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By feral, on October 8th, 2011%
It is that magical time of the year when everything turns orange. The air itself must be tinted — just look at this photo. We don’t get to observe the setting sun directly from our windows but its bright orange reflected light provides some truly dramatic lighting for Midtown skyscrapers in the fall.
Where have all the flowers gone? – you might ask this New York’s leading florist… Well, obviously, they have all turned into pumpkins.
 Last year I, too, planted some pumpkins and was very excited about cooking all kinds of stuff with them. They grew big and pretty but turned out to be completely inedible. So, this year I decided not to plant any; yet, this one somehow grew on its own!
 And I’m very happy it did. First of all, it proves that my feral gardening method works. And secondly, even though it isn’t large enough to turn into a carriage or round enough to be carved into a jack-o-lantern, it . . . CONTINUE READING → Orange, orange everywhere!
By feral, on September 25th, 2011%
Last time I lamented that half of my rainbow chard was consumed by an unknown wild beast. Guess what: yesterday, while we were either sleeping or touring the County Fair at the neighboring Hancock Shaker Village (which was great and I’ll post a photo report shortly), the intruder(s) returned and cleaned out the rest.
 We still don’t know who did it but judging by dental imprints (and occasional hoof prints around the garden), I suspect the deer.
 It might be time for a fresh bar of Irish Spring soap! (Last year, local professional gardeners recommended hanging a bar of fragrant soap as an effective deer deterrent. You’re supposed to hang it on a string, unpacked, in the box. According to them, deer have a special aversion to Irish Spring brand, for some reason…) The old one that’s been hanging there for over a year has, evidently, worn off.
 Here’s the same bed of my beautiful and delicious rainbow chard back in . . . CONTINUE READING → The End of a Rainbow: Chard Crop Devastated, Culprit Remains at Large
By feral, on September 24th, 2011%
 As Persephone (or Proserpina, as she is known to the Romans) made her upsetting but carefully negotiated (six pomegranate seeds and all) return to Hades today, following the Autumnal Equinox and accompanied by the pouring-rain tears of her mother Demeter (who cried a lot in New York today), I made my return to the garden, after another two-week-long absence.
Main item on the agenda — harvesting the rest of the potatoes — proved unattainable today due to heavy precipitation, and therefore I took to the internets to celebrate the Atumnal Equinox and embrace the spirit of the Eleusinian Mysteries in a less muddy fashion.
Before retreating to cyberspace, I only had a few rain-free minutes to quickly inspect the garden. What I found (in addition to a few more tomatoes and quite a few butternut squashes) was a really disturbing crime scene!!! Someone ate half of my rainbow chard and sorrel! But wait, the most mysterious discovery was waiting for me at the bottom of the garden: a medium-size beet, pulled out of the ground, dragged downhill a few yards from its original location and left for . . . CONTINUE READING → Autumnal Equinox and a Not-So-Eleusinian Mystery
By feral, on August 5th, 2011%
1. Whatever the angle, they are very pretty.
 2. They reach very impressive heights. You can even try using them as a natural trellis for pole beans, as I did this year. Just don’t plant bush beans instead, as I did, due to not labeling last year’s seeds, thinking that, of course, I’ll remember everything…
 3. Even at times when your garden looks like a total dump (which is obviously not the case here), they create instant rustic charm, making you think: where am I? Is this Provence? Kansas? Ukraine?
 4. They look great in a vase (not the case here either). I just saw that FreshDirect sells them for $19.99 a bunch. Just imagine all the savings!
 5. Waiting for tomatoes to ripen (when it’s already August!!!) is much more bearable when you have pretty sunflowers to look at.
![]( "sunflower photo") . . . CONTINUE READING → Top 10 Reasons to Grow Sunflowers
By feral, on June 24th, 2011%
 What a perfect day for a virtual feral garden tour!
Last week my dad came to visit us upstate, equipped with his new Nikon D90 camera and gardening expertise. In just 2 days he delivered such a load of constructive criticism that my garden probably won’t need any fertilizing in the nearest future… In addition to prolific advice, he helped immensely with many of my projects and took hundreds of photos. Today, I would like to borrow some of them to show you around.
Some of you have tasted the feral produce but today I’ll take you behind the scenes. The kitchen behind the kitchen, so to speak… That’s why I chose to greet you with this portrait — if you were one of my vegetables, the photo on the left would be a much more familiar image than the one below.
 But enough about me, let’s get moving.
Here's how the garden looks from below these days.
![]( "garden from above june <span style=") . . . CONTINUE READING → feral garden 3.0 — a virtual tour
By feral, on June 9th, 2011%
For the past 2 days New York City had an air quality alert due to the “high levels of pollutant ground-level ozone level.” Even before I looked up what this meant, I took one look at that air and thought that it might not be the greatest breathing option. (The color scheme of this photo is not due to a sunrise — it was taken around close to noon.)
