Containers, tomatoes and great huge pink balls.
In the garden, growth has its seasons.
First comes spring and summer,
but then we have fall and winter.
And then we get spring and summer again.Chance the gardener - Being There
Not every garden needs to be big, or cost a lot of money to make. A few containers with drain holes, any sort really, some inexpensive plants or a few seeds, a bit of dirt, water and time can make small miracles; very little care and effort required for what you get in return.
Pink calla lily, from a package of small bulbs bought at end-of-season clearance five years ago:
A dahlia, scavanged as a broken tuber a couple of years back from the next-door neighbor who was thinning hers out:
Begonia, grown as a cutting that was offered after I admired the mother plant at a party, rooted in this same pot six years ago:
If you have a little room, so much the better. This hydrangea was a gift, maybe a foot tall and with one modest bloom. Four years in the ground, and it had been struggling a bit. Last fall I dug in a couple of bushels of leaves around the drip line and pruned it back hard; very happy now:
Tomatoes. This year is a try at communal gardening with the neighbors, I'm skeptical but nothing ventured.... I have cucumbers, English burpless putting out one or two each day, and tomatoes. Three vines planted, Granny Smith, Beefsteak and Early Girl, nearing six feet tall and maybe 60-70 fruit now on each. Summer nights are cool here in the south SF Bay, I count it as a good year if I can pick a tomato by the 4th of July. This season the first ripe Early Girl appeared three days ahead of schedule:
Ate the little beauty right there on the spot, warm from the sun with a sprinkle of salt, and then licked all the juice from my fingers until the taste was gone. Several more have pinked up; maybe I'll share some of them with the neighbors like I'm supposed to - maybe not.
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Thanks so much
all of you garden posters here, you're truly an inspiration. I have a tiny front yard with a tree covering most of it (tree = good, don't get me wrong). I also have a side yard that's the length and width of a bowling alley, and is very shady. It's been a challenge. This year my astilbe are pretty anemic, though I rather neglected them early this season. The very front gets more sun in the afternoon, and since I added some serious amendments to the soil last year in that spot, the echinacea and black eyed susans are thriving (flowers on the verge of blooming).
Anyone have suggestions (for next year) for dry shady areas that get covered in pine needles?
I'd love to grow veggies. But all I have is the unfenced front yard, on the west side of the house. which pretty much only gets afternoon sun. Also I live in a dense urban area (surrounded by college kids), and a lot dogs come by, with or without owners, and make use of the facilities (do their business in my yard). I don't know if veggies would survive, or if I'd want to eat them. Perhaps I should fence.....? Tomatoes in a big container is a possibility....
So how pink are they?
[x] Very tepidly voting for Obama [ ] ?????. [ ] Any mullah-sucking billionaire-teabagging torture-loving pus-encrusted spawn of Cthulhu, bless his (R) heart.
"First they ignore you, then they ridicule you, then they fight you, then you win." -- Mahatma Gandhi
"Do dah name 'Ruby Begonia' ring a bell?"
Bonus points to anyone old enough to have seen that line spoken in the original TV show. Double bonus points and a tip of the hat if you heard it live on the radio.
Tons of fun to be had with Bob Hanson's lyrics (music by Jerry Garcia, naturally, in the key of E); at least one good referential joke per couplet. How many can you find?
Here’s a starter, from last verse. Rat and Mole are up at dawn, and the morning’s breeze sets the willows and the reeds to playing like pipes, although when I’ve heard it to me it seems more like the effect of an Aeolian harp. All nature hangs, suspended in time:
If you never made it to a Dead show, alas; they were something quite special. Many performers have a connectedness to the audience; with the Dead there was no separation to connect, no distinction between us and them, simply a communal oneness of being. The dope and the ‘shrooms and the acid helped, but the true caring and genuine love and an underlying pure joy of existence was what let it all happen.
From that single-dose psilocybin study:
Well, can’t be having any of that. Thank goodness it’s illegal; just think what the world would be like if everyone took some.
