musings for march

So the bonsai have arrived. I have two-an elm which is supposed to be hardy and good for beginners and a serissa-which I am finding has mixed reviews. According to the website the serissa was good for beginners-but in the book, Indoor Bonsai for Beginners-the serissa is described as being impossible for beginners to care for and even experienced bosnai enthusiasts have trouble keeping this bonsai alive for longer than a couple of years!!! Wish I had read this book before choosing my bonsai.
I have discovered that Birmingham has a bonsai society that meets the second Monday of each month. I plan to attend this monday and learn what I can about taking proper care for these bonsai.

My tiny tim tomato plants are doing extremely well since I have began to fertilize them regularly. They have grown really large and I dont know if I should try to repot them for a third time! Flowers have begun to bloom on my strawberries-but no fruit yet. I have not yet planted the other vegitables and fruits that I bought because the weather has been below 40F at night one week and then London rainy the next.
I will let you guys know how the planting goes once I begin.

I will also post pictures of everything soon!

New post for February!

So another month and another blog! I began to have some trouble with my tiny tim tomato plants-they were wilting and loosing color-despite my watering them and their access to sun. I was told-and in retrospect this seems goofy that I didnt think of it-to start giving my plants fertilizer/plant food. My tomatos look a lot better since I have started using plant food.

Also on another note I have bought some other plants: potatos, asparagus and other seedlings to plant soon. I'm excited to begin-but very nervous!

This month for my birthday my boyfriend is getting me a bonsai tree. I hear that these are extremely labor intensive plants-but I think they are really awesome and would like to give it a try. I will be choosing one that can be taken care of indoors and that is specified as "great for beginners."

So wish me luck on my projects and I will keep you posted on my progress. Please feel free to let me know what you guys are working on!

New Year New Post...Finally! (Christel)

Sorry about the lapse in blog posts-but as everyone knows-the holidays are a busy time. Well my strawberries are going through the gambit of rough weather. I dont really know if they will make it or not but they seem to be ok so far. I repotted my rosemary because I began to worry that it was getting to large for its original pot. I also put in the same planter some chive seedlings (this planter is of course indoors in my kitchen). My lovable, fluffy and sometimes evil cat Mally knocked the planter off the windowsill the other day. I think the rosemary will be fine-but I have no idea if the seeds will grow. Anyway crossed fingers! The tiny tim tomatos are growing very well. The sprouts are more than 5 inches tall and they look very healthy. I have recieved a book from a friend that instructs how to grow things from the scraps in your kitchen-like pieces of potatos and seeds from fruits and vegetables that you get from the grocery. Any way I will begin looking through this and attempting some of the projects.
I will keep ya posted

Update on my tomatoes (christel)

Well a portion of my tomato plant seems to have done well with the transplant. The other half of the seedlings had problems-and I do not know if they will be productive but I have my fingers crossed.

My strawberry plant seems to be doing well-I worry about the frost but it does not seem to be bothered by it.

I plan to repot my rosemary this week as it is growing too large for the one it is in now.

In other news it seems that the Garden Girls blog may get a little attention from the UAB newspaper staff. They have contacted us about an interview and hopefully we will get our blog out there to more interested subscribers!

Finally, we welcome our subscribers to leave any comments as they would be greatly appreciated. I tried to figure out a way to create a page or link to a page where discussion about Historical Ecology topics, plants and other things could be had by more than Courtney, Anne and myself-but have yet to figure something out.
Anyway I will give an update on the interview we have with the UAB journalist!

Climate and Culture (Courtney)

Another interesting article about climate change and how it effects human culture. In the past 10,000 years it seems humans have been on the offense against nature, not cognizant of the fact that they are a part of nature. Nature and culture are intricately connected, they influence and shape one another in critical ways. I like the way this article uses the image of a circular relationship,and I think looking to the past for the answers to the future is an important part of the discourse.

http://news.sciencemag.org/sciencenow/2010/12/did-climate-change-drive-prehist.html?ref=wp

Future of climate change (Courtney)

This is an unsettling article from NPR about the stalemate regarding solutions for climate change. I agree that drastic measures (while probably necessary) are unrealistic and could backfire. Small, but tangible, baby steps seems a more efficacious course to me.

http://www.npr.org/2010/12/06/131854574/beyond-cancun-what-s-the-future-of-climate-policy?sc=17&f=1001

Biodiversity (Courtney)

I've never fully understood why biodiversity was so important. It seems self-evident, but I struggled to really explain why. Here is an informative article that explains why biodiversity is relevant and important and why we should "not cover every square inch with houses and strip malls until you can't remember what happens when you stand in a meadow at dusk."

http://nyti.ms/gcr4mO