wandering song of

Ballad of America

Wanderin’: About the Song

Historical background.

It is estimated that in the last decade of the 19th century approximately 60,000 hoboes, tramps, and bums stole rides around the country on railroad cars without paying the fare. Their ranks steadily increased, peaking during the Depression in the twentieth century when they numbered approximately one million. The fortunate ones traveled in empty boxcars, but often hoboes could be found on the catwalk on top of a freight car or on the narrow steel ledge between cars. Sometimes they even hung precariously below the cars, only inches above the track.

Many people hopped trains because they could not find a job, were broke, and wanted to start anew in another location. For some, however, riding the rails became a way of life.

Song History

"Wanderin'" grew out of an Irish melody and the experiences of these wayfaring Americans at the turn of the 20th century.

I've been wanderin' early and late From New York City to the Golden Gate And it looks like I'm never gonna cease my wanderin'

My daddy is an engineer, my brother drives a hack My sister takes in washing and the baby balls the jack And it looks like I'm never gonna cease my wanderin'

Been a-workin' in the city, been a-workin' on the farm And all I've got to show for it is the muscle in my arm And it looks like I'm never gonna cease my wanderin'

Snakes in the ocean, eels in the sea A redheaded woman made a fool out of me And it looks like I'm never gonna cease my wanderin'

I've been wanderin' far and wide I come with the wind, and I drift with the tide And it looks like I'm never gonna cease my wanderin'

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Screen Rant

What song plays at the start & end of the rings of power episode 5.

A song plays during the beginning and the end of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power episode 5. Here's what it is and who sings it.

Warning: Spoilers for The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power episode 5

A song played over the first few minutes and the ending of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power episode 5. Music has always been important to The Lords of The Rings movies, and it seems that the same will be the case with Amazon’s show. The Rings of Power comes with its own original songs.

The Rings of Power episode 5’s song was tied to the Harfoots’ journey in the episode. As Nori explained to the Stranger, migration is a key part of the Harfoots’ way of life, which is why they headed off to the grove, all the while passing by several Middle-earth locations along the way, including the Grey Marshes, the Braids, and more. Described as her “ mom’s walking song ”, it was sung by Poppy Proudfellow to pass the time as they embarked on their adventure. Just prior to the credits, it was heard again when Númenor’s three ships left the harbor for Middle-earth.

RELATED: Every Character In The Rings Of Power Who Can Become A Ringwraith

The song in question is titled “This Wandering Day”. As the show itself indicated, it was sung by Poppy Proudfellow actress Megan Richards. It was composed by Bear McCreary, who handled the soundtrack for The Rings of Power . “This Wandering Day” was written specifically for the show, but it’s worth noting that some of the lyrics are rooted in J.R.R. Tolkien’s work. The song ends with “ that not all who are wonder or wander are lost ”. This ties back to The Fellowship of The Ring . “ Not all those who wander are lost ” is a line in the “Riddle of the Strider” poem found in the book.

The Rings Of Power Episode 5 Song Continues A LOTR Tradition

The decision to insert a song like “This Wandering Day” into the story of The Rings of Power episode 5 fits with a tradition started by Peter Jackson’s The Lords of the Rings movies and later carried on by The Hobbit films. Both trilogies had a tendency to rely on original songs performed by characters in the cast, and typically, the lyrics were inspired by Tolkien’s work. The Return of the King , for instance, saw Liv Tyler’s Arwen sing a song of her own. There’s also the tavern song sung by Merry and Pippin in the same movie, and the dwarven song in The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey.

Given what’s come before, it makes sense for The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power to make its own contribution to the library of original songs associated with the franchise. “This Wandering Day” works with what’s come before, and also compliments two of the episode’s featured storylines. Not only does it fit the Harfoots’ migration, but it also suits the ending, as it too involves characters making a long and perilous trip through Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings world .

The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power releases new episodes on Fridays on Amazon Prime Video.