Actually, my sound was out on this stupid laptop...
So maybe Donna, Bless Her Heart
, was a little off, because I picked the "Scarlet Begonias" with the highest ratings, without, er, actually listening to it, just because it was the oldest. Anybody else not remember the 70s? Good. I'm right there with you. Or was. Or maybe wasn't, depending.
Anyhow, I would say the dead were about joy, yes, but also about collective collaboration/improvisation, and also about -- besides the horrible self-destruction that goes with stardom -- being a very successful small business with an incredibly innovative business model.
The occasional off night or episode of excessive noodling were a small price to pay, and there's a lot to learn from them.
NOTE One Dead show? More like thirty, when I was a still keeping track....
[x] Very tepidly voting for Obama [ ] ?????. [ ] Any mullah-sucking billionaire-teabagging torture-loving pus-encrusted spawn of Cthulhu, bless his (R) heart.
"First they ignore you, then they ridicule you, then they fight you, then you win." -- Mahatma Gandhi
If you can remember them all
you weren't having as much fun as you could have...
60s music around SF was beyond incredible, so much talent everywhere. Saw the Dead before they were the Dead in a pizza place in Menlo Park, and at the old Longshoreman's Hall in SF. By New Years Eve 1966 the were officially the Dead, played at the Fillmore; I remember my date's face, clear as yesterday, but the name is gone. Janis Joplin sang at pizza places and bars too before she hooked up with the Big Brother; Quicksilver and the Airplane and a dozen other bands now long gone, somebody amazing was playing somewhere almost every night.
By the 70s I was living in Utah, where Jimi Hendrix was banned for being obscene - and black. Plenty of live bluegrass and country though, for which I was grateful. Steve Miller, solo acoustic, in a little auditorium on the U 0f U campus, not 300 people; he sat on the edge of the low stage and we passed around joints the size of cigars.
Ahhh, back in the day....
Hard work = sweat equity
sometimes. Not everyone has to march to the same drumbeat, but there does seem to be a price attached either way.
Talent and substance abuse, ever a problem. Poor Amy Winehouse, so painful to watch.
The thing about gardeners is we're all shameless braggarts
The shamelessness being our saving grace.
Each of us knows best, as you may have noted from there being no shortage of advice dispensed and the tenaciousness with which we hold to our preferred techniques. We'll tell you what's right, framed as suggestion but in no uncertain terms, and then tsk tsk if you don't follow suit. Charming, in a dogmatic sort of way.
Speaking of, what is with people who will not curb their dogs? Lived for a couple of years in an upscale semi-rural area where people walked their dogs right past my house. No sidewalk, the yard was separated from the street by a low fence, but still I'd find dog doo on my grass. I was out front one Saturday edging the lawn with a shovel when some jerk walked by with his dog on a leash and the creature (the dog) came around the fence at the driveway and squatted on the lawn to do his business, with me standing not 20 feet away.
The guy never looked up, didn't even glance at me, then called the dog and started off. I scooped that steamer up and flung it at him; those years of high school lacross finally payed off, and I nailed him high in the back. Made a very satisfying sound, pretty sure some splattered up into his hair. He whirled around and started back at me, but the shovel - and maybe the crazed look in my eyes - stopped him. He and his little dog wandered off, and I never saw them again.
Perhaps not your best solution, but faced with a choice of either cleaning up after other people's dogs or putting in a fence, I'd seriously consider a pellet gun.
Tell us where you live Ms. Blahnik, the city I mean, and there'll be no shortage of suggestions for that side yard. The hydrangea up above, for instance, is in full shade. Tomatoes can do well in containers with a couple of tricks, and it isn't too late this season if you want to try and are willing to spring for a nursery plant.
Yeah, gardening creates "Shameless braggarts" and advice givers
And I'm a major offender. But the cool thing is how much gardening makes gardeners want to listen to OTHER gardeners shamelessly bragging and giving advice. And it's so lovely that non-gardeners seem also willing to tolerate us sometimes.
