The beehive state

Every state in the good ol' U.S. of A. has a nickname. For example the state of New York is called "The Empire State", California is also known as "The Golden State", Texas is "The Lone Star State", and so on. Utah, which celebrates its 115th year of statehood today, the 24th of July, is also called "The Beehive State."

Utah has been my "adopted" home for the past several years now, from the day I first set foot in America. Currenly I have no plans of moving to any other state as I've come to agree with Brigham Young¹ when he declared: "This is the place."

Happy birthday to the Beehive State!!!

Similarly, the state of our Beehive ginger (Zingiber spectabile) leaves nothing to be desired for now that I know it has adapted to its "adopted" home i.e., the farm.

Last February of 2010 I asked Mom and Dad to buy another Beehive ginger. There is already one in the farm which was purchased last December of 2009. However we were not sure if it's the real thing so the second purchase was just an insurance just in case it's not. This more recent purchase we're sure is a Beehive ginger because it had a flower when it was bought.

For over a year the gingers just grew but very slowly and did not produce any flowers. I was beginning to think that they may not be suited to our local climate or maybe they were planted in the wrong area. Maybe the soil is lacking in nutrient, perhaps they are not getting enough water and nourishment.

Then in May two small knobs began to appear at the base of the more recent Beehive. I was so excited when Mom mentioned this development during one of our long distance phone conversations. Finally it's doing something more than just converting carbon dioxide to oxygen.

It took more than two months before the knobs turned into what they are in the picture below. They are now past their prime and will very soon be a part of history. Hopefully this is the start of a new era for this species of plant in the farm.

I suspect one reason why our Beehive gingers are sluggish is due to deficiency in nutrients. The upper garden was once a cornfield and as such the soil was subjected to much stress in growing corns, amended with chemical fertilizers and lacking in organic nutrients. The soil needs to heal from decades of mismanagement which could easily be remedied by applying composts. But despite the availability of materials they are not utilizing this eco-friendly means of soil amendment. Yet there is a glimmer of hope, as exemplified by the emergence of these two Beehive ginger flowers.

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¹ Brigham Young (June 1, 1801 – August 29, 1877) is the second president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (commonly known as the Mormon Church) who led his flock's migration from Illinois to the current state of Utah.

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Hideous monstrosity

BE ADVISED

This post may contain words that some may find too strong and harsh. Please bear with the author as, even after three agonizing days now, at the time of this writing he is still fuming.

Monsters are supposed to be hideous but the title of this post simply states in a superlative degree that it's very, very ugly and repulsive. To be blatant and direct, I really hate it.

The retaining wall is one urgent project that must be completed before the wet season begins. After funding the first part of this three part project the work began but curiously I was not informed of any developments. Then after leaving me in the dark, finally I received a text message saying that the first and second parts of the project are finished.

What?

This cold structure will greet anyone who follows the dirt path that leads to the 'upper garden'.

Before we started this project I made it clear to my father that I want the wall to follow the curvature of the road. If one follows this logic then it is clear that there will be no straight lines and no corners except where the upper and lower walls meet.

So imagine my anger and dismay when I received pictures of the project and looking at these straight and solid walls arrogantly staring at me with an 'in your face' look. Where is the soft and subtle curved wall that I was eagerly expecting to see?

Left view.

I let a day silently pass by without uttering a word because knowing myself I might spit expletives all over the place.

On my second day of silence I received a text message from my mother asking me how I felt about the outcome of the project. She then mentioned that she didn't like it and my niece who was there on vacation finds it an eye sore. With that single text message, mother unwittingly opened Pandora's box.

As seen from the right side.

A long-distance phone call is once again made. Suffice to say that words not meant to be said were spoken with a raised voice loud enough to pierce an eardrum.

