Tag Archives: brooklyn gardener
Peach Tree Critters
Here’s a close up on the subject of my question below. This one was taken from up high, where it seems slugs would be unlikely to venture. I’m also not seeing any snails or slugs on the trunk or branches. I picked up some PBR to lure them away, just in case.
Peach Tree
QUESTION: Hi all, just wondering if anyone knows what might be causing these little holes in the leaves of my peach tree? Would this be the work of snails, slugs, or some other little bug? I’ve already been treating the tree with a copper fungicide (not as frequently as the recommended five days but more like every 7-10 days for the last few weeks). Should I continue? Should I stop? Should I do something else?
Ants on my Peonies
NPR did a piece on memories that resonated with me. It reports that some of earliest childhood memories are basically wiped out, and considers why that may be. What came to me immediately is that it is because we have no framework at that age in which to “set” our memories. Everything is new, and mostly stunning. (I do remember someone saying if you want to imagine what it’s like to be a young child, just imagine that you are visiting a new country everyday, with all new sights, smells and sounds, and some days it’s several countries in a day).
In other words, memories are stronger that have some association or connection, be it with words, emotions, or the general framework in which we view the world and ourselves in relation to it. Memories set better once a person has a world view; and very young children have no such world view as yet – bless those little free darlin’s!. Theirs is a world primarily of experience, and only secondarily of the organizing, compartmentalizing, and identifying patterns in and of the experiences they have. I think it’s essentially the same reason many people have a hard time remembering their dreams: the dream images/subject are not set in a familiar framework from which we can recall them. They tend to be random, abstract, separated from our everyday framework, yet still connected enough to “reality” that usually they are remembered in bits and pieces. This may be the same reason that unusual experiences are easily remembered when those experiences occur when we are adults: we remember them as striking for what they are not – they are not are usual, everyday experiences (or part of our regular framework).
All this reminded me of one of my early, among the earliest, childhood memories. I am standing outside our house, at the side of the house on Newfield Drive (yes, literally, isn’t that so literal?), staring eye to … I don’t know what – not quite eye – with this ball of pink, tightly wound, … I have a hard time describing it, realizing only now that it’s a visual I have never tried to put into words … I have looked for this flower years later and believe it to be a peony. Back then, there were a bunch of them at the side of the house. It was a flower bush, but I watched only one little about-to-burst bulb. It was swarming with ants, little busy ants. They were light orange, each going every which way in no clear pattern, no matter how much I tried to find one. It was fascinating. I like the feeling even now just to think about it. I visited that flower a lot. I know if I were running a full circle around the house, I could stop, and stare at it. It was right outside my parents’ bedroom. I felt like it was mine. Not mine, as in my owning it but mine as in — there for me to see.
I have a vague recollection of flower petals replacing that tightly wound bud where the ants crawled, but it’s vague at best. Maybe I lost interest then. Mostly, I remember those ants crawling. So busy. Going nowhere in particular. I liked that a lot.
I also remember inadvertently being locked out in winter and having to use the bushes and my bottom being really cold.
I think I know why I like summer better.
QUESTION: do you remember the first time you came in contact with the earth, recognizing it as separate from you, and perhaps part of something else? What is your earliest memory?
Do you remember the first time you saw and/or recognized a plant or other flower? Did you garden as a kid? Did your parents? Do you remember it? Did you like it or was it a chore?
Do you know any particular flower that attracts ants like that? Are they peonies?
Go ahead … gimme the dirt.
The Green in New York
Financial district, 06/07/11 8: ish p.m.
I Love Gardens
But I do so love you, New York
Wood Sorrels Identified
Many thanks to Awesome Bronwen for pointing out that these little delectables are wood sorrels (not just any-old-sorrels). I was able to find them in Edible & Medicinal Plants (available at www.wildmanstevebrill.com).
Glad to be Hunter-Gatherer
So the hunting is more about going to Foodtown to pick up some ribs for my partner to smoke (and are they good, and I mean damn good!) but the gathering part I’m also starting to really dig. Right now I’m borrowing from my very-most-awesome- neighbor-friend the book Edible and Medicinal Plants in Wild (and Not So Wild) Places, by “Wildman” Steve Brill with Evelyn Dean, 1994, and trying to not get the pages too covered with pricey dirt or, earlier today, the really good Sunday Bloody Mary my hunter made for us.
Notwithstanding, I believe I am starting to get closer to the question of whether my three bushes out back (I think I described them incorrectly before as a single bush) are dogwoods or elderberry. Knowing as you do now that there are three, not one, you can see why this question is ever so pressing, as Brooklyn garden space is premium real estate and I don’t want to waste it with something that might poison the kiddies who frequent the place, or my dog for that matter, nor am I sure I want to leave it if it isn’t behaving usefully, like giving me some tasty berries to make wine or jam, or hiding in its bark the secret cure for hay fever. Sure, I am getting sold on the idea that native plants are good to have around in their own right and for the simple sake that they are part of an ecosystem that’s been messed with for too long but I’m still not 100% convinced on that matter. Regardless, I like the thought of eating the stuff in my yard.
It must be on other people’s minds, too, because I found myself in my backyard Saturday in a group of people, all nibbling on these cute delicate little creatures with soft tangy leaves like clover, all trying to remember the name of this same thing that we knew from when we were kids. Someone suggested ramps (which was way off as it turns out – I know because a good-old fashioned real-live farmer showed up later and went into how they found ramps behind their property in a swampy wasteland but now folks are flocking for them). Ultimately, we grabbed the book (thanks neighbor!), and found that they were sorrels. Yummy ones, too!