After I googled “ground-level ozone,” I learned that (or, perhaps, re-learned?) that it’s mostly created in urban and industrial areas, mostly in summertime. Why? How? Cars, industrial, residential and conventional energy facilities emit nitrogen oxides and volatile organic compounds (don’t be confused by the term “organic” here; it’s nothing you want to find at your local Whole Foods) that enter into a chemical reaction in the presence of sunlight and produce ozone. Another important distinction: ozone up high = good (ozone layer); ozone down low = bad. The US Environmental Protection Agency website says that “[b]reathing ozone can trigger a variety of health problems including chest pain, coughing, throat irritation, . . . CONTINUE READING → summer signs and warnings
By feral, on June 2nd, 2011%
How does one end up with 69 tomato plants and what do you call such a person? This is not a rhetorical question.
After I counted them, two associations freely emerged. First, Nena’s song 99 Luftballons began playing in my head with appropriately altered lyrics. And, almost simultaneously, I saw myself as the crazy cat lady from the recent “Shouts & Murmurs” by Amy Ozols. If you have missed it, read it right here, right now. (I meant it as a link, not as a command, by the way, but once you’re done reading it, you’ll see that many, if not all, bets are off. Plus, you might recognize some of the newer additions to my phraseology. And, it’s one of the funniest “Shouts & Murmurs” I’ve ever read.)
Anyway. Welcome to my garden. Can I take your coat? Make yourself at home…
 Can you spot a tomato in this photo? If you could to zoom in on certain parts (fortunately, you cannot), you would make out about 50 of them. Where are the remaining 19 then? I’d tell you but… Does it really matter?
Let me . . . CONTINUE READING → 69 tomato plants (and some other memorable Memorial Day labors)
By feral, on May 22nd, 2011%
 And it’s time to push out some content after an extended blogger’s block!
Last couple of weeks all of my energy was consumed by the grading marathon and other end-of-semester matters but now I’m officially ready for the summer. Whenever it decides to arrive.
While we’re waiting, let’s reflect on what I’ve done so far. This list has no particular order.
Peas — I planted most of them around St. Patrick’s Day. Thought I’d never see them again but they surprised me several weeks ago with some confident and strong shoots. I had to quickly improvise some trellises. To protect the young shoots from my resident rodents, I placed some plastic bottles, cut off on both ends, around them. Onions — planted in April and already sporting some nice green shoots. James’ rhubarb is already pretty enormous. Last weekend we had to remove its giant flower stalks to ensure it doesn’t throw all of its energy into seeds. When spring is as cold as this year, rhubarb tends to bolt (go to flower -> seeds) early, which stops the growth of its edible (stalks) and poisonous (leaves) parts. . . . CONTINUE READING → grades are in, peas are up!
By feral, on April 15th, 2011%
My sincere apologies for this belated weekend update. I know that everyone is dying to know what has grown since we last visited the garden 3 (almost 4 now) weeks ago. In a nutshell: NOTHING. That’s right, not even stinging nettles. When we arrived in Canaan last Friday, there were almost no signs of progress in the flora department. Moreover, there was some new damage stemming from the fauna representatives. Someone has dug up two of the potatoes I planted back in March, and what’s far more tragic, eaten my tree peony plant that I got as a birthday gift last summer. G & A say it’ll grow back but I’m skeptical: there’s literally nothing left of it… Very upsetting — I was so looking forward to peonies this spring.
I blame these furry-tailed creatures who appeared, obviously looking for more loot, across the road on Saturday morning…
 …They fled the scene as soon as I started snapping photos. Which I interpret as an indisputable admission of guilt.
 But then there were also some innocent (or, . . . CONTINUE READING → lots of fauna, little flora
By feral, on April 1st, 2011%
Amazon — both the river and the website — has been such a source of joy for me. Maybe one day I’ll tell you how James and I went to an Amazonian (the river) eco-lodge 2 years ago and about all the wondrous fruit and fish we saw and consumed there…
But today I would like to focus on the Amazon of the interwebs. Truly, it is an important part of my livelihood: sending me seeds to plant, paying 4% commission on all purchases made via links and widgets on my blog (which — I couldn’t but notice — has not been happening much lately…). And today, as I was thinking what funny thing to post for April Fools’ Day, it emailed me with a suggestion to buy this Scarecrow Motion-Activated Sprinkler. With an impressive 4 1/2 star rating based on 665 customer reviews, naturally, I was intrigued to learn more about it. And here’s what I found out.
It appears that number 1 annoyance listed by Scarecrow Sprinkler owners is not birds, rabbits or deer (and not even voles!) snacking on lettuce but rather their neighbors’ dogs and cats going number 2 in their gardens. I’m not . . . CONTINUE READING → a sprinkle(r) of joy
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