The Song of Wandering Aengus Summary & Analysis by William Butler Yeats

• Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis
• Poetic Devices
• Vocabulary & References
• Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme
• Line-by-Line Explanations

First printed in 1897 and collected in The Wind Among the Reeds (1899), W. B. Yeats's "The Song of Wandering Aengus" is a dramatic monologue about burning and thwarted passion. Written in the voice of Aengus (a god of love and youth in Irish mythology), it tells the tale of a magical fish that turns into a beautiful girl and runs away. The infatuated Aengus wanders the earth in pursuit of this girl, growing old but never giving up his search. As a kind of miniature fable, the poem suggests how unrequited love—or any other unattainable dream—can both exhaust a person's energies and nourish a person's imagination.

• Read the full text of “The Song of Wandering Aengus”

The Full Text of “The Song of Wandering Aengus”

1 I went out to the hazel wood,

2 Because a fire was in my head,

3 And cut and peeled a hazel wand,

4 And hooked a berry to a thread;

5 And when white moths were on the wing,

6 And moth-like stars were flickering out,

7 I dropped the berry in a stream

8 And caught a little silver trout.

9 When I had laid it on the floor

10 I went to blow the fire a-flame,

11 But something rustled on the floor,

12 And someone called me by my name:

13 It had become a glimmering girl

14 With apple blossom in her hair

15 Who called me by my name and ran

16 And faded through the brightening air.

17 Though I am old with wandering

18 Through hollow lands and hilly lands,

19 I will find out where she has gone,

20 And kiss her lips and take her hands;

21 And walk among long dappled grass,

22 And pluck till time and times are done,

23 The silver apples of the moon,

24 The golden apples of the sun.

“The Song of Wandering Aengus” Summary

“the song of wandering aengus” themes.

Infatuation, Beauty, and Obsession

• See where this theme is active in the poem.

Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “The Song of Wandering Aengus”

I went out to the hazel wood, Because a fire was in my head, And cut and peeled a hazel wand, And hooked a berry to a thread;

And when white moths were on the wing, And moth-like stars were flickering out, I dropped the berry in a stream And caught a little silver trout.

When I had laid it on the floor I went to blow the fire a-flame, But something rustled on the floor, And someone called me by my name:

Lines 13-16

It had become a glimmering girl With apple blossom in her hair Who called me by my name and ran And faded through the brightening air.

Lines 17-20

Though I am old with wandering Through hollow lands and hilly lands, I will find out where she has gone, And kiss her lips and take her hands;

Lines 21-24

And walk among long dappled grass, And pluck till time and times are done, The silver apples of the moon, The golden apples of the sun.

“The Song of Wandering Aengus” Symbols

• See where this symbol appears in the poem.

Silver Trout

“The Song of Wandering Aengus” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language

• See where this poetic device appears in the poem.

Parallelism

Alliteration, juxtaposition, “the song of wandering aengus” vocabulary.

Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.

• On the wing
• Apple blossom
• See where this vocabulary word appears in the poem.

Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “The Song of Wandering Aengus”

Rhyme scheme, “the song of wandering aengus” speaker, “the song of wandering aengus” setting, literary and historical context of “the song of wandering aengus”, more “the song of wandering aengus” resources, external resources.

The Poet's Life and Work — Read a short bio of Yeats, along with other Yeats poems, at Poets.org.

The Poem Read Aloud — Hear a reading of the poem by actor Michael Gambon.

"Aengus" in Song — Listen to a 1971 adaptation of the poem by folk singer Donovan.

Yeats, Nobel Laureate — Browse an exhibit on Yeats, winner of the 1923 Nobel Prize in Literature, at Nobel.org.

The Many Sides of Yeats — Read the Poetry Foundation's introduction to the various phases of Yeats's career.

Yeats Reads His Work — Listen to a rare recording of W. B. Yeats reading his poetry aloud.

LitCharts on Other Poems by William Butler Yeats

Adam's Curse

Among School Children

An Irish Airman Foresees his Death

A Prayer for my Daughter

Easter, 1916

In Memory of Eva Gore-Booth and Con Markievicz

Lapis Lazuli

Leda and the Swan

Sailing to Byzantium

September 1913

The Lake Isle of Innisfree

The Second Coming

The Wild Swans at Coole

When You Are Old

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The Best Songs With Wander in the Title

I Wonder as I Wander

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How Long Must I Wander

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How now, spirit, whither wander you?

