Props to the self-sufficient gardener (Jason Akers) for the correction. It was not he who proclaimed something or other about the “women folk.” It was Jack Spirko, of the Survival Podcast. As I noted in my round up (not to be confused with Round Up, which I roundly condemn), I’ve spent a bit of time recently listening to various gardening and garden-related podcasts. I should have been more careful to take notes because they did start to run together for me. Unfortunately, I ran the self-sufficient gardener headfirst into the survival podcast guy, and ended up mistakenly attributing a confounding phrase (“women folk”) to Akers when I think it was Spirko who said it. It’s not that I could feign to be offended on behalf of women folk. They can speak for themselves (they’re allowed, I think). It just interrupted the flow of the podcast (why is this all sounding so womanly?). It was weird when I heard it on the podcast, and I assumed the guy was joking, till I didn’t. There was no drum roll, no punchline, and I just waited to see if he was going to say anything about the fact that he’d just said something about the women folk cleaning the game that the men had caught. I mean, seriously? Well, I guess so. That or he just forgot the drum roll and dropped the punchline. Anyway, maybe there are parts of the world that really are, as they say, not Brooklyn. No harm, no foul. Akers straightened me out (and pointed out that his wife would not allow him to be sexist – right on, wifey!). And I realized that maybe Spirko was getting all the sexism out of his system before bringing the impressive Chef Maribel (who needs to work on her marketing — the site is just weird — tell us, please, more about the program to help feed the hungry and less about whose famous cousin you cooked for) onto the show to kick some girly butt…maybe Spirko’s?
Tag Archives: brooklyn
Gardening Podcast Round Up – Starting with my Favorite
Yes, the only time I will write “Round Up” in this blog with any positive connotation at all. Well, to be honest, with you, not all of it positive…my apologies in advance for any harsh criticism…but I gotta give you all the dirt on this topic, and I’d be shortchanging you if I were anything but flat out, brutally honest. As always, this is all imho, and I do mean for it to be humble.
So, thanks especially to my fellow reveler Ralph, in the last couple weeks I’ve been listening avidly to various gardening podcasts. The jury’s still out on some of the others but I do think I’ve listened enough to find the one I like the most, so far at least.
My favorite, hands down, is the self-sufficient gardener, Jason Akers. He’s a guy in Kentucky (whose hardiness zone, for the most part, is the same as ours here in Brooklyn – find your own here). His podcasts vary in length but generally run about 30 minutes. He always starts with news and updates which, appropriately I think, tend to be particular to his own locality. The topics he covers range from the practical (see, e.g., peppers, strawberries, bluebirds, and composting) to the philosophical (e.g., Sun Tzu‘s The Art of War applied to gardening). Personally I think the practical ones are his strong suit but I appreciate the diversity in topics. In the ones I’ve listened to, he never comes across as arrogant or condescending, and, most importantly, really seems to get the revelry of gardening. Since I’ve been listening to so many of these, they’ve all started to run together so I have to apologize if I’m attributing something to him he didn’t say but he may have (seriously it seemed) referred to “the womenfolk” when discussing hunting and his wife preparing the food. It was weird and offensive and I’m hoping I’m wrong and he didn’t say it. He’s a young guy, at only 33 years old, but seems like he’s been gardening a long time and, again importantly, doesn’t take himself overly seriously. His website could be a little easier to navigate. The search function needs some improvement, but his podcasts make it worth the effort (and patience you need to find what you’re looking for).
Others that deserve a mention, and will get more coverage in the days ahead include the Growing Your Own Grub podcast. I’m not sure I’m getting the name right on this one (which is one of the things that keeps this from the #1 spot — I can’t tell by a quick look what the name of the blog is, who the host is, etc.) . This sounds like an older guy in Texas who tips his hat every so often to Akers, with who he agrees to disagree on several topics (e.g., raised bed vs. in ground gardening). We, the listeners, benefit when they disagree and get well-rounded coverage on the topic. Message to Akers & the GYOG guy: disagree more often — we learn from it. Another one that I’ve listened to but need more time with are Melinda Myers from my home state of Wisconsin, and Margaret Roach’s A Way to Garden. To the former, I need to listen more and get back to you. As for Margaret Roach, I’ve found a couple tidbits useful but it is presented more like a casual radio talk show, where you have to really listen to gather pointers than with some of the others that just give them to you straight-out and don’t so much bog you down with how they spend their days. I also am not getting some of the joy that I hear from other gardening blogs with Roach’s podcasts although, admittedly, I haven’t given them enough of a listen. When I do, I will definitely be updating this post.
