When Is Enough Going to Be Enough?

Another week, another mass shooting. 

This is wrong. We can all agree this is wrong. 

We can all agree that the people using guns to kill others in schools, churches, stores, movie theaters, hospitals, synagogues, spas, massage parlors, post offices, music concerts-- dear God where haven’t Americans been gun downed? We can agree that this use/misuse of guns is wrong.

We can agree that we have a RIGHT--“Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness”-- to be free from being murdered when we are out in our communities; taking care of business; playing on a playground; learning the alphabet; listening to music, practicing our religion; doing our jobs; buying groceries. 

We can agree that the Second Amendment is, in fact, also a part of our Constitution. We can agree that common sense guns laws make sense, and that we can have BOTH. We can have more safety rules, more accountability; we must ensure that people that have guns treat them with the responsibility and respect that gun ownership requires.

We gun owners should be leading the movement to STOP this incredible abuse of our Second Amendment privileges. 

We can choose to stop letting the lies, and the political infighting, get in the way of securing the unalienable RIGHTS enshrined in the heart of our beliefs.

We can agree that enough is FINALLY enough. We can agree to stop living with the acceptance of mass shootings as a cost of “freedom.” We can agree that that is terrorism, not freedom.

We can agree to DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT.

Enough. Enough is already too much, too many.

ENOUGH.

Garden Q & A, Part Two of a Zillion

 Last week Sue answered some questions that new gardeners--or gardeners new to our area--often ask.

 Don’t ask me why she’s referring to herself in the third person. No one knows. Perhaps she thinks it sounds more professional?

Q: What about planting “stinky” plants, like lilies, or lilacs, or lavendar?

A: Sometimes it works--elk will avoid highly fragrant flowers. Sometimes an elk comes along that has gone “nose blind” to the smell and then it’s bye-bye to your lovely lilies—even though they were in full bloom.

Q: What about bulbs in a container close to the house?

A: That’s an excellent way to try to minimize elk damage to your plants. It also helps if that plant/container isn’t already on their route to and from their favorite salad bar. Spray Invisible Fencing around and try playing talk radio near your container. Elk have a heck of a learning curve-- but sometimes double/tripling up on your defenses can stymie them. For a while.

Q: What can I do to keep elk out of my garden? I’ve heard good things about Invisible Fence/ Plantskyyd/ stinky rotten egg and garlic spray/ eye of newt and toe of frog*/ Irish Spring soap-on-a-rope/ hair from my hair brush/ a barking dog/a  playing radio all night/ if my kids pees on my plants? Will that keep elk away from my gardens?                                                                                                            

Day one: look at all the flowers!

A: I have tried all those methods—except the frog/newt one—and they all work!

 

Until they don’t.

 

Several years ago we were holding a wedding in the back yard and I was alternating spraying Invisible Fencing (smells of garlic and rotten eggs) and Plantskyyd (made up of what looks to be powdered blood—and smells like fetid carnivore breath) I was alternating them every week—which is a more frequent application than the packaging calls for but I was taking no chances. We managed to get to and thru the late July Big Day with only some minor damage to some outlying wildflower beds. The following week, however, was a different story. Even if your garden survives most of the summer —late summer is when elk turn in to ravenous demon spawn—all bets are off, all items are on the menu. 

Day Two: Look at all the nubs!
Elk damage over night
after a successful summer of keeping them out.
Nothing will stop elk when they have the fall munchies.

Garden Q & A, Part One of a Zillion

Welcome to Over My Garden Gate—a gardening column/blog in which I make jokes, talk about my grandkids, complain about elk—and the weather—occasionally politics—sometimes I might manage to complain about all three simultaneously-- but usually I like to keep my complaints more organize into separate bones of contention... Where was I? Oh, yes—sometimes I even talk about gardening, the pleasures--and perils-- thereof. 

 Recently, I was “doing some on-line research/relationship building”—AKA hanging out on Facebook with a local gardening group—when I realized two things: 1) I had just written about 300 words on FB about gardening challenges specific to elk and 2) I have a column due. Now. 

Because I am an excellent problem solver, I instantly decided to plagiarize myself. Below is a sample of the kinds of questions that are on local gardeners’ minds: 

Q: What plants won’t elk eat? 

A: No one knows. Elk might not “like” it—but that doesn’t mean they won’t eat/otherwise destroy it. There are some excellent lists out there for “low risk plants” —although your mileage may vary wildly. Elk taste is ever evolving. Something they avoid one season they can’t seem to get enough of in another. Sometimes it seems that taste is geographical. Cline Road elk may not eat the same things High Valley elk adore. My rule of thumb for the likelihood of elk eating it is: 
1)How much do you love it or
2)How much did you pay—because that proportionally increases the likelihood that they will *love* it too. 

Q: What about native plants? 

A: Good choice! if the elk find it boring they might not destroy. They might head right for that exotic, Blue Himalayan Poppy next door. Then again, they might view native plants as comfort food and chow down on your Rhodes that taste just like the one’s their mom used to nibble on. 

Check back later* when Sue answers even more questions, like what about stinky spray? 

* Unless her grandkids have done something incredibly cute—odds are good they might-- or the weather has done something extra egregious—let’s hope it doesn’t. Then she’ll undoubtably talk about that.

SPOILER ALERT:

Grandkids ALWAYS do something cute!

John holds "his baby," Lane

John cooks with Nana Sugar

Aiden entertains at breakfast

Gratuitous Photo of Grandkids

 You're welcome.

Let the wild rumpus start!

Perfect Storm is Perfect

 I have a bad habit of seizing on the first sunny day after the snow melts and declaring “Early Spring!”

Monday was perfect for such a declaration. We turned the calendar page from snowy February to springy March and the sun rose to meet the occasion. Yes, yes, I can hear all the literalist out there saying “actually, the sun rises every day” but I think you take my meaning. I’ll show you my poetic license if I must-- but now we are getting way down the bunny trail here and why do you always do this to me?

Where was I? Oh yes, Perfection.

A sunny start to a new week, a brand-new month. March is the month of Spring, of an extra hour of daylight, of green things—including green beer, but I shall not digress again. March is the perfect month of new beginnings.

Aiden Allen

I used my perfect day to go play outside with my grandson Aiden and it was marvelous. We played in his clubhouse. We examined tree bark, and needles and cones—some of which tastes better than you might imagine, just saying. We walked around his backyard a looked at all the growing things his mom has nurtured. Things that are now readying themselves to burst forth and bloom—and I can’t wait.

I started daydreaming about seedlings, about straw bales and garden centers...about trips to all my favorite nurseries....

Anyway—all of that is to say that Monday was such a perfect storm of Perfect that I plum forgot I needed to write a new Over My Garden Gate.

Sorry about that. Maybe next week?