Gran elefante erguido, by Miquel Barceló. (Click for larger views.)
Sometimes a 7m tall upside down bronze elephant is exactly what one needs to see Continue reading ‘New Views’
Archive for the 'gardening' Category
Well, this is what the countermeasures against squirrels and so forth, (introduced after the Great Tomato Atrocity) allowed the other plants to yield (to go with the crop from the smaller varieties two weeks earlier):
Continue reading ‘Orange Harvest’
Harvest time. Seriously depleted crop due to the Great Tomato Atrocity, but the countermeasures have allowed me to claw back a little satisfaction. Now time to see about making some nice chutneys or other preserves. By the way, have you noticed all the stories in the press about the sudden rise of interest in gardening to grow food at home? See/hear an interesting NPR one here. (Many claim it has much to do with the Obamas’ White House garden, but you and I know it is all because of my blogging about it here over the years, right? …Right? ;))
Aaaaanyway… here are some other shots of the harvest/harvesting:
Continue reading ‘Red, Gold, and Green’
Since I launched the campaign against Fluffy, I’ve actually been able to eat from my garden. Last week at my film premiere I was able to serve prosciutto-wrapped figs as one of the early courses, for example. (That was aided by also wrapping nets around the fig trees against the birds.)
Very satisfying, it must be said, is the crop of tomatoes of various types that have returned. After the Great Tomato Atrocity, this is very good to see.
With about ten figs taken over a day and a half, the Great Tomato Atrocity still fresh in my mind, several chases and confrontations with yelling on both sides… It is clear. There is no other conclusion:
Fluffy must go.
After some experiments with small stealth items over the last few days, which, after some near misses (the Force is strong with Fluffy), Fluffy now routinely evades, I am deploying some heavy battlefield equipment:
Continue reading ‘The War Continues…’
I’ve this delightful little pepper tree that produces petite purple peppers.
(Click for larger view.) They’re each about an inch long.
With their lovely shape and deep, rich colour, they’re such a pleasure to look at that Continue reading ‘Petite Purple Peppers’
When I’m feeling muddled or somewhat low, one of the things that reliably helps me find my foundation is going out into the garden and doing some work here and there, or simply checking on how various plants or fruits and vegetables are coming along. The work, the sounds and smells, the surroundings, and the cycles of renewal that are all over the garden are wonderfully uplifting to me.
So imagine how I felt yesterday when, feeling down for one reason or another, I went out into the garden and discovered that the six or seven wonderful tomatoes (of various types) - that I was giving just another day or two to become perfect - had all been taken! Continue reading ‘The Battle is Joined’
So I decided to experiment. Saturday started with me spontaneously mixing some ingredients together. There’s about two tablespoons of shortening, and of butter, and a sprinkling of sea salt. I put in one or two of the cups of flour and hand blended this all together. Then I mixed in a cup or so of the yeast culture that has previously featured in a few blog posts (here, here, and here). I’m sort of following my usual bread recipe that I’ve made in the past several years (with dried yeast as a starter) with a few adjustments here and there, trying to accommodate the different kind of Continue reading ‘Bakin’’
It is Mother’s Day in the USA (a few weeks after the UK one - this means I send two sets of greetings to my mother each year). This year, rather than a rose, I’m going to put up a member of the gladiolus family, since one of mine put on a stunning display two days ago and deserves to be shared.
I almost forgot to carry out my plan to do this post, as I’ve been shooting Continue reading ‘Glad it is Mother’s Day’
Lunchtime. Here’s a brief report on my garden activity this morning. It’s all about the succulents. Or the succulence. Take your pick. I’ve been meaning to plant these out for almost a year, I sheepishly admit…
…and also it was time to transplant the large aloe to a more suitable pot.
Continue reading ‘Excellent Succulents’
Well, this is what I was puzzling over for a little while last week:
I thought I’d share it with you to puzzle over too. I designed and constructed it a while back, installed it, and then took it down for a while (as other work was being Continue reading ‘Rope Tricks’
Given all the gardening I’ve been doing over the last week or so (there’s some seed-sowing action going on to the right - more later), it may be fitting to go and sit and participate in the event coming up today. It is another of the College Commons events I’ve been mentioning here.
