Robert Dailey's Blog

Posted by Robert Dailey

To date, I’ve taught my two-year-old granddaughter (Madison) how to use metal spoons to achieve maximum clanging noise by banging them against resonant metal objects.

I’ve determined that pots and pans make the best, most irritating sounds. Empty washers and dryers are pretty good too.

I taught her how to use a flyswatter and to say “got that dumb fly.” Her overprotective mother, my daughter, told me at dinner the other night, “I don’t know where she gets all this stuff,” although the accusing look she shot at me told me she suspects.

Maddy follows me out to the garden without so much as a “by your leave” from her mother. If I’m in the garden and she’s here, she’s in the garden. Mom might think she’s sitting under the coffee table playing with her cuddlies, but that slamming door mom just heard was Maddy slipping out to the garden with Poppy.

Here’s how it works in the garden with Maddy. I plant seeds, she meticulously removes them and throws them on the walking path. She picks green tomatoes when I’m not looking and hides them empty planting pots.

Maddy also eats dirt. She inspects bugs. She has been bitten by mosquitoes. She was scratched on the finger and nose by the cat as she tried to deposit him into the compost tea container (it was a kind, not malevolent gesture on her part…she wanted to give him a bath).

She’s fallen in the garden and scraped her knees. She rides in my garden wagon atop a mount of soil and strewing it along the path. I always arrive with half the load I started with.

She’s got her own garden gloves and a plastic trowel and hand rake.Her mommy’s hoping for a prim and proper little girl. Got news for her.

Posted by Robert Dailey

I tried to teach my children gardening. I’ve been extremely successful with one. The others have expressed varying degrees of disinterest. My oldest daughter didn’t even like to be outside. Now, she’s itching to get out and have a garden.

My son's tactic was to become "flower blind." I can’t tell you how many amaryllis, herbs and plants have been destroyed by an errant lawn mower (him, not the machine). I asked him to weed once but those “weeds” he pulled were actually fledgling eggplants, beans and cucumbers.

One daughter, when in her teens, actually liked to mow, although I think that the idea of her pushing that lawnmower in shorts, in full view of the boys in the neighborhood had something to do it.

My second youngest daughter thinks that the purpose of outdoors is to provide a place for a bench to chatt with her boyfriend.

My youngest daughter is the gardener. She’s tagged along behind me in the garden since she was old enough to walk. She’s eaten dirt and earthworms, and I let her. She was (and still is) in the garden with me often. When younger she taught me a lot about gardening

Like don’t leave open seed packets lying around. They like to stick those seeds in improbable places. The larger seeds like lima beans are pretty easy to detect protruding from a nostril. Tiny radish seeds are impossible to see. I know it’s totally unrealistic and silly, but I had nightmares about these things.

“Doctor,” I would say (in my dream). “I’m not sure what’s going on but she’s complaining of an earache and I’m noticing little green things sprouting in there.”

And the doctor says “it’ll be okay. Just give her two of these slow-release fertilizer capsules and call me in the morning.”

Posted by Robert Dailey

My dad had a garden for each season, although in southern Louisiana, there are only two real seasons: really hot and not so hot.

So our garden had tomatoes, peppers, beans, squash, cukes, watermelons, cantaloupes, garlic, onions, potatoes, and a few exotics dad tried out each year.

We were expected to weed, help haul and amend soil, build rows, plant, harvest, consign spent plants to the compost heap then help mama preserve and can the harvest.

We also had satsumas, lemons, oranges, pears, plums and figs. In the spring, we picked dewberries and a little later, blackberries.

I remember lazy fall afternoons lying under a Satsuma bush, pulling down the fruit, peeling away the thick, loose rind, pulling the ready-made slices apart and biting into each one, feeling the tart-yet-sweet pulp and juice hit the back of my throat.

Or in the winter, putting syrupy-sweet fig preserves on hot buttered homemade breakfast biscuits

Fresh blackberries were made into blackberry cobbler, or dumplings, and finally, jelly.

The last summer before I went away, I vowed I would never, ever, get caught in a garden again for the rest of my life.

Having said all that, I was just outside checking on my tomatoes. The plants have stopped producing and are basically spent. However, there are still some nice green shoots, so I’m layer rooting the shoots. In about a week, I’ll have some rooted clones (tomatoes clone very easily). I’ll snip these loose from the mother plant and plant the new clones, which I’ll then plant. That way, I’ll have some fall tomatoes.

Got to get some bush bean plants as well as some squash for the rest of my fall garden. Once it gets a little cooler I’ll sow some turnips, radishes and greens.

So much for my non-gardening vow.

Posted by Robert Dailey

I love to give my wife and daughters plants as gifts. Mainly for selfish reasons. The plants usually languish on some table or corner somewhere, until I can “rescue” them and blend them into my landscape.

So the patchouli plant was great. It smelled so good, and my wife loves incense. I planted it in front of my miniature bamboo. I see my garden with the same eye as I think an artist would paint a canvas, carefully matching colors, textures, sizes, aroma, dinensions.

I realized that the patchouli was placed too close to the bamboo. For two reasons.

One, I wanted it closer to the pathway, so that a casual brush against it, or a stirring breeze, could waft the scent up to the passer by.

Two, I needed another plant, taller than the patchouli, something with darker and broader leaves.

Therefore, I dug up the happy patchouli and moved it about two feet forward in the bed.

My wife walked out into the garden to pick a ripe tomato or two. And saw the wilted patchouli, splayed out over the mulch like a drunken cowboy.

And she was not happy.

“My patchouli,” she sputtered. “What happened? What did you do?”

I did the honorable thing. I blamed it on Leon, our exuberant boxer, who was recently reprimanded for destroying a newly planted rhododendron with natural urea.

Somehow, though, I think she really knows I committed the murder. First of all, she knows that Leon, as smart as he is, lacks opposing thumbs and therefore would have a very difficult time transplanting the patchouli plant. And secondly, I answered too fast. Any rookie cop would have noticed immediately how quickly I answered her question, as though I had already prepared an alibi.

By the way, I'm heading out to the nursery tomorrow to find another patchouli plant.

Posted by Robert Dailey

In parts of the tropics, vitex (Vitex agnus-castus)leaves are used as a repellant for armyworm, diamondback moth, hairy caterpillar, rice leaf folder, rice stem borer, and semi-looper, among others.

Here’s how to make it:

Tools and Supplies

• ¼ kg (1/2 pound) of vitex leaves
• Two liters (4.2 pints) of water
• 1 ml (1/2 teaspoon) of liquid soap
• A pot to steep the mixture
• A strainer
• A spray bottle

Process

• Soak the leaves overnight in about a half liter of water. The next day, bring the mixture to a boil and boil for a half hour.
• Let it stand until room temperature and then strain the liquid.
• Back into the pot, add the remaining liter and a half of water, then the soap. Mix well.
• Place the mixture into a spray bottle and spray infested plants. Make sure you spray thoroughly, getting under leaves and on stems as well as over the top of leaves.

Safety Precautions

Although the mixture should not have any effect on humans, some people may develop a slight rash. Therefore, it is necessary to use proper safety precautions, just as you would for any substance.

• Clean all utensils well after brewing.
• Wear protective clothing, safety glasses and breathing mask before applying.
• Wear rubber gloves when brewing the mixture and when handling it.
• Keep out of reach of children and pets.
• Harvest fruit before spraying.
• Use a potash-based soap.
• Remember to wash hands after handling.