Beautiful Boonton and A Novice Gardener

Something About Soil

2012-01-25T19:26:00.000-08:00

We gardeners know how important soil is; it is our best friend and is as precious to us as gold and diamonds. So, here are some important facts about soil that I thought of sharing with you all. I have tried to tell it in as simply as possible without including any of the scientific jargon.

Soil scientists classify soil into 13 different orders based on the presence or absence of diagnostic horizons and major differences in soil forming factors or properties. Soil is also further classified based on texture. The texture of a soil is due to the presence of clay, silt and loam.

Sand is predominantly made of quartz; the sand particles have size range in between 0.05 to 2 mm. The particles are large enough to feel the individual grains. Silt particles have size range in between 0.05 to 0.002 mm; the particles are broken down enough and thus individual particles cannot be recognized; it has a texture like a flour. Clay particles are smaller than 2 nm (nano-meter) and clay can be molded into any shape.

Soil is an eco-system that is alive. Not only trees need soil, but soil is home to insects, fungi, bacteria, nematodes and protozoa on which depends the survival of many small mammals, birds and other bigger insects. Thus, if the soil is destroyed, not only an ecosystem that will die but also many birds, mammals and arthropods.

Soil usually refers to the topsoil or the "dirt" under our feet. Resource Conservation Glossary define it as "the unconsolidated mineral and organic material on the immediate surface of the earth that serves as a natural medium for the growth of plants." Simonson in 1957 defined it as "the link between the rock core of the earth and the living things on its surface."

This topsoil or soil has developed over millions and billions of years. It can never be recovered or replaced if destroyed. Soil has formed over millions of years by the action of organisms and climatic forces, modified by the topography, upon the parent material over time. Thus, rocks and boulders are weathered into smaller particles (which will eventually become soil) through physical (wind, air, water) and chemical (due to heat and pressure inside volcanoes, in the deep core of the earth) processes. These weathered particles, organic matters and living organisms are decomposed into inorganic materials like minerals and chemical elements make up the soil. Thus, topsoil sold by garden stores are not soil; they are just some compost. Once the topsoil is destroyed, it is gone for ever because, as you see, to create it, we have to wait at least million years.

Soil is made up of minerals, organic matters, water and dissolved salt and air (nitrogen, oxygen, carbon-dioxide and water vapor). About 50% of soil is made up of solid components (minerals and organic matters); the other 50% is made up of pore-spaces which are actually occupied by either air or water. Thus, for plants, soil acts as bank of nutrients, water reservoir, in which plants anchor their roots; soil also helps in the diffusion of gas (exchange of carbon-dioxide and oxygen between soil and air) and plants can breathe. Soil is also part of the earth's hydrologic cycle. Rainwater percolates through the topsoil into the groundwater reservoir. Trees draw rainwater from soil and gives out water through transpiration into the atmosphere (which again comes down as rain). Water also gets evaporated from soil into atmosphere which will eventually again come down to soil as rainwater.

Now for us gardeners: a good soil is characterized by the soil texture, presence of minerals, organic matters, porosity, fertility, productivity, microbial activity, water retention and water infiltration abilities. Good soil texture allows for the roots of the plants to move easily, spread out and anchor. Microbial activity (which is responsible for decomposing the organic matter into plant nutrients, compost), soil fertility and productivity, presence of minerals and organic matters are responsible for the plants to thrive. Porosity is important for the diffusion of gases to take place through which plants breathe. Plants die or become extremely weak if soil is so compacted or of poor quality that it has no pore spaces and plants cannot breathe. Pore spaces also ensure that roots can move freely and anchor properly. Plants need water and thus soil that can retain water will be good for plants. Sandy soils have large pore spaces and water move freely through it and gets drained. Thus, plants growing on sandy soils will not have any water available. At the same time, water infiltration (that is how fast or how slowly water drains out and spreads out) is also important. If the soil is so heavily compacted that water cannot drain easily, then the roots of the plants will be sitting in water (and we gardeners know what a deadly situation that is for most plants); roots will rot or will be very poorly developed; a healthy plant is one whose roots are spread out and deeply anchored. Thus, water in the soil needs to be filtered out at a proper rate for prevention of root disease and deeper roots to be formed.

