NPR today…which becomes the garden thread

This topic has 21 replies, 6 voices, and was last updated 1 year, 5 months ago by zn.

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June 4, 2023 at 5:48 pm #144297

Zooey
Moderator

I was working in the garden this morning, and I tuned into NPR for a bit. The top of the hour news had this little bit in it:

Something about the debt ceiling stuff.

Followed by one sentence that said, “The body of a two-year old girl was recovered from a Russian strike in Ukraine this morning.”

And the very next sentence was something about Game Two of the NBA finals tonight.

Of course, two-year old girls die all over the planet every day. I know everyone on this board knows this, but it’s sometimes just amazing how little effort the public opinion manipulators even put into trying to cover their tracks. They know the vast majority of people aren’t paying critical attention to anything.

June 4, 2023 at 7:59 pm #144302

Billy_T
Participant

Zooey wrote:

I was working in the garden this morning, and I tuned into NPR for a bit. The top of the hour news had this little bit in it: Something about the debt ceiling stuff. Followed by one sentence that said, “The body of a two-year old girl was recovered from a Russian strike in Ukraine this morning.” And the very next sentence was something about Game Two of the NBA finals tonight. Of course, two-year old girls die all over the planet every day. I know everyone on this board knows this, but it’s sometimes just amazing how little effort the public opinion manipulators even put into trying to cover their tracks. They know the vast majority of people aren’t paying critical attention to anything.

I mentioned the Jonathan Crary book in another thread, but some things he talks about go directly to what you’re saying. I think capitalism itself has done a major number on our ability to feel empathy and sympathy toward one another, but Crary, with the help of key intellectuals, past and present, makes the point that the Digital Age has done extra damage within the context of “late capitalism.” That its essence is to anesthetize us, separate us into our own little consumerist/private worlds, where nothing is really ever private at all. That we’re losing our ability to be human, as we talk with machines, through machines . . . as I’m doing now! etcetera . . . instead of face to face.

Hard to do the book justice in just a few words here. But I think he makes excellent points throughout. If we don’t radically downsize, degrow, and wean ourselves from the current system entirely, I don’t think humanity is going to make it very far into the next century.

June 4, 2023 at 10:51 pm #144303

Zooey
Moderator

Well, my point is…where’s the story? What is the purpose of literally ONE sentence saying a 2-year old girl was killed by Russians?

That’s not a news story. It is literally not a “story” at all. It’s simply a one sentence reminder that Russia is terrible. That’s 100% all that is. And now…the sports desk….

June 4, 2023 at 11:49 pm #144304

Billy_T
Participant

Zooey wrote:

Well, my point is…where’s the story? What is the purpose of literally ONE sentence saying a 2-year old girl was killed by Russians? That’s not a news story. It is literally not a “story” at all. It’s simply a one sentence reminder that Russia is terrible. That’s 100% all that is. And now…the sports desk….

I thought your point was the quick switch from a tragedy to the sports desk. A sign of the emptying out of sympathy and empathy for a fellow human and her family. Her being two makes the tragedy far worse, of course.

I think I just misread you.

June 5, 2023 at 7:21 pm #144310

zn
Moderator

BT: yes the chat app still works.

June 5, 2023 at 7:52 pm #144314

Billy_T
Participant

Thanks, ZN.

June 5, 2023 at 9:04 pm #144317

Zooey
Moderator

Billy_T wrote:

I thought your point was the quick switch from a tragedy to the sports desk. A sign of the emptying out of sympathy and empathy for a fellow human and her family. Her being two makes the tragedy far worse, of course. I think I just misread you.

Oh, sure. You want me to believe there was miscommunication on the internet. Nice try, Billy, but you’re not getting away with that.

June 6, 2023 at 11:22 am #144318

Billy_T
Participant

Zooey wrote:

Billy_T wrote:

I thought your point was the quick switch from a tragedy to the sports desk. A sign of the emptying out of sympathy and empathy for a fellow human and her family. Her being two makes the tragedy far worse, of course. I think I just misread you.

Oh, sure. You want me to believe there was miscommunication on the internet. Nice try, Billy, but you’re not getting away with that.

Well, on second thought, you’re just upset cuz we now know you hate puppies, The Beatles, and Willie Mays.

