Peter's Kitchen View

Monday, June 04, 2007

2007 Gardening

The garden is a disaster. Winter came and all my tropical plants moved indoors, then the construction stared.

November was a time to get used to the idea of a little bit of work here and there. I could still water and care for my plants. Then December came and I realized the project was bigger than it appeared. By the time my crocuses started to show the garden was a mountain of wood, plaster and whatever other debris the construction yielded. Many of my indoor plants had also perished by then.

By April we thought construction was about to end. The garbabe was removed and just when some of the plants started to grow a new batch of materials invated the garden. It is now July and there is no sign that we will get to enjoy the garden this summer. Many plants are growing and even flowering despite the rubish, but between the slugs and the builders stepping over new plants I am afraid many of my not so well established perenials are not going to survive.

Thursday, August 17, 2006

Argentina or the local farm

"Buying organic asparagus flown in from Argentina is no more morally defensible than eating a locally and sustainably raised cow. " says Lloyd Alter in his review of "The Omnivore's Dilema."

I am completely infatuated with this book by Michael Pollan because I've often wondered why on earth I am eating or drinking something, when my instincts tell me that it is full of sugars and chemicals. I don't really want it and more than half the time I don't enjoy it; but I have it nonetheless. Mostly because I am just bored and the choices don't include anything I want to have.
This book is about organic, industrial and hunted/gathered foods. It makes me think of El Salvador and how locally we ate. Yet, even there I remember how the makeup of even the richest soils became altered at the bigger farms with pesticides and fertilizers.
I haven't read half of this book yet, but I am already turned off by everything I see at the Supermarket and Television adds. How can they recommend such bad stuff? and how come consumers go ahead and buy all stuff for their families?
Finally, how can we escape this system?
Finding a local organic farm seems like a short term solution, but in the long run am afraid we are bound to run out of options.

Friday, July 28, 2006

Birthday Plants

I don't like birthdays, so when things took an ugly turn in my daily life i made myself unavaliable for any type of birthday celebration. However by the time the 14th arrived I was feeling better and let myself be taken out to dinner. Then on the 15th I went to three of my favorite nurseries for some window shopping, which of course never works.
First I gave in to some shade plants and as time went by I forgot my garden is shady and purchase a few full sun plants. It's amazing how my mind can justify the taking of the plants home. They are Just for cut flowers and to be keep in pots in the sunny spots of the garden I told myself.

I came home with the following plants:

Bear's Breeches (Acanthus)
I am not sure which type I have, but I think is Acanthus Mollis Spinosa. The leaves at least seem to resemble it very much. The nursery people said it likes well drained soil, needs about 3 to 4 ours of sun a day a day and it doesn't like soil that is too wet. http://www.ehow.com/how_13983_grow-bears-breeches.html
http://www.plant-biology.com/Bearsbreeches-Acanthus.php
Here is a picture on Summer Beauty
http://www.edelweissperennials.com/largeview.asp?id=3

Cimifuga "Brunette"
This plant likes shade and damp poor soil, so I figure It would be great for my garden. It is supposed to have 6-7' tall flower spikes blooming in October
http://www.vivaces.net/CimicBrunet.html

Ligularia Dentata
This plant took my breath away. I was still telling myself at this point that I was just making a pile of my favorite plants and that I was probably not going to buy any of them.
It is now in my garden and i've moved it around quite a few times trying to find the perfect spot. Just two days ago I found out that slugs cant' resiste the taste of ligularia, so it is now in a pot on the patio and away from the garden soil. At night I take a light and inspect the plant for slugs. After inspecting each leave of the ligularia I wonder among the other plants until ive done a nice killing. All this wile drinking ice cold beer. I like taking a few zips then putting it in the freezer so it says cold. I've never forgotten a beer in the freezer. I've left white wine there in the past though.
http://www.em.ca/garden/per_ligularia_dentata1.html

Cardinal flower
I've contemplated this plant in central park many times, but the fact that it is highly poisonous kept me away from it. It is now getting ready to bloom in my garden.
http://plants.usda.gov/java/profile?symbol=LOCA2

Ligularia "The Rocket" This plant is now dead and I will be taking it back to the nursery sometime soon. The shop had two of them left and they were not looking too perkey, but they were so beautiful that I let myself get convinced the plant would be ok. http://www.paghat.com/ligularia.html

A few hours in the nursery and I knew I had to buy something, but could not make up my mind as to which ones to take. It was getting stressful as it always does when I know I should not buy plants, but they are already in the shopping cart.
It was my birthday and I did not want to be stressed, so I took them all to the register to do my picking at the last minute. On my way I walked past one plant which was just too stunning to pass.

