Author: Sonia Stephens

Mulberries and turnips

Since the new semester began, we’ve been having some theft from the community garden. It’s pretty disheartening to grow vegetables and wait patiently until they’re almost ripe, only to have them stolen. At any rate, security cameras have been installed, and two of the culprits have been photographed loading up bags of produce (including one of my turnips! who steals a turnip?). I suspect those photos are on their way to the campus police. Other anti-theft measures have also been installed- I probably shouldn’t say what, except that motion sensors are involved…

At any rate, we’ve done some harvesting of vegetables this week. On Tuesday, we picked assorted herbs, a fennel bulb, and some not-collards. Today, I collected some turnips and pulled up one of the last remaining misome plants, which was just beginning to bloom. More misome seedlings are in the ground, though.

Most of the seedlings that we planted recently seem to be doing fine. Interestingly, the read-leaf lettuce, which stayed green when sprouting on the patio, is now turning red. A neat example of sun-protective pigments!

The beets all seem to be doing well, which is nice to see. It’ll be nice to get some more root vegetables after the turnips are gone.

The fennel all seems really happy too- it looks like some of the really small transplants did take, and are now sprouting up.

The new carrots are still growing strong, and the transplanted chives seem to be much happier here than rootbound in the pot on our patio.

Carrots, and the ever-present not-collards.

I saw quite a few birds today- some of which are probably feeding on the mulberries, which are now going quite well. A palm warbler hopped around to different perches scolding me, but eventually flew off to menace another warbler and some savannah sparrows. There were also cardinals, catbirds, a red-bellied woodpecker, red-shouldered hawk, mourning dove, a titmouse, and of course robins. I keep planning to just loiter in the garden a while with my binoculars to watch the birds, but never seem to do so.

Finally, here’s a look at today’s turnip harvest. I’ve just used most of the leaves to make a Asian-style pickle. Hopefully it turns out well.

gardening

Progress in the garden

Well, I’ve learned this week that the plants we thought was collard greens (because we got them as “collard green” seedlings) are actually…something else. Exactly what else, we’re not sure about. They’re quite obviously in the cabbage/broccoli family, and haven’t bloomed- so we can’t really tell what their major product is supposed to look like. So this makes me feel a bit silly. But the leaves are edible, so we keep eating them and giving them away. They are clearly happy as they are and don’t want to be categorized, thank you very much.

The transplanted fennel & chives are doing well.

So some of the most recent seeds have sprouted: nasturtiums, pak choi, and radishes. It really happened quickly- especially with the pak choi. Cabbage family FTW!

I was worried I wouldn't be able to recognize the seedlings, but nasturtiums are pretty distinctive. — I was worried I wouldn’t be able to recognize the seedlings, but nasturtiums are pretty distinctive.

The arugula is also sprouting, though it’s slower growing. We selected cool-weather seeds to plant this winter, and it’s consistently been between 50 and the high 80’s since we planted. Pretty abnormal winter weather.

Yesterday, I harvested a bunch of things: misome, some notcollards, cilantro, dill, Italian parsley, radishes, a carrot, and the first turnips. The turnips have a lot of greens, so I’ll have to figure out how to cook those.

Noe appreciated my garden activities this week- as I was washing the herbs, she realized that the turnip leaves were within chomping distance. She does not look a gift horse like that in the mouth, let me tell you.

greens1 — Top to bottom: notcollards, root vegetables (with greens), herbs, misome.

The turnips look much happier than the radishes & carrot.

geekery Japan

Dancing Japanese mascots!

Post author By Sonia Stephens
Post date January 30, 2013
No Comments on Dancing Japanese mascots!

Just saw this, and wanted to share: there is a new world record for the largest dance done by a group of mascots. And of course it was done in Japan.

It seems that 141 regional and town representatives got together to try to break the record for synchronized dancing by mascots. Not sure if there’s a specific category for kawaii mascots, but… The full explanation is here.

I’m sad to say that I didn’t see Niigata’s lovable soybean-based mascots in the video, but I think I caught a glimpse of Sento-kun!

Here’s the video from Kyodo News:

bunny

Friday bunnyblogging

Noe is fond of taking adorable naps in the midst of her messiness:

I have no idea how that hay strew itself all over the carpet. Why do you ask?