In the meantime, let me pose this
QUESTION: do you have a favorite gardening podcast? What topics would you like to listen to covered on a podcast? Any least favorites? Go ahead … gimme the dirt!
Grumpy Gardeners – CSA Pick Up #3
Here is the third installment of my CSA update…
The quick and dirty is that, as promised, the stash is getting meatier as the season wears on. With the exception of some consistently sad-looking arugula and flowers that look like they were imported from the corner store, the wares continue generally to be top notch. (Note: the goods need to be eaten fast. I had some canteloupe with blueberries this a.m. that were from the pick up last Wednesday – so eight days in the fridge – and while they hadn’t gone bad, they didn’t have that oomph I’m used t0.) That said, I find myself leaving the community garden each time feeling like I’ve just made a trip to the local soup kitchen, where I’m the one getting soup.
Here’s you in my shoes, at a typical CSA shares pick-up: You enter the community gardens, usually about 15 minutes after they’ve opened for pick-up (I believe scheduled pick-up time is 4-8 p.m.). You’re probably one of only two groups of people picking up their shares. You’ve come fully stocked and responsible, bags and cartons in tow, to save the farmers some much needed containers. It’s off to a good start, as a fairly peppy lady ticks your name off a list and sends you in the direction of the tables, arranged in a U-shape. Your path is to circle around these tables, taking from each of the crates and bins. On the other side of the table are several people. From three to five people mill about, evidently on the provider (not purchaser) side, but it’s not clear who they are. Out of curiosity I asked one day and found out that some of the people are from “CSA” (this is kind of confusing because I thought that “community supported agriculture” consisted just of the farmers and whoever agreed to provide the pick-up site, but there’s a larger organization behind it that I don’t know much about). Some of the people, I believe, are from the garden that provides the site for the pick up. It’s not clear who’s from where, and how many where’s there are. The first visit I made at the beginning of the summer, I arrived several hours early by mistake and was fortunate enough to meet the farmer himself. Since then, however, I haven’t seen any of the farmers, and haven’t gotten very good answers to the questions I’ve had about where the produce is from (while most of it is from the Garden of Eve, which is the farm associated with my CSA, usually they supplement with fruits/vegetables, etc. from other places).
Starting at the beginning of the u-shaped table, you have various vegetables, most of them green (e.g., lots of squash, usually several kinds of leafy greens such as arugula and kale), sometimes you’ll get lucky and they’ve thrown in some beets. A piece of paper taped to the front of the bin tells you how much you’re entitled to take (for example, 2 lbs. of squash is typical, or it may specify 1 large or 2 small). They have a scale there so you can weigh it yourself. Strangely, they make sure to repeat what’s on the prominently displayed label in front of you, as if you might try to sneak an extra cuke or zuchinni past them. Rounding the table, there are usually some herbs such as basil or dill. Again, a piece of paper tells you how much you can take. The last time I was there, a woman behind the table said that even though it said five stalks, most of them were pretty big and probably counted as two or three stalks each. She said this as I was putting the first stalk of basil in my bag. The eyes follow you as you round the corner and are allowed to pick from a selection of flowers (my CSA shares include eggs and flowers – not all do). Each selection you make is carefully watched by the small crowd on the other side of the table. They don’t talk. They just watch.
