Collecting

Today we woke up to thunder, lightening, and rain showers. I am happy for the rain - it hasn't rained since Mother's Day weekend. I don't have to water the plants today. Plus, I am slightly more motivated to get some work done in my office. Which is good, as I have a small grant that I am submitting that is due tomorrow. It is done, now I am just waiting to get some signatures on it and I will be ready to send it off.

Collecting
My husband is a collector. Right now his current collections include robots and bobbleheads. I have not been as much of a collector. Yes, I do have books, and yarn. But I don't actively collect them. For example, if I were to collect yarn I would search out all sorts of different types of yarn - different wools, handspuns, cottons, strange yarn made from different plants, etc. Then I would not use them, but rather keep them for their own sake. Maybe I am splitting hairs here.

Anyway, Tuesday afternoon I decided I am going to collect plants. All plants of all different types. I partially feel guilty for planting non-native plants, but really, I love all plants: herbs, cultivated flowers, native plants. Ok - there are a few exceptions - I am not overly fond of stinging nettles and begonias I just don't really like. I also would not collect species invasive to where I live. I just want to be surrounded by a high diversity of really cool plants. I now find myself scheming on ways to increase my plant collection without spending a ton of money - can I take a cutting of oak-leaf hydrangea? What about hosta's? What about the red flowered honeysuckle growing over the fence from my neighbor's back yard? (NOTE TO SELF - check to see if it is considered invasive, as many honeysuckle species are). I am really becoming obsessed!

Here is one plant I am thrilled to have in my collection - The Missouri Evening Primrose (Oenothera macrocarpa), the plant I worked on for my Master's Thesis. It does not look like much now, but wait till the flowers open! Actually, I quite like the plant even when it is not flowering. It has nice glossy leaves with that wonderful white mid-rib. Also - red stems and red spots on the sepals of the flower buds.

Adventures in mulching

The sweet smell of mulch
Since planting up my pots, I have wanted to give them a layer of mulch to help prevent water loss. I knew I did not want to use the big, chunky cedar mulch I had used in my flower beds, and I had a vague recollection of seeing a small, almost pebbly-looking, mulch. This is what I wanted to use in my pots.

Yesterday, I stopped at the nursery on the way home from work. Yes, I did buy more plants - details will be forthcoming. As I was checking out, I saw they had a display with small samples of different mulches. I found just the mulch I was looking for - small pieces and a really pretty dark brown, called "Cocoa Mulch". It was a little pricey - about twice as much as cedar mulch ($8.99 I think), but it was exactly what I wanted, and I only needed one bag (2 cu. ft.).

When I got home and opened the trunk, it smelled delicious - like chocolate. I thought this was strange, as I did not have any chocolate in the trunk. But as I was unloading the mulch, I realized where the smell was coming from. I also realized that the "Cocoa" did not just refer to the color of the mulch, but to the source material. Trust me, I felt like a complete idiot for not realizing this sooner.

If you are not familiar with this mulch, it is actually made from the dried husks of cocoa beans. These husks are the by-product of producing chocolate. They smell like chocolate cookies, or cocoa puffs, or a chocolate poptart. An entirely pleasant smell, though not one usually associated with a garden. Apparently this mulch has wide usage amongst rose gardeners.

I really do like the look of the mulch.
Here are some of my potted herbs all mulched up. (Clockwise from top: Lavender, Basil, Rosemary, and in the small black pot - Lady's Bedstraw).

Since I had lots extra after mulching my pots, I also used it on my prairie patch, which was only lightly mulched in the first place.
I am not sure how I feel about the scent - it does smell wonderful, but it makes me hungry for chocolate and it seems out of place. I did read somewhere that the scent fades after 2 or 3 weeks.
A WARNING: since this mulch is produced from the cocoa plant, it does have the same chemicals that are toxic to dogs as chocolate has. Thus, use with caution if you have dogs.

An observation about mulching and experiential learning
Earlier this spring, I dug up two beds for planting flowers and vegetables in. At that time, the soil seemed nice and I did not think to mulch the beds. Well, not only did the soil become really hard on top, but more weeds were popping up than the seeds I planted. Of course mulching would have helped with both problems, and I knew this somewhere in my brain, but still I did not mulch. Even though one chapter in my dissertation dealt with how soil disturbances (i.e. bare ground) encourages the germination of weed seeds, I did not mulch. So I definitely had the "book" knowledge to know that mulching would be beneficial. It was not until I experienced what happened without mulching that it all came together. For me, this has been a lesson in how people learn - hand's on experience is a good thing! Now, I just need to keep it in mind as I am teaching next year.

But now . . .
It is summer, and I can work from home and enjoy the wonderful weather. This is one thing that makes all the hard work of earning my PhD worth it.


This summer, I am in vacation mode!