June 15, 2023 at 6:26 pm #144389

joemad
Participant

Zooey, what are you growing in the garden while listening to the radio?

Thanks goodness for the rains this past year…. I haven’t grown any veggies the past two seasons…. this year i have a nice plot growing.

BTW: Giants in LA this weekend.

June 15, 2023 at 11:02 pm #144392

Zooey
Moderator

I grow heirloom veggies for the most part. I have around 30 different types of tomatoes, 8 types of cucumbers, 6 summer squash, 2 different pumpkins, watermelon, 2 types of cantaloupe, a honeydew, about 10 types of peppers from sweet to Habenero, 3 kinds of eggplant, 2 kinds of groundcherries, butternut squash, and just about every herb there is.

I grow multiple plants of each variety, so I produce about 10 times what my family eats. At least.

That’s my wife’s compulsiveness at work. She is prone to pushing everything waaay beyond necessary.

But it’s okay. She started a cottage nursery during Covid. She had been growing things from seed for a few years, and giving surplus plants away to family and friends, and during Covid, she decided to go Bold. So for our 3rd year now, we’ve grown about 2,500 plants (from seed), and sold most of them out of our driveway. We also donate around 100 plants (as many as we can!). There’s a church in town with a big garden that they use to grow food to provide to poor people, and homeless people. We grow plants for them, and help them plant them, and harvest them. There’s a food kitchen that has a garden, and a couple of schools/youth programs around that we also give plants to. Our surplus produce we give to another food closet in town. So it’s all good. It’s a lot of work, and more than I would like to do (although I enjoy gardening), but I console myself with the knowledge we are helping a lot of people. That’s cool.

This year was the best for the plants. The weather was perfect all Spring.

The Dodgers have about 2 pitchers right now. Everyone is DL or underperforming, so the Giants are catching the Ds at a good time, looks like.

June 16, 2023 at 12:41 pm #144393

Billy_T
Participant

That’s pretty cool, Joe and Zooey. Admirable, too. How much land do you guys have? Is it naturally fertile, or did you have to bring in special soil, etc.?

Have always wanted to grow my own (organic) food, but have just never gotten around to it. I have a relatively small yard, and the soil isn’t so great here, but some of my neighbors have nice gardens. It can be done, and I really should give it a shot.

When I was much younger, I fantasized about having thousands of acres one day, a gazillion trees, a small organic farm, and give away surplus. A small dairy, too, for fresh eggs, butter, milk, ice-cream, and yogurt . . . plus a huge, exceptionally clean lake and stock it with fish and fowl. Wanted to be able to avoid grocery stores, if at all possible. And as my fantasies evolved, they also included really going back to Nature and pre-capitalist modes to make my own tools, and avoid plastics of any kind — to the degree possible. I’d have lotsa horses, too. Old-fashioned horse and carriages for guests, as well.

This and that got in the way, especially a fairly important element: lack of money.

Oh, well, maybe in the next life.

June 16, 2023 at 7:03 pm #144394

joemad
Participant

damn Zooey, you’re competing with Cargil, we’re gonna have to start calling you Oliver Douglass….. that’s a huge garden… only thing missing is a cannabis section… very cool that you and your wife have an on-going cycle of heirlooms from seed.

this season I have:

5 tomato varieties, 2 of these are heirlooms from seed. (granny green and something else)

7 bell pepper varieties

3 hot pepper varieties (no habaneros)

2 zucchinis

we’re always seeding some Booker T and the MGs , (Green Onions) to have throughout the summer.

Herbs; Been propagating rosemary, basil, and always seeding Italian parsley to have year-round.

Billy: we have hard clay soil in the Santa Clara valley, which is great for fruit trees, but it needs amendments to support vegetable gardens. Every couple of years I get 1/2 cubic yard of a veridis soil mix from the local landscape supply center.

I also have a mulch pile in the same spot for the past 18 years to help amend the soil.

Speaking of fruit trees, we got plums, nectarines (which i cloned 2 of them) lime, lemon, valencia oranges, which is great for juice.

Happy growing!

