Nature's Conversation

End of season blues

2011-10-12T17:10:00.000-04:00

Monarch butterfly pays me a visit.

My first sweet potatoes

I'll admit it. I'm sorry to see the summer end. Although I thoroughly enjoy the fall season, this year I am loathe to see it arrive. You see, my garden was so vibrant and abundant and blessed my family and me with so much in the way of beauty and nutrition that I just want to keep those good feelings going. Never have I enjoyed the richness of my garden as I did this year. The photos on this page give only the smallest hint of the luscious vegetables I harvested this year. Sweet potatoes, cucumbers, tomatoes, green, red, yellow and orange peppers, sweet little aji (pronounce ah-HEE) peppers used in Spanish Caribbean cooking, cucumbers, scallions, onions, basil, oregano, cucumbers, canteloupes, honeydews...did I mention cucumbers? I had so many huge, sweet and delicious cucumbers grow out of one little bush that I had to give them away because we couldn't eat them fast enough.


A magnificent Angel Trumpet

Aji Dulce (sweet small peppers)

Everyone in my neighborhood knew when I was cooking dinner because they would see me come out to my garden with a basket and start gathering leaves and veggies. The satisfaction of plucking, peeling and cooking my own home grown vegetables was indescribable as were the meals they produced. I smile just at the thought of it. None of this even begins to address the beauty of my flowers or that of Mother Nature's magnificent creatures that came to visit my garden. Is it any wonder I don't want the season to end?

A monk parrot in my apple tree

Just some of my garden goodies...YUM!

As always, I learned many lessons in my garden, the most important of which is this: that which you put your attention on will manifest. I paid a lot attention to my garden, making it a priority in my daily routine. Every day I would get out of bed earlier than I wanted to in order to water it thoroughly before the heat of the day set in. I would remove weeds and thin out excess plants. But most of all I gave it love. I would talk to my plants (YES, I talk to plants), express my affection for them and thank them for their beauty and abundance. I would tend them continually and guard them zealously. I treated them as I would my children.

Oh, how I'll miss my veggies. :(

A bumble bee covered in pollen

Already I am planning next year's garden and mentally marking the calendar for when I can begin seedlings in anticipation of next season's harvest.

Yes, I gave my garden love and my garden loved me in return. Why would anyone want such a relationship to end?

Ballo ergo sum
- Gitana, the Creative Diva

Melon mystery and More

2011-08-18T00:57:00.001-04:00

The strangest thing happened in my garden. I planted a bunch of watermelons. At least that's what the seed packet said. It was supposed to yield round fruit that weighed up to 25 pounds. So I planted all these identical looking seedlings and let them run rampant up tomato cages and across expanses of the garden. Imagine my surprise, now that these melons are ripening, to discover that I have a bumper crop of canteloupes and what I believe are mammoth honeydews but not one single watermelon! There must have been a big mix up in the seed packing plant.

Having never grown watermelons before, I had thought that the strange rough markings I saw on the surface of the melon would disappear as the fruit matured and took on a more "watermelon-y" appearance. Wrong! Those strange markings turned out to be the distinctive texture of a cantaloupe. DUH! Oh well, At least they're turning out to be beautiful cantaloupes as you can see by the photo of a cut melon. I have a "honeydew" ripening that weighs nine and a half pounds. I've got fingers crossed that it's as good as the rest of my crop.

On another front, I was away in Las Vegas for a week attending a family wedding and left my son to tend the garden in my absence. After about five or six days he decided to peek inside the cucumber bush to see if anything was ready for picking. At right you can see his one day harvest. When I first bought the cucumber plant, its tag said the mature fruit would be about six inches long. The tape measure along the bottom of the photo tells you these cukes are a lot bigger than six inches and these aren't even the largest ones that have been picked. I picked one that measured 11 inches long and another that was 9 inches long. The largest was nearly as thick as my arm. The one in the picture at left was as long as my forearm and they are all sugar sweet. The tomatoes pictured are only a fraction of what's still on the vine and the size of what's to come is enormous. I've been eating fresh cukes and tomatoes on a daily basis and loving every bite. I only fertilize when I first plant so I can't say that I'm doing anything particularly special to get such outstanding results. I'm beginning to think my earthworms are pooping steroids into the garden.