In this case, she’s acting quite cute while surrounded by rejected hay.

bunny

Friday bunnyblogging

When I first got Noe, I had this idea that she would be a cute addition to the house: she could roam the apartment and would keep her food nicely localized in one are and her waste in another. It would be like having a cuter, vegetarian cat that enjoyed sleeping in a cage.

Well, that idea didn’t work out long.

I can see you sitting on the bed from here, and I wonder why you don't realize that it's my bed yet. — I can see you sitting on the bed from here, and I wonder why you don’t realize that it’s my bed yet.

My first clue should have been the pulling the hay out of the nice little bowls and scattering it over various surfaces. The entropy just increased from there.

At least she’s consistent about the litter box usage. Well, mostly consistent…

bunny gardening

Friday bunnyblogging, plus gardening

Post author By Sonia Stephens
Post date January 11, 2013
No Comments on Friday bunnyblogging, plus gardening

Today, I did some gardening: pulled out some mint (which had sneaked its evil tendrils under nearly a third of one of the patches), did some planting of seeds, and transplanted a few things.

You’ll note that there’s still a bunch of mint in the plot; I didn’t want to get rid of all of it. But I did clear it out of the old misome bed, which is now planted with pak choy, radishes, and some nasturtiums. I’m hoping that the nasturtiums will do well enough in shade that we can put them under/in between the collards eventually. But I don’t know what nasturtium seedlings look like, so I thought it would be better to start them out in the open so as to avoid weeding them by mistake.

I'm sure the mint will be back for revenge sooner or later. — I’m sure the mint will be back for revenge sooner or later (it’s running along the side and bottom of the photo).

I transplanted a batch of chives that I’d had growing on the porch into various spots in the garden. They were getting pretty rootbound in their pot. We’ll see how they do, given freedom to spread out. I also took a few baby fennel bulbs from a giant plant in the communal area, separated them, and planted them in our plot. I’m leaving some blank space for now, which the radicchio, beets, and lettuce will end up in after they sprout at home. But I did seed some arugula into the old pak choi territory.

Turnips are still growing nicely- though it's too early for big roots yet. — Turnips are still growing nicely- though it’s too early for big roots yet. You can also see the droopy fennel at the bottom left.

The communal plot next to ours has a lot of really big carrots, so I harvested some of those today. Carrots will only grow straight when they’re in soil that’s completely free of rocks and other obstructions, which this soil clearly is not. As a result, some of them are pretty freaky looking. Noe was of course very interested in them:

The next two photos are pretty blurry, but I think this helps capture the drama of the epic carrot monster confrontation:

She goes for the end first... — She goes for the end first…

20130111_163546 — …and then takes a chunk out of the middle.

I did let her nom on it for a bit before taking it away. I have no doubt she’d try to eat the whole thing, which would be really, really bad…

It took her about a second to nip off one of the smaller legs. She's pretty fast. — It took her about 2 seconds to nip off one of the smaller legs. She’s pretty fast.

bunny Florida gardening

A new year, and yet more collard greens

Post author By Sonia Stephens
Post date January 7, 2013
2 Comments on A new year, and yet more collard greens

Well, it’s a new year, and I forgot to post the first Friday bunnyblogging for January. I’ll have to try to get some good photos of Noe for this week’s post. I did go to the garden today to check things out (we’ve been out of town for a few days) and gather some veggies for the next few days, so she got some of those to snack on.

Weed growth is way down over the winter, though still no freeze. In fact, it’s been in the mid to upper 70s this week, and isn’t really forecast to get cold anytime soon. I’d really like to plant some of the new seeds we got- all cool weather plants- but I’m hesitating because it is after all still January. The new things I’d like to try out are red oak leaf lettuce, arugula, beets, radicchio, and nasturtium (though I believe the last is pretty weedy, so we’ll have to keep an eye on it). Speaking of weedy, the mint seems to love the cool weather:

Ominous tentacles of mint. — Ominous tendrils of mint.

As expected, the collards are also quite happy. We’ll have to do a big trimming this weekend. The carrots are not turning out as expected- they’re producing lots of leaves, but not very large carrots. Not sure why that’s the case.

