Much rain, small floods. Gutters, drains. Not like your Southern floods...
David Austin Roses are getting ready.
The mint likes it. But why is the mint not wet? Does it suck water up through its pores?
Thursday, May 19, 2011
International Year of the Forest
May apples on the floor of the Midwood, Prospect Park
That's this year. Did you know?
The Midwood is the last forest in Brooklyn. Just saying.
We are de-littering again next Tuesday, 9am. Corner of East Drive and Center Drive. Click post below for map and details.
We are de-littering again next Tuesday, 9am. Corner of East Drive and Center Drive. Click post below for map and details.
There is probably a forest somewhere close(-ish) to you, and perhaps one that also needs your help. I think of the threatened hardwood forests around Knysna's urban sprawl on South Africa's southern coast and the awful Pezula development sitting atop the hills around Noetzie. The Afromontane forests in the kloofs around Cape Town.
Where are your woods, and how are they doing?
Wednesday, May 18, 2011
Three blocks in Brooklyn
It is bucketing with rain, as it has been since the weekend, but yesterday I headed to Smith Street in a lull to buy some sausages. I had wanted to hunt some more clematis today, but I am not a water rat. The three block walk provided quite enough camera fodder from some quick snaps.
Below: Now this is interesting. It is Speirantha convallarioides, or false lily of the valley, and because it is a small world, I think that it was grown by Glover Perennials, and I think that this home owner had just purchased it in bloom at GRDN, which stocks a lot of Jim's plants, or perhaps at the Gowanus Nursery, which has a reputation for interesting plants. I planted a lot of these two years ago in a neighborhood back garden, in full shade.
Padlock- gardening, Brooklyn-style. A pretty blue pot but I don't have high hopes for it through a winter freeze.
The butcher gave me a baguette as I left - I was there in the last seconds before closing, and there was bread left over. Now you know the trick, he said. We ate his lamb sausages for supper with papardelle and a brief lemon-rosemary-cream sauce. Good.
Green fruit
Curious about the first crop of strawberries this year. There are so many that I suspect they will be small. Perhaps I should have pinched some off. I suppose I could, still. Very difficult.
Blueberries have appeared beneath the crisping flowers.
The first little fruits (flowers, really) on the fig are already dropping off and not worth a picture. A cause for alarm in the past, now I know that this breba crop, produced on last year's wood, is followed by another, which stays and ripens on new growth.
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
The next Litter Mob - 5/24
The next Litter Mob is on 5/24 at 9am sharp. Corner of East Drive and Center Drive, the Midwood, Prospect Park, just south of the zoo.
We need intrepid, woods-loving volunteers!
Trash-grabbers, two kinds of gloves, bags and birdsong will be provided.
David Chadwick, who works for Natural Resources and who accompanies us, is a fund of knowledge so you will also be kept interested and informed. Volunteer Darren is the star finder of interesting trash, so stick with him and you may find jelly beans, skateboards or a new wardrobe. If you stay with Vince you will learn all there is to know about poison ivy or French declensions. Walk with me and I will show you jewelweed, so that poison ivy is not a problem. Or I can walk you through oyster mushrooms 101. If Paulo is with us, brush up on your Portuguese and Brazilian geography; Amy and Brenda - life behind the blogs of Brooklyn. Alexa - how to live (and cook?) with someone who paints pork. Not sure if Frank can make it but if he does, learn how to start a beach farm. Look up and you will see birds and sky and gorgeous old trees. Look down and you'll see mushrooms, ferns, wildflowers and...
...well, that's why we will be there.
Word is spreading and so is interest, from the top and from the bottom, but it translates slowly to extra bodies on the ground. We do need help, and promise to be as amusing as possible in exchange.
Email me at
marieyviljoen at gmail dot com
If it's wet, it's Tuesday
Rain predicted through next week. It is a soft, stippling mist. We walked through the Brooklyn night in it, down the deserted Fulton mall, the metal gates pulled shut in flat corrugations. Night on the terrace is a ruffling of cold breeze, a rippling of tires on wet tar, wet rose petals dropping to the gravel floor.
Day and the squirrel has discovered gardening and pots, and digging, and whistles suggestively at the cat as he saunters past the sliding door.
On the roof he digs up my tomato plants. This didn't happen last year. The potatoes are too tough to be bothered by small paws.
And he doesn't like radishes.
The farm above our heads tries to remember August.
The roses remember parties.
The squirrel remembers nuts but only vaguely, and digs.
Monday, May 16, 2011
NYC Wildflower Week
Wildflower week is over, officially, but the flowers carry on. Keep your eyes peeled, wherever you are. They may be closer than you think.
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