An Elephant In The Room




The elephants are sending up scape, but no one is talking about it -yet. I will be surprised if this one, and the others like it, planted along the fence line isn't clipped by a passerby. The beauty of the elephant is its extended display from unique bulb and beak, to papery spathe's slow peeling, then a stellar explosion of white, lavender, or purple (I believe purple, but surprise me). In the meantime, I head out to the beach farm to check on the status of scapes, but mostly to harvest and plant more lettuce.




Beach Farm Holiday



At first glance the garlic plot is a tangle of healthy growth, probably near its peak before June's dry down begins. Shade caused by the tight row spacing keeps most weeds down, although plenty clover, lamb's quarters, and ragweed were found.


Navigating the rows is a minor challenge, mostly because I do not want to step on any stems or leaves, possibly tripping me up to fall squarely on the plants. This may have been the last weeding, but there will be a scape walk coming in the next few weeks.



As hard as I tried to give the under cultivated edge a boost, the Rocambole to the right still outperforms the Rocambole to the left by several inches in height and half an inch in girth. The edge garlic, here, looks healthy but small. The Marbled Purple Stripe "Siberian" on the opposite edge has been boosted by the amendments, but will never be as healthy as the others.


In fact the stems of the Rocambole "Killarney Red"are sizing up quite well. Beefy stems in May tend to indicate larger bulbs at harvest.



In the new plot, any remaining garlic has a chance to bulk up. Meanwhile, a curious hipster drops her shades. Speaking of Tilden's rampant visitors, the Fed has installed an eight-foot tall chain link defence along the edge of the dune zone. Instead of heeding the fence and heading to Jacob Reis Beach hardly a football field to the east, they hike westward, en masse to some unseen breach in the Fed's dune defenses. Around six pm they head back toward the bridge, but not without queuing outside the two toilet restroom beside the garden, waiting for what must seem like eons in bikinis and towels, wraps and oversized, colored frame sunglasses. Meanwhile, the restrooms at Riis, designed for the hoards that rarely materialize, sit vacant.



It was mostly hard luck in the new plot this season, but fortune has it that most of the Silverskin "Nootka Rose" and "Silverwhite" have held on, many doing better than their counterparts in the two previous seasons. These are the latest to harvest, so it may serve them to fertilize with fish at the end of the month and once again in mid June.



The French Grey Shallots looked weak a month ago, but have since come into their own, looking much more like their 2012 season counterparts. Warmer temperatures, copious blood meal, some potassium, calcium, magnesium, and a dosing of composted manure may have something to do with the brighter outlook.



We harvested lettuce and although it wasn't as large as can be, why not? We need fresh lettuce and no matter where you buy, the garden variety is freshest.





The Rose By A Nose



I went out, quick, to do a small round of errands after a day of organizing and cleaning. Two things: fully unexpected, but instantaneous, allergic coughing and sneezing and my grandmother's rose so full of blooms. Its scent competes only with the iris, which is also blooming now, but in the side yard. I clipped some to bring inside and get away from whatever allergen is floating about on this darkened day.






Meat Run



On Saturday, hours before the torrents that afflicted us later in the day, we went upstate to pick up a new order of pork, beef, and eggs at the Lowland Farm. I would have picked up some chicken too had I thought there would be room in our freezer. Rib steaks, London Broil, ground beef, hot dogs, and beef shins for us as well as more pork hocks, ground pork, boneless shoulder, tenderloin, bacon, and cured cheek. I love the cheek, I put it in anything. At first we thought the bacon was too salty, but that was only because we weren't eating bacon at all. Now we eat bacon once a week. The hocks make a wonderful, if unconventional osso buco. And to try, I added a cured ham steak (eegads!) and cured hock. We've already eaten the London Broil and rib steaks, both with flavors unknown to me until now -sweet and mellow.


