It is about gardening, environment, climate, self-sustainability, growing one's food, organic, novice gardener in our beautiful world.
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.
Another year has passed since I wrote my last post. The year has been hard not only me but on the whole world due to COVID. It was also the year when I lost my other four-legged son Matt on April 13, 2020.
As we took COVID seriously, we literally became (and more or less still is) a prisoner within the house. Anxiety, loneliness being cut off from other family members and friends, and depression were the common theme of 2020. Life is not sustainable in that way. So, we and especially me starting a fresh start in 2021.
Gardening pushes depression away; writing brings in excitement and hope as I dream and plan about the garden. I hope to capture all those ideas here in my small corner of the blog-world.
My daughter is now three-years-old, and has started understanding and enjoying the concepts of gardening, growing and outdoor space. She is also unlike any children who loves eating vegetables and especially if they are fresh and raw. She would try to pick up anything green and nibble (and that can be dangerous since plants can be poisonous). She also loves ladybugs, birds, flowers, bees and butterflies. So, our ultimate garden will be a child-friendly yard with lots of fresh produce and flowers and herbs to attract her favorite creatures to the garden.
The garden has gone into complete neglect in the last three years since I got busy into taking care of a child, and handling all the death and depression. So, in the last three days I have taken the baby-steps:
seeded about 22 coriander seeds indoor under the grow light
seeded about 40 broccoli seeds and put it outside to make them cold-hardy and strong
scattered lots of coriander seeds outside in some big flat containers, ideal for growing coriander/cilantro. Winter has not yet left and so the outdoor seeds will take longer to germinate.
Cleaned up one of the beds; all the run-away strawberry plants from the bed has got re-planted in proper containers.
Planted the seeds of some store-bought organic pepper that we love
Ordered 25 sweet potato slips from Fedco, and
ordered lots and lots of tomato, eggplants and hot pepper plants from chile.com. I love this place as they are local and grow everything by themselves. It is a good way to help local economy.
I hope to slowly convert the front and backyard into one of those showy home-gardens shown on British TVs.
It has been more than a year since I last wrote a post. And, within that time so many things happened to drastically change my life and outlook.
On March 10, 2019 my first son, my beloved Casper passed away. Casper died due to the wrong diagnosis of the first veterinarian to whom I was taking him. Casper's death has really affected Matt, another of my pet-doggy-son. He has grown so old within a year; his face has become much whiter. He has developed arthritis and drags his back legs behind. So, I need to medicate him and that makes him good. But, the medicine has other side effects; he doesn't see or hear properly. He can no longer walk long distance or stand for a while or climb up and down the stairs. I am also seeing a small tumor being developed in his mouth. I am now wondering if he will survive the next one year.
On March 14, 2019, we did the last rite for Casper. We cremated him. It was a beautiful ceremony at a beautiful place. They really did everything so nicely that it seemed like Casper was just sleeping. I did not get much time to mourn Casper before my father got admitted to ICU on March 20, 2019. I needed to rush to his side. He was on ventilation and was almost passing away. He recovered slightly and the doctors put him on tracheostomy tubes. He had Parkinson Disease and dementia. He was completely bedridden now with tracheostomy tubes through which he breath and he was also fed through some nasal tube; he was on catheter; he looked like a skeleton lying on the bed with all sorts of tubes going into him. It was awful to look at him. And, he was not here (in the USA) and thus I couldn't do much as medical laws, rules, techniques, everything is really backdated in the country where he decided to live. He suffered all those tortures and passed away on December 28, 2019.
The year 2019 was the year of death, not only the death of my beloved dog and my dearest father, but also of four colleagues, two close uncles and others. It was also the year when I lost my much-loved full-time job. I am a researcher and professor but my university decided to do restructure and thus it laid off more than 60% of all full-time faculties. Amidst all these sad and desperate time, I am glad that my partner and child are healthy and hearty and Matt is still here. My favorite garden with all its companions is also here. And, I hope it continues that way though 2020 is turning out to be worse as 2019 with Covid-19.
I am yet to overcome all the tragedies of 2019 and the coronavirus is not helping so far. But, spring is in the air. I hope my garden and this garden blog will all the required peace that I need.
