REPRISE: "Love thy neighbor — but don't pull down your hedge."

The photograph posted above shows my Cardinal Climber AKA Ipomocea  multifida or "CC" thoroughly enjoying its somewhat new (six weeks) digs in my urban terrace garden. As you may recall, the Cardinal Climber was a gift from a friend, who gave me some CC Plants near the onset of the last week of July.
The photograph used to announce their arrival in my urban terrace garden can be seen below.

You may recognize this image, dear reader, because it was also included with the narrative (blog post) of the Cardinal Climber's arrival. I have included it again today to emphasize just how quickly the Cardinal Climber grows, in the event that you, or someone near and dear to you, needs a quick fix in your respective gardens.
I am not normally one who likes a quick fix — I stand corrected — I am no longer one who craves quick fixes (in the garden at least; my "other life" is another story), but, when I was given the Cardinal Climber, it was another effort to fill in my pain from having lost my beloved Honeysuckle Vine to man-made elements — and to fill in my trellis, so I could have privacy from voyeur neighbors, neighbors which I mentioned in a post titled, Love thy neighbor . . . but don't pull your hedge), as mentioned in a prior entry which you may refer to by clicking here.


In any event, whether it crawls up a trellis and gives you privacy or not, many garden lovers appreciate the small, bright crimson-colored flowers of the Cardinal Climber, because of the way they look against the green fern-like foliage, and that is why I am sharing my experiences with it with you. While I have not planted annual vines for quite some time, the Cardinal Climber is a joy to behold; and makes a great photo-op, as evidenced by the images posted below.

Mushroom Madness

This past Sunday, August 20th 2011, as I prepared my blog entry for this Tuesday's publication, rain — severe rain — with thunderstorms was predicted. That weather report caused me to think back to the prior Sunday's (August 14th) torrents of rain.

While Texas remained under a severe drought, on Sunday, August 14th of 2011, the amount of rainfall in New York City set a record. According to radio reports, newspapers, and countless Internet materials, including one found at this link, "New York's Kennedy Airport received 7.8" of rain, its soggiest day since records began in 1948. Its single-day rainfall output was about twice its average monthly total."  As a result of this immense rainfall, there were "scattered power outages and transit disruptions. Cars got caught in flash floods, and the Long Island Railroad reported localized flooding and trees on the tracks, delaying several dozen trains....in the subways, water flooded into the tunnels, knocking out seven lines of power . . . "

Besides the rhetoric, newspapers were, if you will excuse the pun, flooded with images of this occurance. Many of these images are available to see via Flickr or general Google searches; so, dear reader, if you are interested, I will leave finding them up to you, rather than me hand-picking some, and then pointing you to the links to see them. Not that I mind doing this, but I think that reading the aforementioned fact about "cars getting caught in flash floods" will leave you with a mental picture of just how much rainfall we had in New York City.

The only photograph which I took of my terrace garden on that rain-filled day is one of a tiny watering can (obviously not one that I use to water my garden) that rests on the the second of three bamboo shelves which are attached to my terrace railing by copper-wire to provide me with an "urban hedge".  (The EXIF info on this photograph tells me it was taken at 16:57:13; which, from my military time conversion, means I took it a little after 4:57 P.M. — most likely the only small window of time on that Sunday in which rainfall was not occurring, as I am not camera savvy enough to shoot pictures in the rain.)




The first  bamboo shelf of of these "urban hedge" can be seen in the photograph below.

This photograph was not taken during the rainstorm, but has been included in this blog entry to give you an idea of what I mean by my "urban hedge" of bamboo shelving. These shelves serve as one of my "urban hedges" — giving me privacy from voyeur neighbors as discussed in a few previous posts, including ones which you may refer to by clicking here and here. These particular bamboo shelves are located at the extreme southwest corner of my garden, which means they are to the immediate left of the door that leads from my apartment to my terrace garden, and therefore I did not have to venture very far into my garden to take either of the photographs of my bamboo shelving. An orange arrow has been added to the image directly above, to show you, dear reader, just how close the neighbor's window is to my urban garden.




