Changing necessities

Today I read a report about changing perceptions of necessity versus luxury. A few months ago I posted a blog about how our dryer conked out and I was extolling the virtues of a clothes line in lieu of a dryer. In my blog I stated that 83% of Americans view the dryer as a necessity. Interestingly enough, this Pew report I read indicates that those numbers, in this economy, are now below the opinion levels of those surveyed about the necessity of a clothes dryer in 1983. Now only 66% of people indicate the dryer as a necessity.

I take the time to wash a couple of loads of clothes almost every day and I try to hang all of the clothes on the line. My line is not immense, and about one load at a time fits on it. Yet now that summer time temps are upon us (over 100 this weekend!), I find it takes no more than a couple of hours for the clothes to dry. Utilizing the power of sun and wind makes a difference when you're trying to pinch pennies in this economy!

In addition, I was intrigued by the other "necessities" in this report which are now seeing declining numbers. The microwave (down 21% since 2006), home air conditioning (down 16%), television (down 12%) and cable service (down 10%).

Our microwave is a monster model. It is harvest gold, has a dial rather than push buttons, and we rarely use it. I would venture to guess in three years I have used the microwave maybe a dozen times. I use the stove, bbq grill and the oven rather than the microwave. Partly it's because when I do turn that beast on, I'm a little leery to even be in the house while it's running for fear of radiation! And that fear makes me realize that when I do utilize it, what I'm blasting into my food isn't necessarily something that is good for my body! We don't eat or buy convenience foods--those boxed meals with excess packaging and bland, over processed food just don't appeal to me. I prefer whole foods as much as I can get them. I occasionally use canned foods, but that's about the limit--unless you count boxed crackers! Warming my food is a snap on the stove with the help of a double boiler, though my goal when cooking is try to limit the amount of leftovers.

As for television, well, you know how I feel about that! Since the digital conversion our television has been turned on very little--we have watched a few movies on it. Out of curiosity one day not long after the conversion I thought I'd take a look to see what all static looks like. I was surprised to see the religious channels and Spanish speaking channels still coming through! I haven't missed watching TV, nor do I give it much thought. Actually lately I've been thankful it's a non-entity!

The reality is: we don't really "need" much more than a roof over our head, food to eat, and water to drink. The luxuries that make our life a little less hectic are just that--luxuries. What do most people do with all that extra time the dryer and microwave affords? Watch television! Though, apparently less people see the need for that too.

What in the heck is it?

Several months back, as I was planning my garden, I was very interested in companion planting and learned that borage grows well with tomatoes. I had never heard of borage, but found some seeds at the store, so I decided to go ahead and include them in my garden. Wow! What a plant! Often people ask me "what the heck is it?" when I point it out in my garden. I did a little research and thought I'd share it with you.

First of all, borage is edible--the leaves are most tasty when young. The plant is hairy all over and the consistency is a little strange to get used to, but the leaves taste like cucumber and make a great addition to salads. The flowers are edible too. Second of all, when you plant this in your garden, make sure you leave a lot of room for it to grow. Though the flowers are tiny, the plant itself can grow up to two or three feet tall and just as wide! Bees love the flowers, which is another added bonus if you are growing organically.

Grown as an herb, this plant is popular in Europe, and it is most often used in Germany, Spain, and Italy. In Germany the popular Frankfurter Grüne Soβe (Gruene Sosse) uses borage along with many other herbs.

Perhaps most importantly, at least in my mind, borage grows well with tomatoes. It is said that borage repels the tomato worm and makes tomatoes taste better if grown together. In my garden I have a ring of borage intermixed with nasturtiums, marigolds, and basil (all also make excellent tomato companions) surrounding four tomato plants. Whether they taste better will be the subject for a later post!

Creative Gardening

I guess it's been a while since I posted an update about my garden. Surprisingly it's coming along very well! Already we've enjoyed the bounties of our harvest--plenty of lettuce salads with borage leaves, radishes, and basil tossed in, all courtesy of our garden. We've also enjoyed turnips and beets as well as swiss chard. I went out yesterday to weed a little and as I was readjusting the cucumbers to climb the trellis, I noticed I had several green beans ready to pick! We ate those last night.

I also noticed that my tomato plants are growing so large (remember those tomatoes I was fussing about earlier this spring???) that they're beginning to droop onto the ground. As I don't want to spend money on tomato cages, and because I have a whole pile of dried bamboo laying in the yard, I did a little research to figure out a way to make tomato cages out of bamboo. Already I've poked a stalk of bamboo next to some tomatoes, but it's just not enough to support all the branches. I found an article at e-how about "How to Build a Bamboo Tomato Cage" and adapted it for my tomatoes. As I was building the first cage today I realized there is no magic one size fits all tomato cage since everyone's tomato needs are different. I have some areas where I have two or four tomatoes of varying heights and sizes growing along side one another, and I have other areas where I have a lone tomato plant. They are spread throughout my garden. In order to make most efficient use of the bamboo as well as my space, I built one cage that supports two plants today.

As you can see, it is important to build a tomato cage with the proper supervision. Ami passes by just in time for the camera to go off, on her way to a shady spot where she casually watched my progress.

I planted the three back poles first, and then beginning with the bottom, I added smaller stalks broken from the top of the bamboo poles (some of the poles are well over 10 feet tall!), working from the bottom up. I used zip ties to hold the sides in place. It's not perfect--as I worked along I realized ways I could have built the cage and used less zip ties. Next time I'll run one long pole across all three rather than shorter ones linking each bamboo pole. I did this along the back, but for some reason (maybe the sun was getting to my brain?) I didn't do that on the front. I'm not sure I like the looks of plastic zip ties in my garden, but you do what you gotta do!