Le jardin

Today is a gardening day...despite the fact that I am a mere renter, I am creating and planting a new perennial and annual bed, nurturing a new tree , and trying to figure out what the hell to do with the big RV slab in the back yard.  The slab calls for container gardening, of course, and I hope to use its radiant heat and soften its stony edges effectively.  I miss terribly my garden back in Bend,  the lush and fragrant result of years spent toiling in and coming to terms with a dusty, high desert climate.  My new city, Portland, with its rich, primordial muck, loves gardeners, and rewards them generously for even minimal effort.  I plan to document the evolution of my new space...St. Anthony, where the hell is my digital camera cord?

   Gardening tips from this self-taught landscaper, offered from the temperate climes of the Pacific northwest: Buy as many of those inexpensive primroses, which are for sale at almost every supermarket or nursery, as you can and plant those babies in a partly shady spot...they are reliably perennial and will pop up first thing next early spring. usually sold for a buck fifty each or less, these are a screaming deal for what they offer the gardener in reliability and much needed late winter/early spring color.

Check classifieds or keep an eye out for signs pointing you to folks selling plants out of their homes.  These places can yield some amazing and hard to find plants at lower prices than nurseries or supermarkets.  Chances are, these plants will thrive in your garden since they presumably were raised in your vicinity and grow well enough for the seller to give away extras.  I have found two wonderful plants sources this way and I know there are many more out there.  Community centers, public gardens and schools also have great plant sales throughout the spring.

   I am not above digging up plants that have self sown into alleyways.  A friend of mine nabbed a lovely bamboo start and a sweet little japanese maple this way.  I have asked permission to take cuttings from obviously bountiful gardens (this works well with succulent plants) and have never been told to get lost, coming away with starts like 'Angelina'  and 'Blue Spruce' sedums.

Please, make your peace with a few pests here and there.  Don't resort to chemical means of eradication. Even pyrethrum (a plant derivitive), which I think is best saved for indoor and/or potted plants, kills beneficials like predatory wasps, lacewings and daddy long leg spiders.  If your garden has something blooming from spring until fall, it will attract beneficial insects, who will then work together to control pests like aphids, which continue to be the "main bane" of the gardener's existence.  Introducing lady bugs is always a wise move...remember that their larva gobble up aphids too.  These look like tiny black scorpions and their eggs look like grains of sand (I will include a picture of a juvenile, seen above most likely). Be patient...aphids hatch before ladybugs, so give the ladies time to catch up.

   I will leave you with a link to the blog of a nice British lady who has an unusual suggestion for how to deal with slugs...

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1169713/Grandmother-cooks-snails-garden-beat-credit-crunch.html

Happy Belated Easter

I was too busy baking on Easter Sunday to post...but I want to share a beautiful sketch, in honor of this Spring holiday, courtesy of my friend Dean who lives as an artist, observer, and chronicler of all things San Francisco.  Dean calls this "Choirboy".

These Words Must Die

 A couple of nights ago, my friend Bryan and I were discussing things that irk us (surprise surprise), particularly modern cultural quirks.  Skinny jeans (especially on men),   bodily cleanses, ubiquitous, rectangle framed glasses, and other carefully tended hallmarks of supposed hipsterdom were the target of our well-aimed ire.  Just as hipness is inevitably co-opted by commercialism, so are many words.  Each time I hear these words, I cringe, especially when I hear myself using them!  

  Therefore, I am compiling an ongoing list of words that need either reassignment or abolishment.  The list begins with:

 

HOTTIE- This one has been floating around for a decade or two.  It sounds like pottie or a slang term for a person with syphillis.  A lazy way to describe an attractive person.

BRANDING-I sincerely hope this term is eventually ushered out with the values that gave birth to it, namely those of the unfettered consumption that marked the previous eight years.  Corporate speak often oozes into everyday lingo, much to my consternation..."thinking outside the box" refuses to go away.

SEA CHANGE- This is a very old term that seems to have made a resurgence of late, with annoying results.  It is a potentially poetic way of describing a sweeping shift, but it has been so overused by the punditry that it has been squeezed dry of its lovely imagery.

  

That is all for now, but rest assured, more doomed words are to follow.  Our culture pumps 'em out on a daily basis!

A Poetic Stab

I have been out of it for a spell...here's a poem that illustrates the experience somewhat.

I've just emerged out of a funk,

that came to stay for half a month

It took up residence in my head 

and used my brainpan for its bed

Its stealth was subtle

like the lull of Morpheus

But its bite was vicious 

like the pain of lust

It planted a garden in my right eye

and cruelly reaped its poisonous rye

The chaff poured out of my grimacing teeth

and covered my body with mock relief.

 Today I shook the chaff from my skin

And here I am to begin the begin