This blog is about gardening. But, today I am not going to talk about gardening but a wonderful creation. As you might remember from my others posts, I have two dogs. They are (or were) literally the stewards of my garden. They never destroyed any plants or any of the garden beds; they obediently followed all the rules about avoiding which parts of the garden. However, through barking and chasing they kept all the birds, squirrels, rabbits, chipmunks away.
As my barren, no-tree, only-grass, chemical-infused (that's how the garden was when we bought our house) evolved through the last decade, so did the stewards. They grew old. The chasing gave away to nimble trot. Constant alert and watchfulness gave away to snoozing in the warmth of sun. You dare not come near my house growling turned to raspy and feeble barking. I saw them grow old and matured, and was getting comfortable with the idea of snoozing with them in front of the fire-place for many more moons to come. But man (woman in this case) proposes, God disposes.
The white one is Casper. On October 26, 2018, he started sneezing badly. They were loud sneezes, the force of which was making him fall over and get his head bumped on the floor. He then started bleeding from his nose. After much ups and down, fail diagnosis, bad veterinarians bent on just stealing money and not diagnosing, we found good vets. The final diagnosis is Cancer. Now, we are waiting for the result which will tell us what sort of cancer, how much time we have with him, any chance of cure or not. In the meantime, though, his health is deteriorating. He has lost almost all his muscles, he is now a skeleton with skin and fur. Now and then he refuses to eat. He is just a very strong dog with a stronger will, and that's what pushing him ahead, we think. He has already been hospitalized four times, and every time he bounced back so nicely that even the doctors were surprised.
I am just hoping such surprises and miracles continue. I am not yet ready to see him cross the rainbow-bridge. We recently had a baby, and life was so rosy and blissful. But after sunny days come the dark, cloudy days, I guess.
While all these are going on, I decided to have a portrait of Casper done. I know an awesome local artist. So, I requested him to create a portrait of Casper in oil-painting. I gave him a photo, and he created a Genuine Gem.
This is the picture of the oil-painting, and seriously the picture is not doing justice to the painting. The picture is all grainy and hazy. But, the real-painting is simply mesmerizing. We didn't realize that it was going to be so lively and life-like. Hubby and I simply cannot take our eyes away from the painting. The other evening I entered the room deep in thought; I caught the painting through the corner of my eyes and mused for a fraction of second what was casper doing on top of the door frame; how did he climb up there? Then I realized it was the painting.
The painting is so realistically done that it seems like real, living and breathing Casper staring out of it. The painting captured each and every spots and shades on his fur. Not a single strand of his fur missing. The posture is perfectly captured. His emotions and personalities are vividly coming out of the painting.
Now I am wondering whether the painting will give me solace or more heartache when Casper will be no longer with us. I will think Casper alive, sitting and staring at me; I will reach out to touch his soft fur only to realize that it is a painting.
Tim Maher is the artist who painted it. I wonder how long it took him to paint such a masterpiece, at least to our eyes since we know Casper in real life and thus can compare the painting to him. Yes, it costed some money; many might say why not blow up the photo to the size of the painting? But what is money compared to the love, dedication, thought and hard-work that the painter poured into the painting? Perhaps that is why the painting has come out so life-like as it got imbued with the magic and breath of the painter.
Thus, I dedicate this post to painter Mr. Tim Maher of New Jersey.
It has been since ten months that I am away from this blog. It is because I now have a baby, well she has already grown to an eighteen month old toddler. It was easier to do some blogging when she was really young but I am finding that babies really become much more demanding as they grow up :-). My blogging and other free time flew out of the window as soon as she crossed one year of age.
Here she is busy inspecting the porch Christmas tree
Here she, with her father, is accepting gift from Santa
It has been a disastrous year in terms of gardening. I did not get any time to go out to the garden as I was busy with my full-time work, household work and motherhood work. Also, it was one of the wettest year in the history of NJ. Until September, the state received 32 percent above normal rain.
So, our garden grew so wild that in October we needed to call out landscaping company and shell out twenty-five hundred dollar to just clear out all the overgrown plants, weeds and mowing the knee-high grass.
But, I have lots of plans for the year 2019. She will be a two year old lady in June, and I am hoping that she will develop interest in nature and gardening, and that will help me in gardening What do you think? What does your experience say -- will I be able to devote lots of time in gardening with a toddler and at the same time have my full time and other jobs?
Some of the plans are already under way. Our garden is very uneven and slopy, with ups and downs. So, we already built a leveled patio. We also built a beautiful raised bed.
