Sunday, April 5, 2020

April 5, 2020- an early Spring

Greetings to everyone whether you are from someplace in Iowa,  the great city of New York or down there in Florida.

This week the format will be a little different.
I know how you like the slideshows and how many of you like voting.
Sports channels on television now have classic sports.
That means the best from the past.
So with that in mind I present to you

Revisiting the 2012 garden finals.
Here is the slideshow.
Then you can vote.
Tell me what you like the best.






#1 White crocuses






                         #2 Pink tulip








#3 White waterlily








#4 Pink Poppy







#5 Double bloodroot








With your voting fix addressed here is something different.


Right Now

This week I decided to write something  each day, mostly about the garden.

This is the Week of March 29, 2020 to Saturday April 4, 2020,
a week where we need flowers more than ever.



Sunday 
It was a grey and windy day. It was so windy that even though it got up to 50 degrees you did not really want to go for a walk. But with a winter coat, it was comfortable in the garden.
I engaged in a regular rotation of activity, at least for the afternoon.
I would work in the garden for 30 minutes. Then I would read my latest mystery book. They I would clean up in the kitchen. There was a real baking weekend. I will let Julia tell you about that.

But even outside I developed a rotation. First I would pot up a few things. This is that magical time when you can dig up most anything, throw it in a pot, give it some water, and voila. What do you have? You have plants in pots. I will figure out what to do with them later. Maybe I will have a continuous curb side sale. I do that and then have the proceeds go to some worth cause. I can think of a few.

Next I would go plant a six pack of pansies. (I have a supply at this point.) I am planting them along one shelf, along Fairview Street. I have to be careful where I plant anything these days. There are so many things coming up or that will come up. Right now the shelf is the best place for several reasons. First there are not really any perennials there. That is where the cactus go in the summer. Second it is at least somewhat inconvenient for the wandering deer.

Next I took my trowel and wandered around looking for dandelions. They are coming. But after our rain last week they come up easily. I try to set about 20 as my limit. I have to leave some for the next rotation.

Finally I would take my camera and go take pictures. I want to find something that is just coming up and then tell you about it.
Today I did a little video about Dutchman's breeches.
I should observe that there are so many things just coming up.
I saw the slipper orchids are coming up. One of the early hostas has just emerged. Did I say it was still March?

Actually there is something else. During almost every rotation I meet people, neighbors, out walking. Maintaining an acceptable distance, we talk gardens, or anything else on our minds. We be social, and it feels good.

Just being outside is such therapy. Inside I am tempted to get on the computer and read about bad things. I should not ignore what is happening in the world. But I must strive for balance. The garden gives balance.

So here is that video from Sunday.




Other pictures of note




Here is one tree peony bud coming along.
When will they bloom this year? Last year they bloomed on May 15.




















I may have shown you this corydalis before. I love the combination of the pink and the blue.















Monday
This promises to be the nicest day this week. Sunny and 60 degrees in the early spring garden. It does not get much better than this.
While we are still going to the office we are trying to limit out hours. There are a total of 5 people at the office, with 8 rooms. We hardly ever see clients in person, and when we do, we spread out in the conference room at opposite ends of an 8' table. But we have work to do which we like to think is important.
We go for a walk in the neighborhood before work. We come home for lunch. Then we try to leave by 4:30.





Today there was the first daffodil in our yard.















Tuesday

Today I noticed the bleeding hearts coming up in the garden. They are such a beautiful plant.
Here is another spring bulb called chionodoxa. It comes in several colors. We have pink and blue.








































There are so many types of plants that at any given time I could  obsess about. Julia once said I was a serial plant enthusiast. Primroses could one such plant.

Like so many plants, how they do depends on finding the right location.
I am adding 2-3 plants each spring to this one bed. It gets half day sun, and has a slight slope. That gives it good drainage.






Wednesday
A frost has crept back into the 7 day forecast. Friday night. I will have to watch that carefully. I have thrown many amaryllis outside to get some sunshine. (This gives me more space inside as well.) I will have to pull them back inside depending on that frost picture.




On our walk this morning we saw the first blooming forsythia. It was several blocks away.