Good qualities of soil can be achieved through the addition of compost (organic matter) and humus (organic molecules which cannot be broken down any further). Such addition results in good porosity, water retention and infiltration and microbial activities. The addition also helps in maintaining the 10:1 carbon nitrogen ratio which is optimal for good plant growth. A good soil should have about 50 to 60% carbon, 5% nitrogen, 0.6 - 1.2% phosphorous and 0.5% sulfur. The 10:1 ratio of Carbon to Nitrogen can also be obtained by growing legumes and to some extent young grasses. However, addition of pine needles, leaves, straw, hays, manure, corn-stalks and woody materials disrupts that ratio; for example, addition of leaves results in a ratio of 60--100:1 (that is more carbon is present and less nitrogen). However, as leaves decompose, the ratio slowly becomes 10:1. But before the balanced ratio is achieved, plants have to compete with other soil micro-organisms to harvest the available nitrogen and such competitions are not good for plants.

Those of us who have clayey soil should consider ourselves lucky because clayey soils have high Cation Exchange Capacity, that is the ability of soil to retain nutrients. However, clayey soil have poor water infiltration quality. It tends to retain water and water spreads out through the soil very very slowly. Thus, if you water the soil, that water will be available to the roots down below the soil after much much long time because it takes a LONG time for water to percolate through clayey soil. Thus, there is a high chance that the water will evaporate from the top of the soil before it even gets infiltrated down into the soil. Thus, people with clayey soil should mulch a lot so that the water is not lost through evaporation.

Essential plant nutrients are supplied by soil and soil minerals. Nitrogen, Phophorous and Potassium are the macro-nutrients; calcium, magnesium, sulfur, boron, copper, iron, manganese, zinc are the micro-nutrients. Besides macro-nutrients, plants also need air, water, temperature and light. These and the macro-nutrients are considered the limiting growth factors for plants. If one of the limiting growth factor is deficient, it needs to be fixed for the plant to survive. Deficiency of the micro-nutrients will not affect the plants much.

An optimal balance of nutrients and other factors (as mentioned above) are required for healthy plants. Over-surplus of nutrients is as BAD as deficiency. Over-surplus creates toxicity for plants. So, how do you do know what your soil has? Do Soil-testing. Soil scientists say that it is an absolute must especially if wants to have good production.

In summary, prevent compaction of soil so that pore spaces between soil does not decrease. Small pore spaces result in water retention and limited gas diffusion. Thus, do not walk on the soil on which you are growing your fruits, vegetables and flowers. Avoid soil erosion; topsoil lost is gone forever and it is the soil that is responsible for human and other animals existence. Do soil testing to determine the quality of your soil and take steps accordingly. Do not add fertilizers just because the garden center says so. Add LOTS and LOTS of organic matter into your soil - they are key to everything good for soil.

Our composting places. I also have another small bucket for compost. And, I also compost by digging in all the compostable material into the garden soil directly. Now, this might not be a good ideas as such material takes up nitrogen from soil as they decompose but I am too lazy to do anything.

Tra...la..lala...la........

2012-01-18T05:17:00.000-08:00

Today is January 18, 2012. For the last three days, I am noticing that the outside is becoming very bright, with all night darkness gone away, by 6:30 am. Yipeee.......soon days will become more longer, the sun will rise higher up in the sky, and spring will be here with the message to start gardening and planting seeds. I can't wait to witness the miracle of tiny seeds becoming plants to produce big, heavy, sweet, delicious, fresh, healthy food for the rest of the world inhabitants. Here is a picture of some of those produce from my garden of 2011. This year I am hoping for more and lots of varieties.

Garden on Roof Tops

2012-01-16T14:59:00.000-08:00

Diane Cook and Len Jenshel traveled across the world taking photographs of gardens and farmings on roof-tops. The Dailymail has published many of those photos here. It is so refreshing to know that it is mandatory in Switzerland and Germany to have garden on any flat roofs. With the dire state the environment of the world is in, all the countries of the world should pass such rules - to have gardens or solar panels on flat roofs.

Hoarding...hoarding...hoarding...

2012-01-12T14:57:00.000-08:00

I am indeed hoarding and feeling like a rat, squirrel, collecting all sorts of seeds. But then, hehehe.., I better collect, save and hoard seeds as 2012 supposed to be the dooms year. With the world supposedly coming to a halt and thus no food supplies, markets, I need to survive by growing my own food :-). So, here are the seeds that I have collected so far:

Vegetable Seeds
Carrot, Pak-Choi, Rutabaga, Okra, Ridgegourd, Bittergourd, Pumpkin, Kohlrabi, Drumstick, Cherry Radish, Jalapeno, Bean, Beet, White Icicle Radish, Snap Peas, Scallion, and Onion and garlic are already planted.

