Forsythias are named after William Forsyth, an 18th century Scottish horticulturist.
My rhododendron has little green buds now. Sometime this spring I will see large pink fluffy flowers from my kitchen window.
Song of Songs 2:12
The flowers appear on the earth; the time of singing is come.
Once upon a time, say, about 1000 b.c.e., my ancestors lived in an agricultural world. They sowed seeds around this time of year, brought first fruits in late spring, and celebrated the harvest in the fall. More recently, my grandfathers were businessmen; my maternal grandfather, whom I never knew, worked in the stock market in New York City; my paternal grandfather traveled to New Jersey from Brooklyn, bought eggs, and re-sold them in Brooklyn. My mother, the first generation to live in suburbia, grew tomatoes and cucumbers in our back yard; she bought them as little seedlings. The only seeds my father sowed was grass seed for the lawn.
When my boys were no longer toddlers, I decided to try the hobby of starting seeds in the basement. My first attempt was probably using dirt; I grew weeds instead of whatever it was I had planted. I then read every book I could on seed starting. I bought some seed starting formula, learned about the placement of the seed in the formula: the bigger seed needs to be buried deeper. I set up some special lights on top of my seed; they were not terribly expensive, I bought them at Home Depot. I put the lights on timers; it seems that seed need darkness at night.
And so I waited. And then…yes! Little seedlings sprouted up. I had the best luck with marigolds and tomatoes. I remember impatiens had tiny seeds that needed to be set on the top of the soil, because they required light to germinate. By the end of the summer, I had one little impatiens plant from seed. A lot of effort for one tiny plant.
What I also discovered was seed starting, in New Jersey anyway, coincides with “get your house ready for Passover” season. And then we went up to the Boston area for Passover that year; I was all worried about my little seedlings! I had left them by themselves in the basement. No babysitter. My father’s cousin lives in the Boston area, and he grows orchids. He knew all about seed starting. I should have left the seeds with a bit of water under them. And so I learned about watering seedlings from underneath. Also, seedlings, unlike babies, can last for a few days without “mama”.
The next year my seedlings had competition. Actually, I think they had so much competition they were never born that year. My daughter was born in July; so with a baby in the house and Passover to prepare, the seedlings didn’t happen. I don’t recall if I did much at all with my garden that year. If it’s a choice between gardening, house chores, holiday preps and baby demands, baby wins.
I no longer start seed in my basement. I have learned which seeds starts nicely outside. The lights that I bought at Home Depot have long been smashed by the bouncing of some boy or another in my basement. And the shattered glass long been carefully picked up. I now buy Rutgers tomato seedlings, a local brand of tomatoes that are not too big and not too small. I had lots of tomatoes last year, grown in my compost piles.
If you want to learn how to grow seeds in your basement, I’m probably not the best teacher. But you may have learned what NOT to do. Here’s a book I own, highly recommended:
The New Seed-Starters Handbook by Nancy Bubel
Do you like nature? Do you like photographs? Do you like hearing about good things being done in a small town?
I’ve had the pleasure of working with Arnold Clayton Henderson, a wonderful writer and naturalist, since 2001(?) on the Environmental Commission website. Way back in 2002, about the time my daughter was born, the Environmental Commission submitted the website for an award, and we won! (yes, that little baby is now almost six years old).
This winter I switched the Environmental news site to Word Press. On Friday Arnold took the plunge into what he calls the “brave new world” of Word Press, and there are three new articles up: a plan of the Scentennial Garden, a photo of a seal by Bill Bonner (another talented local–an award-winning photographer), and news of the latest Backyard Bird Count. He also sent me that great photo of a deer running through a forest that is now in the header. Enjoy!
It’s pea-planting time in New Jersey. I ordered my peas and inoculant; they are sitting and awaiting my having the time and energy to plant them. I already dug a trench where I want them planted.
Digging the “trench” (it’s only about 3 inches wide) was easy because the “dirt” in that spot is a mound of compost. When I started composting, I used to put all my compost scraps in one corner of my yard. But come planting time, I then need to transfer a heap of the stuff to my garden spot. Also, I found the chicken wire I originally used more of a nuisance in terms of turning the compost than a help. Instead, I now pile the scraps one season earlier in the spot where I will later plant. The compost may not be fully de-composed, but that’s OK.
What do I put in my compost? Vegetable and fruit scraps, coffee grinds, egg shells. Animal products are a no-no, as they attract rodents and other unwanted creatures. Every time I put down a pile of these kitchen scraps, I cover it with some soil. That will help keep away any flies. Also, the scraps needs soil to decompose. I also add layers of garden “waste” such as dried weeds with no flowers, dried grass, thin sticks. Every now and then I turn the pile (except in winter; impossible to do when the ground is frozen!).