Although it’s far from hostile, the whole experience is infused with a mildly unfriendly vibe that just isn’t what you expect of farmers and local eaters in general. [Yes, I refuse to use the word “locavores.” It makes me think of people eating their neighbors. Not good eats.] I think it’s a great alternative to the traditional grocery store, and I’m glad it’s there. It’s closer than the nearest farmers markets, and so we’ve come to rely on it as a primary source of food this summer. However, I have several gripes. First, there seem to be way too many people than are needed to get the job done. Second, they don’t have name tags and they don’t introduce themselves. And, third, they are often unable to answer fairly basic questions about how the food was grown, and where it’s from (as mentioned above, this is with respect to the few foods that are not from the Garden of Eve and which appear to have been brought in when GoE’s supply is low or to add variety). Every so often, there will be someone there who can help with a suggestion on how to cook the food, but they seem to have been instructed to keep the chit-chat to a minimum, and not to smile too much either, and definitely NOT to engage anyone else in conversation. In truth, the people working the stand seem more like they’re doing community service in orange suits than helping people who paid good (yes, very good) money to get fresh fruits and vegetables that another person/s worked hard (yes, very hard) to grow.
The first couple visits I either didn’t notice the grumbly atmosphere or was too happy about getting a great variety of good, fresh food to pay it any mind. This last time, however, I brought my partner and afterward was asked, sarcasm unbridled, “are they always that cheery?” I finally had to admit that it was not just my imagination and that, at least when they’re standing there, these are not happy people, for whatever reason – time of day, punishing heat (granted, they all stand underneath a tent as we “shoppers” stand outside it in the sun to collect our goods), or some other unseen but definitely felt politics boiling beneath the surface. It’s exhausting each time I go there to try to get a conversation going about gardening or food or any topic for that matter. It’s a bit of a buzz kill on what should be a rather peppy experience. I tend to get there early enough, usually within the first hour scheduled for pick up, so it shouldn’t be that they’ve been there too long. Besides, this is all about gardening … from the food coming in from Garden of Eve to the pick up being hosted at the community gardens. It’s about good food and perky plants, for pete’s sake. Who brought in the dark cloud?
Bringing home my stash after visits like this (where my efforts to engage are met with little more than grunts and curious stares) reminds me of one of the better pieces of advice I gave my (now grown) daughter: don’t eat the food of a pissed-off cook. People whose hands are on food should never transfer crappy energy. The warning was solid advice, for more reasons than one.
Call of the Wild
Hello fellow revelers, please check out my post below on my impressions of Wildman Steve Brill’s wild edibles tour that I took in Prospect Park last month (some of the pickings remain for edification and identification purposes in my living room — my oh-so-patient partner would be rightfully impatient right about now but, luckily for me, is not). I would LOVE LOVE LOVE to hear from someone in another part of the country as to whether there are such tours going on elsewhere, and what you all are learning from them. One of the things that surprised me was the sheer number of people who showed up for the tour. What was even more surprising was that there was enough such sizable audience to support several more of the tours this summer. Happily for all of us here in Brooklyn, there are monthly tours in Prospect Park through the end of the year (though I’m sure each is unique and worth checking out, given the movement of seasons).
So, revel friends, I am definitely looking for feedback on all things wildly edible outside the great Northeast (or even outside nyc for that matter). Perhaps what got me thinking about this is an announcement on a podcast late last week: http://www.thesurvivalpodcast.com/episode-702-chef-maribel-the-food-diva. It occurs early in the podcast (fair warning – the whole podcast is rather lengthy but an entertaining listen if you’re inclined), and announces that a town in Michigan is trying to ban a resident’s vegetable garden in her front yard. From what I can tell, she’s not growing lewd zucchinis — it’s just that there’s some ancient regulation about only permitting “suitable” gardens visible to the rest of the world. I didn’t hear any quick follow up on today’s podcast but the link above gives a rally cry for anyone wishing to give Michigan a piece of their gardeners mind. I’ll let you know if I place a call tomorrow.
