Sunday, November 1, 2009

Winterizing has begun

Autumn, which was unbelievably cold and unforgiving just a week ago, has once again turned mild, albeit damp and overcast. In spite of this renewed warmth, I know winter awaits around the corner and can appear at any moment. With this in mind I have begun my annual ritual of winterizing the garden.

You might think there isn't much that needs doing in a garden once the flowers are gone and the leaves are on the ground. In my garden there are at least a dozen flower pots that need to be brought into the shed or placed out of the path of a snowblower. The same goes for the benches and the pots hanging from the fence. My children's toy wagon, in which I once hauled toddlers, pre-teens and groceries alike, now acts as my makeshift wheelbarrow. Every year I wash it, polish it with ArmorAll and cover it with heavy plastic contractor grade bags to protect it from the elements during the winter. It's my hope to have that old wagon around to haul grandchildren and grand nieces and nephews so I treat it with great care and love.

Every year I go through this winterizing ritual and when I have finally completed it, I always have the same mixed feeling of accomplishment and emptiness. The yard is cleared and ready to rest again until the next growing season, giving me a sense of accomplishment, but I miss the color, the vibrance, the life of my summer garden.

It's time to bring in the tender plants, leave the annuals to die back and salivate over the offerings in my garden nursery catalogs. Winter's approach may have chased me indoors but I'm planning the strategy for my next horticultural attack. I'm thinking less flowers, more vegetables, perhaps some gourds for fall decorating. Hmmm, I'd better rest up this winter. There's much work to be done next spring.

Ballo ergo sum
- Gitana, the Creative Diva

Saturday, October 17, 2009

It's Officially Fall

Although the beginning of fall is observed on the day of the autumnal equinox, I use a simpler, more organic method...I look at my garden. As long as it is warm enough for me to pick veggies and admire my flowers I don't pay attention to the calendar. This week, Autumn tossed her red-gold tresses and made her full presence felt in the cold, blustery winds she sent to scatter the fallen leaves like a whirling dervish. As much as it pained me to do so, I began bringing my plants in from the cold. The windows in my screenhouse, which acts as a makeshift greenhouse during warmer weather, were closed. It now acts as a waystation for those plants that didn't make into the house on the first round. I've begun to harvest marigold and four o'clock seeds for next year's garden and am hoping to salvage some coleus indoors for a little winter color.

Autumn is Winter's harbinger and where Autumn treads, Winter follows close behind. I've made a mental note to have the snowblower serviced in preparation for this winter. Snow's a-coming, that's for sure, along with a long winter. I'm preparing for the kind of winter I experienced as a child when winters were snowy and magical.

I will miss my garden but now it is time for her to sleep.

Ballo ergo sum
- Gitana, the Creative Diva

Monday, October 12, 2009

The Strangeness Continues

I've been lazy. No, I mean reeeeally lazy where my garden is concerned. For the past few weeks I haven't done much more than watch it from a distance as the winds picked up and tossed all manner of garbage in it. I didn't even bother to drag out the hose and water it since we've had some rainfall. Not a lot of rain, but enough to convince me that I didn't need to exert myself. I didn't need much convincing.

Usually this time of year signals the end of the growing season. The leaves fall, the crops wither and the blooms droop and drop, but that's not what's happening this year. To be sure, all the unmistakeable signs of autumn are upon us, as I can attest to by all the leaves I swept up today. There is a little chill in the night air and the sun goes down a lot earlier than it did a few short weeks ago. But regardless of these signs, my garden shows every intention of behaving as if it is mid-season. My flowers are still blooming fiercely, as are my strawberries, cucumbers and tomatoes. My cannas are standing three and four feet tall and are blooming and propagating as if it's midsummer. I'm still finding evidence of Japanese beetle grubs, something I usually only find in late spring and summer. If it were not for the many migratory birds visiting my backyard on their way to warmer climates, the season might be mistaken for early summer.

Today, in a fit of guilt, I decided to sweep the leaves out of the garden and clean up dead plants. To my surprise I discovered three more well-developed cucumbers on the vine along with a couple of tomatoes, some strawberries and lots of new blossoms. Unfortunately it is too late in the season for any new fruits to ripen so I snipped the blossoms off in order to redirect the growth hormones to the ones that were already growing.