Rudbeckia Herbstone (Autumn Sun) . This is a Black-eyed Susan, which grows 5 to 8 feet tall. It has glossy green deeply cut leaves with loose clusters of bright yellow petals around green cones. It blooms mid to late summer, so of course it was in bloom and after reading that it attracts butterflies I added it my pile.
http://www.bluestoneperennials.com/b/bp/RUASS.html

At the register I found out that annuals were 50 percent off. That just sent my head on a spin. I had to go to the annuals section.

There I found:
Tibouchina Urvilleana (Brazilian Beauty), which is a 2-3 feet tall plant with purple flowers that blooms until frost arrives. It likes full to half sun and moist, fertile soil, so i figure It will do ok at home.
lhttp://homepage.mac.com/marktking/Backyard/backyard%20plants/BackYardPlants_000.htm

Scuttelaria Costaricana
(An everblooming Cenrtral American shrub)
A plant from back home, which I never saw before. It was in bloom. Red plumes with yellow throats, which look like fireworks according to the lable. I could not see the resemblance, but I loved it eitherway. It grows 1-2 feet tall, likes full or part sun and it can be kept indoors during the winter. I just keep it moderately moist and I can't let it go below 60 degrees
http://www.horticopia.com/hortpix/html/pc4893.htm

Then I found something tall with gorgeous red dented leaves. Just some sort of tropical plant with no name. Something in the Coleus family I think.

Once in the sun section I went delirious. There were Rudbeckia Fulgida (Goldstrumm black eyed susans)
http://www.fcps.edu/StratfordLandingES/Ecology/mpages/black-eyed_susan.htm

Russian sage, which I always, always wanted.
http://www.ehow.com/how_7104_grow-russian-sage.html
http://www.ibiblio.org/pfaf/cgi-bin/arr_html?Perovskia+atriplicifolia
http://www.gardening-tips-perennials.com/russiansage.html

This plants weren't annuals, but I was too tired of fighting my instinct not to buy anything, so i picked the following plants:

Liatris Spiacata, which is the best flowers for vases, not to mention the fact that butterfiles love them. http://www.critsite.com/index.cfm/fuseaction/plants.plantdetail/plant_id/100285/index.htm

Marsh Milkweed or Butterfly Milkweed (Asclepias tuberosa), whis is one of the few native plants with bright orange flowers that I just can't stop looking at when in bloom. It needs to be transplanted carefully into dry, preferably sandy soil, which I don't have. The label says it a great nectar source for butterflies and it can handle partial sun, so I added it to my pile.
http://www.gpnc.org/butterfl.htm

Japanese Painted Fern
Ok, this one I got the following day while shopping for pots for my new plants. I tried to sneak it into the house unnoticed as I was already a little embarrased by the view of my patio after all my purchases. It didn't work, but the fern is now in my garden next to the Boston ferns, already growing there.
http://www.dutchbulbs.com/archived_popup.phtml?sku=74731&season=Spring

Monday, July 10, 2006

The plansts in my garden

Pictures of the garden in June

http://eatingforbrooklyn.blogspot.com/2006/07/view-from-my-kitchen-window.html#links

http://eatingforbrooklyn.blogspot.com/2006/05/block-beautification-day.html

eatingforbrooklyn

Wednesday, June 28, 2006

Intrusive plants

I seem to have a thing for intrusive plants. First the mints and now purple loosestrife.
Two summers ago is when I first try to introduce this plant into my garden. It grew all over the lambertville towpath, so I decided to take home a clipping. It didn't take, but I brought along some poison ivy and my body got a reaction to it for two summers in a row.
This summer I succeeded. Check out the link below. My Loosetriffe looks exsactly like it (it's in bloom at the time). I've divided it into 5 different plants. Two are in the ground, two in pots I can bring into the house and one in an oversized pot with plentied of room for growth.

