A Choice of Color and More C Than Beans

When Agnolia saw Amy coming down the walk she said, "What did you do to your yard. It looks beautiful!" Amy, obviously pleased with Agnolia's observation, said,

We just followed the directions in Lewis and Nancy Hill's new book, The Lawn & Garden Owner's Manual. The Hills are the folks who wrote Daylilies. When we bought the house we had lots of Daylilies in the back garden and I didn't know what to do with them, or how to take care of them. The garden center suggested Daylilies. The book is excellent. I didn't realize until I bought the book that the entire daylily is edible from the roots to the flower. They have been eating Daylilies in the Orient for centuries. We tried the roots, they have a nut like flavor but I don't like pulling up the roots. I use a lot of daylily flowers in salads. They come in so many different colors, the salads look gorgeous. Each color had a slightly different flavor. I'm particularly fond of the yellow ones. Sometimes I cook the Daylilies and serve them as a vegetable. I read in Daylilies that they have more Vitamin C and protein than either green beans or asparagus, and Little Amy likes them better than Green Beans.

We were so impressed with the way the Hill's organized Daylilies that when Harold and I heard they had a new book, The Lawn & Garden Owner's Manual, we bought a copy. We knew the yard was looking awful, but we didn't know where to start. The book is a working manual. The first chapter has a check list to help plan the tasks. This is followed by a list of chores and tasks to be done during each of ten seasons. We have done all things that were recommended for "Early Spring," "Mid-Spring" and "Late Spring." This weekend we are going to start the "Early Summer" list. I like the way the book is organized, and I also like the fact that the Hills encourage the use of natural pest and insect controls. I didn't realize until I read The Lawn & Garden Owner's Manual that by setting our mower higher the grass would actually help keep down the weeds by shading the little weeds.

The book has an entire chapter on ornamental grasses. I'm thinking next year of putting in a bed of ornamental grasses next to the stone wall.

After leaving the twins and Little Amy at Sara's birthday party, Agnolia stopped at the bookstore and bought a copy of The Lawn & Garden Owner's Manual. Their lawn needed a lot of work and maybe with the help of the good advice in The Lawn & Garden Owner's Manual they could soon have their lawn looking almost as good as Amy's.

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