Why garden?

Crataegus laevigata "Crimson Cloud", Chrystie Street

Flowering trees for May are up at Shelterpop...

Earlier, someone arrived on 66 Square Feet after googling 'are wisteria beans edible'. I paused when I saw this. Wisteria beans are poisonous! I felt like shouting, all the way to California. I looked at their search and saw that they passed over seven other sites which said exactly that before landing on this blog where I wrote about lablab beans, the pretty ones that bloom late in summer. I think they wanted wisteria beans to be edible and I really, really hope they did not try any.

On another note:

Some brainstorming input needed. If you were interviewing gardeners, from all over the world, from sidewalk gardeners to terrace to famous to unknown, what questions would you ask them? I know it's a bit tricky, not knowing who the gardeners will be, but I will be working on a series where I interview people who garden, to find out what lies at the er, root, of their plant love. I'd like to pose the same set of questions to each of them.

Any ideas?

Roof farm

The potatoes on the roof are about the only thing that looks lush at the moment. Today I plant out the poblano peppers. And look forward to pork ribs simmered in an ancho sauce. I may have to wait a while. The strawberries on the terrace are ripening, practically overnight and a constant rain of rose petals patters onto the gravel of an evening.

And there is some Indian roast chicken, next door at (the Food)

Wild greens

Pokeweed, near Dead Horse Bay.

On tonight's menu. 

More later.

The SD95, its quirks and a hot rose

I have been testing two point and shoot cameras. The first is my 'old' SD880, which suffers from a sensor spot, which is nerve-wracking when more and more pictures are destined for professional purposes* (and it still tickles me that good point and shoots yield printable, professional quality pictures. Thank you, technology) - the spot means I must find and exterminate it in Photoshop. Then there is my new, not-yet-loved Canon SD95, a whole new breed of point and shoot, which may actually train me to be a more thoughtful photographer. It also shoots RAW, which is one of the reasons I chose it after reading reviews extensively (and fretting for months) - and it has a wider angle. I find I am shooting fewer macros (its macro is not quite as good as the 880's) and more scenes. BUT. Last night I hated my pictures of the terrace, shot with the brand new 95. The blues were wrong (the iris blues were wrong, too), and the image not as crisp as I would have liked. I was so depressed. So tonight I set the same table (and even mixed the same drinks!) and tried with the 880. Blues are fine. Then I re-shot with SD95 and discovered a few things. So Vince and I are delving into the 95's innards and settings and I am realizing a thing or two about my technical knowledge, and also laughing somewhat at the fact that my fancy little camera is going to force me to use manual settings more...

* Of course Vince's old Rebel has been my new favourite thing for the last six months. Especially when attached to a telephoto. It's just so big to lug around. The small camera fits into every day without a squeak. The Rebel with long lens makes its presence felt and suddenly you are a Photographer instead of a photographer.

Are you still awake?

These pictures are taken with the SD880, the old Canon. The SD95's battery poops out fast, after 200 pictures. That's two to three days, for me, and quite annoying. I knew about it when I bought it and figured I'd have to get used to it, as all newer cameras are heading in the same direction there. I always have two batteries and charge one while the other is slipped into its slot (wouldn't it be nice if we humans had a spare battery at all times? Instead we have to sleep. Or meditate. Or garden. Or meet in the woods).

On another note, the Pat Austin (apricot-orange below) does not realize that her days are numbered. Sad, but true. I only have two shrub roses, and I expect them to perform reliably. Eglantyne met with the same fate last year. If I had six, maybe she could stay. She hates the heat. Today her buds opened and drooped from sunrise to sunset. Over. Pat Austin is not a heat tolerant rose, no matter what they say, and it is only late May. This is her second summer on the terrace and I had hoped she might have settled in and toughened up. But no. Afternoon shade might be good thing for this rose, but here there is sun from sunup to an hour before sundown (I was reminded today that sundowners are a peculiarly South African concept - drinks at sundown). I want another Abraham Darby (pink, below), I think, as that rose is just astonishing (see how it bounced back from the brink, here). But if anyone knows - from experience - of another David Austin, or other rose, for that matter, that is an excellent repeat bloomer with fragrance, and that does not just give up in the heat, please let me know.  Perhaps I will be inspired tonight, in Deb's garden [weird, I just read that post again. I had updated it with a note about a double tornado dream I had - that was in May. On September 16th  two tornadoes touched down in Brooklyn and Queens).

In tomorrow's news, Dead Horse Bay, high tides, otter spoor, a new edible weed, broken glass, scavenged bottles for It...

Cat on a hot terrace roof

A roof cat's point of view. He says we should rise above it all.

Fodde

After cleaning ourselves up - rubbing alcohol (against poison ivy) and interestingly hot water and soap (oh, you know, all the stuff that goes with soiled tissue paper, used condoms - 100's and 100's - and god knows what else) - at home after our trashorama in the Midwood in Prospect Park today I mixed mega, like, mega mojitos, with terrace mint. Then we felt clean.

Chatted to the cat. Made pork tonnato. Picked some roses. Cos that's all there is, really. 

Fodde? Afrikaans slang for pooped. Tuckered out, on an elemental level. Finished. Klaar. 

The Iris Garden

We walked past this pretty garden in Brooklyn Heights on our way back from the Promenade late on Sunday night and I smelled them in the dark. Wonderful. I went back in daylight for a picture.