It’ll be a round table discussion and workshop to kick off a series, and here’s the summary:
“The Spiritual Life of Plants” series, arranged by Natania Meeker and Antónia Szabari of French and comparative literature, aims to reunite urgent contemporary conversations around ecology and the built environment with an early modern past — a past in which plants existed both at the limits of being and at the frontier of new forms of knowledge. What might these animated plants have to tell us about the ways in which humans experience, regulate, and are transformed by the non-human beings that surround them? How can we carry these conversations forward into the present and the future?
Today’s round table: Continue reading ‘The Spiritual Life of Plants’
-cvj
-cvj
It always surprises me how delightful the strong scent from these blossoms can be. Continue reading ‘Orange’
Time to begin a round of planting. It is 7:30am, and I’ve had my morning cup of tea, Continue reading ‘Seeds!’
The camellia bush is happy again this year, putting out lots of smiling faces.
Continue reading ‘White and Green’
I thought I’d share with you a little video of one of my favourite visitors to the garden! These hummingbirds love Mexican sage (salvia leucantha). I grow quite a bit of it, and they flock to it when it starts blooming in the Fall. As I said over a year ago in talking about the sage and the birds, in a post “Soon They Will Come”:
Continue reading ‘Fast Visitor’
Wow! Almost to the day (see last year’s post), they have returned, perhaps stronger than ever! I had two big waves of them this year, one about ten days to a fortnight ago, and another new one starting a couple of days ago. Here’s one:
Flower from my San Pedro cactus (trichocereus pachanoi). (Click for larger view.)
I love these flowers dearly for many reasons. First and foremost, they are beautiful, but there’s an additional enhancement of my love brought about by their short-lived nature. They’ll appear all of a sudden, somewhat unexpectedly, and last just one day Continue reading ‘They’re Back!’
I’ve been meaning to tell you more about Michael Pollan. I’ve been planning a post or two about Summer reading, and was going to discuss the books of Michael Pollan to kick off a possible series. That plan was hatched in the late Summer of 2007… then the Fall came, and then the Winter and Spring… then Summer of 2008… never got around to it. Drat. (Checking back, I see that I started the series by talking about Haruki Murakami, here. So I’ll call this part of the series too, even though it is not really Summer.)
Anyway, the good news is that Pollan was on Fresh Air (NPR) yesterday, and as usual he was excellent:
In an open letter to the next president, author Michael Pollan writes about the waning health of America’s food systems — and warns that “the era of cheap and abundant food appears to be drawing to a close.”
The future president’s food policies, says Pollan, will have a large impact on a wide range of issues, including national security, climate change, energy independence and health care.
Here’s the link to the audio. Before you rush off to that, let me continue what I was going to say, at least in brief.
Pollan has risen to prominence, justifiably, mostly as a result of his excellent book “The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History Of Four Meals”. It is a delightful examination of the food industry, charting the route of much of the food that you eat Continue reading ‘Summer Reading: Fresh Air From Pollan’
The battle is in full swing, and it is a rather glorious one indeed. What battle? Well, I deployed some ground troops of legendary tenacity to do battle with some ground cover of relentless ivy. I don’t like the ivy much. Since it keeps coming back, and since there is no end to its inventiveness at returning and spreading, I decided to try a different tactic that I knew would have certain other benefits. Deploy the Morning Glory.
I remember my first true appreciation of the powers of morning glories. I was an assistant professor at the University of Kentucky living in a nice cabin with a nice bit of back garden, not far from campus, in Lexington. I’d spend my Summers in New York back in those days. One late spring I planted some morning glory seeds, and watched the little plants that resulted struggle through the dirt and face the sky. Then I was away for the Summer, on my usual (for the time) retreat to the excellent Morningside Heights neighbourhood, the whole of Manhattan my office.