However, the point of today's blog entry is not solely dedicated to "urban hedges"  or to sensationalizing August 14th's rainfall, rather it is to shed light on the prevailing belief that the things which urban gardeners — or at least ones with container gardens — grow truly thrive as a result of such downpours. At times of heavy rainfall, many folks — as most of them know that I hand-water over sixty things that grow in my terrace garden — always say to me, "well at least you don't have to water . . . "




And with that assumption, I want to clarify something that I may have alluded to in a blog entry, in which I discussed hand-watering my terrace garden. First of all, rain does not always fall into the many containers that "house" the herbs, plants, flowers, vines, shrubs, and trees which I have in my terrace garden, so at times, even in heavy rainfall, I still have to water it. Secondly, if the rainfall is heavy enough to do damage to subway systems, think what it can do to the root systems of things living in garden containers. A number of years ago it rained every day in the month of June, and a few of my shrubs that I had successfully wintered over, and that had thrived beautifully for part of that spring season, succumbed to mold and mildew brought on by their roots being unable to dry out. Since mold and mildew can spread, I had to get rid of the afflicted shrubs, and replace them with other things.




Hence, the type of rain New York City experienced on Sunday, August 14th, because it was followed by heavy rain on Monday the 15th, Wednesday the 17th, Thursday the 18th, had the potential of endangering some of the things which I grow in my terrace garden; but as you can see by the photograph posted below (which was taken by Juan V on Thursday the 18th), fortunately that was not the case.

The things that grow in my terrace garden – so far — do not seem to be in danger of mold or mildew, which is a good sign, especially since it has continued to rain after Juan V took the photograph.




Unfortunately, another problem has come up in my urban terrace garden as a result of so much rainfall: Since the days following the time that Juan V took the aerial photograph of my urban garden, it has rained heavily again, and that rain, or rather my herbs, vines, flowers, plants, shrubs and tree's inability to dry out from that rain, has caused unsightly (in my humble opinion) mushrooms to make their home in the container which houses my Continus Coggygria (Smokey Bush) as seen in the photographs posted below.

I use the term "humble opinion" in conjunction with my observation that mushroom are "unsightly" because when I saw them on Sunday morning, August 21st, their sudden appearance nearly gagged me; and it sent me straight to Google for answers, where I came upon a mushroom lover's web-site by someone named Michael Kuo which you may refer to by clicking here.




Before I go any further, I will confess that this is not the first time I saw a mushroom in my urban garden, I did see a "lone" mushroom "hidden" beneath the delicate foliage of my Thom-Thumb shrub, but I dug it out immediately —  out of a reflex reaction — rather than photographing it. A few days later, I spotted a mushroom growing in my Creeping Phlox, and this time, I took a photograph, (posted below), and then I pulled the mushroom out!

Unlike Mr. Kuo, I do not appreciate their presence, and upon reading what he has to say about getting rid of them, I am quite discouraged. Here is what Kuo has to say about removal of mushrooms:"Mushrooms are roughly comparable to apples on apple trees; they are the fruiting body the organism creates when it wants to reproduce. The apple tree's "plan" (I know; I'm giving human thoughts to trees and mushrooms, but it's the easiest way to talk about this) is to put its seeds in a nice, plump morsel that will fall to the ground and attract a hungry animal who will then, um, pass the seeds to new territory for germination and a new apple tree."




Mr. Kuo continues, "Mushrooms have similar plans. Their seeds (microscopic things called spores) cover parts of the mushrooms; one of the best ways to understand mushrooms is to think of them as 'spore factories'. The entire structure is an excuse to get spores out into the world . . . the 'real' organism – the part that corresponds to the apple tree, rather than the apple — is called a mycelium (pronounced so it rhymes with 'my helium'), and is found in the mushroom's substrate: the ground, leaves, a log, woodchips, and so on. It is a mesh of tiny threadlike cells that plow through the substrate, consuming nutrients . . . "




"Now it should be obvious why you can't get rid of your mushrooms; you would have to get rid of the mycelium rather than the mushrooms. If you have been picking or stomping on your mushrooms to make them disappear, you might as well have picked every apple in an orchard , trying to make the trees go away."




"HUH?," says yours truly to the blinking monitor.




"You would need to remove all the soil and natural debris in your yard or garden, and replace it with something inorganic like concrete or plastic — in which case you would 'probably' be mushroom free. I say 'probably' because Pisolithus tinctorius, Scleroderma, and other mushrooms might still erupt through your concrete."




And I thought bamboo shelving would shield me from unsightly things! The blinking monitor hears me wince!




"What I haven't mentioned yet is your mushroom is an integral part of your yard or garden's ecosystem. Its mycelium is probably doing one of two things, either which is crucial to the health of your yard."




But, I have a container garden!




"  . . . mushrooms are involved in a symbiotic relationship with plants and trees. The plant's rootlets are surrounded and protected by the mushroom's mycelium which help the plant absorb water and nutrients . . . "




Not convinced that their value is worth the eye-sore!