This is utterly unique in the entire world of human existence.
I really love your callas and hydrangeas, BIO. Found and rescued plants to me are by far the most satisfying.
that's because
if we suck up to y'all, you sometimes give us food! fresh tomatoes, eaten standing right there in the garden on a warm sunny day... doesn't get much better than that.
Hey ow, Donna Jean
The theory was she could actually sing when she could hear herself, which she never could from stage monitors.
Now, now; don't be mean to Donna Jean
She certainly can sing, always could, but when the guitars are out of tune, the other singers are all over the map and the monitors aren't worth the bother to have set up, pitch is where you find it.
The miraculous thing was that it all worked anyway, in key or not; the Dead were all about the amazing transformative power of joy.
shameless braggarts
I'm all for them. Well, when the bragging concerns gardening.
I live in the northeast, Providence to be precise. And I should have said that my shady side yard is the length and width of a bowling "lane," not an alley.
I'm thrilled to hear that that hydrangea is in the shade. I was under the impression that they needed more sun. The yard gets some sun, mostly dappled. Dappled. What a great word. I lurrrvvvvvv hydrangeas. The villages and towns along the RI coast, er, I mean "shore" (oops, I grew up out west) are loaded with them. Plenty in Providence too.
And congratulations, bringiton, on taking matters into your own hands regarding the owner of that un-curbed dog and his business. Fight the Power!
Bringiton's impulse control issues
have caused more trouble than not; too many times, often very late at night in a bad part of town, I've wished for a rewind button.
Hydrangias do wonderfully in dappled sun, and can be espaliered along a wall, or better on a fence, in your narrow space. Camellias take to an espalier approach nicely as well, they thrive at being pruned and constrained.
You've got lots of choices for planting that shady strip, more than you can possibly employ. Here's one article, and there's your nearby University with amazing resources. Just in time, URI has a summer program available on July 15 specifically about shade gardening, for only $15.
Consider yourself launched; if you can, please post photos as you transform that bowling alley into Imelda's little slice of heaven.
Shady strips...
You mean like the Tenderloin?
I like that hydrangea concept. If I abandon the notion of a "yard" -- and lawns are really, really stupid -- I'll need a fence, and something to grow on the fence....
[x] Very tepidly voting for Obama [ ] ?????. [ ] Any mullah-sucking billionaire-teabagging torture-loving pus-encrusted spawn of Cthulhu, bless his (R) heart.
"First they ignore you, then they ridicule you, then they fight you, then you win." -- Mahatma Gandhi
Lawn abandonment syndrome
I've got it too. I "abandoned" 2/3 of my lawn to mostly native shrubs and grasses, turned the rest into little more than a path that I can mow with an unpowered reel mower.
Clover...
I let my lawn go until I felt it would give rise to comment, and in fact (a) wilder looked nicer, because there was more life (though if invasive species had taken over, I might not think so) and (b) the clover, especially, was nice -- and I'm betting it attracted bees, which is good.
[x] Very tepidly voting for Obama [ ] ?????. [ ] Any mullah-sucking billionaire-teabagging torture-loving pus-encrusted spawn of Cthulhu, bless his (R) heart.
"First they ignore you, then they ridicule you, then they fight you, then you win." -- Mahatma Gandhi
Lambert fears to "give rise to comment" ?!
Who'd have thought!!!
Tomatoes in early July
What a treat. Here in the Pacific NW I won't have ripe tomatoes until mid-August at least. On the bright side, the Hood strawberries are in. They are a bit fragile, don't travel well, and so are only available locally. They are the sweetest, reddest strawberries I have ever tasted. Frankly, they have spoiled me for any other strawberry. The season will only last another week or so, but then the raspberries come in.
Early tomatoes
You have even cooler weather than I do, casey, so yes they will come on later. I've found over the years that backing the plants up to a south-facing wall really helps, both for an earlier set and ripeness as well as with a longer production in the fall.
