Book of the Week

I highly recommend "Bel Canto" by Ann Patchett. This is an unusual story about a group of terrorists that takes a group of international businessmen and one female opera singer hostage. The story explores the relationships that develop between the individuals, hostage and terrorist alike, through the use of Gen, a Japanese translator as well  as through the language of music. I give this book a thumbs up.

A New Perspective

For those of you in the know, I have recently (today) shut down my cooking blog. I had plans for it, but... oh well. Because of this, and the limited gardening season here, I've decided to include other things on this blog to make it more interesting. You might even see a post about cooking once in a while :-)

Where I've Been

Nowhere special. Just right here. In Maryland all gardening pretty much stops in October with the planting of the bulbs and resumes when said bulbs finally emerge. I planted about fifty huge daffodils in my front yard last fall so we should have quite a show come March or so.

I did plant some Paperwhites (stinky) and some amaryllis this winter. The amaryllis are still blooming.

Blog Action Day

Or should I say Blog No Action Day, in my case anyway.

On October 15th, Bloggers everywhere got together and talked about poverty. I had nothing to say, so I said nothing. It's not that I don't care, it's just that I don't see how gardening realistically helps relieve poverty in my community. Oh, sure, "plant a row" is a nice idea, but not very workable. So, when I plant a row, and harvest said row...then what? I can't take the food to the food bank...they only accept non-perishable items. Huh! I can't give it to my neighbors because frankly I live in a neighborhood of Army officers...no poverty there.

See? Not as simple as growing extra food for the poor. Besides...I can't have a vegetable garden anyway. I suppose I could give away 2 or 3 of my tiny little tomatoes that came out of the pots on my front porch. I only got about 20 to begin with.

Gardening isn't as easy of a solution as it may first seem. You want to help relieve hunger? Make a cash donation to your local food bank. Their shelves are empty...

Ladew Topiary Gardens

Monday Steve and I took advantage of the good weather and drove up to Ladew Topiary Gardens in Monkton, MD. Ladew is 22 acres of flower and topiary gardens that the owner, Harvey Ladew, created into themed "rooms." Some of the rooms are as simple and focused as the "White Garden" with it's dazzling array of white flowers. Others are more complex, such as the "Garden of Eden" complete with an apple tree and statues of Adam and Eve.

Fortunately for us, Mr. Ladew wanted the gardens preserved after his death for everyone to enjoy. The Garden Club of America has named Ladew Topiary Gardens as "the most outstanding topiary garden in America." These gardens are among the first of their kind in the United States.

Enjoy this short glimpse into the garden...

I Always Knew it Would Be the Ferns

I found this on Gardenrant.com today.
Enjoy!

Update: I had to remove the video because it was messing up the layout of my blog, making the text difficult to read. Sorry!

A New Rake!

Oh boy! How nerdy can one be? But, I was wandering around home depot looking at gardening tools, and I decided to see if they had any narrow rakes. The amount of leaves that fall from the trees in Autumn here is nothing short of astonishing. So much so that the thought of trying rake in and around the shrubs in the front of the house fills me with dread. But I digress. So, here I am in Home Depot, and I spot what looks like a child's rake. The rake head is a plastic fan shape, just like the full-size ones I have in my garage. This one is about one tenth the size of my full sized rakes. I handle it and decide that it must be for an adult because the handle is long enough. I look at the tag and it says it is a "Shrub Rake." I handle it some more, wondering what exactly a "shrub rake" is. Is it for raking under the shrubs? Or...is it for actually raking the shrubs? It really doesn't matter because I'm buying it for getting under and behind the shrubs, and if it works for me then that's what it's for. (I looked it up, by the way, it's specifically made for raking under and behind shrubs)