Next up: green peppers and sweet aji peppers. I can taste them already.

Ballo ergo sum
- Gitana, the Creative Diva

Early Results are In!

2011-07-11T01:48:00.002-04:00

(Click on any photo to view a larger image.)

Maybe I'm just a little impatient this year.
My garden is coming along well in some areas and could do better in others, yet somehow I keep feeling as though things are moving more slowly than usual. Fact is, everything is right on time. My problem is that I started the garden earlier than usual because of the mild weather we had this spring. This has thrown my internal clock out of kilter and I keep thinking that summer is nearly over when in actuality it has only just begun. In any event, my due diligence has been rewarded with some early crops and I was blessed with a visit from a never-before-seen (by me, anyway) black swallowtail butterfly. I frantically chased it all over my garden as it did laps around my azalea bush until I finally snapped this photo of it in flight near my carrots. It was the best I could do under the circumstances but its distinctive markings are clearly visible. I hope this isn't the last I see of this handsome creature.

My cucumbers are growing like gangbusters and I've been enjoying the sweet and cool fruits for a couple of weeks now. Today they were joined by some early onions and a scallion. I can't wait to use them in a meal. My peppers are growing quickly and I should have three or four ready for picking in a week's time. Lots of tomatoes are showing up but they won't be ready for a few weeks yet. My basil has exploded with large fragrant leaves. It is sharing a pot with a lackluster cilantro plant which, in spite of its puny size, has delicious flavor and really added a wonderful touch to a pot of stewed beans I made earlier this week.

I have discovered that some vines I have growing are not the beans I had hoped they would be but are instead watermelons that are threatening to take over my garden. Last weekend I engaged in some ruthless thinning of the plants in order to give the remaining ones room to grow but even that is not enough. I have decided to try a little experiment with the four plants growing on one side of my garden. Three of them have been trellised while the largest one has been allowed to run freely on the ground. I know melons are not meant to be trellised but, like I said, it's an experiment. There are four others growing freely on the other side of the garden and I strongly suspect that they are going to end up in a mutual choke hold as their runners tangle together. The jury is still out.

In the last post's photos I highlighted a pretty little sweet potato plant that surprised me with its beautiful purple-edged heart shaped leaves. It has lost its purple tinge and has tripled in size, butting right up against the watermelons and some onions. I strongly suspect I will get some edible tubers out of that plant so I'm going to protect it from the marauding melons at all costs.

I am truly enjoying this year's garden immensely and am already planning next year's crops.

Ballo ergo sum
- Gitana, the Creative Diva

Mother Nature in Her Stride

2011-06-27T02:10:00.001-04:00

(Click on any photo to view a larger image.)

In my last post I showed you before and after photos of my garden clean-up efforts. Since then I've been busy planting, transplanting and weeding, weeding, weeding. All the rain we've had in the past several weeks worked wonders in helping to establish the plants I set down. The flip side is that all the rain is just as beneficial to weeds. Really now, how much purslane can one garden hold? If my garden is any indication, the answer is an infinite number.

The one thing I await patiently all year is the blooming of my red storm daylilies. I love the spectacular red orange color of those blooms. This year my show of lilies did not disappoint and even held a surprise for me. In the midst of all those red blooms a rare burgundy bloom showed up. I've had these flowers for over half a dozen seasons so far and this is the first time I've seen a nearly purple flower emerge. Also this year, in addition to the Stella D'Oro daylilies, my red storm lilies had more company than usual in the form of orange daylilies that had been traded to me last year by a fellow Freecycle gardener in exchange for some Black-eyed Susans and Stella D'Oros. These towering orange beauties are very tall, measuring anywhere from four and a half to five feet. You can see them in the photo looming above the Stella D'Oros. The hydrangeas in my backyard were not to be outdone and produced a dense cover of massive bloom heads.

