Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

May I please take this opportunity to allow my blog-readers and blog-friends a Very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. If you do not celebrate Christmas, then Happy Festivity, of whatever festivals you celebrate, to you. Here is a card of collage of some of the flowers that I grew in 2013.

Weather have been funny. For the last two days (from about December 21), temperature is rising up; yesterday (December 22), it was about 66 degree Fahrenheit (about nineteen degree centrigrade), an unheard of temperature in the middle of December in this part of New Jersey. Heaven has opened its flood-gate; rain pouring down in bucket-loads; a thick blanket of fog has descended.


The trees are bare but green has returned; lawns around the neighborhood are soft green. Seeing so much green, my spring-itch is back and my green-thumb is twisting. I spent about an hour, yesterday, in a garden-store, looking at the seed-racks, admiring all the green-house gadgets, and lusting for all the seed-starter pots and trays. The seed-catalogs have started coming. Just looking at them, my soul is getting uplifted and filled with joy and happiness.

However, such was not the scenery three days back. Snow was everywhere and not a speck of green to be seen. Here are some photos of snowy-days that I took on December 10.


The red-seeds of the Dogwood-tree. Well, I was mistaken -- there were green out there among the evergreen plants but were hidden from the sight by the snow.


Chilly but a beautiful sky. The sky sets on fire during sunrise and sunset.


A portion of the front garden completely covered in snow. However, the snow was not that much, measured by the thickness on patio furniture, compared to previous years. I hope more will come. Snow is very good as it not only helps in restoring the water-level of our underground reservoirs, but also helps in germinating many seeds, killing many bad/invasive seeds/insects, moisturizes the garden soil and loosens them up and also helps in speeding up the compost-process in the compost pile. That was once a bean-tree in the last picture. It has now some pea-plans; interesting that pea-plants do not die even in this freezing cold-temperature.

The trees are standing tall and proud even in the cold temperature. And, I am spending my days hunkered low in the warm house with a mug of hot chocolate, day-dreaming and enjoying my feather-friends. So many of them flock to the bird-feeders and devour the seeds fast. Their call grow loud whenever I get into the garden to fill the bird-feeders, as if they are shouting to each other, "hey, food is here." Some of them do not even have the patience (or shall I say courtesy) to wait for me to leave. They fly almost right into me to get the seeds. Too bad that I do not have any pictures because they do not mind me standing in their middle; but as soon as I bring out my SLR, they all fly away. I guess they do not like that big black camera or perhaps photo-shy.

Seasonal Celebration

First of all, I would like to my dear blog-community -- I am just so busy that I am not getting the time to visit any of your blogs or update my blog. Hopefully, it will change soon. I will at least try my best to visit your blogs. This post is for the seasonal celebration meme that Donna of Gardens Eye View is hosting.

A field of yoder-mums, perennial mums, and sneezeweed. Okay, they are not exactly fields but are now profusely blooming in the garden.

Today, September 22, was the last day of the summer. However, it is still fighting over its last breath, refusing to lose its grip with temperature sometimes going above 80 degree Fahrenheit. Temperature soared to above 95 degree Fahrenheit on 9/11. Fall is not to be left behind; evenings and nights are becoming chilly. Both summer and winter crops are thriving in bright sunshine, cooler nights and few inches of rain every week.



This has been a year of tomatoes and beans. Tomatoes are always prolific in our garden but this year it has been exceptional due to the beautiful weather -- warm, bright days but not extremely high temperature; temperature dropping to about 70 or 75 degree Fahrenheit in the evening; rain and shower every week -- the optimal weather for abundant supply of fruits, flowers and vegetables. . Never did I get so much tomatoes and bean every day that I now do not even care to pick them -- many of them are just dropping off the plant and rotting away in ground. The late-season strawberries are in abundance now but again I do not bother to pick them up -- they are rotting away or becoming the food for insects and birds. Okra, pepper, eggplants and corns are still producing and ripening. Pumpkin-plants are done with their jobs; the pumpkins are stored away now, waiting to become good food during winter. The enormous gourd-vine is still trying to produce gourd though the imminent cooler fall is becoming its bane -- gourd does not like cold; it thrives in hot, muggy temperature. However, if everything goes nicely, I will be getting more than ten gourds from one plant. Jerusalem Artichokes are plumping up underground. The Asparagus plants are looking beautiful in their fern-like leaves and berries; they are storing up energies and becoming stronger to produce good asparagus next year.



I am slowly harvesting the potatoes. A huge amount has been produced. If I can store them properly, they will serve us for the whole next year. I have never done canning, storing, pickling or freezing garden bounties for winter consumption. This is my first year. So, now and then I am trying to take time out of my busy schedules to oven-roast tomatoes, freeze beans, tomatoes, okras and eggplants, wash, clean and store away potatoes, collect herbs and store them in olive oil and pickle other harvests. As I am doing these, my respect and admiration for the past generations is getting renewed -- harvesting, washing, cleaning, chopping, cutting, pickling, storing, freezing, cooking -- none of these '-ing' are easy jobs, especially without any of the modern amenities and facilities that we take for granted nowadays.

