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!
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
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.
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.