On to my vegetable garden. My tomatoes seem to taking off slowly but they are growing. The peppers are also slow although I've got one pepper maturing so far. My little bush cucumber surprised me with a fruit maturing out of sight behind some leaves. A piece of a yam that sprouted in my friend's kitchen ended up in my garden and showed up as a very pretty plant with purple edged heart-shaped leaves. In my pots I've got cilantro, basil, four different kinds of mint, scallions, more peppers, tomatoes and onions.

When I first started the garden this year I had the feeling that I wasn't planting very much. I suppose I was so close to it that I didn't see it. Now that I step back to survey all that I have growing I realize I've planted quite a bit and I wish I had room to plant more. Hmmm, let's see now...if I get rid of that azalea bush and move all the lilies into that spot, it would open up a whole new area for planting. And with a small rototiller the work would go a lot faster and....

Excuse me, folks. I've got some planning to do.

Ballo ergo sum - Gitana, the Creative Diva

Garden 2011 Update

2011-06-01T03:15:00.003-04:00

This Memorial Day weekend was spent engaging in one of my favorite activities: gardening. I spent eight hours a day for two full days shoveling and raking, planting and pruning, watering and weeding. My back, I'm pleasantly surprised to say, does not hurt, my muscles are not sore and the sunburn I sustained in spite of generous amounts of sunscreen does not hurt. All in all, this was a very successful gardening event for me.

These are before and after photos of my front garden. Last year that weedy patch was thick with marigolds. Much to my surprise I only found four marigolds growing there this year. I had expected many more seeds to have been dropped from last year's crop. Since I don't own a roto-tiller, all of the weeding was done by hand. First I loosened the dirt with a long handled shovel, then I got in real close and personal with my hands, breaking up the clumps and pulling out the weeds. this process allows me to be very thorough and get all those tiny little weedlings outs as well as check the general condition of the soil. Thankfully I found very little in the way of Japanese beetle grubs. Unfortunately I also found little in the way of earthworms. This means I'll have to be diligent in amending the soil with compost from my backyard bin which is chock full of worms.

What you really can't see in the before photo are the three plastic crates behind the monster hosta in the center. They represent my makeshift raised garden that I have used for the past two years. This year I moved them back towards the property line and added two more crates, replaced the garbage bag liners, filled them with dirt and compost and planted peppers, tomatoes and dwarf carrots. The marigolds I found growing in the weedy patch were transplanted alongside the tomatoes to act as a natural disease and insect repellent. Future plantings will include bush beans, more marigolds and who knows what else. I've already got basil, oregano, onions, thyme, spearmint, peppers and tomatoes growing in pots along side the house and by my front steps. I'd love to get some garlic sets but haven't found any in the local nurseries. I may have to order them. The front yard may look a little sparse now but I have no doubt that it will fill out very nicely.

While I was in the mood to uproot and move earth, I took the opportunity to pry up all the edging blocks that had slowly made their way down into the earth, pack soil into the depression and replace them at their intended levels. This work was more difficult than the gardening in that it required me to really use muscle, crowbar and hammer to pry the blocks out and get them all back in again. Of course they don't all fit back into place as neatly as they did before being pried out of place so they needed some vigorous coaxing. That's where the hammer came in. In the end, they cooperated to create a neat looking edging to complement the neat looking garden.

In addition to moving dirt, I severely pruned the ancient azalea bush that's been in front of my house for well over 20 years. It was full grown when we bought the house and apparently had never been pruned. It was a tangled web of dead branches underneath that had been hidden under the dense foliage. Once I started hacking away at it, nothing was sacred. I took nearly half the bush down before I had to stop to clear out the debris. You can see how much I took out of that bush by looking at the photos. There is still more to be pruned but I will get to it when I get to it. No matter how badly I mangle it, it will grow back. Azaleas are tough plants and can really take a beating once fully grown. It had better. I'm counting on it.

