Nice

Other Fields

This is Toby's garlic. He grew it from garlic purchased from Hudson Clove last summer. I'm not recommending anybody plant my garlic, but chances are if it looks healthy by planting time, it is. Toby's garden appears to bear that out. I know he's not the only one who planted my garlic last year and I wonder if anyone else wants to let me know how theirs is growing.

Beepin Flowers

We were driven out of the house early today to see why it was there was beeping and cursing going on, for what worked out to be hours. A half marathon apparently had closed down all the local roads, and no one knew. Our small streets became clogged with cars, angry drivers, and no reason. It was road madness. Since I was outside, I pulled my samurai hoe from the van and made short order of weeds, moved a few plants, then took photos of some flowers.

Flax, sun barely shining through the clouds. We planted two of these Larry specials last year. One returned this season.

 Geranium gracing the iron fencing, just beneath grandma's rose.

 Grandma's rose stretched itself this spring, reaching over the hacked shrub rose.

The scent is a light citrus spice. The first bud of the season was cut for my grandmother on mother's day. She still has a nose for flowers at 98.

We thought tradescantia bit the dust, but some has come up in odd places -in this case under the rose. Iphone refuses to do well with the blue-purple, especially with yellow on top.

Today I head to Flushing for some Hot Pot and dumplings with a visiting friend, but only after I visit an open studio in LIC and hit the hydroponics store off the LI Expressway. I've been eyeballing this place for years and years, now finally have a reason to check it out.

May's Apple

This is our May apple flower. I don't know why I think it's rarefied, but I treat it as such. An unlikely, delicate, ephemeral green in our yard?

It's holding its own amongst the blue hosta, the asters, the day lilies, Norway maples and ever roving pokeweed. This is a competitive crowd. And then there's the fauna.

I think the yew tree that shades the area offers a respite from most human interaction. and so we have yet again a May apple.

Field Notes

Last year the side garden received more than its share of regular trouncing, but it's growing again so we're at it again. Some plants came back from the dead either from their own roots (salvia) or from self seeding (dicentra eximia). Overall things look okay except for the bare spot where the trouncing was too much. Here we've moved some delicate natives that years back I bought at the New England Wildflower Society in Massachusetts. They're slowly coming to life as natives so often do. 

I apologize for these sunny, hard iPhone photos. I've been eyeballing cameras for months now and cannot decide. When you cannot decide, don't do anything. Obviously I do not have my intended use down and/or the cameras that are out there do not meet my needs. It's hard to beat pocketable iPhones for convenience if not for bokeh. It's not even that there aren't great cameras out there. It's just me and the money, I guess. 

In better blogging news, google has updated their mobile blogging interface to finally include inserting photos within the text body! They will still be scaled and on the blurry side, but I'll take the incremental improvements. This post was made on the bus, a somewhat nausea inducing experience, but a great use of down time. 

Our may apples are producing fruit and I think that's remarkable. Remember that I plucked these from a cull pile on a Van Cortlandt Park trail building trip.

On Friday I plan to head out to the farm. I was sent a photo from another farmer showing some strong yellows in my long storing varieties. They were yellow before, so I'll need to visit to comprehend  what is really going on. I'll spray my last dose of fish and kelp meal, plant the remaining onions (so late now, but why the hell not?), and pull some weeds. I'm not a religious sort, but clearly the success of this year's crop is out of my hands. 

Next week I have a meeting with the folks at New Amsterdam Market, the high priced foodie market in the old Fulton Fish location near the South Street Seaport. I contacted them last December but hadn't heard back until just the other day. It appears they're interested and if their stall prices aren't too high, so am I. Now I just need to harvest some healthy garlic. 

Update: Might I now say that these photos look terrible on a computer screen. I think Blogger is scaling these terribly so that they are more than blurry, but pixelated. Yech.

It's Damp

And there's asparagus to be had. Note to self: don't buy bread at the farmers' market just because it's convenient. Especially on a humid day like today. In fact, just don't. It's not fresh enough for the price. I know the wheat is NY wheat, but when the crisp turns into the chew...