the pleasure of gardening

how i feel still

2011-12-02T00:16:00.001-05:00

night blooming cereus and I at the river farm circa 2007

JOINING IN

2011-10-18T19:42:00.000-04:00

JOSHUA TREE NEW YEARS 2007 NATURE SOLIDARITY ACTIONS

Plant lover's action says, "Plant it wherever you can."

2011-10-03T00:51:00.000-04:00

2011-09-15T23:38:00.001-04:00

a brooklyn landscape circa 2004

biomass galore, key west, florida

2011-08-15T23:54:00.006-04:00

give me some space, some worms, and with this key west biomass trash, i can make gold.

that's all

2011-08-05T00:49:00.000-04:00

its a home grown pineapple people

2011-07-10T00:05:00.008-04:00

good lordliest sweet thing you'll ever eat

note that the 'pines' of the pineapple are formed from
spirals of successive purple flowers....! wow!

single lady sprouts

2011-05-24T00:19:00.008-04:00

i want my sprouts super fresh. who doesn't? they take about 5 days to grow.
i live alone, so rather than just grow one big jar of sprouts, I have taken to growing small amounts of sprouts in succession, in sweet wee recycled jam jars. just enough for one delicious frugal artist garden girl crunchy cheese and sprouts on wheat sandwich. and another is ready a few days later.
delicious!
oh my god! I'm rich! loaded!

rolling in the deep

2011-05-13T23:51:00.011-04:00

and for more rolling in the deep, with adele, like we hear in the grocery store

fecund key west

2011-05-13T23:31:00.005-04:00

oh, the heavenly scents

an ode to houseplants

2011-04-08T00:02:00.007-04:00

oh spider plant, you tickle-ly thing
you spastic elegant
mother.
thanks for your ever-representing yet nonchalant over-productivity
for your make-do attitude
any salon or saloon, office or living room
will do
xoxo

spring blossoms in the sub tropics

2011-03-24T14:25:00.006-04:00

I am really enjoying the process of learning the plants and trees of the sub-tropics of the Florida Keys. The subtropical trees can proceed in similar ways to types in temperate regions, though often with stunning gregariousness. Right now we have the pleasure of the BOMBAX CEIBA (silk cotton tree, Kapok) and the mystery yellow flowering tree in blossom. The flowers precede the leaves, creating a lovely graphic juxtaposition of the flowers to the branches/bark. Ah, flowers first, just like our friends back home, the red bud, apple, cherry, dog wood and magnolias....

corner color cacophony

2011-03-14T10:58:00.001-04:00

oh dearest creative soul, thanks for your works.
located in in key west florida, naturally.

back to the source

2011-01-26T23:49:00.007-05:00

a tree come upon during a winter time walk in the jefferson national forest, near our river farm, virginia. hello quintessential mother earth tree.

lovers at the United States Botanic Garden in Washington D.C.
hello, winter time tropical sunshine kiss.

take a bath

2010-11-29T00:01:00.001-05:00

just let the garden grow around you

elegant solution

2010-10-17T22:10:00.008-04:00

an elegant solution for quickie rooftop gardening in the city....greens growing out of reusable shopping bag a la Tamara and Chris on their rooftop in williamsburg, brooklyn.

garden grown for shadows to cast

2010-10-17T11:16:00.005-04:00

when the sunlight comes through the window just so.

banyan tree, key west

2010-10-14T13:25:00.004-04:00

Wow! Check out this Banyan Tree growing over and around the old fortifications at the 19th century West Martello Tower, home of the Key West Garden Club....

golden shower tree

2010-10-01T00:14:00.012-04:00

This is the Golden Shower Tree. I didn't even make it up. And look, what a perfect name. The yellow flowers cascading down in large buoyant bunches, turning into lovely 12-20 inch long brown pods that when snapped open, have a delicious goo in between each seed. Its flavor is a mix of chocolate and date and is so so sweet - so you're not inclined to eat too much. Good thing, as if you do it can be a mild laxative.