I am not a big bush gardener. I guess they take up too much room.
But forsythia can brighten up the spring landscape like few other plants.
My mother had forsythia growing everywhere. She would bring in cuttings in late winter to put on the tables. They would start to bloom inside, while their mates remained dormant outside.










On that walk we also saw the first pussy willow.




















It was a sunshine day at work. This is the new normal. When the sun is out we try to close early.
This was a sunshine day. By about 5:15 I was in the backyard potting hellebores. Katie and Christopher called on Facetime.  Julia brought the phone out to the garden. We could show them things blooming.
It was good.

Thursday
Finding something to write about was not hard on Thursday.
I have grown tree peonies from seed. That is one of my proudest achievements in the garden.
It took about 4-5 years to grow the 4 plants along Fairview Street to a blooming size. Those plants have now been blooming for about 3-4 years now. They are all white.

The seed pods are wonderful. A picture of one of them even got in the winter picture contest a few years ago.




Where is this going? You must wonder.
Well I threw some seeds in the ground in the fall of 2018, just to see if I could grow some more plants. Last spring I had this moment, which was actually captured on camera. It was on May 4, 2019.





It was of course a seedling. Here is another picture from 2019
There were actually two little shoots right together.
As you might notice I mark spots in my garden with colored plastic straws.

Sometimes I just leave the straw in the ground all year.













You might have guessed where I was going with this. On Thursday,  I noticed this, right beside the yellow straw.




I really want to make sure no one, 2 footed or 4 footed, steps on these guys.
I wonder if I will have more magical moments this spring.


And the day was not done.
I checked with the City and I was able to get a small plot from the City in one of their community gardens. It is section number 83, in a fenced-in area about 1/2 mile from our house. It is 10'x20'. It has full sun. It is fenced. It will have no deer.


We tried to get a little plot there last year. There were none available at that location when we called.
I made a point to call early this year. The City also increased the number of spaces.
My immediate thought was that this would be some place to grow out my amaryllis. They want sun to grow the bulbs during the summer.

But the more I think about full sun, the more I fantasize about peppers and eggplants, even zucchini plants. 
I do not think they will have a farmer's market this year. For the moment it is 'delayed' until June. I  hope that the venders will find some way to market their vegetables. Will the stimulus package cover their loss of income? It should.

But for now I have to get my little area rototilled.
It is still a while before the danger of frost is over.


After work I was able to take this backyard picture. The little blue scilla are really peaking, and flowing throughout the garden.







Friday
It was grey and by the late afternoon it was raining and 37 degrees. But the forecast for the weekend was rosy. Mid 50's and sun. Somehow that forecast made the bad weather seem better.

We did get to walk before work.
On our walk, down the street, was another first flowering something. This was one of those little flowering almonds, I think.




Saturday


I am running out of steam. Let me just show you some pictures of the garden today.




Here are some of the double bloodroot getting ready to bloom. I think they should pop a just a few days.
















This is Primula denticulata 'Alba'.
It is in its second year. All three of the plants I got are small but are coming back.





















Some of the first daffodils.

















The old reliable Trillium.
I think it is cuneatum.
It comes up before the others. But lutem is not far behind.















Here is that colorful hens and chicks.
















I have this one little place by the house garage which is where I have these little sedum















Some of the annual asclepias are blooming inside.






















Julia's recipe
Green beans, mushrooms and tuna
https://mearskitchen.wordpress.com/

As I may have mentioned, I received several cookbooks for Christmas, which I enjoyed. Browsing through cookbooks is my equivalent to browsing through seed or nursery catalogues. The cookbook called Six Seasons by Joshua McFadden is the most unusual. The subtitle is "A New Way With Vegetables," and there are some recipes that are certainly new for me. The recipe below is unlikely on paper and both easy and delicious. I never would have put these ingredients together which is why, I guess, I am a cook but not a cookbook writer.



