Keeping Up With The Jones'

If you watch television, read magazines or otherwise get exposed to pop culture you are exposed to advertisements encouraging you to Keep Up With The Jones'.  They tell you, (sometimes subtly, sometimes not) that you need to have the newest car with the highest horsepower (acceleration or payload or pulling capacity) and most gadgets (bluetooth).  Never mind that you live in a suburb and seldom get up to highway speeds due to traffic you really NEED to be able to drive fast.

Gratuitous Flower Image.  This is a Lewisia cotyledon.  I love the color.

In Gardening you see this with actors hanging their heads in shame because they have *GASP* dandelions in their yard.  All of their neighbors mock them for not having a "perfect" monoculture.  Once they get rid of the dandelions (by buying this product or hiring that company) they are the most popular people on the block.  Really?  Do you decide whether you like your neighbors based on the presence or absence of weeds in their lawn?  If so, this is not the blog for you.  You won't like me!  (hey, you say, you're shunning people based on their opinion of your lawn care!  Yeah, so what?  I can have double standards.)

This is a gratuitous shot of the whole plant of Lewisia cotyledon.  It's a rock garden plant so I'm hoping it does well in my Hell Strip.  It's new and I'm excited about it so I just had to put up some pictures even though they have nothing to do with today's topic.

This type of mentality is good for people who are trying to sell you something but generally it's bad for you, your wallet and the environment (ha!  It's Earth Day.  I snuck this in on you, didn't I?).  Buying things seldom makes anyone happy and trying to keep up with what the advertisers tell you that you should buy isn't going to work - they're just going to keep changing that bar, making you need to spend more money to catch up to the Jones', meanwhile the Jones' have declared bankruptcy...  Do you really want to keep up with them?

Gratuitous Tulip Golden Parade

So on this Earth Day think about WHY you're spending money, WHY you're putting pesticides and herbicides on your law, WHY you're trying to keep up with the Jones'.

Gratuitous Tulipa sp. Tinka

P. S. Don't try to keep up with me, either.  Here on the Edge I push boundaries a lot.  I have already (are you sitting down? brace for it) planted tomatoes.  But, but, but, you're in New England you say?   The locals say not to plant tomatoes before Memorial Day.  Yeah and there is a chance of a frost in the next month, our average date of last frost is in early May, still a couple of weeks away.  But the 10 day forecast is warm, the tomatoes were on sale and I decided to, once again, push the boundaries.  Worst case scenario it frosts (or even snows!) and the tomato plants die and I'm out $5.  Hmm...  That doesn't really sound all that bad does it?  Best case scenario the spring continues warm and I get fresh tomatoes early in the season.  Small risk, high reward.  Worth the gamble.