My vegetable and herb garden is well on it's way for this season. My flowers have been a riot of color and the showiest of them have yet to bloom. I have been looking forward to this season since last year and now that it's here I can barely wait to see how my garden grows.

Ballo ergo sum
- Gitana, the Creative Diva

Spring is Finally Here!!

2011-04-14T03:00:00.001-04:00

Day after Blizzard of Dec. 2010

(Click on any photo to view a larger image.)

It's been a looong winter and I'm only too glad that the weather has finally warmed up enough for me to get back in my garden. The fresh memories of the blizzard that socked the northeast in December, followed by more snowstorms in January, are anxious to be melted away by images of compost and earthworms.

You remember the winter storms, don't you? Just take a look at the pictures. They tell the tale. The first was taken the day after the December storm while the snow was still pristine and the snowplows hadn't yet come through. (Heck, they didn't come through for two days!)

Fallen tree limb on my block.

The weight of all the snow seriously weakened a tree on my block to the point that it eventually cracked and came down in the weeks after the storm, damaging a parked car on the opposite side of the street. Thankfully no one was injured.

Yeah, the snow was a real pain in the neck, as well as in the back, but the advantage to all that snow is what is does for the garden. The deep cold stimulates the plant growth process. It's the same thing that professional growers do to "force" flowers to bloom when they want them to. And all that melting snow deeply saturates the ground, giving reawakening plants plenty of fuel for growth. The result? An abundant garden bursting with life.

Crocuses blooming in full force.

Here are just a couple of photos of this year's garden. My perennials are popping up like gangbusters. Everywhere I turn I see the tips of my hostas poking through, my hydrangea's tips are swelling up and leafing out. My ground cover is beginning to spread and the earthworms, well, they are fast, sassy and plentiful. My compost bin kept them warm, cozy and well fed during the winter and now they are ready to go to work fortifying my soil.

Daffodils are not to be outdone.

In spite of this year's record breaking winter, my plants were in pretty good shape. I had brought many of my potted plants and window boxes inside my glass shed where they were somewhat sheltered from the extreme weather. They showed their appreciation by rewarding me with unusually early blooms. In the case of the vinca vine that is going on its third year, it bloomed for the first time, showing off pretty five petaled blooms. My strawberries actually had blossoms most of the winter and now they are blooming like crazy, exhibiting more buds than I have ever seen on them at one time.

Vinca blooms for the first time in 2 yrs.

As I mentioned in the fall, this year I'm planning to plant more herbs and vegetables than I have in the past. I enjoyed the few herbs that I grew last year so much that I want to do more of it. I have already cleaned out the detritus of last year from my pots, replenished their soil and planted several varieties of peppers, cilantro and basil. Looking to plant some oregano, cucumbers, tomatoes, lettuce, green beans, onions, garlic...in short, I'm hoping I won't have to see a supermarket produce section for a long time.

Did you hear that? That was the sound of my back groaning at the thought of all that yard work. But did you see that? That was me smiling at the thought of it.

Ballo ergo sum
- Gitana, the Creative Diva

Autumn's Surprise

2010-11-29T01:51:00.000-05:00

June Strawberries fruiting in November.

Me and my freshly picked apples.

(Click on any photo to view a larger image.)

Summer was coming to an end in my last post and I recounted some of the abundance I enjoyed in my garden, from the magnificent stand of flowers to my fragrant and delicious herbs. Back then I was sure that my garden would be put to bed and dormant by the time Thanksgiving rolled around. I was wrong. Mother Nature apparently wants to hang around my house a little longer and is showing herself in a most unexpected way...I still have flowers in bloom. My pansies and snapdragons are still showing their colorful heads and up until a couple of weeks ago I was still picking aji dulce (pronounced a-HEE DOOL-seh), a tiny, sweet pepper used in traditional Spanish Caribbean cooking, off my plants. Even more surprising is this...my strawberries, which bear fruit only once in June and very early July are not only blooming again, they are fruiting! This is most unusual. The weather is crisping up, the apples on my tree have been harvested and eaten (delicious apple pies and pastries, by the way) and nearly all the leaves have fallen off the neighboring trees, yet my summer strawberries are fruiting.