Two of the remaining pak choi are blooming, and it’s neat to see how quickly they change shape. Bolting makes them tough and not good to eat, so I’m planning on just leaving them there. The bees seem to like the flowers.

The new mini-patch of radishes is being overshaded a bit too much by the collards, but two were pretty much big enough to harvest today. These are round red ones, unlike the last batch which were long and red. They seem to be doing well in the cooler weather, so we may plant a few more. Not really my favorite veggie (unless pickled) but Yan likes them (unless pickled).

So I collected a little bit of several things for this week, and brought them home. As I was washing them in the kitchen, Noe was napping on one of the chairs under the dining room table- her usual spot. Seems it was just too much effort to leap off the chair and beg in the kitchen, so she started to gnaw on the table to let me know that she needed a sample. Of course, I gave her something- some fragrant cilantro and a bit of pak choi. Spoiled bunny.

Italian parsley & cilantro, eggplant, misome, mint, carrots, radishes, collards, and pak choi.

Florida gardening outdoors

December gardening

We just returned from vacation (hence the posting silence), and weren’t sure what the condition of our garden would be. Since our plot is in a community garden, it was watered while we were gone, and we asked some of the other volunteers to feel free to harvest things- mainly the pak choy, collards, and misome.

The mint is starting to act invasive... — The mint is starting to act invasive…

It looks like they did harvest at least the first two, though maybe the misome is unfamiliar enough that people weren’t sure what it was and whether to take it. The pak choy is pretty much gone (except for 3 plants that are going to seed). But the collards and misome are still going strong.

The former gardener planted this violet, and it was just too cute to remove.

A few weeks before we left, I planted some seeds, so now the turnips, onions, and radishes are coming up. The onions haven’t gotten much bigger (they’re under the mulberry tree), but the other two are growing nicely.

The collards are overshadowing the new radishes, so we have some competition for photons. Of course, that’s easily managed by harvesting some more greens (which we did).

It didn’t quite get down to freezing while we were gone, though it probably got very close to that. At any rate, the basil, green peppers, tomatoes, and amaranth are not doing well. The tomatoes may survive at the bases, but the basil and peppers are smaller, and unlikely to last the winter. It’ll probably briefly freeze a few times over the next few months.

Poor little pepper... the Italian parsley looks fine, though. — Poor little pepper… the Italian parsley looks really good, though.

The cool weather seems to have fooled a few things into thinking it’s spring. Our violet is blooming, and so is a cherry (or plum?) tree in the corner of the garden. The tarragon has finally stopped, and I gathered a bunch of seeds from it. Now sure how many I’ll actually plant, but I can always give them away.

Thinks it's spring. — Thinks it’s spring.

There’s lots of dill and cilantro coming up, as “volunteers.” I guess they like the cooler weather. The mulberry tree is also fruiting like crazy, and I’m surprised no birds are going for it yet. I did see a Carolina wren and palm warbler hanging around today, and heard some cardinals lurking in the bushes. There are also a bunch of robins around. Also, butterflies!

It’s definitely nice to see insects flying around in the winter- at least beneficial ones like these. I have to say the fire ants were still a nuisance- I was bitten a few times, but seemingly less venomously than usual. Maybe they’re lazy with the cooler weather. Though I still think of them as malevolent critters.

bunny

Friday bunnyblogging

Noe is glad we’re back from vacation. Although she does just fine with her bunnysitter, she seems to get lonely when we’re gone.

I'm waiting for you to feed me here. — It’s good that you’re back.

Of course, sometimes we wonder if she really enjoys our company, or whether it’s just important for her to have someone around to feed her whenever she asks for food.

She certainly hasn’t forgotten the 10 p.m. pellets time, though she keeps trying to push it up to 9 p.m. (she really hates Daylight Savings Time).

bun3 — It’s been *over 15 minutes* since I had a snack!

Yes, it’s hard to tell if we’re really just automatic food dispensers to her…

bun4 — You can pet me when I’m done eating.

…though with the amount of petting she’s demanded, that’s probably not the case.

bunny

Friday bunnyblogging

I don’t really have time for something clever this week, so here’s a Noe photo rerun with a bad holiday-related pun:

Honestly, I’m too lazy to Photoshop a hat and beard onto her, so this will be my minimalist seasonal post.