Esther – Page 7 – gaias-gift.com

LED Lights to feed the world

Update 10/13/11. The Boston Globe link no longer works but here is an ABC link that works today. Or use the search term as described below. http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory?id=13346712

I’m sharing a link to a Boston Globe version of an AP release about use of LED lights to feed the world. You can find it at other sources if you search on “LED lights and Gertjan Meeuws”.

Since my “win the lottery” fantasy, and the wishful purpose of this web site, which is now sustained by my real job, is to encourage sustainable gardening, this is fascinating news. I’ve also been evaluating whether using some of my basement space for winter gardening would be cost effective. However, some of the statements in this article, like fooling around with the light spectrum to get crops earlier and the idea the sun and other natural contributors to the garden can be a bad thing is all a bit, um, shivery. Orwellian, almost, and it’s not nice to fool mother nature.

However, since the existing market and research for grow lights has been s is so heavily influenced by cash crops, i.e., marijuana, I wonder if there isn’t a huge research opportunity for things like tomatos, herbs, lettuces; the kind of things that I would be interested in overwintering. Mixed growing, small indoor garden-type of growing. Keeping my citrus happier, and new ideas for yummy things to harvest in winter from under the lights.

First things, first; I’ll get through our outdoor season and then come back to this. I expect that the costs for these light arrays will go down over time, too. Are any of you considering a winter garden under the lights? What do you want to grow?

Spring projects

I love the woods behind my house but keeping it from taking over the few sunny areas that I have is a constant struggle and I often feel like I’m losing. The vines creep out first, including poison ivy, to which I’m very allergic, and then the wild berry bushes try to fill in. The next thing you know there are trees in what used to be lawn. There used to be a pretty island around these trees covered with lilly of the valley, but even that robust ground cover couldn’t keep the encroachment at bay. The encroachment was strongly assisted by the ice storm we had some years back that littered the whole yard with branches and twigs. So these are “before” and “during” shots of the cleanup and replanting There is still the back of the island and the forsythia gone wild to the right of it that I will have to clean. The pile in the second photo is just the vining plants that I pulled; I’ll make sure that they’ve dried out too much to sprout and then take them deper into the woods. There was wild grape and English Ivy, but also a lot of poison ivy that I pulled, I’m sure. And then carefully washed everything with Technu.

Hard to see the grade in pictures but I still want to edge, build up the soil somewhat to delinate from lawn and to round up the slight slope to the trees. I will not change the soil level at tree trunk level as that might not be healthy, just in front of the trees for effect. And then mulch like crazy to keep the forest at bay while I figure out what else to plant there. I want to use some edge plants like hydrangeas and rhodedendrons to help fill in and keep the trees out. You may be able to make out two twiggy things. They are hydrangeas, “Let’s Dance, Moonlight”. With the morning sun and shade from the trees, they should do well there.[oqeygallery id=9]

When garden zones matter

On my deck, At 28 deg F, it’s 10 degrees cooler this morning than in Boston. Some of the MA blogs that I follow have been planting onions and lettuces, I’m trying to decide whether it’s safe to try to harden them on said deck. Nights are supposed to be above freezing for the foreseeable future. But I don’t think it was supposed to be so cold last night either. I took a couple of vacation days to work outside; the first four day stretch I have had off in a long time. The projects:

Clean said deck so that when it’s safe, there’s room for the seedlings to harden off.
Rough cut rose pruning, almost done. I will come back after there’s more signs of life to take out any dead or unproductive leaves. I also need to fill a few place in the rose ghetto (hybrid teas) that gave up the fight against wetness and lack of sun. But all of the shrub and old roses are looking healthy.
Hacking back the foundation plantings so that I can walk the sidewalk. I inherited these and just don’t know what else to do.
Cutting out last years growth from the miscanthus. I want to dig and throw or give away more than half of it this spring.
Cleaning wild berry bushes and vines from the rhubarb beds. Their little pink buts are so suggestive of future fecundidty.
Moving a peony that was supposed to be in front of a rose and instead, grows up into it. This white peony’s blossoms are too big and the plant can’t hold them up. I keep moving them to give them a better chance. They make great cutting flowers.
Moving a rhubarb plant out of the food beds. If no one wants it, I may have to throw it away. But I need the space in the food bed.
Cleaning an area around trees that’s filled in with lily of the valley, and weeds so that I can plant some hydrangeas that wintered in the food bed. Soon!
Burning the rose canes and anything elese that’s too big or not suitable for compost.

