outside in the garden

Seedling pots

2010-01-30T12:24:00.000-05:00

Buying seed starter pots or other containers for you seeds every year can get expensive. I was interested in The wooden thingie you use to create biodegradable pots from newspaper. This typically sells for about $20; I used to own one, but it got lost in my last move, before I ever made many pots from it.
It turns out you can just use a household glass or a soda can to form it. Or you can do it origami style as demonstrated in this video.
Or, you could fill with potting soil a half egg shell (see the Mr. Brown Thumb page, further down), or section of toilet paper tube. I kind of like the egg shell idea!

Picture, if you will, an egg carton, filled with a dozen half eggshells -- planted with eggplant seedlings! A possible Easter gift??

Good seed catalogs

2010-01-30T11:13:00.001-05:00

Not February quite yet -- but it's time to think SEEDS!

For those who could use a list of reliable suppliers to the home garden, here's a list of ones that sell tried and true seeds and decline to sell anything that has been genetically modified.

The manual genetic modification technology has yet to be thoroughly tested by the USDA and found safe for consumption.

Nevertheless, Monsanto and one or two other giant chemical companies are forging ahead. Monsanto owns come companies that own some seed distributors that own some seed companies; I urge people not to buy from those companies. It's not always easy to tell, but one clue is to look at the bottom of their website and see who owns the copyright, then look up that company (if it's different).

Here are some of the good ones:

Park Seed

Park Seed has always been committed to offering only untreated, non-genetically-modified seed, and now we are proud to be a source of professionally-grown Certified Organic seed.

Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds

Your source for 1400 heirloom seeds. We only offer open-pollinated seeds: pure, natural & non-GMO!

Fedco Seeds

The company was founded in 1978 as a cooperative and caters mainly to home growers and market gardeners in the Northeast. Much of the seed offered is certified organic. The company maintains high standards, tests for genetically modified contamination, and offers excellent customer service.

I can order Fedco seeds through my local Food Coop, which gets the volume discount by placing bulk orders for its members.

Seed Savers Exchange

Seed Savers Exchange,Inc., is a non-profit membership organization dedicated to conserving and promoting heirloom vegetables, fruits, flowers and herbs.

Non-members can buy from the Seedsavers catalog, but members have access to a gret many more varieties of seeds, many brought here by immigrants and handed down through families

Johnnys Selected Seeds A seed cooperative in Maine.

...recognizing the precious genetic heritage in heirloom seeds, he offered numerous vintage varieties, whose seed, unlike hybrids, does not break down after one generation. And, although operating a business dependent upon seed sales, he wrote a book to help gardeners save their own vegetable seeds, called “Growing Garden Seeds”.

High Mowing Seeds
The Safe-Seed Pledge

Agriculture and seeds provide the basis upon which our lives depend. We must protect this foundation as a safe and genetically stable source for future generations. For the benefit of all farmers, gardeners and consumers who want an alternative, we pledge that we do not knowingly buy or sell genetically engineered seeds or plants.
The mechanical transfer of genetic material outside of natural reproductive methods and between genera, families or kingdoms poses great biological risks, as well as economic, political and cultural threats. We feel that genetically engineered varieties have been insufficiently tested prior to public release. More research and testing is necessary to further assess the potential risks of genetically engineered seeds. Further, we wish to support agricultural progress that leads to healthier soils, genetically diverse agricultural ecosystems and ultimately healthy people and communities

For more catalog information, check out The Vegetable Gardener blog
For an explanation of what's wrong with genetically modified organisms, take a look at Say No to GMOs, a website with links to many informative articles.
To read what Monsanto has to say for itself, look at their website. They argue that to keep up with population growth, the world will need genetically modified plants. (I wonder how they feel about birth control?)

Bird's nest compost pile

2009-03-30T06:44:00.003-04:00

Deb Martin in eastern Pennsylvania practices and writes about composting, and while cleaning up a winters worth of sticks and debris last year came up with Bird's nest composting. I like it for its simplicity:

... to create creating a passive, no-turn compost project, a base layer of sticks makes a fine starting point. You can imagine you’re building a really big bird’s nest as you pile up the twigs in a rough circle or in the bottom of your open bin or pen. When you have other ingredients, start layering them inside the frame made of sticks and random prunings. The twiggy base will let air flow up and under the pile, reducing the need for turning to get air into the heap.
Read the rest, and more innovative ideas at Compost Gardening

I have a triad of metal wire bins; and just now, two are nearly empty and one is filled to overflowing with dry leaves. I had nowhere to put my food scraps, so I plan to construct a small bird's nest right next to the bin of leaves so every time I dump I'll have ready cover.

Quick and easy! perfect.

The traveling gardener

2009-03-01T08:21:00.002-05:00

There will be all sorts of events coming up that appeal to the gardener. For instance, organic gardener and teacher Linda Turner of Bozrah, CT, has scheduled a trip to the NY Botanical Garden in mid April. I found the link to her site "Plantasia," at Nancy DeBrule's Natureworks email update.

First Tour of 2009!
Looks like the first tour will be in late April to the New York Botanical Garden. I'm looking at Saturday, April 18, so as soon as the bus is confirmed, I'll have the sign up sheet online and you can register. New York is about 3 weeks ahead of us as far as temperature etc, so there will be plenty of blooming bulbs, and maybe cherries and dogwood and spring blooming perennials. There's always the awesome exhibits in the conservatory if it's a little chilly out and the gift shop is great. They have a wonderful restaurant there, too. Other tours in process are to the Wildflower Society's Garden in the Woods and maybe their new education center at Nasami Farm, Tower Hill Botanic, and possibly one in New York State (that one may be an overnight!) If there is interest in some local spots, I will be planning some casual group events at Connecticut College and Harkness.

This could be a lovely way to spend an April Saturday!

Burpee meets Martha Stewart Living

2009-02-15T20:22:00.003-05:00

I looked up George Ball Jr., the current head of the Burpee Seed Co.I was trying to find out if the company is now owned by the chemical company, Monsanto, which does own a number of seed companies.
I havent yet discovered what I went for, but did find some pleasant writing by Mr. Ball on the occasion of his visit to Martha Stewart at her Westport, CT home about 16 years ago.He found her likable, shy and attractive.

...Basically, what you see on TV is what Martha truly is. She gardens like a professional - I was very impressed. We visited the henhouses with their little Martha-like designer hens. She showed me their "Martha" eggs -- dappled and speckled in rich colors and shades. Amazing! I immediately fantasized that I'd try to breed and sell baby chicks again, like the original Mr. Burpee back in 1876. I told Martha about how we'd developed many of the strains of poultry she was raising. After I returned home to Warminster and reviewed the costs that would be involved, I abandoned the dream. Martha is a fantasy merchant; she creates wonderful worlds of make-believe and invites her audience to inhabit them for a very pleasant half-hour. It is not unlike the pleasure our customers get when they curl up with the Burpee catalogue or visit our Web site.

When Martha Stewart in turn paid a visit to the Fordhook, PA Burpee farms she picked a verbascum as one of two favorites of the new varieties they were testing that year. Ball remarked that the plant made the test gardens look more natural, less like, well, test gardens.

Traditional perennial borders are tricky to design. One slip of the palette and the result is pure mediocrity with the usual suspects lined up alongside one another, giving the effect of predictability and boredom. Where's the surprise? "Seen one, seen 'em all."
Gardeners should experiment, talk back, disobey an order. Maybe even go AWOL. Anything but the dull "English perennial border" designs that have little or no relationship to the actual site, much less to our North American climate. For beginning gardeners it is especially important to play around and have fun, like a child learning to draw. Establish the ground rules, learn the basics well, and then exercise the imagination. Plant what you like. Let the pundits and snobs lecture on their "rules". Who cares? Discover the flexibility of rules and learn the nuances of your garden as you go along. But "let yourself go." This is the lesson of modernism and it applies to garden design every bit as much as painting, music, or architecture.

To read more of Ball, see a report of conversation at Bard College with an English professor Robert Kelly, under whom he studied while at Bard in the early 1970s.

Weather report

2006-06-03T08:24:00.000-04:00

It's been raining for a few days -- nice soft rain followed by more rain; but not the pounding sort of rain that dislodges young plants and batters down those in bloom. We had a number of quite warm days, so I finally had to dig around through some storage piles to see what I did with my summer clothes. I am still quite disorganized after our move of over a year ago.

My first summer in this house, I plunked down some anuals in the little front beds and put a few containers of annuals on the porch -- nust so people would know someone was living here, after the house had been vacant for months.

