Gardening For Life
thusspakezuska | June 7, 2010I made myself a nice lunch. Diced two small yellow squash, sauteed them in butter till just tender, plated and topped with some minced parsley from my herb garden...mmmm. Sliced up a kohlrabi and ate that too. Iced decaf coffee. Ate outside on the back patio, cats lolling about with Papa Cardinal chirping fiercely at them (because Mama Cardinal and, I think, babies are in the nest in the nearby arborvitae. Don't worry, Papa - I keep an eye on the kitties, too, and never leave them unsupervised.) Took out the spent flower stalks from all the iris in the garden bed by the street. (Really am…
thusspakezuska | May 12, 2010I went to the Morris Arboretum plant sale last Friday. As a member, I got a "bonus" plant for free. The "bonus" plant is a lure to bring you to the plant sale. You pick up your bonus plant at a special tent at the very back of the plant sale, so you have to walk past the tables of annuals and perennials, the dozens of herbs and scented geraniums, seedling tomatoes and peppers and swiss chard, the long aisles of potted shrubs and trees, the section showcasing the offerings of the Rhododendron Society, the little clump devoted to clematis and native wisteria...by the time you get to the…
thusspakezuska | April 23, 2010Sharon Astyk hates Earth Day. Really hates it. There she was, publicly hating it on its 40th anniversary, no less.
And most Earth Day programs send the same message. They say "you too can make a difference...and it will be convenient, mostly involve shopping and won't change your life. Here, take some baby steps, change your lightbulbs, plant one tomato" and come listen to some folkie music!"
Well, that can't be right, can it? Sadly, yes. As I commented on another of Sharon's posts,
Just saw a tv commercial for a compostable potato chip bag. According to the commercial, I can totally…
thusspakezuska | May 30, 2009Scientiae wants to know what keeps us moving forward in our science, work, and life. I am not a practicing scientist right now, and I don't have a job, so I guess this will have to focus on life.
Perhaps it's not surprising that not working makes me feel, quite often, like I'm standing still, or marking time, while life marches by. Of course that's not true. I'd just become so used to understanding my life as paced and marked by the rhythms of work that even after all these years, it is still disorienting not to have a job.
Moving forward, I think, is a concept that belongs more…
thusspakezuska | April 29, 2009A week ago Friday I spent the morning traipsing about the Morris Arboretum. The magnolias were in full bloom and Patrick Dougherty had just finished his newest sculputure, The Summer Palace. The twig and sapling sculpture will remain in place until it decays away. I can't describe to you the feeling one has walking around inside it. If you have the chance to be in Philadelphia over this summer I urge you to visit the arboretum and see this sculpture.
if you can't make it here....try to make do with my meager photos. I hope you will also enjoy the magnolia shots that follow. I make no…
thusspakezuska | April 8, 2009Sunday was absolutely gorgeous, sunny and warm, and the Morris Arboretum was teeming with people out to enjoy the spring blossoms. Still, Mr. Z and I had this cherry tree and the blue sky above all to ourselves for a little while.
I know it's not a native tree but it's simply stunning, isn't it?
The folks from Yellow Springs Farm are coming today to consult on my yard and develop a landscape plan for me. Yay! Native landscape at home, manicured arboretum next town over...so much gardening joy. I love spring!
UPDATE: they were here! and a full-fledged plan is in the works!
thusspakezuska | March 10, 2009I found Light-skinned-ed Girl via Acmegirl's blogroll. Lots of good stuff about the process of writing, quotes from writers, and the experience of being biracial. I like her idea about the Oscars for books. That is an awards ceremony I would definitely watch!
Black on Campus has a post about Lisa Jackson, chemical engineer, and head of the EPA, with links to several articles about her. Also check out the post on (Not So) Affirmative Action, wherein names are named of the selective admissions schools who admit Black students at a lower rate than other students. You don't hear the likes of…
thusspakezuska | February 27, 2009A week or so ago I went for a walk at the Morris Arboretum on a day with lovely weather, when it had warmed up just enough to make a winter walk delightful. I came around a bend in the path and encountered a cloudy vision of yellow - a witch hazel in full bloom.
It's not the best picture, but mind you I took it with my cell phone. This closeup didn't come out too bad:
Isn't that pretty? Witch hazel blossoms are such amazing things.
And yet -why, why, why, I wondered, why is the Morris Arboretum's witch hazel in such a glory of bloom, while the best my witch hazel can do is produce a few…
thusspakezuska | November 11, 2008At this point in the fall, most things in my garden have closed up shop till next spring. Oh, there are some chrysanthemums blooming, and the Virginia sweetspire and chokeberry tree have put on their fiery fall colors, but there's not much in the way of growth going on.
Except for the evil invasives. Sunday I went out to take a closer look at my beauty bush, which is currently sporting a heavy crop of bright purple berries, and discovered to my dismay about ten or more tree seedlings springing up all around it. Three of them had already grown quite thick little trunks and were threatening…
thusspakezuska | July 25, 2008Earlier this year I reviewed Douglas Tallamy's Bringing Nature Home, which inspired me to convert my garden to all or mostly native plants. I swore this year would be a much better gardening year than last. Visions of gardening glory danced in my head. Ah, early spring. Now we are baking in the heat of high summer and my garden sadly disappoints, even as passers-by comment on how much they enjoy looking at it. Yes, I think, if only you could see what it should look like! One-third of the natives I planted this spring, supposedly so well adapted to our climate and soil, have already…
thusspakezuska | May 7, 2008It's spring, and everything looks great in the garden right now. Well, except for those pervasive Star of Bethlehem invaders that have to be pulled out by the dozens. Star of Bethlehem is a non-native, very invasive plant that can take over your flower bed almost overnight. I spent about an hour or more yesterday pulling it out of my flowerbeds. Its flowers are white, but it's not one of the four white flowers of the post title.
The four white flowers would be: tree peony, woodland phlox, chokeberry tree blossoms, and foam flower. I am not what you would call a photographer - I take…
thusspakezuska | March 28, 2008In the spring a suburban homeowner's fancy lightly turns to thoughts of lawn.
Originally uploaded by garethjmsaunders.
Fertilize! Break out the emergent herbicide! Fire up the sprinklers! Here comes the lawn mower and weed whacker! The relentless battle to maintain a time-, energy-, and resource-consuming monoculture that provides a perfect habitat for Japanese beetle grubs has begun!
Or maybe...just maybe...you could try something different this year. Douglas Tallamy, University of Delaware professor of entomology and wildlife ecology, hopes you will, and tells you why you…