Hoi An: old houses, vegetables, and rice

Hoi An is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and well-deserving of the designation. A historic seaport and trading center (think 250-300 years), it declined into obscurity as the river and harbor became shallower, as silt and time made the town less accessible.

Now about 3 km from the coast, Hoi An has a nice historic center, with extraordinary buildings (maybe overly filled with silk shops, galleries, etc.), but that's what supports tourism.

We were there five years ago and loved the area, and bicycling into the countryside.

There are still rice and vegetable fields just out of the town center.

We enjoyed our time there again -- a wonderful place, and it seems to be developing as a tourist destination in a very attractive way.

Read more...

Leaves, persimmons, and traveling

Our 'natural gardening' motto is that you can never have too many leaves! (Thanks, Sheila, for the post inspiration.)

In spite of having created nice woodland areas in our garden that are almost self-sufficient in their re-mulching capacity, additional leaves are always valuable for soil enrichment. In temperate areas, organic matter breaks down rapidly, so constant replenishment (following nature's lead) is important.

It's vital in woodland, shrub, and perennial borders, but absolutely essential in heavily-worked vegetable garden beds, where additional inputs of compost and organic nutrients may be needed to add minerals lost in harvesting.

I totally subscribe to the idea (as a plant ecologist and wildlife gardener) that mimicking nature, increasing biodiversity, and trying to create ecological balance in the garden is a good thing.

Personally, I don't worry about diseases that 'might' be harbored by leaf mulch in shrub and woodland areas (let the fungi and micro-organisms duke it out) -- leaves falling in such areas are natural and part of regular ecological processes.

Perennial borders and vegetable garden beds are much more tame, and in need of a gardener's care. But I'm certainly not worried about diseases in those beds either, if leaves are gathered (not the tough, slow to compost, ones) and used appropriately as mulch.

One of our signals that it's time to leave for traveling at winter break is Japanese persimmons.

This is an old tree that was one of the first things I planted as a 'young' gardener well over 20 years ago. It survived transplantation (with few roots) from Georgia to South Carolina, struggled, but has continued to produce persimmons, some year more, some years less. We always enjoy them, either fresh (me) or as persimmon bread (my gardening companion).

The last few fruits will be cut and brought into the refrigerator tomorrow before we leave for winter break travels.

I'm taking an iPod Touch and a new small camera -- hardly great blogging equipment, as we're traveling light.

But I wish those of you that have happened on my posts and especially those of you that continue to read them, a very happy holiday season!

I'll look forward to reading your posts while traveling, but mine will probably be minimal until we return in early January.

Read more...

Winter

Because we often travel during winter break, our relatively mild winters in the Southeastern US seem even shorter. We're fortunate to be able to travel in December; without family obligations (our families are far-flung and independent at this point), it's an excellent time to visit many parts of the world as we can.

During our academic winter break from early December to early January, we've traveled to Mexico, Chile, Ecuador, Peru, and Costa Rica in the Americas, Thailand, Laos, Northern Vietnam, and India in Asia, and Tanzania and Zanzibar in Africa, as well as going to Italy, France and Great Britain, over the years.

All have been wonderful trips and we're grateful that we were able to take them.

But one of the non-traveling pluses has been that we leave just as winter descends (not very heavily in our part of the world), return in early January, and by February and March have quite a few periodic mild days, which are really quite spring-like, and we're back to warm weather.

So, we're fortunate to escape the 'worst' of what our Southeastern winters offer; we're totally wimpy compared to so many of you that have much more harsh winters to cope with!

Read more...

Winter travels

Even in the Southern US, we have gray wintery days. Today wasn't so cold, but overcast and dark. My gardening companion and I are preparing for our annual winter trip -- almost always somewhere brighter and warmer. There's not too much to get ready. Since we travel light, there's not much to pack, and after instructions to the housesitters, and saying goodby to Mocha, we're off.

A travel shop window in Southern England

This year, it may not be too much brighter and warmer, but will definitely be different than some of our previous winter destinations. We're heading towards Campania, Puglia, Basilicata, and maybe Sicily. These Southern Italy destinations have me thinking about interesting seeds to buy -- hmm, great tomatoes, perhaps.... (I've gone to quite a bit of effort to sign up for a USDA 'small seeds' permit, so as not to repeat my unpleasant experience in May where all of the seeds I'd bought - retail commercial seed packets from Great Britain - many from Italy - were confiscated on my return. Hrrmph....)

But really, it's about exploring a new part of the world again -- this doesn't have much to do with natural gardening, but natural gardens. We'll see what the Mediterranean vegetation along the coast looks like, explore a few national parks, and experience Southern Italy in the winter.

And we'll see lots of gardening going on, too, I imagine!

Read more...

Holidays

We're usually far away from our spread-out family members at holidays, and it's been so for many years. It's generated a simple tradition of putting out a few Christmas decorations after Thanksgiving to enjoy the week or so before leaving for winter break travels.

The two small stockings were in cards my grandparents sent many years ago, with small cash gifts. The reindeer set came from my Mom, as did the angel candle-holder.

We're looking forward to travels to come.

Read more...

Visiting English gardens

Leaving home for a couple of weeks, especially at such a nice time of the year in our garden, comes with a few mixed feelings. Everything is green and lush – before summer’s heat starts to crisp things around the edges.

The vegetable plants and tomatillo and eggplant seedlings are doing well, young potatoes are forming (I harvested a few early ones), and the squash plants are looking good.

But it’s also a wonderful time to visit English gardens in their late spring stages; my only previous trip (during the growing season) was in September, also a wonderful time, but a different flowering palette. I’m planning to visit Great Dixter and Sissinghurst again, but am also looking forward to visiting RHS Wisley, West Dean, Beth Chatto’s garden, Nymans, Mrs. Mitchell’s Kitchen and Gardens, Munstead Wood, Downderry Nursery, Iden Croft Herbs, and Chelsea Physic Garden, in addition to as many on the National Gardens scheme that are open while I’m there.

So my sense of anticipation has been building as I finished my last work responsibilities and had time to start planning the details of my garden-visiting schedule (I’m DEFINITELY still working on that – there's been plenty of time in airports and on planes – and I'll being doing lots of planning while traveling). I listened to a podcast from BBC Gardens Illustrated driving to the Atlanta airport, just downloaded yesterday; it was a fascinating program about making a garden, a joint lecture by Fergus Garrett (Christopher Lloyd’s head gardener at Great Dixter) and Sir Roy Strong, sponsored by the Museum of Garden History in London.

Read more...