My decision to eat only humanely-raised meat has been good for me and my diet. The expense had led me to believe I would eat less, but so far I have not seen that happen. Buying a lot of meat at once not only saves us money, it alleviates some of the sticker shock of individual cuts of local meat at the farmers' market. My eating habits have changed since late January and there have been improvements in the way I feel and some weight loss. We've been eating many more salads for lunch, so I'm glad that our lettuce is coming into its own now at the beach farm. Most improvements I have felt stem from cutting out the crap I would eat for lunch or dinner because I didn't plan properly for eating lunch or dinner! At school this means no more chicken and rice from the cart right outside the front door. For dinner this means no more take out chinese/pizza/something else. I've also reduced my pasta intake -understand how difficult this is for an Italian American! When my ridiculous supply of dried pasta is gone (and it soon will be), I will only purchase high quality local pasta to eat occasionally. Of course, I've cut out soda (except tonic) and hardly touch beer. I avoid juice too, but we have yogurt and frozen fruit smoothies on many summer mornings. My goal is to lose twenty pounds by August, a goal somewhat set by my surgeon who refused to fix a hernia I happen to find myself with until I lose at least twenty pounds. I have not been weighed, but based on the pant waist scale, I've already lost about ten. The ultimate goal, a goal which will require much more than I have already done in terms of exercise and eating, is to lose forty pounds.




Green Shift




I do not have any pictures to bolster my observations, and long have I been aware of trees' change from bright, yellow green leaf coloration to the more deep, blue green of summer. It has happened, rather over night, and I think it was two nights ago when we had a three aye em thunderstorm that it tilted in favor of the summer coloration. Just a few days ago Greenwood's trees were still full of spring brilliance, but today they are fully summer green. I have nothing in the way of scientific observation, and I hardly think it requires a storm to push the trees to this state, but did it, can it?

I've gone on about the affect of thunderstorms on plant growth on these pages before, and so it is that the garden plant growth has also skyrocketed since Thursday's early morning storm. Right now, as a storm slowly moves to the southeast, I think again of the benefits of nitrogen fixing lightning, the boost the plants appear to gain. The garlic, given that both storms have traveled over the beach farm, should also look deep green, taller, and more turgid when I visit on Monday.

Finding Time For The Garden

Now that the spring semester is over, we've been able to make some time for the garden -pulling weed sprouts, moving some volunteers to bare spots, and soaking up the good weather. The front garden has changed fast with the growth of the Zelkova trees. Our garden was a full sun planting but now it is ninety five percent shade. The lilies, the phlox, almost everything is stretching for what little sun passes between the trees. Since we are unsure of our future here it is hard to make the decision to replant. It is also interesting to watch plants on the move. The phlox have moved eighteen inches to the east, doing a number on the asters which I wouldn't have previously thought possible (the asters are pretty tough). The climbing 'New Dawn' can tolerate some shade, but it also will need to move by next season. 


The carpenter bees are spring active, and deliriously hug the bleeding hearts, poking holes in the tops to extract something sweet. Below the telltale marking of the male between the eyes.





These geraniums are in the new shady zone, and will need a new home by next season.


Johnson's Blue geranium is on the corner, in a spot that gets the most sun, maybe four to five hours at this time of the year.


The iris, too, gets some sun under the yew tree at the back of the side yard.


The mayapple, Podophyllum peltatum, with bloom under it's green umbrella, below the yew tree, surviving and moving ever so slowly to the corner's minute of sunlight.


Tradescantia, or spiderwort, blooms in the front yard's pocket of sun, but also made its way to the side yard, growing confidently between the paving slate.


And this hitchhiker, the star of Bethlehem, Ornithogalum umbellatum, finding a pocket of sun between the ever enlarging Dicentra eximia and another geranium in the side yard.



Garlic And Lettuce


As you can see, the garlic is getting quite tall now, the blood meal finally kicking in.



But I lamented not adding compost last fall, and so picked up twelve bags of composted cow manure to spread over two plots on Friday, before the heavy weekend rains, and probably too late to do any real good.



My main target was the garlic weakly growing on the edges, in the under cultivated soil, although I do find the yellowing leaf tips of the Asiatic strains a curiosity and wonder what, if any, effect it may have.



In the row blanks, where garlic simply didn't make it (this spot, southwest corner of the plot, was bad last year too), I plant lettuce.



Looking forward to it, we're eating a lot of salads these days.





Farmers' Market Prospects



Entirely strange way to enter Prospect Park, and having done so felt its soft transgress.



