Standing Still 2016

Persephone with her pomegranate. Dante Gabriel Rossetti - Proserpine (Oil on canvas, 1874) - Tate Gallery, London


This season's solstice (Winter in the Northern hemisphere, Summer in the Southern), occurs at 10:44 UTC, December 22, 05:44 Eastern Standard Time (UTC-05:00), December 21. Etymology: Latin solstitium (sol "sun" + stitium, from sistere "to stand still")

The name is derived from the Latin sol (sun) and sistere (to stand still), because at the solstices, the Sun stands still in declination; that is, its apparent movement north or south comes to a standstill.
- Solstice, Wikipedia

This year feels darker than most. Yesterday, as expected, the U.S. presidential electorate election was affirmed. "Standing Still" takes on a different meaning if there's a chance the light won't return.



So we light a candle against the darkness, and try to keep it lit. If I'm feeling hopeful, I might reflect on these lyrics from Peter Gabriel's song written in memory of Stephen Biko, who would have been 90 this past week:

You can blow out a candle
But you can't blow out a fire.
Once the flames begin to catch
The wind will blow it higher.

Wishing for peace, wishing you peace, these dark days.

This page has a little MIDI file which bangs out the tune so you can follow the score.

Illumination of Earth by Sun at the southern solstice.

Related Content

Solstice: 2015, 2014, 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007

Links

Wikipedia: Solstice

Lemon-Cardamon Sugar Cookies

This is an updated version of a recipe I published 3 years ago. This version reflects the adjustments I've made since then. I feel like I've perfected this one. If you try this recipe, let me know what you did and how it turned out in the comments!

A milkweed by an other name ...

What's in a name? that which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet;
- Juliet, Romeo and Juliet, Wiliam Shakespeare

A rose is a rose is a rose is a rose.
- Gertrude Stein, various

I started to get into a little tiffle on a post (since removed) on one of the insect ID groups in Facebook. The original poster was trying to ID a tight cluster of orange eggs on a leaf of a plant she identified as "milkweed vine." One of the responders commented: "Milkweed vine? Not likely." And then we were off.

Coccinella novemnotata, nine-spotted lady beetle, aka "C9"

New York State Gardeners: You can help re-introduce our state insect! See Links below.

A decade ago, shortly after I launched this blog, I wrote the following:

[Coccinella] novemnotata was once common. How did New York State get to have a once-native-but-no-longer-resident state insect?

Not just common; C. novemnotata, or C9 for short, was once the most common lady beetle in the eastern U.S.

Eastern Native Groundcovers

2022-10-20: Please refer to the new, updated list.

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I started to reply to a Facebook post and quickly realized I had enough content for a blog post.

Hello from Long Island NY..looking for suggestion for ground cover that won't eat my plants. I would like somthing a bit tamer the vinca . The area is slightly damp..part sun/part shade. Any suggestions. See posted pics! Thanks!!

The accompanying photos show a mix of young trees, shrubs, and perennials in a nice non-lawn streetside garden. The photos show a lot of sun, with some shade. The shade will increase over time as the trees and shrubs fill in.

Another commenter suggested Lamium and Galium, neither of which I would describe as "tame." Either can take over an area in the right conditions.

These are some of the Eastern North American species I've grown and can recommend as groundcover. Some of these prefer shade, some prefer sun. Most of these will spread by runners, stolons, and the like, as "true" groundcovers. Others are effective as groundcovers because of their habit and crown expansion over time.

10th Blogiversary

10 years ago today, I wrote the first post of Flatbush Gardener, a reflection on my first garden in NYC, started in 1981 in the East Village. I don't think I can summarize all the changes I, and the gardens, have gone through over the past decade. Blogging itself is nearly a lost art, monetized and franchised, aggregated and amplified

Still, the gardens endure, transformed and transforming, embodying and expressing my evolution as a gardener.

The Back Yard


The Front Yard

Related Content

Links

Event: Sunday 5/15 NYCWW Tour of my Gardens

The Gardener's Nook this weekend

10 years ago, on May 16, 2006, I wrote the first post for this blog. To celebrate my 10th Blogiversary, on Sunday, May 15, I'm opening my garden for a tour with NYC Wildflower Week. The event is free, but registration is requested, as space is limited.

NYC-Regional Native Plant Sales, Spring 2016

2016-04-12: Added the LINPI Plant Sale dates.

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Seasonal sales are one of the best ways to acquire a wide variety of native plants. It's best to do your homework before you go, so you have an idea of your conditions, the kinds of plants that would do well on your site, and your goals for your native plant garden, e.g.: habitat, fall foliage, flowers for cutting. If you're planting to attract insects and wildlife, prefer straight species over cultivars, and local growers over mass-market names.

All the events listed here are within a 90 minute drive from my home in the geographic center of Brooklyn. If you know of any that aren't listed here that you think should be, please let me know, either with a comment below, or by sending me a link to the event on Twitter.