Since then, I have been trying to build compost, a slow business in that my only material was a superabundance of dry maaple leaves. This summer, I will have lots of green garden waste to add. The wild fall asters that are about 2 feet tall with a lot of rather coarse leaves and tiny flowers (aka weeds) and the buttercups and violets need to be cut back. I love the violets, but they cover most of the yard and are tall enough to give nice cover to a snake. I've seen one snake about 2.5 feet long and the cat has found a couple of shorter ones. I like them, and would not like to setp on onelurking in the grass. My plan is to leave swaths of the violets as ground cover, but to cut pathways through them from the compost and brush pile area to the bird feeder area, for instance.

2006-05-20T21:44:00.000-04:00

More tips...

166. You can use coffee grounds as a mulch around acid-loving plants such as blueberries, azaleas, and dogwoods.

Organic Garden Tips

2006-05-20T21:19:00.000-04:00

Caution!

66. Certain kinds of leaves contain substances that can be harmful to plants, and should not be used for mulching with composting them first. These include: acacia, California bay, camphor, cypress, eucalyptus, madrone, oak, pine, pittosporum, red cedar, and walnut.

Great tips and ideas at this website.

Rain

2006-05-16T06:13:00.000-04:00

It's been raining every day for 10 days or so (I dont keep as close a watch on the weather as I ought, for a would-be gardener). Reports indicate that there is flooding everywhere - but not here.

I'm still in the "we really need it" mode. Last summer it was very dry; water seemed to disappear soon after it touched the powdery earth. And, being new here and somewhat strapped for cash, I didnt have enough mulch to hold in the little we had. I am busily creating leaf mould to use as compost or mulch. There has been very little green to add to my compost piles until this rain hit. Now, of course, it's too wet to mow. Although it hasn't been raining constantly, it has not dried up at all between rainfalls.

A map at the Accu Weather Community Weather Blog shows that my part of Connecticut had 3-5 inches of rain last week. That's a lot of rain for one week. In the Boston and southeastern corner of New Hamshire, they had up to 12 inches!

I usually rely on the federal NOAA reports for my weekly weather forecasts, as they can be localized quite well -- just type in your zip code. But they do not provide one thing I've been looking for: a nice, easy to read series of charts showing rainfall and temperature history.

Well one good thing about this rain: my peas have finally begun to grow. For some time, they just sat there in the ground, occasionally rising up out of it to look around. It's nearly time to place a support for them -- but it's raining to much! Hm, may have to work put there in the rain!

2006-04-29T21:36:00.000-04:00

Rosa rugosa

Rugosa, I guess, is the "wild" rose you see along the coast. The online Rose Magazine has quite a bit of information on this plant- more than the seed catalogs that offer them for sale.

For a first time Rugosa grower, I would recommend Hansa (picture above), a 1905 introduction which produces brilliant red-purple, extremely fragrant blooms. It is comparatively small growing (4 - 5ft./1.2-1.5 m). In fall, it produces red-orange hips suitable for making rosehip jams or jellies that is, if you can get to them before the birds do.

Tinker's Gardens — Vegetable Gardening - Crop Rotation

2006-02-18T07:23:00.000-05:00

Crop Rotation

Failure to rotate crops annually will result in increased soil borne disease, nematodes, soil insects, imbalance of essential mineral elements, and a dramatic decline in productivity. Crop rotation is the most economical ways to aid in prevention and control of insects and disease. Vegetables in the same family grouping are likely to be susceptible to the same diseases and organisms. Rotate these groups so vegetables from one group are not planted in the same location more than once every 3 to 5 years.

Amazing hills

2005-06-11T08:30:00.000-04:00

Additional Detail for untitled-28.jpg see image of many steep little hills in China

Yum,dinner - China dog

2005-06-11T08:28:00.001-04:00

Additional Detail for untitled-21.jpg

China

2005-06-11T08:28:00.000-04:00

Additional Detail for untitled-20.jpg

2005-06-11T07:21:00.000-04:00

I'm in a new place, with a nearly entire garden to create. This will take several years, I imagine.

test

2004-08-31T05:54:00.000-04:00

is it possible this is fixed??
Now Im wondering if it works

Summer ruined

2004-06-12T08:35:00.000-04:00

They are finally repaving our street AND putting in new sidewalks. We are overdue for both, but there are two bad aspects to this.

First, every day, nearly all day long, there are dozens of trucks, earth movers and diggers, plus (it appears) the pickup trucks the workers came to work in.One comes home from work not knowing if one will be able to get into the driveway, or will have to park up the street around the corner. That makes planning grocery shopping difficult since I am not prepared to carry heavy bags that distance.

Second, They took out and carried off the nice old granite curbstones that surely date from before 1900 and are replacing them with bland concrete curbs.

Snow .... snow ....

2004-03-20T10:39:00.000-05:00

It doesn't exactly feel like March. We have had several snow storms over the past week and the temperature has been below freezing.

However, as snowstorms go, these have been very mild. I'm sure part of the reason is the longer day. Even on a day with a gray sky, the sun seems to peek through in the late afternoon to add just a little more melt to the mix.

The wind is not as harsh, the temperature not as low as it would have been (in fact, was) in January. Not so bad! And the bulbs being delayed and well watered, may do better than average. We shall see!

Smell the dirt

2004-02-15T12:01:00.000-05:00

I was looking at a garden magazine that asked customers to submit their favorite sight of spring.

For me, it's not a sight, it's a smell and a feel. When the weather warms up above freezing for a little while, you can smell the thawing soil. And even when the temperature is fairly low -- today we have a high of about 18 F, for instance -- it feels different. There is more light; not just longer days, but a higher sun at noon. So, even when it's cold, it somehow feels warmer, and partly that warmth is fueled by hope.

Tower Hill Botanical Garden

2004-01-03T23:21:00.000-05:00

We drove to Worcester, Mass. today to see the relatively new botanical garden which is a project of the Worcester county Horticultural Society. It was winter of course, so nothing in bloom. And yet, as I hped they have a good winter garden, with dark and bright woods, nice tree shapes, glowing berries and so on.

Ahhh! fixed at last!

2004-01-02T10:54:00.000-05:00

Can it be? somehow I have fixed this -- I have been unable to post to this blog since October.

There was an entry (Wed. Dec. 31), a more or less random set of characters. which was not a test, but rather our ginger cat, Morris, striking out on a trek across the keyboard en route to the top of my computer box, a spot he favors for napping in a sociable way.

test

2003-11-04T19:35:00.000-05:00

test 2

Hibiscus: the Extrovert

2003-10-19T19:27:00.000-04:00

My friend M. says he will share his gardening observations in this space now and then. Well, I suggested he start a garden blog, but he demurred, as follows:

As a matter of fact, I have always enjoyed the 'agricultural' side of life. What is commonly called Gardening. I do keep an eye on the local vegetation, what is flowering, how it is doing and so forth.

Unfortunately, my personal territory is reduced to a rather small balcony. True, it is crowded with plants on behalf of which I go to certain lengths to keep healthy and happy. I certainly do not have enough 'ammunition' to run a blog on Gardening.

However, apart from keeping an eye on my local area vegetation - Monaco has some Very Good Town Hall Gardeners
who do a Marvellous job around Town in the numerous little parks and spaces in this now semi-tropical climate - I pretty much always check out the Weekend Financial Times Gardening Section. Okay, that concerns the North -
British climate. But it is interesting and the guy knows what he is talking about : probably, about the only person working on the Weekend FT who has ever had any experience of the Real World in any shape or form!

To say, I would indeed be Happy to contribute occasional - even regular remarks to Your Garden Blog - when I have something to share, as it were. I really do enjoy reading about and mentioning Gardening Stuff - plants and
flowers, the weather and so on. Is is also such a pleasant change from my Regular Beats ! So, if You do not think it too absurd, I shall try to pop in a few observations.

I can tell You right away, that down here along the Mediterranean Coast this year, all varieties of hibiscus have done very, very well indeed ! Possibly about the only plants - and certainly Flowering Plants - to have thrived on the 100 degree Summer. As You know, hibiscus have large, individual, highly-coloured, trumpet-shaped blooms. And Boy ! When they Bloom, they Bloom ! They are full-bodied, extrovert and proud of it ! Normally each bloom lasts only about a day. These plants of tropical origin, I surmise, really come into their own with the heat and new blossoms appear daily in abundance for months. All the colours are very luminous and saturated: reds blues purples pinks yellows. Having one or two of these shrubs around, which can grow very large, it like being on Copacabana Beach : You get Your eyeful all the time and there is no false modesty ! They are, also, very cheerful, good-natured flowers to have around. They are what they seem: generous. If Global Warming is here to stay, my advice would be to joyfully check out the hibiscus folk ! :-)
--Big M.