Above, I spied a white redbud. I wasn't aware of this expression.



Departing the carriage road for the market, so many bins of vegetable scraps. I wish I was making my own compost and I do miss the city's free stuff (to which this does not contribute).



There were nettles (and hops), and many things free should you take the time to hunt and pick them.



Like ramps, which I grabbed, for spring's pasta with all things green. 



And quite a deal on lilac bunches at ten dollars for nearly as many branches; so one for us and one for grandma's Mothers' Day visit.



The Good Plot



The good plot. 


The good garlic.


Theory of edges. Same variety, one on the edge, one in a formerly cultivated zone. Edges are less cultivated, so edges are less productive.


Caught In The Crabapple



On may way to photograph the park for possible, future paintings I got caught up in the spectacle of the park circle crabs, something I usually miss but not in this ever so unusual year where you may see forsythia, daffodil, tulip, dogwood, crabapple and cherry blooms all at once.








While photographing, I encountered a voice. Wha? Where?  Up, fool.



A woman, high up in a crab tree, remarked on the serious appearance of my point and shoot as she read among the flowering branches. She descended, I showed her this shot, and we moved on.



In the park late blooming maples.



Phragmite reflections.



Sunning turtles.



The lesser of the celandines becoming rather morer in the wake of fallen timber,



Giant woodland 'field' garlic, so much larger than those of the field.



And big earthworms drowned in heavy rain-swamped lawns.


Cultivating Unlikely



Crossing Broadway, a couple of days ago, on my way to work. 

I have a job running an architectural modeling facility in an architecture and interior design department of a global college. The pay is minimum, the health benefits are decent and, as for many in academia, there is extra time to do your own thing. But as one grows older, one feels time very differently, and what felt like a lot of time before is starting to collapse as my perception of the days and weeks travel faster. Nearly seven years ago I began this blog, feeling the need and having the interest, spending countless hours constructing posts useful and otherwise, learning to edit my writing, to shop images, thinking about landscape, parks, and gardens. These days are no longer. 

My wife and I are very close to leaving this city, leaving 'NYC' garden, a blog, out of place. When we move I do not know if or how I should continue my blogging presence. It seems that, outside of the joys of telling one's story somewhat anonymously, without a professional interest in publishing or marketing, blogging is time away from less soluble pursuits. 

Leaving this city, as an artist, is a hard pill to swallow, harder still because it doesn't so much speak of my failure to succeed as much as a failure to try. So now, before that future move takes shape (although many phantom moves have shown their dark shadows), I am making every effort to pursue what can be pursued within the confines of the job and short days. This means going to art openings, spending time in Chelsea on days off, thinking and writing more about art, and generally having the confidence to participate in the discourse and social arena that makes up the New York, so-called art world.

I am confident in my capability as a painter, the depth of my experience with the land, and have more to learn and say about this in the coming months. Garden, farm, park and painting are distinctions that people want to make, but in truth are the flow of one spring only seen in different light. A gardening blog may be an unlikely venue to discuss why I paint, what I paint, or to present the art that I see, but that is okay with me.


A Line In The Sand






I went down to the beach farm on Saturday morning to check on the garlic, most of which is doing well in my main plot. Here is 'Asian Tempest' and 'Music.'



Purple Stripe variety 'Chesnok Red' is doing just as it should be. I've learned through my two past seasons that soil unimproved with organic matter, particularly compost, will produce poor results in anything but the hardiest of garlic varieties. When the soil is balanced, rich in organics, any variety has shown to do well.




This Marbled Purple Stripe strain, 'Siberian,' is the case in point. This is the most vigorous of the purple stripe strains, one that did moderately well at the Amagansett Farm. Because of this, I planted them in three rows at the boundary of my plot, in soil that rarely gets worked because it is at the edge and somewhat in the shadow of my neighbors planting. In other words, this area was the walking row. Growth here is not nearly as vigorous as the other rows of the same plot, the plants have yellowing leaves, and have had a good amount of rotted cloves.