Herbs, Green-leafy Vegetables
Chives, Cilantro, Lettuce, Oregano, Swiss-Chard, Amaranthus, Kale, Parsley, Spinach, Argula, Fenugreek, Mustard, Cumin, Chikpeas, Lemon-Basil

Fruit trees ordered and already that exists (bought in October)
Chicago Fig, Strawberry, Blueberry, Grape, Black Chokeberry, Lingonberry, Dwarf Banana

Flowers
Mammoth Sunflower, Alyssum, Dahlia, Lupine, 4 o'clock, Zinnia, Small Sunflower, Cosmos, Black-Eyed, Blanketflower, Carnation, Achillea, Star-glory (Cypress Vine), Milkweed, Roselle Hibiscus, Passion flower, Delphinium-plants, Echinacea-plant

I need to order...well...the list is way too big to put it up here but some definite must that I am going to buy soon will be Neem-plant, gooseberry-plant, dwarf lemon or orange plant and perhaps raspberry plant.

I can't wait for March to come when I get to play with all these seeds and hopefully get to grow lots of flowers, herbs and vegetable plants. As I am already growing some indoor, our house is slowly turning into a jungle, or shall I say "occupy-Boonton," with all the tables, kitchen counter-tops, stools and any empty open top occupied with indoor plants and seedling-pots.

Essential or Junks?

2012-01-09T06:26:00.000-08:00

Below is the picture of my two Rosemary bushes covered with rice sacks! when the temperature recently dropped to about 11 degree Fahrenheit here. The rice sacks are made of jute (I think they are called burlap here in the USA), and I have been saving those ever since I started gardening. Previously they used to end up in some land-fills. Not only sacks, but I have been saving newspapers, used pots and pans which I don't use any longer and all sorts of plastics tubs and trays and even some aluminium pans. The plastic tubs become where I grow all the seedlings. The pots and pans become where all those seedling-tubs sit in water. I have found that in that way I can consistently maintain the moisture-level of the seedling-soil. I would like to think that I am re-using all these discarded items to save the environment; but in reality I am doing this to save my money. I am a big miser and would need to spend too much money to buy all those professional seed-growing kits. The downside of all these junk-saving is I have to clean my garden shade way too often. Still it remains such a messy place that two tiny white rats take up shelter there among all the junks, chewing up the newspapers and the plastics to construct a nice cosy bed on the pots! Does anyone else save such junks?

Fantastic Videos - A Must Watch

2012-01-04T05:55:00.000-08:00

Roger Doiron - the man who helped in creating the White House Vegetable Garden - talk about "subversive plots" in this TED lecture. As per the TED website, "A vegetable garden can do more than save you money -- it can save the world. At TEDxDirigo Roger Doiron shows how gardens can re-localize our food and feed our growing population."

The video is here: http://www.ted.com/talks/roger_doiron_my_subversive_garden_plot.html

Another fantastic video of pioneers working on window gardening, that is growing vegetables, year round, in low light condition in one's own apartment. The idea was developed by Britta Riley. As per the TED website, "Britta Riley wanted to grow her own food (in her tiny apartment). So she and her friends developed a system for growing plants in discarded plastic bottles -- researching, testing and tweaking the system using social media, trying many variations at once and quickly arriving at the optimal system. Call it distributed DIY. And the results? Delicious."

The video is here: http://www.ted.com/talks/britta_riley_a_garden_in_my_apartment.html

Happy New Year

2012-01-01T11:48:00.000-08:00

Weather in the last two year has been very strange. 2010--2011 saw lots of snow, even in April and then lots of rain. 2011--2012 saw hurricane Irene, a blizzard in October and then absolutely no snow; the temperature and weather, now, feels like summer. The garden is also behaving strangely. The bulbs of Daffodils, Iris, Lilies and Crocuses shooting out new leaves. Newer leaves are also emerging from the Persian Lilac tree. Leaves of Rose bushes and other flowering plants are looking invigorated, as if spring has arrived!

Thus, I am really worried about what's happening to our climate, environment, nature. I got more worried as I went for grocery shopping yesterday and wherever I went - A&P, Shoprite, Indian Grocery Store, Target - I found that people were using plastics to packet and wrap everything. Even potatoes were first wrapped in a thin plastic bag and then those plastic bags were put into the grocery store bags which are all made of plastics. So, two different plastic bags were used to buy just one vegetable - potato! Each individual vegetable were bagged in similar ways, using two different plastic bags!! I hope people do recycle those bags.

