Do like salads? Do you like elegant salads? Do you like the idea of being able to go to your backyard (or a container for plants, if you don’t have a backyard) and pick a pretty flower and round, green, tangy leaves to put in your salad?
In order to present to you nasturtium, the flower pictured in this watercolor, I wanted to show you a picture of this edible plant. Instead of showing a photograph, I decided to do a watercolor. When you paint, unlike in a photograph, you can choose what you want to present. So I decided to emphasize the flowers (which will become pretty petals of orange, yellow or red in your salad) and the round-shaped leaves.
The nasturtium seed looks like a shriveled chickpea. It grows easily: all you need to do is poke it with your finger into the ground. Don’t plant nasturtium where you have precious grass; the nasturtium plant will take over, and come frost time you’ll have a bare spot where you used to have grass. But I find it fairly easy to grow. The first summer I tried there was a drought in New Jersey, and these plants did not do well. But recently we’ve had a lot of rain, and my little germinated nasturtium plants are already sticking two round little leaves out of the ground.
More about nasturtium here.
The ground hog ate away at my peas. They were beginning to form, the little pea pods, and the big, bad ground hog chomped on them. I sprinkled the leaves with hot sauce, in the hopes that he won’t like it. My neighbor down the block has a ground hog trap; I think the idea is you capture the ground hog, and then you have to drive somewhere to the woods so then he (or she) can come scurrying back to your garden? What joy. Like I have nothing better to do.
I actually saw him in my backyard, and if I hadn’t been in a rush yesterday, I might have been able to capture him on my camera. But I don’t want to post villains on my blog, anyway. Instead, here’s a photo of a tulip that did not get eaten by a deer:
Why is it I call the ground hog a villain, and I have sympathy for the deer? Is it just because deer are prettier animals?
Here are the flowers on my neighbor’s dogwood tree.
Here’s the whole dogwood tree.
I learned from Gail that the cherry trees bloom first, and then the dogwoods show their flowers.
See my dogwood painting.
Name the only country in the world that has more trees in 2008 than in 2007. To find the answer, go here.
My daughter and I went for a walk on a lovely spring day this week. This is what we found:
Can anyone identify this tree?
It has to be a fruit tree, because on the tree we found this:
This is the bracha for a fruit tree. So my daughter and I said the bracha (blessing):
Transliteration: Boruch A-toh Ado-noi E-lo-hei-nu Me-lech Ho-olom She-lo Chi-seir Be-o-lo-mo Ke-lum U-va-rah Vo Be-ri-yos To-vos Ve-i-lo-nos To-vos Le-ha-nos ba-hem Be-nei A-dam.
Translation: Blessed are You, L-rd our G-d, King of the universe, Who has made nothing lacking in His world and created in it goodly creatures and goodly trees to give mankind pleasure. (This transliteration and translation is the Chabad version.)
and we went on our merry way.
If you are in Highland Park/Edison area, this tree is located on North 8th in Edison, near the Shabbos park.
It is relaxing to start one’s day with a garden photo. In front are grape hyacinth, a bulb that one plants in the fall. Directly behind are dianthus plants, perennials that will soon bloom. Toward the back is a promising beginning of a black-eyed susan (Rudbeckia), a perennial native to New Jersey that may show its yellow flowers in August. The background is creeping phlox.
Who ate my tulips? Was it you? Or you?
Here are my tulips one week ago:
And here are the unhappy remnants today:
Most probably it was a deer. The deer live a few blocks away. Families that live close to RPRY on the Edison/Highland Park border report having a difficult time growing tulips. The deer gobble them up. In the past few years, gardeners in my neighborhood have also had to contend with the deer liking the taste of tulips. My neighbor down the block already knows of two ground hogs, but they nibble the ground plants. Like broccoli and canteloupe. Almost impossible to grow those here unless you grow them in a cage.
My neighbor’s cherry tree (but it doesn’t produce cherries, alas) in front of his forsythia.
This plant is called vinca or periwinkle. I bought a sizable amount of it from someone who moved to Israel several years ago. It is finally growing in nicely on the side of my house.
A plant named for people who “care” so much about others (really, they identify with them) that they will cause their own hearts to bleed. Hopefully, this bleeding heart plant, which did not flower last year, will be much healthier than that and produce pretty pink hearts soon.
Guilt. I’m already feeling guilty about the amount of garbage our family produces on Pesach. And the type of garbage.
Gil Student at Hirhurim posted online passover guides this morning and included this note from the cRc:
Paper Goods: All are acceptable, including all paper plates, bowls and cups, all paper and plastic table cloths, as well as all paper towels. It is suggested to not use hot foods or drinks on starched paper goods. Styrofoam products [emphasis mine] may be used instead.
So this is the only time of year I buy Styrofoam. Not only is this stuff bad for the environment, it’s bad for your health, too. (I try not to think too much about this. Stress is bad for your health as well). DO NOT put Styrofoam in the microwave. Buy some uncoated paper plates and use those.
On a positive note, it is always so wonderful to see the greens on the Seder table. In Eastern Europe, where it was hard or impossible to get greens, potatoes were substituted for Karpas and horseradish for Maror, the bitter herbs. Nowadays, we can have both the greens (Romaine Lettuce for Maror and Parsley for Karpas) and the Eastern European traditions.
A tradition I’ve heard of for pre-school children is to plant parsley in a cup on Tu B’Shvat (usually occurs in February) and to nurture the plant so that it is ready to be used by Pesach. Not being very good at indoor gardening, however, (outdoor gardening is much more forgiving; Mother Nature helps), I do have some parsley growing outside my kitchen. Parsley is a biennial, so the little plants I grew from seed last summer (the ones that didn’t die in year one) are now thriving:
Radishes are just about the easiest vegetable to grow. This lovely seedling and other radish seedlings have shown up in my garden in the past week. About one month ago I planted some radish, dill and marigold seeds. No sign of the dill or marigolds germinating. May not be warm enough or long enough for them yet. Seeds germinate at different rates and different temperatures. Radishes are quick to germinate!
