Wednesday, April 12, 2006

Feel like munching?

Ever take a bite of a leaf of a flower while gardening? Edible gardening is one way to enjoy your landscape. Check out all the edible flowers you can plant in your yard. Just be careful - from experience - do not plant edible plants next to your poisonous plants.

Once in my early days while doing a landscape consult, I was admiring a wonderful herb garden and bent down to pluck some wonderfully green chive-looking leaf and popped it in my mouth. Immediate I knew that this was a poisonous plant and that I made a big mistake. Not wanting to panic or show my complete idiocy at eating something I shouldn't have, I kept on talking and walking with the homeowner through her yard for about ten minutes, all the time thinking... "I'm going to die right here in this person's yard." I could see the headlines, "GARDEN EXPERT DIES WHILE ON THE JOB DOING SOMETHING STUPID".

While my tongue stung and my throat was closing up, I asked the homeowner what was that plant coming out of her ground next to the herbs. She answered innocently, "oh those are my daffodils, aren't they wonderful?" Daffodils are poisonous.

Quietly choking, I thanked her and nonchalantly cut the consult short and got in my car. I called Anna, the Master Gardener secretary and told her if I died before I got to the hospital what the problem was. I swore her to secrecy. Well, within ten minutes while driving back into town, my mouth settled down. I had something carbonated to drink and felt better. I didn't go to the hospital and I didn't die... but I could have been very sick or had severe consequences.

Don't plant edible plants next to poisonous ones. You never know what kind of expert 'idiot' will walk through your yard.

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