Brrr, it's been cold, and snowy!

January has been a month of extremes in the Carolinas (and beyond).  We've had the (normally usual for February) days in the upper 60's that remind me why it's so great to live in the Southeastern U.S., but more significantly, we've also experienced deep freeze temperatures in the teens and below. 

It hasn't been so COLD in decades. 

We visited last weekend with a naturalist/artist couple who've lived outside of Bryson City, NC since the 70's -- this has been the second coldest winter that they remember.  Telling.

Maybe some of the benefits will be reduced pest populations (introduced and native). It would be lovely if the hemlock wooly adelgids are slowed down, not to mention the emerald ash borer.

And I'm mindful, too, that this is the first year that I remember as a year-round vegetable gardener that I'll be doing totally new change-outs TWICE.  Hmm. 

First, summer was so wet and cool, disease issues with tomatoes, etc. were huge, so fall green sowings were in clean beds.  The fall sowings are all now "toast"- even the mache (corn salad) and creasy creens --normally capable of freezing solid and coming back.  Not this year with temperatures below 10°F for days.

So it'll be a new season again.  But that's what gardening is about, too.  There's always hope for the next season!

And we're still eating tomatoes from last summer's harvest, even it was skimpy.  That's a good thing.

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Modified recipe with edibles from the garden

Winter harvest includes*: (clockwise starting at the knife)
3 small cabbage leaves, 5 meadow garlic plants, 3 bunches of
garlic chives, parsley, rosemary, 3 come-again broccoli crowns,
1 sprig of dill, and 1 sprig of oregano.

Cream of crab soup--modified!

I've modified the standard cream of crab soup in several ways. First I've included the winter greens from the garden and I've also taken some other shortcuts from scratch cooking.

Ingredients:
3 bunches of garlic chives, coarsely chopped
5 meadow garlic plants with roots removed, chopped
2 small cabbage leaves, coarsely chopped
1/4 cup chopped parsley
3 or 4 heads of come-again broccoli
2 tbs of rosemary leaves
2 tbs of oregano leaves
1/2 cup chopped celery
1 tbs of minced garlic
3 large onions, coarsely chopped
1/4 cup olive oil
5 cups of water
1/2 cup potato flakes (or buds)
1 package frozen fake crab, thawed and chopped
1 jar mushroom Alfredo sauce
1 cup plain non-fat yogurt
black pepper to taste
fresh dill, chopped for garnish
grated Parmesan cheese for garnish

Brown the onions, garlic, celery, garlic chives, cabbage, broccoli, pepper, and meadow garlic in olive oil in the bottom of soup pot until onions begin to caramelize. Stir in the parsley and oregano, add 2 cups of water, bring to a boil, and cook for 5 minutes. Blend the whole mass in a food processor until you can no longer discern any of the original ingredients. Pour back into the pot and turn on the heat to medium. Add the crab, the Alfredo sauce, potato flakes, and the rest of the water. Stir until everything is well heated. Remove from heat and stir in the yogurt. Garnish with fresh dill, grated Parmesan, an extra dollop of yogurt, and freshly ground pepper. Serves 6 or so.

My modified crab soup is a greener than traditional recipes, but it is yummy!

While this concoction doesn't measure up to the real cream of crab soups served up at Carrol's Creek Cafe and Buddy's Crab & Ribs in Annapolis, it's still an entirely satisfactory soup for a chilly day!

Has your harvest-of-the-day changed the way you cook?

When we finished with a store-bought cabbage,
I planted the base in the garden. It's produced
several sprouts. I've been harvest leaves from all
but two of the sprouts, which I'll allow to grow.

*Winter harvest details:

- 3 small cabbage leaves came from the regrowth of a cabbage stub.  I've been harvesting these leaves because I expect to harvest heads from only two of the five sprouts.
- 5 meadow garlic plants. This is a native garlic (Allium canedense) that I found in a ditch on our property. I've grown this perennial in my herb garden for years. We love its flat leaves that withstand cooking unlike chives with its wimpy hollow leaves. The one negative trait for this crop is that it dies back in the summer.  Read my native garlic post.
- 3 bunches of garlic chives. I love this evergreen crop.
- parsley, rosemary,
- 3 come-again broccoli crowns. These are the small broccoli crowns that grow after the main head is harvested.
- 1 sprig of dill for is enough for two bowls, and 1 sprig of oregano.

