Random photos

I took this swan picture by the light of 2 lightbulbs. It had just rained and the chamomile looked like some fairy thing. I had to doctor the result a bit but I like it. Eh, it's a canon powershot... I mean I guess there might have been something fancy I could have done to take this better but still.

Here's me editing my garden, sorta akin to copy and paste. I decided to stick some more of my birdfeeder sunflowers in back. Surprizingly, they spring back pretty quickly, especially given that it's been so cool and wet. I still have a bunch of millet and other mystery birdseed babies in that I'm not sure about. I blame the squirrels!

I love chives. They make a simple thing really nice. They are one of the 1st green things in the spring, they are super easy to grow, even in pots and their flowers are pretty and edible. I have been known to scope out chives that are slightly differently colored but in this garden I only have lavender.

I understand that in certain SE Asian cities crowded, and I mean crowded beyond what most of us experience that you see lots of little pots full of various onion greens. If you have only a balcony and want fresh produce, start with chives.

Here's the 1st eggplant I planted this year. It is called ichiban, which means "number one" in Japanese. If I had to choose one eggplant to grow it would be ichiban. It's beautiful with black stems, I am rather partial to dark things, and very productive as well as good eating. I tend to harvest eggplant while young which is when they are most tasty and this also keeps the plant productive.

For some reason I have ended up getting this from boxstores, though last year I ordered one from California. My local nurseries spurn this eggplant and instead favor 'little fingers' which is also a similar, nice eggplant, but not as pretty. Its stems are green but the eggplant is similar. Don't get me wrong, I have a little fingers too that I haven't planted yet but, I will plead with my local nurseries to carry ichiban! It is called 'number one' for a reason.

Here's yet another post today. I think what I am doing is worthwhile but currently I have an average of only 10 visitors a day. I hope that this will increase. Anyway, it is my habit to post before I am done editing which means that if you are really keen on this blog, you oughta not click on new posts until they are at least an hour old.

My boyfriend got me set up on bit.ly which I forward to my twitter account when I am really(I think) done editing a post so if my incomplete posts are annoying, you might do better to follow me on twitter and click on the bit.ly link. I am gobbism.

Mostly Blooms and my Berm

It's been cool and rainy, great weather for sleeping and other things. I have a rain collection system I am working on but it like most things I do is sort improvised. When and if I perfect it I will share details that a layman may read and see and apply to their own situation. I will say that in my improvising, that I have been careful about mosquitoes. Those mosquito donuts are available everywhere and should be used, indeed, even a birdbath can get infested with mosquitoes, they need very little water to breed.

We start this with my yarrow which was growing in the grass between the sidewalk and the street. I decided to let it grow wild and bloom this year. Last year I felt compelled to trim it with the grass. It looks pretty but untidy, musch like the chamomile growing in the cracks of the sidewalk but when these blooms pass, I intend to dig up my berm and give it structure so it really looks like I intended it to be wild. Anything to avoid having to mow it!

Another berm improvisation is this sea thrift. It is all but swallowed by the grass and clover. Again, I will try to change this.

There's chamomile all over my garden including, of course the berm. I planted this cabbage here for lack of another spot for it. I sorta wish they sold them in 2 packs but I guess I could have passed this on to somebody. The thing is that most people do not plant as early as me which means I either abuse the seedling by keeping it in its tiny plug or I have to transplant it to a slightly larger pot. I wish people would think more about their gardens in April, really folks, if you do, it usually comes together and grows better too. I might offer discounts for early bird gardeners, yeah I think I might just do that.

The pole are there because my landlord uses the detached garage in back to hold construction material so he drives down my driveway pretty often and kept running over things I planted here including my crocuses! Maybe he's gotten the hint and I'll take this down. I did widen the entry by a red brick and put a large cobble stone down as a barrier that can be felt as it is run over.

This next picture belongs in the dew post but is here. Yes I have strawberries. No, they're not on the berm. This is the 2nd year so they should be and certainly look more productive than they were last year. Maybe I should plant some of these in the berm? Most people who walk their dogs sorta avoid leaving anything behind here. Atctually, most dogowners clean up in general but there's always one who... OK, no strawberries on the berm.

Well, I sorta wish this blog wasn't so scattered but when you consider the structure of my garden, this makes sense.

More Stuff!