So what's happening here? I'm not really sure but I have strange feeling that something isn't quite right. I just can't put my finger on it. In the meantime I'm going to enjoy this last, brilliant show that the garden is offering up. In the cold, blustery days of winter, I'm going to call up the image of those brilliant blooms to warm my heart and fill me with the promise of spring.


Ballo ergo sum
- Gitana, the Creative Diva

Saturday, August 22, 2009

Strange Happenings

My garden has been doing strange things this year. I have a pepper plant that has been giving a piss-poor performance. Yes, you read it right...piss-poor. The leaves were all gnarled and curled up, the plant didn't grow more than a foot and the peppers... I mean pepper, singular...well, that was no bigger than a grape tomato and twisted beyond belief. Nothing that I would want to eat. Ironically, this plant was located between two star performers, a cucumber and a tomato, that were incredibly productive. Now that the summer is nearing its end, this pepper is sprouting new growth, perfect new growth, not curled and funny-looking like the earlier growth, and it's blooming with the promise of new peppers. I can't explain it but I've got my fingers and toes crossed. I may yet get a decent pepper out of that plant before the season is over.

In another part of the garden, my strawberries are doing something they've never done before and I have had these plants for about 10 years. They are fruiting again. I've got a second batch of strawberries growing in August, and this variety is listed as June-bearing. I did have strawberries in June, more than I have ever had before, but I've never had any in August.

I don't know what my garden is trying to tell me. It's speaking is a convoluted language that I can't seem to make sense of. I suppose I'll just have to wait and see what it all means.

Ballo ergo sum
- Gitana, the Creative Diva

Thursday, August 20, 2009

Small Wonders

(Note: Click on an image for a larger view)
There have been many things going on in my garden. Far too many to list here. The tomatoes are doing well, the green peppers are not, the cucumbers are sweet and strawberries are surprising me with a second fruiting. The flowers are thriving for the most part but my apples are bitterly disappointing. This year I have been fortunate enough to photograph several small visitors to my little patch of dirt who have brought a smile to my face. I'll let the pictures do the talking but here's the cast of characters:

- a grasshopper sits on my gazania flower
- a pollen-covered bee also on my gazanias
- a firefly's lime green light trail at dusk
- a cicada emerging from its carapace
- a precariously perched dragonfly
- a large spiderweb and its landlord lurking nearby


When I take the time to slow down and look at the world around me, it's the little things that take my breath away.


Ballo ergo sum
- Gitana, the Creative Diva

Friday, July 24, 2009

The Rigors and Riches of the Garden

(Note: Click on an image for a larger view)

This past month has been an extremely busy one for me. From the end of June I have been moving at warp speed to accomplish a number of things, none the least of which was my garden.

Gardening is a time sensitive activity. It must be done at the right time, under the right conditions and must be constantly maintained if you hope to achieve any kind of success. This is labor intensive and should not be undertaken lightly for the rigors of gardening even a small plot are physically draining. Even if you put in the time and the effort and do all the right things, there is no guarantee that it will turn out the way you want it to. Gardening, when you come right down to it, has a lot in common with raising children. And just like children, you learn to love your garden in spite of (or because of) all the blood, sweat and tears it demands.

This year, moreso than in years past, I am experimenting in my garden. I'm moving things around, adding new plants, giving away old ones and conciously choosing to rehabilitate shabby looking plants, orphans you might say, instead of tossing them in favor of new ones. I have a created a plant triage area in my backyard where I attempt to reroot broken plants and give TLC to struggling plants. I have been met with mixed success: some plants live, others die, still others barely hang on, not very much alive but not dead either. Regardless of all the work my garden requires and it's sometimes lackluster performance, I love it all the same and wouldn't trade it for anything. Here are some pictues of my garden this year. There are some new faces as well as some familiar perennial ones. Every plant, every insect, every animal visitor to my garden has a story to tell. Just study the pictures closely and they will whisper their stories to you.