This is what the area looked before
This is how the area looks now with a brand-new patio
This is how the side area looked like
A portion of the side area now has this beautiful raised bed
Still lots of work left -- more raised beds on other sides, arbor for grapes, cleaning of leaves and pruning. I have some trees by the side and front of the new patio. Since the patio is made of bricks, I am thinking of creating some kind of structure around the base of the tree, a brick circle with stones as mulch, as shown in the picture below:
Much of our lawn got stripped off in the process of building all these structures. So, instead of laying down a lawn, I am going to plant in creeping thyme, sage and oregano and lay down a path in between.
A big play area for the toddler was also created. On it will go tree-house and swings and playing sets for the toddler. By its side will be grown kid's flower garden and kid's vegetable garden.
We truly have an ever-evolving garden. Since we moved into this house in 2009, our garden has gone from bare green lawn to wilderness area, from tiny raised bed and vegetable garden to big raised beds and fruits, herbs, flowers and vegetable garden, from really used and nice self-built greenhouse (which even produced during winter but got destroyed during hurricane Sandy) to a broken greenhouse. Now, it is slowly turning into a matured, family-friendly but also at the same wilderness-friendly garden.
So, to all of my garden friends, I wish all of you Happy Gardening in 2019 and to all of us, many, many years of good health and happy gardening. May the New Year of 2019 brings lots of good vibes and harmony and peace in both your life and your garden. A Very Happy New Year to all of you.
Thursday, February 8, 2018
An epic battle has started; the battle between spring and winter. As spring peeks from around the corner, winter jumps back into the arena with mighty force.
A bright blue spring sky with temperature in fifties.
On such spring days, I see the squirrels clambering up and down the trees, licking, sucking and tugging at the bark. Do they eat bark? Or are they eating something that's there on the bark? Anyone knows?
Strong gusty wind and blankets of white snows are the weapons she employs first, followed by icy rain and sleets.
A Caroline Wren (or just a wren) enjoying the winter. It is a gorgeous bird with a upright, pointy tail, round body and sharp beak. It loves suet, and prefers it over black sunflower seed.
What Mother Earth takes thousands of years to create, feisty Winter creates the Stalactites by the sides of houses, on tree trunks in a matter of minute.
The sparkling diamonds are actually smaller sized stalactites on the branches.
More Stalactites by the side of the house.
Spring loses; winter wins, and the birds gather around feeders to survive the winter.
European Sterlings on the suet-feeder. Many people are opposed to feeding these birds as they are not native. I cannot control who comes to my feeders, and I do not mind these birds. It was not their fault that they got introduced into this country. They also need to eat and survive. But, when this flock comes to a feeder, they finish everything within a matter of minutes.
The weather has become mellow, in the past one week, with temperature rising above 40 or 50 degree Fahrenheit in the morning. All the snows have melted, and green grasses peeking out from here and there. Squirrels are chasing across each other up and down the trees. I see them do that every spring. I guess that is how they find their mates. Birds are singing out loudly. And, I have started planting in seeds or ordering out plants. That's what happening in the nook of my world.
Here is a red-bellied woodpecker pecking out food that I leave around:
This was a picture drawn and painted by me when I was very young. Thus, you see what I call "youngish" or "childish" theme -- village, church, school, house, etc. I think children/younger people start by drawing such familiar things/concepts, and thus I call them such.
Sorry about the reflection of our book-shelf into the picture. Though lights were off but still the reflection came. Now, I could have taken down the picture, and take it somewhere to photograph. But, I have injured my wrist and thus avoiding any extra work as much as possible.
Do you know of an animal that is indestructible? Neither space, nor radiation, atomic blast, high pressure or temperature as low as minus 325 degree Fahrenheit can kill it? If you don't know about it, then learn about such an animal -- Tardigrades -- here. I think I have a similar plant which is nutritious, beneficial and can be thus eaten. It's almost indestructible unless of course one burns it down or put it outside in freezing temperature. It is called Longevity Spinach, Gynura Procumbens.