Bird-feeding tip

2003-10-18T15:26:00.000-04:00

To foil the squirrel who eats a weeks worth of bird seed in an hour or so, Gardener's Supply suggests mixing the seed with hot pepper powder. The birds don't taste it at all, but the squirrels will avoid it like the plague.

Alternatively you could spend $60 on a squirrel-proof feeder ;-)

And if you happen to have a swimming pool on your property, as nearly everyone in Texas and California seems to, you can avoid having little animals fall into it while seeking water by providing for them elsewhere on the property. Check out the animal water jug

p.s. I am moving this blog

Post heat wave: the Euro weather report

2003-10-16T06:13:00.000-04:00

A friend living in the second smallest independent state in the world writes:

After Europe's Heat wave which, from a gardening point of view only, destroyed baclony plants, window boxes and gardens and their shrubs, some of those poor plants are struggling to come back to greenery and flower.

Now - in the middle of October. Plants which should have currently been becoming leafless are now sprouting new greenery and also bursting into flower. The Season is crazy: anemones and daffodils are also already putting forth their preliminary greenery. They should be sprouting only After Christmas. Something very peculiar is going on.
:-)
Big M.

OctoBrr

2003-10-09T16:02:00.000-04:00

October is full upon us and the leaf fall is going on in earnest. we've ahd some very crisp cool nights. Two of our cats, the adult ones, prefer to stay out overnight now.

Surprisingly (to me) my tomato plants, which I staked up better and added dirt to about 5 weeks ago when it first began to cool off, have been doing quite well. Honestly, they could use restaking adn the new fruits are small and slow, being as how they arenot getting hot sun any more. But lined up out there with a vivid pink geranium, some chartreuse sweet potoato vine and an attractive yellow-orange chrysanthemum, they look rather nice! All the plants are green and quite lush looking.

Mole infestation

2003-09-18T05:21:00.000-04:00

We visited some real estate yesterday and noticed the lawn was riddled with mole trails, far more than I've ever noticed on a property. I wonder what causes such a great outbreak. According to a Ohio State University Extension fact sheet on the toic, it's not caused so much as revealed:

Over-watering your lawn can bring soil invertebrates and moles closer to the ground surface, making tunnels more visible. Reducing the amount or frequency of watering may help temporarily. Reducing the amount of turfgrass on your property will also reduce the visible signs of damage. In the long run, converting lawn to gardens, paths, hedgerows, or other more natural habitats can save you time and money as well as provide habitat for beneficial birds and butterflies. -- University of Ohio Cooperative Extension bulletin

The place where we visited had had a great deal of rain lately, and on the shady side of the house, the back step was covered with moss.
Another source notes the contribution of rain and shade:

Quality habitat for feeding and constructing permanent runways must be available for moles to become numerous. They rarely exceed a density of 3 moles per acre. Permanent burrows and nests are usually located in areas protected by trees, stumps, fence rows, buildings, or sidewalks. Although moles may tunnel anywhere, feeding grounds are often shaded by trees, with cool, moist soils near the surface. Burrows made while searching for food tend to wander in no apparent direction and appear on the soil surface as raised ridges --University of Nebraska Cooperative Extension bulletin

Invention of wilderness

2003-09-08T05:31:00.000-04:00

Famous American photographers like Eadweard Muybridge, Ansel Adams,and Edward Weston created beautiful images of a pristine wilderness in the early 20th century, providing us --says current day photographer Rebecca Solnit -- with a mistaken idea of what was there.

The thing that was there, and which the photographers and naturists like John Muir (founder of the Sierra Club) preferred not to see, was people. The glacial Lake Tenaya in Yosemite National Park is such a place and the black oak forest near it was discovered in the 1800s to have an appealing park-like appearance.

What she found was a view of nature, expressed in writing and photographs, that did not include people. And that, she wrote, is how Americans have come to think of the natural world. There is a small problem with this view. When white Americans first encountered Yosemite, it was a well-peopled landscape. It took soldiers to un-people it.

The Yosemite Valley and the area near Lake Tenaya were home to the Ahwahneechee Indians. But the gold rush was on, the future beckoned, and Indians did not fit in. ( Read more...)

Soldiers killed some Indians and moved the rest away. Guess what, says Solnit. You take the Indians away from their Yosemite home and the scrub fills right in again. They had been using controlled burns to keep down the scrub and saplings, so the oaks would produce a good crop of acorns.

She has published two books, 'Savage Dreams: A Journey Into the Landscape Wars of the American West'and 'River of Shadows: Eadweard Muybridge and the Technological Wild West' in which she addresses the question of what exactly is wilderness.

Sounds like some excellent observations. I hope they're not just an excuse to put oil wells on the Alaskan slope and a MacDonalds at every bend of the trails in national parks.

Shelton Trails

2003-08-28T08:13:00.000-04:00

Another good place to visit for a weekend jaunt Shelton Trails - hiking, strolling, etc.

Tower Hill Botanic Garden at Boylston, Mass.

2003-08-28T07:31:00.000-04:00

I want to have lunch at the Twigs Cafe in Boylston, MA some weekend very soon! And, of course, tour the gardens.
Directions - the pertinent part, for those of use who sometimes drive from CT to ME: Worcester. Take Route 290 east. Follow through the city to Exit 24, Church Street, Northborough/Boylston. Follow to Boylston 3 miles. Entrance to Tower Hill is on right; dark red sign designates entrance. This sounds like it's about 50 minutes from here. A good trip for a Saturday or Sunday (or this weekend, for Monday!)

Gymnosperm and angiosperm

2003-08-28T05:55:00.000-04:00

Conifers and Ginkgos are among the most ancient seed plant representatives. They belong to the gymnosperms (plants with naked seeds) which date from around 250 million years ago. The remainder of the Arboretum comprises examples from the angiosperms (plants with seeds enclosed in an ovary) which have dominated the world´s vegetation for the last 150 million years.

This clearly offered distinction is from the website of Botanischer Garten und Botanisches Museum Berlin-Dahlem, Freie Universität Berlin (botanic garden and botanic museum, Berlin)

[ Thanks to Dan at Flower Delivery for the link - you will find other garden links at his site ]

Fall flowers

2003-08-17T16:56:00.000-04:00

I went to my local garden center this morning and got a few pots of crysanthemum. I've been seeing them elsewhere covered with blooms- far too early! The ones I bought have zero to to a few small buds on them, that's all.

Bleeding heart

2003-08-17T12:19:00.000-04:00

There is a lovely photo of bleeding hearts at the Travelling eGarden Journal. Kate's "travelling garden" refers to the fact that she has started a garden, then moved, then started a garden, then moved again-- and again. Just recently she bought a summer cottage in Maine and it's all hers, to do with as she likes. But she carries all the other gardens in her heart, so the bleeding heart is a good plant for her.

Her bleeding heart is the large, cutivated variety. I have some sort of uncultivated ones, or possibly what I have is an old fashioned variety -- I recall the same thing in my grandmother's garden in the 1950s.

2003-08-16T13:40:00.000-04:00

I have mowed the lawn twice in the past week and a half. The first time, I thought it had dried up enough, but found grass clippings clinging to the wheels of the mower (and deduced it was also clogging the blades). I got the worst of the scraggly grass out front mowed, then quit.

Yesterday afternoon I was determined to mow around the wooden tubs near the parking area that I have planted with basil, dill, tomatoes and cucumbers. I hadn't mowed there for two weeks and it showed. I moved some of the tubs, the smaller ones, out of the way, and a few pots that were collected there. There was a hill of gravel where the plowman last winter had been digging too deeply, hoping to reach asphalt (he's only been here in a snowfall, so perhaps the landlord never told him it's not a paved driveway.) The gravel hill was impossible to mow over, but I tilted the mower up a bit and ran it partway up the mound.

When I was done, it looked better, but far from perfect. My daughter remarked encouragingly: At least you can tell someone lives here now!

Frowsy

2003-08-03T10:12:00.000-04:00

We had rain the other day, and we needed it. But the humidity is so high that it hasn't dried up enough to mow.

The garden is no longer in the blush of first youth and resembles the woman in the Degas painting The Absinthe Drinker

[looking for a link to that painting, I found several more Absinthe Drinkers by Picasso, Edouard Manet , Honore Daumier, Francis A Wiley and the enterprising Valery Milovik, who promises to do knockoffs of his first work for any additional takers. A popular topic! ]

The lawn, such as it is, is getting scraggy looking. The hosta and day lillies are beginning to peter out and look tawdry. Even the annuals are scruffy looking despite my frequent dead-heading.

I guess it would have been a good idea to have planted some late-season flowers like zinnias and chrysanthemums.

