friends and neighbors sharing starts, only buying one or two new plants and maybe a few for my vegetable garden.
The Chocolate Mint could be a blog in itself. My boys were young when I started growing it. They were fascinated with the idea of playing outside and just picking a leaf or two off of it to chew on for a bit. Freshening their breath and tasting enough like the candy that Dad let them have a bite of once in awhile. I was fascinated with the idea that two little boys could be happy with something natural with no sugar. I had enough to harvest the second year and would dry it to make tea or add to my “Feel Better Tea” all winter. My oldest son had friends over a lot. I made a big pot of Chocolate Mint tea and poured to over ice for me. One of the friends asked if he could taste it. I of course told him he could and if he liked it, he could have as much as he wanted. I think he drank at least half of it and next time he came over he wanted me to make it again. He is grown now and I haven’t seen him for a bit. Someday I will have to ask him if he would like a start of it. My son is grown now, in the Navy and I rarely get to see him. He tells me that when he gets his own place someday, he wants starts of all his favorite tea ingredients.
The pot on the very top sitting on the cart has a volunteer Weeping Cherry Tree in the center. I have the loveliest huge Weeping Cherry in my front yard. We have four lots on the edge of town. Most of the neighbors have the same. When we moved here we thought it was like living in the country only there were very few trees on our property, no wild flowers, flower or vegetable gardens either. So we planted our own. The Weeping Cherry Tree was the first tree we planted. It has already lived longer than they are supposed to. It bloomed either on Easter or my birthday (April First) every year until recently. It was struck by lighting two years ago and we had someone cut all the dead out, that was mostly high up in the top of it. I noticed a little more dead limbs this year and my younger son trimmed the lower limbs. Still a few I need to get trimmed. I mentioned that to my Sailor son a few weeks ago and he said he would love it if I would save some seeds for him so he can have a baby tree from his favorite old tree. There was a rain storm shortly after and all the blooms where blown away, so when I later found this volunteer baby tree I immediately found a place to transplant it. The plants in the center of that pot had died and I hadn’t looked for anything to replace them yet, so the baby tree landed there. I wasn’t really sure how it would do, but I wasn’t losing anything but a little time which I enjoyed anyway. To my surprise it is doing very well and my son is happy about getting a baby tree instead of just a few seeds. I hope to get another volunteer next year in case my old tree ever dies I will plant another.
The cart was donated to me many years ago when my sisters two girls were moving out of a trailer and had a big rummage sale along with the small town yearly festival and rummage. I can’t remember which of the two it belonged to. I showed up early to help my sister who had a booth on the main street with the festival and the girls whose trailer was just a couple blocks away. A lot of stuff was sold that day, but the cart was still there and they offered it to me. It had been white but was mostly rust colored when I brought it home. I cleaned it up and dusted the rusty places with a light green spray paint. I liked how it turned out. We have a long wooden fence all the way down the side of our driveway. It was so plain looking that I decided to plant a couple Lilacs and two Trumpet Vines in between. I set that old cart by the fence along with several other things trying to dress up that fence the best that I could. That was probably about ten years ago. The Lilacs and the Trumpet Vines now cover the fence in a large area. I dug that old cart out and placed in front of my living room window and started piling on bits and pieces of pots and plants that were buried here and there behind other growing things. Most of the green paint has worn off and the rust is showing through here and there, but I like it the way it is. May need a little more paint in the future, but I will worry about that when the time comes.
I have been a lover of nature since I can remember. I suppose it is in my genes. My Great Grandparents owned a greenhouse. I did not grow up in the same state as my ancestors but we used to take a trip about once a year to visit them. My fondest memories were of Great Grandfather. He had a place by the window and he would sit there and open the window a few inches. Putting a few nuts in his hand and reaching it out the window, a squirrel climbed down from the nearby tree and started eating out of Grandpa’s hand. That was my first memory of him and I was fascinated by him from that day on. Grandpa also fed birds from that window. They would also eat out of his hand.
Two large wooden boards were hung above Grandpa’s desk. One had several different sea shells mounted on it. Under each shell there was a little piece of paper with a description typed on it. It would tell the name of that type of shell and where he found it. I suppose they must of been from places he traveled and good memories for him. The other board was done the same way, only it was rocks of all kind, sizes and shapes. I was so impressed that I ended up collecting rocks and shells from many places myself. I never got around to mounting any of them, but I use them in my gardens and indoor plants.
I will always have fond memories of my Great Grandparents even though I only visit them for a few years. All I really remember about Grandma was her bent over putting something in or taking something out of the oven. Since we visited so seldom, all the nearby family members would come and visit while we were there. Grandma baked all kinds of things and always had cookies or some such thing, warm out of the oven when guests arrived. My Grandpa used to say “I always eat my desert first. That way I will know I have room for it”. I wonder if that was part of why they got on so well. Grandma loved baking deserts and Grandpa loved eating them.