I am admire the trees daily and collect flowers. For the last week AT&T guys have been working on a circuit board on the street where I park my truck. We greet each other and chat while I collect flowers from a Golden Shower Tree. The flowers are usually up quite high and not so easy to reach. One day I returned to find a lovely arrangement of flowers on my truck. Thanks guys. That made me so happy.

forever and ever

2010-09-28T03:34:00.011-04:00

click on picture
dog fish monkey lover
sand dollar beetle compost oblong spectrum hover
and others

AIRPLANTS

2010-09-28T02:23:00.004-04:00

lookin up.

miniature garden on coal

2010-09-15T22:24:00.011-04:00

I have green thumb.
Plants grow for me, gifting me with their changes, vigor, naps, taste and tickles. nutrition.
I attempt to push the boundaries of where and on what the plants will grow...
A latest great success with such experiments is to grow plants on a pile of coal. Yes, coal from the mountain. A miniature isle of a garden, many folks may miss it - but those who hone on it get a treat. I don't think we will eat this one just give it a good old gander.
This pile and garden are part of my current exhibit in Miami at Dimensions Variable.

hello dear friend florida

2010-09-11T00:15:00.002-04:00

the sunshine state, oh the plants you grow with that

the church of the tomato sandwich

2010-08-26T13:31:00.008-04:00

the more of them you eat, the more god loves you! yay! and if you only eat one, god loves you just as much! perfection!
This particular prayer was made on Jim Thompson's homemade bread, with a tomato from Scott Minor's garden, name unknown so we'll refer to as the 'big yellow fella', with Duke's mayo, salt and pepper. Heavenly.

the oldest tree in Paris

2010-08-21T22:28:00.010-04:00

On a grand trip to France with my mother, Monica, we sought out all types of gardens and gems of the plant world.
This tree is "said to be the oldest tree in Paris — a false acacia brought to France from Virginia in 1601, and now shored up with concrete posts" (New York Times Article, The Hidden Gardens of Paris, June, 2008). Who brought it? Don't know. Whats a false acacia? Its a Black Locust!
Wait a minute... we are from Virginia, and here we are in Paris visiting an old tree from our homeland. Awh. Hello cousin!
So naturally we think to take some seeds back to Virginia and grow them on the farm. Take things full circle! And in 400 more years a french mother and daughter could come visit this tree! Yeah!

It is wonderful that people have made these huge efforts to assist the tree to keep standing, note the flying buttress-like support and another, disguised to look like a tree, with a bark like finish. The real tree trunk is to the left and the support is the trunk on the right. YES to details.
I love you tree. You're lucky to live in Paris- and what you have seen in 400 years...

gnomes in berlin, its true

2010-08-15T23:14:00.001-04:00

garden gang at the river farm

2010-07-12T00:43:00.007-04:00

strategy

implication

new potatoes

steve johnson's garden and near momentus

2010-07-12T00:10:00.005-04:00

the wider-angle
the detail, melon
the neighbor tree

sub tropical characters

2010-07-12T00:02:00.001-04:00

outdoor bougainvillea shower and view

2010-07-11T23:41:00.005-04:00

Lets all wish it upon ourselves.

plants in boxes, plants on mailboxes, mailboxes on plants...

2010-06-18T22:09:00.007-04:00

Ms. Gardner

2010-06-13T22:35:00.011-04:00

At dusk, by the beloved enchanted cemetery in dear key west, we find this beautiful elderly woman sweeping the leaves and flowers from the sidewalk in front of her house. We spy her riding by, walking our dogs, wandering...we admire her. She is extremely diligent in her task. On several occasions I have stopped to say hello, and she recognized me but was busy, and let me know gardening was 'hard work'. I scampered off but henceforth always kept her in mind on evening bike rides/lookabouts.

The Royal Poinciana have been blooming, madly. Oh delight! Oh absolute glory and godliness! Hallelujah!

These elegant, fecund trees shed petals and flowers constantly. I introduce myself to the hero of this story, sweeping up Royal Poinciana droppings in front of her house a few nights ago. She is feeling chatty.

