Digging RI

I am sure I’m not alone in my enjoyment of walks through historic cemeteries. One of the more significant – and beautiful – is the Juniper Hill garden cemetery in Bristol, RI, which, in 1998, was added to the National Register of Historic Places.

Recently I joined a walking tour of this lovely property, and heard about the industrialists, governors, senators, and slave traders who are buried there. There are also some sweet and touching gravestones for “ordinary” people, such as this one for a little girl named Harriet, who was barely two years old when she died in 1864.

The cemetery was formally founded in 1869, and its plantings reflect the “back to nature” movement of the time. This was a return to embracing natural landscapes and planting trees, which followed the rampant cutting and “taming” of the landscape.

Arborist and cemetery caretaker, Chris Fletcher, pointed out a venerable native red maple, (acer rubrum) which he explained pre-dated the advent of the lawnmower, and was probably injured repeatedly by scythes and by grazing animals. It has re-sprouted nonetheless and is a beautiful specimen indeed.

Acer Rubrum - a survivor

Other notable trees include an immense fern leaved beech, (fagus sylvatica) one of my very favorite specimen trees, and one that requires plenty of room to reach its glorious potential. This one is well over 100 years old.

What a canopy!

Several gravestones rest under the canopy, quietly collecting the falling leaves.

I also stopped to admire a huge tulip poplar, (Liriodendron tulipifera) nearly leafless now.

Happily, this Rhode Island treasure is open to walkers, tree-lovers, and even dog-walkers, provided dogs are leashed.  It’s an interesting and peaceful convergence of the living and the dead.

For more information, contact the Bristol Historical Society.

Oh, One Pie, you did make me suffer

I love you so,there is no other

Day after day at my local store

The shelves were bare, there was no more

I heard from others who love you, too

They did not know what they should do

In Maine, NH and NYC

A good supply there seemed to be

But in RI, things looked so bleak

One Pie, not Libby’s we did seek

But what is this? Could it be true?

I see those cans, and there’s a slew

So buy I will and plenty of it

Because, One Pie, I truly love it!

Rosemary: in from the deck and into the window

Here’s Herbdoc with her autumn garden to-dos:

The piece on Autumn Things brought a smile to my face and left me wondering if every veggie gardener in New England has a row of green tomatoes ripening on the window sill.  I know I do!

Although this is the season when we’re supposed to be slowing down, I’m still playing catch-up.  Every year I say that I’m not going to bring all those plants in, and every year I relent.  There are those tender perennials that are always on my “save list”…the 6 foot bay tree, lemon grass, a lemon tree and the figs, but I can never resist bringing in the red begonia semperflorens with its dark, almost black leaves, tiny pink and green ivies, the hibiscus, Rex begonias, and the few large rosemaries and the passiflora that I can’t trust to the unpredictable winter weather.  It seems worse this year as we haven’t had a frost yet and that allows me to save more plants!

Ponderosa lemon, adjusting to life indoors

Of course now that problem is where to put it all.  When we were remodeling a room downstairs in the summertime, a zillion books (another passion!) were placed in the area that houses my light garden.  Consequently there are plants in every room of the house until the books are either moved or donated.  I suppose that will be the next project following the planting of the garlic, saffron and colchiums.  Slow?  Autumn is anything but slow in my neck of the woods!

Less than two inches across

In my quest to understand and grow different orchid cultivars, I bought a haraella retrocalla at an Ocean State Orchid Society meeting and auction last spring. This orchid is tiny, and will stay that way. The only member of the genus Haraella, it grows in the trees of Taiwan’s ancient forests –what’s left of them – at elevations of up to nearly 5,000 feet. It needs plenty of humidity, but good air circulation, too. I grow mine in an open glass bowl. It rests on a bed of glass “pebbles” and I water it once a week – more often when it’s hot. It also gets regular doses of Superthrive, alternating with orchid fertilizer.

This orchid blooms in early fall and winter, and mine is in bloom for the first time  now. The lemony scent from the tiny flowers is surprisingly strong, but there’s another more devious side to this  plant: on each yellow flower, there’s a dark purple facsimile of a female beetle. In the wild, the male beetle sees it, smells the heady scent, and dives in. In his attempt to mate with the fake female, he becomes coated with orchid pollen, which he takes with him when he flies disgustedly away.

The "beetle" beckons

This is a fascinating little plant to grow, and from what I have read, it is a reliable bloomer. The tricky thing is to maintain the humidity without over-watering and tempting root rot. It is supposed to prefer growing in slatted baskets, but mine is doing fine in the little pot it came in.

