Posted July 15, 2010 by Leah Hoffmann
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I’ve already gotten a lot of use out of my Monthly 4 garden planner, which helped me figure out when to start my seeds and put stuff in the ground this spring.
In many ways, though, it’s next year things will really pay off, because I’ve also started using it to record when things are actually ripe. Last year was something of an anomaly because of all the cool, wet weather we had in June and July. But I could have sworn I had ripe tomatoes by this time two years ago! Yet here this year’s plants sit, with promising green clusters…
At least I know I started them on time.
Posted May 12, 2010 by Leah Hoffmann
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Irises are very easily one of my top 5 favorite flowers, and I’ve been trying to grow them for ages. Two years ago, I put them in a too-shady spot in my garden, and they thrived but didn’t bloom. Last year, I moved them to the sun and gave them a shot of compost — more foliage, but still no flowers.
A couple weeks ago, I passed by a community garden and noticed what seemed like hundreds of irises in bloom, and began to think that maybe I was just cursed when it came to this flower. Thankfully, my mother, a long-time iris gardener in the midwest, was able to straighten me out, and explained that what I was seeing were probably German irises (of course the Germans would be early); my Siberians, she said, were on the late shift. Lo and behold, this weekend — irises! They’re healthy, they’re blossoming, and I couldn’t be happier. Or prouder, for that matter.
It’s cold and rainy in New York, but I’m still happy for spring!
Posted April 8, 2010 by Leah Hoffmann
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I didn’t really care for tulips before we moved to Red Hook, but they’ve had a special place in my heart ever since some yellow ones emerged, two springs ago, like magic from a dead-looking yard. They don’t last long, and there are plenty of other plants whose traits and habits I prefer, but they’re generally the first things to blossom and I’m always glad to see them.
Happy spring!
Posted March 8, 2010 by Leah Hoffmann
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It’s difficult to imagine that we had 20+ inches of snow last weekend, cause this weekend was beautiful: sunny, clear, with temperatures that had you peeling off gloves and scarves and even coats as you walked around.
I’ve been dreaming of spring ever since last summer, which seems to be something of an occupational hazard of gardening. This year, I’m prepared for it, too. I’ve already decided what I want to grow and ordered my seeds. I’ve also figured out exactly when I should start them, thanks to this nifty new Monthly 4 planner Karen gave me. In the past, I usually waited until the weather was warm, then scrambled to get my seeds started. Thanks to the Monthly 4, I’m already ahead of the game, and my tomatoes and brussels sprouts are sitting in peat planters on the windowsill.
Continue reading »
Posted February 26, 2010 by Leah Hoffmann
in Cabinet of Curiosities | 4 comments »
Proud as I am of my garden in the summer, the yard really never looks better than it does in the snow, with icicles hanging down from the old, rickety shed and white mounds covering the fence… And check out the wall that greeted me when I opened the door this morning!
Now that my Internet connection has finally been restored, here’s wishing everyone on the East Coast a happy last-blast-of-winter…
Posted June 18, 2009 by Leah Hoffmann
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And now, as they say, for something completely different… My first daylily of the year! I’m not sure what this variety is called (I swiped it from my mom’s garden last year), but it’s now the first daylily to open for the second year in a row… I love how it looks against the industrial green garage door thingie that serves as a section of our fence.
Posted November 14, 2008 by Leah Hoffmann
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Now that my garden’s up and running, I figured it was time to take the next step in domestic outdoor activities. I ordered a birdfeeder from the amusingly named Droll Yankees company website, bought a shepherd’s hook out in New Jersey, and hung everything on a fencepost.
Not so fast, evidently. Here’s how things played out:
Phase one. My first hook wasn’t nearly long enough, and the squirrels had a lovely time hopping over from the fence and eating all the seed. Also, the birds weren’t very interested; they hung out in the tree behind our shed and didn’t approach the feeder.
Phase two. I went back and bought a longer hook and re-hung the whole contraption. A few days later, the birds discovered it. And a couple days after that, the squirrels figured out how to make the longer leap.
Phase three. My birdfeeder came with a small tray on the bottom to catch the seeds the birds spill as they eat (they’re very messy eaters!). It also gave the squirrels a nice place to land as they leapt over from the fence. Once I figured that out, I removed the tray, and the squirrels suddenly became much less adventurous. I can’t describe how satisfying it was to watch them try and fail to make the leap—or better yet, to try to shimmy across the hook and dangle down over the feeder itself, which has a protective dome.
Nature: it’s an arms race.
Posted August 20, 2008 by Leah Hoffmann
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Here’s a picture of my latest garden surprise—a Rose of Sharon bush that looked all but dead when we moved in, miraculously came back to life, and then lost a bunch of leaves when we transplanted it to the other side of the garden. Needless to say, I was not expecting flowers, but flowers are here, and they’re spectacular!
The name “Rose of Sharon” reminds me of Steinbeck’s Grapes of Wrath (which I haven’t read since sophomore year of high school and can only dimly recollect), because there’s a character in the book who’s called Rosasharn, after the plant. It’s a Biblical name—in the King James translation of the Song of Solomon, the beloved claims “I am the rose of Sharon, and the lily of the valleys”—though that’s apparently a mistranslation of the Hebrew word for “crocus.”
When I lived in Europe, I had a plant called the Rose of Jericho, which is basically a tumbleweed: put it into a bowl of water and it unfurls its frothy leaves, take it out and it curls up into a dry, brown ball and goes to sleep.
Posted July 14, 2008 by Leah Hoffmann
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I made an impulse purchase at the garden center recently: a beautiful little dwarf pomegranate that I walked by and fell in love with. It’s too cold here in New York to let it winter outdoors, but for the moment it looks fabulous in its little pot on my patio.
Apparently, dwarf pomegranates are very popular bonsai plants. Right now, that seems like more work than I can handle (I’m still figuring out plant names and what I should and shouldn’t compost), but I’m very curious about it. The Brooklyn Botanic Garden has a whole greenhouse full of bonsai trees, and if I remember right, some of them are decades old.
Do any of you bonsai? (Can I use that as a verb?) How did you get into it?
Posted July 2, 2008 by Leah Hoffmann
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My garden is small, and young, so everything seems precious. The bowlful or two of strawberries we harvested last month felt like the best I’d ever tasted; now, my first daylily blossom—pictured above just after a light summer rain—strikes me as beyond gorgeous. I even love its small asymmetries, because they make it seem more natural and less expertly cultivated.
The daylily offers a great lesson in appreciating the beauty of a moment. Most daylilies blossom only for a single day, opening in the morning and closing up at nightfall. (Each plant has several blossoms, though, so the pleasure’s not quite so ephemeral.)