Ms. Gardner (!) was born here and has lived here 81 years. I'd like to come by with a broom and help her sweep and she says, 'no thanks, this is my exercise.' But I can hang out, if I'd like, and talk. She is fit and pleasantly blunt. She tells me about the Poinciana which she loves, but is a lot of work. About the Indian Almond, a 3 story tree with foot-long oval leaves, which entices many a passer-by. It was planted by her uncle, when he was in high school for a friend a few years elder than him who died in world war one. We recorded the story, of him and his friends, how they loved this schoolmate and buddy who passed away, how they carried buckets of water each day as the tree grew from a mere twig. And look at it now, massive, glorious. And look at her. And here we are.

Indian Almond

royal, royal poinciana

2010-06-11T00:47:00.008-04:00

oh you are truly magnificent.

looking up at night

2010-06-07T22:37:00.005-04:00

night blooming cereus delight

2010-05-26T23:54:00.005-04:00

I left very early one recent morning to drive to miami to catch a plane to new york city...these night blooming cereus were still blooming in that gentle early morning light, waving, "bon voyage, and come back" to me as I departed my dear key west

naughty blog neglect - behold the bombax tree and flower!

2010-05-12T00:33:00.011-04:00

sorry, i have been consumed in an intense realtionship with this tree, the BOMBAX Tree, variety: shaving brush.... and away from the computer...

THESE ARE THE PUMKINS

2010-04-12T22:00:00.008-04:00

Meet Helen Whitehead. We met over the garden gate. I had admired her circular raised beds from my dear friend, Tom Condon's, back porch....I love Richmond VA for its porches, for the views from its porches. After chatting at her alley compost pile we became fast friends.... as fellow artists, gardeners, hooligans, and lady's who share the name Helen.

On of the things I love about Helen is that she is completely irreverent.
I happened upon her, during a 24 hr visit to RVA in March. As usual, at twilight she was to be found a wee bit tipsy in her garden. She had sprouted some pumpkin seeds for me (from now forth referred to, as she does, as 'pumkin'), even though she didn't know 'where in the hell I was'. Fortunately I showed up for her to give them to me to take back to Key West.
It was my first time on the second floor of her home. I was lucky to see some new-to-me paintings. She explained their idea foundations in sound, how she transforms a sound into an image, to an abstract painting. How the sound a bugle makes can be stretched out linearly into a mathematic form....

last gasp of a cornrow, with moss

2010-04-04T01:37:00.001-04:00

more moss

2010-04-04T01:28:00.001-04:00

growing plants on coral, with aperature magazine

2010-03-31T20:33:00.001-04:00

please click to enlarge

coral rock, chia plant, aperture magazine, richard misrach photograph, nail polish

growing plants on stuff, in this case a washcloth

2010-03-27T00:25:00.004-04:00

moss pillow

2010-03-23T23:09:00.000-04:00

cacti forms, shapes

2010-03-03T13:42:00.000-05:00

aren't the forms just ridiculous and godly?
someone has cultivated an amazing wild-style gang of cacti outside their home here in Key West...I'd like to give them a trophy.

banana trunk, petal, seed, arm

2010-02-24T00:43:00.000-05:00

PLANT HUNTERS

2010-02-17T12:01:00.008-05:00

Look at this! I feel a deep kinship with Ynes Mexia, Kate Brandegee and Alice Eastwood, women whose lives were dedicated to the love, study and exploration of the plant world in the 19th and early 20th centuries. What adventurers!

which gets me thinking:
1. I'd like to build some huts like this at the river farm....
2. I must to go the Amazon
3. I need to rig up my bike here in Key West for collecting plant specimens and such

YES!

this image is from the book 'the pressed plant' by DiNoto and Winter

more on snails....

2010-02-16T12:54:00.006-05:00

I found these snail shells in my friend Randesh's massive spread of a compost pile! It is exciting think about the interrelationship of snails, decomposition, organisms, slime, pheromones, mating, and the alchemy of compost....

oh, and it also a perk when your nail polish matches the bucket a banana tree is growing in.

botanical works for sale!