I will concede that I am willing to consider Mr. Kuo's view, because, after all, anyone who presents their argument by "giving human thoughts to trees and mushrooms" has a way of winning my heart, for as you know, if you follow this blog, there have been a number of occasions when one of my plants, flowers, shrubs or trees have expressed themselves by authoring blog entries. My Paeonia Suffruiticosa's (Tree Peony) self-expression is here, my Tulips "two-cents" can be found here and here; my Physocarpus opulifolius (Coppertina) views are here, my Roses weighed in here; while my Helichrysum bracteatum (Strawflowers), took the helm here.




Moreover, my Actinida kolomikta and Actimida (Kiwi Vines) were cast — although my Actinida kolomikta did all the talking — as narrators of my first garden movie, The Kiwi Speaks! Fifteen Minutes of Fame . . .  almost; which is now on Vimeo, and is accessible at this link.




And, not to be on done, my Hens and Chicks insisted on giving a thumbs up to a colleague of mine (which you can see at this link), while my Echinacea and Tropaelum majus (Nasturtium) insisted their placement in my Flickr Galleries be announced by them. They made their announcements in these respective links (here and here).




I am still not too pleased to have unsightly mushrooms invading my Continus Coggygria (Smokey Bush) and my Creeping Phlox, but if it doesn't bother them, I'll try to take the same attitude and let things take their course. Besides, once upon a time, I thought mushrooms were cute, well, at least ceramic ones, such as the variety yours truly is sitting on in the photograph posted below. The picture was taken on my fifth birthday, at Santa's Village, a place that was filled with amusement, and mushrooms (the purple double-sided  arrow on the photograph is pointing to two of the many) and now, as I celebrate my (ahem) birthday tomorrow, I will make a wish to be childlike and not childish about mushrooms.

Friday Follow-Up

The radio announcer says it's 108 degrees at Newark Airport and 104 degrees in Central Park (which is less than a block from where I live and have a terrace garden in New York City) this afternoon, and since the thermometer in my terrace garden only registers 101 degrees, I am extremely thankful to report that the things that I grow in my terrace garden including herbs, plants, flowers, vines, shrubs, and trees — over sixty in total — are faring well with my hand watering (an activity that I have discussed in blog postings, including ones which you may refer to by clicking here and here). 




Today I am mainly following up on the planting of my "newcomer vine", the Cardinal Climber (Ipomea sloteri), as I promised I would in yesterday's blog entry.




Juan V and I did our work fairly early in the morning in an effort to beat the heat, however, we were not finished until a little before 9:00 A.M. An overview of what my terrace garden looked like after the work was finished can be seen in an aerial photograph which Juan V took for me and that I have posted below.

If you zoom in on the photograph, or squint enough, you will be able to see two of the three clay pots (below the bamboo trellis) that are now filled with the Cardinal Climber, the third is off camera (and has its own trellis) but is indeed standing in the most southwest corner of my terrace garden.

The Cardinal Climber, as I said yesterday, has done well in my garden in the past, so I have reason to believe that it will flourish once again, and therefore it will surely provide me with the much-needed privacy that I need from the gawking tourist-neighbors, a situation that I wrote about in a previous post, Love thy Neighbor, but, Don't Pull Down Your Hedge, which you may refer to by clicking here.




In any event, to avoid your zooming and squinting, dear reader, I have posted some photographs from it below, as it looked after yesterdays garden tending.

Above: The "Main Part" of the Trellis with pots filled with Cardinal Climber eager to hop on it and form my urban hedge.

Above: The normally camera-shy (It's off camera in aerial views.) portion of my trellis with a "lone" clay pot filled with Cardinal Climber.

Above: Cardinal Climber's leaves mug for the camera. They know they are just as awesome as the brilliant, red flowers that the vine will ultimately produce.

Above: My Cardinal Climbers  are already hopping on the orange rail which surrounds my terrace garden as well as the trellis, as if they were children on monkey-bars.




It looks as if my Cardinal Climber doesn't mind the heat, but then again, how hot is it? Well.... it's so hot, that yours truly, actually turned down a glass of Quincy, the Domaine de la Commanderie white vino, which, according to its maker, is a vino that "one drinks it young and fresh (10-14 degrees C) between friends." 




AND, Also, it's so hot, that, a restaurant, Harry's Burritos, located in my (what can be) expensive UWS (Upper Westside) New York City neighborhood, offered free, yes, free, water to passers by as evidenced by the photographic collage posted below.

Welcome Back, Welcome Back, Welcome Back! Another Cardinal Climber (aka Ipomoea sloteri) Has Returned!

