Appreciating this wonderful, beautiful Spring

BY CLAIRE LYNCH

As the months pass, as the cold temperatures and brisk winds of winter slip away, I am once again pleasantly reminded about what’s great about spring. Here is my list of a few things that makes it one of my favorite seasons:

The Birds of Spring

The barn swallow is a bird that’s seen on Long Island and is so pretty. Because there are nearly 90 species in its family, the barn swallow is by far the most widespread and abundant. It nests across North America, Europe, Asia, and North Africa. And in the winter, it heads south, taking up residence throughout South America, Africa and southern Asia. Sometimes it goes all the way to northern Australia. Many swallows will nest on human-made structures. This is especially true of barn swallows, and their name reflects it. They build nests of mud and grass, plastered against vertical surfaces in sheltered places. Such spots are readily found in barns and other buildings, as the swallows discovered long ago. Peter Kalm, a Swedish naturalist who visited North America in 1748-1751, wrote: “They build their nests in houses, and under the roofs on the outside; I likewise found their nests built on mountains and rocks whose top projected beyond the bottom … and this shows where the Swallows made their nests, before the Europeans settled and built houses here.” It is most likely that some barn swallows nested on structures built by Native Americans before the first Europeans arrived, but regardless, it’s clear that the bird quickly adapted to man-made structures.

In NYC, the tree swallow and barn swallow are the most common. However, we also have the occasional northern rough winged swallow, bank swallow and cave swallow. Many fiction and non-fiction books have been written about the various swallows. One children’s book titled, “Barn Swallows,” published by J. Clark Sawyer in 2014, vividly describes how each spring, barn swallows return north. But each fall a barn swallow spreads its wings and takes off into the air to start a very long journey. The little bird travels thousands of miles during its migration south for the winter. After reaching its warm winter home, the barn swallow finds plenty of food as it zigzags through the air catching insects.

The Juliet Grape Tomato

I’ve been excited about trying to grow a new vegetable at home in a window container, on a porch or on a deck. It’s an easy way to grow tomatoes without having a whole back yard garden. I’m starting in the spring and hope I’ll see the fruits of my labors this summer. My friend Tony gave me some tips for growing Juliet Grape Tomatoes. He said to pick up a package of seeds at my local garden store and place them in a Jiffy seed starter kit, place in a sunny location six weeks prior to warm weather, then transplant outdoors in full sun when seedlings display 4 - 6 leaves and weather is warm. The Juliet Grape Tomato is famous for yielding grape-like fruits that are slightly elongated. Clusters of unusual, sweet-flavored fruits cling to the vine longer than most other cherry tomatoes. Juliet tomatoes are a popular grape-type in the supermarket and I like the fact that I can grow them at home. At maturity plants will produce sweet red, 1-ounce tomatoes that are grown in clusters like grapes. The red oblong tomatoes are crack resistant and will stay on the vines for days. If these Juliet Grape Tomatoes do as well as I think they will, I’ll branch out and try another type of vegetable next spring. Oh, and is the tomato a vegetable or a fruit? The answer is it’s both! Tomatoes are fruits that are considered vegetables by nutritionists.

Taking a Trip to Bermuda

I’ve flown to Bermuda and taken a cruise to Bermuda and springtime definitely is the best time to go there

A Greener View

Q: I bought some bulbs and rhizomes for several summer blooming perennials at a flower show about a month ago. I left them in the bag because it wasn’t time to plant them. I planned on starting them early indoors, but when I went to pull them out of the bag, they were all rotting. I don’t have any way of returning them or getting my money back. Do you think I got bad bulbs?

A: I think what may have happened in my opinion. The temperatures are moderate and comfortable - comfortable enough to wear short sleeves and shorts - and it is well before the hurricane season starts. The last time I went to Bermuda my friend, Barbara and I took a tour of the island which is about 22 square miles total and located less than 700 miles off the coast of North Carolina in the Atlantic Ocean. It was very informative and that’s when I learned that Bermuda was established in 1609 when the English Virginia Company, which had established Jamestown in Virginia two years earlier, permanently settled Bermuda in the aftermath of a hurricane. The crew and passengers of Sea Venture steered the ship onto the surrounding reef to prevent it from sinking, then landed ashore. The first capital of Bermuda, St. George’s, was established in 1612. In 1684, Bermuda became an English Crown Colony. In 1815 Hamilton became the capital of Bermuda and today many cruise ships make two ports of call, in Hamilton and St. George’s. My favorite part of the tour was walking along Hamilton’s main road, Front Street, and checking out the many different restaurants and retail shops. We chatted with locals and other vacationers and compared notes about what we’d seen. As we walked, we saw other cruise ships pull into downtown Hamilton. It’s such a pretty area. Barbara liked seeing the Royal Naval Dockyard in the west end of Bermuda at St. George’s. We toured the National Museum of Bermuda and learned about the island’s history plus had a 360-degree view of the water and the land. Beautiful! Bermuda is known for primarily growing one crop: Bermuda onions. Otherwise they import their food and drinks. The Bermuda onion is a variety of sweet onion grown on the island of Bermuda. The seeds were originally imported from the Canary Islands before 1888. Onion export to the United States became such a prominent feature of Bermudian life, the Bermudians started calling themselves “onions” as a nickname. In the late 1800s the Bermuda onion was the island’s main export. is that the bulbs were kept in the plastic bag you brought them home in. Bulbs and other dormant roots and stems are alive, and they respire. The moist conditions in the bag allowed normally occurring fungi to begin growing.

We want to store bulbs and other dormant plant parts in paper bags or containers with lots of holes for good air circulation to help prevent this problem.

Email questions to Jeff Rugg at info@ greenerview.com. .

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