In the don’t be meantime, please pass around my
QUESTION: for residents outside the greater NY area, are there any Wildman equivalents in your neck of the concrete woods? How about for non-urbanites? Are wild edibles passe for you country folk? Or are there tours and meetups and affinity groups for all you all too? Anyone care to share some stories of their own adventures in foraging? We would love love love to hear a review of any other wild edibles tours going on across the country. Go ahead: Austin, Beloit*, Chicago, Detroit, Eden Prairie, Fargo, Grand Forks (anyone tell I’ve got family in ND?), Honolulu, Independence, Janesville, Kansas City, Lexington, Madison, Niagara Falls, Orfordville (anyone tell I’m from WI?), Potters Grove**, Quakertown, Reno, Seattle***, Tupelo, Universal City, Vancouver, Wichita****, Xenia, Yellowstone, Zion … Gimme the dirt!!!
*Boston, you almost made the cut. This was a hard one because you’re so irresistible for so many reasons, not which of least that you rhyme with Austin. But you’re not my hometown. Sorry, you’re just not.
**Phoenix, I thought of you too. Pasadena, you too (and I do hope to see you someday soon). But, Potter’s Grove … how could I resist? It just doesn’t get the attention it deserves anymore.
***I also thought of you, St. Paul, St. Louis and San Francisco. I just always wanted to go to Seattle so I thought I’d send her a little shout out here. You do still have my heart, SP, SL, & SF. And you’re just so saintly. You’re number 1 in my book. Just not in this list. sorry.
****Weehawken, I love you too. You’ve always been there for me. And you really are very awesome, even being in New Jersey and all. We’re just a little close, you know. And Wichita has just been sitting out there waiting for so long now. I knew you’d understand.
Diggin the Dirt on Flowers
Fellow revelers, help me out with the following question that was posed:
What types of flowers are the readers out there growing? I’ve almost ignored flowers since I started my renewed interest in the garden. I have a few calendulas (pot marigolds) growing in a small pot, and a handful of neglected bulbs in the ground along one fence which keep coming back year after year. Any ideas on some nice flowers to grow?
As for me, in the front yard I have my famous day lilies from Wisconsin alternating with the hostas (which bloom every year now that they’ve matured – this is one of the things that I very much love about hostas, which can otherwise seem kinda bland). Again behind the front row of flowers/hostas, I have some white small flowers whose name I cannot remember. I want to say nasturtium but I know that’s not it (anyone who can take a peek at my photo here, and help me out, please do). The native plant garden is just behind that, with a black-eyed susan that’s now giving me plenty of blooms. I love having this in my yard. It reminds me of the Replacements song, I Saw Susan Dancing in the Rain. I think next year I may grow daisies just b/c of Prince’s song that has the line in it: I’m blinded by the daisies in your yard…
Onto the steps, where I have zinnias, three pots for each of three of my favorite people. In the backyard I have begonias, and upstairs petunias so I can sing the song, “I’m a lonely little petunia in an onion patch, an onion patch, an onion patch…and all I do is cry .. boohoo boohoo.”
A few days ago I bought some bulbs at Home Depot because they were 75% off, and they looked pretty. Hard to resist. I’m planning on keeping them for next spring, though I’m not sure how well they keep (I’m assuming there will be no problem with them but have no experience to go on here). They’re gladiolas and dutch irises (LOVE the smell of these). A friend, many moons back, gave me crocus bulbs but it was in my pre-garden days and I never did get them in the ground. I may get some next year; these would be inspired by the Joni Mitchell song about having crocuses to bring to school tomorrow…
QUESTION: Has anyone else’s garden been inspired by a song? Any recommendations for any particular flowers? I used to keep marigolds around some of my vegetable plants but haven’t needed them this year.