Ballo ergo sum
- Gitana, the Creative Diva

Tuesday, June 30, 2009

The work continues...

(Note: Click on an image for a larger view)

I have been in my garden up to my eyebrows in earthworms (lots of them), flowers and weeds, thanks to the prodigious amounts of rainfall we've had this June. A recent weather report stated that it rained 20 out of the first 24 days of the month. Where the garden is concerned, I believe in making hay while the sun shines, or in this case, planting flowers while the rain holds off. Planting, transplanting and weeding are all easier to accomplish, although a bit messier, once the ground has been saturated from a good soaking rain.

This year I have a plan to transform my garden from merely attractive to visually spectacular. There have always been large spaces in my front yard garden in between my perennials that are usually bare during the summer. Well, almost bare, if you don't count the constant weed ground cover that grows faster than I can pull it out. I always have the intention of covering up those bare spaces with a flowering ground cover like creeping phlox or maiden pinks but somehow the summer ends, along with my good intentions, and the ground cover never gets planted. This year it's going to be different. I have already gone a long way towards clearing out the weeds in my front yard in spite of the constant rain that keeps them vigorously spreading, and I have begun filling in the bare ground with marigolds. Marigolds are very forgiving plants, flowering endlessly all summer, self seeding and offering the added bonus of acting as a natural mosquito repellent. (Hint: If you plant tomatoes, plant marigolds in between the rows. Marigolds help protect tomatoes from pests both above and below the ground.) In my backyard garden I have already laid in a large swath of impatiens and marigolds. I am also planning on putting in a stone path to allow me to enter and tend the garden without stepping directly on the ground and getting muddy.

As these changes are taking place in my garden, I can feel changes taking place in my mind. One thing that came to mind was something that should be very obvious yet had eluded me for many years. The changes in my garden are taking place because I took the first step and created a clear plan. This gave me a general blue print to follow but it was not so rigid that it could not accomodate changes. It dawned on my that the same thing must occur in the creation of a business. Of course everyone has heard that you have to create a business plan if you want your business to be successful but this one simple step has eluded me. No, not eluded, paralyzed. The thought of creating a business plan filled me with such a paralyzing fear that I never ventured beyond the dream of wanting to build my own business. While I was working in that garden, turning soil and planting impatiens, I realized that a business is like garden. I just have to decide what, where and when I want to plant and slowly follow the plan to do it. If I decided to change things a little, no problem. The plan will allow for that flexibility. It seems so simple. Like Dorothy in Oz, I couldn't see what was in front of me all the time.

Once again my garden has brought me insights I was not able to achieve in conscious thought. Now to put that knowledge into action. In the meantime I will share with you photos of my most recent experiment - an upside down tomato plant. I took a small pail, cut a hole in the bottom and stuck a tomato plant in it, filled it with dirt and hung it up in the sun. I planted marigolds in the top as natural pest control. The tomato is growing well without the need for staking and without dragging on the ground. You can see the nascent tomatoes at the bottom of the second photo, taken about a month after the first photo. We'll see this works out.



Ballo ergo sum
- Gitana, the Creative Diva

Saturday, June 13, 2009

I Told You So...

I'm sure there are more than of few of you who roll your eyes and shake your heads when I "read" the energy in my garden and correlate it to what's happening on the political front. I have to admit that it does sound kind of squirrely at first but if you've been reading this blog from time to time you've probably noticed that my assessments have a little meat on them.

Case in point: This week there was a political coup in the New York State Senate (go here for an overview of this story). The elements of this coup included a conspiracy to undermine the Democratic Party's majority control of the Senate, the element of surprise and a quick shift of power. Turncoat Democrats were instrumental in this turn of events.

Flashback now to one of my earlier posts, Mixed Blessings, and you will see the predictions I made based on my herbaceous "conversations". I referred to "familiar faces that will turn up in places where they haven't been before" (like Pedro Espada and Hiram Monserrate switching their political alliance), "forces at work seeking to undermine the changes taking place" (changes like the shift in senate control from Democrat to Republican), and "vestiges of the former administration that continue to drag down the progress of the present administration" (progress such as the possibility of passing a same-sex marriage bill). I warned that "nothing must be taken for granted" (like a Democratic majority in the NYS Senate) and that we must not allow ourselves to be "like the happy-go-lucky grasshopper who fiddles away during the good times" (the way Malcolm Smith fiddled on this Blackberry while Golisano waited to speak to him).