June 17, 2023 at 1:50 am #144395

zn
Moderator

I have a huge perennial garden. Can’t grow anything in our woodsy area on either side of the house or behind the house–light’s an issue. I can only garden in the front of the house, and maybe this is just me but I won’t veggie garden in the front. Not sure I am personally into that anyway. But I do love to perennial garden. Still, I have had an arthritic spine for a couple of years now so I hired a gardener to do all the major spring work, but this year she can’t work anymore (also medical issues) so I basically just said okay guess I have to do it myself again. I couldn’t work at all about 3 years ago but now I can do it, just a bit slower and not as much progress per day as I was used to doing before. But I can do it! It used to be that the neck cramps were so severe (and that’s without gardening) that I needed physical therapy, but now I guess I settled into my new body, the compression has lessened, and I can work. It’s a great pleasure to do that.

I’ve posted pics of my gardens before but here’s a sample. This is just part of it. 2 slightly different views of the same section of about 1/6th of all the gardens. I live in a very wooded cul-de-sac and this is the edge of one garden that goes out to the road with nothin but woods behind it. Old picture from a couple of years ago. The way I do things, what you see here is all July blooming stuff. But mixed all through and still green (or dark red foliage) is a lot of late August through the fall blooming stuff, which is a very different sight when it comes in–that’s all that the back row is in fact. This garden is lined by about 60 feet of football-sized stones but you can’t see the stones is the bottom of these pics because I planted stuff on the edge that climbs over them.

June 17, 2023 at 12:33 pm #144396

Zooey
Moderator

I have 0.62 acres. A decent sized plot for within the city limits, I guess. More than enough space for gardening.

The soil is red clay and limestone, so we have raised beds with imported soil. I will post some photos sometime, maybe after getting everything planted. One of the major disadvantages of the nursery is that we don’t have time to plant our own garden until late. It should have been in 6 weeks ago, and I’m still preparing the soil. We have some stuff in.

June 25, 2023 at 9:21 pm #144454

wv
Participant

One of the native (to WV) flowers I grow is Passion Flower.   Its a vine and the blooms are purty cool, if you’ve never seen one.

June 25, 2023 at 11:16 pm #144456

Zooey
Moderator

wv wrote:

One of the native (to WV) flowers I grow is Passion Flower.   Its a vine and the blooms are purty cool, if you’ve never seen one.

I love those. I have a white one in my garden. A volunteer. Not sure where it came from, but I’m keeping it.

June 26, 2023 at 10:45 am #144465

zn
Moderator

From the info net:

Maypop (Passiflora incarnata) is native to North America and hardy to USDA Hardiness Zone 6.

I’m zone 5 so as it happens I am a stranger to this plant.

June 26, 2023 at 12:27 pm #144466

nittany ram
Moderator

Beautiful garden, zn. I do perennials too.

My dream is to someday make my entire backyard into a Japanese garden comprised of native plants.

June 26, 2023 at 4:04 pm #144470

Zooey
Moderator

nittany ram wrote:

Beautiful garden, zn. I do perennials too. My dream is to someday make my entire backyard into a Japanese garden comprised of native plants.

If it’s made with native plants, it can’t really be Japanese, can it? Or have you moved to Japan?

June 26, 2023 at 4:46 pm #144472

nittany ram
Moderator

Zooey wrote:

nittany ram wrote:

Beautiful garden, zn. I do perennials too. My dream is to someday make my entire backyard into a Japanese garden comprised of native plants.

If it’s made with native plants, it can’t really be Japanese, can it? Or have you moved to Japan?

It’s common knowledge that Vermont has been a Japanese possession since Emperor Higashiyama purchased it from Chief Etow Oh Koam in 1709.

How is it possible to not know that? Were you sick the entire semester dedicated to Nippo-Mohican history in school?

June 26, 2023 at 6:39 pm #144473

wv
Participant

zn wrote:

From the info net:

Maypop (Passiflora incarnata) is native to North America and hardy to USDA Hardiness Zone 6.

I’m zone 5 so as it happens I am a stranger to this plant.

I thought you were a cover 2 guy.   Cover 5 seems a bit soft to me.

w

v

June 27, 2023 at 7:07 pm #144479

zn
Moderator

wv wrote:

I thought you were a cover 2 guy.   Cover 5 seems a bit soft to me.

I’m just into prevent gardening.
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