GARDEN ADVENTURES
Howie Deutch
Autobiography
As an Electrical Engineer from Cornell ( some eons ago ) I worked largely in Aerospace . Since retirement I have let my professional license lapse and have reveled in amateurism. Most of the engineering since has included such things as building steps down a terrace behind the house and a new brick walk in front. Two electrical tasks have been dusk-to-dawn fluorescent lights, one to illuminate a step in the walk and a second to ward off foraging deer in the back. Neither appear to be successful. (P.S. It was only useful for the first year. The deer now like to eat in the light)My seed germinating ( thermostatically controlled bottom heat ) and seedling growing facility was built long before retirement. At the moment ( mid March ) there are almost 700 new plants under eight double 40 watt fluorescent lamps. They will need more room before transplanting outside, after Memorial Day up here.
During our long cold winters in upstate New York I occasionally lift up the cover of the terrarium in the living room and inhale deeply of the forest fragrance. One needs to reinforce the memories of softer times when buffeted by cold winds and snow. A window wall in the living room is a hanging garden, backing up a sea of containers with Norfolk Island Pine, Euphorbia, dwarf banana plants, Yucca and a mass of many others. Watering is a delicate chore. The Pine, though large in the house, is not even a shadow of the ones in a row flanking the beach at Manly, outside Sydney.
Hobbies other than photography and tropical fish include travel. My wife, Kay, doesn't much care for the going and returning but does admit to enjoying the being. The first garden that made a really lasting impression on me was the Butchart Gardens near Victoria on Vancouver Island. It has been more than two decades since being there yet I vividly remember the incredible transformation of a quarry into an Eden. It was this garden that inspired me to do more around my own home. Visiting gardens is generally not the prime purpose of a trip but enjoyed when encountered. An exception was the Keukenhof Garden in the Netherlands, a planned destination, with an added bonus of the Floriade flower exhibit. Most others are spotted along the way, such as walking past the open gate to the Governor's mansion in Sydney and seeing a most spectacular display of flowering trees and shrubs. I reached into my camera bag intending to photograph a fantastic tree in bloom. The action sent a guard running toward me to thwart an supposed attack. He slowed down when I brought out a camera rather than a bomb. When I asked what kind of a tree that was I received a reply typical of the laid back country, " Oh, that's only an Aussie tree". Some of the "exotic" trees in their Botanic Gardens were the common ones of North America. For me, the local birds were the exotics. In the suburbs, Mynas took the place of our Starlings. Unfortunately, they did not speak with Aussie accents.
When we are in the vicinity of some outstanding garden, such as the Generalife in Spain, we go, and have never been disappointed. There have been times when we have been challenged. A downpour made a visit last month to the Wiamea Falls Park on Oahu a rather soggy affair. The lush though wet growth, compared to the cold and snow back home, gentled the rather warmer rain.
Spring, when it finally arrives back home, is a most wonderful time of the year. Kay calls it the chlorophyll blush. The trees are getting ready to open their buds and there is a light yellowish-green cast to the wooded hill behind our house. My outdoor gardening gets underway again. I have areas of spring flowering bulbs, primarily tulips, to enjoy. I learned about mass plantings of bulbs from the Keukenhof Gardens but cannot duplicate their implantation of mass. It is also time to cut down the old stalks of Miscanthus sinensis that this year stood tall all winter. Usually an early storm of wet and heavy snow flattens them. In one corner of the garden I have three groups of three, Silberfeder, Gracillimus and strictus in a right triangle surrounding two Variegatus.
Another season of growth is about to begin..