April 14th – National Gardening Day is here!

Posted on  April 14, 2024  in Cactii, General Gardening, National Gardening Day, observances

Who is this? It is most likely Soehrensia schikendantzii in my garden

 

We have all heard of the peace and fulfillment that gardening brings. From my own past and ongoing experiences, I can vouch for it. I also know, wherever I end up, and for however long I can do it, I will be gardening. Just today, I went to a grocery store with my brother, and I picked up a few plants, including my first tomato seedling for the year. It has been an odd year, with very little time and budget for gardening. As the saying goes, “The gardening season starts on January 1st and ends on December 31st”, implying famously that depending on where and what you are looking to grow, you can always work on growing, tending or mourning over your unintended (hopefully) herbicidal tendencies.

Taking It In Stride

Look, we have all killed plants. And just as with many endeavors in life, I know many potential great gardeners become disappointed with a few rookie mistakes, label themselves a brown thumb, and simply give up. Without going into the opposite side, the Dunning-Kruger effort (some fun homework for the uninitiated here), I would say people should stop being so unfair to themselves, and we should encourage such giver-uppers to come back to this wonderful hobby, act of service and a great harbinger of peace inside and harmony outside. It may sound like hyperbole to you, but generally, someone who waters an orchid delicately (and knows the ice cube thing is nonsense) and dead-heads a spent rose branch with care would rarely be violent. And that brings us to our next topic.

Meditation, Zen, and Gardening

Touching on the topic of hyperbole again, I can assure you that all those benefits you hear touted about gardening are indeed very true. When you are alone, standing out there in the cold of winter or the heat of summer, digging in something, or adding soil to a pot, weeding out those aggressive plants who just won’t give up (and see, don’t be so sad, plants kill other plants too), or sticking a cutting into a pot already brimming with plants, you slowly start losing yourself. Your mind wanders, and as it waxes, wanes, and empties, many a thought comes and goes. Sometimes, you rush to write them, and sometimes, you don’t remember an idea seconds after it has come to pass. You may forget your place in the audiobook, or never remember the order of favorite songs that just passed through your mind. And therein lies the beauty of gardening. It is very Zen, and close enough to the practice, based on what I learned in my own training. That now takes us tumbling towards the next topic like a tumbleweed in a B-grade Western!

Virtues, Patience, Time and All

I believe, nearly every culture has said wonderful things about gardening. One of the things many of them talk about is how gardening is a hobby, a practice, an undertaking, a venture, and an ode to patience. Many of my close friends, including my brother, rile about how I always take “too long” to do even simple things. I see this differently. People nowadays have become far too obsessed with pushing the limits of speed in every aspect of life.

Just like Zen, Indian culture has also said many things related to gardening and patience. One comes from Kabir, an erstwhile poet and a great couplet composer. He also wrote one of my all-time favorite couplets. It is reproduced here (source referenced at the bottom):

Patience And This Post’s Cover Photo:

The plant, Soehrensia schikendantzii, pictured in this post’s cover photo, lived in a rather shaded spot with me in San Jose, California, with the large tuberous stems, happy in a pot depicting ducks placidly swimming off to somewhere.  I did the minimum tending cactii would happily take, if that. And the plant faithfully went about its life. Then, I move to my new location, about 70 miles to the North, and accidentally left the pot in a sunny spot.

Voilà! The plant, instead of grudging me, decided to reward me for finally, even if errantly, changing its location. For the last two years, she has been happily budding away, and for just a day or two producing this remarkable bloom that fills me with joy, yes, but also reminds me of how this plant, which may thankfully outlast my natural life, patiently waited for the right circumstances and decjded to flower.

Yes, patience is a virtue, and yes, I can be deeply frustrating at times, but it is one habit to pick up and dust off in these maddening times, helped by the quaint art, science, and practice of gardening.

