The Daily Gardener: June 11, 2019 Garden Journal, National Corn on the Cob Day, John Constable, Julia Margaret Cameron, Henry David Thoreau, Thomas Love Peacock, The A-Z Encyclopedia of Garden Plants by Christopher Brickell, Chamomile, and ET (2024)

Jun 11, 2019

Garden journal - two columns
Failures and Successes

we learn equally from both


Brevities
#OTD NATIONAL CORN ON THE COB DAY – June 11

  • Corn is called maize by most countries, this comes from theSpanish word ‘maiz’.
  • Corn is a cereal crop that is part of the grass family.
  • An ear or cob of corn is actually part of the flower and anindividual kernel is a seed.
  • On average an ear of corn has 800 kernels in 16 rows.
  • Corn will always have an even number of rows on each cob.
  • A bushel is a unit of measure for volumes of dry commoditiessuch as shelled corn kernels. 1 Bushel of corn is equal to 8gallons.
  • With the exception of Antarctica, corn is produced on everycontinent in the world.
  • There are over 3,500 different uses for corn products.
  • As well as being eaten by the cob, corn is also processed andused as a major component in many food items like cereals, peanutbutter, potato chips, soups, marshmallows, ice cream, baby food,cooking oil, margarine, mayonnaise, salad dressing, and chewinggum.
  • Juices and soft drinks like Coca-Cola and Pepsi contain cornsweeteners. A bushel of corn can sweeten 400 cans of softdrink.
  • Corn and its by products are also found in many non-food itemssuch as fireworks, rust preventatives, glue, paint, dyes, laundrydetergent, soap, aspirin, antibiotics, paint, shoe polish, ink,cosmetics, the manufacturing of photographic film, and in theproduction of plastics.
  • Corn is also used as feeding fodder for livestock and poultryand found in domestic pet food.
  • As of 2012, theUnitedStatesproduces 40% of the worlds total harvest making itthe biggest maize producer in the world (273,832,130 tonnesproduced in 2012).
  • An area termed the "Corn Belt" in the US where growingconditions are ideal includes the states of Iowa, Illinois,Nebraska, Minnesota, Indiana, Ohio, Wisconsin, South Dakota,Michigan, Missouri, Kansas and Kentucky.
  • In the days of the early settlers to North America corn was sovaluable that it was used as money and traded for other productssuch as meat and furs.
  • Corn is now a completely domesticated plant so you're unlikelyto find it growing in the wild.
  • Corn can be produced in various colors including blackish,bluish-gray, purple, green, red, white and the most commonyellow.





#OTD John Constable,RA(/ˈkʌnstəbəl,ˈkɒn-/;[1]11June 1776 – 31 March 1837) was an English landscape painter in thenaturalistic tradition. Born inSuffolk, he is knownprincipally for hislandscapepaintingsofDedham Vale, thearea surrounding his home – now known as "Constable Country" –which he invested with an intensity of affection. "I should paintmy own places best", he wrote to his friend John Fisher in 1821,"painting is but another word for feeling".[2
I see the elder is coming into flower. Reminds me of
John Constable's oil sketch at Hampstead.
c.1821-2
Private collection.


Study of the Trunk of an Elm Tree

- by John Constable (RA), c1821



Golding Constable's Kitchen Garden, 1815

Golding Constable's Flower Garden, 1815

He considered spring and midsummer as the stirring times for thelandscape painter, and not autumn. In his opinion an old tree, halfdecayed and almost leafless, presented no fitter subject to thepainter than an emaciated old man.. .Constable was the first, Ibelieve, in this country who ceased to paint grass yellow ocher,although it appears to me that we are now [1850-60's] in the otherextreme. For by the non-employment of yellow, green pictures show awant of sunlight, and allowance is not made for the yellow of theframe, especially at the edge of the picture;stillConstableis entitled to greatpraise for having brought the art back to a truer standard. Greenis the colour for trees, and the midsummer shoot gives the green inits greatest variety.

  • pp. 80-81


Nature is the fountain's head, the source from whence alloriginality must spring.
Landscape is my mistress - 'tis to her I look for fame. I never sawan ugly thing in my life: for let the form of an object be what itmay, - light, shade, and perspective will always make itbeautiful.

When I sit down to make a sketch from nature, the first thing I tryto do is to forget that I have ever seen a picture.

  • As quoted in Richard Friedenthal,Letters of the greatartists – from Blake to Pollock(Thames and Hudson,London, 1963), p. 40

But the sound of water escaping from mill-dams, &c.,willows, old rotten planks, slimy posts, and brickwork, I love suchthings. Shakespeare could make everything poetical; he tells us ofpoor Tom's haunts among "sheep cotes and mills." As long as I dopaint, I shall never cease to paint such places. They have alwaysbeen my delight.

  • Quote from John Constable's letter to Rev. John Fisher (23October 1821), fromJohn Constable'sCorrespondence,part 6, pp. 76-78


The world is wide; no two days are alike, nor even two hours;neither were there ever two leaves of a tree alike since thecreation of the world.

  • Quoted inC.R.Leslie,Memoirs of the Life of John Constable,Composed Chiefly of His Letters(1843) (Phaidon, London, 1951)p. 273

England, with her climate of more than vernal freshness, and inwhose summer skies, and rich autumnal clouds, the observer ofNature may daily watch her endless varieties of effect.. ..to onebrief moment caught [by the artist] from fleeting time..