Cute headline, K

2003-07-29T06:24:00.000-04:00

I just saw this great headline on one of K's blogs, the Travelling eGarden Journal Raked, Gravelled, and Rolled, an entry from May 21, 2003, describing laying out a flower bed by the car headlights after work. (I Love puns).
K also has a blog relating to her camp in Maine "I see the Pond!"". Check out the stunning foxgloves, in pinkiest pink at a webshots page

Baby's breathing on her own ;-)

2003-07-28T07:31:00.000-04:00

S. and I went to her camp in Maine at the end of June. We noted a baby's breath plant (I thought that's what it was) which she swears no one planted there.
Now, Talitha Purdy writing in Cold Climate Gardening notes a volunteer baby's breath.

I have a baby's breath plant. How on earth it got there, I have no idea. There has never even been baby's breath anywhere near that garden. I did want to put some in--quite badly, but there wasn't enough time or room. I guess God just decided it would all look better with baby's breath in there, and he wasn't going to let me get in the way of putting it there. It seems to be doing splendidly there, and I hope it self-sows with all it's got in it.

Who knows where these things come from? All I know is that the oddities in my garden seem also to be occurring in the colder climates too.

Someone, by the way, recently sent me an email suggesting the white buggy bits in my hosta were mealybugs. Thanks to Sallee G. for the tip, and for the link, as well, to the pages of pallensmith.com, which has a picture and suggestions. My stuff a) just appeared from nowhere; b) hasn't seemed to do much harm; and c) is selective on where it alights. Of three hosta clumps, which are separated by about 4-8 feet, it is the two on either end that are affected. On of those two gets maximal sun, the other is in pretty deep shade. The one in the middle, which gets some sun, but not full, is the older, more established of the three.

Saturday report

2003-07-25T22:35:00.000-04:00

The tomato plants I have in wooden tubs are bearing golfball-sized green tomatoes and have many blossoms as well. Half a dozen infant cukelets are obscured behind giant leaves. Several dill plants were shot shortly after I planted them, but blossom heads appeared, and as I cut them off, new ones show up along with some new leaves. The basil is nice and green, and -- ever since I cut the tops off -- pretty much bug free.

hm actually Friday, isn't it?

Who wants to be a gardener?

2003-07-22T06:48:00.000-04:00

Last weekend K. told me she considered moving into some sort of gardening business. I remarked she wouldnt make as much money most likely as she does in the computer work she does now, and she agreed.

Then in the Sunday (7-20-03) Hartford Courant was an article (reprinted from the Wash. Post actually) on the huge increase in garden expenditures. The national expenditure jumped by over a billion dollars last year.

This reflects a trend toward more outdoor living, and more spending on it, the article said:

After spending five figures on the trophy kitchen, people are no longer willing to step out into a 9x12 concrete patio overlooking a weedy lawn. -- attributed to Robert Dolibois, vp Amer. Nursery and Landscape Assn.

Related to the trend in more landscaping is the trend toward hiring more people to do the work.

Gone is the joy of gardening, replaced apparently by the joy of looking at something you bought yourself.

Increasingly, baby boomers with appreciating assets and depreciating backs are hiring others to maintain the landscape, from lawn mowing and weed killing to tree and shrub pruning.

Between 1997 and 2002, consumer spending on professional landscape installation tripled, from $3.6 billion to $11.2 billion.

So, K., it looks rather promising for a landscape business. If that's what you had in mind ;-)

flower report

2003-07-22T06:03:00.000-04:00

Hosta and daylillies began blooming in earnest over the weekend. The hydrangeas are going by. They look awfully nice as they go by - changing from tidy white blossom clusters to attractive light green seed clusters. This appears to be an extended bloom time. Right now they are about half and half, white and green.

Coreopsis continues in bloom. There is a lush clump of ferns at the bend in the flower bed in front of the porch. The few anuals I put in are doing fine, and pansies are STILL blooming. Usually they are long gone by now; this must be a water issue, rather than heat, since we have had a easonable amount of rain this year. Bleeding herats, on the other hand have pretty much expired. This may be in part or in whole, the aphid issue.

Snake pits, etc.

2003-07-15T17:33:00.000-04:00

To make one's home area readily accessible to the predators of your garden's predators, you may want to make shelters for snakes and toads.
Want to know how? Check out digs, dwellings, and dens She has directions for mini-frog and salamander ponds, toad holes, and snake pits right there.

Peaches 'n cream

2003-07-15T17:14:00.000-04:00

The first day lily blossoms of the season are out today! Some neighbors have had them for weeks, but not me! I'm glad to see them. They look awfuly nice in a vase with white hydrangea cuttings

Hosta pests

2003-07-13T08:36:00.000-04:00

On a clump of hosta that I transplanted into a shady area in the spring, there are clusters of whitish small insects, on and just below the flower buds. I see none on the leaves. If any reader of this blog knows what they are and what options I have, I'd appreciate a heads up.

I did a Google search on "hosta pests" and found several sites that say hostas are remarkably pest free, being bothered now and then only by deer, slugs and voles. In the 10 years or so since I first planted a hosta here, I have never been bothered by any of those, nor insects either.

I have never used garden poisons, more from laziness than principle, and am disinclined to do so now, so I hope that's not the only solution. [The solution most often employed in my little garden is Do Nothing and Hope.]

2003-07-11T06:01:00.000-04:00

I went to Maine for part of the week I was off from work (week including July 4). It was great to visit folks up there. It was hot and muggy, same as here, but maybe 8 degrees cooler, so a relief.

We had a run of hot muggy weather - not unusual for July around here -- but finally got a good solid rain on Wednesday of this week. We were overdue-- although the late winter and all spring brought a great deal of precipitation, it hadn't rained for 3-4 weeks (if memory serves). The plants are happy again!

In bloom are the white snowball bushes, yellow coreopsis, and the dianthus annuals I purchased this spring (plus one or two purple petunias. The pansies had a long run and finally bolted when the weather remained hot and without rain, so they are nearly gone now. In full bud are the day lillies and the hosta. Day lillies elsewhere on our street have been blooming for over a week already; I believe now that the trees are leafed out they get more sun than we do, but earlier in the season, we had more sun and our spring flowers started earlier.

Sun/ clear

2003-06-17T15:19:00.000-04:00

An exquisitely nice day today. Too cool for some (in the mid- to high 60s I estimate) but perfect for me. You could wear shorts or a bathingsuit to sunbathe in a sheltered, sunny place, but if you were working outside, you would not be dying of the heat.

Sunday afternoon I planted the basil and dill plants I purchased Saturday in larger pots than what they came in. There were several plants to each pot, so I spread them out some and hope they will grow like mad. I have already clipped a bit for salad. Yum! The lettuce and rocket seeds I planted are up, and it won't be long before they have their second pair of leaves and I can begin to put thinnings into our salad, for that little spark of fresh flavor
.

Plants and cream

2003-06-14T21:06:00.000-04:00

Today I went over to K's in Windsor and we went out for an excellent breakfast at the Cracker Barrel restaurant and general store. Then we went to a garden center that had a nice selection of plants for reasonable prices AND homemade ice cream that was delicious. I purchased a basil plant and a dill plant. I doubt I will have time at this point to grow from seed.

Pathway to heaven

2003-06-07T17:24:00.000-04:00

I have been reading K's garden magazine. It focuseson pathways, surely thebest featureof an attractive garden.

June 4 report

2003-06-04T17:24:00.000-04:00

The yellow irises are in bloom, and have been for about a week now. They are old irises, a sort that was very popular decades ago and have a look of something reverted to nature. They are tinged with a purplish color that, mixed with yellow, seems brown, like an old bruise. Not actually very attractive! Yet, in a large clump they look pretty.
The ground phlox is nearly all gone by - just a few bits of blossom left. I shallmow it shortly and hope to generate some new rowth.
The day lilies are lush, but a long way from bloom
The nasturtiums that S planted in the little kidney-shaped bed at the end of the driveway ahve come up, but most are hidden by over-zealous white hydrangea shoots.
The hydrangea shrubs are.... lush, and a tad over-zealous!

Seeing how the other half lives

2003-06-01T07:03:00.000-04:00

From the Geek Times:

Have you found errors nontrivial or marginal, factual, analytical and illogical, arithmetical, temporal, or even typographical? Please let me know; drop me an email. Thanks!

A good way to put it.

I was reading his description of buying a cottage in San Francisco for him and his family, a description that includes Tom Wolfe's description of pepole coming out of their hotels after a rain. I guess I have rain on the brain this morning!