I love living in a place where we have seasons. For me, the change of season isn’t the month on the calendar, it’s the feelings it gives me – and the memories. A whiff of wood smoke sends me right back to my cabin in Quebec, and even though we have Canada geese living here year round in Rhode Island, the sound of a skein flying overhead reminds me of when I used to look up at them and wonder where they were going to spend the winter.

Here are a few things that for me say “it’s fall.”

The last garden tomatoes ripening on the windowsill

What's left of the monarch butterfly chrysalis

Weird-looking gourds

One last flamboyant bunch of zinnias

Many of my gardening friends are missing summer already. I am not. Once the garden chores are done and the houseplants are settled back inside, it seems to me that we (the garden included) can take our natural and well-deserved rest.

Enjoy your autumn, wherever you are.

Here’s the second installment of former RI Master Gardener Paula Bartnick’s transition to her new home in Florida:

(You can read Part 1 here)

Paula's house "before"

We have now completed several weeks of the Master Gardener training course here in Marion County, Florida. It has been very intense. We have a minimum of 12 hours worth of homework each week, between reading, research, and plant identification.

We went on a field trip to a local nursery that specializes in unusual plants. The owners were very nice. They took us on a tour of their facility, and of course I saw plants for sale that up until now I had only dreamed of planting: ginger, plumeria, and  princess plant to name a few. The owners had a table set up when we got there,  with10 plants that we were to identify. I thought to myself “You’ve got to be kidding!” A few I could identify, but some of them, well, no way! Turns out this was a contest, and I came in second! My prize was second pick of the plants on the table. The first place winner of course took the plant I wanted, a variegated tapioca. I ended up taking the Firebush, (Hamelia patens.) It’s a Florida native, so I probably can’t kill it! It also attracts hummingbirds and butterflies.

We have had lectures on termites, ants, palm trees, and herbs. We have a full day dedicated to entomology. Each class, we have a quiz. There is an awful lot of work involved, but it will be worth it! When they say that they teach this course at a Master’s level, they aren’t kidding!

Our yard  is coming along,  and the heat and humidity have subsided a bit, so I was able to plant a few things at the front entrance.

Paula's house "after"

I think that the weirdest thing for me  is that right now in Rhode Island, I would be getting ready to start tucking things in for the winter, but here in Florida we are approaching the time to plant our “cool season” plants, the annuals that will bloom from now until January. In December, the camellias will begin to bloom. In March, the huge border of azaleas we uncovered will start. I can’t wait!

It would seem that the former owner, Bill, was every bit as serious about his gardening as the neighbors tell us. He had an irrigation system that he designed and installed himself, with a dedicated water tank so as not to draw off the house. Amazing. We have found and removed a couple of miles worth of rotted soaker house, which will need to be replaced as we progress. My husband has finally agreed that we need rain barrels. ($25 down here with hardware and a screen that fits over the top!) Conservation is paramount, because when it gets dry, it’s really dry! We are blessed with a spring fed stream across the back of the property, so once we get rid of enough vine to get to it, we are also going to find a way to utilize that as a source of water.

It’s time to go and plant the Firebush, and of course the tapioca that, as you probably have surmised, I couldn’t resist!

We are just back from a few days  in mid-coast Maine. Ever mindful of staying on top of The Blog, I visited a few stores there to assess the canned pumpkin puree situation. You may recall from my previous post that canned pumpkin puree is in short supply this year, and that here in Rhode Island, there hasn’t been any on store shelves.

Sure enough, the supermarkets in Maine were out of it, too. But on the way home, my husband decided to check the Shaw’s  in Freeport and there, right at the door, was a big stack of Libby’s pumpkin puree – for $1.50 a can! It looked like the store had just received a large shipment and hadn’t even bothered to put the cans on the shelves. I don’t usually buy Libby’s but my favorite brand, “One Pie,” is still MIA, so we brought home a few cans. This  afternoon, when I went to the store, they were still out of puree, so I’m glad I bought some in ME.

$1.50!

Elderberry wrote last week from New York City, saying that there was lots to be had on store shelves there, but HerbDoc reports that One Pie has yet to make an appearance.

And what’s up with the price increase? Usually at this time of year, you can buy a can for $1.00. Supply and demand I guess….. I am starting to feel a wee bit manipulated.