So, I hope that 2012 will see more people becoming aware of climate, environment, nature and takings steps to protect them; more countries of the world coming together to limit pollution and greenhouse gas emission, pass resolution to protect natural resources and environment, upheld clean air and water acts and exist peacefully.

Honor the sacred.
Honor the Earth, our Mother.
Honor the Elders.
Honor all with whom we
share the Earth:-
Four-leggeds, two-leggeds,
winged ones,
Swimmers, crawlers,
plant and rock people.
Walk in balance and beauty. -- Native American Elder

Food from backyard

2011-12-29T14:21:00.000-08:00

Yesterday (December 28, 2011), I posted pictures of all the greens that I picked up from our backyard. It consisted of radish, radish-green, beet-green, mustard-green, three types of lettuce, celery-leaves and celery-stalk, baby swiss-chard, baby-spinach. I can harvest all these because of the greenhouse, and that there has not been any snow/blizzard here yet - a big proof of climate change. So, using all those greens, I cooked up three different dishes.

The radish was chopped up in small places and immersed in white vinegar, salt and sugar. This is how radishes and carrots are often served, before the food, in many Chinese, Thai restaurants. The overgrown radish green were chopped up and sauted with garlic. All the other greens were made into a salad with pine-nuts, boiled cracked-wheat (also sometimes referred to as Bulgar in the US, though two are very different), lemon-juice and salt.

Food Matters

2011-12-28T13:27:00.000-08:00

I often wonder why I love gardening, especially growing fruits and vegetables. I watched Food Matters again today. Perhaps, these types of documentaries are responsible for making me grow fresh organic produce in my own backyard. The documentary was produced in 2008 and is about one hour twenty minutes long. Indians have a long ancient tradition of respecting Mother Earth, growing fruits and vegetables, going to market everyday to purchase freshly picked produce and freshly caught fish and cooking food, at least twice, for lunch and dinner. My old parents back home still go to market every morning to buy fresh produce. The fresh produce are cooked for lunch and consumed. Then, again in the evening, the remaining fresh produce are cooked for dinner. And, the scene continues the next day. While growing up, we were constantly told two things: 1. You are what you eat and 2. Do not waste even a small crumb of bread and we never dared waste anything; food is part of our religion and we even worship a Goddess, Goddess Laxmi, for food, health and money. Though I forgot about number 1 until I started watching documentaries like Food Matters, but I religiously follow number 2 because food is so precious. Food Matters tries to uphold number 1 and 2. Here are some important facts and points discussed in the documentary and I hope I got all these correctly:

1. Let food be thy medicine and thy medicine be your food, as told by Hipocrates
2. Modern medicine revolves around a pill a day, targeting only one particular type of disease. Less than 6% of doctors trained in the USA learn anything about diet and nutrition.
3. Heart Disease and Cancer are the two leading causes of death in the USA. Additionally, 39,000 people, every year, die due to errors in hospitals; 80,000 people die annually due to infections in hospitals. 106,000 people die due to adverse side effects from drugs and pills that doctors prescribe to them. 89% of patients in the USA suffer from nutrition-deficiency after staying in the hospitals.
4. Heart Disease is not only preventable but even curable if one goes into a strict vegetarians, organic, fresh diet, and it's proved by research.
5. As the documentary claims and as many other documentary, research claims that cancer is preventable and curable if one eats fresh organically grown fruits, vegetables, nuts, grasses, seeds, beans, pulses, legumes, etc, etc, everyday. Gerson Therapy advocates this only.
6. The food that is available in any supermarket in the USA has traveled at least 1500 to 2000 miles and at least a week old!! If you are lucky, then you will get just 40% of the nutrients from those food .
7. The foods in the supermarket are not nutritious because majority of the food in the USA are grown on large industrial scale using herbicide, fungicide, insecticide, fertilizers and all sorts of other chemicals. Also, the crops are not rotated on the fields. As a result, the soil on which the foods are grown are like desert soil with no nutrients available. Soil needs at least 52 different minerals besides N-P-K.
8. The enzymes in the food are lost even if they are lightly steamed. Dr. Kurchoff first proved that the body produces lots of toxins if one eats 51% of cooked food. Thus, the motto is one should eat at least 50% raw food everyday.
9. Solid food requires lots of water for digestion so that the liquid digested food can be absorbed by our bodies. Thus, it is best to drink fresh fruits and vegetable juice everyday so that the nutrients can be at once absorbed by our bodies.
10. Multi-vitamins should be taken regularly. In the last twenty-three (23) years, there has been less than ten (10) deaths that are due to vitamin consumption, though the real cause of those deaths are not yet proven.
11. In the UK, about 10,000 people die every year due to adverse drug reaction. In contrast, only 3500 people die every year due to car accidents and about 9,000 people die to prostrate cancer. People in the UK are extremely concerned about such high deaths due to prostrate cancer or car accidents though the number of deaths due to such reasons are smaller compared to death due to drug reaction.
12. But still, drugs are prescribed at an alarming rate in both the USA and the UK for any minor complications. 25% of all the TV time in the USA are drug commercials. In the North America alone, the Drug Industry is a 300 billion dollar industry!!
13. The Drug Companies in the USA need to do just two successful trials to get the drug approved . Each trial might consist of less than 100 people. Thus, experiment the drug on only 200 people and then prescribe that drug to millions of people without doing a systematic, detailed study on side effects and other adverse effects from the drug. Also, all the trials and experiments and even FDA are controlled by these drug industries (for that one needs to watch all the other documentaries that are out there). Thus, they might not include all the side effects in their label warnings. Prozac-R is the greatest example. Trial showed that suicidal thought is one of the side effect of the medicine and yet it was not initially included in the warning labels.
14. One of the scientist in the documentary claims that consuming two handfuls of cashew nuts give the same dose of anti-depressant as given by Prozac.
15. Another scientist in the documentary claims that at least 3000 mg of Vitamin B Niacin cures depression.
16. When drug companies claim that they have an 80% success rate with a cancer treatment, that means they are claiming that 80% of people live 5 years after the treatment. They cannot guarantee anything beyond 5 years. However, statistics have shown that 70% of all patients die within 5 years even after all the modern cancer treatment.
17. Good food and nutrients is the key to avoiding cancer. Research has shown that high concentration of Vitamin C given through IV can kill all cancer cells in the body. Gerson Therapy and other alternative medicines have also proved successful against cancer. However, doctors in the USA are not allowed to prescribe any alternative medicines to the patients. If they do so, their medical license can be revoked. The Cancer Treatment Industry is a 200 billion dollar industry in the USA alone.
18. Research is constantly showing that people with Mediterranean diet, Japanese diet (based on green tea, seaweeds and fish) and other diets that are based on fruits, vegetables, nuts and fish have the lowest rate of cancer, heart disease or any chronic disease.
19. Modern medicine, drugs, medical advancement are absolutely required and we all need to use. But, the doctors also need to be trained in diet and nutrition and therapy through nutrition/diet should be a big part of any diagnosis/treatment.

Now, what do I believe? I actually believe in all the above points that we need modern medicine but at the same time, we also need to pay attention to our diets. My personal experience has taught me that nutrition and vitamins are extremely essential. We also need to pay attention to our climate, environment and nature because polluted air is not going to help us. We will also lose the urge to live if we destroy nature. Thus, keeping all these in mind I am going to make salad from freshly picked greens and a radish from our backyard :-).

Rosemary

2011-12-27T16:40:00.000-08:00

Here are my Rosemary plants in the small herb-patch that I had this summer. The patch had rosemary, basil, mint, pineapple-sage and lemon-balm. Lemon-balm and mint have gone for winter-hibernation. I am not sure what will happen to the pineapple-sage plant - will it come back next year? Basil plants have of course passed away :-(. But, I hope that these beautiful rosemary plants will survive the winter. So far, they are really doing well in this freezing twenty-two or twenty-eight degree Fahrenheit temperature. But, I read everywhere that Rosemary plants do not survive cold, wintry, freezing temperature. So, keeping fingers crossed.

Merry Christmas - 2011

2011-12-25T17:34:00.000-08:00

I am spending the Christmas buying plants from Burpee. So far, I am loving Burpee. Burpee's seeds are indeed guaranteed to grow; at least, that has been my experience so far. They also seem to be pretty cheap. So, I browsed through their 2012 catalog today and ordered two grape plants, a black chokerberry plant and six Delphinium plants. Now, I have to wait patiently for their arrival in March/April and enjoy the time growing my winter plants. Here are some plants - coriander, parsley, mint, lettuce, fenugreek, cactus, aloe-vera, basil and various house-plants - that are growing in our mud-room.

