HOME&GARDEN Pure Magic


And Discovery by Kimberly Childers • Mizzkimberly@outlook.com


tom and other thought-pro- voking facts, I realized that’s where it all be- gan, my passionate love affair with plants and gardens. Dur- ing the hotter than hot sum- mer days my younger sister


parents in Glen Rose Texas where impres- sions of Thera- pod Dinosaur tracks dotted the Paluxy river


Y bot-


Years ago, when I was a blue-eyed little girl visiting my grand-


Debra and I used to play in the bubbling creek winding down to the river. We loved visit- ing Glen Rose because for us it was two short summer weeks of pure magic and discovery. Tall, heirloom red cannas and a small garlic- lined fenced orchard in the back yard o v e r l o o k e d


the river. Twenty feet down the tangled grassy hill ran the thick Paluxy. Our grand- mother, Ruby, told us spear-


mint grew wild along the creek that fed into the river. She showed us how to dig up long minty roots and find empty spots along the creek to plant along the mossy em- bankment. Water loving mint grows fast especially on the edge of a creek and our plants


upbeat@upbeattimes.com Weird Facts & Trivia - 8


85% of plant life is found in the ocean.


Lots of plants are used as dyes. You can colour cloth with stewed onion skin, tea bags or walnut juice. One of the oldest blue dyes comes from a plant called ‘woad’ that has been used since Neo- lithic times – more than 6,000 years ago.


70,000 plant species are utilized for medicine


Dandelion is completely edible, from the petals to the roots.


flourished. We checked up on our handiwork when we vis- ited each following year and recalled planting them with our little hands long ago and far away. I wish for that sparkling creek again some - time, but it is still


Cooling leaves are used in mint juleps, jellies, choc- olate-mint ice cream and....


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26 • February 2019 • UPBEAT TIMES, INC.


in my heart. Sigh. . . I now grow mint in my own big accommodating pots where they can’t wander! I harvest them regularly for tea, tisanes, decoctions and to dry as a potpourri ingredient. Overgrown containers need to be divided every year or two and repotted, given to friends and planted back into the re- furbished pots enriched with light soil amendments. Labiatae Mentha spicata, botanically speaking, is an herbaceous perennial, 12-18 inches tall. The bright green lanceolate pointed leaves on their square stems can be used as an appetite stimulant, an- tiseptic, stomachic, and for


...continued on page 27 Creative thinking inspires ideas. Ideas inspire change. ~ Barbara Januszkiewicz


Plants can recognize their siblings and give them preferential treatment, competing less for valuable resources like root space than when surrounded by plants that are strangers.


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