Upon returning to Lexington, finding everything still in the clutches of the humidity that reigns supreme at that time of year, ready to begin teaching in the new Continue reading ‘Glory’
Oh, boy this was fun. Christine Louise Berry organizes a series she calls The Speakeasy, and I’ll tell you below about the really great one that took place on Sunday. You’ll remember my mentioning Christine’s work earlier. She (the main force behind SmartGals) did that marvellous McArthur Park event with the fragments of plays to be found all over the park, and had the excellent taste to combine it with Mama’s Hot Tamales. A couple of months ago, at a party of hers (to celebrate car-independence in LA!), I met Erik Knutzen, with whom I ended up talking a great deal about lots of things because we seem to be on the same page on many things with regards biking and public transport (he’s part of the Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition), gardening and sustainability (he’s involved in a lot of land use issues for his day job). So we talked about lots of topics, from composting to the Velib system (and why Los Angeles has essentially already decided not to take that wonderful route, sadly).
Erik, with his partner Kelly Coyne, write a really great blog called Homegrown Evolution (excellent title), which is all about urban gardening, and they are passionate about getting more people to do gardening (as am I, you might have gathered). You’ve probably read my posts on gardening from time to time and thought that it isn’t for you since you’re in a big city in an apartment on the nth floor (where n is some integer greater than one or zero) with no access to garden space. I’ve occasionally Continue reading ‘The Urban Homestead’
Well, for some of this time I’ve been away I’ve been a bit worried about the fig tree. Why? Well, as I was leaving town, it was hugely laden with fruit that looked rather like they were going to peak while I was away. I certainly did not want that to happen since the squirrels and other critters would have a field day (or several!), and get used to the idea that they had full access to the tree with no dissent from me.
Well, it turns out that the tree held out longer than it seemed that it would, so while the peak came while I was away, it was only for a week or so.
So I lost several figs, and had to deal with the sticky, frenzied-ant-infused mess left Continue reading ‘First Fig Fun’
There’s something deliciously sinful about polishing off* these tomatoes while they are still warm from sitting on the plant in the afternoon sun… (Click for larger view.)
The universe likes laughing at me. In so many creative ways. (See earlier.) Here’s another. Of all the tomato plants I’ve ever grown, the ones that have done best -spectacularly well, in fact- have not been the ones I intentionally planted and 
nurtured but the ones that have grown up in random places. I then take care of them and they end up bursting with fruit. Meanwhile the others produce some fruit, but nothing to write home about, after a great amount of care and worry about how suited the ground is to their needs. You will recall another example: the cherry tomato plant that appeared in a crack in the steps that I was sure could not make it (but lasted for two years, almost constantly producing fruit) - see posts here and here about it.
Well, at some point during the Winter (yeah, yeah, I know) I noticed a new tomato plant Continue reading ‘Wild Irony’
I’m repeating myself, I’ve noticed, but it’s ok. Turns out that after I decided today that it was time to post a photo of this lovely flower (click for larger view), I noticed that I’d done exactly the same thing last year, on the same day. It’s the first of the buddleia (budlea) flowers to bloom in the garden, and it’s always a welcome sight. It takes a Continue reading ‘Purple Grand Opening’
Another lovely one in the gladiolus family I think. These have started to put on a show Continue reading ‘Yellow Face’
Stages of renewal. Click for larger views.
One of my cycads* had been worrying me for a while. It looked sad, very yellow and dry, and I began to wonder if it has departed this world. Then all of a sudden, as Continue reading ‘Renewal’
I find this a bit sad, although most people will say “they’re only bees”. They (and lots of other beekeepers with their bees on trucks) were in the area to help with pollinating crops. I’m very enamoured of the idea that we still need bees to be brought in to perform such a crucial task for our agriculture, which makes it all the more sad to me to hear of the accident befalling the dutiful drones. Millions of bees were released on Sunday (and apparently hundreds of thousands probably killed) after a truck carrying several of their colonies overturned near Sacramento, California. You can listen to the NPR story (here) about the resulting chaos (and the emergency call-out to beekeepers in the area for help) and sting-fest that followed.