So maybe a lady who listens to the prattling of her plants is a little squirrely, but when the plants are this accurate, not listening to them is just plain nuts.

Ballo ergo sum
- Gitana, the Creative Diva

Saturday, May 30, 2009

Garden Abundance

(Note: Click on an image for a larger view)
I predicted abundance for this growing season and so far I have not been disappointed. My floral show has been excellent and today I picked my second "crop" of strawberries. I have never gotten more than six or seven strawberries a year out of my many plants but this year I have been able to pick several dozen so far and there are more on the way. I am hoping for similar results with the few vegetables I have planted. My clematis has made itself at home (with some help from me) in the trellis I installed last year in the memorial garden. I've planted some new flowers this year that I've never had before and they are progressing nicely. On the down side, the same conditions that are favorable for my flowers are favorable for weeds and I find myself pulling out more acacia and maple seedlings than ever before, not to mention the blanket straw, crabgrass, etc.

Regardless, I expect to enjoy my garden this year as in years past but this year there is a twist. We have adopted an adorable and energetic 1 year old beagle named Marla. She loves being outdoors and has expressed herself by running through the daffodils at breakneck speed, completely uprooting and killing one of my new bleeding heart plants and digging at every available opportunity. Needless to say Marla is no longer permitted in my back yard. It remains to be seen how Marla and my garden get along in the future. Time will tell.


Ballo ergo sum
- Gitana, the Creative Diva

Sunday, May 17, 2009

Mixed Blessings

It's been raining a lot these past several weeks, coupled with unusually warm temperatures. These are conditions for abundance... of plant life as well as insect life. As has become my custom for the past few years, I thin out the explosive growth in my garden and give my excess plants away to other gardeners. Since I have been actively uprooting and tilling my garden for the past two or three seasons, I have a very good idea what is going on below the surface. This year I have made a distressing discovery. My garden has become host to an uncomfortably high number of Japanese beetle grubs, many more than I have seen in the past several years. On a more positive note, I have seen a comparable increase in the number of earthworms in my garden, a sign that bodes well for healthy growth.

To anyone else, this information would be the signal to apply some sort of chemical treatment against the grubs and nothing more. To me, this is a signal to start putting the pieces together. The spring growing season began relatively early and the temperature became unseasonably warm. Spring blooms began their ascent much earlier than usual as if in a hurry to get the season started while late winter flowers lagged behind. Although the blooming timetable evetually seemed to stabilize, there were other anomalies. Flowers that I had carefully planted last year were showing up in unexpected, not necessarily desired, places this year and weeds are particularly vigorous.

My garden's habits this year have tended to echo the political energy in this country so here's where I begin to make the connections. The early and energetic start to spring correlates to the high energy present at the beginning of the year when President Obama took office. The lagging winter flowers seem to indicate vestiges of the former administration that continue to drag down the progress of the present administration. Plants showing up in unexpected places seems obvious: familiar faces will appear in areas where they haven't been before (Hillary Clinton's appointment as Secretary of State is an example). The vigorous weed growth and increased grub population says that there are forces at work seeking to undermine the changes taking place. If we are to prevent this from occurring, we must be willing to put in the drudge work necessary to keep unsavory elements under control. The increase in worms tell me that there are more among us who are willing to do what needs to be done.

If my "read" on this situation is correct, we're in for lots of change and lots of energetic shifting. We should enjoy the benefits of this change but be mindful that it can shift directions in an instant. Nothing can be taken for granted. In the garden of life we must be like the industrious ants preparing for lean times, not like the happy-go-lucky grasshopper who fiddles away during the good times and suffers during the bad.

In the garden, as in life, it's all about balance.



Ballo ergo sum
- Gitana, the Creative Diva

Tuesday, April 28, 2009

In Love Again...

