I’ve begun stocking up on my gardening supplies as I know, deep in my heart, that I will get to garden sometime this year. Right now, it seems unlikely, with the cool temperatures and rain every weekend. Still, I have faith and continuing collecting items for the gardening season such as:

Insect Repellant

Insect repellant, at least in southwest Indiana is not an option, it’s a necessity. Believe me, you’ve never lived until you have multiple chigger bites on parts of your body you simply cannot scratch. Benadryl becomes your very best friend. Mosquitoes (or “skeeters” if you’re from around here) and ticks are more than happy dine on you, make you itch or gross you out (and that’s not even mentioning the diseases they can carry).

Calamine Lotion

Calamine lotion is another “must have”, ‘cause if the skeeters don’t getcha, the poison ivy will! By the way, we don’t have poison oak in Indiana, what many people think is poison oak is really Virginia Creeper (Parthenocissus quinquefolia), a lovely native vine. Having said that, its sap can be irritating, so handle with gloves.

Herbicide

Another chemical “friend” that I try not to use is herbicide, but sometimes it’s unavoidable. On our property, we have invasive Autumn Olives that are too stupid to die. For the last ten years, I’ve tried to make them feel unwelcome, but they just don’t take a hint! I will cut them back to the ground, carefully dab a strong mix of glyphosate herbicide on the stump and they will keep growing. After I repeat this process three or four times a year for three or four years, they will finally give up. Sometimes.

Autumn Olive

It’s a real blast to try to dig up an Autumn Olive stump, too. First you dig around the stump, then use a pair of sturdy pruners to cut the roots; repeat, repeat, repeat. When the roots are too thick for the pruners, I get out Dad’s old ax. Trying to look like I know what I’m doing, I whack away at the roots until they are chewed through. Finally, it’s great fun to try to pull the stump out. I have tried, on various occasions, to leverage them out with a pickax; pull them out with our John Deere lawn mower, and even resorted to using a pickup truck and a logging chain. The pickup truck and logging chain incident has become family legend. Where is Wonderful Husband while I’m working on this? Keeping a safe distance, with a patronizing smile on his face, that’s where!

I’m sorry…I got carried away with the Autumn Olives. Another thing I can’t function without is a bandana tied around my head; it helps keep my hair and sweat from getting in my eyes. I’ve tried various styles of hats, from baseball caps to straw gardening hats, but all seem too hot and don’t manage the hair / sweat issues very well. So, I will never let myself run out of bandannas.

Gloves

Next, gloves, which I buy when they are on sale at Rural King and use until they are nearly rags or until I lose them, whichever comes first. Since I have to pass as an office professional during the week and I can’t seem to scrub all the dirt and stains off my hands, gloves are a necessity. Maybe I should try deducting them on my income taxes. Somehow, I don’t think the IRS would see the humor.

Finally, since I try to label all my perennials, I buy tent stakes ($0.99 / each at Rural King) I tie a plant label on the stake and stick it in the ground by each plant. I use an emboss-able metal label and write the plant name, the supplier and the month / year it was planted. Even in early spring, if I see a plant (tent) stake in the ground, I know there should be bulbs or plant coming up, no matter how bare the ground is now.  It give me hope!

Stay Green, Good Friends!