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My Heart Won't Wander Very Far From You

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The Song of Wandering Aengus

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I went out to the hazel wood,   Because a fire was in my head,   And cut and peeled a hazel wand,   And hooked a berry to a thread;   And when white moths were on the wing, And moth-like stars were flickering out,   I dropped the berry in a stream   And caught a little silver trout.  

When I had laid it on the floor   I went to blow the fire a-flame, But something rustled on the floor,   And someone called me by my name:   It had become a glimmering girl   With apple blossom in her hair   Who called me by my name and ran And faded through the brightening air.  

Though I am old with wandering   Through hollow lands and hilly lands,   I will find out where she has gone,   And kiss her lips and take her hands; And walk among long dappled grass,   And pluck till time and times are done,   The silver apples of the moon,   The golden apples of the sun.

This poem is in the public domain.

More by this poet

Leda and the swan.

A sudden blow: the great wings beating still Above the staggering girl, her thighs caressed By the dark webs, her nape caught in his bill, He holds her helpless breast upon his breast.

A Prayer for my Daughter

Once more the storm is howling, and half hid Under this cradle-hood and coverlid My child sleeps on. There is no obstacle But Gregory's wood and one bare hill Whereby the haystack- and roof-levelling wind, Bred on the Atlantic, can be stayed; And for an hour I have walked and prayed

The Stolen Child

Where dips the rocky highland Of Sleuth Wood in the lake, There lies a leafy island Where flapping herons wake The drowsy water rats; There we've hid our faery vats, Full of berrys And of reddest stolen cherries. Come away, O human child!

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Why is Trump giving someone a ‘key to the White House’?

From Jan. 20, 2017, until Jan. 20, 2021, Donald Trump was president of the United States. This is a position that includes many perks, offered to the person who was selected by American voters to serve as chief executive. Perhaps the most impressive of those perks is use of the White House, the executive mansion — a residence and office building that serves as a command center for whoever receives a majority of the electoral votes cast in the most recent election.

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Trump never seemed to consider his occupation of the White House as transitory any more than he considered the presidency in that way. He looked at both as though they were pieces of property that had come into his possession and that he could only lose if he chose to do so. Because the White House belongs to the American public, not any particular politician, presidents had for years been careful about keeping electoral politics out of the building. Not Trump. He gave his 2020 convention speech from the building.

“The fact is, we are here” — that is, the White House — “and they’re not,” Trump said . “To me, one of the most beautiful buildings anywhere in the world that is not a building, it’s a home as far as I’m concerned. Not even a house, it's a home.”

Trump’s sense of ownership of the building extended even to a souvenir he had created: a “key to the White House.” In his book “Breaking History,” Trump adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushner described the tchotchke.

“When Trump met with [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu], he whipped out his signature gift — an oversize bronze ‘key to the White House’ in a wooden box carved with the presidential seal. Trump had designed the key himself to give to special guests.” " ‘This is the first key I’m giving to anyone,’ he said. ‘Even when I’m not president anymore, you can walk up to the front gate of the White House and present it, and they will let you in.’ " — "Breaking History," Jared Kushner

Kushner writes that he “tried to keep from laughing” at the presentation. Understandably. It is not the case that presidents can simply grant other people lifetime access to the White House. Not only because of the security implications but, again, because the house isn’t the president’s to offer to others. Trump was allowed to stay there by the people; that grant isn’t transferrable.

But at least he was president then. At least he was living in the White House. That is no longer the case — so why's he still giving out those keys?

On Tuesday, Trump left the Manhattan courthouse where he’s attending his criminal trial and headed uptown to Trump Tower. There, he had a meeting with former Japanese prime minister Taro Aso. This was part of Trump’s increasingly explicit shadow-diplomacy efforts , his engagements with foreign leaders aimed at building relationships and positioning himself on the international stage as he seeks reelection to the presidency.