I am yet to blindly accept this structure but until now I'm still repulsed by it. The only option I have in mind is to tear it down and rebuild. But with a very tight budget it will be a waste of resource. But then if I keep it, it will be a constant thorn in my side.
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Garden Structures: First Pergola

Several months ago in my "Gimme Shelter" post, I mentioned about my plans to resurrect an old gazebo long gone, but with a new twist. As it turned out, this project became more complicated after the passing of the October storm that brought devastation to the farm. I will delve on this topic deeper in one of my future posts.

All is not lost though. Somewhere near the shore of another fishpond was a remnant of another long gone gazebo. Since we could not build on the original planned site, I decided to build on this site instead. And on this location will rise a pergola.

Where the pergola will be located.

In my long distance phone conversation with my dear father, he suggested that we use a sturdy material for the pergola so that it won't easily rot and even a strong storm cannot blow it away. So instead of wood, we settled for steel pipes. The project was funded and the construction commenced.

Construction of the latticework.

Assembling the pergola.

Assembling the pergola as seen from another angle.

With the pergola complete, all it needs now is a plant to climb up and fill the spaces on top. For this, I decided to use the Blue Passion Flower (Passiflora caerulea) vine which was growing passionately in the nursery. Then I was told that it was one of the storm casualties. The vine's main trunk broke at the very base and it never grew back.

Installing concrete pillars.

For now the pergola will have to wait for its permanent occupant. We ordered four pots of the Blue Passion from my mother's favorite garden store, which should be available by the latter part of this month.

But we are not done yet with this project. As you can see, the concrete floor of the old gazebo has cracked in several places. It needs a new coat of concrete to level the floor. I'm thinking of laying terracotta tiles on top of this concrete to lend a rustic look. Then we need to landscape the surrounding areas. So it means more plants are needed. Whew, and I thought this endeavor was supposedly simple.

It looks like one of the projects I mentioned in my "What's in store for 2011" entry on Fer's Garden Carnival is on its way to fruition.

Get here... if you can

"There are hills and mountains between us,
always something to get over
If I had my way, surely you would be closer..."

so sings Oleta Adams, way back in the early 90s. A song which continues to be one of my few favorites. But then again, excuse my wandering because I am digressing from the real subject for today.

How do you manage a project and not be there to supervise and keep things moving? How can you check on its progress if you can't even see it?

To give you an idea how far away the project is, here's a skewed mathematical equation for you to calculate:

11,922 km. (7,408 miles) + 10 hours drive = the farm.

That's how close as I can be to the project site.

So, how am I bridging the distance so that I can guide this project (hopefully) to a favorable conclusion?

"you can reach me by railway
you can reach me by trailway
you can reach me on an airplane
you can reach me with your mind...
you can reach me by a caravan
cross the desert like an arab man"

Distance is definitely a big obstacle but certainly not a formidable barrier.

My two cents' worth

Actually its at least 10 cents.

Ever since we began this little project, my calls to mom have become very frequent. Used to be, I call at most once a month just to hear a familiar voice, something I don't get even from frequent exchanges of text messages.

Now, apart from text messaging, I have been calling (or should I say harassing) them at least once a week. Just so I could get the latest and greatest (though not always) news from them.

That is why I was deeply delighted when my long distance carrier has lowered their per minute charge to 10 cents (from 17 cents) when calling a number on a certain cellphone carrier. Now that is cheaper still than calling a landline, which used to be the cheapest. Its a good thing that my mom, the person I call a lot, subscribes to that carrier while the rest in our family use the competitor's services.

I won't be mentioning the name of my long distance carrier nor the cellphone carriers and their per minute charges since that would be free advertisement for them. Isn't it? But if you want to know, I'll gladly share the info privately.

I know there are still cheaper ways to call international long distance. But if it requires dialing an 800, 888, 877 or 866 toll-free numbers plus account number... forget it. I won't torture my poor finger pressing those extra numbers when I can dial direct.

But if you know of a cheaper direct dial rate to a cellphone, please let me know. Every penny saved is a penny I could use to stretch my limited budget for the farm.