The Tenacity of Broccoli

Yes, broccoli.

I went out to the compost pile this morning to throw the remains of breakfast - grapefruit rinds, pear cores, and a really awful orange that tasted like dry carpet fibers - into the pile. I discovered that the broccoli plants we'd composted over a month ago had continued to grow.  Mind you, the roots are waving in the air, there's no soil on the roots, and we chopped the main crown of florets off.  Oh, but broccoli doesn't care.  It produced a whole new crop of broccoli crowns along the thick trunk-like stem.  Despite several hard frosts, despite the fact that the compost pile sits under a dense stand of pine trees, despite no soil....I'm not quite sure how the darned thing did it, but it did it. It produced another crop for me.  And I picked it, and it's sitting soaking in cold water until I can eat it for lunch.

Have you ever met anything more generous in the natural world than plants?  Anything more amazing?

Even a broccoli can awe you if you look at it a certain way.

Canned Bees

Now I have seen some pretty strange things in gardening catalogs and seed catalogs, and working in the garden center many years ago I saw some unusual products come through our hands.  But today when I opened up one of the many lovely seed catalogs that came in the mail something stumped me.  It was a can of bees. I mean literally, something that looked like one of those giant Budweiser cans of beer but sealed and called Mason Bees.  I did a double take. Canned bees? You can buy bees by the can, through the mail?

Yes, apparently you can (pun intended.) They're called Mason bees, and each can supposedly holds some female bees who each lay 25 to 30 eggs to make little bees.  The catalog sold bee houses and bee colony equipment too.  You purchase your canned bees, put up your little bee house, and hopefully the little buggers go to work pollinating your trees and such.

Considering I have 30 fruit trees needing bees...I'm starting to get interested in this. But one problem. I'm a little scared of bees.  Not phobic by any means, I just don't like them near me.  If I'm working out in the garden of course I tolerate them. Bees are your friend and mine in the garden, from the tiniest yellow jacket to the giant carpenter bees like my lovesick bee friend.  We all want plenty of bees for good pollination, particularly those of us who grow fruit trees.

As we start looking through the gardening catalogs for nut trees and the fig trees I want to add to the orchard, my eyes keep straying to that can of bees.  A can of bees.  What will they think of next?

And how can I convince hubby that I need canned bees and a cute little bee house in the orchard?

Happy Boxing Day

Hope everyone had a Merry Christmas! Christmas was lovely this year because the emphasis was on faith, family and friends, in that order - NOT food, gifts and consumerism.  I'm not talking about becoming a Scrooge and doing away with giving presents, but I am talking about putting the emphasis where it belongs - with relationships, first with God and then with your family and friends.

My friend Cecilia called me from Los Angeles around 9:30 p.m to wish me a Merry Christmas and send her love and best wishes to the choir.  We miss her beautiful soprano voice and cheerfulness for sure every week but she's moved on to a new job in the midwest.  She didn't forget her friends back east though, and it was so nice to let everyone know we had a friend on the West Coast rooting for us as we sang the new translation of the Gloria for the first time.

Midnight Mass was wonderful but for me a struggle with my body clock.  I am a morning person and my body does not adjust to staying up late.  I couldn't even stay up late as a teenager. I am still feeling "hung over" from sleep deprivation today and battling a migraine, which is what happens to me when I go off my sleep schedule, but it was worth it to start Christmas was carols, songs and hugs from my church family. 

Then it was home to my family nest - with Christmas morning under the tree snuggling with both cats and Shadow as we unwrapped a few presents from friends who brought hostess gifts to last weekend's Christmas dinner.  My little godson sent Christmas presents for the pets, and Pierre and Raz enjoyed their new catnip toy, a weird green plastic ball with fringe on it, and a new brush for Raz.  Shadow got jerky treats and she loved them so much she sat next to the shelf where we placed them out of her reach and worshipped the bag from afar.  We spent the day watching endless reruns of "A Christmas Story" to the point where we started reciting lines - "You'll shoot your eye out!" - and I worked on my counted cross stitch and ran out of thread.  I worked out too, and walked on the treadmill for half an hour grooving to the oldies on the CD player

So now today is Boxing Day, which doesn't mean we all punch each other in the nose.  Back in the olden days when people had servants it was the day to give servants their boxes or presents.  Since I am the servant here as well as the mistress of the house, I think I will treat myself to some time to myself later.  I am planning the vegetable garden, perusing the seed catalogs, and I'll probably go out and pull up more of the spent marigolds later to get some fresh air. I can't believe how the spring flowering perennials are all blooming - I've got daffodils emerging, Dutch iris already up, and even yarrow - yes, yarrow - blooming away.  Thank God no snow but honestly,  my poor plants are confused and think it is Easter instead of Christmas.

Happy Boxing Day and hope your Christmas was merry!