(Note: Click on an image for a larger view)

I have been involved in a love affair that has consumed me for the better part of the last two weeks. Every day I can't wait to gaze upon the beauty of the object of my affection. And my affection has been returned tenfold. It is because I am so consumed that I have been unable to post anything for so long. But now I am so full that I will burst if I don't shout it out to all and sundry... I LOVE MY GARDEN AND MY GARDEN LOVES ME!!

Click on any photo to see a larger image. Enjoy!


Ballo ergo sum
- Gitana, the Creative Diva

Monday, March 30, 2009

The Daffodils Are Up!

(Note: Click on an image for a larger view)
This week, amid the detritus of last fall, my daffodils finally began to bloom. This is a photograph of the first flowers to grace my garden. What is anomalous is the fact that these spring daffodils are in simultaneous bloom with the winter crocuses featured in my last post. These flowers are not usually seen together, at least not in my garden. The usual pattern is crocuses bloom, then wilt before any of the spring flowers are up. This unusual concurrent bloom is just another indicator of the energetic shift that is taking place this year.

Regardless of the reason, I am enjoying the floral show immensely and am looking forward for the rest of my flowers to erupt. I probably have close to two hundred daffodils in my garden (thanks to prolific propagation on their part) and only about a dozen have bloomed, so I'm in for one heck of a show in the next couple of weeks. In addition, my tulips have shown their leaves, as have the irises, the rudbeckia, the sedum, the Stella D'Oro daylilies and the hostas. The hydrangeas are beginning to bud and all manner of mystery growth is taking place. No matter how many times I see them grow and bloom, I am always amazed and delighted at the wonders my garden offers me. Here's to the beginning of another year of earthly pleasures.

Ballo ergo sum,
- Gitana, the Creative Diva

Sunday, March 22, 2009

Spring Finally Arrives

(Note: Click on an image for a larger view)

Exactly three weeks ago today we New Yorkers were given a parting shot from Mother Nature in the form of a major snowstorm. There was snow and ice aplenty but fortunately it didn't last very long. By the end of the week we were again enjoying unseasonably warmish temperatures. It was quite odd to be standing in front of my house in a t-shirt having a conversation about the relative heat when all around me were the final vestiges of snow that remained. This inconsistent see-saw weather, warm one day, cool or cold the next, is being reflected in my garden. As I mentioned in my last post, my daffodils and tulips were beginning to show their tops early while my crocuses were nowhere to be seen. Apparently I'm not the only one noticing the delayed crocus bloom because I just read a post on another blog that reported the same thing.

Back in the fall, I reported in my personal blog, Gitana's Corner, how fall seemed to begin early then paused in order to allow summer to tend to unfinished business in the form of late blooming crops. (Click here to read that post.) Well, it appears that same energetic shift is repeating itself with winter and spring. Spring appears to be ready to burst forth in the form of tulips and daffodils but it has slowed its pace, allowing the crocuses to sprout and bloom first. Last weekend I was delighted to be greeted in my front garden by the first of my tiny crocuses. Like last summer's crops, the crocus bloom was not as abundant as in past years but if this seasonal transition emulates the last one, spring should be bountiful.

The energetic shift I am observing in my garden also seems to emulate that of society at large. People are anxious to get on with life as usual in a hurry but our current economic downturn is holding things at bay, allowing changes that are being made at the governmental level an opportunity to take hold and have an effect. Everyone wants things to change right away. The universe is taking it's time.

Here's a thought...wouldn't it be wonderful if human nature took a cue from Mother Nature and slowed down, allowing things to unfold in their own good time instead of being in such a rush? Something to think about.

Ballo ergo sum,
- Gitana, the Creative Diva

Wednesday, March 4, 2009

Nature's Sucker Punch

(Note: Click on an image for a larger view)

Last fall, I posted an entry on my main blog, Gitana's Corner, that discusses that contradictory energy I encountered in my garden last year. (You can read more about it here.) Well, it would seem that Mother Nature is not yet done with her temporal shenanigans.

