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.