I took advantage of natural light the other day to photograph some citrus.
Top Left: Tangelo
Top Right: The smallest two are kumquats from my own potted tree.
Bottom Left: Meyer lemons
Bottom Right: Satsuma
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Books by Gayla Trail
Chanterelles
I chose today’s photo by blindly scrolling through a folder of images. This photo was taken on August 3, 2008. I remember purchasing these chanterelle mushrooms from my weekly trip to the farmers market but I don’t recall what I made with them. No matter, this picture is a good reminder that I need to get on signing up for some kind of wild mushroom foraging class this spring. I started off the year crossing off a couple of items from my life to-do list. Might as well keep going for the gold while I’m on a roll. Let’s get this done!
When I didn’t have time to sign up for a course in the fall I went ahead and bought myself a new guide to edible mushroom foraging called, “The Edible Mushroom Book.” The book is a very good beginner’s guide with lots of detailed photographs and instructions to help prevent terrible, unfortunate accidents, but I’ll admit that while it is nice to look at the pictures and daydream I don’t plan to go out and give it a whirl without a professional guide. I ate mushrooms off the front lawn when I was five; lots and lots of forced puking followed by an overnight hospital stay turned out to be a hands-on lesson that I’ve never been able to forget.
Leave a commentGreen Shiso (Perilla)
I found this guerilla patch of green shiso growing in the alley behind a high rise apartment building in my neighborhood. I took this picture last summer but first discovered the garden when we were shooting bike riding scenes for Recreating Eden. I’ve been back a few times since but have not managed to run into the gardener. Eventually…
Leave a commentLiving Plant Wall
This last trip to Cuba was one of many firsts including a few from my life to-do list, one of which was to ride on a horse. And now that I’ve done it I probably won’t do it again. My ass thanks me in advance. I definitely will not do it again in a place where there are no certainties about the care of the animals. I worried for my little horse and wondered about all the heavy tourist butts she had been forced to bear in her lifetime of servitude.
The horseback trip we took was a short, but painful jaunt to a waterfall up in the mountains. The waterfall itself was interesting, although not remarkable. What was amazing were the plants! I particularly loved the wall covered in epiphytic plants (air plants) shown in the photo above. Wouldn’t you love to have that in your living room? Those strange snake-like plants on the left side are epiphytic cactus. And the big-leaved vine in the foreground and left background? Philodendron!
Leave a commentLand Share
If what’s on television is any indicator The Brits are clearly more progressive than us when it comes to gardening. Here in North America broadcasters like HGTV are still fumbling around in the dark trying to figure out the “garden” in Home and Garden, often deciding to just forgo the garden part entirely. Apparently, garden equals slabs of expensive stone pavers, a fancy seating area with loads of pillows that can’t be left outside or they’ll be moldy and gross before lunch, with some kind of no-work coniferous bush slapped in here and there.
Meanwhile, over in the UK they are making some relevant garden programming that people like me can actually almost, sort-of relate to. A few months back I was asked who I looked up to in British gardening and the first person that jumped to mind is Charlie Dimmock. I know she thinks too much has been made of the fact that she often didn’t wear a bra on Ground Force, but, HELLO, that would NEVER be allowed on TV here. It is a big deal! And a woman getting down and dirty in the rain and mud with the guys. Another big deal. It shouldn’t be, because after all, women go bra-less and work as hard as men in home gardens everywhere, everyday, all of the time. Sadly, this is not the reality North American television presents us with. Nope, instead we are force-fed a gaggle of women gardeners with perfect teeth who look like they smell fresher than roses, and are somehow able to maintain pristine French tip manicures while hosting a garden show.
PLEASE.
Further case in point: this spin-off project, LandShare, from a food program called River Cottage. Landshare doesn’t seem to be working quite yet but will eventually hook up would-be gardeners looking for space to grow with people who have surplus space that they are willing to share. Because, OH MY GOD, there are people who want to grow but don’t have the space to do it in. Who knew?
We need something like this here. When you get on that please put me on the list as a grower looking for space.
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