You can also read more on this in the local newspaper in the area, er… The Sacramento Bee. (No, really!)
-cvj
Continuing a bit about the microbiology to be found in the garden, I did a post not so long ago on Correlations giving an update about the composting system I started a while ago (post on that here). You might find it interesting, and so I thought I’d let you know about it. It is here.
All’s looking well for an exciting Spring season of gardening!
-cvj
Continue reading ‘Warm Yellow’
This is one of my most favourite features of the landscaping on the campus here at USC. It’s one of the very earliest features that made me feel very much at home on the campus when I first arrived. I remember coming around a corner, seeing it, and Continue reading ‘The Tree, I’
Time for a shot from the garden. Focus could be better. This is from six weeks ago, I admit. I forgot to post this back then. After we had that little bit of rain, various bulbs Continue reading ‘Glad’
I’ve been distracted by several things recently, and so (even more than is usually the case) there’s far more to report than there is time to report it. Among the highlights are, as already mentioned in the comments, a Saturday visit to MOCA (Geffen Contemporary) to see the Takashi Murakami exhibition. (Coinciding nicely with me about to embark upon reading “The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle” by the other very well known Murakami: Haruki Murakami.)
His simplest motif - which he reuses again and again in many pieces - is the smiling flowers in various colours. The 2D version of the 3D flower box is one of my favourites, and here it is in a room that is wallpapered with the motif. There’s a more solemn one with a range of expressions on the flowers’ faces in an entire field of them (”Kawaii - Vacances”) (including one shedding a tear), but I could not find a good web reproduction of it. The below is a rather small version:
It’s only the second weekend since it opened here in LA and it is hugely popular, with tons of people in the exhibit spaces walking around excitedly and pointing at things. (This being LA, this included a lot of activity in the special Louis Vuitton room, which Continue reading ‘All in a Weekend’s Work and Play’
[Post reconstruction in progress after 25.10.07 hack (body, comments and images to follow)]:
Flowers on my San Pedro cactus (trichocereus pachanoi). (Click for larger view.)
Continue reading ‘They’re Here!’
[Post reconstructed after 25.10.07 hack]:
My first reaction was one of dismay mixed with amusement:
(Taken from the Griffith Park Observatory. Click for larger view.)
Surely the solution to the brown 800-plus acre scar in the landscape that was once a lot of greenery in Griffith Park visible from all over the city, after much debate about what to do to re-seed vegetation after the devastating fire, was not to … paint the park green!!??? (A spectacularly unreal shade of green too.) It would be just too “Hollywood” a solution to paint the very mountain called Mount Hollywood (peak to the left just out of view).
So I am assuming that there is some valuable and botanically relevant content to this green stuff that I saw being dumped by the helicopters on a Sunday Morning hike. If anyone knows, let us know. I’ve been too preoccupied with work matters today to do a search of the blogs to find out what’s up. I’ve faith in the good sense of the many thinking about the park to trust that there’s much more to this than the colour green. I’ll update this post when I learn more.
Don’t hesitate to share anything you know about this…
[Update: Apparently it’s “hydromulch”. Erosion control, they hope. I remember seeing some of this weird green stuff on mud patches in Aspen earlier this year. Very odd that they couldn’t find a better green.]
[Update #2: Happily, the weird green seems to fade after about a week to a green that is... less weird.]
[Update #3: Mention of some more information can now be found at the Griffith Park Recovery blog here.]
-cvj
[Post reconstruction in progress after 25.10.07 hack (body, comments and images to follow)]:
We had rain again! Quite a big deal here. Well, this meant that some rose bushes that I’d been letting grow well out of control were bent over with the weight of the water. So lots of pruning yesterday. Here’s one of the sweetly scented blooms I harvested along the way:
Continue reading ‘Yellow in Green’
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