Gee, when I put it in a list, it looks like quite a lot. Better get back to it…

April Fools Day Snow 2011

First picture is my sad, pruned apple tree. Then I move to shots of the roses. First an unpruned “Teasing Georgia with the end of the main rose bed to the left. Then, in front of the house, you can see a pruned City of York on the right and a “OH MY GOODNESS, WHAT AM I GONNA DO WITH IT” Seven Sisters, trying to bring down the arbor on the left. Last shots are of my garden beds. I love the way the snow is delineating every line of my supports.

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Amaranthus, decorative types

I am playing with decorative amaranths this year. I would really like to find a US source for “Ponytails”, see left, but none of the major seed companies seem to carry it in the US. T&M does but not in the US, evidently. Last year I ordered online and they said they had problems with the seed and I didn’t get them. They are similar to what I’ve seen with “Love lies Bleeding”, but while that variety is chenille rope-like, the Ponytails in this picture, from Jardin des Plants in Paris many years ago, was more like chenille balls on a rope. And I have seen some web locations that seem to believe that LLB and Ponytails are the same so I’m reluctant to try an unknown source. Oh well, enough about the “one that got away”. So far. And if LLB and Ponytails are really the same thing, I’m starting some LLB and may find out.

My trial with Love lies Bleeding and Joseph’s Coat last year was without success, almost nothing germinated and what did, didn’t live to be planted outdoors . This year I did more reading and saw a reference that they liked bottom heat. I was using a combination of last year’s seed and some new varieties that I purchased fresh so I used several seeds in every cell and started them over a heat mat. I think I got 100% germination from both sets of seeds! Here are the varieties:

Cinco de Mayo
Love lies Bleeding
Tricolor Early Splendor
Joesph’s Coat

Here’s a picture of my seedling forest. Since then, I’ve pulled out everything but two or three in each cube.

Pruning Roses

When I got up today the sun was shining and I decided to wade through the remaining snow to do, well OK, start, a big job on two of my roses. After much research, I’ve decided that the way to take care of these two robust bushes, that have taken over much more space than they should, is a severe pruming. I intend to identify four strong, healthy canes on each bush, not the oldest ones and take out everything else to the ground. The blossoms grow on last year’s laterals so I will have to be careful not to damage those on the canes that I want to keep.

The rose on the right, shown first, with the larger canes and a more open habit is “City of York”. The crazy wildish rose on the left and over the door arbor is “Seven Sisters”.[oqeygallery id=7]

It smells so GOOD!

In 2009, I heard that cherries were being dumped in the West Coast of Michigan, where I hope to retire, because there were so many that they couldn’t sell them. I had done tours and tastings for Nashoba Winery for a few years between full time jobs and I knew what really good wine sour cherries can make. What a shame! It came to me that the ability to make a decent fruit wine might come in handy in that (completely hypothetical at the moment) day when I retired.

So I bought a box of cider apples for $4 from Bolton Springs Farm in the fall of 2009. After 18 months, and the third racking, it’s clear and smells like apple pie. It tastes like apples, too; although a bit sour. Fermentation uses up the natural sugars. I didn’t have the right tool for racking so I threw away a more than I liked when I moved off the clear wine. I put in an order for some stuff that prevents added sugar from fermenting, a stabilizer. (And the rigid tool that I should have had during racking to control the siphoning process better.) I’ll sweeten it and bottle it shortly.

The first picture is before the first racking. The second and third are from today’s process. I wish it were a bit lighter in color but wouldn’t want to mess around with the flavor.

After first fermentation — Apple wine, after fermentation

Seed starting using soil cubes — Part One

A friend remarked that I was the only gardener she knew who used soil blocks for seed starting, made by these tools, successfully. It’s been easy for me so I thought it might make a good subject for a video or two.

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The soil blockers can be purchased from Johnny’s Seeds and Ailsa Craig, a large sweet onion, from Pinetree Seeds. See “Sources” for link.

San Francisco Bloomin Stuff

[oqeygallery id=4]I was in San Francisco last week at a big Information Security Conference. What I learned is that between the movement of applications to “the cloud” and the proliferation of different kinds of personal, mobile devices, we are losing what little control we had over information security in the corporate environment. But former President Bill Clinton closed the conference saying we must be optimistic. What choice do we have? It rained every day but I did get in a walk and snapped some pictures that bring out the optimism in me.