How King Montezuma's Favorite Plant Became the Christmas Poinsettia

Sometimes the history of plants reads like a soap opera. I researched and wrote two pieces this morning about poinsettia, and the more I dug into the topic, the more fascinated I became with this beautiful plant. I love poinsettia and while I choose silk over the real thing, my window boxes along the front porch are adorned with stems of silk poinsettia and I have two big fake ones outside my front door.  I have tablecloths with red poinsettia and my favorite Christmas candle is a big sparkly glass candle with a painting of a poinsettia on it.  As I look at all these symbols of Christmas, I can't help but smile.  The Europeans may have conquered the Aztecs, but their favorite plant conquered OUR holiday!

King Montezuma, the last of the Aztecs, so loved the poinsettia that he sent caravans into the lower elevations to return with the plants to adorn his palace; it wouldn't grow on the higher elevations where he lived.  For nearly 100 years, one family in California held the secret to growing the perfect poinsettias until lab technicians unlocked their secret - in 1990! Conquerers, angels whispering secrets to poor Mexican girls, clever marketing and more make up the rich history of the poinsettia.

Read more in my article, How the Poinsettia Became Associated with Christmas.

Growing Amaryllis

Amaryllis come along just when you think you can't stand winter another moment.  As the days grow shorter, and the nights longer, here comes the gigantic screaming red trumpets of the amaryllis flower as if to say, "Here I am! Sunshine! Warmth! Life! Stand back, winter."

I don't know how amaryllis became associated with the holidays, but you stumble over amaryllis displays in every big box store from coast to coast.  I love the amaryllis bulb kits - they're easy to use, they come with everything you need, and they're inexpensive. It's like just add water and get an instant houseplant.

Having discovered through trial and error that amaryllis love bright warm rooms, I advise anyone interested in growing the brilliant amaryllis to:

• Follow the package directions on the kit, especially when you're planting amaryllis.  The bulbs should be planted just to the soil line, meaning that the soil should cover the bulb and go just to the where the bulb's neck meets the rounded bulb portion. Look at the little picture that comes with your amaryllis kit to make sure you're doing it right.
• Don't water the amaryllis bulb too much at the beginning.  You can and should water it more after the green stem and at least one set of leaves appear.
• Once the leaves appear, the amaryllis will remind you of an alien plant. It grow fast - super fast - and you'll swear you blink and it's gained a few inches in height.  
• When the flowers appear, the stalk may not be strong enough to support them.  Since it's tough to find a plant stake at the garden center in the middle of the winter, I've used a dowel from Lowe's, spray painted green to hide it among the stalks, as a plant support, and a green twist-tie from the bread to tie the amaryllis to its support.

One thing I learned today while researching an article for a client is that you can get an amaryllis to bloom again if you cut back the flower stalk after it's finished its first blooming period.  I will need to try that with my next amaryllis.

For more on Growing Amaryllis, please enjoy my latest article for Main Line Gardening.

And Then There Were Three

His royal highness, Pierre

Had a request from a Pierre fan for an animal update.  So I'm calling this one, "And then there were three."


We have been really careful to keep Raz and Pierre apart for the most part, with supervised visits. So far it has worked just fine.  The staff at the veterinary hospital advised us to make sure we keep the boy's water, food bowls and litter boxes separate due to the virus Raz carries, even though Pierre is vaccinated against the virus.  So Raz has his accoutrements in one room of the house, Pierre's in another.  Raz sleeps in that room at night too, so we don't worry about the boys getting into a spat while we're trying to rest.

We've been gradually letting Raz out for longer and longer periods of time, and on Sunday, he stayed out of his room the entire morning.  Raz kept chasing Pierre on previous days, but finally the two cats settled into the living room. As long as Pierre is up high - perched on the back of a chair, or on the back of the couch, or even sitting on the coffee table while Raz is on the floor - he's fine with it.  Raz is an awful jumper.  He can't even jump up onto the bed. He seems content to box up on the floor the way cats do, folding his front paws in to make a neat little box of himself.  He sits there and trills a little song to Pierre, while Pierre glares at him down his regal nose.  Then the two just doze off and that's that.  No fights, no fuss, no muss.

Raz discovered the couch...

Raz is an odd little cat.  He doesn't seem to know how to play.  I have a bunch of toys in his room - a stuffed opossum we call Opie for some strange reason, a stuffed chicken with feathers, a toy mouse, a ball.  He doesn't play when he's alone.  He liked to watch out his windows, and he seems to like to sleep on things I've knitted, which does wonders for my ego. I have a cat bed that I knitted for my old black cat. She hated it.  I then tried to entice Pierre into it when he was a kitten. We have one photo of him as a fluffy gray kitten, blue eyes matching the blue of the cat bed, staring up at us.  But the next night he refused to sleep in the cat bed.

Raz loves it. I made him a bed in the garage on his first night with us using a cardboard box, the knitted cat bed, and a flannel blanket I'd gotten from the Humane Society as a thank you for a donation made long ago.  I made him a nest, and moved the box upstairs to his bedroom. He prefers that box to the fluffy cat bed I bought him at the store.  Pierre already snagged the cat bed, but it doesn't matter. Raz prefers his cardboard box and homemade hand-me-downs.

