Category Archives: Garden

Garden, In the neighborhood, Small truths, Snapshots

Note to a neighbor

13 Comments

You don’t know me, but might recognize me from the neighborhood. I walk by your house with the silly black Lab puppy in the early evenings; sometimes we wave to one another while you’re out to bring in the garbage cans from the street.

Maybe you saw me this afternoon on my knees in my good clothes in the middle of your front garden. I had the camera with me on the way in from work and couldn’t resist stopping to take some pics, even though I worried you might think me a little nutty for doing it.

You see, those snowdrops you’ve planted have been drawing my eye for the last week or so; in fact, I look for them there every winter around this time. Last year, their blooms were suspended in ice, but my winter weary eyes were reassured at the sight of them.

If you’d noticed my pausing as I drove by earlier this month, it was just so that I might catch a glimpse of the green shoots poking the way through their bed of ivy. That was magic enough the morning I finally spotted them, but last week their blooms lifted my heart some on a day when it was otherwise heavy.

I can see from your carefully-tended garden that you’re as much a lover of the most delicate flowers as I am. But snowdrops aren’t delicate and they’re as generous with themselves as we gardeners tend to be. Yours are slowly monopolizing the small space you’ve allotted them and before too long will be blooming down along the sidewalk. When that happens, I hope you’ll forgive me if you should find me there one afternoon with a small spade in place of my camera.

I’d be happy to return the favor, if only you’d knock at my door sometime and introduce yourself. I think I saw you out there one spring day at the edge of the garden with an eye on my patch of lily-of-the-valley. It’s quietly covering the ground beneath the dogwood trees and making its way towards the street.

If we wait long enough, your plot of snowdrops may meet my patch of lily-of-the-valley, and then our flowers will be neighbors too and we’ll not have to steal glances from one another’s garden any longer.

Bunnies, Garden, Pastimes, Seasons, Whatever

Summer… or snow

9 Comments

The gray snowless sky is getting the better of my mood lately, I think. I love the winter and the chill wind, but it all seems pointless without a covering of snow to change the view some. It’s all just brown and monotonous otherwise.

I walked and walked in the woods this afternoon to get rid of the restlessness and to look for some color or something of interest. Finally I settled on the boost a visit to the greenhouse would give… that stifling heat and the smell of growing things and the color! I do this often enough that the ladies who manage the greenhouse know not to ask me if I need help with purchasing something… I’m there just to wander among the flowers and soak up enough of the moist air to help me remember that winter and its gray wont last forever.

I saw the beginnings of their Spring display, with primroses and pansies and the most wonderful of hydrangeas. Bunny topiaries and sweet little bird’s nest wreaths. It’s all deception now, in late January, like the seed catalogs with their pics of tomatoes red and juicy enough to make my mouth water at the thought of a summer afternoon wandering barefoot along the rows of my garden. That memory seems like such a luxury at this time of year, roaming around the garden to see what’s ready for picking, sitting down beside the pond to watch the dragonflies and the fish, hanging out there until the fireflies come to flash their love songs in the night.

My heart’s set on summer… or snow.

Books, Garden, PSA

The silence of the yams

14 Comments

Since reading Barbara Kingsolver’s book last summer about eating locally (click to read my post about it), I’ve been on something of a kick with other *food* books when I come across a new one. Deb’s recent post on the subject, in which she shares her doubt about the viability of eating only locally grown products where she lives in Minnesota, made me feel a bit better about the difficulties I have in doing the same here – and let’s face it – the growing season in NJ is considerably longer than in Deb’s home state. Farmer’s markets here typically run from May through October only.

At any rate, I borrowed Skinny Bitch from a friend, mostly to see what all the fuss was about. I’ve never read a diet book in my life, and this one read a bit too much like one for my taste, but if you can get past the shock value of the language and past their insisting that vegan is the only healthy way to eat, you might just find something useful there. I could easily be vegetarian, but give up eggs and cheese and ice-cream? Well… I’m not there yet.

I’ve just about finished Michael Pollan’s In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto and find his measured approach a bit more helpful and, dare I say it, affirming of the food choices I regularly make. The crux of his *manifesto* is that we should eat food, but not too much of it, and mostly plants. The first two-thirds of the book are spent defining what *food is not* and explaining how the typical Western diet and our current focus on nutrition have caused so many of us to be unhealthy.

I don’t want to give away all of the gems of this book, but these are a few things that have really hit home with me:

*Don’t eat anything your great-grandmother wouldn’t recognize as food.
*Avoid food products that are unfamiliar or unpronouceable.
*Don’t eat anything incapable of rotting!
*Shop the edges of the supermarket and avoid the middle where the *food-products* shout at you with their health claims, while the kale and carrots sit in silence on the periphery.
*Shop at farmer’s markets or CSA’s (click for a list) whenever possible. Shake the hand that feeds you.
*Eat mostly plants, especially leaves.
*Eat well grown foods from healthy soils. Just as food sustains us, soil sustains everything that grows in it. Everything that is put into the soil should nurture and support its ability to give and sustain life.
*Pay more, eat less. Better food costs more to produce. Food needn’t be cheap, fast and easy.
*Try not to eat alone. A shared meal is part ritual, part culture.
*Only eat when you’re truly hungry and then eat slowly!
*Prepare your own food and plant a garden, however humble.

I’m not so inclined to recommend books, but this one is worth noting, I think, in that it offered me an eye-opening look into the food industry and how deliberately we’ve been led astray from what’s really good for us.

Birds, Garden, Whatever

Wildlife tree

9 Comments

Ever thought to decorate a tree for the birds and other wildlife in your garden? As if you need something else to have to decorate?

