Via site feedRustling gold ginkgo,
Languid koi circling below
in Botany Pond.
Sem Sutter, in the University of Chicago Magazine.
A ginkgo haiku
Ginkgo Sundays: House and Garden
Ginkgo votive holder from Aviva Stanoff.
Ginkgo Fridays: Paper
Ginkgo stationery from Serimony.
Arbor Day
Today is National Arbor Day here in the United States. It’s the state Arbor Day for many states, but some states have selected a different day (or week) for their state Arbor celebrations.
The National Arbor Day Foundation has more information about Arbor Day events around the country. Pick up a tree while you’re there, although I must warn you that you won’t find any ginkgos. While we may be partial to ginkgos, we like other trees, too.
Ginkgo Wednesdays: Photography
Image courtesy of mybluemuse (see her first Ginkgo Dreams appearance here).
Formative pruning vital for young trees
From the Bangor Daily News:
Our tour began with a ginkgo tree, its 3-inch-diameter trunk rising from its tiny planting hole for about 3 feet before the first branch. Within the next 2 feet, there were 12 branches spaced between 1 and 2 inches apart, some already crossing and rubbing over others, others making a narrow angle with the trunk, growing up rather than out.
Tree after tree, ginkgos and tree lilacs, looked the same: too many closely spaced scaffold branches, a result of pre-pruning trees in the nursery. In this industrywide practice, small un-branched trees are headed back to encourage a proliferation of lateral branches. The problems associated with nursery pruning occur as the crowded branches grow larger in diameter, exerting pressure on each other while becoming weak and susceptible to breakage when loaded with ice or snow.
I asked the students to think down the road a few years, to imagine each branch increasing in diameter, reminding them that the space between branches remains the same as the tree grows. Surely something would have to give!
Pre-pruning is done to sell trees. Most people, unaware of the future problems associated with such closely spaced branches, will select a young tree with crowded branches over one with fewer widely spaced branches. But while scaffold branches 2 inches apart may look nice in miniature, they are going to be overcrowded and poorly anchored after they become a foot thick.
Unless you’re planting a ginkgo from seed, you’re probably getting one from a nursery. Learn as much as you can before you get that tree.
Arrowroot with Gingko Nuts Soup
Ingredients
1 arrowroot
500g pork ribs
100g gingko nuts, shelled
8 red dates, stoned
2 litres waterSeasoning
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon light soya sauceMethod
1. Wash and scrub arrowroots till clean. Cut into thick pieces.
2. Scale pork ribs with hot water and rinse.
3. Bring 2 litres water to a boil. Add in arrowroot, red dates and gingko nuts. Boil over high flame for 15 minutes. Lower flame and simmer soup for 3 hours.
4. Season with salt and light soya sauce to taste.
From Rose’s Kitchen. Used by permission.
Ginkgo Sundays: House and Garden
Ginkgo door knocker from The Velvet Hammer.
Ginkgo Fridays: Jewelry
Ginkgo brooch by Heidi Schaper.
Ginkgo Wednesdays: Photography
Image courtesy of .Andy Chang. under a Creative Commons license.
Ginkgo Vase
Celadon-glazed ginkgo vase by Cynthia M. Guajardo.
Pilgrimage to a Gingko Tree
Two hundred years
is a long time to be standing
in the same place. I walked slowly
around the flashing koi in the murky pond.
It’s the slender, healthy trees—
sturdy sycamores along the road
dropping their unshaven faces
at your feet, maples
writing elegant calligraphy
in the cobalt sky—good strong trees.
You notice the absence of age, of limbs
twisted by living. In Shukkein Garden,
the stinky nuts and colorful leaves
are swept away. Paths are grooved
from the attention of brooms whispering
remember fish gills gasping for dust
remember the sound steam makes
rising from the body
The scene in this flaming place
burned into people
after the atomic bomb turned
everything to shadows or ashes.
Is this what you came to poetry for?
The gingko tree faced into the wind
and stood against the blast. Still,
you can sit under its thick arms
and catch a flash of sunlight
in a porcelain blue sky.