In Colorado where I couldn't do that as easily, I put scavanged five-gallon paint buckets full of water (covered) around the plants; the water absorbs heat during the daytime and gives it off at night, your very own microclimate.
I also hang cheap red Christmas tree ornaments on the frames or trellis next to the vines; supposedly the reflected red light fools the plants into thinking they have competition and induces them to set and ripen earlier than they otherwise would. The science is a bit sketchy but hey, even a scientist needs a little magic ritual in his life.
Couldn't agree more about the Hood strawberries, by far the sweetest, tastiest and most attractive around. I'm convinced they make a person smarter and more physically desirable as well. Surely the Fellows all agree.
You will also have blackberries everywhere come August and they are my favorite for pies and baked goods and jams, never mind just standing there and eating them. You have some decent trade-offs for those tomatoes arriving late.
EXCELLENT brag!
Pretty pretty pictures!
You definitely have bragging rights with plants like these!
'Ta, truth partisan
but the fact is I do almost nothing. The potted plants get a little time-release fertilizer in the early spring, regular water and weeds pulled and that's it. Come winter the ones shown here all die back and I stack them up in a corner of the yard behind a bench, where they sit until the weather warms.
End of March or so I start watching, and when a little green emerges in any of them they all get dusted off, fed and set back out where they get morning sun to do their thing. Total hours expended per year on the whole lot of them can't be more than 10 or so. They are a miracle, of sorts.
blue
back when i had a yard, my hydrangea was deep, deep blue, unusually so for this part of the country apparently.
for years, i carted my potted plants around whenever i moved from one apartment to another. some of them were less than happy about the frequent changes in scenery. one in particular was a lovely little gardenia, never grew vey big, maybe a bit larger than you hydrangea, never had more than a few blooms, but oh! what glorious and fragrant blooms they were, and leaves of shiny dark green.
finally, i took pity on a few of my favorite ones, and foisted them off on my parents [they had a big back yard]. the first year, it just sat there, but the next year it realized just how much freedom it had gained. the only reason it never grew taller than 5' or 6' is because my dad kept it in line.
they downsized a few years ago, sold the house ad moved into a smaller place. i know the people who bought it, and keep meaning to go by there to ask if i can visit my gardenia, but i'm a little afraid to, since i don't know if an exuberant gardenia would fit in with their landscaping plans or not.
linky goodness
Thank you BIO for all those links on hydrangeas, Rhode Island shade gardens, and URI. Most helpful!
Shady strip = Tenderloin: A couple of summers ago I built a small, 4.5 x 6 ft brick patio (all by myself (!) except that a friend helped me pick up and shovel gravel). Digging the hole was the hardest, most time consuming part. The patio is situated at the back of the bowling lane, and is a lovely, mostly shady sometimes sunny spot to sit outside and watch the world go by (and watch leashed and unleashed dogs make use of my front yard). It's big enough for me and three friends and a small table. One friend, on seeing its diminutive size, insisted that I give it some grand name, you know, like English people like to give their houses. I settled on "The Terraces." However, now I'm thinking "The Tenderloin" might also make a good name. ;)
The "Tenderloin" Lambert is talking about, Imelda
isn't something you want for a namesake. It is the nickname for an area in San Francisco that has long been very seedy and shady in ways that I doubt you want associated with your patio - or your life in general.
What Lambert leaves out is how it is he knows so much about the SF Tenderloin, and why that was the association that leapt to his mind from a mention of the word "shady". Therein lies a tale, I suspect, that needs telling; come, Lambert, unburden yourself - confession is good for the soul. :-)
I've done a lot of reading....
... bringiton, and it was actually the word "strip," combined with the SF discussion, that brought it to mind. "Strip" being another kind of steak, of course.
[x] Very tepidly voting for Obama [ ] ?????. [ ] Any mullah-sucking billionaire-teabagging torture-loving pus-encrusted spawn of Cthulhu, bless his (R) heart.
"First they ignore you, then they ridicule you, then they fight you, then you win." -- Mahatma Gandhi