NOW THAT IS TOOOOOO FUNNY!!! NEAL!

Brilliant!

LOL!!!

When David Hall exhibited the first pink iris, he was accused of dyeing it a la 'Alice in Wonderland' & the painted roses.

I guess one of the strangest (plant related???) questions I have ever been asked was when the Master Gardeners were holding a plant exchange at the local library. A young lady, flanked by several older women, approached me all looking very serious. The young lady held out a small jar containing a weird and wild looking insect in it and said 'what is this?'..... I said 'bug'. Well, what I actually said was something like 'that looks interesting, since I am not an entomologist you should take that to the Extension Office and ask our Agent, blah, blah, blah...' I told her that the reason this is important is 'so that it can be determined if this is something new in this area and needs to be reported in case it is eating our precious natural environment or...... in case it is an alien and if it gets out of its jar tonight we will never see you again'...... well, maybe I didn't say that last part but give me a break I was speaking on organic gardening. I could see in their faces that they were very disappointed that I had failed them.

I guess, as 'experts,' we're supposed to know it all? Golly...

Heaven knows I would be rich if I got money for every time I have had people ask me about dinosaur bones after learning I'm an archaeologist. They are so disappointed when I tell them that is a question for a paleontologist. Ah well. Now when I am out in the gardens I get people asking about all sorts of plants, and they have that same look of disappointment when I tell them I really don't know enough about roses, or whatever, to help them.

At this stage in my gardening journey, I've just about come to the conclusion that there are no black and white answers to gardening questions, most of the time at least. We use books and conventional wisdom to start, then it becomes more about trial and error, and developing our own methods that work in our very individual and unique little patches of earth.

Oh, so true, Neal!

Leslie, when I was five someone told me that if I dug straight down for a long long time I could get to China. If I were five I would ask you about that.... and about dinosaur bones. LOL

Leslie, I think you'd find gardening in this yard interesting- the original part of this house was built in the late 1700s- early 1800s (that's as close as we've been able to narrow it), so I find bottles and pieces of pottery from various times. I've always enjoyed imagining who lived and gardened here before me.

Old houses always keep the energy from the previous people who lived there. They can be happy houses or sad ones. Do you think gardens do the same Neal?

I do. We've had to work hard to make our gardens happy again. It felt so sad because the previous owner lost her husband and quit doing anything. We had to scrub everything and start over. After 10 years, it feels happy again.

I do, while gardens usually have a peaceful or uplifting energy left from the past, I have run across gardens that felt sad to me, to sometimes later find they were pet burial sites. The same feeling at old cemeteries where old stands of Iris, Peonies, and Roses still bloom.

Cemtetries so often have memorial plants. Last time I was in the Burton plot (quite a few years ago) there was a dogwood tree nearby. I hope it's still there.

Even some cemeteries have both sad and happy places.

I have been in gardens that were so happy and welcoming that I did not want to leave and I have been in a few, like one by an old stagecoach stop, that made my heart so heavy I could feel the weight in my chest. I could not have worked in that area. I found out later that there had been a swing from the big tree where a young lady sat frequently and that is where she died. All the old plants grew well in that area but they were allowed to grow as they wished.

I have always felt places can be happy or sad, and if you belong or not. That said, I rarely find cemeteries sad. Maybe because I grew up playing in the one to the side of our house. I never had a fear of death or the dead. Really old cemeteries attract me like magnets. I am sure I have driven some of my friends crazy while travelling in Europe and trudging out through cow pastures to old cemetery sites. Especially love the ones that are built atop of even older sites, such as burial mounds, and old hill forts, and inside of stone rings. Many old burial mounds in the midwest are in the middle of cemeteries now because some distinguished family chose to inter themselves in with the ancient burial.

And yes, Neil, I would be quite happy puttering around in your garden looking for bits and pieces. I use an archaeology trowel instead of a garden trowel in my garden, so I would have to bring that along!

Leslie, what is your area of specialization?

blue devil habitat and cultural integration to tar heel landscape. Minor wolfpak influence must be calculated for true picture.

Hahahaha. Really good one Greg, but that would make me a cultural anthropologist (oooh noooooo!).

Osteoarchaeology. I work with all the animal and human bones found at sites. Do mostly pre-historic, which in the US is any time after about 300 years ago, less out west. We are youngun's as a country.