http://www.wildflowersofontario.ca/purpleloosestrife.html

Mints

I haven't mentioned it before, but I have an addictive personality and I can obsess about things. I can do gardening the whole night through or cut the shoots of every plant in my garden, then try to root them without following the meticulous directions on how to properly achieve success.

http://www.mountainvalleygrowers.com/mint.htm has a list of 16 different types of mint. I tried planting mints last year and they didn't survive winter. I think it is because the soil of my garden is still pretty awful, so this summer I got new ones and planted them in large tin peeled tomatoes containers I picked up from the recycling bin of a church near my house.
I have chocolate, pineapple, apple and spearmint. Basil, Egyptian and possibly Moroccan mints are on my search list.

I have clippings of all of them in water as well (Some have already sprouted roots) and since i've hear some awful things about how mints can take over the garden if left unattended I will keep them in this tin cans for the whole of their lives. If they survive winter that is.

Friday, June 02, 2006

Gardening at the edge of a cliff

Since I can remember gardening has given me a feeling of company and appreciation from the plants, insects and other animals (whom I never really minded if they ate my plants). It has also been a sort of barometer for the dangers of my surroundings.
I was very young when I started my first garden. Then soon after the first of a chain of complains which have been a contant occurence throughout life from the countryside of El Salvador to rural Pensylvania, London and now New York city. Though I carried my share of water from the river to the house and later on carried an extra load of water for my plants, the feeling of under the microscope unwantedness never left me.
It could be the fact that i've never know limits. After my uncles discarded the side panels used to carry sand in the MACK truck, I claimed them and used them as a garden barrier. They were about three feet high and long enough to make a raised bed against the full lenght of the house. I carried the soil from the bottleneck canyon where the cows traveled to and from twice a day and which turned out to be extremely fertile with manure and wood decay.
The scent and worms which sprouted from the flower bed however did not help my situation. Nor the fact that with all the extra space in my garden bed I went around the neighborhood asking for clippings, seeds and roots of anything i came across with.
Here in Brooklyn my street entered the greenest block contest and since then I've been busy beautifying my shady backgarden as well as the treepit, whiskey barrels, window boxes and the front garden.
Right before mother's day someone walked into the front garden and cut all the red tulips. They needed them for someone's mother I suppose; but then one day I got home and my climatis was looking worned. I though it needed water, untill I noticed someone had cut its middle section and thrown it a few feet away from the house. Then this morning I woke up to find all the queen kimberly boston ferns stolen from the pots by the door and a trail of soil down the stoop, across the street and on down the road.
I didn't bother to follow the trail. It's trime to retract and think things over for a while. In the meantime whatever is left in the front of the garden has moved to my back garden. I need to plant something unwanted, yet beautiful.
The feeling of uneasiness will not go away, but that's no reason to stop gardening.

Thursday, May 25, 2006

Hardy Perennial

I hope Agastache "Blue Fortune," is as hardy as the tag says it is. Last night i butchered the poor plant into 3 new plants and destroyed most of its root system. Plants make me do that to them. I see them and I can picture them growing into many more plants.
It was past 1 am and i kept walking past the plant while cleaning the house in preparations for the weekend. Expensive plants are supposed to be worth the money because they haven't been stressed and therefore will adapt better to the garden I remember reading in many gardening books. However I find that most plants (weather cheap or expensive) have been fed and exposed to light untill they are ready to bloom and then shipped to the stores for sale in small containers (veal comes to mind.)
Finally I stopped in front of the pot and took the plant out. It was 100 percent roots, so I took the hacksaw, (which happened to be near me) and a box cutter. First I cut in half, then i noticed one of the halves was still too crowed, so i made a third cut. The result was 3 new plants with flower buds and very small amount or roots.
Then I got stressed out because I only want what is best for the plants, but many times I wonder if I really know what is best.