Midsummer in the Garden: Spicy peppers

We have started getting our peppers for the season. Regular green chillies and some Serrano peppers (or so I think). I forgot what two seeds I put in the ground early this season. My guess and Google indicate that its Serrano. All I know is they grow fast and big :)

In addition, I have added some new flower pics in my garden photos album here.

The Darjeeling Limited

This poster is from a new movie by Wes Anderson who brought us among other things, the very interesting "Royal Tenenbaums". His newest movie is set in Darjeeling and I just chanced upon the poster (courtesy Fox Searchlight Pictures). It looks very Indian and whimsical. The colors used complement the picture nicely.

More on Anderson here.
More on "The Darjeeling Limited" here.

Back again with the flowers of summer

Been a while since I posted last. I was taking my parents around the country. Thats why.
Here is a picture of my coreopsis. The plant looks unassuming but takes root and space fast. Soon enough, the flowers are all there, small and beautiful. This coreopsis, is of the Zagreb variety. More about it here.

More pictures of the coreopsis and some day lilies taken on the 4th of July are found here.

Early summer: The flowers are peeping out

Spring is almost done (we do get the occasional 70F day but its usually closer to 85F) and the summer plants are starting to show their colors. I have two albums that I recently uploaded capturing the spirit of the season. The clematis is in full bloom and makes for a good welcome for visitors and residents alike.

The strawberry plant needs a post by itself with a nice picture which I will put up soon.

Here they are:

http://picasaweb.google.com/thenovicegardener/June3
http://picasaweb.google.com/thenovicegardener/June6

Spring to Summer: Its Paeony(peony) Time

More spring flowers this time. The clematis is starting to flower and I am hoping to put out more pictures in the near future. The paeony plant (also spelled as peony) in our garden is wonderful when it flowers as evident in the picture above and we look forward to seeing them every year.

BTW, more shots are here:
http://picasaweb.google.com/thenovicegardener/May28

Spring rocks

We were in Philly this weekend to take a nice walk down the river front and snaps some pictures of Spring flowers before they make way for the plants. We snapped some pictures of cherry blossoms and dogwoods and magnolias. Ill post it as an album soon but here is the best pic of the lot. Its a close up of a flowering cherry.

Spring is finally here

OK. I can proclaim it this time. After a bunch of false starts Spring is finally here. One of the lesser known things about Spring is that there is a lot of color. Note the pictures in this post and you'll see. Other than the sudden spurt of green all over the place (literally), there are purples and pinks and blues and whites that make Spring very pleasant (and not just weather wise).

The pink flowers belong to the Pink Dogwood. The white ones are from a cherry blossom tree (Sakura). They are spectacular and trust me, they are much better in person.

Nor'easter, Virginia Tech and Nandigram

The world is changing and nothing captures is more than the events unravelling at this moment. A rare April Nor'Easter hit the northeast of United States resulting in massive rains, snow and the inevitable flooding. Upto 6 inches of rain has fallen in a single day in some places. The picture above is taken at a nearby creek which "barely" felt the effect of the Nor'Easter. If this is barely, you can well imagine.
Here is more info on the Nor'Easter: http://www.cnn.com/2007/WEATHER/04/16/storm.ap/index.html

Today, a tragedy of unfathomable proportions stuck Virginia Tech, my alma-mater. A shooter (brain dead) armed with 2 guns (where do these people get these guns?) went around shooting students and staff in VT resulting in 33 people dead (as of this moment) and more injured. Why?. My sympathies to the parents, friends of the affected folks and the people of Blacksburg. Sometimes you wonder if there is a sense of justice in this world. For more on the shooting and the developing story, head over here:

http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/04/16/vtech.shooting/index.html

Finally, in yet another tragic incident of great ramifications, the CPI-M party sanctioned the rape, death and destruction of the town and townsfolk of Nandigram, WB, India. This happened a month back and until now, nothing has happened. I ask the President, what are you waiting for?. Dissolve the Goverment, arrest every minister of the party and launch a high level investigation into this Darfur like incident. Thats the least we can do in response to a "Jallianwala Bagh" event in the 21st century.

For more on this, read here:

http://news.google.com/news?q=nandigram+massacre&hl=en&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&hs=zcu&um=1&sa=X&oi=news&ct=title

Garden 2007:02: More First Signs

The Magnolias are flowering and so are the cherry blossoms. I managed to get a snap of a magnolia tree this weekend and here it is. I am waiting to snap the cherry blossoms soon.

More on the Magnolia can be found here and here. And if you are a movie junkie, here is the reference to the Paul Thomas Anderson ensemble drama starring Tom Cruise.
My limited understanding tells me that this is a Magnolia soulangeana.

Garden 2007:01: The First Signs

It has been a weird winter with pockets of brutally cold weather peppering an otherwise mild 3 months. It has been worse so for the spring bulbs that have been shown hints of the new season only to be swamped with snow the very next day. I think its finally starting to improve and the spring buds are out now.

I have posted a sample pic here. More can be seen here.

Born again blogger

I am back. I've been away from blogging for a while. Lot of things have kept me busy. It's spring again and what better time to restart. Today there are blogs everywhere. Opinions and thoughts on diverse matters are but a drop in an ocean. I figured I'd do something much simpler. From this point on, this blog will be predominantly focussed on the mundane yet absolutely fascinating world of gardening. There will be other posts of interest but the predominant theme would be gardening, flowers and herbs. So if you are a novice gardener who is trying to make sense of things like bulbs, perennials and hydrangeas this will be a good spot. I hope to trace the evolution of my garden this year with snippets and photographs. More soon.

It's good to be back.