As promised, I am doing another post. It's May you know? There is just so much beauty I could cry, but I won't.

Here's the cheddarhead eating by my saladbowl, which is filling out nicely though this isn't its best side. Behind it is lacinato kale and an eggplant. Yup, I haven't caught up with everything here.

This planter has a matching one, sorta, on the other side of the steps. It started last year with lipstick salvia which i wintered with partial success. The salvia was kinda ragged so i filled it in with mizuna which already needs to be harvested, allysum and of all things hops! The hops are an unknown ungendered quanity. A friend gave me seedlings this spring and just for kicks I am keeping a few to see what's up. Who knows, I might end up having a new variety.

This porch still life is my fancy swedish ivy, mona lavender, with vases of chamomile and acapulco anise hyssop. I trimmed back the feral chamomile a touch but wanted to see if the buds would bloom in a vase. They have.

Chives are so easy and pretty, especially when they bloom. In the background is one of my bokashi buckets.

Well, I think that's it for today. I have a lot that I haven't covered.

Dew!

This morning was foggy and I realized as I drank my coffee this morning, dewy. I yelled for Todd to grab my camera to document this and here it is.

I planted this lacinato kale last week I think. It's looking lovely already. I haven't harvested any yet but it is good eating. That and red russian are my favorite kales right now.

 

Here's a closer view of a leaf. It was just beautiful.

 

Next we have an artichoke leaf.

 

And finally a cabbage leaf over some mizuna which I still need to harvest. No hurry though.

 

I think I am going to try to do a post a day, if only because I now have super duper fast uploading. My garden is growing at warp speed. I think I might do another post when I finish this. I think it's just easier to upload only 4 photos at a time but I take so many beautiful pictures so I must post more.

I think my garden is giving me ADHD

There's so much going on with it now that I want to document but I can't blog while I am gardening, unless I do a vlog, then I'd want a robot camera to do my bidding. But that's a whole new bin of worms.

This onion is blooming. I cannot recall what kind of onion it is but I think it's pretty. I have harvested a few onion blooms for garnishes. The little single flowers are great in soup but I have to be careful about bugs. There's some kind of beetle that just loves these blooms. I think it's into its pollen and nectar, it doesn't seem to have eaten the actual flower.

For a long time, one of the only things alive in my garden was the giant red mustard. Now as you see here, it is living up to its name. I've been harvesting 3 a day just to thin it.

I found this box with 2 others in someone's trash. I think that they were used to store some sort of glass but they got damaged by some wood eating insect. This one just screamed PLANT TOMATOES IN ME which I have done since this photo was taken. Being a rather deep box I am trying another experiment which I will explain later if I have success. The other 2 boxes are open sided and I have used them to make raised beds. This is in my neglected backyard. I promise I will blog about this later.

These seedlings are sunflowers that sprouted below my birdfeeder. I transplanted them here next to my porch where their height will not shade any other plants. Also pictured are Acapulco anise hyssop and red raspberry.

That's it for now will check back shortly.

Porch plants II

Here is part II, before I narrate, I will add one more photo.

All right, we begin with the saladball on the newel post. If you are so inclined, click on it and you will see 3 seedlings on top which should fill this thing out completely. That's 2 nasturtiums and one cypress vine.Next is my earthbox, a selfwatering container which I have planted with guaranitica salvia and some other blue flowers. This is my attempt to spoil the hummingbirds. The yellow butterfly in the middle is for the fungus gnats which I hope to eradicate soon via multiple means. It's one of those sticky things.

This dragonwing begonia should grow very quickly. So far it's not much to look at.

I have a lot of plants that still do not have a home. this is their staging area.

But on the other side, I have things pretty much set up. Got a mint pot, bay laurel, rosemary and sweet red pepper.

So that's some of my porch plants. Now I must edit my 1st porch post.

Porch Plants

I guess blogger does not like to upload more than 4 images at a time so I am turning this into 2 blog posts. Who am I kidding? I could do a post for every picture.

This 1st plant was an impulse buy, mona lavender swedish ivy. I was hoping that it would be attractive to hummingbirds, and it is. Oh yeah, yesterday I finally saw my 1st.

In this corner are some gardening things and an orchid cactus, normally a houseplant, which actually likes low light and lots of moisture. This corner might be good for it.

This heliotrope has a marble mulch. I actually found these in someone's garbage.

