Garden Cosmos

Add a Comment

44 Comments

Comment by Sara Damewood on October 31, 2009 at 12:07pm

Hey, Marion, I also have a yellow bungalow... built 1914... the year Cohen wrote "Over There."

Loved all of your descriptions... the earth just keeps turning; isn't it wonderful?

You'all, my Savannah holly tree berries have finally turned from yellow to a crimson red. It's awesome. I wish you could see it. I was looking forward to sharing it with my boyfriend of two years, but we broke up last week. )=:
The natural beauty around here is a real comfort.... & so are you.

Blessings,
Sara

Comment by Rosie on September 27, 2009 at 1:46am

Marion: Sweet--"Daughter in love!" Cider party!
Group: Might we all post a short DESCRIPTION of our gardens/yardens?
MINE: Indianapolis, IN, a grass-free, permissive collection of perennials, self-sown annuals, veggies and berries on a 65 x 200 lot that includes a yellow 1926 bungalow. Many redbud trees delight the chickadees but are shading full-sun areas. Major interest, butterfly gardening and identifying (with colorful ties) praying mantis egg cases for visiting kids. I take nature to kids in school or have them come here.

Comment by Rosie on September 27, 2009 at 1:33am

Having been away from attention to the yarden for two months, most recently in NYC, I have enjoyed surfing this community chat. I wrote a long piece minutes ago and lost it in moving to the next page for a reference. LESSON: don't go to another page mid-way in your posting. Please jog my memory as to what POEM I sent, as I love many. Do you know poet, Mary Oliver? Reflections: 1. WONDER table. Shana's sweet celebrations and royal presentations to the"Nature table" reminded me to be grateful that in my classrooms I named the most exciting heartbeat in the room THE SCIENCE AND WONDER TABLE. Kids of many grades brought things to be shared there. I added that "W" word (along with WOW, among my favorites), inspired by an article by RACHEL CARSON, now THE SENSE OF WONDER. It was published posthumously but she had intended that it might be her primo work until the pesticide issue forced her in new directions. I gave a neighbor/explorer, age 11, a RACHEL CARSON PARTY for her birthday. How many bright activists do not know Rachel's name? 2. Sweet potato CRUST for quiche! Must try that. 3. NYC I don't know what your impressions of NYC might be, but can report that the parks and gardens there are lovely. There is a year-round farmer's market a block from our daughter's home. The nature center nearby offers dynamic programs and a collection of milkweed larvae food for Monarchs. It is just not the scene portrayed in media. Diversity among people, as well in the yarden, is invigorating. 4. Black SWALLOWTAILS! My favorite butterfly because the larval host is at eye-level for kids--any member of the carrot family. They are readily grown and maintained where we live in IN--bronze fennel and parsley my favorites. On one day this summer we could see seven caterpillars on plants right by the front door, where I have increasingly geared the points of interest for visiting neighbor children. An Eastern Box turtle and croaking frog are front-door attractions, too. 5. NOT COMMERCIALIZED! I love recalling that the seasonal celebrations are free from that. Our fall Equinox centered on the theme, "Harvesing the Power Within." 6. What do you thing of using CAPS for differing topics to facilitate scanners like me. Happy SPRINGING down under!

Comment by Shana Henry on September 26, 2009 at 8:45pm

I always love hearing such beautiful earthy descriptions of life in my homeland. And at Equinox...Autumn for you spring for us. The girls and I celebrated the spring equinox to its fullest the other day. The night before we all chose seeds to plant, Genevieve chose chickpeas because she loves to eat them. I chose rice because I love to eat it, and Jacinta chose sunflowers because she thinks they are beautiful. We wrapped them in cloth and slept with them under our pillows and tried to send lovely dreamy hopeful energy into the seeds. The next morning we woke and planted the seeds with all the hope in the world. My 5 year old crushed up spices and orange rind and dried them out to make an incense to put in the fire. We decorated hardboiled eggs with calendula petals and seeds, glueing them on and placing them royally on the nature table. We woke early for an "Equinox walk" and searched out new life, light green shoots, anything young and fresh and full of life. The girls displayed their treasures on our little alter. The girls helped prepare for our little feast, our salad was beautiful, full of different leaves from the garden, topped with beautiful blue borage flowers. We made a quiche with a sweet potato crust, which was surprisingly nice. We finished off the evening with a small fire (a very windy dry night) and sent our incense up and away. I think I appreciate Equinoxes and Solstice more than any holiday, perhaps because they haven't been commercialized. I'm sure the girls will always know when the seasons change, and how special it is.
Thanks for sharing your Equinox with us Marian, I wish we could come to your cider party, and pick a few of your lovely apples. ENJOY!

