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Marigolds

What a lovely week of gentle rain, the marigolds are coming up and all the Italian herbs are filling in their front bed. Thanks everyone who dropped off really great flowers and plants for the birthday. The neighborhood kids are out playing hide and seek while the rest of us are stuck on paperwork indoors. Child laughter and muddy puddles is a specific joy too many of us forget as we get older. Worth remembering for a day. Speaking of fun, we’re a couple weeks out from Pentecost, a delicious yeast bread festival. Practically, it’s a chance to grill out and eat sweet treats and cakes with coffee. Or go to Boulted Bread in downtown Raleigh. Yet another whole grain bread shop worth trying. Enjoy. Have a nice week all. 

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Luffa Gourds

March is lovely right before Passover. Neighbors are busy building decks and cleaning outdoor grills. The shop will be closed for vacation from April 2nd-9th to spend time eating and enjoying loved ones company. Hopefully you will have fun this week too.  Trying to nail down sales trends as propaganda doesn’t match reality. The local plant swap by North Carolina Master gardeners was great. Wake country is busy winning awards for their compost program and rolling out $55-60 compost bins if you’re interested for May. They also sell finished products for $8-30/yard if you prefer. So many flowers to plant and a tiny cute child who came with his father excitedly handing out luffa seeds. You simply can not turn...

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Voilet Artichokes

This past weekend, the sky was perfect. The Duke basketball team is on a hot streak. Bars were full of drunk students and happy patrons cheering on their players. Luck of the Irish and Happy St. Patty’s Day mixing with sports glee. Went to a first seed swap which was delightful, if a little limited in heirloom selection so got to walk past tons of random laughter. Doesn’t nice weather bring out the best in people?

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Kiwi Berries

In a happy surprise, Food Lion has kiwi berries which is Southern chefs #1 fancy fruit for epic pastry desserts. Delicious. I’ve been sitting on this supernatural story as it doesn’t fit in a neat package, but let’s do something not, “Let’s start WW III in the Middle East.” Almost a decade ago, I was in a bad car wreck. The kind that leaves twenty plus broken bones, chronic pain, and since my ribs healed wrong, every breath for seven plus years felt like swallowing glass. You swallow that pain and learn to live with it. Two years ago, listening to a youtube scifi podcast by Rob Skiba and his guest Nathan Rynolds. Skiba was a well-known flat earther and...

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Tulips

Happy Purim! May you have a lovely day eating fun treats and exchanging gifts with the fellow women in your life. Checking out a new cute Netflix tv series, Nobody Wants This with Kristen Bell, which is getting good word-of-mouth reviews for a fun 90s style romance. Haven’t finished the series yet, so tentatively recommend, but Kristen Bell shines so far. The food is also good. Whole reason started watching the show. The last row for the spring beds goes in this week including the deep European beds beside the new walkways. One of the big lessons from the first year of gardening is a heavy hand with mulch and organic fertilizer makes the plants grow. We don’t need the...

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