JulieLeung.com: a life told in tidepools » gardening

Changes to this blog and blogger

jjl — Wed, 19 Apr 2006 14:59:48 +0000

I’ve been making some changes in my life and hope to write more about those soon. I am also planning to take this blog in a slightly new direction. First though I would like to post some pieces that are still in the draft folder.

One change I have made is that I am approving all comments to be posted. Some days all the time I have for blogging has been spent deleting spam. Instead for now I will try approving comments. Of course the disadvantage of this method is that it requires my presence and approval for conversations to continue. But for now, given the blog setup that I have and other resources, this seems to be the best solution.

My Flickr pictures document the signs of spring around me. In one garden bed, I have planted seven kinds of tulips. Five of them are visible here. Summer has been my favorite season, but this year I find the season of change exciting and refreshing.

Favorite pictures of the week

jjl — Tue, 28 Mar 2006 14:04:41 +0000

Ted and I have had fun photographing these Red Emperor tulips which have begun to bloom in the past few days. The girls and I planted the tulips as partcipants with other teachers and kids in a Journey North project (see this map of tulips across the continent, and a few in Europe). My days have been full with family and I plan to post more soon. In the meantime, I thought I’d try to remember how to post pictures with the setup I have at the moment (ecto spoiled me!) and share some of these spring sights with you. Hope you are enjoying beauty wherever you are in the world.

Busy bee

jjl — Tue, 24 May 2005 15:54:22 +0000

A picture of an Abigail

jjl — Mon, 09 May 2005 15:21:03 +0000

an Abigail tulip, that is. I didn’t know about Abigail tulips until we saw them at the store last fall. Now we need to find Michaela and Elisabeth ones so each of the girls can grow her eponymous plant.

Purple thyme

jjl — Mon, 02 May 2005 07:29:36 +0000

I planted a few gallons of creeping thyme last spring in our sidewalk strip and a year later the flowers are noticeable, patches of bright purple amidst the mulch.

Although they are not the kind of blooms one can cut and deliver to others in a bouquet, with a ring of the door bell, I figured they would work fine for the purpose of wishing everyone a Happy May Day!

ants in my plants

jjl — Fri, 22 Apr 2005 14:47:48 +0000

Before it turned into tulip sushi

jjl — Mon, 18 Apr 2005 16:38:34 +0000

Thanks everyone for your care. I’m still catching up, getting over a cold, and hoping to return to writing soon. In the meantime I thought I’d post one of my favorite photos from the garden. Last fall I planted bulbs for orange tulips and I have enjoyed these new blooms, vibrant vermilion in the spring sunshine. This flower grew in Elisabeth’s section of the garden. Minutes after I took this picture, my two-year-old turned it into sushi, rolling the petals into pretend cuisine (salmon sashimi?). Tulip sushi also seems to be a favorite with her sisters. It’s a fun idea and a great way to use petals: I only wish the kids would wait until the flowers fall apart on their own…

Lamb’s ears

jjl — Fri, 08 Apr 2005 10:53:39 +0000

(Stachys byzantina)

Strawberry fields not forever: 7 things I learned about yard work this week

jjl — Thu, 07 Apr 2005 15:34:34 +0000

This year I’m removing my strawberry plants from the garden. Shovel in hand, I noticed the little white blossoms and had to photograph them before they were gone forever. It’s intriguing to watch the shy flowers turn into fruit as the petals fall off and the small yellow center transforms into a big red berry.

Strawberries are fun. The kids had a great time gathering berries. We’ll miss them. These plants were a gift from a friend who moved away so they have extra significance. But the strawberries also are difficult to control with their long roots and runners. They had taken over most of the small patch I can use to grow my vegetables. Next year we’ll get new ones.

Yard work is fun. That’s one of many discoveries as I’ve spent good portions of the past three days taking advantage of the dry weather to work outside. Here are a few lessons I learned….

Yard work is a work out. After spending three hours moving mulch, I could feel many new muscles. In other words, I was sore. It did more for my back and lats than my running ever does, and the shoveling made great machine squats. On the cool day, the kids felt cold but I was hot and thirsty, as if I had taken a long run.

Yard work is dirty work. I shouldn’t take the kids with me and incorporate them into my mulch-moving task unless I also have the time to give them all baths afterwords. Plan on lots of laundry too.

Yard work is hard work. Moving the shovel and wheelbarrow made my fingers thick, red and bumpy with potential blister sites. I came inside and thought about the easy life I have had, my soft white fingers that rarely blister, and the level of labor I’ve never known.

The family that digs together stays together. Okay, I’m exaggerating that one. But the hours the girls and I spent working together with newspapers and mulch to improve a strip of dirt into a garden also improved our relationship. For the rest of the day the kids were exceptionally affectionate and grateful, showering me with hugs and “I love yous”. I think they liked working on a project with me. Maybe they liked being together with me, playing an important part in my job, and seeing our efforts have an effect.

Yard work is expensive and creative. It takes time to make a change, whether it is adding mulch or digging up a bed of strawberries. Of course, there is always the option of hiring someone else to do it, which motivates me to do it myself. Mulch isn’t cheap. Neither is time. The water bill gets a bump too, from extra bathing and laundering. When the garbage truck judged my can to be too heavy with weeds, I had to think of a solution or cough up more money for disposal fees. (note: strawberry roots carry too much dirt!) Each day this week I think I’ve spent more time than I calculated outside trying to accomplish something, and ended up throwing away the day’s schedule into chaos. Combating areas where unwanted plants had invested deep roots, I experimented with various methods of elimination, including decorating the strip of dirt with colorful sports pages: hey, I had a chance to catch up on the NCAA basketball tournament…after it was over. But what work doesn’t have a cost or require creativity?

Yard work is rewarding. At least some of the time. Weeding can be too redundant and make me wonder why I try. I have enjoyed though looking out the dining room window to admire our strip of dirt now a new bed of dark mulch. It’s a beautiful site, compared to the weeds that once ran wild there. It’s beautiful in its potential: I like the sight of a garden with mulch and also a project that has possibilities. It’s also beautiful because it reminds me of my independence, the work I did by myself, as well as my interdependence, the work I did with my daughters. I can’t wait to see what will grow.

Yard work is fun! In weeks like this, I could confess it is even addicting…good thing there’s always more to do…

The pagoda blooms again

jjl — Fri, 01 Apr 2005 18:11:55 +0000