Wednesday, October 31, 2007

Rhapsody

Feeling a bit wistful tonight on All Hallows Eve. Didn't celebrate really except for wrapping up some harvesting yesterday, as blogged.

Lately I've been tinkling the ivories more. It must be the reading that befuddles my brain, and impels me to wander away from the books to do something more tactile. And it's more immediately rewarding even if I can't play well. I've been practicing some dinky arrangements of Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 2, mostly the third movement, but sometimes the second movement, Adagio sostenuto, as well as the 18th Variation from Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini. Technically, I think I'm in over my fingers as I haven't made much progress on either in over a decade. That may be why I never left them behind.

It will be colder starting tomorrow, All Saints' Day. I remember and look forward to warmer times for Beltane in the spring.

Saturday, October 20, 2007

Eden's Eve

In the past weeks, I've been writing a lot off-blog so I've been rather low on words. But now, in honour of the last days of October, I'll post some doubleplusgood updates from the garden:
New record from Big Daddy. This chard leaf is over 95 cm long! I'm sure it could have gone longer but I was impatient to harvest one night. If I can control my harvesting urges, I should be able to get one over a metre long... but time may be running out.I also have a new record for my peppers! I've been harvesting some green ones that are over 9 cm tall, even larger than the one pictured here. And best of all, I got my one red pepper to ripen fully to a stunning scarlet! It's all documented here in this photo series:


For fans of the birds, here are a couple of photos of them from our time out today (October 30), enjoying the sunny afternoon:



Here's one with all my little darlings in one shot:


For M who asked for garden advice: First of all, I really cannot claim to be the best for advice on garden productivity, unless you use me as a negative example. It took me three years to get not much, as I have been lamenting for over a year on this blog. That said, I would recommend Lee Reich's Weedless Gardening, which is basically a gardening method inspired by nature. Besides the perk of having a theoretically weedless garden, I like the philosophy of minimizing disturbances to the garden and soil, which furnishes me with a ready excuse for not working too hard on it, so here are links to some articles by Reich.

My personal Holy Grail for gardening has been the tomato: you can't buy anything that tastes like a freshly homegrown tomato. I found sweet bell peppers to be rewarding also, since my green ones are about as sweet as the red peppers I buy at the supermarket, and my one red pepper was even sweeter and riper than that! I also like having fresh greens so I'd recommend some lettuces, which are pretty easy, and will grow early in the season. Don't plant too much because you probably won't be able to eat it all before they go to seed in the heat. Buy the tastiest lettuce seeds and watch the soil, since that will have a huge impact on flavour. And of course, I'm partial to Big Daddy and Swiss chard in general, which will keep going even through the summer heat.

Try some fresh herbs, since it's so much better to pick what you need from the garden than to go with dried herbs or chance it with fresh cut herbs from the store. I adore basil, but thyme, rosemary, or any other herbs you use would all be good choices. With the basil, you could make pesto, and with the tomatoes, you'll have most your ingredients for a fresh tossed summer pasta with extra virgin olive oil. (Remember that EVOO is good for your health, being a source of health-promoting monounsaturated fats and polyphenol antioxidants.)

As for size, I think that's very much a personal preference. Have it be as big as it needs to be to do what you want. Consider how much you like digging and toiling. If you're not sure, I'd advise starting smaller so that it's not too overwhelming at first, but leave open possibilities for future expansion. Also, you can use some containers if you have a nice lawn you don't want too huge a hole in, but keep in mind that containers will be more time-consuming to water. Smaller plants like herbs and lettuces will do best in containers, or even peppers if the container is large enough. I find that tomatoes really need their space, so that goes best in the plot.

Timing depends on your season. How long and warm is the summer where you are? If shorter, you may need to start earlier by seeding indoors, which may be a good idea anyway. But if you're looking for minimal work, you can always forgo that and just toss some seeds at the dirt and see what happens!

Sunday, October 07, 2007

Jardin de Verdure

As requested, I'm posting a photo of my whole garden, as well as a little map plotting the location of the different veggies. The huge tall drying plants are the lettuce plants gone to seed. Usually I would pull them out after they flower, since they're not so edible by then, but I decided to let these ones go to seed to see if I'll get tons of lettuce plants next year without sowing any. I've since pulled up the seeded lettuces to make room for the other plants and laid the lettuce corpses to rest under the tomatoes. My philosophy toward gardening is pretty liberal and permissive, for those who haven't already guessed.

Apparently, peppers do well to have their first central fruits taken to encourage further growth of other peppers. So, after the initial peppers, I have been trying to remain patient long enough to let some of my bell peppers grow larger. I measured one of the larger peppers I've ever harvested at about 8 cm tall. We'll try to do better than that! Actually, one of my container plants is growing a bell pepper that is starting to ripen in spots to a vivid scarlet! I'll be so happy if I get a red pepper -- I just need this warm sunny weather to hold up.

I also got a picture of the only cucumber I've ever had as this is my first year trying cucumbers. There was one cucumber before this one that I was just about to harvest, but when I went to get it the next day, it was already gone -- undoubtedly the work of one of the monster squirrels. The cucumber was tasty though; I felt so accomplished and connected to my nearly-idyllic little garden when I plucked my cucumber off the vine, washed off its prickles, and then chomped on it while working outside.

PS. The plan view of the garden is kind of upside down when compared with the view from the front edge, so if anyone is trying to match up the veggies with the map plan, just turn that around. In other words, the top edge of the first photo points North, while the top edge of the plan photo points South. Happy orienteering!

Wednesday, October 03, 2007

Meditations

I'm not usually up at 6 in the morning but today I woke up just after 5, after about 4 hours of sleep. Only. My brain woke me, tortured by thoughts of Descartes's Meditations on First Philosophy, which I've been reading again lately.

I think I referred to the Meditations back in a previous post when I said I was reading something not very engaging. Well, the good news is, the Meditations are a bit more compelling this time around. The bad news is, its problems and inconsistencies, which seem irreconciliable at this point to me, are troubling enough to be encroaching on the quality and quantity of my sleep.

For the next hour, I tried to relax and fall asleep, but Descartes kept haunting me, so I gave up and decided to do some yoga for an hour. Thankfully, after the exquisite corpse pose, I'm feeling more relaxed and centred now and my head hurts less. At this rate, I'll either be the most flexible girl around, or the most sleep-deprived.

I am accustomed to sleep and in my dreams to imagine the same things that lunatics imagine when awake.
- Descartes