Key elements in compost are: air (turn it sometimes), moisture (add a bit of water if it hasn’t rained much), soil and/or manure, carbon and nitrogen (which you get from the kitchen and garden wastes).
You can read more about composting online (try http://www.howtocompost.org/, for example) or from a book (I own The Rodale Book of Composting). But my suggestion is: try it! Ask questions as you go along. You don’t need to be a chemist to make compost.
Der Grass has Riz,
I Wonder where dem Boidies is,
Dem little Boids is on der Wing,
Ain’t that Absoid, der little Wings is on der Boid!!
Saw these two beautiful crocuses in my front yard and couldn’t resist adding the above poem. Seems to be written by unknown. I am working on a compost recipe post (other possible post topics: writer Aharon Appelfeld, repressed anger in literature, a review cookbook/nutrition book called Nourishing Traditions)…coming soon.
Here’s a drawing I did for a post I am planning. The post is going to be about getting kids to eat healthy. Or about giving up trying. Probably both. See “Broccoli for dessert“…
It’s cold and grey outside. We have no snow, but it has been wintry cold. Maybe you will enjoy my new garden show?
I confess that I stayed up last night working on this slideshow. And then some more time early this morning. Is this how a mom with three kids spends her “free” time? Well, that’s my habit, anyway.
So for those of you who like the technical details, I did this in Actionscript 3. The pictures are all external to the Flash (.swf) file. They are listed in an XML file, as are the captions, so if I feel like adding or subtracting one more pictures, I don’t have to touch the code. It worked fine on my computer, but then when I uploaded it to my web server, not too surprisingly it needed a preloader. I put in the most basic preloader I could find. That’s those little numbers (and “images coming…”) you may see on the screen before the winter pic comes on.
So here’s a list of stuff I might add if I wanted to continue with this project:
1) fancier preloader
2) something more interesting at the end than “the end”: menu? redo? “the end” typewriter style? a fade out?
3) fun with tweens — meaning fancy effects
My last attempt with tweens in Actionscript 2 didn’t go so well. Some of the tweens worked, but some failed in Firefox, for some reason that I will probably never know since I am now delving into AS3. I do hope I get some mastery over AS3 before AS4 shows up.
4) Maybe get that frog that I drew really quickly for Parshat Vaera to jump through the garden? Or let the user control how it jumps? Or hide the frogs in one of the pictures and see if the user can find them? Time to do some more skill building…
All the photos are taken by me of my garden, except the tulips are from my neighbor’s yard.
My 5 year old daughter and her friend’s reaction? Beautiful pictures, but boring.
Well, I gotta learn some more Actionscript 3 before I do anything terribly interesting with it.
No, this is not a post about the importance of eating your veggies (although you probably should). It’s about the huge amount of waste produced from those styrofoam take-out containers. It’s a real pet-peeve of mine and I actually go so far as to bring my own containers! The wait staff usually rolls their eyes, but I think it’s worth it.
One day a few weeks ago I went out to lunch with a friend and forgot my container. I had a half a sandwich left and asked the wait person to please just put it in a piece of foil because I don’t want styrofoam. Well, they put my little half of a sandwich into a huge container and in a plastic bag!
As I was leaving, I felt the urge to talk to the manager. I didn’t want to get the individual waiter in trouble, but wanted to ask about alternatives to this wasteful practice. The hostess looked at me like I had two heads as I explained my environmental concerns. Then the manager came over and told me he was concerned about this topic and would talk to corporate.
I don’t know if he really meant it, but I was glad I did it anyway. Maybe if more people brought it up, things could slowly change. Until then, I hope that people consider bringing their own reusable containers and withstand the eye rolling and blank stares. It’s many people making little changes that really can make a difference.
My favorite section of my website is called Pics of the Month. My intention is to put up new art, photos, Flash bits every month. OK, maybe I should call it Pics of Every Two or Three Months. But that would be a weird title. I captured some beautiful fall leaves recently; I intend to put them up soon. Yesterday, the weather looked pretty bleak out there, all the fall leaves had turned brown and bunched in a corner, whatever snow fell soon turned into a wet crunchy crust on the sidewalk. I see in Boston it snowed yesterday. We had a lot of very wet sleet here in Jersey.
Getting back to the pics…I haven’t had much time to do canvas or paper-based art lately. I’ve been busy with work (more about that in a different post) and designing this blog. I use Pics of the Month to build up my Flash skills, and I would like an alef-bet Flash movie to appear there soon. My daughter has been rather alef-bet challenged, meaning she can’t understand why in the world she should learn those funny characters we keep drawing for her on pieces of scrap paper. For a treat, here is one of my fall photos (look for diagonals and movement— are those two trees talking to each other? One is mine, and one is my neighbor’s):