A phoebe in the afternoon sun.

Small birds in the winter

Our non-poisoned yard has been atwitter with hundreds of small birds including vireos, warblers, phoebes, wrens, titmice, chickadees, and more. There are plenty of larger birds too including, wood thrushes, cardinals, catbirds, and mockingbirds.  And of course, the even larger birds such as the hawks, herons, crows and vultures. I haven't seen any eagles in our yard recently, but I see them soaring over the lake.  As for the little birds, there is plenty of cover, seeds and berries for them to use.

It's been chilly this winter with night-time temperatures dipping in the 20s on a few occasions.  It's raining now and will get colder again tonight, but probably no snow or ice although it's predicted for Florida's panhandle. I trust the little birds will find shelter in the brush piles and among the uncleared meadow plants.

Last week the sunrise was spectacular.

I hope you are enjoying nature this winter, too.

Green Gardening Matters,
Ginny Stibolt



 

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Florida's Arbor Day

Hard-working native trees are also beautiful
and add value to your property.

While most of the country celebrates Arbor Day in April, both Florida and Louisiana celebrate on the third Friday in January. It’s a much better time to plant a tree because deciduous trees are dormant and others are less active, so they can withstand the shock of transplanting better. One thing to keep in mind is that January is right in the middle of Florida's 7-month dry season and extra irrigation will be needed at least until the wet season starts in June, and if the tree is large, it will require extra attention for even longer. I've covered the details of planting trees in my article Trees & Shrubs: the Bones of your Landscape.

Marjorie Shropshire drawing to illustrate transpiration for
an article I wrote in Palmetto.

A day with an artist

I spent Arbor Day Friday on the road and then talking to Marjorie Shropshire, illustrator for Organic Methods for Vegetable Gardening in Florida, about the drawings for my third book "The Art of Maintaining a Native Landscape." I'm quite excited about this project because I think it will help to manage people's expectations when they convert their landscapes to include more natives. Marjorie's drawings will help illustrate the topics I cover. Not only is Marjorie an excellent artist, but she also has an innate understanding of plants and animals. It was a fun and productive meeting.

Lake Worth's Festival of Trees

Lake Worth's Festival of Trees!

On Saturday, I went to the Festival of Trees in Lake Worth Florida. The town had organized a great celebration with educational booths, speakers, native trees to purchase, a kids activity table, and music. Wouldn't it be great if more communities were like Lake Worth, which took the initiative to increase its tree canopy with indigenous trees.

As I explained in my Arbor Day post over on the Florida Native Plant Society blog, trees provide services to communities that translate to actual dollars saved. They purify the air, they soak up water,and the cool the environment. 

"In 1991, Chicago's 51 million trees “removed an estimated 17 tons of carbon monoxide, 93 tons of sulfur dioxide, 98 tons of nitrogen dioxide, 210 tons of ozone, and 234 tons of particulate matter. They [also] sequestered about 155,000 tons of carbon.

"New York City's 592,000 street trees reduced stormwater runoff by nearly 900 million gallons each year, saving the city $35.6 million it would have had to spend to improve its stormwater systems. The average street tree intercepted 1,432 gallons, a service worth $61.

"In Sacramento, California a tree planted to the west of a house saved about three times more energy ($120 versus $39) in a year than the same kind of tree planted to the south.

Ideally, developers should leave a chunk of forest on every
lot, but if it's too late for that, as landscapers, we can begin to
recreate groves of native trees to help the birds & butterflies.

Read the details and see the resources in my post, Plant a Native Tree to Celebrate Florida's Arbor Day.

Celebrate with Trees!

It's not too late to plant a few hard-working native trees in your landscape to celebrate our Arbor Day.  In addtion to all the ecosystem services, mature trees will also increase the value of your home. So what are you waiting for?