House Plant: The plant has reddish stem, and big dark-green oval leaves. It can be grown in a small pot (and of course in a big pot or in ground). It can be grown as a tree (with hard-stem), or as a vine (if you let it grow and don't chop it off), and as a shrub (if you trim it and also grow side-shoots). It can also be grown in a hanging-basket. As the leaves mature, the underside of the leaves become rich burgundy in color. Thus, it can be grown as just a house-plant if you don't want to eat it. It can be grown in both sun and real-shade. In fact, the leaves taste better if grown in shade.
Food: It's name give out its real importance -- it is an extremely beneficial plant for our health. The plant is originally from China and South-east Asia. It can also be found in certain regions of Africa. Natural doctors (folk-medicine) in both Asia and Africa have long used this plant as cure against many diseases. It has high anti-inflammatory, anti-microbial and anti-carcinogenic properties, and contains many beneficial alkaloid and steroids. Modern medicine has found it to lower blood-pressure, blood-cholesterol, blood-fat and blood-sugar.
How to eat it: It can be eaten both raw and cooked. It has a very nice fragrance but of course one needs to like that fragrance (much like how some people like the fragrance of Cilantro; others hate it and like that of Parsley). I chop off the leaves and tender stems in manageable pieces and saute them with garlic and salt (just like 1-2 minutes on low-medium heat) and eat. One can put fish or meat in the saute; or put the leaves in soup/stew.
Propagate: To prepare the dish, I cut down branches as shown in the picture above. Those stems that are not tender, I put them either in soil directly or in water. And, voila! after about ten days, they start growing roots and leaves. Here I have put them in water (as I am experimenting) but most of them time, I do not put them in water. Just put them in soil; they do not need any rooting hormone or anything. They will just grow and become another tree/vine/plant/shrub, depending on how you are trimming them. That's why I called it AN INDESTRUCTIBLE PLANT.
A BIG THANK YOU to all of you who wished good luck for my fur-baby. He literally gave us a heart-attack with extreme drooling and complete loss of balance. We thought he had a stroke; or brain tumor, which we were not aware of, suddenly ruptured, and we would lose him. But, luckily (may he live for another twenty more years, fingers-crossed, wood touched) it was just vestibular infection or in layman tongue -- middle ear infection. He is on medication and recovering.
Wishing all my readers a Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays and a Very Happy New Year. I woke up to a white Christmas, my favorite. But, my four-legged baby has been having some emergencies since Friday, and thus it has not been a good Christmas for me. Here are some white Christmas scenes and sky from our backyard.
Snow..snow..everywhere
A Cold Morning
Sun is rising on the morning of December 25, 2017
And, it has risen some more
The Minion came to my garden to wish you all Feliz Navidad :-)
National Audobon Society along with National Geographic, Cornell's Lab of Ornithology and others have declared 2018 "The Year of the Bird" to mark the centennial of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act. You can find more about the treaty here. You can sign up for the centennial celebration here.
Every year more than 50 billion birds migrate from one place to another all over the world. During this worldwide phenomena, they face many problems -- they are shot dead for food, plumes, feather and trophy hunting; their food and water sources are dwindling due to habitat loss; electrocuted by properly constructed electric lines; collide into skyscrapers or other such taller structures; get affected by EM radiation by TV, Radio and Cellphone towers (as birds depend on the magnetic fields for migration) -- and many other such hazards. However, the biggest threat is loss of food and water. For example, 80% of the US yards (whether home or office) have non-native plants, and such plants cannot provide any food for the migratory birds. You can find the native plants for your yard (based on your zip-code) here.
I tried and found out that there are seventy-three native trees, evergreens, grasses and plants that I can have in my garden. Out of those 73, I already have twenty-eight of them. My garden is small, and thus I will not be able to plant any of the trees :-(. Some of my native plants in my garden, and some of my friends who visit my garden are as shown below:
Joe-Pye Weed (native) along with Hollyhock and Tansy
Rudbeckia (native)
Milkweed (native) with Monarch
Coneflower (native) with Swallowtail
Native Sunflower
Coneflower (native)
Native Sunflower with Grayfeather (native)
Chipmunk
Finch or Sparrow
Hummingbird!!