Mystery Mushroom Poopy Plant Alien Invading Ruthless Abductor
So this is what I saw upon opening my eyes after several days of nothing. I was in the yard, inspecting the mysterious beast that had been the object of my obsession since I first saw it, when the next thing I knew, I was passing out. I fell to the ground, and all the rest is black. I can’t remember it. I don’t know what happened, or where I was. All I remember is wearing an ill-fitting wig, swimming through some post-apocalyptic swampy water, briefly visiting the Vatican only to be quietly shooed away from the gates, then finally landing in an interview with a very severe suit-bound woman. I couldn’t put the words right to satisfy her questions and the next thing I knew, here I was lying on the ground, face to … uh, face with my weird little plant. It was whispering something to me when with a “poof” it suddenly disappeared. Now you know, I’ve been doing daily posts since I started this blog almost two months ago. My recent lapse (by a day? two??) had nothing to do with my mother’s visit, or her insistence of cleaning my house and my following her cleaning up after her, putting things back from where she moved them, or any of that stuff. (She left this morning, shortly after I came to in the back yard). You all do know, don’t you, that it would take nothing short of being abducted by random, wild, scary mystery mushrooms to make me miss a day of checking in with you. Heeeeeyyy, wait a minute. It’s all starting to come back to me …
QUESTION: please send pics of a plant you want to ID. This one remains a mystery. Potent, though.
Weeding the Garden
I’m emptying my basement of everything in it. I figured it was getting to be a fairly expensive storage space, given what rents go for today. I hate that there is so much I’m throwing away but I also recognize that to repurpose, reuse, sell, or even donate all the items I no longer need would require additional time that I’d really rather spend doing other things – like gardening.
Although I may freecycle a few items (I’ve used it before for other things I let go of, and was fairly happy with its usability). I clutterbust somewhat regularly though. It’s a healthy purging, I find. Inevitably good things (note, not “stuff”) come from it. So usually I just set as much out in front of my house as I can, without using any space on the sidewalk. This can get tricky because there’s not a lot of excess real estate in Brooklyn, even down to front gate space. That’s why I love things I can hang on the fence, like hangers! At about midnight, I put a small store’s supply of various plastic and wooden hangers, no wire ones (yes, mommy dearest), and within minutes a neighbor appeared out of nowhere. As we started talking, she collected up the plastic hangers, stringing them across her arm. As it turns out, she is married to a gentleman down the street who has been very encouraging about my little garden plot, stopping by every so often to ask and admire. I’ve loaned him a wonderful little crazy rake I have that tills the ground in no time. Once again, I found myself talking with someone who I have lived near for more than ten years and had never met before. I hate to say this but I honestly don’t even remember seeing her before — I feel like I’ve been wearing blinders for a very long time now. Gardening is showing me that good things happen when you just put a little effort into it.
There is no question in my mind, as I sit here sweaty and spent, that gardening and all that goes with it is absolutely like raking through the things in life – concrete and otherwise – that bog you down. This has been a difficult process because my mind was trained to think I “need” more than I do. It is helpful though, too, as I’m thinking about what more I want to do (and, more importantly, not do) with my garden for the remainder of the summer, and am also feeling grateful that once this is done it will be one less thing to pull me away from my gardening.
QUESTION: Do you have to give something else up to make space for something new? Will you be adding or subtracting anything from your garden this season?
This Week My Honey”s Lavender
Ah, New York, my sweet. What’s not to love?
My partner started making ice cream this summer (poor me, right?). The first stash from the CSA had some lovely lavender that constituted the flowers portion of our pick up. All I had to do was stick it in the fridge instead of a vase, and the next thing I knew, voila, dessert! This last visit to the CSA landed me some gorgeous deep purple blueberries now in the icebox waiting for the fairy dairymother to whisk them away. So many reason to love New York this week.
But with some good news comes some bad. Heard in the media-stream this week is that grocery stores are pushing back on consumers’ increased use of coupons with greater restrictions on coupon use. The whole CSA experience, while a wonderful experience, may still not be the best value for folks looking to disrupt their regular food sourcing. I’m still wanting to do a comparison of the options, from the traditional grocery store to home gardens to farmers markets and foraging. While I can understand a company’s need to plug the bucket, so to speak, now might not be the best time to kick the consumer where it counts, considering that our flirtation with alternasourcing seems to be deepening into a more serious relationship. Grocery stores may have even more competition ahead from innovations to their traditional model by store owners starting to think outside the box (Austin is expected to have the first packaging-free grocery store in the near future).
