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A Case of Green Lung

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Here we are in the heart of August with heat and humidity at amazingly high levels. It has been a wet, lush summer in the Twin Cities and it’s hard to imagine better conditions for promoting the rampant growth of just about any plant. Every time I walk out the door it seems that some new green thing has leapt out of the soil and is tall and vigorous enough to look me in the eye. A lot of these show-offs are common weeds, but I don’t say anything about it. No sense getting the encounter off to a bad start with name calling.

In the middle of a hot day there’s nothing like a piece of fresh watermelon to provide some relief. I enjoy watermelon today but as a child I was tormented by the pit disposal question – do you spit them out or swallow? Spitting was more fun, of course. But if you are hanging out with a group of 8 year olds, once the projectile launching starts escalation happens quickly and in warfare there is no turning back. Better perhaps to unilaterally disarm by gulping down the watermelon seeds, although that had its hazards too. I had my mother’s assurance that a melon wouldn’t sprout in my stomach, but friends, uncles and my brother all told different stories. Parasites were a favorite topic when the guys got together and the descriptions were vivid.

And now comes this story about the 75 year old guy who had a plant growing in his lung. Ron Sveden went to the hospital over Memorial Day weekend because he had lost his appetite and was experiencing bad coughing spells. The x-ray showed an ominous dark spot on his lung, and Sveden and the doctor expected to find a tumor.

Instead, it was a sprouting pea.

What a gift for an older fellow with health issues. No tumor, AND a chance to talk to a national audience about your emphysema and how you feel lethargic and dehydrated. Not to mention the great potential for giving self-gardening tips to people who may not be interested in growing lung peas but may have an interest in esophageal strawberries or abdominal potatoes. Imagine the State Fair horticulture competitions once this idea catches on!

How is your garden growing this summer?

25 thoughts on “A Case of Green Lung”

  1. Good morning! Happy to report no pulmonary plants. I am wondering if I should just have a farmer come mow my lawn and bale it for hay.

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  2. Rise and Shine Babooners:

    My garden is growing, but it is a little weird this year. The root vegetables were a mixed bad–kohlrabi and carrots, wonderful; beets, eaten off at the roots three times by an unknown assailant. I have about 6 scraggly beets left.

    Basil–lush and beautifult
    Tomatoes — looking good but some are slow
    Peppers — loving the weather
    Flowers — too hot for really good flowers.
    Raspberries — excellent

    None that I know of in my lung, out my nose or ears. That’s it for the crop reports. Off to the South Forty now.

    Happy weekend.

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    1. I’d be willing to bet I will get beets again this week in my CSA share…as I have all summer. Beets are swell and all, but 6-8 weeks of them are, well, a bit much. If you are feeling bereft of beets, let me know.

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  3. Greetings! My Earth Boxes are doing wonderfully — I just need to remember to water them daily in this weather. Some tomatoes are almost red and ready — last summer my tomatoes didn’t ripen until almost September it was so cool. But a pea sprouting on your lung — wow! I”m speechless …

    On another note – Barb in Blackhoof, I hope your goat milk operation isn’t attracting too much attention. I read an article that the FDA is on a rampage to arrest farmers selling raw milk to consumers — which is an absolute outrage. Check out NaturalNews.com, he has articles on there about this topic.

    Anyway, off to work this weekend. Have a great day, everyone!

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    1. Yep, it’s really upsetting what they’re doing – the Traditional Foods warehouse is under embargo, been closed now for almost 2 months. It’s really sad, because it’s one of the few places where people can get good meat, etc. right from the farmer. I went to an organizing meeting the other night of Foundation for Consumer Free Choice – http://www.consumerfreechoice.org

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  4. Ours has been a mixed bag too. In the ‘orchard’ – hardly any apples 😦 , not so many mulberries, or pears and the squirrels got every bit of what there were. On the other hand the raspberries were great, like Jacque’s.

    Veggies are doing pretty well, but tomatoes slower than usual… I put in white eggplants for the first time (which is where they got their name) and they are coming, but long and thinner than the purple ones. Green beans are incredibly prolific, and cukes and zukes doing well… I could go on for a while, but that’s enough.

    (OK, I lied about the tech. free weekend — postponing it because… too long a story.)