Action Items for National Gardening Day

If you have stayed this long with this post, then you already possess a lot of patience. Well, enough of that. There is a reason we have this day. It is tend to your gardens, appreciate other gardeners and encourage new ones. While this should be every day, let’s talk about  a few things you can do right away:

  1. However large or small your garden is, smile. Relax. Tend to the one plant or some of the hundreds you have today. Water them, feed them, or simply clean them up, dead-head them, cut off dead branches or leaves. Basically, play!
  2. If you see beautiful gardens in and around where you live or work, or in that quaint park you go to, appreciate them. And if you know the gardener(s), appreciate them, and thank them, for bringing forth much needed beauty and carbon eaters into this world!
  3. Think and discuss how you can keep your garden organic, and water-friendly, while also giving you years of inner peace.
  4. If there are young ‘uns, or even not-so young ‘uns, who are a little hesitant, or terrified, encourage them. If they are already enthused, enthuse them some more! It is never late to start gardening, and it is always great to start early.
  5. Share and share alike! Gardening doesn’t have to be expensive for one, so never hesitate to ask for cuttings. Similarluy, think about it, wouldn’t you love to see that small cutting, either of a rose, a succulent or some other wonderful plant, in full-bloom a few years from now? As long as you are not breaking the law by commercially selling off cuttings, and giving away a few to your neighbors or that stranger that stops by to ask, do it!

I hope you have a Happy National Gardening Day, today, and every day!

References:

  1. The plant in the cover photo/; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soehrensia_schickendantzii
  2. The doha (couplet) from Kabir: https://www.boloji.com/doha-details/5/dheere-dheere-re-mana

 

Oh the 4 o’ clock plants

Posted on  July 25, 2020  in California Gardening, Summer

 

When I was in high school biology text referred to the Mirabilis jalapa, and how it has beautiful flowers! Years later, living in Downtown San Jose, I encountered this marvelous plant with multi-colored flowers, many of which were on the same plant! Pinks, reds, yellows, oranges and double colors abound! I had to look them up to find out this is the beautiful 4 o’clock plant or the Marvel of Peru I had read about as a child.

 

Year after year, I fend off landscapers, some random people crossing the street and more to keep them going! I wait in yearning for summer, when the lovely, drought-tolerant beauts just grow and grow and grow and put o this amazing show! In the past couple of years, I have also interspersed Morning Glories with their blue and purple flowers, so they contrast very well with each other. I sit here wondering what else I could throw in the mix!

 

Yes, they crowd the footpath in a couple of places, but enough people have said they appreciate them, and I see bees and wasps adoringly feed off the flowers! I am hoping to keep these lovely plants going for as long as I rent in this place. I also hope to post more of them.

Thrillers, Fillers and Spillers!

Posted on  June 30, 2020  in General Gardening, Spring

 

I don’t put up photos of my garden much. I am trying to change that. Here is one from my special project for this spring, doing well into summer! I have this rather big size pot, that for years was waiting for her special renewal project. Then, this year, I really wanted my vegetable garden to have a little “pop”. So, in a fit, I stuck the huge pot on a foldable TV dinner table and stuck it with all manners of plants. Now, she sports a nice thriller I picked up at Costco, with petunias, gerbera, pansies, impatiens, marigold, red valorean, a smaller salvia and a couple of knick-knacks.

 

Being a big fan of solar lights, I stuck one in there. Though not pictured here, the vegetable garden has seen tons of visits from humming birds, butterflies and bees as well as others!

 

Until next time!

My First Morning Glory is already here!

Posted on  April 4, 2020  in California Gardening, General Gardening, Spring, Weeds

 

Apart from the oddities facing humanity, this season has been odd for California as well. We seem to be at the precipice of another drought, even though we have had some late showers and will have some this weekend. We are only at 45% of our annual rainfall so far, and without significant increases in storm systems, I anticipate we will definitely fail to catch up. Another uniqueness has been the cold. We have had sub 70F temperatures for most of this year, even though Spring is a short, early onset season for us by the coast.

 

Only about 2 years ago, a neighbor grew some Morning Glory at his home. The seeds just transitioned into our rental property’s yard and have now simply taken over! Yes, the plant tends to get very weedy, but here in Downtown San Jose, we are under siege from so many other weeds, that I prefer this bee and bird friendly beautiful plant. And, in the peak of Summer and well into Fall. it complements well with the Four-O’ Clock Plant, Mirabilis jalaba. They flower AM and PM in tandem and put on an incredible show!

