I'm Baaaaack!

Heheh...well, I was never really gone, but living in a second-floor apartment in Istanbul with a small balcony and a few windowsills has not been conducive to floods of gardening thoughts. But it really started weighing on me recently, and I found myself forced to drop the attitude of "oh, I can't afford a place with a garden in Istanbul, not with my salary," for one more like "some things just need to be expressed and they will be!" And not to wax too metaphysical here but I really did have the feeling it was "already taken care of."

So 2 and a half weeks ago, a friend from the east Black Sea (now *there's* a gardening region to envy...droooool) was visiting Istanbul, and said "Bob...you have to see the place I'm staying! I saw it and thought 'This is just the place for Bob.' Two bedroom flat in a two-unit building, with a huge garden." It was opening up at the end of July, and of course I pretty much knew I'd rent it before I even saw it, especially as the rent is exactly half what I'm paying now! The garden is a completely neglected lot, and there is a lot of cement rubble under mounds of cleavers and some pink-flowered but scentless member of the mint family, but has four fig trees (two of which give good figs, the other two are "male" as they say here, with no fruit), as well as an apple, quince and plum tree, and a *huge* black mulberry (Morus nigra). [Which they call purple mulberry here; "black mulberry" is their name for our red mulberry.]

Planting is going to be a bit more of a challenge here than back home; in the US the issue was mostly "how much dare I spend." Here, nurseries here have very little variety, just endless flats of geraniums, petunias and pansies, though surprises do turn up occasionally. But I feel I could almost plant a garden using nothing but what grows wild here. Turkey, mullein capitol of the universe... (Hmm, that might be a fun thing to devote a section to actually.) And it's in a lot back away from the street, so I can grow Brugmansias with no fear of curious children stuffing the flowers in their mouths. :7)

Actually the challenge may be fending off all the well-meaning friends who see any space in a garden not devoted to pepper, tomato and bean production as a waste of space...:) "What? You are going to plant *weeds*?

I'm starting to feel more human already!

bob

Bob Beer sazci@hotmail.com
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Alice laughed. 'There's not use trying,' she said: `one can't believe impossible things.'
'I daresay you haven't had much practice,' said the Queen. `When I was your age, I always did it for half-an-hour a day. Why, sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast...'
- Lewis Carroll




From: Laura Cooper Nick Taggart <coopertaggart@earthlink.net>
Reply-To: coopertaggart@earthlink.net
To: rowan@quickbeam.plus.com
CC: medit-plants@ucdavis.edu, catherineratner@earthlink.net
Subject: Re: plant memories
Date: Sun, 10 Jul 2005 09:29:00 -0700

My favorites when I was a kid! I now have a three and a half year old who they have been passed down to. Lily (my daughter) also has a flower fairy costume, complete flower tutu, flower headband and wand. Her grandmother bought it for her from "Magic Cabin" catalog, I'm sure they have a website, those of you with daughters and granddaughters may like to know....

Of course if I made one myself how much better. Imagination needs time to flower, and time is something we all could use more of these days!

Laura Cooper
Los Angeles

On Jul 9, 2005, at 3:46 AM, Rowan Adams wrote:

Have you seen the Flower Fairy books by Cicely Mary Barker? She must have done the same kind of thing as a child, and carried on with that kind of imagination as an adult. Perhaps that's part of what we're missing and what makes these memories so powerful.
Great clothes designs - if only somebody would try to make some of them for real! The books I've got don't have fuchsia, but I know I've seen a fuchsia fairy she did somewhere.

On Sunday, Jun 19, 2005, at 04:42 Europe/London, Catherine Ratner wrote:

Just remembered making tiny little dolls out of the flowers of Fuchsia
magellenica. You remove the pistil and leave just two stamens for legs and
feet, then find a thin little twig and stick it through the "body" to make
stiffly protruding arms. There she is--wearing her beautiful red and purple
dress!

Cathy
















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