I find this all the more fascinating because of the brutally hot July we had this year that really put a hurtin' on all manner of vegetation, ornamental as well as edible. As a result of the summer scorch, none of my vegetables did particularly well this year and I am sure I lowered the level of the nearest reservoir in order to keep my plants alive. Still, in spite of the beating my plants took, they all survived beautifully. I suppose this very late bloom is my garden's way of thanking me for taking such particular care of them during the heat wave.

As is my custom, I read the happenings in my garden and relate them to the political events taking place in this country. It was no surprise to me that the Republicans rallied during this past election. Their steady, ruthless onslaught of Democratic candidates all across the country, much like the steady onslaught of July's ruthless heat wave, took its toll and the fickle electorate followed suit. Given the beating taken by the Dems, it would appear that the White House will flip back to GOP control in 2012. But I believe there is hope yet. At least that's what my garden is telling me, specifically my late fruiting strawberries. There is still life and strength in those roots that can rally at the most unpredictable times. I surely hope so. Lord knows we need it.

Ballo ergo sum - Gitana, the Creative Diva

Summer's End Approaches

2010-09-11T00:37:00.004-04:00

(Click on an image to see a larger version.)

The last days of summer are upon us and once again I wonder where the summer went. Thank goodness I have the foresight to take photos else I would think my entire summer was wasted. Just looking at these wonderful images lets me know that my efforts were not in vain and the fruits of my labor, although fleeting, were well worth the effort.

The patch of transplanted marigolds that you saw in my last post filled out nicely. Here you can see a picture of them one month after the transplant and again as they appear today. They have grown so thickly that they have closed ranks with no space between the blossom heads. An insect could easily walk from one end of the patch to the other without need to take wing, so dense is the carpet of bright yellow orange blooms. My coleus is not to be outdone, exhibiting its green-edged scarlet leaves in an impressive show. As usual, my black-eyed susans were a riot of flowers, completely taking over the northern border of my front garden. Alas, they will riot no more in my yard as I have uprooted them all and given them away to other deserving gardeners, keeping only a large potful for myself. I have reclaimed the space they used for next year's vegetable garden. I have enjoyed the few herbs I have planted this year so much that I am determined to do more of it next year.

This year I had a mystery melon appear in my garden. At first I had no idea what it was until it began to ripen and reveal itself as a canteloupe. I grew two canteloupes, one average in size and the other much smaller, about the size of a softball. The smaller one fell off the vine before it reached full maturity so it didn't sweeten up as much as the larger one. I also have gourds for the first time, the seeds having been sent to me from North Carolina. Although I was told they would not bear until next year, I have two pears shaped gourds growing. My hope is to have them ready for painting for the Halloween/Thanksgiving season as these gourds are ornamental, not edible.

A Painted Lady butterfly takes a sip.

My garden is not only a haven for plants. It is a way station for all manner of wildlife. Butterflies, dragonflies, bees, spiders, caterpillars, birds...even my neighbor's cat, all seek refuge and perhaps a sip of nectar. For more pictures of my garden, including all it's visitors, please check out my photobucket album, My Garden - 2010 edition.

Ballo ergo sum
- Gitana, the Creative Diva

How Does My Garden Grow?

2010-07-23T22:56:00.009-04:00

(Click on the image to see a larger version.)

I went to sleep very late last night and I was counting on the fact that, since I had no pressing issues to attend to, I could sleep in. No, that was not to be. I woke up after a few hours to go to the bathroom and that's when I heard it...the siren call of my garden begging for attention. Try as I might I could not go back to sleep. When she calls me, I must answer. Where I intended nothing more than to water the garden, She would not have it. She had been patient long enough, suffering through my extended periods of busyness wherein I could not tend to her. It was time to dress her up for the summer and She wanted me to lay out her clothes.

