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
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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 the Spanish 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 an individual 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 commodities such as shelled corn kernels. 1 Bushel of corn is equal to 8 gallons.
• With the exception of Antarctica, corn is produced on every continent 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 and used as a major component in many food items like cereals, peanut butter, potato chips, soups, marshmallows, ice cream, baby food, cooking oil, margarine, mayonnaise, salad dressing, and chewing gum.
• Juices and soft drinks like Coca-Cola and Pepsi contain corn sweeteners. A bushel of corn can sweeten 400 cans of soft drink.
• Corn and its by products are also found in many non-food items such as fireworks, rust preventatives, glue, paint, dyes, laundry detergent, soap, aspirin, antibiotics, paint, shoe polish, ink, cosmetics, the manufacturing of photographic film, and in the production of plastics.
• Corn is also used as feeding fodder for livestock and poultry and found in domestic pet food.
• As of 2012, the United States) produces 40% of the worlds total harvest making it the biggest maize producer in the world (273,832,130 tonnes produced in 2012).
• An area termed the "Corn Belt" in the US where growing conditions 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 so valuable that it was used as money and traded for other products such as meat and furs.
• Corn is now a completely domesticated plant so you're unlikely to find it growing in the wild.
• Corn can be produced in various colors including blackish, bluish-gray, purple, green, red, white and the most common yellow.

        #OTD John Constable, RA)(/ˈkʌnstəbəl, ˈkɒn-/);[1])11 June 1776 – 31 March 1837) was an English landscape painter in the naturalistic tradition. Born in Suffolk), he is known principally for his landscape paintings)of Dedham Vale), the area surrounding his home – now known as "Constable Country" – which he invested with an intensity of affection. "I should paint my 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 the landscape painter, and not autumn. In his opinion an old tree, half decayed and almost leafless, presented no fitter subject to the painter than an emaciated old man.. .Constable was the first, I believe, in this country who ceased to paint grass yellow ocher, although it appears to me that we are now [1850-60's] in the other extreme. For by the non-employment of yellow, green pictures show a want of sunlight, and allowance is not made for the yellow of the frame, especially at the edge of the picture; still Constable is entitled to great praise for having brought the art back to a truer standard. Green is the colour for trees, and the midsummer shoot gives the green in its greatest variety.

• pp. 80-81

Nature is the fountain's head, the source from whence all originality must spring. Landscape is my mistress - 'tis to her I look for fame. I never saw an ugly thing in my life: for let the form of an object be what it may, - light, shade, and perspective will always make it beautiful.   When I sit down to make a sketch from nature, the first thing I try to do is to forget that I have ever seen a picture.

• As quoted in Richard Friedenthal, Letters of the great artists – 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 such things. Shakespeare could make everything poetical; he tells us of poor Tom's haunts among "sheep cotes and mills." As long as I do paint, I shall never cease to paint such places. They have always been my delight.

• Quote from John Constable's letter to Rev. John Fisher (23 October 1821), from John Constable's Correspondence, 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 the creation of the world.

• Quoted in C.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 in whose summer skies, and rich autumnal clouds, the observer of Nature may daily watch her endless varieties of effect.. ..to one brief moment caught [by the artist] from fleeting time..

• Quote from Constable's Introduction of the 1833 edition of English landscape scenery, as cited in Constable's English Landscape Scenery, Andrew Wilton, British Museum Prints and Drawings Series, 1979; as quoted in: 'A brief history of weather in European landscape art', John E. Thornes, in Weather Volume 55, Issue 10 Oct. 2000, p. 368

A self-taught painter is one taught by a very ignorant person.

• Quoted in The Quarterly Review vol. 119 (1866), p. 292.

  #OTD  Julia Margaret Cameron, the mother of photography, was born on this day in Calcutta in 1815.    In 1863, Cameron was given a camera by her daughter and son-in-law and 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 in poetry and fiction, in doing up houses, in concocting curries, and entertaining her friends."   At the time, Cameron had moved to the Isle of Wight; an island off the southern coast of England.   On the Isle of Wight, Julia Margaret Cameron converted henhouse in her garden into her darkroom and another building into her studio.   One of her most famous photos is called The Rosebud Garden of Girls, a title taken from Tennyson’s Come Into the Garden, Maude.  The photo wastaken in June, 1868. It shows four beautiful young Victorian women wearing the white robes you'd find on a Greek goddess. The setting is a lush garden. Their hair flows freely down past their shoulders, they each hold  blossom, as they each cast their gaze far off in slightly different directions. It’s a very dreamy, almost trance-like, innocent image; The Rosebud 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 Christopher Brickell As chamomile is one of my favorite aromatic plants to have in my garden every year i save all the flowers from the last flowering plant to store and replant next growing season.Saving my herb seeds is one of the most rewarding gardening tasks Chamomile grows in the form of small shrub that usually reaches 8 to 12 inches in height. German chamomile grows to the height of 3 feet. Chamomile has green, feathery leaves that are alternately arranged on the stem. Flower consists of large number of individual flowers called florets. Outer part of the flower consists of 18 white ray florets. Yellow disk, located in the center of the flower, consists of miniature florets that have tubular shape. Chamomile blooms from June to July. Flies are main pollinator of chamomile flowers. Name “chamomile” originates from Greek words “chamos”, which means “ground” and “milos” which means “apple”. Chamomile is named that way because it grows close to the ground and smells like apple. Chamomile was used for the process of mummification in the ancient Egypt. Chemical compounds and oils that are used in medical and cosmetic industry are extracted from the flower. Even though beneficial effects of chamomile are not scientifically proven, chamomile is used in treatment of more than 100 different disorders. Chamomile can be used in the form of tea, tincture, lotion, capsules or various drops. Chamomile possesses anti-inflammatory properties, can be used for disinfection and to relieve the pain. It is mainly used for the treatment of urinary and ocular infections, skin rash, toothache, respiratory pain, premenstrual pain, migraine, insomnia, anxiety… Chamomile can induce side effects when it is consumed in combination with other medications. Also, chamomile may induce premature birth because it stimulates contraction of the uterus. People that are allergic to ragweed will probably exhibit allergy to the chamomile. Allergy can be triggered after application of cream containing chamomile or after consumption of tea. Homemade chamomile tea can be used for lighting of the blond hair. Besides its decorative morphology, chamomile can be very useful in the garden. It facilitates growth of the surrounding plants and even heals nearby sick plants. Lifespan of chamomile depends on the species. Roman chamomile is annual plant which lives only one year. German chamomile is perennial plant that lives more than two years.  Chamomile is a flower in the aster and daisy family. It is the national flower) of Russia.   Something Sweet  Reviving the little botanic spark in your heart   On this day in 1982, a little movie about a botanist was released.   It was about a group of alien botanists secretly visit Earth under cover of night to gather plant specimens in a California forest. When government agents appear on the scene, the aliens flee in their spaceship, but in their haste, one of them is left behind. In a suburban neighborhood in the San Fernando Valley, a ten-year-old boy named Elliott discovers something is hiding in their tool shed.   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. ET demonstrates its powers by reviving dead chrysanthemums.   In the end, E.T. says goodbye to Michael and Gertie, as she presents him with the chrysanthemum that he had revived. Before boarding the spaceship, he embraces Elliott and tells him "I'll be right here", pointing his glowing finger to Elliott's forehead. He then picks up the chrysanthemum, boards the spaceship, and it takes off, leaving a rainbow in the sky as everyone watches it leave.