Rainy season

2003-06-01T06:26:00.000-04:00

We have had a cool wet spring. I awoke early this morning to the sound of rain beating on the roof. On a dark morning like this, what better to do than browse among new blogs.Sitting at my makeshift desk (a sheet of plywood atop two beige metal filing cabinets), rubbing sleep from my eyes as I sip the last of yesterday's coffee, I came across this on the blog of a libertarian man from India Gaurav Sabnis:

Today is the day I got the first whiff of that smell, when the rain beats down on the baked summer earth. As the clouds work overtime to cool the soil and then drench it, tiny fumes seem to drift upwards as they make their way into my nose. I stand in the balcony, with my elbow on the wall and my chin on my palm, staring at the procession of black clouds rushing in from the horizon, and my face breaks out into a wide happy smile.

Last summer it was very dry here and it was a struggle for the garden and me. The perennials in my little border love this wet cool spring. Maybe they are plants from northern New England and expect a lot of wet in April and May with cool or even cold nights.

Anyway, everything looks very lush. Some plants are much too crowded and need to be spread apart more. A hosta division I set down at the ned of the row, which has been limping along the past 4 years, has suddenly overtaken and overshadowed the bleeding hearts and the plant with daisy-like yellow flowers whose name I can never remember.

2003-05-25T20:00:00.000-04:00

Check out the Virtual Pasture

Our goyle is shaded by a hedge that's been allowed to grow up, so there's now a small mixed wood with hazel, ash, hawthorn, blackthorn, bullace, field maple, sycamore, elm, spindle tree, holly, oak, pussy willow and probably some others I haven't spotted. Through the trees and shrubs there is a tangle of old man's beard, honeysuckle, wild rose, ivy and brambles, making the wood almost impenetrable from May till November.

White Flower

2003-05-25T19:37:00.000-04:00

K and I drove to Litchfield today. It was a pleasant drive, though overcast and threatening rain which never fell. We looked around, walked through their flower borders, and examined a few possible purchases. I ended up buying a kitchen waste can designed for compostables, and K bought some plants at a nearby garden store with much lower prices.

We had lunch in a pleasant place with good food, then examined some antiques in several antique shops.

This post is from Kate's blog, where it didn't publish for some reason

2003-05-24T14:40:00.000-04:00

Plant trivia:

2003-05-24T14:36:00.000-04:00

What is the only state to have an official state strobilae? You don't know what that is? Check out the National Arboretum page of all the state trees and flowers for the answer.

Long weekend

2003-05-24T08:41:00.000-04:00

Monday is Memorial Day and we have a long weekend . When I was growing up, one did not wear white shoes (nor carry the matching white bag and hat, of course) before Memorial Day, nor after labor Day, the pair of long weekends that bracket the summer. I hardly ever wear white anymore.
Traditionally a day for picnics and parades, we have before us the prospect of nothing but rain, except possibly a bit of sun on SUNday, which will thus be the on possible day for lawn mowing (it needs it!) picnicking, or any other januts. The rest of the weekend could be spent tucked up on the sofa with a book.
Alas, I finished my weekend mystery story this morning.

Lovely day today - It is over 70o F

2003-05-19T16:01:00.000-04:00

Sunday I mowed the lawn again. Everything is shooting up and out! But it looks great.

Lawn: While there are a few turfless spots on the lawn, most of it is very lush looking.
Perennial division: The hosta clump I divided is doing phenomenally well, both the old part and the new. Both are very happy. The ground phlox that was divided last summer just exploded this spring.
Aphids: The bleeding hearts, their favorite target around here, are in delicate but lush bloom and so far not attacked by aphids.
Pansies: The few pansies I planted are doing ok too. The ones in the pot are best - little johnny-jump-ups, they have grown a couple of inches.

Soon I expect to put out some summer annuals, such as petunias and geraniums in the sun and impatiens in the shadier areas. A few veggies wouldn't hurt either!

Perfect

2003-05-10T05:56:00.000-04:00

This May looks to be a perfect month. All the snow and moisture have resulted in a burst of growth now that it's no longer freezing out. The long tough winter seems to have been good for the plants! We were overdue for a lot of precipitation; previous years were a little dry then very dry last year. Last spring, as I recall, it was already dry in April and just got worse as the summer wore on.

Saturday tasks:

get out and mow the lawn today, first of the season.
prepare some ground for seeds on the north (sunny) side of the house;
plant echinacea seeds

Garden report:

The ground phlox has taken off and is doing beautifully.
Daffodils have mostly gone by, except for one late-booming clump.
The sole red tulip is hanging on, trying to make the most of a pleasant month.
The day lilies are claiming the edges of their space and growing vigorously.
The lilac is in bloom but in serious need of someone with clippers; in addition to old seed pods, a climbing vine has entered the shrub and is choking part of it.
The hosta that I divided out and popped into a shade spot next to the porch steps is growing vigorously, more so than the other piece I divided out two years ago (and which is in a sunnier spot).
The poison ivy which had been eradicated years ago is climbing vigorously up the side of the house and has an amazing flourish of tendrils to clutch with. It is actually rather an attractive vine-- too bad we get itchy blisters from contact with it.

Tomorrow we are going to the Pond House for brunch. I'm looking forward to it!

The world has changed

2003-05-04T05:28:00.000-04:00

In a few short days we have gone from a drab early March view to a flourishing May view. All is green, winter detritus has vanished from view, the plants are in their early teenage years with small neat buttocks and good teeth.

:::: Baskier :::::

2003-04-29T05:33:00.000-04:00

Yesterday I was a basket case at work, possibly due to lack of sleep the night before. Then I got home and became a baskier case... sitting in a relaxed posture in the late afternoon sun, wearing shorts and a tank top soothed my frazzled nerves. The thermometer hit 80^o F, I'm told. The later daffodils are in full flower,while the earlier ones have begun to wither. The ground phlox has had many small buds showing a tinge of cerise for several days. Another warm day should bring them out.

:::Bask::::

2003-04-25T06:11:00.000-04:00

I think winter has really left us now. All the snow is gone and the daffodils are blooming happily. I have one small tulip in bud where last year there was a clump -- shall have to plant more tulip bulbs if I expect to see them again.

And, while it's not exactly hot out, and we have had a biting March wind, it is spring!

More snow!

2003-04-09T21:37:00.000-04:00

We had a few inches of snow Monday. They predicted 3-6 (or alternately 5-8 just to keep everyone guessing) and they closed the schools. It was supposed to start at noon, but didn't get going til about 2:50 or 3 p.m. -- and then it didn't stick to the roads. It didnt stick anywhere for a while, then built up a bit on grass and dirt roads (eg., our driveway).

It warmed up a bit yesterday and most but not all melted. There is still a few white splotches out there and it rained today, a spitting cold rain.

We have a couple of clumps of daffodils just waiting for 50 degrees and sun, and they will pop into bloom. The crocuses are hanging on, too cool to pass by.

More snow :-(

2003-04-06T21:48:00.000-04:00

Since I last wrote, we had a couple more snow storms in MArch and the other day, Thursday or Friday, we had a few inches of sleety snow.

Now the forecast is for several inches of snow starting tomorrow. Four to six, they said. I just can't believe it! We never get snow in April around here! Since I moved here in 1978, Willimantic has hardly had snow in March -- just a few flurries, whiting up the grass briefly, in early March.Never in April! [sigh]

The crocuses have been up for about 8-10 days, the yellow ones first, before I raked away the leaves in mid-March. Now the violet ones are blooming and daffodil buds have been there for a week or so. It has been too cold for them to open. Today there was a very sharp wind. Sandy and I visited the Tent City up at UConn, chatted with the peace protesters there. Nice kids. It ws very cold, and after about 35 or 40 minutes we had to leave.

Long winter

2003-03-11T06:59:00.000-05:00

Last Thursday, March 6, we had another 8 inches of snow. It rained since then, and some of the snow melted but then it got cold again adn we still have quite a bit around, everywhere but the roads and walkways, which we did manage to clear off and the melt completed that job.

It continues cold here. This is the longest winter in my memory since moving to Connecticut in 1968. Of course in Maine and Vermont we had longer winters on a regular basis; and my childhood winters in upstate New York were long and snowy as well.

I love winter, but like anything, you can have too much of a good thing, and in Connecticut, most years, we have had just a nice amount of winter.

It is my hope that crocuses and daffodils are faring well under that snow. Normally they would have popped up by now. They may in fact have popped up, but still be buried in the snow.

Home-made potting soil

2003-03-02T04:52:00.000-05:00

I have always just bought a bag of potting soil at Stop & Shop. As a desultory home gardener, that was adequate. Outside plants did what they could with the dirt that existed.
The past two summers, I have grown vegetables in some wooden tubs. For those, I purchased a couple of huge bags of potting soil at the local garden center.