The newcomer to my urban terrace garden today is a vine which is currently "divided" into nine small planters that are sitting in a Mixed Nuts carton (given to me by the grower) on top of the marble table that I have in my terrace garden, as seen in the photograph posted above today's blog entry. They are waiting for Juan V to help me plant them into their new home. It is only 7:43:10 in the morning,  and already the temperature indicated on my little garden thermometer (a thermometer that I wrote about this past Tuesday) is quickly moving past the 80 degree mark , as seen in the photograph posted below.

The temperatures, in New York City, where I live and have my terrace garden, are predicted to pass the 100 degree mark, with a "real feel " of at least 105 degrees; and so at this point, in the summer of 2011, New York City officially joins the number of states in America, that are being plagued by prolonged periods of heat and humidity.


I realize my blog is not an NYC-Accu-Weather blog, nor am I a meteorologist, and instead I am a photo-artist, writer, as well as an urban gardener, but, the "connect" is this: gardening and weather conditions, as you are undoubtedly aware dear reader, are very much interrelated. If I didn't love the things which I grow in my terrace garden so much, I might spend a hot and humid day, like today, on the boardwalk at the Jersey shore standing under the watering can (such as the one pictured below)

and enjoy being watered; instead of hand watering my sixty plus beloved herbs, plants, flowers, vines, shrubs, and trees. For now, to cool off, instead of going to the beach, I will have to bring the beach to me, and picture myself being under the boardwalk's watering can's cool spray.
In any event, as for today's terrace garden work, Juan V and I plan to put the new arrivals into three eight-inch sized clay pots that previously provided a home for my Honeysuckle Vine, which we had to remove last week, as discussed in a prior post that you may refer to by clicking here.


Two of the three clay pots (the third is off camera) that had especially appreciated my beloved Honeysuckle Vine, as well as the bare trellis which it used to climb upon, are eagerly anticipating the arrival of the newcomers, which can be seen in the images posted below.

Today's newcomers are, acording to the grower, "a hummingbird's favorite" and are known as Cardinal Climbers (aka Ipomoea sloteri). They are very similar to the Maiden's Feather, a Cypress Vine (aka Ipomea quamoclit), and they are from the Morning Glory family. It has been a long time since I have put anything from the Morning Glory family in my garden; however, I have referred to them in a post that you may review by clicking here.


Many years ago, my aunt sent me some seeds for the Cardinal Climbers, and the seed's packaging can be seen in the photograph posted below.

The seeds did very well producing delightful, beautifully scalped, green leaves and red flowers which flourished in my garden, trailing up an exhaust pipe (which looks like a pole) in the northwest corner of my garden) where my H.F. Young Clematis has resided for a number of years. (I have written about my H.F. in a number of posts, including ones which you may find by clicking here as well as here and here.)


I confess that I did not take any photographs of my garden during those early green-thumb years because I actually did not even want to take time out from tending to what I grew to photograph them. (However I did take — as well as print — black and white as well as kaleidoscopic-color photographs of other things which you may view in the  various print collection pages on my web-site, Patricia Youngquist Photo-Art where purchase information is available.) Hence, dear reader, as for my early endeavors with the Cardinal Climbers, you will have to picture in your mind how they might have looked trailing up the pole, and perhaps the images you create in your imagination wil be better than ones I might have captured.


In any event, regarding the fate of my Cardinal Climbers, I only grew them from seed in that location for one season, because, for one thing, the following season neither my aunt nor I could find seeds for the Cardinal Climbers within our choices of gardening centers and hardware stores in the areas where we each live. This was unusual since my aunt lives in a relatively heavily populated northwest suburb of Chicago, and I live in New York City. Moreover, as for finding the Cardinal Climbers seeds on line, I was not Internet Literate during those years.


Be that as it may, at that time I also decided to plant perennial vines in "the pole location", so, in the years that followed, I  did this by planting varieties of Clematis: 'Candia' (Clematis lanuginosa) and H.F. Young Clematis respectively, and so the story of what grows in that location of my terrace garden, as they say, is history. . .  


Therefore, I was resigned to having no more Cardinal Climbers grow in my terrace garden until I met a talented man, named Jay P, who found a grower that could offer me the plants. This was in 2005 or 2006, and ultimately this vine, once again, flourished, but in another location (southeast of the pole) in my terrace garden. I still was not photographing my terrace garden at that time; however, I recall the Cardinal Climbers thriving and flourishing, as well as their beauty, in the mental slideshows within my mind. Lovely as they were, because they are an annual, I decided to put a perennial vine in the southeast location, and that is when I planted my Autumn Clematis — the one I've referred to as Donna's Legacy — which I ultimately photographed and blogged about in an entry that you may refer to by clicking here.


