Evening star., 1946-07-20
This and That
By Charles E. TraceUell.

Making the most Of things in the
garden
Not every one does it, but now and
then some person crops UP who knows
how.
Consider the following lines from
correspondent living on Huidekoper
place:
I cannot sing the praises OF birds
high enough. For aside from the Joy
of their music and their gay plumage,
they are very useful in deyouring leaf
eaters and harmful caterpillars and in
sects, they also bring seeds from afar
and drop them in our garden.
I'VE have new blossoms every sum-
mer. I have an album of sketches and
prints made from these wildings; among
them 1 have the pokeberry, the black
berry, golden rod, yarrow, Queen Anne's
lace, daisies and asters and evening
primrose
Now, we like that. When you con-
slider all the garden grouches of thou
sands OF people, it is fine to discover
one who takes things as they come-and
who likes them
The liking is the marvellous thing.
Haven't you heard people say, "Oh,
iook aL tIlS OlQ WeeQ!'P
Their whole day was spoiled, But
actually the "old weed" was a marvel
Gus plant. Take the pokeberry. Who
can fail to sense the romance in it, "red
ink" and everything?
In the old days, it was used as a
medicine, too.
Pokeberry juice-even the name is
used to describe the coloration of the
purple finch, one of our best native birds.
Pokeberries out of place-can such a
nne plant be out of place anywhere?
Yet to hear some persons fume, YOU
would think such beauties as Queen
Anne's lace would ruin home garden,
Many wise persons, however, actually
buy plants of these and others, so that
their small places may have a few of
the true creatures of the world,
American Colonial history is full of
plants. Not only were many brought
over from the old country, but native
Wlld plants were everywhere, and the
INDIANS knew how to use them for their
best health. They taught the white men
their use. Up until about 1850. these
plants and the materials got from them
oy soaking in water were used to cure
many human ills. At least those who
used them had faith in them, and faith
Is great deal, even TODAY.
Many fine old roadside plants do well
IN cultivated yards. The only trouble
with them, OF course, is that left to
themselves they may do too well. A
little attention Is necessary, before they
get out of bounds.
Never let wild plant, transplanted by
birds or by hand, get out of bounds.
Then, truly, it knows no bounds.
We have had wild potato vine for
l6 years. 1t is torn down and up by the
roots-as far as they can be found
every summer, but the next year. here IT,
comes again.
This life in the wild things of earth
is wholesome. Civilization does some
thing to men and plants. It deyitalizes
the tissues, so that germs and other
1nimlcal factors can get an entry.
Maybe it is lack of vitamins, or some
thing.
Well, at any rate. something has hap
pened to us. Listen to all the people
sneezlng, summer and winter. People
oughtn't to sneeze that way.
Wild plants, and maybe wild men. in
pure state of nature, didn't mind
germs SO much. They could throw them
of.
Perhaps it is too late, for most of us,
but it Is wholesome to be wise enough
to welcome few of the plant wildings.
no matter how they come to our gar
dens, to see the beauty and natural
wholesomeness in them, and to refuse to
grow red in the face because they dare
to occupy the same good earth with
some of the more sophisticated plants.
These, in the beginning, were wild
plantS ton