My Tasty Garden

I asked my friend Ann Kander if she would like to write something for my blog. I expected something along the literary line since Ann graduated from Smith College with a degree in English Literature and has steered our study group through five decades of excellent reading.

But every spring and summer, her garden captivates her. She spends hours planning, shopping and working to provide symmetry, diversity and beauty. Through her efforts, her family and friends are treated to one of the loveliest displays in Kansas City.

This year however, things have been different. We have had an inordinate amount of rain. Our humidity, rivaling that of a rain forest, may have contributed to her problems. In any case, I definitely understand her frustration.

Any helpful tips you can offer her will be most appreciated. Betty

My Tasty Garden

When my kids were little I loved to read the Peter Rabbit stories to them. Now I can just grit my teeth every time I look outside because there is my personal Peter Rabbit chewing everything in sight. He seems to live in the garden and when I knock on the window or got out and tell him to go away, he just sits there and looks at me, waiting for ME to go away.  He is indomitable and he is insatiable. He and his brothers (sisters, too) have demolished most of my perennials. This is a 46-year old garden and lots of the plants have been here for almost that long. So this year it’s goodbye to my phlox, my Echinacea, penstemon, lilies, coreopsis and most of the monarda.  No may can I have annuals unless I put cages around them. So now the whole place looks sort of like a prison…all cages and fences. The stuff they sell that is supposed to keep away the varmints doesn’t faze them. We have tried blocking every hole in the wooden fence…no good, they burrow beneath.

I AM FIT TO BE TIED.

Yours truly,

Mad Annie

Peter Rabbit