Good news, my Asahi Zuru passed the scratch test…it’s still alive. I just had to scrape various limbs and twigs to find the tender green living layer beneath the thin bark to know that the maple was still alive. I can’t wait to see it leaf out in spring.
All posts by epicureasian
The gardening bug hits again
Well, living in an apartment certainly has not quelled my fancy for gardening. I bought an Asahi Zuru acer palmatum 5-gallon specimen late October 2008 from Forestfarm. In the transport, it went into shock and dropped all its leaves. I potted it and left it in my shady patio, and all winter long I made sure to water it weekly. Of course now that it’s February, and the weather has become pleasant again, I’m filled with dread and anxiety that I am stuck with another skeleton of a Japanese Maple. This weekend I’ll be inspecting the tree for deadwood and will do some careful pruning to hopefully ease the burden on it. I found some very good cultivation and pruning guides at Davidsans and Oregonlive.
I’ve also been shopping around for Calla lilies to try on the patio. Both PacificCallas.com and ZCallas.com appear to possess a good selection of bulbs to try. I’m thinking I’d like to find some red and orange flowering varieties to go with my red salvias. But the blush, pink and white of the japanese maple begs for some calla coordination as well.
Also, another upside to my shady patio: I can now give caladiums a try!
Who would’ve thought I would be resurrecting the gardening section of this site?
Charleston Cheesecake
I didn’t get to sample much of the local cuisine on my trip to SC this weekend, but I did manage to consume something that had “Charleston” in its name. Apparently it’s a signature dessert on many a Charleston menu…so it must be decidedly very “Charleston-ish”. Charleston cheesecake seemed to be largely caramel-based, something apparently found in great abundance in South Carolina. The cheesy creaminess had a dark brown sugar cast to it, caramel pervades the entire dish. Something I was pleased to find out: Charleston cheesecake pairs wonderfully with strawberries.
Import into WordPress 2.7.1
I’m in awe of the newly redesigned WordPress 2.7.1. The import of old posts went smoothly. Installing plugins is now such a breeze! The mass ‘port of the old blog into the new site is largely complete. Thanks to the following MySQL snippet that I used quite heavily, I’ve cleaned up most of the links referring back to the old host and old domain. Gotta love MySQL.
UPDATE table_name SET column_name = REPLACE(column_name,"original_text","replace_text")
Next on the to-do list: galleries!
5000 Calories of DOOM!
It’s the Bacon Explosion–but you’ll die happy with a big grin on your bbq-sauce-smeared face.