First Snap-Pea of the Season 2013

Yesterday (5/24/2013) we ate our first snap pea from the plants which I grew from seeds. My babies are now taking care of me. I took those that were at least two inches in length. Many more to come.


This is a bowl of salad that I created using peas and lettuce from the garden.



Do you know that you can eat the tender leaves, shoots, tendrils of pea-plants? They taste exactly like peas. Try it out if you have not already done so. In fact the baby pea-plants are full of micro-nutrients. That's why, in Europe especially, people grow peas as micro-greens. Snap peas themselves are full of vitamin C, flavonoids, folic acid, fiber, pantothenic acid, Vitamins A and K (though they have most other vitamins) and other minerals.

I am fascinated with these pea plants. They are easy to grow. Lots of plants can be crammed in small space. All they need is water; they don't have any fertilizer requirement; in fact, they make the soil, in which they are grown, fertile by fixing nitrogen. When the plant dies down, do not rip it off from the soil. Leave it there because as its root disintegrate, it gives out nitrogen to the soil. My fascination has lead me to buy five more packets of peas for fall cultivation.


I also took out some onion flower stalk, spinach-leaves and turnip-leaves from the garden (will I be please allowed to boast again and say that all these plants were grown by your truly from seeds:-D). I made a batter with chickpea flour. Dipped the leaves and finely chopped stalk, and fried them in very little oil. These are the fritters that one usually eats in Indian restaurants. The fritters can be made using almost every sorts of vegetables and leaves, stems and flowers.



Good time is here again when fresh foods from garden can be consumed. I wonder how people, especially in colder Europe, North-America where things cannot be grown during winter, survived the cold months? These people indeed have strength, stamina and spirit which we spoiled, twenty-first century humans have lost. Do any of you have any such ancestral stories to share? This reminded me of the latest news that scientist believe that the early pilgrims turned to cannibalism in Jamestown, Virginia during the harsh winters. The interesting article can be read here.

Bee-Hotel

If bees could pay in cash (or gold), then I was going to be a millionaire by now. We have the following evergreen rhododendron in our front lawn. This is the largest one. We have about three more on the side lawn. Can you see one of the other rhododendron peeking out from the far-side in the top second picture. I can't have enough of their beauties; try to take the shots from every possible angle; in every possible mode at all times. The last picture in the second row is that of a night shot.

I have not planted these trees. I live in a house that is 103 years old and it has the still original shape, structure, design, foundation, basement, wooden floor, the door latches(knobs) and keys and all the door/windows' border/framework (whatever those things are called). It's fun to stay in this old house as all the floors all the time creeks; bathroom doors do not have any lock; the rule of the house is if the bathroom doors are closed, that means someone is inside and no one should barge in without knocking; the closet doors are such that if one gets locked inside, one will not be able to come out as there are no locks inside; no wood work can be done inside the house unless it's absolute emergency; anytime we ask any constructor to fix anything, he starts salivating over the wood and advices us that such chestnut, pine wood are no longer available!! Why am I rambling about our house instead of the garden? Well, what I am trying to say is that whoever stayed in this house took great care of the house and the yard. One person or perhaps many person, over the years, whoever stayed in this house planted all these azaleas, rhodendrons, dogwood, evergreens and other many flowering trees around the front, side and back yard of the house. They seemed to have much knowledge as varieties of such trees were planted; the locations provided the exact requirements of the trees in terms of light, shade and soil. I do not take care of them, but they are growing big and strong. I wonder when the trees were planted, what size they were then, if the person got to see and enjoy its beauty. My humble thank you and gratitude to them wherever they might be on this earth or mixed in air.

New growth appearing in the tree. The tree is a medium size in both height and width-wise. It's height must about ten feet; the width must about five feet or more. The second picture is that of a close-up of the bud; more blossoms soon going to boom in the third picture

Close-up shots of the flowers.

The tree is a magnet for bees; from tiny fly-like bees to these large bees (bumble bees??) buzz around it, flying from one flower to the next. How do they choose which flower to visit? Why are they, most of the time, hovering around the top-flowers instead of the flowers at the side and bottom branches? Are enough pollen left for many bees to visit the same flower? Many such questions would crowd together in my mind as I stand mesmerized watching their activities. The pictures are hazy because the bees zoom around in sonic speed; difficult to catch a still-shot.

Pollinator Day

I came across this post through Donna of Gardens Eye View. The post says that Monsanto bought one of the leading Bee Research Firm. If you have had enough of juicy Monsanto, and can't take any more bite, then please do not leave the table and hang out a little bit for the cake. And here it is: 

EPA has sided with industry lobbyists over public health in approving a highly dangerous pesticide that the European Union recently decided to ban over fears of environmental devastation.Not only have neonicotinoid pesticides been linked repeatedly to mass bee deaths, also known as Colony Collapse Disorder, but the continued use of such pesticides threatens other aspects of nature (and humans) as well.

You can read the full article here. I talked about the effect of the neonicotinoid pesticide in my blog post located here.

Top up the cake with rich nice icing: For the first time in human history, concentrations of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere are expected to pass 400 parts per million across much of the Northern Hemisphere in May, according to scientists who study data from the Mauna Loa Observatory, the world's longest-running CO2 . The whole article can be found at this address.

So, on one hand we are already experiencing the devastating effects of climate change with drought, Sandy, tornadoes, heavy monsoon, freezing winter or warm winter; and, then on the other hand we are destroying our pollinators. This might sound as conspiracy theory, but I am sure that Monsanto is developing seeds and crops of all sorts of fruits and vegetables which does not need pollinators. When no more pollinators will be left on earth, we-the-gardeners will be forced to buy such Monsanto seeds. In history, we learned about about Genghis Khan, Caesar, Alexander the Great and other such domination by kings and queens. 21st century and beyond will see the domination of companies like Monsanto unless we civilians do something.

So, I was thinking of adopting a pollinator day. All of us gardeners and garden-bloggers will pledge to do something for our pollinators on that day. Perhaps, we can plant some native pollinator-loving plants; or we can swap plants and seeds with our friends/neighbors/bloggers; or discuss about some issue related to pollinators. Again Donna of Gardens Eye View
and her friend Susan of Life Change Compost gave away seeds, that attracts pollinators, to bloggers. We can adopt one such day for northern hemisphere and one such day for southern hemisphere. It should be a weekend and sometime in summer when planting activities are in full swing. What do you all think? Interested? Then, which day shall we choose? May be first Saturday of June when it is not too hot to stress the plants, neither too cold? Also, if you are interested, please spread the word around through your blog and any other related means. We desperately need to do something for mother earth, nature, climate, environment, our friendly pollinators and send a message that when we unite for a good cause, nothing can stand against our way.

On Saturday (May 18, 2013), I bought many native plants from one of the certified, authentic native plants grower and steward of New Jersey, the Wilde Ridge Plants:

Virginia Waterleaf; liatris spicata and monarda didyma. He and his wife has the permission to collect seeds from the wild and propagate. Thus, these are true wild flowers of New Jersey.

I also got from them tall coneflower (Rudbeckia Laciniata), wild strawberry (Fragiria Virginiana) and wild sunflowers. These are all summer bloomers. So, I will post pictures as they bloom.