Male Cardinal doing peek-a-boo
Female Cardinal
Chickadee
Here is a list of native plants that one can plant in a North-East American garden. This is just a small selection as most of the native trees are excluded. Only plants which one can easily find, and which can be easily grown in a home-garden are included: Allegheny Service-Berry (Amelanchier laevis), Alternate-Leaf Dogwood (Cornus alternifolia), American Hazelnut (Corylus americana), American Mountain-Ash (Sorbus americana), American Pokeweed (Phytolacca americana), American Witch-Hazel (Hamamelis virginiana), Anise-Scented Goldenrod (Solidago odora), Beaked Hazelnut (Corylus cornuta), Black Chokeberry (Aronia melanocarpa), Black Raspberry (Rubus occidentalis), Black-Eyed-Susan (Rudbeckia hirta), Butterfly Milkweed (Asclepias tuberosa), Canadian Goldenrod (Solidago canadensis), Canadian Lily (Lilium canadense), Canadian Service-Berry (Amelanchier canadensis), Cardinal-Flower (Lobelia cardinalis), Choke Cherry (Prunus virginiana), Coastal-Plain Trumpetweed (Eutrochium dubium), Cock-Spur Hawthorn (Crataegus crus-galli), Common Boneset (Eupatorium perfoliatum), Common Buttonbush (Cephalanthus occidentalis), Common Milkweed (Asclepias syriaca), Common Winterberry (Ilex verticillata), Common Yarrow (Achillea millefolium), Dense Gayfeather (Liatris spicata), Downy Service-Berry (Amelanchier arborea), Eastern Hemlock (Tsuga canadensis), Eastern Red-Cedar (Juniperus virginiana), Eastern Wahoo (Euonymus atropurpureus), Eastern White Pine (Pinus strobus), Farewell-Summer (Symphyotrichum lateriflorum), Frost Grape (Vitis vulpina), Gray Dogwood (Cornus racemosa), Gray Goldenrod (Solidago nemoralis), Great Blue Lobelia (Lobelia siphilitica), Hard-Leaf Flat-Top-Goldenrod (Solidago rigida), Highbush Blueberry (Vaccinium corymbosum), Jack-in-the-Pulpit (Arisaema triphyllum), King's-Cureall (Oenothera biennis), Late Purple American-Aster (Symphyotrichum patens), Little False Bluestem (Schizachyrium scoparium), Nanny-Berry (Viburnum lentago), Narrow-Leaf Fireweed (Chamaenerion angustifolium), New England American-Aster (Symphyotrichum novae-angliae), Northern Spicebush (Lindera benzoin), Orange Coneflower (Rudbeckia fulgida), Oswego-Tea (Monarda fistulosa), Pink Azalea (Rhododendron periclymenoides), Pitch Pine (Pinus rigida), Possumhaw (Viburnum nudum), Pussy Willow (Salix discolor), Red Bearberry (Arctostaphylos uva-ursi), Red Elder (Sambucus racemosa), Red Spruce (Picea rubens), Seaside Goldenrod (Solidago sempervirens), Short-Leaf Pine (Pinus echinata), Showy Goldenrod (Solidago speciosa), Smooth Arrow-Wood (Viburnum recognitum), Smooth Blue American-Aster (Symphyotrichum laeve), Smooth Sumac (Rhus glabra), Southern Arrow-Wood (Viburnum dentatum), Spotted Crane's-Bill (Geranium maculatum), Spotted Touch-Me-Not (Impatiens capensis), Swamp Milkweed (Asclepias incarnata), Trumpet-Creeper (Campsis radicans), Trumpetweed (Eutrochium fistulosum), Virginia Strawberry (Fragaria virginiana), Virginia-Creeper (Parthenocissus quinquefolia), White Turtlehead (Chelone glabra), Winged Sumac (Rhus copallinum), Woodland, Sunflower (Helianthus divaricatus), Wreath Goldenrod (Solidago caesia), Wrinkle-Leaf Goldenrod (Solidago rugosa)
I want a garden like this. Do you know many of our common garden flowers and vegetables like Roses, Onion, Garlic, Poppy, various nuts, etc, originally came from Central Asian countries like Afghanistan.
It snowed on Saturday, December 9, and it was the first snow of the season. It came heavy, and snowed from around ten-thirty in the morning till about eleven in the night. Nothing is so pretty as the landscape covered by snow; nothing is as quite as a still winter morning; nothing is as enjoyable as seeing the snow fall, sitting with a hot drink and reflecting.
The Whole Backyard -- not a soul to see
One side of the backyard -- everything calm before the storm Benji
Another side of the backyard
Backyard -- trees huddling together for warmth :-)?