  • Quote from Constable's Introduction of the 1833 edition ofEnglish landscape scenery, as cited inConstable's EnglishLandscape Scenery, Andrew Wilton, British Museum Prints andDrawings Series, 1979; as quoted in: 'A brief history of weather inEuropean landscape art', John E. Thornes,inWeatherVolume 55, Issue 10 Oct. 2000, p.368

A self-taught painter is one taught by a very ignorantperson.

  • Quoted inThe Quarterly Reviewvol. 119(1866), p. 292.


#OTD Julia Margaret Cameron, the mother ofphotography, was born on this day in Calcutta in1815.

In 1863, Cameron was given a camera by her daughter and son-in-lawand made her first photograph at the age of 49.

Her niece, Virginia Woolf wrote, that the camera was,

“at last, an outlet for the energies that she had dissipated inpoetry and fiction, in doing up houses, in concocting curries, andentertaining her friends."

At the time, Cameron had moved to the Isle of Wight; an island offthe southern coast of England.

On the Isle of Wight, Julia Margaret Cameron converted henhouse inher garden into her darkroom and another building into herstudio.

One of her most famous photos is calledThe Rosebud Gardenof Girls, a title taken from Tennyson’sCome Into theGarden, Maude.
The photo wastaken in June, 1868. It shows four beautiful youngVictorian women wearing the white robes you'd find on a Greekgoddess. The setting is a lush garden. Their hair flows freely downpast their shoulders, they each hold blossom, as they eachcast their gaze far off in slightly different directions. It’s avery dreamy, almost trance-like, innocent image;TheRosebud Garden of Girls.




Unearthed Words
"So sweet, so sweet the roses in their blowing,
So sweet the daffodils, so fair to see;
So blithe and gay the humming-bird a going
From flower to flower, a-hunting with the bee."
- Nora Perry,In June

"It is dry, hazy June weather. We are more of the earth,farther from heaven these days."
- Henry David Thoreau

"In a bowl to sea went wise men three,
On a brilliant night of June:
They carried a net, and their hearts were set
On fishing up the moon."
- Thomas Love Peacock

The AHS A-Z Encyclopedia of Garden Plants by ChristopherBrickell

As chamomile is one ofmyfavoritearomatic plants to have inmy garden every year i save alltheflowersfrom the last floweringplant to store and replant next growing season.Saving myherbseedsis one of the most rewardinggardening tasks
Chamomile grows in the form of small shrub that usually reaches 8to 12 inches in height. German chamomile grows to the height of 3feet.
Chamomile has green, feathery leaves that are alternately arrangedon the stem.
Flower consists of large number of individual flowers calledflorets. Outer part of the flower consists of 18 white ray florets.Yellow disk, located in the center of the flower, consists ofminiature florets that have tubular shape.
Chamomile blooms from June to July. Flies are main pollinator ofchamomile flowers.
Name “chamomile” originates from Greek words “chamos”, which means“ground” and “milos” which means “apple”. Chamomile is named thatway because it grows close to the ground and smells like apple.
Chamomile was used for the process of mummification in the ancientEgypt.
Chemical compounds and oils that are used in medical and cosmeticindustry are extracted from the flower.
Even though beneficial effects of chamomile are not scientificallyproven, chamomile is used in treatment of more than 100 differentdisorders.
Chamomile can be used in the form of tea, tincture, lotion,capsules or various drops.
Chamomile possesses anti-inflammatory properties, can be used fordisinfection and to relieve the pain. It is mainly used for thetreatment of urinary and ocular infections, skin rash, toothache,respiratory pain, premenstrual pain, migraine, insomnia,anxiety…
Chamomile can induce side effects when it is consumed incombination with other medications. Also, chamomile may inducepremature birth because it stimulates contraction of theuterus.
People that are allergic to ragweed will probably exhibit allergyto the chamomile. Allergy can be triggered after application ofcream containing chamomile or after consumption of tea.
Homemade chamomile tea can be used for lighting of the blondhair.
Besides its decorative morphology, chamomile can be very useful inthe garden. It facilitates growth of the surrounding plants andeven heals nearby sick plants.
Lifespan of chamomile depends on the species. Roman chamomile isannual plant which lives only one year. German chamomile isperennial plant that lives more than two years.
Chamomile is a flower in the aster and daisy family. It isthenationalflowerof Russia.

Something Sweet
Reviving the little botanic spark in your heart

On this day in 1982, a little movie about a botanist wasreleased.

It was about a group of alien botanists secretly visit Earth undercover of night to gather plant specimens in a California forest.When government agents appear on the scene, the aliens flee intheir spaceship, but in their haste, one of them is left behind. Ina suburban neighborhood in the San Fernando Valley, a ten-year-oldboy named Elliott discovers something is hiding in their toolshed.

Elliott leaves Reese's Pieces candy to lure the alien to his house.Later, Elliott's siblings - Michael and five-year-old sister,Gertie - meet it. They decide to keep ET hidden from their mom. ETdemonstrates its powers by reviving dead chrysanthemums.

In the end, E.T. says goodbye to Michael and Gertie, as shepresents him with the chrysanthemum that he had revived. Beforeboarding the spaceship, he embraces Elliott and tells him "I'll beright here", pointing his glowing finger to Elliott's forehead. Hethen picks up the chrysanthemum, boards the spaceship, and it takesoff, leaving a rainbow in the sky as everyone watches it leave.


The Daily Gardener: June 11, 2019 Garden Journal, National Corn on the Cob Day, John Constable, Julia Margaret Cameron, Henry David Thoreau, Thomas Love Peacock, The A-Z Encyclopedia of Garden Plants by Christopher Brickell, Chamomile, and ET (2024)
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