Growing Growing Grown Garden
Friday 21 June 2013
Hunting Stores
Get Your Pre Workout Correct.
Monday 17 June 2013
Thursday 19 July 2012
Borage Flowers
My Borage has been flowering now for about a week. It took a while to open because of all the rain. It’s still raining but the flowers are open. And when there’s a break in the weather the hover-flies and bees are all over it.
The flowers are such an amazing purple/blue and they droop their heads beautifully. The plant is quite tall too – about a metre high. At the moment it’s being held up by my White Currant bush. I’m guessing in open ground it would need staking, especially in bad weather.
It’s so worth it though. The flowers are very unusual. I haven’t made any Claret Cup yet. This historic recipe uses Borage as a garnish for the drink.
Beetroot – Bolivar
I harvested my Beetroot today. They were about the size of tennis balls and the top of the Beetroots were starting to show above the soil so I thought that would be an ideal time to bring them in. I don’t want them getting woody.
I don’t grow Beetroot very often. I guess I just don’t eat that much of it. It’s a very earthy taste. Does anyone have any great suggestions on what to do with it. I’ve pickled it in the past and was thinking about making this Beetroot and Chocolate cake. It sounds good.
Monday 9 July 2012
Audubon Butterfly Garden and Insectarium showcases the red, white and blue
A display of red, white and blue letters spelling "USA" greets you in the lobby. But as you look closer, you realize the letters are much more than they seem: radiant blue, wine red and dainty white butterflies all suspended in glass cases. The iconic colors of the American flag are preserved in time by these beautiful creatures.
The exhibit is open Sunday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. At 11 a.m. and 1, 2:30 and 4 p.m., entomologists will be releasing new butterflies, including a range of exotic specimens from all over the world.
Throughout the weekend, the staff will be offering butterfly-themed activities including butterfly identification, hands-on crafts, face painting, caricature portraits, magic shows and performances by butterfly dancers.
The weekend events also celebrate the newly renovated Butterfly Garden, a traditional Japanese-style garden complete with bamboo trees, a rustic cottage and a large pond with colorful koi fish swimming in its waters. This year, Audubon has added more koi and improved the lighting throughout the exhibit to facilitate the butterflies' feeding process.
The garden is Zen-inspired, its minimalistic focus intended to help visitors engage more in the exhibit.
"We don't want to distract them from enjoying nature," says Zack Lemann, manager of animal collections and visitor programs for the 4-year-old insectarium. Aside from about 30 different butterfly types and 10 plant species, the exhibit also features two tortoises and free-flying finches.
On Saturday afternoon, adults and children alike enjoyed wandering through the exhibit. Some ended up with the more intrepid butterflies perched on their hands or dresses. Kids eagerly crowded around as more butterflies were released.
"We're big fans of the aquarium and the zoo, so this is something different for us, but we'll definitely come back," said Donna Perez from the north shore, who was visiting with her grandson and daughter-in-law.
Playing catch-up with the garden
Mmmmm. Snow!
And here's a view in the fall:
I say "catch up" because I started a gardening blog in RL, hoping to do at least one complete seasonal cycle of daily posts, but discovered, for reasons to become clear, I hope, shortly, that I couldn't maintain the post after 180 or so. (Also, WordPress made a technical change that destroyed my traffic.) So, through the month of July, I'll do some catch up and then, assuming woodchucks or deer don't destroy everything, I'll start showing this year's full glory in August.
A note on the form: The photos are taken with an iPad (I know, I know...), an infrastructural improvement I treated myself at the end of last year. I then annotate the pictures with arrows and text using a free "app" called Skitch. The whole project was really about teaching myself to see, or notice, better by focusing on the world through the iPad screen. And this did work, more from the discipline of finding something to photograph every day.
So, herewith. I think the annotations are self-explanatory, but ask me anything....
NOTE For those who remember last year's posts, the milk jugs are out. And thereby hangs a tale, which I'll get to....