All the greens seed has sprouted in the neighboring plot, and the peas too. I feel a little bad about it, but not too much. I'm sure whoever has this plot will make do, in fact they should harvest. Having new neighbors is not always easy, as I've learned over the last year at the apartment. I do try to get along with everyone at the garden, although sometimes I hear gripes, not usually about me, but about others. Gripes generally concern petty things, or things one cannot change, or people one refuses to confront. Gripes tend to remain gripes.



I headed over to the other plot, the one I applied for last summer after the rush on empty plots. As evidence for my previous observations about worked soil, I submit this image of the other plot's garlic. Easily fifty percent, varieties that have done well for me before, have not survived. A major disappointment. I've been planting lettuce in the rows vacated by dying garlic.

A neighboring gardener asked me if garlic was all that I was planting, to which I answered no, that I would be planting tomatoes and what not as the garlic empties out. He then gave me some unsolicited advice about spreading fertilizer around individual plants, like the lady formerly on this plot had done. Okay. Then things got weird. 

Before I go on to tell this story, I need to say that I'm not unfamiliar with the squabbles that seem to pop up like weeds around "community" gardens. I have no doubt that this is the reason these gardens are so heavily governed by rules. My tenure here has been relatively trouble free, although, as I said before, I've been the recipient of some gardeners' gripes and my policy is to listen, but stay out of it. I come here for peace and enjoyment, and to learn through growing, and the last thing I want is to participate in conflict.

So the gentleman, neighbor to my new plot, says that he wants to give me a heads up. Oh, what's that? Well, people have been complaining that my plot is too big, that it impedes the movement of the wheelbarrow at the corner. Well, yes, I can see how that might be a problem. He goes on to say that he has no problem, it's others who have the problem. Fine. I then made the observation that, as you can well see in the photos below, that my offending plot edge happens to line up with all the plots, so these "others" can't seriously make the case that I've extended my plot beyond the normal limits, can they? Well, apparently, yes they can. 

What happens next boggles my mind. He asks me why I have to drag him into this. To which I must serve that he brought it up. Now he's angry, and makes his case that my plot goes beyond the allotted ten feet width, is five inches farther into the walkway than his, that he wants no part of this problem and I should leave him out of it. What can you say to that?


You know, it's not really the supposed five inches of extra girth that is getting in the way of the wheelbarrow turning, but the sink, which you can see. It blocks the pathway by just under two feet at the intersection. I mention this, but he'll have none of it, argues that I am now advocating for the removal of the sink, a sink that has been there for four years (unlike me). I point to its protuberance, but do not advocate for it's removal, after all it is useful, just poorly situated. However, I also state that I do not want to take my plot back enough to fit the wheelbarrow, particularly now while garlic still grows along that very boundary, when it is rather obvious that the sink is blocking its passage and again, that my plot lines up with every plot. 


What is absurd to me is how evident all this is. I should have just said I wasn't interested, but something tells me that would have been provocation enough to set this guy off. No matter what I do, I'm new to the corner and I should consider myself notified of the politics already in place. Who needs this aggravation? It's gardening. On the beach.












Mrs. Castillo




Today, as the clouds gathered for a late day rain, our neighbor's daughter approached the garden to tell me that her mother and our neighbor across the hall, Mrs. Castillo, has died. I could see how hard this was for her and yet she bravely told me, said she thought we should know and I'm so glad that she thought so. Unlike Fabio, upstairs, Mrs. Castillo had a strong support network of children and caregivers to help her with her illness. We are so often busy that we hardly saw each other, but we respected her, and helped her when she needed it -simple things like holding the door or getting the mail. I shared garden tomatoes and herbs with her, while she grew some serious hot peppers. We'd give her garlic and she'd bring us cookies. The smells of her cooking often got me jazzed for dinner. Knowing well how building cooking odors can be terribly off, her cooking actually made our building smell better! She will be missed by us, truly, we couldn't have asked for a better neighbor. Requiēscat in pāce, Mrs. Castillo.





What The Camera Makes Blogger Takes


Last January I uploaded a picture, the one below, taken with our new Canon G1X. It happened to be the first Photoshop-edited image uploaded to the blog in the new year. The Canon makes pictures of a quality and tonal range I hadn't been accustomed to since my shift to a phone camera three years prior. What appealed to me in this image was the level of detail in the burnt orange leaves clinging to the oaks in contrast to the blue-grey shadows raking across the snow. I was excited to show off the new image, but after viewing the upload I couldn't help but to see a pronounced deadening of the tonal range in the shadows and a summary of detail in the leaves. The image may as well been taken with my IPhone.