2010-02-12T15:20:00.003-05:00

please check out my plant art works for sale from $75-$1500

click the link below:

nellie's art for sale

thanks for looking...

support an artist!

marie and her tomato plant in key west

2010-02-11T21:43:00.002-05:00

oh, the leaves smell so good...! note the bananas at the left....

miami vine

2010-02-07T18:56:00.000-05:00

golden chalice vine and snails!

2010-01-19T20:45:00.003-05:00

The golden chalice vine, which I had mistakenly called a night bloomer on this blog, always blows me away. Each flower is about 10-12 inches long and one will often find the sidewalk littered with their fallen blossoms. Naturally, one throws them in their bike basket to take home and further investigate, slice open and whatnot. After sitting on my desk for a bit, this handsome snail emerged. Hello! Seems like a lovely home, a golden chalice vine blossom. After marvelling at his grace and movements, he spent the night at the pineapple cottage with me, and it the morning, went to live in some foliage out front. Good luck!
ps this all reminds me of Joel Beverly a member of the river farm who is a biologist. He and his wife Amelia came down to key west for an impromptu visit. He specializes in bats, but oh boy, does he have a thing for snails and was more often than not seen emerging from the undergrowth with a handful of snail shells he had just uncovered. He really put them on my radar, Thanks Joel!

eatting the coconut EMBRYO with Randesh

2010-01-07T12:54:00.002-05:00

Meet Randesh, one of the great people of the Isle. This man loves coconuts and sharing the joy of them with others. I ran into him on the street and he wanted me try the EMBRYO of a coco, not merely the mature coconut flesh we all know, but the matter inside the coco when it is sprouting a new tree, the matter which sustains its growth. It is a true delicacy, a fluffy airy substance like a cross between jello and pudding, a confection of sorts. You can see it there in the bottom photo filling the center of the sphere. Around it is a thick grey oil Randesh suggests rubbing on your skin and finally an outer layer of delicate flesh. What a treat!

seracee...'a powerful healer'

2010-01-06T23:25:00.001-05:00

and a stunning example of

flower to fruit to seed

thank you world

2010-01-06T23:01:00.000-05:00

dutchman's pipe, so sexy!

2009-12-30T14:52:00.000-05:00

I asked dear Dennison at the Audbon House and Tropical Gardens in Key West, Florida what plant in the gardens should not be missed. He took me to a back fence covered in the Dutchman's Pipe. Oh my! What a sexy plant. Please note the heart shaped leaves, the closed flower which appears so male, and the open flower which just screams, "woman!". All this to attract the pollinator which I have been told is a butterfly. The wee seed of this plant is also in the shape of a heart. I heart it so much. xoxo

royal poinciana

2009-12-12T02:22:00.002-05:00

what's your favorite tree?

many in key west reply, "the royal poinciana"

and you can see why

here's to love

2009-12-12T01:52:00.000-05:00

night blooming stunner

2009-12-08T15:22:00.001-05:00

I was out on a moonlit bike ride when i was stopped by the most delicious scent, and found these holy moly glorious characters...

enormous leaves

2009-11-27T20:50:00.001-05:00

that cannot be passed by

another key west character

2009-11-27T20:20:00.000-05:00

'i think its called an orchid tree', he said

2009-11-27T20:12:00.000-05:00

what covers your fence in key west- lucious!

2009-11-22T22:53:00.000-05:00

how collards grow in the land of no frost

2009-11-22T22:31:00.000-05:00

key west wonderfuls, our houseplants back home, here, they cover trees

2009-11-22T22:18:00.000-05:00

i love my gardening kids!

