02-26-2015 Snow storm.

A bamboo cave!

OK, so I was a little optimistic in my last post!

It still does not feel good being outsmarted by a Pennsylvanian rodent!

Being optimistic, I might have to wait another few days but I am sure that spring is coming!

02-12-2015 All the signs are in! Spring is getting close!

Quince, one of the early bloomers!

This morning, I noticed that the maples across the street started showing their red buds; a number of my perennials are now peaking above ground (Do they not know what's coming this weekend? Another batch of Arctic air!)

For the last few days, Robins and Blackbirds have been tearing through my winter mulch to stuff themselves on worms before flying farther North. From what I understand, where they're heading to, only the frozen food section is open.

In any case, on a beautiful sunny afternoon, when WRAL tells me it's 52° F, I head out to pick some kale for dinner. In minutes,  some nasty cold gale blows in, covers the sun, scares away all the birds and I find myself, all alone in the garden, feeling my fingers freezing by the second.

Talk about a surprise, a sudden change of weather! Fortunately, we're in NC and if the weather disappoints, we can always wait a day or two and get a totally different one!

I am not giving up; maples and Robbins don't lie: Spring shouldn't take too much longer!

... When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze...

                                                      William Wordsworth

11-01-2014 Before it all disappears!

After a few beautiful days of colored leaves, blue skies and crisp air, snow is now falling on our mountains.

Tonight or tomorrow our first frost will kill tender vegetation in the garden.

Bananas!!!!

Bananas have been a little different this year; last winter having been colder than normal with some serious frost, my Cavendish type plants did not bloom at all this year. It took them longer to grow back in spring but a good amount of rain during summer helped them acquire good height but...still no flower!

Then, late fall, surprise, surprise! My other variety, a Red Abyssinian (Musa Ensete Maurelii for those who want to be picky!) started blooming, way later than expected but welcome none the less.

I'll let the pictures speak for themselves and, possibly, help you understand why I love banana plants, other than I met the woman of my life in a banana field 39 years ago in a place far away.
 :)

For more banana flowers, from the Cavendish, and more details about my love for the genus Musa,see an older post: http://thisweekinthegarden-roland.blogspot.com/2012_08_01_archive.html

Late blooming gladiolus.

09-28-2014 A sense of Fall!

This is a "Toad Lily"! I would love to see what a "frog lily" should look like!

One of the things a gardener will appreciate at this time of year is the temperature drop, allowing one to work out in the garden without frying or melting. The lack of humidity , being able to breathe!
With the cooler nights, we also get nice dewy morning even though this little fellow may have had a little too much of it:

This is the time when summer clean-up should be done, removing old and tired looking summer plants and making room for Fall lettuce or Winter leeks, onions, Brussels sprouts, kale, chervil, and endive.

This is also the last season for bright colors before everything turns into grayish green for the next few weeks.

Cotton! Nice flowers but still waiting for the stuff to make my T shirts.

This last winter's cold precluded me from getting any banana flower short of this little runt.

Pineapple sage! Rubbing its leaves frees that pineapple scent. I love that color in Fall. Hummingbirds and the last few honeybees still flying around here go crazy over it.

Second raspberry crop, not quite as tasty as the Spring ones; not to mention they ripen a couple at a time.

I lost half this fig tree to last Winter's frost and it too, produces half a dozen of fruit at a time; just enough to get a daily taste but there won't be any jam this year.

09-08-2014 A rainy day!

Rainy day in the garden! 

I missed the rain! For the last tens days I have had to face swarms of ravenous mosquitoes and temps in the high 90s to water my garden.

I had been spoiled this year, with regular rains falling at manageable intervals...until the last few days.

Baby eggplant enjoying its outdoors shower. It's summer after all!

When I did a quick check between cloud bursts to make sure my new transplants had not drowned and I noticed...I just about stuck my face in that waterlogged spider web. It is amazing that it can hold this much water and not shatter!

What a carrot looks like if you let it go to bloom!

08-20-2014 A small garden within a larger community!

We moved into this neighborhood for the affordability, the working class feel, trees that were already halfway grown and a good number of children playing in the street.

This was last century, in '86, a time when nobody remembered Liberty Gardens and the notion of "Urban Gardening" had not appeared on the fashion page yet. So when I tore up part of my front lawn, built four 4"X8" beds and filled them with my best resource, a pickup truck load of perfectly aged compost, some looks turned ugly in the hood, offended by that assault on the green goddess of suburbia.

It took a while and some shared tomatoes to gain over my most fervent opponents.

By now, my half wild, jungly looking garden is not just integrated in our community, but a point of discovery for new couples jogging their baby carriage around the hood. 

Through diverse plantings, not only do I have enough produce for us and others; it is not fenced in and open to "tasters" and eaters alike but it has become a shelter for biodiversity from zillions of insects (Although I could do w/o the skeeters!) to birds of all sorts. And all of them know and abide by the holy rule: wildlife is not allowed more than 10/20% of the crop. They all get it and respect it! No need for armored vehicles here; everyone gets it and respects it. That allows me to keep our veggies purely bio, w/o a need for chemical killers.

And, yes, it means the local fox shares into my corn and some unknown creature has topped my snap beans at a young age but, all in all, things work out and there always is something to be in awe of, like butterflies, bees, hummingbirds, goldfinches, frogs, damselflies, new buds, something to taste, something to enjoy with the eyes or pop into the mouth. (Try those Cherry Roma tomatoes! or raspberries!)

It's not just a good place for honey bees, when they were younger, many a child in this neighborhood has spent hours, upon hours playing hide and seek in the exotic bamboo and the giant banana "jungles" as they nicknamed them or jumping into piles of leaves from the chestnut tree that graced the corner before falling victim to the European Chestnut disease.

Then one day, many years later, one of those now grown kids contacts you to thank you or to come and check the place:

"When I talk to friends about my childhood, your garden is a topic that always gets brought up. It is a great place to have grown up near and to have experienced. I know I am not the only one who got enjoyment out of your lovely garden, which I continue to enjoy to this day. I am heading back to school in January but I will make a point to visit over summer to see you and the banana trees in their full glory." 

Or the garden inspires artists like Anne who can put on canvas what I put in dirt and feel the same communion with the natural beauty surrounding us.

Sometimes, the surprise works the other way, like when you come home to a home-baked bread with a thank you note:

I guess I can now say that after all those years; this little garden has earned its spot in the heart of our community.