In late February I noticed Blogger's inability to render the icy snow in shadow without changing it's blue color toward red (making it lavender). This time the camera was my new Olympus XZ2. These two events were new to my Blogger experience, so it must have been something new. Or were my prior poor source images concealing what Blogger had been doing all along?


Recently I have been applying to several opportunities, many of which require links over the old-fashioned CD portfolio submission. I created a temporary Blogspot address and began uploading large, thousand-pixel wide jpegs. For some older paintings, like the one below, I had only IPhone images because these paintings were finished during my camera-less period. Phone images of large paintings tend to be pixelated, with choppy tonal gradients, and poor color accuracy. This image, below, shows those tendencies, particularly noticeable in the sky (too blue with stepped tonality) and the mountains (too red and blue). Nevertheless, it uploaded to Blogger looking much as it did in Photoshop and considered serviceable.


I used the Canon G1X to make new images a week ago because IPhone images simply will not do when there is a better option available. After taking these I processed them in Photoshop as I normally would, saved as a maximum jpeg and then uploaded to Blogger. The result, below, has somehow been processed by Blogger, pushing heavy on the red and yellow (probably to balance the blue). Now, despite an excellent source image from the new camera, the Blogger variation shows much worse color than the previous IPhone upload! Since this discovery, I've uploaded all my images to a Dropbox folder and am using that as my portfolio link. There, all images show accurate color -see the image. 


So, Blogger, what gives? Google searches show people with variations on this problem. The apparent solution is to make a Google + profile to attach to my Blogger account, at which point I will be given access to a control panel that has a couple of radio boxes that I must uncheck to disable the photo processing Google is doing by default. But I have no interest in Google + or its various demands. Consequently, I will give uploading png files a try, which apparently are not affected by the Blogger processing. On the web, some people said png solved the problem, but others not, either way the png is a larger file and less desirable. Below is the png upload -far better than the two above.


And, since Google also removed the ability to pay for website domains through Blogger, I will probably allow my art site to lapse when the domain goes unpaid tomorrow (I cannot access the account, which is somehow connected to the domain, yadda yadda, before it was easy, now it is hard). I will use the Dropbox folder for image viewing until a real site can be developed. In the meantime, I will get back to painting, where all the work should really be.



April Snow Showers




This is the last of the snow in our yard, somewhere around eleven thirty ayem. The Elephant garlic could care less.



Each of Larry's pots, all on the shady side of the block, had a collection of slow-watering snow to melt.



But the tulips were all whatever.



Rainy Days, Frozen Nights, and Other Outtakes


On Saturday I headed to the beach farm, some iceberg and red leaf in van. When I arrived a fence piece was thrown on top of my greens bed. In fact, the whole plot turned, potatoes, peas, greens, and even the saffron. Shame the new plot owner didn't recognize the crocus. It's all too tiring to explain, but I will say the plot was not mine and so plain too bad for me. 

Tonight it may freeze, just a few days after our average last freeze date. No worries, then, things are late this year and I've no sprouted greens or peas to contend with. 

A good rain and warm days should activate the soil organisms. Let's hope the garlic does better than it has so far. The new plot, it is now being told to me by long timers, is cursed. Nothing grows there they say. Oh. Bless them, they all thought I could cure it of its curse. 

Below is a painting I've rekindled. Autumn and popsicle trees are great challenges to my way of painting. 






Never Trust A Weed




I've planted some pansies; I can't say I've ever done this before in my gardens. What is happening? These here in pots that were empty.



The lilies are up, no surprise as the garlic is also up -including the elephant garlic I've planted around the garden.



Never trust a weed. Never.



Smothering Potentilla indica, everyhere. A garden swan song.



Always trust Dicentra eximia, anywhere, everywhere. It died two years ago, under some heavy foot traffic, but reseeded itself. Here, at the edge of the poor man's patio, it seeded itself once again. It is one of my favorite plants, all time.