An article in the NY Times tells about making your own potting soil:

I tailor some potting mixes for specific needs. For plants that are hungry for an extra boost of nitrogen, I add soybean meal, an organic food that releases nutrients in sync with plant growth. Plants that enjoy alkaline conditions, like some cactuses, get lime, while those that like acidic conditions, like gardenias and camellias, get sulfur. Plants that thrive in dry soil, like jade plants and other succulents, get extra aggregate, while African violets, gloxinias and others that crave constant moisture get extra organic matter. --By LEE REICH, 2-16-03

Snow business like show business

2003-02-21T14:56:00.000-05:00

On Monday Feb. 17, 2003, We had a giant snow dump here. About a foot and a half, with much blizzardy blowing, so that in some spots it was considerably deeper.

The snow began coming down Monday morning but did not begin really filling in all the cracks until later in the day. That was lucky, and I got home from WCMH ok before it got horrible.

Our neighbor, that is to say the man who owns the house next door, but actually lives in another town, has been dilligently plowing out the area in back where his tenants park. Quite a bit of his snow has ended up on my lilac bush. Either he or my landlord is wrong about where the property line is.

More snow

2003-02-08T21:05:00.000-05:00

Friday morning it snowed like the dickens, and they cancelled school. Town Hall was open though and I went to work. Going was easy, coming home I discovered my feet were inadquately shod. But my trusty Ford focus made it home very well. I'd say we had nearly a foot of snow before it finally stopped late Friday. I had an appointment in the early afternoon at the hospital, and boy, the parking lot up there was awful. People were slipping and sliding all over. The main streets in Willimantic were okay, but not quite as well plowed as usual. The state has cut a lot of funds that the town had budgeted for. [We could blame Rowland for this, and we should, but it's also got to be Bush and his crazy multi-billion dollar war.].

Hunkered down

2003-01-23T06:40:00.000-05:00

It's been cold this month. Feels more like upstate New York or Central Maine than southeast Connecticut. 0^o F. ( or about -17 C) is not what I have become accustomed to. When I moved to Connecticut 30 years ago, one of the things I liked about it was that it seemed to combine the best features of New York (where I grew up) and Maine (where I had often vacationed and had been living for a few years). And this little piece of the state where I've lived lately has very mild winters, being just south of the rain-snow line. We do get some snow-- just a few years ago, we had a March blizzard that dumped a foot and a half of snow. (Of course, the places i used to live got 2 1/2 feet!).

Drab December

2002-12-31T06:27:00.000-05:00

We had a sleety Christmas, which made driving difficult. It was not impossible, however, and I went to my daughter's house, about an hour's drive from here.

The sleet was followed by snow - the grounds always looks nice and clean after a snowfall -- and then a few dry days.
This morning when I went to the door to let out the cats, I saw what looks like rain. It could be sleet again, however. I am located near the rain-snow line for this vicinity. North of us they mostly get snow from a storm and to the south, nearer the coast, they get rain most often.

There are a few pots left near the door where we had placed some plants in the fall to protect them from early frosts. They include two planters one of which has a living plant still in it (uharmed by the cold and snow) and a couple of urns, one that was filled with hickory nuts I collected from the driveway - they were everywhere!
I suppose I should make them accessible to the squirrels. We have a fair number of grey squirrels around here. The manwho owns the house next door was going nuts trying to rid him of some in his attic. He ended upshooting them and I ended up reporting this to the police, since there is a law against use of firearms in the city limits. Nothing came of it though - I guess the police thought I was just a crank. Which, perhaps, I am.

Xmas greens

2002-12-15T08:14:00.000-05:00

Yesterday we went to the garden center and got some bunches of greens: prickly blue spruce, juniper with its gray-blue berries, and boxwood, a broadleaf evergreen commonly used for hedges. Because it is so leafy, it makes excellent filler and becaue it is a broadleaf, contrasts nicely in texture with the juniper and spruce. We also got some outdoor ribbon and florists wire.

First we made a wreath for the front of the house, wiring branches of greens onto a circular form made during the summer from bittersweet, a winding vine that is pretty easy to form into a wreath shape. Using natural material for the form makes it uncessary to completely cover it, and the vines contribute to the appearance (not the case if you use a wire or worse, a styrofoam shape).

Then we made table decorations, putting florist foam into a little container made for the purpose, and setting in stems of the variou greens. To do this, first you pop the foam into a bucket of water and let it sink and soak up water, then you put it into the little green base. it rises above the base by a couple of inches, to make room for inserting stems sideways around the edge. You work from the outside gradually toward the center, trying to balance the length and variety of snippets. Once you have placed a stem in the foam, it's best not to remove it, as it will tear up the foam - much like pulling an arrow back out of the flesh. (eww, sorry)

We had some spruce branches left over, partly because they are so bristly they're hard to work with, and put 'em in a bucket of water out by the front steps.

Today is porch day. We have broad outdoor ribbon in a fire engine red shade that will be wrapped around the porch uprights, giving the effect of candycanes. Nice!

houseplants

2002-12-13T08:41:00.000-05:00

We've been trying to save the plants we potted up near the end of September, before it froze up around here.

We brought them to the shelter of the back of the hosue... then brought them just inside the back door, where there is no heat, but no wind, either ... then, finally, upsatairs.

What we did not do much of was water them. A little catchign up to do there :-)

Nobody's outside in the garden this week

2002-12-07T06:38:00.000-05:00

The Thursday after Thanksgiving, we had another big snow. Work let out early, I presume because the schools let out early. After being at home for a while, I was itching to go out in the snow and see how things were downtown.
I called a friend and invited her to have supper with me at a local pizza place. Then I hopped in the car (ok, I spent 15 minutes sweeping snow off, and that was no hop ) and drove down to Main Street. The plows had been out, and passage was not too difficult. But unlike earlier when the traffic had been quite heavy as workers were sent home, at 4:30 the streets were rather peaceful, with the odd plow truck, only an occasional motorist, and more pedestrians than usual.
I swung past the pizza place and sure enough its lights were on (they were doing a booming take-out business, but had very few walk-ins) and the food Co-op was still open. So I went over to the Co-op and picked up my few groceries and inquired about the peace vigil. The vigil would go on as usual, I was told.
So I met up with my friend and we walked together over to the corner of Main and Jackson street for the peace vigil and sure enough several people were there already standing in the snow.
I stayed not quite the whole hour and saw a surprising amount of traffic - more than I would have guessed. We got our share of encouraging honks and waves plus one or two shouted insults.
The talking and laughing went on as the snow continued to fall. Peace vigilers are a cheerful lot of people, despite the seriousiousness of their reason for being there, and every vigil seems in a way like a social event.
If by chance you are interested in joining a peace vigil, there are several weekly one around Connecticut, and you can check their times and locations at the Crows Net peace page.
On my way back to the pizza place I nearly fell on the sidewalk, but did not actually go down. We had hot chocolate and a light supper and went home feeling rather satisfied.

2002-11-30T08:27:00.000-05:00

http://bronzefrogs.com/cheatsheet.html

First snow

2002-11-30T06:59:00.000-05:00

We had our first snow of the season the day before Thanksgiving (Wed., Nov. 27, 2002). I had to clear off about 4 inches of snow from my car at 6:30 in the morning, before going to work. I cleared off the car, then went back inside to shower and dress for work. When I went back out 40 minutes or so later, another inch had fallen and I had to take another swipe at it. The 2nd time was easier, of course. I heard later that day that we had gotten about 7-8 inches total. That's a lot for any winter storm, especially so early in the winter -- technically it's still autumn -- and especially for the area of New England where I live, which has relatively low snowfall.

Thanksgiving Day was clear and sunny and the temperature hovered in the vicinity of freezing (32F, 0C). The roads had been plowed and in the sun what little was lift melted and dried out, so driving to my daughter's place was easy.

Friday afternoon and evening, it snowed again. I took a bowl of apple peelings out for the compost pile, but actually dumped them in a snowbank near a brush pile so they'd be accessible to any mice, rabbits, chipmunks, or raccoons that might be nearby and hungry. I mean to trek out back today and see if anyone made a dent in that little pile.
While I was outside - this was late afternoon - it was snowing lightly, a rather damp, clumping snow. I made a 2-foot tall snow Buddha by the tree I can see from my kitchen window. It's not a great Buddha, but I can just make out the form.

I guess it is the natural order of things that some small animals would weaken and perhaps die (or be hunted by others) during an early snowfall and I may upset that order by dropping some feed outside. It's hard to see where the line between compassion and wisdom falls.