I am also busy planting the winter crops. There is a huge selection of plants that can be grown during winter with bare protection -- just few floating covers will do. However, the trick is that one needs to start planting them now so that they get all the bright sunshine to thrive and grow. Put them into ground sometimes in October before the ground freezes and one will have a whole winter supply of fresh greens and vegetables. Some of the crops that I am growing for winter are celery, Chinese Celery, Cabbage, Chinese Cabbage, Cauliflower, Broccoli, Broccoli-Raarb, Pak-choi (bok-choi, whatever they are called), Asian Greens, Mustard, Spinach, Lettuce, Rutabaga, Turnip, Parsnip, Beet, Chives, Garlic, Onion, Parsley, Coriander and Carrot (did I include all? I seem to be growing more!!).



This is also the time to focus on my failure and contemplate about next summer. I have learned that cherry-tomato plants should never be pruned as pruning will result in fewer cherry tomatoes. However, big-plump tomato-plants always need to be pruned to produce more bigger, plumper tomatoes!! It is a bad idea to plant squashes, pumpkins and gourds with other smaller plants as these vines grow humongous, and their huge leaves block all the sun-lights. I have been growing only bush-beans. I tried other beans this year and learned that they will climb up over anything; they will also climb up against each other, get all inter-twined and the beans will get vanished in that jungle. I do not know if these beans can become giant stalks or not but they can surely become giant jungles of vines where one has to get down on knees and crawl and poke around to search for bean-pods! Potato, tomato, okra and egg-plants can compete with any huge vines, grow taller and produce. However, peppers and greens fail -- they surely need their own spaces with lots of sunshine and air. Zucchini plants also need their own spaces. Basil needs lots of sunshine; however, seems to thrive in the semi-dark jungle of tomatoes. Tomatoes and Jerusalem Artichokes can easily become weed in the garden. Bees love onion-flowers and is one of the earliest flower to bloom in spring when everything is still naked and frozen. However, the down-side is onions will be extremely small; hardly any onions can be harvested if their flowers are left to bloom for bees to enjoy. The up-side is at the end of the season one will gather about billion onion seeds to last a life-time!! These onion-seeds can be used in cooking (they are used in various Indian cooking) or can be put in ground to create future onions (or spring onion if you like the greens).



This is also the time to plant perennials so that they gather and store all the energy during the winter to be healthy and profuse in the spring and summer. So, I bought some native plants

My Little Umbrellas

I would like to apologize for blurry pictures of this post. I am linking this post with Rambling Woods Nature Notes meme. There are lots of little umbrellas, aka mushrooms, in my garden now after the torrential three inch rainfall in 30 minutes which happened yesterday (July 1).

Mushrooms are the fruits (fruiting body) of the fungus (just like apples are the fruits of the apple trees). They contain the spores from which future mushrooms will be born. They typically have a stem, a cap and a gill (or spores) under the cap, though there are mushrooms which might not stem or cap or gills.



We see only the fruit -- the mushroom -- but we do not see the vegetative body of the fungus. This vegetative body is known as mycelium and looks like a large of mat of fine threads or spider web. While digging soil, if you ever come across a thin whitish filament like structure, then that is a mycelium. The mycelium can be a small structure; or it can stretch into miles. The largest mycelium or fungus, in the world, is found in Oregon -- it covers an area of 2400 acres before a road cut through it.



You should be happy if you see mushroom growing in your garden. Unless you have pets (cats/dogs) which graze in the garden or toddlers who pick things up and put them in their mouth, do not destroy the mushroom. Sign of mushroom means you have a very healthy soil in which trees and plants can easily root and grow without any care. Fungi play an integral part in nature. They break down complex organic compounds of fats, carbohydrates and proteins into the most basic elements that can be used and absorbed by other organisms (for gardeners, it's the plants and trees). Plants and trees have symbiotic relation with fungi; the roots of plants and trees cannot directly absorb the nutrients as those molecules are large and complex to be absorbed. The fungus break those nutrients into simpler and tiny elements; the roots then absorb those nutrients, convert part of it in sugar and put back the sugar into the fungus. The fungus then thrive on those sugar.



Many scientists believe that fungi are responsible for creating forest and old growth. Fungus appeared on earth about 1500 million years ago, much before any land-plant appeared (land plants appeared about 700 million years ago). Fungi not only break up complex molecules but they also secret acidic and other substance which slowly breaks up rocks and stones into soil (we all know and have seen mushrooms forming on woods and slowly that wood will be broken up to become compost). Over years, the action of fungus turn that soil into rich humus-filled, matted soil on which large trees grow and spread, thus creating the old-growth forest. Scientists also believe that fungi and trees are responsible for the evolution of life form on earth. Fungus came; created soil on which plants evolved. As more plants evolved, spread and covered the earth, carbon-dioxide content in the atmosphere decreased; at the same time oxygen content increased. This created a perfect atmosphere for the appearance of other animals. In fact so much different varieties of animals appeared in about 530 million years ago that scientists call that era as the Cambrian Explosion Era. So, WE OWE OUR EXISTENCE TO PLANTS, NOT ONLY BECAUSE THEY PROVIDE FOOD, SHELTER, MEDICINE TO US BUT WITHOUT THEM PERHAPS WE WERE NEVER GOING TO BE EVOLVED.

Paul Stamets listed six-ways mushroom (fungi) can save the world. Watch this fascinating video, appearing in TED-Talks, HERE. Many of the mushrooms growing in our garden are also edible, but PLEASE DO NOT TRY it unless you are an expert in identifying them -- eating poisonous mushroom can result in death.