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In the front yard, local butterfly expert Trina Paulus was handing out milkweed leaves dotted with monarch butterfly eggs and tiny monarch caterpillars ready to feed their little caterpillar stomachs. I took some home and hope to see some gorgeous butterflies fluttering gracefully around my rudbeckia in month or two. What grows well for you in the New Jersey soil? My soil tends be hard clay unless I amend it heavily. I've had no luck with peas, but my Red Russian Kale has done pretty well.
oh, that's really funny. i was there at two oclock because i somehow got the time wrong. but she and trina were so kind and gracious and shared their wonderful information with me anyway.
was that when you were there, or was there someone else there taking pictures in the dirt, too?
The gardens on the tour were all quite different. My favorite (and the one I least expected to admire, since it was based on a book and TV show) was the Hinds' "square foot" garden in Nutley. The concept, in brief, is to use 6" raised beds based on a 1 foot module, with no dimension greater than 4 feet. The "soil" is a mixture of equal parts purchased compost (5 kinds), peat moss, and coarse vermiculite. The premise is to garden more productively and efficiently in a fraction of the space of a traditional "row" garden (not that the Kenschaft garden falls into that category exactly). Anyone who might feel daunted after seeing the Kenschaft garden is likely to be inspired after seeing this one.
fran,
I think we were there earlier... Which means someone else may have been taking pictures of the dirt.
Though, I'm sure those pictures were not a beautiful as the one here.
(I love that so many of your pictures are CLOSE UP. With all the digital cams today, too many have forgotten that actually SEEING the subject is important--- too many wide shots with subjects taking up 10% of the shot. But not you!!)
thanks prof, i know what you mean--
macro and close up are bridges to a whole other world. i would love to figure out how to get even closer!
Fran!!
I guess I saw you yesterday wondering, "who's taking pictures of the dirt?"
Pat is Amazing!!! She was gracious and kind.
After she gave her organic gardening talk in the backyard, the little prof thanked her and gave her a big hug.
So while, my impression of her from these boards was skewed (I'd still like to use my gas leaf blower whenever I need to...).
She is indeed a wonderful woman who I would happily listen to for several more hours. Or days!
(We got eggs and hopefully will see some butterflies soon.)