Week 5- December 27, 2020

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays

On that positive note, let us say a not so fond farewell to this awful year, 2020. 

But it has been sunny for several days, reminding us of better times. 

Remember better times. That is both a question and I suppose a directive. Try to come up with the proper punctuation for that. 

We have stayed put this year. We stayed in our house. Of course when I say 'this year' I mean for this holiday season. But actually I also mean forever. Well, not quite forever. But for a lot of forever.

Yesterday, as the temperatures soared to above freezing, we did go look at eagles again, out by the dam north of Iowa City. There were many. Some of you may even have been there yesterday too.

We even found a nest. It is on the west side of the river, right down the path along the river. 

The nest was in a big cottonwood tree, almost right over the path. After you had seen the nest you could see the consequences of the nest, right there on the path. 

Here is the picture. The next is a little hard to see.

Here is the closeup, with the eagle about 5-6 feet above the nest.

It really was amazing how warm 36 degrees was, with the sun out and no wind.

But let us talk pictures of flowers.

Last Week- Week #4

The winner was... the blue iris.

The voting was close all week. The iris went ahead by the final one vote margin, about mid week. 

Here was the final vote total:

 

The daffodil, with that strong second place finish, puts itself in a good place for getting one of the wild card entries in the playoffs. It really was a nice picture of a daffodil.

This Week- Week 5

I have a great group of contestants this week. As I try to plan it out, I always try to create a balanced field. Sometimes people have commented on Sunday as to which picture they like, but also what they think will be the order of finish. That can be fun. I  will not tell you my thoughts, to avoid any prejudice to the voting. I would tell my thoughts in a comment if any wish to participate in such conjecture.

#1 Winter aconite

 March 5, 2020

I have a special passion for winter aconite.

After snowdrops, they are the first flower to bloom in the spring. They naturalize quite easily. That is garden talk for spreading on their own. They should be mass planted. They are small enough and early enough to be planted along with almost anything.  They also transplant easily. 

This past spring I vowed to get a lot of them to plant in the front yard. A plant catalogue arrived during spring bulb season. I ordered 1000. What was I thinking?  It turns out that the bulbs are small, and what is more important, they do not have a right side up. 

I sent Katie 100 of them for her small garden. I planted the other 900 in the front yard, along the sidewalk. 

I cannot wait for spring.

#2  Zinnias

 Zahara Raspberry Ripple 

June 26, 2020

A few years ago 'profusion' zinnias arrived. They were compact, colorful, and bloomed forever. I wish to announce that Zahara zinnias are the next thing. They are compact and bloom forever. Practically perfect in every way, as Mary Poppins would say.

I think I have found a seed source.

#3 White Iceland poppy 

May 23, 2020

If there is a single plant that has produced the best pictures over the years,  I think it is the Iceland poppy. I am not saying I will vote for this picture. I just think that in a team competition these Iceland poppies would be my favorite. Who would compete? Maybe a group of waterlilies. 

People sometimes ask me what is my favorite flower. I usually say the flower that is blooming right at that point in the season.

#4 Japanese Iris

 June 25, 2020

I really like Japanese iris. 

They bloom at the end of the iris run each year.

For whatever reason I have not had the best luck with these wonderful plants. They do like sun which of course is at a premium in the garden. I did some separating of the older plants in 2020. I was trying to do better with this large and tall plants. 

They do like it to be wet. They actually have roots, as oppose to the rhizomes of the bearded iris. Those bulb like things under the ground will rot if they are too wet. 

#5 Purple Calla lily June 13, 2020

I have started growing calla lilies again. I grew them maybe 20 years ago. You have to bring the bulbs inside like you do with dahlias or cannas. (I grow neither of those plants. You have to draw some lines.) I must have overwintered them for 5-10 years, until something went wrong one winter. Memory has blurred that bad event. Maybe they froze in the garage. Whatever. Stuff happens.

But in 2019 I got some new ones. In 2020 they were bigger and better. I still am waiting for the really big white ones. But this purple one was rather grand.

There you have the quite diverse contestants for this week. Which one do you like and why? 

Bonus pictures

Aconite, also called Winter Wolf's Bane

Enjoy these aconite pictures. The dates are with each picture.

I love this next picture for several reasons. First I love the brown background for the early spring bulbs. In all that brown there is always  such interesting features with various pieces of garden debris. 