Trump's presidential campaign sent reporters a “readout” of his meeting with Aso — itself a mirror of how presidents summarize meetings with foreign leaders — and included the photo below.

Yes, Trump gave Aso a key to the White House. Whether he offered the same patter about Aso presenting the key at the White House gates is unknown. (A question sent to the campaign about the encounter did not receive a response.)

This is, simply put, bizarre. Mayors give out keys to their cities to noteworthy individuals as a symbolic gesture, but it seems safe to say that they generally stop doing so once they leave office. After all, the city isn’t theirs to offer up. Yet here’s Donald Trump, acting as though he’s simply renting out the White House to President Biden and letting Aso know that he’s welcome to stop by and use the bowling alley anyway.

Part of it, certainly, is Trump trying to give the impression he gave at the Republican convention in 2020: precisely that the power of the presidency is his, even if it’s somewhat out of reach for a moment. He’s just Napoleon Bonaparte, wandering the streets of Elba in his signature hat and giving people keys to the Élysée. He’d be back.

There’s an interesting footnote worth mentioning here. In September, one of these keys went up for auction , selling for about $3,700. The key came from “the personal collection of a very high-ranking member of President Donald Trump’s inner circle,” the auction site stated, noting that such keys were “specially made for and presented to foreign dignitaries and other VIPs during the Trump-Pence administration.” And afterward, it seems, as long as they were in stock. A better gift for Aso than sneakers or an NFT , certainly.

But the auction does raise an interesting question: Is $3,700 a fair price to pay for unlimited lifetime access to the White House?

Election 2024

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Who is running? President Biden and Donald Trump secured their parties’ nominations for the presidency , formalizing a general-election rematch.

Key dates and events: From January to June, voters in all states and U.S. territories will pick their party’s nominee for president ahead of the summer conventions. Here are key dates and events on the 2024 election calendar .

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Movie Interviews

'the old oak' follows a small english community amidst the arrival of syrian migrants.

Scott Simon

NPR's Scott Simon speaks to screenwriter Paul Laverty, whose latest collaboration with director Ken Loach is a film titled "The Old Oak."

SCOTT SIMON, HOST:

Ken Loach says "The Old Oak" is his final film after 56 years in the business. The Old Oak's an old pub in a desiccated English mining town in County Durham, where some locals feel uneasy when a group of refugees from war-blighted Syria arrive in 2016. A few people welcome them, offering friendship and support, but more seem to receive them with resentment, suspicion, even worse. They put them here, a character grouses, not Chelsea or Westminster.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "THE OLD OAK")

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #1: (As character) Are you going to explain? You didn't even tell us they were coming. When are you going to do that?

DAVE TURNER: (As Dave Turner) We'll be around...

CLAIRE RODGERSON: (As Laura) Listen.

TURNER: (As TJ Ballantyne) ...To explain to everybody.

RODGERSON: (As Laura) But they've got a good point, haven't they?

TURNER: (As TJ Ballantyne) I understand...

RODGERSON: (As Laura) You've got to admit they've got a good point.

TURNER: (As TJ Ballantyne) I understand what they're saying.

RODGERSON: (As Laura) Listen. Like, there's bairns on the bus.

SIMON: TJ, who owns the Old Oak, the last pub in town, is played by Dave Turner. Ebla Mari is Yara, a young refugee with whom he strikes up a friendship. And "The Old Oak" is written by Paul Laverty, who has written every Ken Loach film since 1996. He won the best screenplay award at the 2002 Cannes Film Festival for "Sweet Sixteen." And their film "The Wind That Shakes the Barley" won the 2006 Palme d'Or. Paul Laverty joins us now. Thanks so much for being with us.

PAUL LAVERTY: It's a great pleasure, Scott.

SIMON: Why did you and Ken Loach want to tell this story?

LAVERTY: You know, we've been working together for over 30 years now. And I suppose we knew this was going to be Ken's last film. He was actually turned 86 in the middle of the shoot and is due a rest. He's still as sharp and as bright as ever, but it takes a toll physically, you know, to direct a film, especially the way he does it. He doesn't delegate much. So we really did want to try and just examine the notion of hope and perhaps where we draw nutrition for each other in this mad world, this mad, violent world.