December gardening tasks

2002-11-23T12:59:00.000-05:00

I got a newsletter from Ladd's Garden Center in South Windham listing some things to do next month. Tasks include the following:

Pull out the annuals from window boxes and planters, and replace with cut evergreens and real or artificial red berries and pinecones.
Paperwhite and hyacinth that are started in early December will be close to blooming for the holidays.
Keep Christmas cactus in cool areas as bloom begins, in order to prolong bloom time. (I have several cacti in bud!)
Stock birdfeeders

You notice they didn't say rake your lawn. I guess they figure we've already taken care of that. *I* however, have a considerable amount of leaves about the place. On the other hand, I have already pulled up the dead annuals, tomato plants, etc. There are still a few pots outside of mostly dead stuff, but some are things that might winter over if I brought them in.

Crow: Mass. Logs

2002-11-21T06:33:00.000-05:00

At Crow's Net, click on the link to state-by-state logs. They are reports of interesting and curious behavior of crows. Crows are far smarter than given credit for.

...One large American crow was poking his head inside a small discarded Doritos bag, ostensibly to get a snack. Each time he stuck his head inside the opening the bag would move back a tiny amount, so it looks like he couldn't get at the contents inside. He (I'll use he but I don't know what gender the crow was) stepped to the side and examined the bag for a few moments, then walked towards the closed end and lifted it up with his beak, flying into the air a short distance, thus pointing the open end of the bag to the ground and letting the contents spill out onto the ground. The crow then discarded the bag (remarkably close to a trash can!) and flew back to eat the Doritos on the ground...

From Crows Net

For generations, people liked to claim they were the only ones with intelligence. I like to think we are gradually waking up to the idea that intelligence is spread across the spectrum, and that there are different kinds of intelligence.
Maybe we are the only ones who, despite intelligence, act stupidly. We certainly do have a broad range of abilities.
The crow website is excellent. It is owned by my friend Mike Westerfield.

Nature Links

2002-11-19T21:18:00.000-05:00

Links
Assorted links, many to natural history sites, such as birding in Connecticut, backyard moths, etc.

Frogs (and other amphibians)

2002-11-19T20:52:00.000-05:00

Here are some links to frogs I thought you'd find interesting.
1. Bullfrog This distinguishes the green and bullfrogs, and males from females and has recordings of their songs
2. Vernal pool Interesting description of the importance of Vernal Pools (temporary spring ponds)
3. The famous frogs
4. Pickerel frog, often seen on lawns (and in meadows) resembles leopard frog
5. Spotted salamander. "Click for call"

That wet place in the woods? leave it alone! dont fill it in, dont chop down the trees! It's home to frogs, salamanders, freshwater shrimp andmore... and all those things are food for other items, including the stuff you like to watch ...or hunt.

Bullfrogs: Description, Habitat and Mating

2002-11-19T20:13:00.000-05:00

Bullfrogs: Description, Habitat and Mating .

If an approaching male ignores the warning call of the resident male, a fight can develop. The males fight by grabbing with their front legs, kicking with their back legs, and trying to flip each other over.
The stronger frog usually wins and may hold the other frog underwater for a short time.
These fights are very dangerous for the bullfrogs because they attract the attention of enemies. Snapping turtles, water snakes and large herons can get an easy meal when bullfrogs are fighting.

I've been thinking about frogs and went looking for photos.

The frog bridge in Willimantic has startling huge sculpted frogs stop giant concerete thread spools (don't ask) and there is something about the shape of the frogs that troubles me. One, the eyes are painted gold all over, not just where the irises would be. Two, the legs are long and slender and girlish.

Cold Climate Gardening

2002-11-19T17:34:00.000-05:00

Cold Climate Gardening

After removing the rocks, it was time to get some compost. We only have lazy-man's compost around here; we put it in a bin, and when the bin gets full, we move it to the next bin, and then the final bin. Consequently, compost in the final bin has lots of stuff still in it. That's why I like to sift it. My son Rundy built a wooden frame sized to fit over our wheelbarrows and stapled hardware cloth to it. It works just fine, but it's heavy. Rundy, who lifts weights, picks it up and shakes it to sift. I rest it on the wheelbarrow and shovel compost on top of the screen. Then, using a gloved hand, I push the compost around the screen until the good stuff has all fallen into the wheelbarrow. Then, saying a prayer for my back, I pick the frame off the wheelbarrow and dump the remains into bin #2 to compost some more. And I repeat the process until the wheelbarrow is full or I have as much compost as I need.

This is a lovely blog with excellent writing. There is something peaceful about gardens and the work one does in them that translates into clear writing. I guess because it eliminates the mental static, at least temporarily, and clarifies the thinking.

i see the pond!

2002-11-02T21:37:00.000-05:00

i see the pond! Branches blow, leaves scuttle down the street.

Kate's new pondblog. Take a look!

November's here

2002-11-01T09:53:00.000-05:00

It's officially "late fall" now. We've had a few frosts, and nearly all the plant matter remaining outside has wilted down.

I lover the way periwinkle looks Somehow the freeze doesn't wilt those leaves and they stay green and attractive all winter.

I left a china pot outside that had a pink flowerring geranium in, providing some fall color in the flower bed out front. The geranium's dead, and I'd better bring in that pot before it cracks!

Fall Perennial Planting Tips

2002-10-21T06:14:00.000-04:00

On arrival, open your packages and water the plants. Keep them in a cool, shaded place and plant as soon as possible.

Select a site that meets the conditions of the perennials you have chosen. Prepare the bed by digging or tilling, and adding a bit of good compost.

Gently compact soil around plants to eliminate any air pockets and water thoroughly. Continue to apply water as needed to supplement rainfall until the ground freezes. In temperate areas do not allow plants to dry out during the winter.

·Where winter temperatures are consistently very cold, mulch the bed with straw or any suitable material after the ground has frozen. Where freeze/thaw cycles occur, mulching will help keep the soil at a constant temperature.

Once spring arrives, your now-established plants will break dormancy and grow magnificently. With minimal care, perennials will reward you with an enormous amount of pleasure for many years - and possibly generations to come.

Planting tips from Burpee Seed Co

Over

2002-10-21T05:56:00.000-04:00

Nearly all the plants are inside now -- most just inside the back door entry way... some already upstairs in their window spots. I've lost a couple of plants, such as the sweet potato vine that was planted n the wooden tub. I had meant to repot it, but the frost got to it before I did :-(

Winding down

2002-10-12T09:58:00.000-04:00

The other night I was expecting it to be cold, so I put all the pots in a huddle near the back door, which is a sheltered spot. I cleaned off the ancient picnic table that serves as my potting area, so now it just has a stack of empty pots and one strawberry pot filled with herbs.
Now all I have to do is clean up an area inside where I can put all these!

End of garden

2002-10-04T08:18:00.000-04:00

My veggie garden in wood tubs is pretty much at an end.

All summer I got tasty golfball-sized cukes. They are still coming, but smaller than golfballs now and not so round, more comma-shaped. As advised by my garden book, I cut back on water and fertilizer about 3 weeks ago.
The leaves look awful, all pale and holey.
Likewise with the tomato plants, most of whose leaves and stems have dried and blackened, but some of which are still producing fruits. Some drop before ripening. All of them --orange, light green, or even dark green -- I pluck up and take inside to the windowsill, where most are ripening.
The green basil and the purple basil are both way past their prime, though I can still get a few leaves now and then to add to pasta sauce.
The banana pepper plants still look okay ... not thriving, but not dying either, just slowing down. The yellow peppers turn purplish when fully ripe (could they have been influenced by the potted purple basil I tucked into their tub with them? Hmmmm.)

Green tomatoes, by the way, are a good addition to pasta sauce. I mostly have stopped making 'normal' pasta sauce and just cook up a mess of fresh vegetables (onion, garlic, eggplant, mushrooms, carrot, fresh tomatoes both ripe and green, and some basil leaves). I add salt and pepper and a small handful of fennel seed.
Fennel seed has a sweetish, anise-like flavor and is what they use in Italian sausage. It enriches a vegetarian pasta sauce. It was historically used in cooking fish, especially oily fish like salmon, as the leaves cut the oiliness and is still used as a garnish with fish.
For more information on Fennel, see the following:
Purple Sage herbal
VegWeb glossary
Fennel Pollen

For more information on October garden chores, see the following:
Horticultural news
10 fall garden chores

Sluggard, me

2002-09-22T07:37:00.000-04:00

I haven't been doing any gardening at all for about 2 weeks. Well, really what's to be done? My keg of tomatoes are slo-o-wly ripening, and my book says to cut back on fertilizer and water to get them to focus on repening, not new flowers, new growth. So I am watching and waiting and every several days I pick another ripe tomato.
There are a couple of my tiny golf-ball-sized cukes in the fridge as well. They were tasty, but they did not exactly flourish. Could be cukes don't do well in containers... or in heat... or. I don't know that much about it, actually.