As for me, I will continue to report on my CSA experience, and hope that someone takes me up on my invitation to compare theirs (looking for someone signed up in the City with a different CSA, and someone from outside NY – maybe one of my Madison friends?). (I am doing the full half-share, which means I pick up a full share – vegetables, fruit, eggs, flowers – every other week @ $550 for 24 weeks, which works out to be about $45.00 every pick-up, but would like to do a comparison with anyone doing a CSA this summer, regardless of what you’re signed up for). I’m also looking to hear more on another …
QUESTION: how have your food collection and sourcing habits changed? What percentage of your meals comes from sources other than the traditional grocery store? Are you getting any staples from your garden? Of the home gardeners, do many of you can to make your stash last after the season’s over? How many of you are keeping the garden going indoors over the winter? What have you got growing indoors after season? Anyone else out there who’s getting their groceries outside the box? Of those who forage, would you say that you’ve incorporated the wild edibles onto your every day plate? With apologies to any skin-thinned freegans, have we got any garbage eaters out there? Any other urban foraging? Anything I’m leaving out? Go ahead … gimme the dirt!
Still on the Weed
This discussion of weeds: is there really such a thing? has generated a touch of interest and a tad of controversy, so I think we should stay on the weed, for now, so to speak. In this post, I look at what constitutes a weed. As in the words of one famous reveler, “A weed by any other name would smell as sweet.” Another fellow reveler put it better when he said, in relevant part (the rest is good too, check it out in the full comment appearing earlier today):
I recently listened to a podcast where someone said ‘a weed is an herb growing in the wrong place’. It still makes sense if you broaden the term herb to plant. Although I never thought of it, weeds serve to help the garden. Weeds are often some of the first flowers to appear in the garden and attract bees and other beneficial insects. Check out http://www.theselfsufficientgardener.com and listen to the episode on weeds. It gave me a whole new outlook on weeds, and gave my garden a different look- especially the part that now grows wild. Once I did go walking through the wild section with a machete. It’s not that it is that wild, I just needed to cut the tall grass seeds and get rid of them without damaging the red clover growing below. The lawn mower would have cut everything. … I hate to kill plants, especially if I planted them. (Thanks Ralph!)
As I mentioned, my mother is here visiting from Wisconsin. She has been preparing, for quite a long time now, for one massive blow-out rummage sale in Beloit in August. My mom seems to be a magnet for things: she knows antiques, books, history, dishes, furniture, philosophy, literature, music, records, record players, and this and so much more. She seems to be able to find something to appreciate in nearly every person and every thing. For that reason, she has amassed quite a collection of oddball items and exquisite finds. And it is all good stuff. It’s just that it’s still, well, stuff. She has recognized the need to let go of it, and saying good-bye to all of it, properly, has turned out to be quite an undertaking. She has undertaken to meticulously wash, inspect, iron, shine and spiff every little thing and every little thing on every little thing. My dad has suggested the process is ravaging her, and she needs to just let go of it. Which is exactly what she is doing. She, I believe, in this ritual preparation is saying good-bye to these things of hers which have become weeds.
For a year or more, I went through a process of letting go of decades of collected stuff. The task was to big for me on my own. I had a professional clutter buster who helped me see that the only way to make room for new and better things in your life is to let go of the clutter, which is, basically, anything that’s not useful anymore. So over the course of that year, I undertook multiple clutter busting sessions. The process changed my life. I happened upon his blog today, and found this very apt description of his of clutter busting:
It’s common that clients are surprised at how much stuff they actually have. As the clutter bust proceeds, more and more stuff is found hidden in drawers, closets, under the bed, in boxes, underneath things and in piles. It’s like the clown car at the circus, twenty clowns end up coming out of a tiny car.
We get anesthetized by our clutter and we lose touch. Our awareness is dulled. In the same way vision can get hazy, awareness gets out of focus. We get used to the blur and it becomes normal for us.