2009-11-20T01:46:00.000-05:00

last tomato sandwich of the season, with bacon on the side

2009-11-16T22:03:00.004-05:00

my favorite tomato of the the season, Kellogs Breakfast....an heirloom that grows big bulbous fruit that are super meaty and delicious, great for those who like a full coverage on their tomato sandwich. a divine flavor that is equally sweet and tangy!

true love always

okay, so I am really behind on things I want to put on this blog….but the last of the tomato sandwiches must be documented here!

this pic is from late October

2nd to last tomato sandwich of 2009

2009-11-16T21:51:00.001-05:00

with bacon under the double rich tomatoes

okay, so I am really behind on things I want to put on this blog….but the last of the tomato sandwiches must be documented here!

this pic is from mid October

My most darling gardening friends, so fortunately in a 3 block radius of my museum district home in Richmond VA

2009-11-02T01:25:00.003-05:00

Gardening at the Coral Castle near Miami

2009-10-26T21:08:00.006-04:00

Miami weeds

2009-10-26T00:36:00.003-04:00

Kudzu, you crazy old fool

2009-10-01T10:35:00.007-04:00

Oh kudzu, you’re so naughty, and how I adore thee….
Covering sides of highways, byways and the old railroad

A vision to behold comrads!
A perfume so bold yet innocent, of grape kool-aid, draws you in to discover hidden under those steroidal leaves, the elegant- leguminous- the kudzu flower…
Purple and yellow royalty!

(click to enlarge to get a good look at those flowers)

Blackberries and friends

2009-09-24T11:58:00.001-04:00

Bud can fix anything with a toothpick

2009-09-23T22:08:00.004-04:00

Bud is the real farmer at the River Farm, raising cows and hay. He has his own farm next door but likes his cows to taste the sweet grasses of ours. Those mountain cows, mammoth dears, so agile on those steep Appalachian slopes. I admire their grace in the face of gravity.
The rest of us are gardeners, beekeepers, river farmers, bonfire farmers and keen observationists.

Always plant hollyhocks, wherever you may be.

2009-09-23T21:40:00.001-04:00

mr holzgrefe and my tower of delight and birds

2009-09-16T23:35:00.004-04:00

Fall garden won’t stop believing

2009-09-10T10:12:00.006-04:00

pics of tomatoes from mountain view farm

Plant fondling

2009-09-01T23:38:00.003-04:00

I highly recommend it.

This first year rigorous beast of a catalpa or paulownia
Has made leaves 2 feet across.
Oh, trash tree of highways, dumps and cities-
Of Monticello and such,
I’ll pet you anytime.

and then a sauce

2009-09-01T23:24:00.002-04:00

I don’t even bother getting rid of the seeds or skins... just cook tomatoes up fresh with a wee bit of garlic and olive oil, basil if you like, and life is golden.

today

2009-09-01T23:19:00.000-04:00

wild river garden

2009-08-31T23:10:00.003-04:00

hidden treasures america's garden book

2009-08-20T22:45:00.008-04:00

i have never found a 4-leaf clover

it pisses me off.

i look and i look.

but in books, they come to me.

i found this edition at a free library

at a coffee shop in richmond, va.

thanks!

which makes me think of dan estabrook

who can see a 4-leaf clover from a mile away.

when your nails match your tomatoes

2009-08-08T21:23:00.007-04:00

oh dang! (please click to enlarge for full effect)

my 9 year old student's nail polish

match the tomatoes we grew and prepared for a class salad!!

A+

quickles!

2009-08-08T09:10:00.001-04:00

pick and pickle over coffee

good morning!

the directness of okra

2009-07-27T23:23:00.002-04:00

flower turns into

daily

2009-07-23T23:30:00.001-04:00

but today it is Black Krim and Double Rich

tomato sandwich season

2009-07-23T23:14:00.006-04:00

at the river farm

Green Zebra, Black Krim and a Red One

squash portrait (with blossom)

2009-07-12T21:50:00.000-04:00

admire the squash

its elegance and enthusiasm

its prolificity

makes me squirm

with glee

todays harvest, partial view

2009-07-08T22:30:00.003-04:00

click to enlarge

2009-07-07T00:41:00.000-04:00

my garden partner, mr holzgrefe

your potatoes are trying to tell you something

2009-07-07T00:14:00.000-04:00

'plant me'

2009-07-07T00:12:00.001-04:00

me⋅nag⋅er⋅ie

[muh-naj-uh-ree, -nazh-] Show IPA

–noun

1.	a collection of wild or unusual animals, esp. for exhibition.

2.	a place where they are kept or exhibited.

3.	an unusual and varied group of people.