The Great Foxglove Glut of 2005

This is the time of year when people usually barricade themselves behind doors, avoiding the parade of neighbors arriving and announcing, "We grew a few extra zucchini and we thought you might like some." My surfeit is foxgloves. I don't quite get this biennial business, but I do know that I had three foxgloves growing this year. Last year, however, I had a lot of them and they clearly did their thing. The garden was awash with little seedlings this spring and they are now growing large, ready to form rosettes, take all the ice and snow the winter throws at them and become the stars of next year's garden. I am trying to find a home for them all. This happened to me once before and I vividly remember taking an offering to my sister-in-law in Chicago. She decided to plant them in her garden on the first Saturday of the college football season. The cable connection for the TV ran right under her flower bed and anyone who knows John can just imagine his reaction when the spade dug right through the buried cable.

As for zucchini, we only planted a few cherry tomatoes this year, so slicing tomatoes, cucumbers and zucchini will be gratefully accepted.