I realize the aforementioned is a rather lengthy back-story on how I came to know the Cardinal Climbers and so, tomorrow morning, when Juan V and I are well past the activities of today's terrace work, and If I don't melt away from the oppressive heat, I will post pictures of how the new arrivals look in their new digs.


Meanwhile, dear reader, if you live in parts of the world which are affected by a heat wave, HYDRATE, HYDRATE, HYDRATE!

Happy Half Year's Eve to You! (PART THREE May and June 2011 Follow-Ups)

As  promised, I am continuing with my follow ups in honor of the half-year.

In terms of May 2011 follow ups, as you may recall, dear reader, I spoke about The Five Boro Bike Tour, at the onset of that month (in blog posts that you may refer to by clicking here and here). In the latter of these posts, I expressed gratitude for Max Osso being able to step in that the last minute when my regular captain, Zoe Waldron, hurt her Achilles tendon, but thankfully, she graciously loaned us her tandem, so that we could participate in the event. Fortunately, she ultimately recovered for the most part, and has cycled "solo" as well as with me on a tandem on a number of occasions since that time. 




Additionally, since my May 2011 posting, I have received photographs, purchased by Achilles from Brightroom, of Max Osso and yours truly in various stages of The Five Boro Bike Tour, and I have posted one of them above today's blog entry that shows us cycling in Central Park, and one below which was taken early on in the tour.

Also in May, on May 11th, to be exact, my flowers quoted Dr, Suess saying, "Today was good, today was fun, tomorrow is another one", and now in this  half-year follow-up, I can attest to the fact that indeed, they are having fun as evidenced by the photographs of some of my honeysuckle flowers posted below.

enjoying the trellis which, as you may recall, dear reader, was installed (to serve as a hedge) on  May 17th 2011.




In another posting, this past May, the birth of my H.F. Young Clematis's flowers was announced in an entry that you may refer to by clicking here. My H.F. Young Clematis's flowers were indeed a beautiful asset to my terrace garden; however, they have a short life. Since their departure, they have left me with beautiful, yet playful, "hairy" pods, as evidenced in the collage featuring one of them in both flower and pod which is posted below.

The follow ups for June  2011 include news on my Anethum graveolens (Dill), which I wrote about approximentaly ten days ago. (This may be referred to by clicking here.) Since that time, a change has already occurred, it is sporting little yellow flowers as seen in the image  seen below. (I am in the process of rendering this image into a note-card and will release details as soon as they are available).

Other June follow-ups in terms of my terrace garden include the flourishing of my Tropaelum majus (Nasturtium), which can be seen below. (As you may recall, dear reader, when I initially wrote — please click here to read — about the arrival of my Tropaelum majus (Nasturtium), I was a little concerned it might not do well. This is because I have have attempted to grow Tropaelum majus (Nasturtium) on a number of occasions in my terrace garden, but it never fared well. Perhaps because the Tropaelum majus (Nasturtium) is in a different location within my garden, or perhaps because I have now used a different soil, it seems to be thriving this time. Still, as I've mentioned before, even though I know people do it, I cannot imagine eating these beautiful flowers — no matter how good they may be in a salad. Instead, I will render images of my Tropaelum majus (Nasturtium) into the selection of unusual communication materials that I create: invitations that preserve a moment in time, event program covers that enhance any occasion, and greeting cards that are about more than communication; all of which you can find information on, by going to my down-loadable brochure, as well as my on-line brochure or the store-front of my web-site; where purchase information is available.)  

  

My terrace garden was not the only urban garden mentioned this past June. As you may recall, twice in June of 2011, I blogged about the gardening endeavors of Danielle Rosa (who honed her green-thumb skills through an internship that she participated in at Riker's Island in New York), as she expanded the family's urban garden. (You may refer to those blog posts by clicking here and here.) As you can see from the most recent follow-up photographs (posted below) of the urban garden that Danielle revamped, it is thriving. My they grow up fast indeed!

And with the thought of how they grow up fast, I'll end  this follow-up posting with two more follow-up pictures of how one of my plants, my Ophipogon planiscapus (Black Mondo Grass) — that I have eluded to in blog enteries I've made this far this year which you may read by clicking here —  is doing now.

He's Blooming! Check out his awedome white flowers, beautifully contrasted with his black foliage. And now, as for my follow-ups . . .  that's all folks . . .




But , you dear reader, if you are a gardener, how has your garden evolved during this half -year? If you are not a gardener, what changes in the year thus far have you noticed in gardens or plantings you have seen in your area?