Today and yesterday

I let the seeds fall

Mâche is succulent and sweet. It kind of reminds me of azuki beans and peanuts, but with a sweet aftertaste. It's best to harvest the entire rosette. Good snack for me while I'm outside.

It's also called lamb's lettuce and corn salad.

Miner's lettuce, on the other hand, I remember as being lightly salty. Very succulent too. I mostly just love how this plant looks. It grows wild on the L hill too.

Last year, I did not grow chamomile; I grew a chamomile CLOUD. It got wild (and I loved it). I harvested lots for tea and for the little girl next door, but plenty of those tiny flowers went to seed and so now there are frilly seedlings all over the place. 

Wildcats vs. Your Houseplants

Snake the cat likes ...

... to eat houseplants.

Cats shouldn't be eating houseplants. Not just because they'd be harming the plants, but because the plants could harm them too. 

If the plant is poisonous, they could get sick or die. But even if you have a plant that's not known to be poisonous to cats, you could own a cat who's particularly sensitive or allergic to it. Or, eating the plant could physically harm them (needles on cactus, for example) or disrupt their digestive systems, leading to pain or even death. 

I can't bear to see my pets sick and hurt, so I keep houseplants away from them completely.

This is a tricky thing; the cats dominate all the good window sills, but I've managed to work with it.

AIRPLANTS are not necessarily easy to keep alive, despite what plenty of blogs say. They are not unkillable. True, you don't have to deal with soil, but you have to make sure the plants get the right amount of light and moisture.

But because the tillandsias don't need to be in a heavy pot of soil, they can be stuck in all kinds of junk that can be installed on a wall or hung on a cord from the ceiling, out of reach from those wildcats.

Filifolia in a glass globe.

I'm not reporting on anything new. These glass globes are ubiquitous, but I've had mine for about 3 years, and I haven't got tired of them. I like how they look, and they add green to rooms where cats roam.

I like them especially in groups. I hang my globes on one hook from cords of various lengths so that they are staggered. 

If you mist the airplants in the globes, the glass accumulates spots, so I like to fish them out and water them at the sink. It's important to let airplants dry out or they'll rot, and the globes only offer so much circulation. 

So, in my opinion, because I prefer to gather my plants from their containers to water them and don't put them back until they're dried out, airplants are actually harder to take care of than a lot of my other plants, but it's never good to believe that anything is so easy.

I purchased my glass globes from CB2.com. The price for the fragile globes has gone up $1 since I got them 3 years ago, but they are a lot cheaper than others found on Etsy (people there are reselling them for $7 more or higher) or on West Elm. West Elm, though sells a variety of shapes and sizes — they're attractive.

Or, you could always hang certain airplants from a nail in the wall or nestle them in an old tin can or a piece of bark. Just remember that they need as much care and attention as other houseplants.

The cats sometimes stalk the airplants in the globes, but they can't reach them. Everyone's safe.

Some sun, some work

My gardening gloves are frozen, but the sunshine coaxed me out of the house this morning. I did about an hour of clean-up, collected lunaria branches and just sat on the back steps in the sun.

curry plant (helichrysum italicum)

It's been a dry winter with under 20 days of snowfall or rain. But, I think, the winter weather and weather event stats are always shocking, no matter what. We just want it to end and get back to walking barefoot outside on the patio. But, chill. Let winter do its thing. 

I always feel sorry for plants that start to grow during the warm days in the winter. Frost will stab them dead at some point. By the time spring comes, I'm sure a thousand more of these chamomile seeds will sprout since I let so many of them go. I'll be happy for them once they're around in flower. I love their appley scent. 

the L hill behind the garden

At the Orchid Bazaar (directions for waiting)

In this season of sandy hail 

that whips our cheeks and makes us feel sunburned;

in this season of frozen ground, frozen water;

a deep retreat into warmth and waiting —

slip a packet of seeds under your pillow 

and dream about the orchid bazaar

or something else...the same idea...something green 

you're looking forward to...a hedge, a tulip.

Or shake a seed pod first thing in the morning.

Make a list for the spring. Clear a space 

on the desk to start tomato seeds.

Think of the yellow flowers.

Think of all that will go on.

(photo from the Hilo Farmers Market last year)

Late snow

Not much winter weather, so far. In fact, we've had less than five days of snow.

October, November, December

It's late December — a time for reflection. 

I've been looking through my posts this year and looking at all of my photos from 2011 and decided it would be good to round up my favorites, some that have appeared on Little Germ already, and some that have not. 

Here is the last set of my favorite shots from 2011. 

KALE CLOUD

terrain, warm night

//though blurry, this photo of a bumpy lacinato kale cloud is one of my favorites from this year//the dark green vegetable inspired a delicious recipe, Lacquered Kale for two//

FALL DAYS

wet soil, understory

//the soil records the year; the soil is alive//the garden was a ladybug neighborhood this year — I saw it all! (ladybugs love cilantro)//

BACK INSIDE
bloom indoors

//my first roselle flower, a kind of hibiscus, startled me one day with its beauty//in December, surround yourself with houseplants, a bromeliad for example//

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

July, August, September

It's late December — a time for reflection. 

I've been looking through my posts this year and looking at all of my photos from 2011 and decided it would be good to round up my favorites, some that have appeared on Little Germ already, and some that have not. 

Tomorrow, I'll post some of my favorite photos from the last three months, finishing up this end-of-the-year series.

HYPNOSIS

//scaping season in July//garlic necks in loops//stacks of mustard seed pods on the patio — hypnotizing//

SIP

//garden tea — basil and toothache plant flowers, for example//

VERY FINE

//poppy petals//oiled paper//fleeting flower//

WATCH

//always, always keep posts in the garden for critters that land//

April, May, June

It's late December — a time for reflection. 

I've been looking through my posts this year and looking at all of my photos from 2011 and decided it would be good to round up my favorites, some that have appeared on Little Germ already, and some that have not. 

I'll make posts covering the rest of the year the next two days.

THAW

//when the soil warmed, and I went out to see, the skeletonized tomatillo husks were all around//

LITTLE GERM

//with frost still a possibility, seeds get started under lights indoors//this is only the beginning of the excitement//

REACH

//it was love at first sight, little shallot//I used my own seed stock this year and will again this spring!//

ENERGY PILL

//here and there — the warm days and sunlight//

January, February, March

It's late December — a time for reflection. 

I've been looking through my posts this year and looking at all of my photos from 2011 and decided it would be good to round up my favorites, some that have appeared on Little Germ already, and some that have not. 

This first set is from the first three months of this year. I'll make posts covering the rest of the year the next three days.

INDOORS & OUTDOORS

still, white, translucent

//deer on the hill above the L House garden space//lunaria pods glow at the wild margins of my lot// meditation with a houseplant until the warm weather comes//

or ESCAPE TO A WARM PLACE
fire colors, treasure hunt

//on a trip to see my family in Hawaii, glowing leaves on Mauna Loa//strawberry guava (waiawī) and ferns at my parent's house//unfurling uluhe fern among the strawberry guava//taro leaf in my brother's garden (with papaya behind it)//