😉

It might be something as simple as strings of popcorn and peanuts, cranberries and grapes, or something as elaborate (and pretty) as this wildlife tree at Longwood Gardens. The NWF suggests thin apple and orange slices, as well as pinecones coated with a mix of peanut butter and cornmeal then dipped in birdseed. Zick dough might be yummy too, I’d bet. And remember that your discarded xmas tree makes a great sheltering spot for birds and can be used as the base of a brush pile to attact other wildlife.

I took this pic last Christmas at Longwood and swore I’d make it back this past summer – didn’t happen. I wonder if anyone is going this Christmas? Heather in Pa. – is this tree a staple of the display? Do you know if the decorations are handmade?

Something else to add to the holiday to-do list.

Garden, Seasons, Whatever

Autumn in our hands

17 Comments

Thanks to everyone who took the time to send pics! We’ve made a lovely mosaic of fall color, don’t you think?

Hand and leaf ID’s are as follows (clockwise from top left): Redbud, I think (from the Net), Piracantha berries from Donna who doesn’t have much color yet, Maple from Nina, Pin Oak from Mary, Locust from John, Maple from Ruth, Maple leaves (from the Net), Striped Maple from Al (also called the Moosewood Maple or the Goosefoot Maple which I can totally see – thanks Mojoman – I learned a new ID with that name!), Staghorn Sumac from Ruthie J., Larch needles from me, Sourwood from Jayne, and Dogwood from Larry.

Dog days, Garden

Hazards

20 Comments

Puppyhood is fleeting and fraught with danger. Most days Luka is full of puppy bravado and bravely challenges vacuum hoses, ladders, and little old ladies with umbrellas. He sneaks up on napping bunnies like a stealthy cat and pounces at plastic grocery store bags. He talks back when disciplined, yet sits politely while waiting for his dinner.

Each day, with frequent walks to new places and the added help of a weekly puppy class, he’s learning some manners and being exposed to new things. I’m amazed with how forward and unafraid this pup is with strangers and unfamiliar things. For all of his life my Buddy would approach the downtown area of our little neighborhood with his tail between his legs – too many people and too much activity always made him apprehensive – yet this little guy trots forward with a happy tail, glad to meet anyone who will pause long enough to coo over him.

He’s been stepped on more than once by clumsy strangers and has learned not to put himself underfoot despite his eagerness. Just yesterday he learned how to go down stairs for the first time and was quite pleased with himself for no longer needing to be carried outside for potty breaks like a little baby. He’s tall enough now to surf the top of the coffee table; making yet another piece of furniture that I have to keep free of clutter. He spends workdays napping, waiting for us to come home to walk him and peeling paint from the kitchen baseboards.

Everything must be explored with his mouth and teeth. Some flower or rock or patch of dirt has managed to upset his stomach – we’ve been dealing with that the last few days. Healthy portions of boiled rice and some canned pumpkin have gotten his poops back to normal, but not without accident and a sleepless night or two.

We’ve been playing fetch in the yard and he’s loving that. He’s still very clumsy and most often lands on his head before getting the ball in his mouth. Today we had a scare when he carried the ball under the Rose of Sharon hedge and disturbed a bunch of ground-nesting wasps. I thought his panic was because the ball rolled out of his reach or that his lead was tangled among the branches, but coming closer I saw that he was covered in wasps. Poor thing! I called Rich from across the yard and we brushed them all off, but Luka was stung and yelping and frightened. We called the vet just to be sure he’d be okay and he is, but it scared me how he became so suddenly quiet and subdued. I wonder if he’ll be put off playing fetch now or if he’ll pester bees in the garden the way Buddy always did.

The books all say that what pups learn now sticks with them for life, so we’re mindful that his expereinces are all as positive as can be. Most indignities have been easily remedied by the generous administration of cookies, but I’m not so sure that this one won’t sting for a good while in his memory.

Garden, Seasons, Snapshots, Wildflowers

Summer snowflakes

14 Comments

Common as it is, Queen Anne’s Lace is a beautiful wildflower, I think. I found a nice patch backlit by the sun a few weeks ago and lost myself for a while in the varying forms the flowers take. As pretty as the tops of the flowers are, I think they’re much more interesting from below.

It’s said to attract more than 60 insects, beneficial pollinators among them, and makes a wonderful pressed flower. It’s easily confused with other poisonous members of the carrot family, like water-hemlock or poison hemlock, so be very careful before ever sampling the root.

I was ready to say that this is probably my favorite of the late summer wildflowers, but then I thought of Joe Pye and New York Ironweed. Both are just coming into bloom in my garden now and attracting swallowtails and monarchs. It’s August suddenly and the summer is waning.

Garden, Pond, Snapshots

Lily and cats

13 Comments

Remember the new purple waterlily I mentioned in this post, well, here’s one open. Nice, huh? I like the color combination, but wish it would bloom a bit more. I feel like I ought to fertilize the pond plants, but with so many fish at the moment, it’s probably not necessary!

We had an odd frog incident: I found a smallish bullfrog dead on the slate floor of the gazebo next to the pond. At first I thought maybe it had hopped out and baked itself somehow on the oven-hot slate, but then I noticed one of its’ legs was a few feet away and half-chewed up. This afternoon brought a possible explanation: my husband startled a cat from the pond area this morning. That explains how yesterday’s dead frog moved itself a foot or more by this afternoon! I also found a black swallowtail dead on the floor of the gazebo – wings only! I expect cats to hunt birds and baby rabbits, but bullfrogs and butterflies?

I wish my neighbors were more responsible with their cats. I could never get away with the same behavior with a dog – why should it be any different for cat owners? At any rate, my husband set a trap out – I would hate to see a neighbor’s beloved pet end up at the pound, but we won’t have a well-fed housecat using our garden as a hunting ground.