Here’s Herbdoc with some tips on buying vegetables:

Denise’s recent blog entry on organic gardening struck a chord with me.  I too follow organic practices and in my vegetable and herb gardens which tend to be interspersed with annuals and perennials.

When I can’t pick what I need from my garden, I head to the Farmers’ Market to purchase fruits and vegetables.  For those who don’t have a garden or a Farmers’ Market nearby, here are some tips on figuring out exactly what is organic in your neighborhood store.

Those little stickers (what a pain to remove!) hold not only the PLU (price look up code) and place of origin but also a series of numbers:

1)  If the five digit code starts with the number nine (9), it means it’s organically grown;

2)  If the five digit number starts with an eight (8), the item was genetically modified;

3)  If the PLU has only three (3) or four (4) numbers, it means the growing process was conventional (fertilizer, pesticide, fungicide etc).

This is very helpful information for the consumer, but personally I find it much easier to go to the Farmers’ Market, buy what’s in season, and ask the grower if I have any questions.

Dirtynailz post about pumpkins reminded me that you must all be breathlessly awaiting the final installment on my original post from March about Neck Pumpkins, White Greasy Beans, and Blue-Podded Peas. You are, right? Well, you can finally breathe, because here is the final installment. (You can see my report on Blue-Podded Peas here and White Greasy Beans here.)

Here is my entire Neck Pumpkin crop.

(Yes, we had a bumper crop of non-neck pumpkins this year. I’m taking orders…) I got one fruit. I think it may not have been in an optimum spot for sun. But what it lacked in numbers it made up for in weight. This baby was over 7 pounds of almost pure flesh. So once I peeled it and chopped it up…

…which, by the way, I had to do in two batches, as the neck pumpkin was huge, then baked it and pureed it…

…again, in two batches, I found I had enough neck pumpkin puree for 3 pies. Three yummy pies. I made one and froze the rest of the puree for Thanksgiving.

I found a recipe for “Amish Neck Pumpkin Pie” online (of course), but it’s just a basic pumpkin pie recipe, and I’m sure any decent one will do.

So the final verdict on my 2010 garden experiments? All three were quite successful. Admittedly I didn’t get a lot of production from the neck pumpkins, but seriously, how many pies do you really need? I wouldn’t have minded a few extra to give away, but I was pretty happy with what I got. I can’t wait to try some new and exciting stuff next year.

This is incredible, but true: there is no canned pumpkin on the shelves at any of our neighborhood stores. That’s right. With Thanksgiving just a few weeks away, if you want pumpkin, you have to buy a whole pumpkin “in the raw” and make the puree yourself. Not that I have anything against doing that, it’s just that sometimes – especially in the Fall – I get the sudden urge to make a pumpkin pie, (and whole pumpkins take up way too much space in my kitchen cupboards…)

The photo in this blog is of my very last can. This being a capitalist society, I could probably get about $6.00 for it today. If you don’t believe me, check out the two pages  – yes two! – of canned pumpkin on eBay, selling for outrageous prices.

So what’s behind the shortage? Here’s the “official” story: Libby’s, a Nestle brand, is made from the thousands and thousands of pumpkins grown in the “pumpkin capitol” of Morton, Ill. In case you’re interested, Libby grows only one cultivar of pumpkin: “Libby’s Select,” a “Dickinson” strain. It seems they had far too much rain there in 2009 – about 150% of normal totals. A company spokeswoman says last year’s shortage (I didn’t notice one, did you?) was caused by too much rain, which turned the fields into a quagmire, preventing the tractors from getting in there and harvesting. At this point, the story gets confusing. The spokeswoman claims that they started shipping pumpkin to stores early this year, and that there will be no shortage. So where in tarnation is it, then?

Any bidders?

I prefer the “One Pie” brand, which is made in West Paris, Maine. Guess what? I can’t find that anywhere, either. When I asked the supermarket manager why there was no canned pumpkin on the shelves, before scurrying away, he mumbled something about there being a “supply problem” and said it would arrive “soon” whatever that means.

Talking with my aunt in Canada the other day, I mentioned the pumpkin shortage, and she was incredulous. Yes, there was plenty on store shelves in Quebec, and why didn’t they simply import the stuff from Canada? I don’t have the answer, and I’m down to my last can of One Pie. Maybe I should just hang on to it in case the shortage persists right up to Thanksgiving. I could sell it to the highest bidder and pay for our turkey.

If you need a “from scratch” pumpkin puree recipe, you can find one here.