Onion and Garlic Bed

2011-12-23T04:21:00.000-08:00

This is our bed with Onion and Garlic plants. I have put lots of leaves mulch and other organic matter because apparently garlic and onion likes rich soil. Onion and Garlic are remarkable plants. They will survive and their frail looking leaves will stand erect even under the most harshest snow. And, they pop up wherever you drop the garlic clove and the onion bulb. And, they also produce beautiful, showy flowers. They are so easy to grow and so tenacious that it is amazing people don't grow this; rather, garlic is imported to the USA all the way from China!!!!! At least we all can drop some garlic clove here and there in our garden and lawn and help boost the US economy and the US farmers, instead of spending money, polluting the environment to import "in-organic" garlic all the way from China!

Greenhouse

2011-12-21T13:47:00.001-08:00

My Dear Hubby has built this greenhouse from scratch for me. It is made with 1/2 inch PVC pipes. So far, it has been sturdy against strong wind. Hopefully, it will withstand big blizzards. Of course, this is not a professional greenhouse and thus we can't grow plants that require hot temperature like tomatoes, eggplants or pepper. Temperature do drop inside during the night. However, we are growing plants that can withstand even below 20 degree Fahrenheit and these plants are thriving beautifully inside this greenhouse. The plants that are inside are leafy-lettuce (all kinds), spinach, mustard-green, fenugreek-green, celery, garlic, radish, chinese cabbage, beet, peas, swiss chard and some argula.

First Row: the greenhouse from outiside (left), the door to get inside the greenhouse (center), an inside portion of the greenhouse (right).
Second Row: more greens growing in a pot inside the greenhouse (left), pea on a pea-plant (center), another side inside the greenhouse (right).

Radish and Leafy Greens

2011-12-15T07:03:00.000-08:00

Radish (on the left) and celery, chinese cabbage and other leafy greens (right image), freshly picked from the garden. The radishes were grown using Burpee's Organic Radish Seed. The packet says that the radish will be ready within 22 days. It is true. The seeds are tiny. But, just scatter them around and within next day, seedlings emerge, and start growing fast. Strangely, the seedlings emerge and grow even if there is not enough light, and the outside is freezing (22 degree Fahrenheit). However, I left these radishes in the ground for more than 22 days as I had other things to eat. I have heard people saying old radishes taste bad, bitter, hot, are stringy and what not. But, I did not notice any such thing with these radishes though they were growing in the ground for more than two months. Very nice tasting radish.

We (Indians) also eat the green leaves of the radish plants. I usually saute all these green leaves using garlic, pepper flakes (or a big jalapeno) and sometimes mushroom. Absolutely yuuuuuummmmmmmyyyyyyyyy...Thats' what I did this morning and had it for breakfast :-). Whenever I pick green leaves (for cooking), I usually pick the leaves those are closer to the ground or those that have lots of holes, chewing mark, etc (art work of slugs, snails, aphids and other insects). I leave the healthy, fresh looking leaves for the plants. In that way, the plants survive and keep on providing me with food; I also get to eat fresh organic vegetables and leaves :-).

Growing Pumpkins and Watermelons

2011-12-02T05:38:00.000-08:00

I started growing vegetables in 2010. 2011 was my second year and I ventured out to try growing something new (well, from my experience point of view). I planted iced-watermelon plants and Bonnie's pumpkin plants.

My husband built a small raised-bed and a trellis, using whatever wood were lying around in the basement, to raise the plants. Pumpkin plants hardly need any care and they can easily overrun the garden. Luckily for us, the Bengalis, we cook and eat not only pumpkins but pumpkin flowers, and the plant - everything of pumpkin is considered delicacy and variety of dishes are cooked using either the flower or leaves and stem or the vegetable.

We not only enjoy the pumpkins but even share some with our animal-friends and animal-neighbors. Our animal-friends never destroy or attack our vegetables. This was the last pumpkin that was growing; weather got chilly and most of the food-sources of our friends got depleted. Then only they came to try out the pumpkin.