The sky was overcast with clouds that threatened rain. The air was somewhat cooler than it had been in the past week so it seemed like a good time to do the work that needed doing. Although I had pulled weeds and transplanted flowers last week, there still remained empty patches rapidly refilling with weeds and large clumps of marigolds to be thinned. Pansies and snapdragons that had spontaneously sprouted around the garden had to be corralled into their respective areas, and the snails had to be dealt with. All this I did, and as I uprooted, transplanted, weeded and watered, I couldn't help noticing the smile on my face and how good and energetic I felt in spite of the fact that I hadn't slept nearly enough. At last I stepped back to survey what I had done and I stood in awe. The weedy, open areas of dirt, the dense clumps of marigolds and haphazard patches of pansies were gone. In their places stood orderly rows of flowers and soil free of weeds. It was as if in the process of putting the garden to rights, it had undergone a metamorphosis. It looked better, to be sure, but it was more than that. It FELT better. It felt RIGHT. It was as if everything was finally where it was supposed to be and this created an energetic shift. I looked at my garden as if I was seeing it for the very first time, not unlike the way a father looks at his daughter when she is ready to leave for her prom, with pride, awe and wonder at the beauty of it all. It was a case of the whole being more than just the sum of its parts.

Just as I patted the last plant into place, as if on cue, the first drops of the impending rain began to fall lightly. As I gathered my garden tools to put them away, I remembered the lesson the garden taught me last week..."redistribute your assets and spread the wealth for you already have everything you need". Yes, once again She was correct. Everything I needed to beautify my garden had already been provided for me. All I had to do was put it in its proper place.

Ballo ergo sum
- Gitana, the Creative Diva

Talking with Mother Nature

2010-07-17T14:46:00.005-04:00

As I have said many times in this blog, I receive some of my most profound insights when I dedicate myself to the care and nurturing of my garden. This morning was a perfect example.

What I intended to be no more than watering the garden became much more. I decided to pull a few weeds, then a few more, until I had weeded out an entire section that had been choked. When I'm weeding I generally come across little flowers hidden by the weeds so I "rescue" them, removing them from the weedy area and transplanting them to an area with more of their own kind that had also been rescued. In the process, I noticed that my lush stand of marigolds was so thick it needed thinning out, so I separated the many plants and transplanted them around the garden. I think it is important to note here that in contrast to my usual practice of purchasing annuals to perk up my garden, this year I did nothing of the kind. I was simply too busy to do gardening. Even watering it was a chore that I did hurriedly and inadequately. In spite of that, though, my garden is producing flowers. Apparently last year some of my annuals dropped seeds that germinated and sprang up in all manner of odd places. It's as if my garden was telling me, "Don't worry. We're still here for you." Lately, since I have been much more diligent about watering and tending to my garden, the flowers have been demonstrating their appreciation by propagating.

It was while I was transplanting the marigolds that a several revelations came to me. Upon being moved, the flowers and leaves began to wilt and look very sad, so I turned on the sprinkler and made sure they got a good drink to help them revive and settle in. Then I stood back to survey what I had done. It was then that I became aware of a few corollaries: The first of these is that people are like plants. When abruptly uprooted and moved to a new location, they become sad and weakened but will bounce back if given sufficient time, nurturing and the necessary tools. The second, and perhaps the most important of these corollaries hits a little closer to home. By separating one thick mass of marigolds into several smaller plants, I essentially "spread the wealth". The garden was telling me that I already had everything I needed and all I had to do was redistribute my assets. By carefully tending to what I already had before me, I could achieve my ultimate goals.

The first of these realizations I take as referring to my youngest daughter who has moved away to start a new life as a college student. I expect that sooner or later the first bloom of novelty will soon give way to homesickness and I won't be surprised to receive a few plaintive phone calls from her pining for some of my cooking or wanting me to massage her feet. (Yeah, she's spoiled. All my kids are.) The second I take as referring to, among other things, my current financial situation. My husband joined the ranks of the unemployed recently and has been unsuccessful in getting another job. We are in the uneviable position of having two children in college, a mortgage to pay and no income. I'll have to see how I can redistribute some of my "wealth" (which in my case has nothing to do with money) to address these concerns. Time will tell.