© 2004 by Edward Dougherty. Used by permission.
Festival of the Trees
A reminder that next month’s Festival of the Trees is now accepting submissions. The theme for May’s Festival (the first with a theme) is Trees in the Concrete and will be hosted at Flatbush Gardener. Send your urban (otherwise is acceptable, too) tree-related items to festival (dot) trees (at) gmail (dot) com with “Festival of the Trees” in the subject, or submit entries via the Festival of the Trees submission form on BlogCarnival. April 29 is the deadline for submissions.
Ginkgos are great urban trees, so I’ll be interested to see what you’ve got.
Ginkgo Sundays: House and Garden
This lovely garden stake, made of dichroic glass, is available from Laurel Yourkowski Studio.
Ginkgo Fridays: DIY
Grace Cathey’s ginkgo leaf sculpture project is not for the faint of heart (or tools).
Ginkgo Wednesdays: Photography
Image courtesy of patrickschulze.
Ginkgo tree prices
From reader Bruce:
I live on the west side of Chicago and was hoping to buy a ginkgo tree from a local nursery for our yard. I found a nursery that sells them, but their trees cost about $570, which is to me a bit unaffordable. Do you know of any Chicago-area nurseries that sell ginkgo trees at more affordable prices?
Well, Bruce, I don’t, but I’m hoping some readers will. We’d love to hear from you in the comments.
I made my first visit of the year to Lowe’s last week and noticed a young ginkgo tree there for $59. That’s the price range in which I found ginkgo trees available from several online nurseries. However, what you can buy locally might not be available online, as those trees are probably sized for shipping. Was it a large tree you were looking at?
Ginkgo Leaves
I recently highlighted another Jacques Hnizdovsky print. Mira Hnizdovsky (who may be related to the artist, but I have not been able to confirm) tipped me off to this, a linocut, which I like even better. You can read more about the artist here.
Organic ramen with salmon, ginkgo nuts and spinach in chicken soy broth
Want something different with your ramen noodles? Try Danesh‘s version:
I made the broth last night by slow cooking a chicken breast with soy beans, fresh corn and an onion. 12 hours. I had to resist the temptation not to slurp up the soup… it smelled just wonderful. With no skin and no salt, much better than canned chicken broth by miles!
Boiled it, added ginkgo nuts (good for your memory if I remember correctly), organic ramen, salmon and plenty of spinach. I added a dash of chilli flavoured sesame oil, white pepper and fried shallots to finish and serve.
Ginkgo Sundays: House and Garden
Martha Stewart recently introduced her Katonah furniture collection, which includes this four-poster bed lightly covered in ginkgo leaves.
Ginkgo Fridays: Paper
Detail from Fish and Webster ginkgo stationery.
Ginkgo brooch
From eBay.
Festival of the Trees
The tenth Festival of the Trees has been up for some time, but I haven’t mentioned it yet.
Visit Words and Pictures if you haven’t seen it yet.
Ginkgo Wednesdays: Photography
Photo courtesy of mybluemuse.
Crows in a Ginkgo Tree
I picked up Crows in a Ginkgo Tree by artist Jeri Pierson on eBay recently. It’s small—2½ inches x 3½ inches—thus increasing its inherent cuteness.
I plan to display it in my office.
You can see more of Pierson’s work on eBay.
Black Bean Soup With Ginkgo Nuts
Ingredients
600 pig’s fore trotters
150g black beans
15 pieces gingko nuts
50g ginger, slicedSeasoning
2 tsp sesame oil
1 tsp salt
½ tsp chicken stock granules
1 cup rice wineMethod
1. Cut trotter into bite-sized pieces, wash and marinate with some salt for 15 minutes. Blanch them in a pot of boiling water for 5 minutes. Wash and drain.
2. Stir-fry black beans till fragrant, add sliced ginger, pork trotter, gingko nuts and seasoning and stir well. Add 5 bowls of water and boil for 1-2 hours till meat is tender.
Recipe courtesy of Rose’s Kitchen.
Ginkgo Sundays: House and Garden
Ginkgo hook from Cast of Characters.