The first shot was from my hotel room window. Some shots of winter flowers near the convention center follow. The last are from a walk to Fisherman’s warf. Does anyone know what the blue succulents are in shots five and six? They really work well mixed with the greens.

You can see my cable car trip home on YouTube.

Enjoy.

Parc Floral, Orleans France

[wpvideo tO4B4taw]I found this park on one of my first visits to France. My early research had advised me that the Loire Valley was the place to visit for garden interest. Although it doesn’t have the history of Monet’s Garden or Villandry, what it does have is this well-loved feeling and such a variety of beautiful plants and special-purpose gardens that it’s always worth a visit. Ironically, the rose garden, a semi-ampitheatre around a large reflecting pond, was one of the best I’d ever seen on my first trip — no camera. By the time I started recording my journeys they decided that drainage was an issue there and were reworking that area to improve it.

Orleans is a short distance from Paris and it makes a great starting or return point for a car-based visit to greater France. The Mecure near the center of Orleans is a favorite of mine, especially when I’m ready for the air conditioned, large room hotel experience. I’d spent a week in Saumur at what was supposed to be an exclusive and historic B & B. The new owner stuck me in a badly furnished attick room up three flights of stairs (because a bus was coming (no bus came)), wouldn’t let me use the pool (problems with the permit and could use it but it could destroy his business), and wouldn’t let me into my room between 11:00 am and 4:00 pm (everybody knows that’s how it’s done). It was near 100 deg F most days and the attic didn’t cool down well at night. I gave up, and to my host’s great displeasure moved to the Mecure for the last few days and sunk into the luxury of air conditioning and dinner by the pool.

Peace Garden, Caen France

[oqeygallery id=1]These are pictures from the Peace Garden, it’s associated with the War Memorial in Caen. There were not good directions to the gardens itself, but if you drive around the block where the Memorial is located, you will find it. There is parking specifically for the garden.

I love the architecture of the rose garden and remember when I first visited. I came over a hill and saw this fantastic theatre in the round open out before me, full of roses. Breathtaking. These pictures are from two visits, one in the spring, where the rose pictures were taken and one in the fall. There is a really nice area that features dahlias and the blooms go well into October Notice the picture of the rose hips in the fall set. That rose is “Wedding Day”, and I would like to find a source for it in the US.

Doue la Fontaine, Les Chemins de la Rose

[wpvideo g8uXEvOV]This rose garden is in the Loire Valley so it makes a nice change of pace when you’re there to visit all the old, historic chateaux. It’s a rose lover’s dream!

http://www.cheminsdelarose.com/

How much snow?

Yes, I’ve ordered seeds and have the lights in place but it’s too early by weeks to plant, even indoors. These days in central MA my life is defined by the weather to a great degree. I would not mind the snow if I didn’t have to drive in it but one of my commutes this week was a record-breaking two hours – one way! Fortunately, I can work from home occasionally and today is one of those days.

Last night’s storm dumped somewhere between 8″ and a foot. I’ll know better when I shovel the driveway. Better get to it.

Videopress test

Update 1/29/11: I have moved my Videopress testing to a free page on WordPress.com (see below) because it looks like this might never work. And I don’t want to add too much clutter, here. At this time, the Videopress support folks are saying that Nero must do something that’s incompatible with their software. I have asked them once if they would work with Nero; have asked them again. I’ll start the support process with Nero and cross my fingers that the two companies might decide to work together.

http://gaiasgift.wordpress.com/

1/25/11: <Video Deleted from this page, you can see it on the link, above.> This is a test using Videopress. I like the high definition, and being able to select the opening screen but it should be widescreen. Working with support. I promise to get back to gardening, soon.

Cincopa, tried and failed

Update 2/20/2011. In spite of all of their reassurances about how there was always a free option, now that my paid two months have run out, they won’t even show the galleries that I made there in a crippled format. Instead, as of today, they show a big nasty demand for more money instead of any part of my gallery. Is it an exaggeraton to call that extortion? Hmm, maybe a complaint to the FTC for false advertising is in order.

Update 1/22/11. After opening my dispute with Paypal, Cincopa restored the already-paid-for service. But now I know what happens when I stop paying. My creations that I paid to develop on their site are crippled. And, btw, the creations you see here have made me a power user, unable to add more projects using their free service. Still looking…

Posted on 1/21/11. Since the Company has decided to put their advertising up on my web site, without my consent and in spite of prepayment for the next month for services that include my right to specify that this advertisement does not show on my blog, I though I would just add a couple of words. Buyer beware.