There is a considrable amount of cleanup top be done outside... since the big blow, still some branches and stuff lying around, plus the leaves have started their annual Fall.

Mating?

2002-09-15T11:03:00.000-04:00

This morning, as I sat on the porch with my breakfast of coffee and granola (with fruited yogurt - delicious!) I saw a lot of birds flying about in the upper story of trees. I've seen birds acting like that when they were going after fruit, such as cherries. This was in a nut tree primarily that I could see them... other trees nearby were maples. No fruit trees. I was wondering if they could have been mating. It's been a warmer than usual summer... then we had a week of cool days with chilly nights. Now it's warm and humid again, and possibly they think it's spring...?

Big blow

2002-09-14T08:54:00.000-04:00

We had a big blow a few days back, of the sort one associates with autumn rains or edges of hurricanes. There was no rain, but a fair number of branches came down. I guess it's nature's equivalent of brushing your hair, getting out the dead wood.
Along with many branches -- all dead and easy to break apart -- were a quantity of nuts, butternuts, I think, which with their outer covering, are the size and color of limes, or slightly tired, dried out limes.
Yesterday I was out there for an hour or more picking up sticks and also collected a bucket of nuts. I put them by the kitchen door, handy for any passing squirrels. I'd say there are enough nut trees sprouting up here and there, though I do like them. They have attractive pinate leaves (is pinnate the right term? there are pairs along a stem.)

Frog pond

2002-08-15T16:10:00.000-04:00

A pan of water I put out for the cats to drink while out and about on hot days has turned into a frog pond. A little green frog appeared out of nowhere.

Going with the flow, I put into the pan two rocks, some duckweed and one water hyacinth. Next time I looked there were two little green frogs. Amazing, huh?

Sky lilies

2002-07-13T06:41:00.000-04:00

We planted nasturtiums this year in several locations. The best of them is under the shrubbery at the mouth of the driveway, a spot that gets sunlight only in the early morning, as it slants in from across the street where I live. The rest of the day, the shrubs and tall trees shade it completely.

The little fellows are up, with their nice rounded leaves, like little puffed-out chests, facing east. My daughter calls nasturtiums sky lillies because they are so extremely photo-sensitive. As the sun progresses across the sky, the nasturtiums turn with it; the result is twisted little stems.

The mechanism of plants "turning toward the light," I was told years ago, is certain growth hormones are activated in the shade. The shady side of the plant thus grows faster, giving the effect of the plant bending toward the light.

Mechanically, this is the same principal used in electrical auto-off and -on switches, which respond to the heat generated by an electrical connection. A little metal piece that makes a complete circuit when closed, thus turning the light on, is made with two different metals back-to-back,* one of which warms and expands at a faster rate than the other, thus bending the piece to open the circuit. Once the power is off for a bit, the more expandable bit cools and the part closes, again turning the item On. This is the principal used in blinking Christmas tree lights and, in a more complex manner, thermostats (for those who wanted to know).

* A bimetallic strip is a piece of metal made by laminating two different types of metal together. For more information check How Stuff Works. [Interesting site, but annoyingly full of ads sending cookies.]

All clear

2002-07-12T21:49:00.000-04:00

After a few weeks of mostly very hot and humid weather, occasionally breaking to fairly hot and humid weather, it has turned really pleasant. At midday, it's been around 80 F with very low humidity , cooling down to about 58 at night. I actually used a light blanket last night!

Quebec fires

2002-07-08T06:46:00.000-04:00

There is a yellowish gray haze in the sky, apparently the result of a smoke plume from the northern Quebec forest fires that started a few days ago from lightning. We are warned to stay inside with windows closed and avoid streneuous outdoor activity. The photo shows the haze over New York City.

More heat . .

2002-07-05T19:03:00.000-04:00

We have just come off a four-day heat wave. Monday and Tuesday at work, in addition to weather in the 90 F + range (Wednesay it was 100 F) the air conditioning broke down. Hard to think when it's that hot and humid.

Well, I got out and watered the garden. Usually that makes it rain. But it didn't rain til Thursday night, and then not much (unless it rained in the middle of the night). But it cooled way down. It was 80 F or so at the high point and not so hazy. Right now there's a fresh clean breeze coming in. I expect to get a good night's sleep tonight, for the first time in a while.

My planters are doing all right, not great. I guess they lack fertilizer.

< panting> hah, hah, hah

2002-06-26T17:02:00.000-04:00

It's too hot and humid to want to garden much. The other day I watered the plants in hopes that would bring rain, but it just glowered for the next 48 hours. Last night, well about 3 a.m. today actually, there was a crashing storm. The humidity is hanging over us like a bad president. Arizona is being punished for supporting Bush.

I go to meet the ladies of the red hat society this evening. We always go to the all you can eat buffet Wednesdays at the Royal Crown Chinese buffet. I pig out and it's $11 each, including a generous tip considering we get our own food and all the wait stafff does is brig our initial tea and then snatch used plates away so we can't re-use them.

Outside, well beyond the garden

2002-06-14T07:14:00.000-04:00

Astronomers see a planetary system similar to that of Earth 41 light years away. That sounds pretty close, but one of today's spaceships would take over a million years to get there! The article in today's NY Times said scientists were excited to find it even has a planet like Jupiter.

The host star of the planetary system, 55 Cancri, is much like the Sun in age and size. It has a newly detected planet that resembles Jupiter in mass and, of greater importance, has an orbit almost the same as Jupiter's.

In the dynamics of the solar system, Jupiter is pivotal in setting up conditions conducive to life on Earth.

They dont tell you why its important until much later in the story: That big planet on the outer edge of the solar system deflects most of the asteroid and comet bombardment away from the smaller inner planets.

Jupiter deflected the heaviest asteroid and comet bombardment away from the inner solar system, particularly the "habitable zone," where conditions were most suitable for life. The zone encompasses Earth and possibly Mars.

Let's go there in a couple of years, when air travel has improved... :-)

Growth

2002-06-12T05:41:00.000-04:00

I constructed a compost area about a month ago. Maybe 'constructed' isn't the correct word. I purchased some wire frames intended for the purpose and hooked them together into a square about 34 or 35 inches per side. The corner pieces pass through loops and stake into the ground. I also bought a pitchfork. Then I added dried leaves from last fall that were heaped in an area but composting v-e-r-y slowly, some garden pullings, and a few peelings.

The rule with compost, I read, is to alternate layers of green and brown. A base of dead leaves, then grass clippings, then kitchen waste, then leaves, etc. It's like making a casserole. Except the directions say to turn it every so often and water it. I havent been watering it, but it has been raining. It's wonderful to have something constructive to do with kitchen waste. It no longer feels so much like 'waste' and instead feels like a contribution to the garden, sort of a tithe from our evening meal. I find myself creating more of it than I otherwise would, peeling potatoes and carrots that once I'd have left unpeeled.

link to old version

2002-06-04T19:07:00.000-04:00

One fine day

2002-06-04T19:02:00.000-04:00

What is so rare as a day in June? the poet asked. What, indeed? High clear air, cool nights, rainfall every couple of days (or evenings) to keep the grass green. I have been working somewhat longer than usual hours this week to get ready for the inspection coming up tomorrow. Today I really wanted to be outside.

Last evening, a friend brought me a garbage bag full (well, nearly full) of grass clippings. I had told her my compost lacks grass, since my mower shreds the grass and leaves it where it is. She had a LOT to spare and was happy to unload some.

hot today

2002-06-01T22:26:00.000-04:00

It was a bright summer day, fairly hot at midday. I mowed the lawn, but did a sort of half-fast job of it.

weather report

2002-05-30T15:31:00.000-04:00

Thunderstorms have been predicted all week. We've had light rain showers several times, but if there were any thunderstorms, I missed them. Maybe I was concentrating too hard at work to look out the window, who knows? :-)

Wednesday. early in the morning (about 6:15), I was standing looking east toward the street out on the front porch, which runs along the front of the house and around the corner a bit. There are a lot of trees on my right from there (south side of the house) and behind the house too. It was cloudy and looked like rain. Sure enough, I soon could hear the patter of rain sprinkling on the leaves. I waited for the sidewalk to get wet, but it didnt. I peered down the street where there are fewer trees to block the rain-- that was dry too!. The rain kept pattering and not making it (apparently) to the ground. Then I walked to the other end of the porch and looked into the driveway of the neighboring house. The back half was quite wet, the front half dry!

I am often on the edge like that.

Meanwhile, the plants are enjoying the warmth and humidity and growing. Nasturtiums among the remains of crocuses are flourishing, though not yet near bloom.