This dracula dahlia is in keeping with the black and blue salvia. The mulch is hydroton.

None of these are edible but that's OK. I might have some herbs hanging out on the porch but I haven't decided yet. It's always a work in progress.

Garden Eyecandy

This might be obnoxious but I haven't been updating fast enought to catch up with my garden. Everything is just exploding!

This tomato is not in an ideal habitat but this isn't about perfect tomatoes, it's about fun and maybe sharing with the neighbors. It's a cherry, either juliet or super sweet 100. Don't be fooled by it's shady spot. I have plans to somehow train this against the railroad tie wall where there is plenty of sun. I just think I will have to tweak the balance of nutrients in its soil more carefully than a standard planting.These feral chamomile have miraculously not been tread upon. Either my neighbors understand that this isn't a weed or they just think I am crazy and are afraid to damage this flower. I think that they somehow understand that I am up to something special.The saladball is slowly filling out. I plant something else as if this were a sketch I sit with every few days. Always a work in progress. It already looks different than it did from this photo which is maybe a week old.For some reason this little bay laurel makes me happy. It suffered so much this winter and now it looks alive.These cascade hops are in their second year. What a difference a year makes! Maybe it will be worth harvesting this year.This blur of plants are pretty much all greens and all edible. OK, a few aren't but they aren't weeds. I thin them pretty much everyday. It sorta forces me to eat my vegetables. There's mizuna, red cabbage, pansies, florence fennel seedlings, onions and probably something I have forgotten. Damn! I have surpassed the 20 item limit of things I may tag this blog with. Sure, I could have made it 2 posts but whatever.This lacinato kale should be pretty graceful in this pot. I tucked in some allysum and some chervil thinnings from the salad bowl. There's even a basil plant, just basic basil. Now if I can find some red russian kale, I will be happy. I might have to grow it myself. hmph. One disadvantage of Pittsburgh is a lack of exotic stuff. Now if there were enough of a demand I WOULD put more effort into growing my own to share or perhaps sell with to other gardeners.These wallflowers are nice, and half haven't started blooming yet. Tansy, monarda and calendula have yet to flower. This wall is built of found things. I am quite fond of thrifting, indeed, my latest project is the result of thrifting, actually a good find. More on that shortly. I don't know if I have said it here, but I sorta feel like recycling in whatever form is a very patriotic thing to do. I don't want to be preachy, but when I think about things coming from far, far away and using fossil fuels to do things when it's all in your backyard it kinda upsets me.This cat always looks scared. here is a rare view of my backyard. It needs a lot of work. This was taken through my kitchen window. I don't think this cat is feral, she's just a scaredy cat.

These are my tulips at their best this year. Already more than half of them are done blooming. Just this yesterday I heard a very small child say very clearly "TULIPS" when he passed by with his family. This made my day.

These oyster mushrooms show a new direction I am going in garden synergy. If my experiments work out, I'll share them. Honestly for the most part if I show you something here I think you should try it for yourself. The stuff I am trying that I'm not sure about, I don't share.

These ants with amber distended bodies fed from my hummingbird feeder until I filled the ant guard with water. I really do not like ants but these look like jewels. These ants are actually, at least on my browser, a fifth of the size they are here. The black surface they are walking on is a cast iron shepard's hook which looks fairly smooth in normal vision.

I hope that in the future that I will stick to my goal of posting twice a week. I think the poison ivy set me back. Anyway, already I have a lot to document.

Poison Ivy

I just did a monster job. I ripped up more than 100 pounds of it. I think I am going to raise my rates for poison ivy removal. I will however consider a discount if it is requested during the fall or winter or very, very, early spring.

You see, poison ivy is one of those weeds I have to admire. It is lovely. The leaves are nicely shaped and shiny. The vines gracefully wraps itself around trees and fenceposts and arcs out like the snakes on Medusa's head. The vines have these furry brown roots that look almost soft. In the fall the leaves turn into the prettiest red. And by winter the whites berries cluster like miniature grapes, which bird love to eat which helps distribute their seeds.

I am very familiar with this plant. I have encountered it in every stage of its life extensively when I was an archaeological field technician. I never had to go to the hospital because of it but I knew many that did. I have been driven close to madness when I had a few bad cases. Well, maybe not madness but it infuriated me.

