MLK Quote

MLK Quote

Nature's Inspiration Movie

http://www.flickspire.com/m/HealthierL433/NaturesInspiration -- Nature's Inspiration Movie: The photographs in this short video are from award-winning photographer, Ken Jenkins, and they are breathtaking. However, this video is much more than beautiful photographs! Peggy Anderson has compiled beautiful quotations from the likes of Emerson, Thoreau, and many others that truly capture the beauty of nature and solitude. Absolute must watch for nature lovers.

Tuesday, May 14, 2013

Spring Has Gone

On reading the title if you think that summer is here, then you are so very wrong :-). Rather winter is back with night temperature dropping to about 35 degree Fahrenheit (about 1.7 degree Centigrade) and day temperature hovering up to, very lethargically as if it is very tired after all the hard work of summer in the southern hemisphere, about 55 degree Fahrenheit (about 13 degree Centigrade). I have to be honest, though, and declare that last week temperature was a balmy 77 degree. I was too busy, then, to write. Why is it that I become busy whenever I have so many things to write about!! Anyway, seems like winter is back with all its might and force. Our pear-tree is shedding off its leaves!! Since harvest of any true summer vegetables like zucchini, squash, tomato, pepper, etc, will be of distant dream  this year, I am keeping myself busy, gardening-wise, by buying perennial flowering plants and beautifying a small corner in the front yard.

The first image is that of foxglove-plants. They are short-lived perennial. They bloom profusely if they are regularly deadheaded. I want them to multiply and spread. So, I will not be deadheading as I want the seeds to mature and drop off in the soil to produce the next generation. The second image is that of yarrow plant. It has not started flowering yet. The third picture that of lupine (purple) and erysimum (yellow; also known as perennial wallflower)

Thus far, this year, I got the above along with dianthus, saxifrages, gaillardia and viola. These are all apparently perennial. So, next year that small corner should be full of flowers from the early spring onwards as I have also planted some daffodil, cardinal blue, cardinal lobelia, monarda and crocus.

It is amazing that within just two years of gardening I have learned so much about plants, garden and flower. Can you believe that I only knew names of two flowers (in English; I knew some more in my mother tongue) -- rose and sunflower!! But what do you expect from someone who grew in the middle of one of the world's largest metropolis -- Calcutta -- with 20 million inhabitants. I literally grew up in the jungle of concrete and cars. As I would look out of the windows, in my childhood, all I would see are tall houses, cars and buses either standing tail-to-tail or trying to navigate the roads along with humans, stray-dogs and cows, TV antennae jutting out of roof-tops at askew angles trying to get the best reception and TV, telephone and electric wires and cables creating a maze overhead. Standing on the verandah of the city-apartment, that little girl kept on dreaming about nature, hiking, trekking, adventures and exploration. At the first opportunity she left all her friends, families, relatives behind, as a teenager, to explore the big world. Her exploration is still going on, and she jumped in to navigate the world of bees and butterflies, compost and mulch, vegetable, fruits and flowering plants, native and invasive plants, weeds and fertilizers as soon as she and her partner bought their first house three years back.

So, this blog and all the pictures are part of journals of my discovery and journey into the gardening-world :-).

13 comments:

  1. Very pretty flowers for your bed. I hate the temps are keeping your from growing veggies. Summer is just being slow this year. Best of luck with the weather. :)

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    1. Erin, thank you :-). How is Arkansas now? Hope it is getting warmer there unlike here where it is still freezing.

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  2. I enjoyed hearing the story of your past. I think it's great that nature had a pull on you from a very young age. You have learned a lot, and your perennial bed will be so satisfying next year when everything returns. The good thing about gardening is that, no matter how experienced, we are all still learning, and no year is ever the same.

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    1. HolleyGarden, thank you :-). Gardens are full of adventures and mysteries; we only have to learn to appreciate them. I know many people don't like it because of this lack of consistency. They want everything in life to be consistent and perfect!

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  3. Learning about nature is a never-ending story. Lovely shots of your flowers.

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    1. Karen, thank you :-). It is indeed a never-ending story :-).

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  4. Here in Ireland the night time temperatures also drop at night, there's actually meant to be a grass frost tonight. Strange how our lives change and take new directions.

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    1. Bridget, I agree that it's indeed strange that our life changes and take new directions. I want to take as much directions as possible. When is your last frost date?

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  5. You have come a long way to your garden...there is stil plenty of time for veggies...I don't usually plant veggies until late in May. It will warm more soon and we will be back on track...your garden will continue to grow and be lovely. You are having quite an adventure.

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    1. Donna, thank you :-). Yes, I am having really an adventure and I want to continue with it. Life is nothing but a big adventure.

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  6. What a different world you live in now! My neighbors on one side are from Kerala and they are also learning to garden American-style. :o) My rain garden was very easy to construct and is designed to flood whenever it rains. Here's the post I did last year: http://ts-casamariposa.blogspot.com/2012/05/roses-and-riverbeds-accidentally.html. I expanded the rain garden in March. It's an excellent way of making sure the storm water that collects in our garden is absorbed by the ground instead of being diverted into the storm drain by my house.

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    1. Casa, thank you :-). I will be reading it soon. Hhahaha...I was not aware of any style of gardening, be it Indian or American or European :-).

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  7. You are a brave soul to go so far from what is familiar. I like your lupine. It is something I would like to grow, but our soil is completely wrong - too much clay and limestone.

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