My son has a birthday next week. He will be 36. He has a wife, two children, a good job and my father’s name. There is nothing on this planet I could buy online or in a store that he doesn’t already have, so I decided I would give him words for his birthday.
 
After my daughter was born three years earlier, I thought I could never love anyone as much as I loved her. I was wrong. Adam was a good baby. He was born on a Saturday night, June 29. We lived in a neighborhood of townhouses with 46 children under the age of 12. It was around 9 p.m. on a warm summer’s eve as we got into the car to go to the hospital with nearly all the families on our street sitting on their front steps waving us off.
 
Unlike my daughter, my son looked like me; his son looked like him. It’s almost uncanny, but he always says, “who would you think my son looks like, if not me?” Adam has a sense of humor. He’s also very frugal, as one would expect from someone Russian-German.
 
We traveled together when he was young, into middle school and midway through high school. He was the best of traveling companions sitting in the car for 8-10 hour stretches, helping carry canopies and boxes of woven clothes. He loved funnel cake. He helped other artists unload products or walk dogs to earn money for these sweet treats. His favorite road food was Subway sandwiches.
 
At home, we communicated with a notebook on the kitchen counter. As I was sorting through “stuff” in my basement trying to hygge my house, I found this page from one of those many notebooks. It was a grocery list.
 
Milk
Eggs
Bread
Lettuce
Party Pizzas, pepperoni, please
We don’t need cheese
We have the ones in square.
You should get one pear.
We have good soda pop,
But we don’t have any lollipops.
We have good breakfast food.
Would it be rude
For me to ask for corned beef hash?
On your way home, don’t crash.
That’s it for today,
Be back right away…
Also plums.
 
In addition to being very careful with his money and writing poetry, he made up great words that I wish I had recorded for posterity’s sake.
 
Adam’s youthful claim to fame was his skateboarding. From the time he could walk, he skateboarded. People would stop as they drove by my house to watch this tyke cruising down the sidewalk. As he grew and developed skills, he partnered with a couple of friends and made videos of skateboarding. Mandan didn’t have a park then, so after being banned from many parking lots and stairways around town, the boys got together and petitioned the city commission and park board to build a skate park. While that may have been one of my proudest moments, watching some skating mishaps still gives me goosebumps.
 
So, as another year passes and I cannot think of a thing you need from me, I give you this. You are my son. I love you. You have grown into a responsible man with a family, and I couldn’t be prouder of your accomplishments. I miss our travels together, especially the history lesson trip following the Lewis and Clark trail west, visiting all those historic sites and camping along the Salmon River in the Sawtooth Mountain range the day before they closed the park for the annual salmon spawn. Here’s to your extraordinary life, my number one son.
​
Happy Birthday.

Love, Mom. 
 

​Dandelions are prolific this time of year. Recent rains have breathed new life into the lawn and the dandelions that serve as bee food, people food and ingredients for soaps and lotions.
 

 
You see them everywhere these days. Fields of yellow blossoms waving in the sun and warmth of coming summer. The word must be out. Summer's coming. More and more people are allowing at least one crop of dandelions to gracefully age into white-headed ladies before casting their future into the air and dying. Do bees need dandelions? Maybe not. 
 
My husband quit spraying the driveway to kill off the unwanted "weeds" a few years back. He stopped spraying because he read that the bees needed the dandelions. And we need the bees. That made me very happy. As you know, I'm always sticking things in my mouth while working outdoors, and now everything has been chemical-free for at least four years.
 
If you do more research online, you will find that dandelions are not necessarily a first-choice bee food. The pollen in dandelions is not sufficient for the bees. However, they rely on dandelions as filler food if pollen from fruit trees and flower beds is insufficient in early May. They are also very abundant if allowed to seed out every year. 
 
Dandelions are a common member of the sunflower family, and there are about 100 species. Like sunflowers, you may have noticed dandelions open with the sun and close overnight to sleep. The serrated leaves reminded someone of a lion, hence the French name "dent de lion" or lion's tooth. 
 
Dandelions are survivors and spread like wildfire. They do not need insects to pollinate for seeds to survive, even though insects and bees hop from one to the other consuming nectar or seed.
 
Because I love folklore and such, a dandelion represents three celestial bodies. The flower represents the sun, the puff ball resembles the moon, and the seeds floating away on a summer breeze (in North Dakota, anything under 60-miles per hour is considered a breeze) represent the stars in the sky.
 