Green Gardening Matters,
Ginny Stibolt

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Cartagena market

Cartagena market scene

The produce/meat/fish market in Cartagena was far from the "old town."  It was a chaotic place (and definitely NOT on the normal tourist map either).

But, we're always interested in visiting traditional market places so we headed there in an ancient taxi, and were dropped off next to a garbage-strewn, but pelican-rich salt marsh across from the market.

An unusual Carribean mix of vegetables at a small vendor

Another unusual mix --peppers, yard-long beans, and winter squash - NOT the usual in Colombia

Fresh fish for breakfast was offered up by vendors - my gardening companion loved his.  I didn't want to risk it (being WAY too cautious).

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The amazing power of colonizing plants

 

 

Plants colonizing a tile roof in La Candelaria, Bogotá, Colombia

 It was remarkable to see plants colonizing a couple of (very old) tile roofs in the old colonial district of La Candelaria in Columbia's capital city. 

It meant that 1) enough organic matter had accumulated that seed germination and establishment had occurred, and 2) there was enough for these plants to actually flower (and probably fruit), too.

Amazing!

A closer look

Remarkable, actually

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Fun hiking... in the Valle de Cocora

Valle de Cocora hiking (Los Montanas)

We had a great day hiking over the "Los Montanas" pass and down, in the Cocora Valley -- a great place to hike.

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Yard-long beans in Cartagena

Colombia was not a trip for admiring vegetable gardens.  I didn't actually see anything resembling a vegetable garden (outside of a "modern" demonstration edible garden at the botanical garden in Bogota).

So not surprisingly, there aren't many vegetables to be seen in markets, either, aside from the "usual" corn, squash, onions, and tomatoes.

So I was glad to see these yard-long beans, offered up by a street vendor in Cartagena, a UNESCO-designated seaport (a centuries-old city founded in 1533).

Yard-long beans, eggplants, tomatoes, and shell beans (street vendor in Cartagena)

Yard-long beans (Vigna unguiculata subsp. sesquipedalis) have a long history.

Related to cowpeas, they've traveled the globe from their initial origin in Africa, moving to Asia, India, and South America, tweeked along the way in seed and pod color.

In Cartagena, they probably came along with enslaved Africans, and would have thrived in the humid and hot coastal climate.

Similarly, a vegetable vendor of Carribean extraction offered up some unusual (for Colombia) vegetables, too, in the large and sprawling Cartagena market.  She had okra, callalo, and hot peppers in addition to the usual mix.

Both were small-scale growers, I thought, just selling extra from what they grew for themselves.

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Views from Salento

Salento view down the main street

We totally enjoyed Salento, a "tourist" town locked in a time warp;  the colonial buildings are filled with shops, but still evoke the feeling of a Zona Cafeterra town from years ago. 

Salento fruit stand

 It may have been an accidental time to visit -- on the cusp of explosive development - but there are apparently some historical standards that have preserved the amazing look and feel of the town. 

We loved Salento -- and especially the views surrounding the town.

Sunset was magical.

We were amazed that there weren't droves of folks at our "regular" sunset spot at the head of the main street (simply labelled Restaurante). Hmm, there's no way I can post on TripAdvisor if you don't advertise a name!  We loved the spot.

It's just before the path steepens significantly, before the steps up to the mirador.

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Valle de Cocora

LW and decorated "Willy" jeep (a traditional form of tourist transport)

A primary "tourist" destination for Columbians and foreigners alike was the historic town of Salento and the nearby Valle de Cocora.

It made for some great hiking.

View from Los Montanas pass

Valley view

Looking down the valley

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Wonderful tropical fruits

One of the delights of traveling in tropical America (especially Colombia) is all of the amazing fruits.  Mango, papaya, bananas, and pineapple were regulars on our breakfast plates.

A diversity of tropical fruits (from Uncover Colombia)

But maracuya (passion fruit), mora (blackberry), guanabaya, uchuva, guava, as well as a variety of citrus fruits, and grapes (a native grape something like concord grapes, as well as imported) were available as well.