Saturday, April 23, 2016

9am-2pm
Musconetcong Watershed Association (MWA) Native Plant Sale
MWA River Resource Center, 10 Maple Avenue, Asbury, NJ. 08802
Includes plants that are only distantly native, e.g. Midwest natives, and more cultivars than straight species. But they also offer plants from local growers.

11am-2pm
Pinelands Preservation Alliance (PPA) Earth Day Native Plant Sale
PPA Headquarters, 17 Pemberton Road, Southampton, NJ 08088
Growers include Pinelands Nursery and New Moon Nursery.
Hit or miss. Two years ago they had a great selection. Last year was a complete bust. They were already sold out of nearly everything when I arrived there shortly after they opened. For this reason, I'm reluctant to waste the time, fuel, and tolls to return on what's essentially a gamble. They have a members-only preview sale the day before, but that's a work day for me.

Sunday, April 24, 2016

Time TBA
Great Flatbush Plant Swap
Flatbush Food Co-op, 415 Cortelyou Road (between Rugby & Marlborough Roads), Brooklyn, New York 11226
You don't to bring anything to take home a plant, and all plants are free! Quantities are limited; bring plants or seedlings from own garden to add to the swap, and "earn points" to take home more plants!
I will bring native plants from my own garden, and curate the native plants contributed by others.

Saturday, April 30, 2016

10am-1pm
Manhattan Chapter of the North American Rock Garden Society (MCNARGS) Annual Plant Sale
El Sol Brillante Community Garden, 522-528 East 12th St (between Avenue A & B), New York, NY 10009
While not specifically a native plant sale, they have a wide selection of native plants. The garden is also beautiful in its own right, and worth a visit.

10am-1pm
Westchester Community College Native Plant Center Native Plant Sale
Westchester Community College, 75 Grasslands Road, Valhalla, NY 10595
Parking in Visitor Lot #1
Wide variety of plants, from many different sources. Many/most are cultivars, rather than straight species.

May 20 & 21

Friday, May 20, 3-6pm, Saturday, May 21, 9am-12noon
D&R Greenway Land Trust Spring Native Plant Sale
D&R Greenway Johnson Education Center, One Preservation Place, Princeton, New Jersey 08540

Saturday, May 21, 9am-1pm
Hudson Highlands Nature Museum Native Plant Sale
Outdoor Discovery Center, Muser Drive, across from 174 Angola Road, Cornwall, NY 12518

June 3-4

Friday&Saturday, June 3&4
Long Island Native Plant Initiative (LINPI) Native Plant Sale Fundraiser
Suffolk County Community College (SCCC) Eastern Campus, 121 Speonk-Riverhead Road, Riverhead, NY 11901
Offers Long Island regional ecotypes propagated by NYC Parks' Greenbelt Native Plant Center, the only retail source for these plants.

Saturday, June 4
New Jersey Audubon Native Plant Sales
Two sales the same day, at two different locations:
9am-4pm, NJ Audubon's Scherman Hoffman Wildlife Sanctuary, 11 Hardscrabble Rd, Bernardsville, NJ 07924
11am-3pm, NJ New Jersey Audubon's Plainsboro Preserve, 80 Scotts Corner Road, Cranbury, NJ 08512

June 10&11

Friday&Saturday, June 3&4
Long Island Native Plant Initiative (LINPI) Native Plant Sale Fundraiser

Suffolk County Community College (SCCC) Eastern Campus, 121 Speonk-Riverhead Road, Riverhead, NY 11901
Offers Long Island regional ecotypes propagated by NYC Parks' Greenbelt Native Plant Center, the only retail source for these plants.

Dates to be announced

Audubon Greenwich Native Plant Sale
613 Riversville Road, Greenwich, CT 06831
Pre-Orders due April 30

Long Island Native Plant Initiative (LINPI) Native Plant Sale

Related Content

Native Plants Planting Plan, 2015-04-18
FAQ: Where do you get your plants?, 2015-01-03

Links

Long Island Native Plant Initiative (LINPI) Plant Sale
Pinelands Preservation Alliance Plant Sale

Spring Native Plant Sales Near Fairfield County (Warning: Site has pop-ups), Kim Eierman, Norwalk Daily Voice, 2016-04-18

Off-Topic: The Conversation

I moved to NYC the first weekend of 1979. By Spring, I had moved to the East Village, an epicenter of what was first called "gay cancer," then "Gay-Related Immunodeficiency Disease," or GRID. Four years later, by 1983 - the year of the symposium that led to this anthology - it was being called AIDS.

Recipe: Crisp and Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies

These cookies have been taste-tested recently at a going-away party and after-church coffee hour. Adults rave about this cookie. You will have no leftovers, even from a double batch.

I've been working on this recipe for a while, and I think I've finally got it to where I want it.

One Score Years Ago

David Joseph Wilcox at Wigstock in Union Square, early 1990s. Scan from original slide, date unrecorded.


20 years ago, on January 22, 1996, my friend, David Joseph Wilcox, died from AIDS.

The last time I saw him was December 12, 1995. I wrote this on my return trip home on the F train back to Brooklyn from the East Village.