June 11, 2023- The third dimension

An important part of our garden is the third dimension. When you have filled up the entire garden surface space, there is really only one way to add more garden. You have to go up. 

I have been going up for years.

There have been structures cobbled together from shepherd crooks and long pipes. We added the third of those structures this weekend. This was needed as there are still orchids inside waiting for a place to hang out for the summer.

Then there are ropes hung from the trees. Sometimes they even have pipes.

I started this 20 years ago in the front yard. There was an obliging lower branch on the walnut tree. It was maybe 10 feet off the ground and was perfect for hanging plants.

2006

(5:04 on Saturday morning. The birds have begun in earnest. Sunrise is at 5:31)

The lower limb of the walnut eventually came down. Now the  ropes are hung from way up high. Those ropes were replaced yesterday. Please see the pictures later in the post. It was rather amazing.

I had other trees at the time. I had colored poles. Here was the combination, from at least twenty years ago.

2002?

Here you see the healthy row of pink crabapple trees. That was almost 20 years ago.

2002?

Actually the crabapple trees were going strong 20 years ago. There is only one pink crab left at this point. Two of the white crabs will be left (out of 3) after the tree guy takes down the dead one. I am told that crab apples have a useful life of about 40-50 years. They were full grown when we moved in 40 years ago.

Last week in the voting for pictures from the previous week 

The full vote was

Here were maybe the 5 best pictures from the Week of June 4-10, 2023

#1 Orange martagon lily

I love martagon lilies. I have just been growing them in the last 2-3 years. I just ordered 11 more. They seem to like where they are. I will move some hosta and give them more space. There is a warning that comes with these lilies. Maybe they will not come up until the second year. OK

 # 2 Red Shirley poppy

The simplicity of this flower was enhanced by the early morning sun.

#3 Amaryllis

#4 Orange clivia

Most of the old enough clivia are setting buds. I really like the pot this is in. I worry because clivia roots tend to fill the pot. I should repot the plant and I do not know how easily it will come out of the pot.

#5 Wonderful Asiatic lily

There you have pictures from this past week. Most were from yesterday.

Tree Work

Before I get to other pictures I must talk about the tree work yesterday, which was remarkable.

The ropes in the walnut tree were about 3-4 years ago. Two just broke last year. It was time to replace them and maybe add a few more.

We found a tree guy, Jason, who came yesterday and hung the new ropes. He climbed up the tree to do that. The previous rope hanging had been done with a cherry picker.

These videos show Jason going up and down.

Jason started by shooting his big rope up about 40 feet.  He then used that as his anchor.

He then went up.

More going up, a second time.

He did come down.

The orchid cactus are already swinging, if there is any breeze.

Other pictures

I can never get tired of the Shirley poppies.

These little guys just cheer a person up. They usually do not last through the heat of the summer.

Another Martagon lily.

We think this is a spuria iria. It is tall and comes after the Siberian iris.

Julia's recipe

Orecchiette with tomatoes and beans

Another pasta recipe, this time a vegetarian main dish, that can become vegan if you are willing to forgo parmesan at the table. We like parmesan and used it. This recipe is from NYT, and it is quick and tasty. You will need to turn on the oven, but not for very long. I like "shape" pasta, having grown up with spaghetti and elbow macaroni and orzo (a Greek thing). Shape pasta (oreccchiette apparently means little ears, and that's what it looks like) is easier to eat with sauce than spaghetti and more fun.

The ingredients:

1 lb. orecchiette (or other shape pasta);

1 lb. little tomatoes;

1/3 cup diced onion;

1 tablespoon smushed garlic;

1 15 oz. can beans or about 1 cup if you have some home-cooked beans lying around;

1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon olive oil;

2 tablespoons tomato paste;

1/4 teaspoon rosemary (or 1/2 teaspoon fresh);

1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes; 

1/2 teaspoon sugar; and

salt and pepper (not shown).

I started by prepping the vegetables; dicing the onion, smushing the garlic and slicing all those little tomatoes in half. 

I turned the oven on to 375 degrees.

Then I put 1/4 cup of olive oil in a little bowl, and added the tomato paste, onion, garlic, rosemary, red pepper flakes and sugar. I mixed that up and added the tomatoes, then stirred the tomatoes around. 

I spread the tomatoes around at one end of a silpat-covered rimmed baking sheet. 

I drained the beans, mixed them with about 1 tablespoon of olive oil, added some (maybe 1/2 teaspoon) salt and (maybe 1/4 teaspoon) black pepper and spread the beans on a pie plate which I then put on the same rimmed baking sheet.   

I baked the sheet for about 25 minutes, giving the tomatoes and the beans a stir part way through that time.

While the vegetables were baking, I cooked the orecchiette according to the package directions.

When the vegetables were done, I added the tomatoes to the beans and stirred the stuff around. 

When the pasta was done, I dipped out 1 cup of pasta water and then drained the pasta. I only ended up using about 1/2 cup of the pasta water, but you never know. 

Here is the dish before assembling. The big bowl is (obviously) the pasta; the pie plate is the tomato-bean mixture and the stuff in the little bowl is the liquid from the rimmed sheet pan with some (about 1/2 cup) of the pasta water. 

On the way to the table, I poured the tomato-bean mixture over the pasta and gently mixed it in, followed by the liquid from the sheet pan and last of all another 1/4 cup of olive oil. More gentle stirring and it was ready.

As I said at the beginning, we served it with parmesan cheese. And salad and berries with yogurt.

We had some left over, which was good reheated and also good cold. 

Odds and Ends

It has been pot cleanup this week. I mentioned on the Iowa City gardener facebook page that I needed pots for the backyard sale for the foodbanks. People have been bringing me pots ever since. I have since said to stop. As part of the garden cleanup I have been sorting pots and putting many away in the garage for storage. It would be a good game for 8 year olds. I guess even this old gardener gets some satisfaction out of matching them up and putting them away.

I have been refreshing houseplants. This week it was the clivia. Yesterday it was the crotons. Clivia are susceptible to bugs - mostly white fly. Several of my plants (but not the ones from you Pat) caught this bug over the winter. It can get into the center part of the plant and can be hard to get rid of. It does not help them that they are stuck in a corner of the  plant room for 6 months where they are not easily tended or even viewed. 

So they all get a little systemic insecticide, some fresh dirt/compost, and some fertilizer.

The clivia are just now starting to bloom.

Keeping up with all the inside plants gets to be a particular problem when the outside opens up. It all gets back to there not being enough time or room. Maybe I should sell some plants. Oh wait. I am already doing that.

We made a discovery today about the pond. We have tadpoles. We could not order any this year. Many have apparently emerged from the sludge at the bottom of the pond. They are about 1/3 inch and there seem to be a lot of them. Pat or Layne- how fast do tadepoles grow?

We used up the load of woodchips from 2 weeks ago. About 4/5 of the paths have been redone. Maybe later in the season we will finish the work.

Deer, or maybe just a particular deer, is doing damage. Some hosta were munched this week, inclding a few leaves from Earth Angel, one of my favorties. I could spray and probably will. It seems at times however, that spraying a few plants just redirects the deer to something else.

Rain- we need it again. Maybe tonight. (Maybe .02.)  It is frustrating to watch the radar and see all the other places that are getting rain. We are going to Colorado in two weeks. I am told it has been raining and snowing there. 

Peace remains elusive. 

I understand that Martin Luther King talked about the long arc bending toward justice. I think he also might have said it will not bend by itself. Let us go do some pushing.

Philip