I also like how these first bulbs are so solitary.

February 15

Here is that same flower, only a week later it had decided it would bloom.

February 22

You can see the various stages of the plant in this picture. It comes out of the ground with its head down. Then it raises it up, looking for the sun.

February 23

They come up all over. They grow in the paths, along with some bluebells and the occasional crocus. I did not plant them there. They are the first to be transplanted to places needing more bulbs.

February 29

This bee ventured out to see if anything was available. Success.

March 4

Here is an enlargement of the flower. Did I mention it does not taste good? Tasty plants have a hard time in the evolutionary jungle.

I once was quick to put out some pansies that I had grown from seed. I knew pansies could take the cold. The rabbits gobbled them right up. It was like their colorful flowers said in neon,  'eat me'.

March 5

This picture begins to give you an idea of how they multiply, in an entirely good way.

Early in the morning, before the sun is out for a while, they are like tiny yellow light bulbs.

March 7

Then they open.

March 17

In this picture as you can see the generations. The first generation will not bloom that first year.

March 17

They become a carpet. At that point you can start moving some of them to parts of the garden that need some color. If you move them before the plant is too large,  they will not even wilt at all.

March 17

Calla lilies

Here are the bulbs really ready to go on April 26. There are several varieties there. You can see some are already making big bulbs, and some are not.

Here is a clump in the fall. I dug them in October, before the frost killed the leaves. I let them dry and then stored them in peat moss for the winter.

I added this picture as these bulbs were dug up by mistake when I dug the callas.

They are bloodroots. I quickly put them back in ground and apologized for disturbing them.

Right Now

We have several not-hardy hibiscus. This wonderful double red is now a standard and blooms a lot when it is brought inside in the fall.

This is the new orchid that we have been waiting for it to bloom for several weeks. It is close at the moment.

After eagle watching yesterday afternoon we picked up sticks in the yard. Sticks can multiply almost as much as leaves.

While doing that I looked down. There was a little fall crocus gamely trying to get enough sun to open. Not quite and more cold and snow will be coming. Maybe tomorrow if the sun stays out.

Julia's recipe

Frittata

Here is  the link to the other blog with all for Julia's recipes.

https://mearskitchen.wordpress.com/

Frittata is a fancy flat omelette. Maybe you knew that. A frittata is a good choice when you have a little more time and are prepared to make a little bigger effort than required for an omelette or scrambled eggs. A frittata is prettier and therefore more festive. Festivity in all areas has been at a premium this year. This recipe is from the Joshua McFadden cookbook (Six Seasons) that has been a go-to this year. It is from the chapter celebrating bell peppers, although there are other supporting player-vegetables as well.

The ingredients: 2 cups bell peppers cut into little strips; 1 cup of diced potatoes (I used Yukon Gold from the farmer's market which were small and thin-skinned so did not require peeling); 4 oz. prosciutto, sliced (or deli ham - more on this below); 1/2 cup of sliced scallions; 1/2 cup of parmesan cheese; 2 tablespoons butter; about 1/2 cup ricotta cheese; 6 eggs; kosher salt and pepper.

Some things about prosciutto. 1) It is expensive. 2) It comes in tiny (2 oz.) packages. 3) It comes from Norwalk, Iowa, where some nice people make it from special locally sourced pigs. Also from Italy. Iowa has a lot of pigs so it makes sense that someone set up a specialty meat shop (called La Quercia). By mistake, I did not buy 4 oz. of local prosciutto but only 2 oz. And it was sort of lost in the finished dish. Next time I will use deli ham, which I will slice into thin strips. I also think that the dish would be excellent without any meat. 

First, I put the potatoes (3 medium-small) into a saucepan of cold water with some salt. I turned the pan to high until it boiled and then down a little to cook the potatoes. I think it took 10 to 15 minutes. Test for doneness by sticking a paring knife into the potato, where it should meet no resistance. 

While the potatoes were cooking, I cleaned the peppers, and cut them into little matchsticks. I set the tops and bottoms aside to be used in salad. I used 2 good-sized peppers to get my 2 cups of matchsticks. 

I also cleaned and sliced the scallions. It took most of a grocery-store bunch (once trimmed) to yield 1/2 cup of scallion bits. 

