Tangled Branches: Cultivated
happenings in and around my zone 6b gardens in northern Virginia and in central Virginia
Monday, December 31, 2007
The Cycle
As the clock ticks out the last few hours of 2007, I find myself wondering why the Roman/Julian/Gregorian calendar seems so arbitrary. Shouldn't we mark off the years at some meaningful point in the Earth's orbit around the sun? A solstice or an equinox or something? But we don't. For thirteen years or so (1793-1805), the French started the New Year at the autumnal equinox, coinciding with the grape harvest. This makes a lot more sense to me, especially given the prominent role played by alcohol in our New Year's celebrations. Got your party hat on yet?
I like the idea of representing the year as a circle (because it is, really) and there's an elegantly information-packed circular calendar available as a free download at The Natural Year. This nifty chart shows the length of days, the moon's phases, weather cycles, and more. All the data are based on the author's location near Kansas City, but the broad trends apply across a swath of North America.
In late afternoon today I headed out to the vegetable garden, where lettuce, spinach and dill are still growing under their Agribon covers. I picked enough lettuce and spinach for a salad, and parsley and thyme to flavor our souffle for dinner tonight. That's a part of the annual cycle I plan to explore more fully in 2008 - the idea that I can harvest something fresh to eat most of the year. And I had to wash aphids off the lettuce!
12 Comments:
The idea of the new year starting round the grape harvest makes sense. I've never heard of a circular calendar so I checked it out.
I am totally envious of your greens. It must be great fun picking greens just before supper.
I hope you have a wonderful year - full of lots of good gardening and cooking. Please post more recipes too!
Terrific idea to use the Earth's natural rhythms to keep track of the days. Maybe that went out the window as we humans foolishly began to believe we had "conquered" the earth? Regardless, enjoy your fabulous greens and an excellent New Year!
I'm all for using Earth's natural rhythms to keep track of the seasons, much better than that silly calender we use now. Must check that circular calender thingy out. Interesting post Entangled!
Your greens look very yummy, especially at this time of year. And aphids too? You lucky girl you. ;-)
A very Happy gardening and blogging New Year!
Leaves all look delicious. I set out my seeds yesterday-should have done that a month ago but simply had no time, preparing for my trip. I would have been harvesting baby salad leaves now!
Kate: I was kind of surprised that the lettuce and spinach are still growing. We're due for our coldest weather of the season tonight and tomorrow night so I'm wondering if that'll be the end. I'll see what I can cook up in 2008 ;-)
Lisa: Maybe we gardeners could come up with our own calendar, and make everybody else adopt it. Not very likely I suppose...
Yolanda Elizabet: Well, I could do without the aphids, but I'm really happy to have the greens ;-)
Nicole: Good luck with your seeds! I probably won't start any for several weeks, but I just got a big crop of seed catalogs in the mail today. I've been enjoying your travelogue, but didn't post any comments there. Indian food in Hanoi was a surprise to me, but I don't know why - everybody eats everything these days
Thanks, Entangled. I see some radish and arugula have already germinated!
Hanoi is currently full of expatriates and investors, and that’s the clientèle at the Indian restaurants, mostly Indian and European expats, visitors and residents, very few locals. You can actually get several excellent cuisines in Hanoi and the two major cities in Laos, including Indian, Thai, Chinese, French and Italian. Excellent wood oven pizza, too. Things taste great because the ingredients are so fresh.
Happy New Year! What luscious looking greens for early January! I bought about 50x10 feet of white garden fabric. I should see if I can grow some cool weather crops and maybe the white color will scare away the deer as a bonus.
My old lcd monitor died so I'm using a small 15" lcd so it's difficult to see much of the calendar in detail but it looks very interesting. You sure are a great resource for a lot of interesting things.
Nicole: Ah, now the Indian food in Hanoi makes more sense to me. And pizza too - wow.
Ki: The Agribon row cover is working out amazingly well. I have a double layer of Agribon 19. The first one I put on developed some holes, so I just put another layer on top of it. It was 16 degrees here a couple of nights ago and the lettuce, spinach and dill are all still doing fine. I planted the lettuce and spinach in September; the dill planted itself. I would think the rabbits could get under it if they wanted to, but they must not realize what's there. There are deer hoofprints all over the garlic beds nearby, but I don't see any evidence that they've investigated the row cover.
I'm looking for an easy and inexpensive way to print the circular calendar in a large format. I printed it on 8.5x11 but that was useless.
"I like the idea of representing the year as a circle (because it is, really)"
Or maybe an ellipse, since the earth has an elliptical orbit.
Signed, Random Nerd.
Chuck B: I stand (sit) corrected! I've been thinking about doing another astro/almanac post, and I'll be sure to mention it.
You made an nteresting post and got some very thoughtful comments, Entangled! I've been trying to decide where the year begins in Austin since so much never goes dormant here. Maybe the logical time would be when the old live oak leaves turn brown and are pushed off by the emerging new leaves. They're such a dominant part of the landscape that their rhythm becomes ours.
Annie at the Transplantable Rose
Annie: I think I'd feel a little disoriented without a dormant season. I get more and more grateful for the rest period as the years go by. I'm generally happy with the easier Virginia winters though, compared to northern Illinois.
Post a Comment
<< Tangled Branches: Cultivated, main page