Pears and apples made an appearance with street vendors (perhaps a holiday treat?)

Fresh juices in Colombia were always available (from breakfast to dinner), whether at a restaurant or on the street.  Hubby loved them.  They're not sweet, at all.

They're simply fruit pulp (of whatever sort), blended with water or milk (with ice, at times), to make a refreshing drink.  Nothing like our fruit drinks or smoothies at home in North America, as they're not sweetened.  Remarkably, frozen fruit pulp (mango, maracuya, and guavabuana) has made it to the frozen fruit section in one of our local supermarkets (catering to Latin American tastes).  It'll be fun to try them!

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Traveling in Colombia

Wax palms (Colombia's national tree) in the Valley of Cocora

Google thought it was "suspicious" that I wanted to sign into my blog account in Colombia.  Hmm. 

And the only way to verify my identity was to receive a text message on my cell phone (which didn't work in Colombia) or answer a series of largely (unanswerable) questions about my various Google accounts and when they'd started  (how are you supposed to remember the date of when you signed up for Google Calendar?)

So posts weren't going to happen while we were traveling!  So there's been a lapse in posting...

LW with a favorite activity (map reading!)

But, we had a wonderful time for the three weeks we were there, discovering some of the natural and cultural diversity of Colombia -- a fabulous destination (and totally safe and easy for traveling, too).

There are more posts to come, along with musings about gardening, too.  The deep freeze that we're currently experiencing makes me feel better about NOT having worried too much about planting extra greens (unprotected) or about the herbivores (woodchucks and deer) that were yumming up everything in the fall.

Fences and barriers are on my radar for winter and spring plantings, that's for sure (after the soil thaws out enough to sow early winter greens!)

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Green gardening DOES matter

A bluebird at sunrise in my yard.
Bluebirds are important bug predators in the ecosystem.

At the beginning of a new year, there are many speculations on what might happen and to-do lists of what you could do to improve your own situation.  Normally, I shy away from making such proclamations, but this year I decided to make a short list on what gardeners could do to improve the planet and encourage wildlife.

One of the reasons for my making this list is learning that it takes 17 repetitions for most people to fully understand a new idea and commit it to their immediate recall memory banks. Even though I've been writing about green gardening for ten years at this point, there are still people who have not heard enough about Doug Tallamy and his research showing that even small patches of native plants have a positive impact on birds, insects, and other members of the local ecosystems.

So I wrote 6 easy steps to support wildlife in 2014 over on the Native Plants and Wildlife Gardens blog to show some examples of things and normal people can accomplish and how these projects will improve the planet.  As I reminded readers, There is no Planet B. 

A burmarigold (Bidens laevis) blooming on Jan 5 in a
wet roadside ditch in Clay County FL.

Winter in Florida

It's been pretty cold and windy here in north Florida, but yesterday it was in the mid-seventies and quite pleasant.  The cold is returning as I write this and tonight we'll probably experience a killing frost, but it won't last long.  Our landscape of mostly native plants will be fine, although I will harvest all of my sugar snap peas today and cover the vines with a blanket. They are close to the house, where it's a little warmer anyway, but I'll take the precaution so we can continue our harvest deeper into the winter.

I feel for my friends in the more northerly climes and the polar vortex that they have suffered through. They will continue to freeze their butts off as Mother Nature continues her rampage, but this doesn't mean that global warming is a hoax.

Plants don't lie

Even though climate change doubters are using this cold snap as proof of their politically-motivated beliefs, plants don't have a political agenda and they don't lie. As an example of what happens as a result of fewer cold snaps, mangroves have been moving northward as seen in progressive satellite images over the years. See this Science Daily story With Few Hard Frosts, Tropical Mangroves Push North,  Slate's article Winter does Not Disprove Global Warming and How global warming can make cold snaps even worse, as posted in Quartz.

Happy New Year!

I wish you a happy and prosperous 2014 that's filled with adventures that allow you to enjoy nature at its best.  Also, I'd love to hear what you are doing to enhance your yard to benefit wildlife.

Green Gardening Matters,
Ginny Stibolt

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