I melted the butter in a big non-stick, oven-safe skillet. Both of these attributes are important. Non-stick is always good when cooking eggs, and oven-safe is important as the frittata finishes cooking in the oven.

My skillet is 12", which is a little big but not a real problem. I did receive a non-stick, oven-safe 10" skillet for Christmas. I think it will be perfect for frittata-making. 

Anyway, I added the scallions and peppers to the skillet and cooked them over medium-low heat. The goal is to soften the vegetables, not to brown them. 

Then I added the prosciutto.

While these things were cooking gently, I cooled the potatoes off in cold water and diced them. Sometimes the peel came off while I was dicing, sometimes not. 

I turned the oven on to 400 degrees.

I added the potatoes. 

While the potatoes, and everything else, cooked (medium-low heat), I whisked the eggs in a bowl and added the parmesan cheese, plus 1 teaspoon of salt and about 1/2 teaspoon of black pepper. This bit of cooking lasted maybe a minute or two. 

Then I poured the egg mixture over the stuff in the skillet, which I had arranged in as close to a single layer as I could manage. 

I turned the heat up a little to medium and left the pan alone for 2 minutes. Really, it will be okay. 

After 2 minutes, the eggs were beginning to set. I used a silicone spatula to go around the edge of the pan, lifting the mass up and letting some of the liquid egg get underneath. I did this for maybe 2 minutes. At the end of that time, the top-middle was still runny-wiggly but the frittata was pretty solid. 

I turned the stove off, and I measured 1/2 cup of the ricotta into a little bowl. I added about 1/4 teaspoon of salt and a few grinds of pepper and I used a fork to stir up the ricotta until it was smooth and the salt and pepper had been worked in.  

Then I put the ricotta in 8 dollops around the frittata and put the skillet in the oven. 

After about 5 minutes in the oven, the top was completely set. I took it out and let it sit for maybe 2 or 3 minutes.

I used my silicone spatula again to loosen the frittata and slid it out of the skillet onto a nice big platter. 

Here it is on the plate. We had it with green salad and some berries with yogurt for a light healthy dinner. 

It was, as you would expect, excellent cold. 

Odds and Ends

Some times I have more time and patience for garden stuff than others. This is not any major insight.

For example if I am busy with weeding or watering I may not have the time to carefully stake certain plants that could use it. 

In the winter time the gardening time demands are minimal. I have to water plants. I need to check for bugs. (Yes,  they do show up in the winter. Mealy bugs can be a persistent with some plants. ) In the winter I also start plants from cuttings. 

At some point I engage in seed work. It is now that time of year. 

Seed work starts with obtaining the seed. I have some old faithful plants I regularly grow from seed. Iceland poppies and lupines are two in that group. They both germinate in about a week. They do nicely under lights. They can go outside early in the year. My target date to plant them is January 1.

I am on schedule.

There are so many other plants you see in the catalogues. I sometimes just like to try things new. Of course you do not see the instructions when you see the plants in the catalogues. Sometimes it says germination might take 60 days. Keeping track of the planted dirt for that long is a real task.

This last few days I had some time available. (That means a spare hour.) Someone had given me some colchicum seeds. Fall crocuses. Remember them? Wonderful plants. I buy bulbs. Bulbs grow from seeds. The person had thought he was ordering bulbs and got seeds instead. Sometimes mail order nurseries will sell both. It can be confusing. Remember, if you are buying anything for $3 it would be seeds.

So he asked if I would be interested in trying the seeds. I said sure.

So I read the instructions. I looked on the packet and went online. The first thing I noticed was the part about how germination could take two years. Oh my. There was also the part where the seeds needed to be cold for a while. Plant them and put them outside for the winter. How cold? Did the nursery know how cold Iowa gets in the winter.  Do you water them first?

I then decided this would be an experiment. I planted all 40 seeds in two shallow pots. I watered them. One pot went to the inside garage. I figure it would be between 15- 45 degrees most of the winter. Another pot went to the back garage. Neither garage is heated. But the back garage would be 10 degrees above whatever the outside would be.  I will check them maybe once a month, if I remember. I did put a little label with them with the name and the date planted.

Sometimes artsy happens, by accident. I had not intended to take this picture in black and white. You can see eagles across the river.

Moving away from artsy, it is now pumpkin time. Watch for them. They are in the walnut tree.

Be safe.

Better times are coming. 

24 days and counting.

Philip