The Garish, Gorgeous Face Of Spring In The Garden State

"Gardeny?" The bones of Noah Webster are rattling in his coffin.

And is "swoonworthy" the Baristaville equivalent to "spongeworthy?"

Gardeny is a silly word I made up because it is spring. Have you been to the Flickr site so see some of the beautiful photos that have been posted?
Also, i got this correction from one of the photographers I highlighted, so I am passing it along to all: it's Eric Paparatto not Eric Paparotto. [sorry about that Eric!]
and he suggests that this is the best way to link to his work:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/ejpphoto/

Gardeny is a silly word I made up because it is spring. Have you been to the Flickr site to see some of the beautiful photos that have been posted?
Also, i got this correction from one of the photographers I highlighted, so I am passing it along to all: it's Eric Paparatto not Eric Paparotto. [sorry about that Eric!]
and he suggests that this is the best way to link to his work:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/ejpphoto/

Finally, our flowers are starting to come, as well as the nasty weeds. I've taken to reading Valerie Sudol's columns in the Ledger about gardening. A couple of weeks ago, she wrote about a blight that attacked her poor tulips. I read another article somewhere else about pachysandra blight. Tell me, where's the blight that attacks onion grass, poison ivy and dandelions? How come THEY always seem to thrive?

Miss Martta, allow me to suggest that you use the dandelions as a "bitter green" in a salad, or saute them like you do escarole and broccoli rape.(You've never noticed old "Mustache Pete" Italian-looking guys on the GSP verges picking dandelions?) If you don't have a doggy yet "fertilizing" your yard, it should be okay to eat your young dandelions. You could even turn them into wine, I recall the old guys in my neighborhood did that long, long ago, it was drinkable about the same time that their fig trees bore summer fruit.

And I have been to the Flickr site, Fran. It's nice, yes, and properly springlike. But as for "gardeny," well, even if it has been a slow news month (worse, there are three more days left of it), I think English is battered enough on this site.

Thanks, Cathar, but they are a mite too bitter for me. We have a chemical-free garden so we just dig everything up we don't like. We realize that this is laborious and time consuming but since we plan to have a pet, it's the only way.

Also, about natural fertilizers, i.e. manure. I read in the Ledger today that the only manure you should use in your garden/compost heap is that from herbivores: cattle, horses and sheep, for example. Manure from cats and dogs contains microbes and parasites that are dangerous. You learn something every day!

So, Cathar--can I assume that you did not swoon over "swoonifacient" either?
And I was so proud of that one!
Regarding dandelions: My Greek grandmother used to pick dandelions from our yard, cook them (steamed? boiled? I don't remember which) and dress them with olive oil, minced garlic, lemon, salt and pepper. They were bitter, indeed, but satisfyingly so. However, I can certainly see that they may be an acquired taste.

Actually, Fran, I quite liked "swoonifacient." (But then, I'm also reasonably sure I was one of the few readers of this site who knew what it means without heading to a dictionary for the "-facient" part, too.) Congrats there.

I just think dandelions are the same as any other bitter green, however. Yes, something you might be more familiar with if you grew up "ethnicy," but not all that hard a taste to acquire. An old dude at an outdoor fair down Vineland way after some gentle prodding once sold me a bottle of his dandelion wine, he got it out of the trunk of his car and he told me local bikers were his best customers. It reminded me of celery tonic, but with a real kick. Was about that color, too.

And congrats on 'ethnicy'. Very nice.
I've never had dandelion wine, but i've always wondered about it. what part of the dandelion is used--roots, flower, leaves, stem? I imagine it would have liver and kidney cleansing powers, in addition to the kick.

During my time in la belle France, I learned that one would never want to "manger des pissenlits par la racine".
That's a salad I'll be happy to forego for some time to come.

Croiagusnam, while I might understand your culinary caution, can we really trust a country which names one of its own favorite dishes "pissaladiere?"

Really! Pizza with no tomatoes or cheese? Sacre bleu! What WERE they thinking?

"Eating dandelions by the root" is akin to "pushing up daisies", so you can understand the reluctance.
Those people know how to eat and there's no arguing that, I think.