 

So, each Spring, I eagerly await the arrival of the Morning Glory. One day the garden looks drab and the next it explodes with bluish-purple hue! And, given the cold this year, I see most of the plants have just started to germinate. And yet, the first one seems to have a Type A personality, and flowered this morning, between the ornamental fencing and the paved city sidewalk.

 

And it may just be one, and the flower might be beat up, but here we are! Spring, has, as they say sprung!

Life…finds a way

Posted on  April 1, 2018  in Cactii, General Gardening

It is one of the most favorite lines, from a movie, that is perhaps, my favorite. Delivered by Jeff Goldblum as the irritable Ian Malcolm in Jurassic Park, the line has been with me since I have been 14, when I first watched the movie.

This evening, I was working on my yard, and while repositioning another plant, I came across my Euphorbia polygona “Snow Flake” in its pot. I lifted it, to find the scene in this photo unfold.

I have seen plants, especially of the Agave variety, put down roots strong enough to break pots. This is the first time, I have come across a plant that is very very motivated to reproduce! The plant has been generally very fertile, putting out new shoots regularly. I told my neighbors, a couple that I teach and advice on gardening on and off to take the shoots, letting them know it would encourage the plant to put out more. Which it dutifully did, and then some I guess!

As Ian Malcolm would say, “life..finds a way”, I suppose.

 

Which makes me think…what’s our excuse!

Fading Winter’s bounty brings on tasty nostalgia…

Posted on  March 6, 2017  in California Gardening, Urban Farming, Winter Gardening

We gardeners are a funny bunch. When Winter is at her peak, we groan about how we are kept away from our favorite activity – digging and getting dirty. And then, when Winter is fading away, even as we look on to Spring, we have a weird sense of nostalgia.

That happened to me today as I did my last or hopefully, penultimate harvest of Swiss Chard, homegrown, organic, pesticide-free, mostly fertilizer-free (some composted manure and organic helpers added) and all that good stuff. Swiss Chard is that quintessential Winter harvest in the West, and I definitely enjoyed growing it this Fall+Winter.

Ah, well, come November, it will be time again to plant a new generation of crop. Till then, bye bye Chard and bye bye Winter!!

Oxalis – the enemy of the California Gardener

Posted on  February 27, 2017  in California Gardening, Weeds

If you have driven around California, especially Northern California, you have seen the “wild” mustard (Sinapis arvensis). That is a weed too. Formerly, it was the biggest villain on open fields and gardens. No, we have not cut back on the crop, besides places where the land was just built or paved over, but a new, WORSE enemy has moved in to the neighborhood.

Pictured above, is a quaint example of Oxalis (corniculata, pes-caprae) with several common names such as Woodsorrel, Buttercup Woodsorrel, etc. It is a really cool looking plant (and probably is, in its native environment), but in California, look as it might, it has used its aggressive reproduction techniques to spread wildly, and is quite invasive, choking the land, disallowing natives from growing.

In the garden, it has the same effect, disallowing not only natives, but your ground and potted plants.

Dealing with Oxalis

You have to get to it! Find those clover like leaves, and get rid of these plants, hopefully before they flower. They are sneaky, go from seed to flower to seed to germination at what, to the untrained eye would be the blink of an eye.

Pull them out by hand, and pull them by the root. If it has just rained or if you have soaked your garden well, it will be wet enough to pull. If you leave the roots behind, fully expect the determined weed to come back (some particularly disturbing species have bulbs).

I do not use pesticides and do not recommend it. It will do more harm than good. Pulling by hand makes sure you only remove what you ought to, and find other germinating surprises (good and bad!), and maybe, a good workout!

If you reuse soil that has had Oxalis infestation, be sure to remove any young plants, bulbs, roots, etc. completely.

I will post more such updates on weeds. If you have your own weeding tricks, you are welcome to enlighten me and other readers here!