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  5. The only produce we planted was some broccoli. It did not like being in containers (got tall and leggy, no flowers), so I moved it a couple of weeks ago. It survived the transplant, but still nothing that Darling Daughter can eat has come of it. Needless to say, my broccoli addicted six-year-old is a bit disappointed.

    We have a sweat pea that grows along the side of the house – or rather, takes over a chunk of land between the driveway and the house. I bought it when Daughter was, I think, 2. I’m pretty sure the tag said it was an annual, but it keeps coming back. I guess it likes where it is, and the purple/pink flowers are lovely. I’ve never been convinced that the peas/pea pods it produces are actually edible – and apparently as long as I leave them on the vine, it will continue to reseed itself and look like the Thing That Ate South Minneapolis.

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  6. i am a hosta guy, if there is a plant that is bullet proof it is the hosta, i have lots of shade and the fact that dry or wet hot or cold sun or shade makes my plants live. this year they are doing exceptionally well so i should be able to split them and triple – quadruple my crop. i do daylillies and a few other perennials but hostas is where my heart lies. the big ones leaves the size of garbage can covers to the little ones where the whole plant is the size of a small plate. the ones with white in the leaves, the ones that are gold or blue, the texture differences and then the way you plant other stuff around them to create the artistic variation in textures and height color its a good challange. i am preparing for my fall task of installing a coy pond so i had better get bones up on aquatic plants as i go here. the lawn is pretty funny, my riding lawn mower (get the lawn done in 2 hours) died form exhaustion in july and i have given the task to my kids who are not traveling the baseball circuit with me to get it looked after.
    i tried vegetables but no matter what i do the critters get past my watch dogs and polish off the veggies before i can make it work, high maintenance is not on my list of things to consider these days, so all in all it has been a very green summer.
    on another note i am feeling kind of tired and have a slight loss in appetite i wonder if the watermelon seed i swallowed might have gone down the wrong pipe and began sprouting. now there is maintenance free gardening.

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  7. my sons team won their first legion world series base ball game last night. http://www.legion.org/baseball is where the legion live webcast is happening. our game tonight is at 8 pacific time, (10 pm central)
    my son is spencer schierbeck and is not scheduled to pitch but may be called on to play against the oklahoma team that is favored to win the tournament. we have or week cut out for us but have been playing real strong all season and especially of late so if you want the opposite of a tech free weekend watch my sons team on a live webcast from spokane.

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    3. we won, the oklahome guys got treated to a special game from out pitcher, then we brought one of the seniors that this will be his last time with us (legion rules state he is done after this because of age) and the replacement got hammed. luckily the 9-1 lead made the 5 runs they got in one inning moot and we are on to the next round tonight at 8 after a 9-6 victory last night.
      good weekend all. 90 degrees in spokane is nicer than minneapolis
      the have 25% humidity in the high desert here and a constant 15 mile an hour breeze. if you find shade its very plesant.
      good sunday all.

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  8. We have a spaghetti squash plant that will be the single-handed reason the security levels are raised to RED – it is frighteningly large. Just harvested 150+ cherry tomatoes and 10 big boy/early girls. Beans are coming faster than we can harvest and eat. Carrots are VERY slow. Basil is amazing! Greetings from lush St. Paul.
    (I too threshed the lawn this AM).

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    1. June, we have some squash plants that are up over the fence in climbing the shrubbery on the other side… good year for squash I guess…

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  9. I read this story too… pretty fascinating– and one lucky guy!

    I planted and tend cherry tomato plants for my wife. Personally, I can’t stand tomatoes– something about the texture just turns my stomach, but they are growing really well this summer.
    Pumpkins and cucumbers are doing alright consider I never weed them.

    And, in a vaguely related story to having a pea in your lungs, I have a pumpkin growing out of the side of my fire pit. Which means 1) I’m not using the fire pit nearly enough, and 2) I can’t use the fire pit until Halloween.
    A chicken must have planted it because I can’t figure out how else it got there. I sure didn’t plant it and can’t imagine even throwing a pumpkin in the fire pit; surely they don’t burn? But it’s looking good! Better than the ones I did plant. I pulled half a dozen extra blossoms off it keeping the best looking ones going…
    Surprise!

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      1. Thanks for this, tim! I just sent it on to nephew-son — when he lived with us in early 90s for a bit, he and my son had it memorized. Great memories.

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  10. That Erik Brandt song contained the line “the seeds you planted in my heart refused to grow…”
    Were we just pengra-d?

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