Diary of a novice gardener in Boonton-- Beginning -- Part1

2011-11-29T16:27:00.000-08:00

I knew nothing about gardening. In fact, my attempt at keeping the house-plants alive during my undergraduate and graduate days usually ended up in disasters. I just knew that I love nature and anything green - small plant, tall plant, bushes, shrubs, weeds, grass, even emerald stones (who told diamond is girl's best friend though I would like to have a diamond to cut and experiment with my rock/stone collections). So, I took full opportunity of our backyard and the ample bright sunshine it gets throughout the year to go out to Garden Centers, Wal-Mart and Home-Depot to buy small plantlings (a term I am coining because they were not seedlings and at the same time not yet fully grown plants, but somewhere in between). I bought tomato, cucumber, eggplant, hot pepper (chili pepper) and green bell pepper (capsicum) plants, onion and garlic bulbs.

[Caption: The left is an eggplant flower; the right is an okra flower].
Of course I bought the plants on whims but then lethargy took hold of me. The plants laid outside on the patio, in their small seed-growing containers, for quite a while. And I sat inside doing research on internet on how to transplant plants from pot to backyard soil, what to do to grow those vegetables and started observing the areas that receive maximum sunshine in the backyard. This is a very important observation to be made and recorded by any gardeners. A gardener has to know which portions of her backyard receives how much sunlight and for how long every day. She then needs to do research on how much sunlight each individual plant needs, on average, every day.
Empowered with all the knowledge, I embarked on planting the plantlings. It was a back-hurting, sweat-producing, extremely tiring job. I gained new respects for all the farmers around the world; for all the farmers in the past whose hard work helped in the flourishing of the human civilization. To have a successful vegetable garden, one needs to clean all the weeds and grasses, till the soil, put fertilizers and prepare and till the soil some more. Then only the plants can be put. But that is not the end of the story. After the plants are put, more fertilizers poured around their base and watered, one needs to keep vigil for plant eating big insects, aphids, snails and re-growth of any weed. Meticulously each insect and snail has to be removed away from each plant (please do not kill them as they are very beneficial for your backyard. Take them away to another part of the backyard, away from your vegetable garden. Why they are beneficial will be part of another diary entry), and all the weeds pulled out. Weeds need to be pulled out because they take away the essential nutrients from the soil and you want to provide as much good food to the plant as possible to make it grow into a healthy fruit producing plant and have a successful garden. However, once the plants are established and have grown tall and have started producing fruits, you do not need to pay so much attention to weeds, contrary to whatever anyone else or the book says. The weeds might actually help in locking the soil moisture and snails and insects will attack the weeds instead of the plants. That has been my experience so far and I am producing good amount of vegetables.
As the plants are transplanted into the backyard, one needs to pay attention to their water requirements. Water-need, fertilizers and soil treatment will be part of future entries.

A Part of the Main Street in Boonton

2010-06-11T08:19:00.000-07:00

Boonton Tanks

2010-04-01T05:59:00.001-07:00

I guess these are the water tanks of Boonton, not sure though what they are. This is one of the bigger shopping plaza in Boonton. The superstore Walmart, delicious IHOP, Quiznos Subs, Subway, a Pizza Kithchen and other smaller restaurants are located here along with Wine Store, Payless, Salon, etc, etc. The plaza is located on Wooton Street, a busy street in Boonton. Get out of the plaza, turn right, go down and Wooton Stret intersects the Myrtle Avenue, another busy road here. Turn right on Myrtle to go easily to either I-287 or Route 202, all extremely important thoroughfares of New Jersey.

A Very Foggy Boonton

2010-03-24T09:23:00.001-07:00

A very foggy Monday (March 22, 2010) in Boonton. It started with rain from Sunday evening and suddenly became foggy. The fog continued almost throughout Monday and then started clearing up. It has been breezy and chilly since the last two days. Today is Wednesday, March 24, 2010.

Lamppost

2010-03-21T16:15:00.001-07:00

The picture was taken in December when it was cold and snow everywhere. Most (or should I say all) of the lampposts in Boonton look like this and I really love this old-looking lampposts. The lamppost is located on the Washington Bridge and underneath and behind it is the Boonton Water Reservoir. A little history about Boonton from the book Boonton, the Gem of Mountains by Edward J. Cahill :

The natural beauties of Boonton lead many to believe that they were the reasons for its selection for a town site. However, such is not the case; it was the building of the Morris Canal and the iron in the adjacent mountains to the north that led the New Jersey Iron Company to select Boonton as the place to locate its iron works. Boonton dates as a settlement back to 1825, although the first settler of whom we have any knowledge in what is now Boonton was Christian Loweree, who built his little house in 1766 on the side of sunset Hill, where is now the corner of Barnet Street and Woodside Avenue..........The original settlement, called Old Boonton, and located about 500 feet south from the corner of the Washington Street Bridge, the site of which is now 90 feet under the water of the Jersey City Reservoir, was a settlement of over 200 years ago. Old Boonton was first named Boone-Town after Thomas Boone, Governor of the province of New Jersey, 1760, '61, '62 and a friend of David Ogden of Newark, the original owner of the tract.