When I remove poison ivy I assume that I will get a rash. I suppose that there have been a few times that I have not, when it's been a small job but even then I take every precaution. My reaction to exposure is not uniform. Sometimes it is like a few mosquito bites, others, like right now, it is much, much worse. I think I was a bit foolhardy this spring because it's been a while since I had a good rash. I actually got a small blister on my lip! That's a first. I suppose that the fact that a few of those vines whipped my face are good cause for that! It's a small blister, but I look like I have herpes.

So how do I treat this? The best treatment is prevention. First thing, I wear gloves. Really, I should have been wearing elbow length impermeable disposable gloves but I was being stupid. I wore my standard nitrile gloves because it was warm out. Secondly, I wash all potentially exposed skin with technu, a special urushiol oil remover. I have decided, as of the completion of this job that I will wash with technu every hour on the hour. Usually I do not spend more than an hour doing this sort of thing. I also shower and wash with technu the rest of my body. We're talking a major scrub and re-scrub here.

After that, I wait. Usually it takes a few days, sometimes 3 or more for my to react. This is quite fortunate, but this time around it took 20 hours. When the first blisters appear, I wash again with technu, this time on the areas affected. Then I wait til more blisters appear. When I have a good idea of where I am infected and it starts to make me a little crazy, that's when I use zanfel. Most people that are P.I. savvy know about technu, but most have not heard of zanfel. I will quote directly from their site,

"Zanfel™ Poison Ivy Wash is a safe and effective topical solution for poison ivy, poison oak, and poison sumac. It is the only product known to remove urushiol, the toxin responsible for the reaction, from the skin after bonding, enabling the affected area to immediately begin healing. After using Zanfel, the itching and pain are the first things to be relieved, usually within 30 seconds."

Zanfel is expensive, but I swear by it. It does not always irradicate all poison ivy, indeed, I tend to use it as last resort because I am OK with a little itch if only to remind me to be more cautious next time so when I use zanfel, I almost always need 2 treatments. This time around I think it will be 3. The cheapest source of poison ivy protection, including the hard to find zanfel is CSP Outdoors. I have bought technu by the quart from them, and of course they have zanfel.

I hope that some people out there will have a better poison ivy experience after reading this post. I also hope that my clients will read this and NOT casually ask me to remove poison ivy from their garden bed. If there's one thing that drives me crazy, it is a client who is oblivious to my suffering.

I am adding to this post rather than starting a new one because I decided that this blog though primarily based in reality is a bit of a fantasy. The photos of my garden are windows of bliss. I don't show works in progress that are ugly. The actual photos of myself might look a bit better than what I do in real life, though that depends on the day and whether it is dark out etc... so to me, poison ivy is one of those realities that I try to pretend doesn't exist, but every once in a while I have to acknowledge it.

Poison ivy has the most urushiol oil in its roots. Urushiol oil is probably the most concentrated in the spring when it comes out of dormancy. That is why I probably got it so bad this time around. When I severed the vines, there was literally sap dripping from the vines, like water. Think about the sap runs of maple syrup. Generally, sap is collected a few weeks before the buds burst open. Maple comes out of dormancy a few weeks before poison ivy does. If I wanted to collect a chemical weapon, I could tap poison ivy vines in mid-april. Those shiny leaves that have not yet lost their initial blush of red are extra potent.

End of April

This cat is feral. I have taken to calling her/him Orangy or Cheddarhead. Cheddarhead's left ear seems to be clipped. This might be an indicator that at one point thhis cat was caught, neutered, then released. She, I think she's a she, was around the day we moved in. She is actually more likely to be a boy because 75% of orange cats are male but I think she's a she. I am now feeding her almost everyday. She still hasn't let me touch her. Behind this feral cat is some feral chamomile. I also have feral red mustard, fennel and even a viola.

The salad bowl is filling in quite nicely, with Orangy behind.

This fennel survived the winter and has a lot of tender bulbs coming up. I am thinking of making something special with these.

I planted this strawberry last year. I just love the anticipation of the fruit to come. Next to it are 2 flowers I always have, pansies and allysum.

One thing I haven't mentioned is tha a year ago I had a major problem with slugs. I decimated them with sluggo, a bait whose active ingredient is iron phosphate which is safe for pets. There are other baits out there that are really toxic. Don't use them. Only use bait that is pet safe whose active ingredient is iron phosphate. If you do, your slugs will disappear.