Ballo ergo sum- Gitana, the Creative Diva

The work begins

2010-04-15T23:20:00.006-04:00

I could rant about the beauty of my flowers. I could go on about the pleasures of gardening and the joy of being ankle deep in soil and earthworms. I could even wax poetic about Mother Nature's glorious spring show. Today, however, I lack the words and the inclination to carry on so. Today I will let the pictures speak for themselves.

Ballo ergo sum
- Gitana, the Creative Diva

Spring Has Arrived!

2010-03-22T22:15:00.006-04:00

Just a few short weeks ago, New York and the surrounding areas were hit with a snowstorm that brought the city to a halt. Last weekend the area was again buffeted by a devastating nor'easter that uprooted hundreds of trees, downed power lines and caused untold thousands of dollars in damage to homes, cars, businesses. Winter's dying gasp was memorable, to say the least, but no less so than Spring's first breath.

This weekend we were treated to glorious weather. It was unseasonably warm, bright and sunny...all the excuse I needed to head out to my garden to renew it and myself. I was joyously greeted by an explosion of color from my daffodils and crocuses. It seems as if everything is in a hurry to shake off the grey of winter and don the colors of warmer weather. Here are the first photos of my 2010 garden featuring two of my stalwart perennials. They, as do the burgeoning buds all around me, make me smile.

Ballo ergo sum
- Gitana, the Creative Diva

2010 Awakes

2010-01-24T02:21:00.004-05:00

January. Winter. Cold. Makes you want to stay indoors curled up in a comfortable chair with a cup of tea, a good book and favorite afghan thrown over your legs. I haven't been in my garden since its annual clean up and winterizing ritual and haven't thought much about it until this week. Small branches and twigs had fallen and collected in an unkempt pile in my yard so I ventured out one relatively mild day to clean them up. In the process I discovered something surprising. My daffodils, well over a hundred of them, are beginning to poke through the ground. My old (over 10 years) strawberry plant is showing signs of green under the dessicated remains of last year's growth. My stalwart sedum (I swear you can't kill this plant) is coming back again as it has for over 15 years and the tender plants that I brought into the house in the fall are showing signs of renewed vigor. It appears the growing season has quietly arrived and is in full throttle.

The lengthening of the days since the winter solstice has worked its magic on Mother Nature and she is showing her appreciation with promises of springtime while thoughts of a bountiful garden fill my head.

Ballo ergo sum
- Gitana, the Creative Diva

Winterizing has begun

2009-11-01T00:57:00.004-04:00

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

It's Officially Fall

2009-10-17T00:38:00.003-04:00

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

The Strangeness Continues

2009-10-12T00:23:00.004-04:00

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

Strange Happenings

2009-08-22T22:42:00.001-04:00

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

Small Wonders

2009-08-20T22:45:00.000-04:00

(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

The Rigors and Riches of the Garden

2009-07-24T22:46:00.000-04:00

(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

The work continues...

2009-06-30T23:20:00.000-04:00

(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

I Told You So...

2009-06-13T22:52:00.000-04:00

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

Garden Abundance

2009-05-30T01:34:00.000-04:00

(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

Mixed Blessings

2009-05-17T00:33:00.002-04:00

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

In Love Again...

2009-04-28T00:20:00.000-04:00

(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

The Daffodils Are Up!

2009-03-30T00:20:00.000-04:00

(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

Spring Finally Arrives

2009-03-22T01:46:00.000-04:00

(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

Nature's Sucker Punch

2009-03-04T22:17:00.000-05:00

(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

Roundabout

2009-02-09T00:00:00.000-05:00

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

Life Persists

2009-02-03T21:37:00.000-05:00

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