I’m definitely interested in eating more stuff in my yard and maybe your yard too. But before I do, I think it would be responsible of me to get a little more educated on the subject. Toward that end, I’m thinking about taking a tour with author and forager, “Wildman” Steve Brill, author of the book I’ve been devouring (not literally). There’s one at Central Park on the 11th and another in our conveniently located Prospect Park on June 18. Just wondering….
QUESTION: Has any one of you taken a tour with Wildman Steve Brill? Would you recommend it? Do you know other people doing these sorts of tours? Any of you brushing off your gathering skills (it must still be in our DNA somewhere), and foraging for your own fare? Any words of caution? Words of wisdom? Any stories of watching someone keel over after eating what looked like an elderberry but was really from a weird strain of dogwood? Any anything? Go ahead … gimme the dirt.
SCREEEEEECH! STOP THE PRESS!!! Okay, so I thought it would be nice of me to link y’all to sorrels on Wikipedia and when I did, I saw that they do not AT ALL match the description of what friends and I were dining on in my backyard Saturday. Someone help me out before I kill us all … I will post a pic tomorrow in daylight and let me know if any of you recognizes it. In the meantime, for those wanting to know what real sorrels look like, here ya go (then again it is Wikipedia, could be wrong? Maybe? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sorrel). I also couldn’t find sorels in my handy dandy Edible Plants book, which leads me to another …
UPDATE as of 8/10/11: they were wood sorrels. Wikipee was showing me a different type of sorrel.
QUESTION: Does anyone out there have any other recommended sources for checking out edibility of wild plants? Anything more recent, anything forthcoming? Go ahead … gimme the dirt on this one too. Oh, and thanks!
Update on Dirt Cheap and Three Question Sets
So I went back to Shannon’s, my local garden supply store, because I needed to confirm the price of that dirt I’d been complaining about. Well, I was wrong – wouldn’t be the first time but it also means I need to make sure I always get an itemized receipt there. Not that I think anyone was intentionally trying to scam me but I do think I paid for a bag of soil I did not get. The way it works there is that they ring up your order, then you go and pick up the soil you want. Since I’m a regular there (or maybe they’re just trusting), they don’t usually closely examine the receipt that I hand to them – just a quick eyeball and they hand me my goods.
In their defense, it is a busy place and they’re quick with the transactions. Still, isn’t it just good business practice to give an itemized receipt? I remember when I was a kid in Beloit, Wisconsin. We’d go to Shopko with my dad nearly every weekend. He’d watch as the clerk entered each item in the register (yes, I think it was entering it, not scanning it back then), then when the total amount came up – cha-ching – he’d look at each item, counting them in his head, reviewing the receipt. Then, when we were out in the car, all our goodies packed up and ready to go, he’d look at the receipt again, counting each item thrice. If everything was right, he’d pull a Fred Sanford, “This is the big one, Elizabeth,” clutching his hand over his heart in homage to Redd Foxx, in mock protest. If he found something wrong, though, he’d go into mode, his voice dropping a couple octaves and his brow growing into a little furrow. More than once we kids found ourselves back in the store, with the manager standing next to Dad, reviewing the receipt again, and, almost inevitably, my dad would leave with his wallet just a little heavier than before.
All that aside, here’s a CORRECTION to my previous speculation that a bag of organic top soil at Shannon’s of Brooklyn costs $5.00. I inquired and found out the following: Fafard Premium Topsoil (Organic), 30 lbs. bag is $5.00 [no price listed on their site], and Hamptons Estate Topsoil (Organic), 30 lbs. bag is $6.00 [also not listing a price on its website – this product is made by the Long Island Compost Co.]. Please don’t take my word for it – go somewhere and confirm for yourself. I’m curious though, ….
QUESTION: What garden supply store do you recommend for a good deal on soil? Keeping in mind that many of us (namely me) live in urban areas and may not have a vehicle to drive to pick up a bag, is there a deal that may not be near by but is good enough to bother a friend for a ride, or pay a willing car service to do the dirty work with you? All of this leads me to another …
QUESTION: Can anyone tell me whether it’s standard business practice to give itemized versus non-itemized receipts? Why? Do businesses try to add products thinking the customer won’t notice? Does a lowly clerk not care enough to bother? What if it’s a ma and pop shop, and the clerk is the owner? Do you think people are inherently honest or apt to get away with as much as they can? Are they just sloppy? Am I just paranoid? Did I spend one too many days as a kid in a hot car while my dad counted and recounted our ShopKo supplies? Or is it that people are no longer careful enough to watch their money, count their change and review receipts? Have we become sloppy with our money, a hallmark of the credit card generation, and symptomatic of our debt acquiescence? Do you ask for an itemized receipt when you don’t get one? Do you ask for a receipt at all? All of this leads me to another …
QUESTION: Why is it my local garden supply store, Shannon’s, is named the David Shannon Nursery & Florist if it has, as its site says, “been a family operated business for over 30 years by Joseph Perrotta and family.” Joseph Perrotta, is there something you want to tell your customers? And, which is it: 30 or 40 years? Later the site says: David Shannon Florist and Nursery, is the leading florist, nursery and greenhouse in Brooklyn New York. Family owned and operated business for over 40 years by Joseph Perrotta and family.” David Shannon, whoever you are, wherever you are, how bout you? Do I smell a story here?
Go ahead … gimme the dirt.
revelgardener 