The ingredients: about 1/2 pound of green beans (we had fresh; nice frozen - not french-cut - would work); 1/2 pound or so of cremini mushrooms (the recipe said wild mushrooms. Who has wild mushrooms?); 1 can oil-packed nice quality tuna (I think water-packed would be fine); about 2 teaspoons smushed garlic; 1 teaspoon of lemon zest; 1 tablespoon lemon juice; 3 tablespoons of olive oil; about 4 oz. penne; 1 cup heavy cream (really); kosher salt (maybe about 1 teaspoon altogether) and black pepper (maybe about 1/2 teaspoon altogether).

An odd assortment of ingredients, or so it seemed to me. Actually, the recipe did not call for pasta and instead called for finishing the pasta-less dish with about 1/4 cup of panko. We like the penne.  I also made a few adjustments to the recipe's proportions. Because I can.




First, I put the water (with salt) on to cook the green beans and the penne. Then I smushed the garlic. Then I heated the olive oil in a big skillet until it was warm but not hot and added the garlic.

I cooked the garlic until it was golden brown (but not any further than that) and then fished it out of the skillet into a little bowl.

While the garlic was cooking, I cleaned the green beans and cut them in half as I thought full-length green beans would be disconcerting.





I added both the green beans and the penne to the pot of boiling water. They both took about 10 minutes from the time the water came back to a boil.













While the green beans and penne were cooking, I washed and cut the mushrooms in half or in quarters depending on size and added them to the skillet from which the garlic had been removed with some salt and pepper.

The mushrooms took about 7 to 10 minutes to get nicely browned.










Meanwhile, I zested the lemon and squeezed a different lemon because we are rich in lemons at the moment. And opened the can of tuna and drained off most but not all of the oil.












When the mushrooms were browned, I used a slotted spoon to fish the green beans out of the pot of boiling water to add them to the skillet. This was not as hard as it might seem - the green beans float.












Next I added the tuna. And stirred everything around.

Then I drained the pasta and added some of it to the skillet. I had actually cooked an entire 16 oz. box of penne, as I wasn't sure how much I would want. In my house, leftover pasta is always in demand so I wasn't worried. I would suggest you not cook a whole box - 4 oz. to 8 oz. would be in the ballpark.







After adding the right amount of penne, I added 1 cup of heavy cream and stirred that all around over low heat. I let the mixture simmer for about 5 or 6 minutes so the cream could reduce some and the flavors could get acquainted.


Lastly, I turned off the heat and stirred in the golden brown garlic, lemon zest and lemon juice. And I think I decided it needed a little more salt and pepper.









Here it is on the table. It is a very pretty dish, in addition to being tasty and unusual. We didn't have many leftovers. We had a green salad and some blackberries with yogurt.


If there are more folks at your table, I would double the beans and mushrooms and tuna. I would increase the garlic and lemon stuff and olive oil and cream and penne some, but not double.



Odds and Ends


I read that the only foolproof bulbs, safe from deer, are members of the Amaryllis family.
That would be the snowdrops, snowflakes (leucojums) and ... get ready for it, daffodils. (You thought I was going to say Amaryllis.)
The genus Alium is also a close enough cousin.



Sunshine- We love it. Plants love it. I put seedlings out to be nurtured by those rays. I want to know if it is cloudy how much of that energy goes through the clouds and get into the plants.


What with people staying home these days it seems like there are many more garden visitors. (All at the appropriate distance from each other.)
Having people enjoy the garden is one of the things that keeps me going.
When children come that is even better.




We have lived in our house for a long time.
I noticed his wonderful shadow of the walnut tree for the first time yesterday.























That is it for this week.
Stay safe and well.
Visit a garden, even if it is a virtual garden.
Philip

2 comments:

Pat said...

What a delicious-looking pasta dish. Talk about comfort food!

And again, I have to congratulate you on sprouting your tree peony seeds. I have gotten some from you, and even bought some from the peony-tree king at Cricket Hill Garden, followed all the directions, and achieved a resounding nothing!

But it's enjoyable seeing your little seedlings. At least somebody out there can do it! Keep it up, both of you.

Dave said...

Great post, Phil and Julia.

The white waterlily photo that begins the slide show is one of the most memorable images on the site ever. But all the white flowers stole the show.

There's a little sun here in NYC today. Wish I could go outside to enjoy it.

DF