Brooklyn Botanical Gardens

 

Since I mentioned the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens yesterday, I thought I would share a few more of the photos that I took on my visit in April.  My daughter was very proud of the gardens, and justifiably so. I tend to think of New York as busy sidewalks and tall buildings, or underground subways filled with interesting people. I don't expect extensive gardens that rival the gardens down here in tropical Florida. 

 The 52-acre botanical garden is just a few blocks away from my daughter's apartment (lucky girl!) near Prospect Park. It was founded in 1910, so it's been around for a long time.

 My favorite garden was the tulip beds. When I lived in Kentucky, I planted ever-so-many tulip bulbs in my yard. (I'm tempted to say hundreds of bulbs, but that would be an exaggeration. It only seemed like hundreds because I'm not really a big fan of gardening -- I just liked the tulips!)

The pussy willow plants in the Japanese garden also brought back a lot of memories for me. As a child, pussy willows always meant spring. I remember my mom having vases filled with the fuzzy blossoms throughout the house.

 And of course, we saw the cherry blossoms in bloom. Every year Brooklyn Botanical Gardens has a Cherry Blossom Festival. Maybe next year I can time my visit in order to attend with my daughter.

 Even if I don't make the Festival, I know that the Gardens will be on my list of places I have to visit again.

Friday Favorites - Daffodils

 

I love daffodils. Whenever I see them I think happy thoughts of spring, and Easter, and family. Years ago, when I lived in Kentucky, I planted ever-so-many daffodil and tulip bulbs in my yard. I loved the bright, cheerful colors signalling the end of winter. I wasn't much for doing any other gardening, but I had my daffodils and tulips in the spring. 

Now that I've lived in Florida for many years, daffodils don't have the same affect. I think it's because we have flowers year-round. Daffodils are actually a hot-house flower because you have to manipulate the bulbs to grow since we don't have the cold season to allow the bulbs their dormant stage.

While I was in Brooklyn visiting my daughter, I spotted daffodils in the wild. It amused me to find flowers growing in the city -- I always picture the city as being a stark, steel and cement landscape. I find the city beautiful for it's diverse architecture; I just don't picture gardened yards as part of that. And it thrilled me to learn that daffodils are still capable of bringing happy thoughts of family to my mind. (Even more so now, since they're now associated with happy memories of visiting my daughter!)

If only I had a yard!

It's a garden gnome and a frog just chillin' out in the Florida sun. This has got to be the greatest, tackiest, yard ornament ever. I really want it.

My neighbors must be so glad that we don't have any personal yard areas. With the way I love anything   terribly kitschy, they'd have to form an HOA for sure!

Home-Grown Dinner

 Do you remember my garden? The plants are doing really well, and I've managed to harvest my basil quite a few times now. (The mint, too!) After cleaning and drying off the basil, I stuff it into my Magic Bullet with some olive oil, walnuts (which are much cheaper than the traditional pine nuts), a little Parmesan cheese, and just a quick squeeze of lemon. This gets chopped up, and then mixed with hot pasta.

You would not believe how good the fresh pesto tastes. And it is so easy and quick to make. I have a difficult time waiting for the basil plants to re-grow -- I think I need a couple more pots of it for my garden!

Mary, Mary, quite contrary, how does your garden grow?

 I have a garden, and I've very excited about it. Maybe it's not a real garden, but I think that plants in pots still count for something.

Saturday I had gone up to see mom, and we ended up buying plants. One of mom's tomato plants had died, and she wanted to replace it. My two hanging plants had died in that last cold snap, and I've been meaning to replace the flowers. And I know that the cold snap was back way back around February, but it honestly  hasn't seemed that long ago. Then last week I got a notice from the complex office stating that the lease regulates patios to be kept neat and free of trash. I don't think that they meant dead plants, and the office manager assured me that the notice went to everyone and wasn't meant for me specifically. But I thought that since we were at the nursery for mom, I should probably get the replacement plants.

I picked out some pretty begonia for the one pot, and pansies for the other. When we got into the vegetable section, though, I put the flowers back. Because herbs are almost as pretty, and ever so much more fun and practical.

So now I have a tomato plant. It's a Sweet and Neat Cherry tomato, and it's been bred to grow only 12" tall and then the vines cascade downward. I think it will work out great in the hanging basket.

I also bought some mint plants. I love fresh mint in my tea, especially in iced tea. Then I was thinking that it would also be nice to learn how to make mint juleps or mojitos. First, though, I need to learn how to harvest without killing the plants.

Originally I only meant to replace the plants in the two planters I had gotten for Christmas. But I couldn't resist the sweet basil, so mom gave me an old planter she had in her shed. I'm looking forward to making fresh pesto.

I bought the plants Saturday, so Sunday I needed to transplant them into my planters. While I was at it, I repotted two of my violets and started a new cutting.

And to think that I have always been the brown-thumbed member of my family of gardeners. Now I've got the requisite dirt under my fingernails!

Purple Plant People

 I was given an orchid for Easter. I've always wanted an orchid, but I've never been brave enough to get one. They seem so delicate and exotic, which is more than my more-brown-than-green thumb can handle. I know that you have to just mist them instead of watering. (Note to self - buy a mister.) And they don't like direct sunlight. But that's the extent of my knowledge. Thank goodness for google.

I like that all of my plants coordinate. Maybe I was meant to grow purple plants.

Flowers in the Neighborhood

I have a funny story.

Yesterday, during dinner, the kids kept trying to get rid of mom and me (or so I thought). I don't have a dining room table, so we were sitting in the living room eating. The kids kept suggesting that mom and I go out on the patio to eat, since there is a table with two chairs out there. I didn't want our family dinner to be broken up into two groups, so I refused. After dinner, the kids suggested that mom and I sit outside and chat while we knitted, with them staying inside to play one of the games PJ had gotten. Again, I didn't want to break up our family time so I refused. There were a few more attempts to get me to sit outside without the kids, and I was starting to get annoyed. We have so little family time, why would I want to waste any of it?

When PJ was getting ready to leave, he mentioned the patio lights. I had asked him to come over the week before to help me hang lights on the patio, but time ran out before he could get down to me. I never did get the lights up, and there he was, offering to help take them down. Sigh.

Then, to make matters worse, he brings up the flowers. I've been wanting hanging plants for the patio ever since I moved in. I've been hinting, and trying to find the money to buy them myself, but I just haven't gotten any flower yet. My ever-so-subtle son asks me how I like the flowers. "I don't have flowers yet," I grumble (or I would have grumbled, if it hadn't been Christmas - okay, I grumbled even though it was Christmas).
"Then those must be the neighbors' flowers I see," he tells me. How annoying can a boy be, not to tell whether something is on my patio or across the parking lot. But I went over to kiss him goodbye anyway, because after all it was Christmas.

And that's when I saw the flowers hanging on my patio. It seems my daughter conspired with my mother, and they managed to sneak two hanging plants onto my patio.

Sometimes, the kids are really, really wonderful. (Mom is really wonderful all the time.)

Deep violets, you liken to The kindest eyes that look on you, Without a thought disloyal. (Elizabeth Barrett Browning)

I can't believe how excited I am over this.

You do see it, don't you? It's my first little bud. There will be more pictures when it actually blooms, I'm sure.