Comment by Marian Methner on September 26, 2009 at 6:08am

Equinox! Half Moon. Moving toward harvet. Not solstice... Hmm, summer on the brain already.

Comment by Marian Methner on September 26, 2009 at 6:06am

Good Morning on this beautiful Autumn day. Some of the leaves are changing to reds and brown but most are still green. The canary grass is waving brown and gold, the cattails are fluffy, and I think the beavers are underground already - that must mean they ate their fill of the fallen willow.
We have a cider making party happening here tomorrow afternoon. The Gravenstiens are mostly apple sauce but there are enough left to sweeten the cider. We don't know the variety of the old, mostly green with red crisp apples - but there are millions still on the tree and hundreds on the ground. Phoebe was thrilled yesterday because she found a worm in one. We laughed at the look on her face when her Dad told her the old joke about what's worse than finding a worm while eating an apple - half a worm.
I hope to get the rest of the kale covered with aphids pulled today. Fiona, daughter in love thinks we should learn to eat aphids for the protein. Yuk.
There is still parsley and basil, I'm letting tomatoes sit on the vine hoping they'll ripen just a bit more in the constant sunshine, lots of potatoes, chard, and beet root - if the critters didn't get this batch - if they do we'll have the greens for nourishment.
The fruit flies are abundant - I think their place in Creation is to make us glad for the first frost!! May you be finding gladness at this solstice!

Comment by Marian Methner on August 30, 2009 at 9:47am

I mean beet!

Comment by Marian Methner on August 30, 2009 at 9:46am

Thank You Sara, I love the picture of you floating with the pines all around. i was pouting for a few days here in paradise. The bunnies? ate the beats - or half a beet each. Who ever was eating them ate them underground so I'd pull one up and whoops, half a beet. Silly bunnies left teeth marks. I left a beat feast on top of the earth and of course they wouldn't eat those. They saved 7 for me - imagine 7 beets out of maybe 100. We ate beat greens and more beat greens and then more greens. And so it goes. The beavers have continued to eat the fallen willow - amazing. Last week a huge overloaded branch fell from one of the old apple trees. We've wheel barrowed the apples into the fields for the deer. Those trees will get a good pruning this year! It's hot here during the afternoons. We haven't had rain for weeks and weeks. The pond must be down at least 4 feet. The beavers are walking where they used to swim and their land entrances on the shore are all exposed. The heron is walking around on stilts where hes never been before. This morning the farmers market was a jolly festival, riches of people, divine smells and every lovely late summer fruit and veg you can think of. I had a fish taco that left me moaning delicious, delicious. I bought small cucumbers and started bread and butter pickles this afternoon - a taste of snappy end of summer for all the winter meals ahead. Praise be.

Comment by Sara Damewood on August 30, 2009 at 9:22am

What lovely word pictures of your paradises you have created, Marian & Shana. Now I'm intrigued by Rosie's poem; I need to go find where it is!

I think I have a little paradise, too, however hot. I do have a little above-ground pool, & floating in it & looking up at the huge pine trees on all four sides of my little meadow is heavenly. I'm getting a tomato or two from my raised-bed vegetable garden, but soon it will be time to pull it all up if I'm going to have a Fall garden... probably at least some collard greens. My whole place is a butterfly garden, though!

Comment by Marian Methner on August 9, 2009 at 2:07pm

WOW, Rosie. I love that poem. My gardens have sustained me the past 2 days. Hours outside pulling weeds, digging in the dirt, planting some fall seeds, bringing in beats and beans and herbs and picking blueberries and blackberries and cooking only garden goodies have helped me clear my head and heart from a family situation that I'm worked up about. Such sustinence!

• 1
• 2
• 3
• 4
• 5