This model bothered me from the start because the Company doesn’t really say what happens if you decide, after some period of buying their services, what happens to your creations. There is always the free option they say, for anyone who’s not a power user. But what happens to things you’ve paid to create? Several unsatisfying e-mails between me and their customer service left me no wiser, and pretty much believing that they thought I was an idiot. I signed up for the free two week trial to have more options for my slideshows and videos, you have to set up a repeating Paypal transaction to do that. On the 15th day, my Paypal account was charged. OK, I’ll invest in another month; but planning to either sign up for a year or find another way to do this, I cancelled the prepayment plan.

What is this? On day 16, after paying for a full month, on top of the two week trial, I am unable to use the paid account! It’s been demoted to a free account with all of the crippled features, including the ugly black bands over my pictures and the advertisements that you see.

Although it’s on my blog, I don’t advise you to click through. Paypal will probably get me my money back but who needs this?

If you have a recommendation for a reputable service like this, please let us know.

Rosarie du Val-de-Marne, l’Hay les Roses

[oqeygallery id=5]The archetypical rose garden, designed in the late 1800s by a Parisian businessman, Jules Gravereaux, who loved roses and Edouard Andre, a garden architect; this garden is a return to the structured, symetrical forms of the classical french garden, but on a smaller and more intimate scale. Although it’s large for its purpose. It was designed to display a single type of plant, the rose. The genius of both the rosier and the garden architect are exhibited in the breathtaking use of roses to provde structure to the garden. Roses form pillars of color fifteen feet in diameter and as tall as a house. Roses cling to trellises and fences and swags of chan between the taller features. Roses provide the colors of the rainbow on walls and are shaped over domes and arbors to provide delightfully scented shady places on hot June days. Both the history and the beauty of the rose are celebrated here.

I discovered two of my favorite climbers there. Veichenblau is an unusually shaped, small, purple/blue once-bloomer that shows off its colors in large clusters. City of York is a simple, classic white rose but I can find it in any rose garden by its wonderful scent.

Although it’s in a nearby suburb, not Paris itself, you can take public transportation from central Paris. You can use the RATP trip planner to plan your trip to the nearby suburb of l’Hay les Roses, Bus Stop: Sous-Prefecture-Eglise. The bus stops right across from the entrance to the park.

A word about venturing out of central Paris; there will be fewer people who speak any English. Go armed with maps and visuals if you don’t speak any French. You can print out the informaton for the buses at the RATP site, for example. And I found it took me longer than the trip information said. On transfers, just about the time that I figured out which bus I should take it was pulling out and I had to wait for the next one. But it’s really fun to watch the bus drivers navigate those huge city buses through the tiny streets.

The wisdom of buying locally

Reading some interesting discussion about the local foods movement, pro and cons. An article where economists discuss some of the issues with over-doing it, based on well recognized economic principles http://www.econlib.org/library/Columns/y2011/LuskNorwoodlocavore.html

And another study that counters that to some extent. I have not read the book yet but intend to download it. http://www.communityfoodenterprise.org/news/test

What strikes me right away is that the economists in the first model have not included self-sufficiency as an economic factor. What happens to Esther’s food supply if Boston is hit by a tsunami? Therefore, what is the ongoing economic value to Esther of her local (say West of 128 belt) sources that could still provide her with locally grown food when the regional transportation system was crippled. What should she be willing to pay over the cost of comparable food, shipped from a distance. Especially the farm that’s within walking distance. Even more so, when we put a dollar value on the produce from our own gardens or greenhouses, how do we factor this in?

This is fascinating to me because I have to grapple on a daily basis with the fact that we often don’t factor risk into econimic and business decisions. Information system security adds costs, I hear. But not if the worst happens. Then it saves money. Security analysts work with risk assessments that try to factor in the probability and impact of that “worst” to include appropriate costs/spending for prevention or mitigation. It can be a hard sell.

Thank you to the web site http://www.biofortified.org/ for presenting multiple viewpoints on this and other issues related to our food supply.

Bagatelle (and Bolivian bimbos in the Bois de Boulogne)

[wpvideo mUbud6D0]More Paris gardens for my one follower <smile> It was very hard to choose from all of my Bagatelle photos on a trip in June of ’03 but not hard to pick what to pull from my trip journal. It still makes me laugh.