But, never mind the bees, there are many reasons not to kill off the dandelions. In many cultures, the herb dandelion was more valued than a green lawn.
 
First off, if you have small children, dandelions are usually the first "flower" a mother receives. What could be more joyful than watching a child's fascination with dandelions? 
 
As my summer reading program, I purchase "old" novels from Abe Books like Foundation, The Invisible Man and Fahrenheit 451. When Fahrenheit's main character, Montag, meets Clarisse, she rubs a dandelion under his chin. She explains that if the pollen rubs off, he is in love. He is married, but no pollen would indicate he is not in love with his wife or anything in this dystopian novel by one of my favorite authors, Ray Bradbury.
 
All three parts of the dandelion are useful and edible. The leaves can be eaten when young as bitter greens in salads or frittatas. The leaves make good tea, and the root can be dried and ground and used as a coffee substitute. Green leaves can be mixed with basil and made into pesto with a healthy kick.
 
Like squash, the blossoms can be dipped in egg white and fried or taken off the bitter pod and sprinkled over salad. I have yet to try this, but I harvest dandelions to make soap or dying organic cotton fabric. The color of the dandelion leaf is a beautiful green. Dandelion-infused soap or balm soothes irritated skin.
 
I'm planning on drying some root this year because someone told me it smells like chocolate. And, who doesn't like chocolate? When harvesting roots, you will see earthworms gather around dandelion roots, for it is a natural humus producer. Humus is soil with an ecosystem and a goal for people who grow. 
 
While we wait for the gardens, patiently, I might add with these recent cold temperatures, try a few dandelion experiments and let me know what you think.

By the time you read this column, your garden should be planted. The weather has cooperated with much-needed rain. Transplants aren't shocked as much when under cover of clouds for a few days as they acclimate to their new home outdoors. My greenhouse is so leaky I don't feel the need to harden my transplants off before putting them outside.
 
Naturally, I have more tomatoes than I have space, so I will have to find someone to adopt them because I cannot kill them myself.
 
The rains have been most welcome, not overpowering or filled with anger and hail. We try to protect the tiniest of transplants with old tin cans or plastic Folgers containers. I prefer the tins but don't often purchase restaurant-sized cans of beans. So I scrounge.
 
While rain is a blessing, there are other things taking advantage of the wet – my arch enemy of late – weeds.
 
They say that weeds are simply plants that grow where they don't belong. I have never seen so many weeds show their faces so early in the season, and I guess I have to blame the rain. This is my year to defeat those weeds and try and have a picture-perfect garden. (I have found that the only picture-perfect gardens are those on television, but that's a story for another time.)
 
You can do things to prevent weed pressure on your vegetable plants in their early development. This year, I will win the war on weeds. So, when hopefully the sun shines warmly on Monday, I begin my weed rotation. 
 
First off, the ground near the drip lines is green and furry like a Muppet. So, I will get out one of my favorite "zombie" killing tools and begin to "disturb" these first-out-of-the-chute weeds. My latest "zombie sticker" is a hand-held hoe narrow by about two-thirds the width of a regular hoe. I have some raised beds with close rows, and this tool is perfect for that three-inch space. My first attempt at weed control involves hacking the soil and "disturbing the roots" of these unwelcome plants. Allow them to lie on top of the ground and dry out. If you do not dig deeper than an inch or so, you will not bring any more weed seeds to the surface and thus eliminate (hopefully) many weeds.
 
One of the things you must be very careful about early in the garden is disturbing the roots of the plants you wish to grow. Sometimes you need to allow the weeds to coexist until the vegetables are stable enough to stay rooted as you remove the weeds. If your carrots are up and you want to help them, use the Ruth Stout hint about using manicure scissors to cut those weeds at the soil line, leaving the carrots intact. This also works for thinning carrots and beets. And the view from down under can be quite pleasant on a sunny summer morning. 
 
Once your vegetables and herbs are stable and healthy and the soil is warmed, you can control weeds by mulching with grass clippings, straw or those weeds you have pulled and allowed to wither in the sun.
 
People say gardening is difficult, but if you can spend the first month nurturing your plants and disturbing the weeds, you can sit back and enjoy your garden until it's time to harvest. It needs very little attention, water, sun and love. But, don't forget the love. That's the most important thing you can do. Even if you can't get a handle on all the weeds, they do serve the purpose of keeping your soil covered. Don't fret. Even weedy gardens produce, just not as much. So sing to those plants and let the battle begin.