He has a good appetite, he drinks and does all the natural things a cat is supposed to do, but he doesn't seem to know how to play.  When he's with me in the office, he does bat around a green toy mouse.  But only when he has some company.

He purrs, he enjoys being petted, and he loves Shadow. Shadow is like his big furry mama.  She licks him and when he meows inside his room in the morning to let us know he's ready to come out for the day and sun himself on the couch, she lays down outside of his room and watches with worried eyes until she can sniff him and reassure herself he is okay.

And then there were three...

Shadow is really an amazing dog. She already knows the names of the cats - and she herds them.  Shepherds them, I guess, since she is a German shepherd.  If Pierre is doing something bad, like trying to jump up on to of the television set, I yell, "Shadow. Get Pierre!" And she's off and running, herding him out of the living room and into the dining room away from trouble. If Raz starts sharpening his claws on the couch, we just have to yell, "Raz, NO!" and Shadow bounds into the room.  She's gentler with Raz, but she herds him away from the object being destroyed, pushing him with her nose and biting him gently on the back when he disobeys.

Raz returns to the vet hospital this week and I hope he is showing more improvement. In the meantime, I have to rummage through the box of old Christmas stockings in the basement and find one to remake over for the new guy.  Santa has to leave him toys, too!

Surprises from the Organic Vegetable Garden

I love the fall vegetable garden, not just for the abundance, but for the surprises.  Just when you think you've harvested everything, along comes a surprise potato...a carrot neglected among the weeds...or the cauliflower, which we thought was nothing but leaves, but which hides fist-sized heads of creamy-colored florets.

Some of the vegetables we left outside on purpose. The parsnips, turnips and carrots were so generous this year that we had absolutely no room for them in the refrigerator.  My freezer is packed with pint-sized containers of blanched and frozen carrots.  Turnips store fairly well, but we've already put up bags of them in the garage, which is now doubling as a cold-storage room until the spring thaw. So we left them in the ground, figuring that the soil would insulate them for a few weeks longer, and the cool to cold weather would slow their growth rate so that they wouldn't get much bigger.

The red cabbage is slowly forming into heads, and the cauliflower finally allowed us to peek inside the leathery green leaves to find the edible head. The broccoli continues to surprise us; the last stalks left in the garden not only produced another lovely head of broccoli, but it was so tender, so sweet, that even the broccoli haters in the household looked hopeful when I brought the bowl to the table.

Now is also the time for planning. The Parks catalog arrived, and I have already dog-eared several pages, including a page of asparagus for the new asparagus bed we are planting next year, and the sweet potatoes, which will once again have pride of place in the garden.  I sat down at the computer over the weekend and mapped out the vegetable beds, printing a blank form so that I can pencil in each variety.

Next year, my goal is not only to share with you the pictures, the progress, but also what I planted, when I planted it, and the yield.

In the meantime, as we start thinking about putting up the Christmas tree and writing out the Christmas cards, the Parks catalog beckons. I wonder if Santa can fit a few seed packets onto his sleigh?

See How They Grow - Measuring the Orchard Trees

Each year around Thanksgiving we measure the trees in the orchard.  When we planted them in late fall 2007 - spring 2008, they were just pitiful sticks with a twist of root (if we were lucky!).  They ranged in size from 18" to 2'.

Now three years later, our trees have soared.  The tallest tree is Bartlett pear tree that is now over 11 feet tall. We have four pear trees in all - two Bartletts and two Orients.  Among the four, three are over 10 feet tall, but one Orient pear remains about 6 feet tall.

The peach trees had quite a growth spurt this year, each one gaining at least two feet or more.  Some of the apple trees gained a foot or more in height, but not all.

We keep examining the measurements, the location, and the variety of tree to see a pattern, but none emerges.  At first we thought that perhaps the trees in the second row received more sun and thus grew taller, but no - in some cases, the trees closer to the woods, which  receive slightly less sunlight than the other trees, grew the fastest.

Water may be a factor, or it may not be.  All of the trees receive rain water and obviously, it's about equal, although the orchard is planted on a slight slope. The apple trees are at the top of the slope, then the peach trees, the pears, the plums, cherries and apricot trees.  We supplement rainwater with hand-watering during the hottest periods of the summer and in times of drought.  Considering the discrepancies among the growth rate of the trees, I'd say it is not really a question of growing conditions, but more a factor of the differences in individual trees themselves.  Two trees of the same variety planted side by side, receiving nearly identical soil, fertilizer, sunlight and water can be very different.

Nature never fails to surprise me. The differences among the trees remind me that even plants are individuals, each with unique qualities.  Sometimes when I look out across the orchards, the woods or the garden, I see the plants as one big mass of the same; there's my spread of day lilies, the iris, the peonies, the roses, the coneflower, the herbs, the apple trees. Yet when we measure them and inspect each one individually, we note many differences. The trees take on personalities of their own.  They are as unique as we are.