The above book was original published in 1910.

Spring is Here

2010-03-20T08:45:00.001-07:00

Spring is arriving, though we are supposed to have frosts again. But at least it's arrival is being announced by all the new growths on ground and the new buds that are appearing everywhere. Also, the air is fresh and fragrant, vibrating with numerous bird songs.

Almost Armageddon - March Saturday the Thirteenth

2010-03-13T18:22:00.000-08:00

For the last couple of months, it seems like Armageddon has come earlier than 2012 :-). We had been experiencing one of the harshest winter with snow accumulating, sometimes, close to two feet. With snow everywhere - thick slabs on the roofs, knee-high snow on the porch and the patio, the trees and the branches bowed down with the weight of the snow - it seemed like the Ice Age was here. I could imagine how it would feel if an Ice Age really came.

With the winter hardly behind us, pockets of snow still frozen solid on the ground, we are experiencing an ominous stormy day with chilly temperature, howling wind blowing at about 65 miles per hour and heavy downpour. The day has been dark since morning; gusty wind slamming against the house, rattling the roofs and shaking the house. Two huge evergreen trees toppled over in the lawn of our neighbor and destroyed the front part of her house :-(.

A typical scene on Cornelia Street

2010-03-11T09:38:00.000-08:00

Today it is cloudy and a bit chilly here. But, it doesn't matter if it is snowy, rainy, sunny or cloudy, this part of the cornelia street is all the time calm and quite like this. The most traffic one will have on this street is those of people walking their dogs.

The Thief is Caught Red-Handed

2010-03-10T05:31:00.001-08:00

They abound in numbers here in Boonton. In fact, I think more wild animals and birds, than human beings, live in Boonton. Feral and wild cats, deer, bear, opossum, raccoons, squirrels, chipmunks, birds like blue-jays, cardinals, chickadees, titmouse, nuthatch, sparrows, doves, woodpeckers, juncos, finches and what not lives here. Who would say that New York City and other metropolitan areas like Jersey City, Newark, Elizabeth are so close by that Booton is almost considered a suburb of NYC. But it is a laid-back, quite, typical American village with a wild river, waterfalls, woods and forest and wild animals. With rising population, I wonder how long it will remain like this?

We have two bird-feeders and the food, often time, goes away quite fast from those two feeders. Then, suddenly one day we solved the mystery. Squirrels come and either stretching their bodies or standing tall they steal the sunflower seeds.

Peas

Forest on Fire or Sunrise?

2010-03-09T04:53:00.000-08:00

This is the scene behind our house. The sky takes on different hues of colors and shades, every day, from red to dark purplish, orange to yellow and purplish blue and and what not as the sun rises.

Flow of Life

The Rockaway River

2010-02-27T19:26:00.000-08:00

The river and the waterfall in December. The waterfall was almost getting frozen, forming stalactites. The path through the forest and towards the fall was quite treacherous with frozen but slippery snow. The river was still swollen and flowing rapidly, though, with the melting snow feeding into it.

Desolate and Frozen Boonton Water Reservoir

2010-01-04T05:29:00.000-08:00

For the Future Generations

2009-12-29T15:02:00.000-08:00

She was waiting for us; or perhaps, we were waiting for her - the old colonial house of 1910 in Boonton, New Jersey?

We were looking into buying our first house in the late spring/early summer of 2009, and had been concentrating on areas that we knew or heard about - Morristown, Dover, Parsippany, Chatham, Madison and Denville. We were not even aware of a town named Boonton in New Jersey. We were almost on the verge of buying a house in Parsippany before it slipped through our fingers. Like the way a bridegroom is being taken, in older conservative cultures, from one house to the other to see, weigh in, admire or reject brides, our realtor was taking us from one house to another, some small, some too big, some with a swimming pool or very little land, and nothing was appealing to us.

Then, we came to see her and behold, it was love in first sight - the charming cosy house, neither too little nor too big with a big lawn at the back, a long driveway and a charming garden and lawn at the front.

Now, we are not only in love with our house, but also with this old and historical town Boonton. So, I am starting this blog with the hope of recording and documenting the present Boonton for future generations to come and learn about us.