Here in New York, we enjoyed temperatures in the low 50's for much of last week, inspiring me to begin pulling back the mulch on a section of my front garden. I was delighted to see so much new growth poking up through the ground. What surprised me was that I saw what appeared to be nascent daffodils and tulips, flowers I did not expect to see for a few more weeks. The tiny crocuses that I normally see at this time of year were not apparent. (To be honest, I didn't remove the mulch in their part of the garden yet. Perhaps they are there waiting for me to "pull back the sheets", so to speak.) At any rate I convinced myself that winter was over and spring would be early, in spite of the inner voice that told me otherwise, so I resolved to return to the garden over the weekend to complete the mulch removal. The siren song of my garden was calling and I was anxious to respond.

How foolish of me to second guess Mother Nature. She showed us all her capricious side by dumping a snowstorm on the NY metropolitan area on Sunday night, so much so that the city's schools were closed on Monday. There was nearly a foot of snow piled on my garden. As the ice melted and refroze, it created huge icicles around my house. (Take a look at the stalagtites hanging from my air conditioner.) Fortunately I had not gotten around to removing any more of the mulch so most of my garden was still under a protective layer of leaves. This was a valuable lesson for me. It taught me once again not to ignore that little voice that speaks to me from within. It always speaks the truth and to ignore it is to risk regretting your actions. I can only hope that my nascent flowers will weather this storm well and live to bloom another day.

Ballo ergo sum,
- Gitana, the Creative Diva

Monday, February 9, 2009

Roundabout

I have a lot of glass in my house...glass tables, glass shelves, large mirrors, french doors, glass entry, blah blah blah. Yesterday I decided to clean it all. There are two glass etageres in my den that are loaded down with plants which meant I had to remove the plants in order to clean the shelves they were sitting on. While deciding where to start on the shelves, I remembered that I had several plants that needed repotting so I shifted gears and began transplanting two Christmas cacti and an ivy. From transplanting I moved on to watering, trimming off dead leaves and other general plant maintenance. In a trice the cleaning of shelves was abandoned in favor of my plants.

Funny thing about repotting plants. Once you have completed the move from one pot to another, the plant seems to relax. I don't mean relax as in get droopy and sad (although that can happen at times). I mean relax as in a cessation of the tension of being crowded, similar to the feeling one has upon exiting a crowded train or elevator. I swear I can almost hear them sigh with relief.

The fact that these plants were in need of transplanting so early in the year is another indication to me that this year's spring will be abundant. Time will tell if my prediction proves to be correct.

Ballo ergo sum,
- Gitana, the Creative Diva

Tuesday, February 3, 2009

Life Persists

For me, one of the joys of gardening is the incredible amount of information I receive from my plants. Yes, information. If you know how to "read" your plants you can learn a lot. The concept is the same as learning to "read" a person...you pick up on subtle clues that give you insight into information that may not be common knowledge.

It is winter now. Today, in fact, it is snowing, with forecasts promising 2 -3 inches of accumulation. I was out in my shed/greenhouse today, trying to get my snowblower started when I decided to clear out the dead remains of the plants that had flourished there during the warmer months. The scene was a depressing tangle of brittle vines, dessicated stems and dead leaves hanging from pots and sticking up from planters. As the snow fell outside and I cleared out the dead plants, I happened to casually glance at one pot standing in a corner, one of the few that had no dead plants needing to be cleaned out. There was nothing special about it, just a pot with dirt in it, but a little voice told me to take a closer look. There, in at least a half dozen places, were the nascent leaves of bulbs poking through the surface. Even here, in the midst of a winter storm, life persists. Spring, in all her glory, will once again fulfill her annual promise of color and beauty.

This was not the only sign of winter's eventual end. Last week I saw new greening in the sedum in my front garden. Just the fact that I had the urge to clear out the old growth at this early date (I usually do this in early to mid spring) is an indication to me that we may have if not an early spring than perhaps an abrupt spring, with the weather changing suddenly from cool to warm all at once.

My garden is a source of great pleasure. In the weeks and months ahead I will share with you the "conversations" I have with my plants and my interpretation of the information they share with me.

Ballo ergo sum,
- Gitana, the Creative Diva