World Naked Gardening Day! Missed it again!

A Naked Gardener
Originally uploaded by Garden Keeper

Well, apparently someone has decided that there are two things that must go together. Gardening and being naked. Now, I'm not sure how all this stuff starts.

Is this an Old Testament thing? Adam and Eve?

Did that end well? Isn't the jury still out on all of that?

And then there's that English women's garden club that raised money by doffing their clothes for a calendar. And then made into a movie... with Helen Mirren. (As Jeff of "Coupling" would say, "I love Helen Mirren. She's always so... naked.")

Anyway, it's now marked by an international holiday: World Naked Gardening Day. It was May 3.

May 3! It was 45 degrees and drizzing here! In this area, you can't even put out impatiens on May 3, never mind showing your kibbles and bits!

Shouldn't they do this by heat zone?

Not that I would do this. I have a neighbor who is a cop on one side and little kids on the other side. An arrest would be quick and merciless. And as I have a body that most resembles Jack Nicholson -- and he's nearly twenty years older (71) -- my only defense would be insanity.

But more power to those who want to want to garden naked. The reason that the lovely Eva Mendes is pictured is that she once said: “I love being naked. I do everything in the nude, even the gardening... We’re Cuban, and it’s a hot island. Why not go nude?”

Right. And if you look like Eva Mendes, why not indeed.

I wonder if Heather Locklear likes to garden?

Drought update

Drought.comparison
Originally uploaded by Garden Keeper

Well, the garden season is underway and I'm very tardy with posts.

However, the first issue of note is that the previously mentioned drought... has been rectified for the moment. From December through February, snow and rain fell in notable quantities.

So... by early April, the local reservoirs that had been bone dry, are now completely full. The photos comparison are taken from (roughly) the same spot - but with a very different view.

So, we're back to DEFCON 4 on the water crisis. But still wary...

A Case of Her

DAR Constitution Hall 1972
Originally uploaded by Garden Keeper

This is a little bit off the path of this blog but...

Thirty-six years ago (or nine leap years), I was in the Constitution Hall in Washington DC. I was there to hear Joni Mitchell.

As most know, Joni Mitchell had first come onto the music scene as a song writer with Tom Rush, Buffy Saint-Marie and Judy Collins covering her work ("Urge for Going", "Circle Game" and "Both Sides Now" among others). By mid-1972 she had released four albums - the last being "Blue", a crushingly beautiful, intensely personal work. "A Case of You" can still make me misty.

Over the years, Joni evolved from folk to rock to jazz and back again. I wasn't as much of a fan in her jazz years and the 80's work was too removed from my interests. But her work in the last two decades has been wonderful: "Turbulent Indigo", "Taming the Tiger", "Both Sides Now" and "Travelogue". I'm still working on "Shine".

As much as any music or musician, Joni Mitchell has been a part of my life for about 40 years. I had gone to a few concerts before this one and many more since -- but there was nothing more affecting, more memorable than the concert on a Leap Year day when a slim, beauty with an astonishing voice sang and swayed gently before me many years ago.

Changing things

Vegetarian?
Originally uploaded by JRyle79

So it's a new year and I'm gearing up for the new garden.

And I began by changing the blog's title here and the layout.

No reason. Just felt like starting something new. Y'know -- the whole 2008, new year, new resolutions, etc. etc.

And the Venus flytrap has nothing to do with anything. I just always thought they were interesting plants. Maybe I'll try to grow some this spring.

What!?! Me Worry!

Cambridge reservoir, Lincoln
Originally uploaded by Garden Keeper

Ok, for any who didn't get the reference of the title, it is a play on Mad Magazine's Alfred E. Neuman's motto, "What, me worry?" That statement is, as Wikipedia notes, "a shorthand for unquestioning stupidity".

However, as "Eat, Shoot & Leaves" has pointed out, punctuation is important and alters meaning. And so it is with the title of this post.

Cambridge, Massachusetts, has a reservoir that stretches for miles through Waltham, Lincoln and Lexington. I grew up near here and used to pass by it frequently. I still do as I travel into Boston.

However, the water levels in the reservoir have been unlike anything I have seen. Ever. And that's like 50 years. One can walk across whole sections of it. It's... a little frightening.

My garden was badly hit by my poor planning, equally bad care and the drought. Usually fall brings many wet afternoons followed by the winter snows. The fall was relatively dry. I have read that the winter is expected to be unusually warm. If it's warm and dry... we're in trouble. There are many dry leaves in our forests, -- great kindling for a fire -- and they abut our residential areas, our schools and our businesses. We could make the California fires look small.

Me worried. And not just about the garden.

I'm not gone...

polar bear
Originally uploaded by arcaist_com

Just wicked tired.

I haven't posted in awhile. Two reasons: the drought (see next post) has not only hurt my plants, but it has really hurt my energy for working in the garden.

The other reason is that I've just tired. I get through a morning burst of energy and then...

Anyway, I'm trying to work through both issues and plan for something different in the garden next year. New plants and new structures.

The lost garden

Not sure
Originally uploaded by Garden Keeper

I haven't written any entries in several weeks. The garden has not developed the way I had planned. In fact, it has been a dreary and depressing exercise in slow death.

When I entered into gardening a few years ago, I thought I had this understanding: I would spend absurd amounts of money on cow manure and plants and Mother Nature would assist with the watering of my garden. At times, she was out of control -- 11 inches in one month last year. But this year, she utterly betrayed my trust.

A drought.

A prolonged drought.

Several inches below normal.

Now, I would try to water but the ecosystem is surprisingly fragile. And the trees are greedy. I spent much of August and September, watching plants die and others wilt. This was a very depressing exercise and nothing seemed to work.

I'm at a point where I'm thinking of ripping up whole sections of the garden and trying new plants and strategies. It's been the summer of the lost garden.

Crikey! What's going on in the Garden?!?

Jamie Durie
Originally uploaded by Garden Keeper

In my on-going discussion of gardening shows, I came across some surprising news: The Victory Garden has a new host. And an... "interesting" one at that.

Now I was a huge Victory Garden fan in the early days. James Underwood Crockett was a big influence and I loved his simple, straight-forward way of presenting an extraordinary amount of useful information. I mourned his passing. James Thompson came on and he was also very good.

Over the years, the show mutated. It became more of a ... home and lifestyle show, I guess. Half the show was about recipes and cooking. The only recipes that I want to know involve manure tea or hypertufa.

The last presenter, Michael Weishan, was smug, smarmy and spoke too fast to be helpful. I was not a fan. In August, he announced his "retirement". (Note to Mike -- only one "r" in "eagerly".)

So I was wandering on the PBS web site and found that there is a new host: Jamie Durie. An Australian. Huh. A quick Google search and...

Great Caesar's Ghost!

He used to be a male stripper!

Jamie Durie was part of "Manpower Australia" which was the Australian version of Chippendale's. His former work appearance can be seen here. He later went on to gardening and landscaping work on Australian television -- and an appearance on the Australian "Dancing with the Stars". Oprah found him, brought him to the States and has had him on her show where she described him as "cute".

Right.

So now Mr. Durie is the new presenter on PBS's Victory Garden. G-strings in the tomatoes. Yikes.

Jim Crockett must be spinning in his grave.