That’s why I’m kindly relentless with encouragement to dig deeper into your stuff. There’s hidden stuff silently wrecking your life.
see today’s post (June 27, 2011) on Brooks Palmer’s blog: http://brooks-palmer.blogspot.com/
I think if there’s room left for the word “weed,” to me it would be defined as clutter in the garden.
I may do it. I may try to tame that part of the yard. I’m not sure if that wild part of my yard is a nod to my own rebellious side, or if I just got exhausted plotting and planting the front half of the yard, and let the rest of it rest. I will probably do something in the back half. I’ll probably put my mom to work on it too. Who knows what we’ll discover there. It takes a very special dynamic to garden with another person. Maybe instead we’ll just kick back with some beer and cheese, and watch the grass grow.
QUESTION: What in your life, or garden, or garden of life needs weeding? Is there anything in your garden that has lost its usefulness to you? What other plant or thing might arrive when you make room for it? Go ahead … gimme the dirt!
So Happy Together
Here she is as of this sunny Sunday morning. Aside from the pumpkins stretching out and taking more real estate than I’d anticipated (they’re to the right of the hostas, having been transplanted from the upper corner of the garden where two remain), they all seem pretty happy together. Lining the front fence are my hostas which I thinned from the side. You can see the border of hostas now on the bottom of the picture. They’re in bloom, with some tall pretty stand-up flowers that look like they’ve reached up to admire the rest of the garden. As I mentioned before, these are the oldest plants in the yard. A neighbor who still lives across the street from me gave them to me when I first moved in more than ten years ago. They have survived bitter winters, and more than one invasive procedure to fix a main pipe running from my basement to the street. I thinned them out early in the season because they just really look like they wanted to move. So I put some of them up front. You can see one just to the left of the yellow day lily, which my sister brought from Wisconsin. The small wall of white flowers that border the hostas and day lilies (which, I’ve just learned in picking the link are so called because each flower lasts only a day, making even more poignant the fact that the first one appeared on the summer solstice – what sage plants have I!). have a name I can’t remember right now. Behind them is my little native plant garden, which has ironweed, some others, and the lone yellow black-eyed susan poking out toward the left of the pic. Surrounding the various native plants are the small ones that are actually Johnny jump ups scattered from seed I planted off to the side but which attracted birds, who gave them a new home. At least this is what I suspect they are. Several people have asked me if I’m going to pull them out, assuming they’re weeds because they were so much smaller than the native plants I put in from small plants (not seeds). I’m hoping they bloom brilliantly, though they might not till next year. (Note, in grabbing the hyperlink for the johnny jump-ups, I thrilled to learn that they are edible!!! I just love pretty eatable things.) Still closer to the house are the pumpkins from the CT restaurant I mentioned in an earlier post, along with the wild ginger from Saratoga Springs, and the couple of container plants – one that my super-neighbor-friend from down the block has for sweetpeas and green beans that are much taller than we anticipated and my own cukes in their own self-watering container (these are where u see the yellow flowers – and also in the other planter box to compare whether the sel-watering type fares better). The rest of the yard closest to the house – which is barely visible from this pic b/c it’s cut off there – is pretty much wild, for whatever that means anymore. I do think I have a tall weed/plant taking over, and have been trying to weigh its usefulness. I spotted what I thought was the same plant on the Wildman tour of Prospect Park recently, and when I asked our guide, he said it was goldenrod. I probably won’t mess with it this year but already thinking ahead to next spring. With that in mind, here’s my …
QUESTION: what is the point of goldenrod? Is there really any objective, verifiable difference between a weed and a plant? Is it really just in the eye of the beholder? Assuming this is a native plant, how does it help the greater ecosystem if it’s just taking up a little spot in my front yard? If I decide to keep the goldenrod, assuming that’s what it is, how would a native plant activist feel about me moving it out of the way? Does that disturb the whole notion that we should just leave native plants well enough alone, wherever they happen to reside? Would moving it be better than pulling it out and feeding it to my compost bin? Would doing so, in the eyes of the nativist, be a sin? Help me out here. I don’t mean to disturb the universe. So, go ahead … gimme the dirt!
revelgardener 