Also found the way not to go to Bagatelle. I can read a map and I picked out the way to Bagatelle from La Muette, walking over the peripheric and through the Bois de Boulonge, a larger green space in which Bagatelle is located. I had read that in the evenings the Bois can turn into a red light zone but it was 2:30 in the afternoon when I started out, map and notes in hand.

First I was not sure if the road I was on would actually take me over the peripheric, but after having made my way over both entrance and exits, I felt more confident that I could find my way. I walked, and I walked. The usual French consistency about road signs was consistently non-existent. I saw sign after sign for the most expensive restaurant in Paris, located in the Bois de Boulougne but none for Bagatelle.

When I turned onto the wide but heavily wooded Allée de la Reine Marguerite, I began to wonder just what a bad girl she had been. There were women, or reasonable facsimiles thereof, and many, many men. Cars were cruising and, unbelievably, slowing down to check me out.

I am not young; I am no longer what one would call pretty. On a good day I may aspire to distinguished or attractive. But frankly, when I am traveling I often do not give a damn (I am in the purple dress with a red hat time of life) and this day was one of those. There I was in my baggy black knit pants (really baggy as I’d worn them on the airplane and then for two days of sightseeing); a beat up straw hat; and a man’s big blue work shirt that I got from my computer job and love for the pockets. And they were slowing down to check me out! There were too many sleazy men and it did make me uncomfortable but at some point I was beyond that and started to have the impulse to laugh hysterically. Trying to keep from giggling or laughing in someone’s face, I continued on. No eye contact. Absolutely no eye contact and no smiling!

And since I am really more worried about my backpack with camera and money inside than someone seriously testing my virtue, I also tried to be sure that anyone who passed me kept going and anyone who was faster than me was able to pass me easily. But no eye contact. Try that!

I failed with one poor man as I avoided his eyes when he approached and then made eye contact as I looked back to make sure that he wasn’t turning around. Quick about face, pick up pace, try not to giggle. So, finally, after 50 minutes of walking I found a sign, that directed me back the way I’d come but deeper into the woods. In spite of my uncertainty, I saw families and couples, so I took the path. And crossed a side path just as the same poor man was coming out of the woods on the path he had taken minutes ago. He mumbled an uncertain bon jour and I once again moved my eyes quickly away. What’s an honest woman to do?

One of my research sources said that Bois de Boulogne was a favorite place for working Bolivian transvestites. I can attest to seeing and hearing things that made me think that source might be right but why Bolivians in the Bois de Boulogne, (other than it makes for lovely alliteration, especially if you throw in a bimbo. Bolivian bimbos in the Bois de Boulogne)? I think that it’s probably something that the tourist office would rather not discuss. The source also implied that it was authentically French because the original owners of Bagatelle threw their lust around in the French Royal court. That’s what he said, really.

So I walked some more and finally found a gate for Bagatelle. An hour of walking, history and current events thrown in for free. And Bagatelle was everything the tourist books said it would be. I took some pictures of roses but there are still other things that I want to see. I will go again tomorrow but I think I will take a bus.

Be sure to allow plenty of time to visit the rest of the garden, beyond the roses that make it famous. The “folies” and perspectives still show the influence of Thomas Blaikie, called the Capability Brown of France. His fascinating life as a gardener to kings and princes spanned the period before and through the French Revolution. You will see much more if you research the many stories about the garden before your visit.

Snow Day

[wpvideo MvjAYclV]This will be fun to watch in hot, steamy July.

Remember when a snow day meant you could goof off? Being able to work from anywhere means you are expected to work from anywhere. Good thing I usually like my job. Took some videos of birds at the feeder, played with the cats. Worked. Gazed out of my basement study window and watched the snow slowly bend the branches of the foundation evergreens to the ground… Worked…

Frederik Meijer Gardens and Sculpture Park

[cincopa A4BAWZ6JpeSB] Frederik Meijer Gardens and Sculpture Park, Grand Rapids, MI.

Although I’m from Michigan, my deep appreciation for the role of public gardens blossomed after I moved to Massachusetts. As I looked to combine garden visits with my regular trips home to family, people kept recommending this garden. I visited with the family in October, 2009. It was late enough in the season that we didn’t have high expectations and we hadn’t even packed the stroller. The fall colors, enhanced by plantings and landscaped effects were impressive and we wore out the grands, and the big folks who took turns carrying them. Now I want to visit in summer.