And it was remarkable wandering around these old ex-mining villages, which were once vibrant communities before the miner strike in 1984. It was just seeing how these communities had been decimated after Margaret Thatcher. And then Tony Blair, when he took over, you know, had allowed these communities just to fall into rack and ruin. And so the people who lived there felt that they had lost agency in their lives, lost control of their lives. They were angry and furious. And so when refugees came from Syria and landed there, and many people felt like, you know, why here? Why not in the richer areas? They've got more resources. There was a very mixed reception.

SIMON: It seems important in the film - I imagined you and Ken Loach - that the people in the pub not just be shown as a bunch of drinkers who are stereotypes of bigotry.

LAVERTY: Scott, thanks for saying that. And that was very, very important to us. Anyway, two-dimensional characters or thugs or racists or people who are just angry and furious - it's not very interesting, really, because it becomes just two-dimensional. But what I think is much more interesting is to kind of try and understand why decent people who are sophisticated and understand the world, how their sense of confidence has been worn away, how their sense of well-being, their sense of self-worth, their energy and their empathy for people has been worn down.

SIMON: And how do you get hold of what the people from Syria have been through?

LAVERTY: Well, I think the first obligation is really to listen to them. And then we met some remarkable people there who had just unimaginable lives. I suppose we are dealing with two traumatized communities, but we're not trying to say that the ones of the working class in the U.K. are anywhere near the trauma of these people who have just suffered war. We're not trying to make some specious equation out of that. I mean, what they've gone through in Syria is just unimaginable, you know, just industrial-scale torture and murder of the most brutal kind. And everyone who is in the film was from Syria, apart from Ebla, who played Yara, the main Syrian character.

SIMON: Ebla Mari.

LAVERTY: Ebla Mari, yes. She's a wonderful young woman. She is the only person who is a professional actor. She comes from a theatrical background. All the rest of the Syrians in the film have actually, you know, had to flee Syria because of the war. And Ebla - she actually comes from the Golan Heights, and she actually looks over Syria. She comes from a Druze community. You know, Arabic, obviously, her first language. Her accent was slightly different from her Syrian friends in the film. But she spent a lot of time with them and worked with them on her accent.

SIMON: You and Ken Loach like to work with people who haven't been in films before.

LAVERTY: What Ken has always said from the very beginning - I remember this when we met the very, very first time - was that the casting procedure was really trying to give flesh and blood to the characters as best we can, as imagined in the screenplay. Sometimes, that will be very, very experienced, you know, actors. Cillian Murphy was in our film "The Wind That Shakes the Barley," for example, an actor with tremendous range.

And sometimes, it's people who have never acted before. In this case, we found a wonderful character called Dave Turner. Dave had only done a couple of scenes in our two previous films. But he's a man of great hinterland. He was an ex-trade unionist. He was in the fire brigades union, a man of great sensitivity, and he totally understands the world of TJ Ballantyne, the fictional character. And he even works in a pub. He lives in that area. His accent was perfect. But he understands it in his blood. He hardly needs to think about it, so his instinct was great.

SIMON: Why do you think there seem to be relatively few films about working-class people?

LAVERTY: Well, I think, like in every aspect of our lives, I think you have to examine where power lies. Who has the finance? Who has the money? And let's face it - we live in a world which is dictated by corporations, and then so profit is everything. So perhaps people don't want to make films that celebrate the working class for obvious reasons. Very seldom is the collective celebrated or dug into for the great stories that it has to offer us. But it's a great pity because Ken often says that films should be like a good library where you have a great expanse of different types of books. And unfortunately, I don't think we see that in film and certainly not film that gets properly distributed.

SIMON: I want to ask you about a very quiet and moving scene...

TURNER: (As TJ Ballantyne) Your dolls are very pretty.

SIMON: ...Where a young Syrian girl shows TJ her dolls.

TURNER: (As TJ Ballantyne) Do they have names?

EBLA MARI: (As Yara, speaking Arabic).

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #2: (As character) Rahat, Rafif, Sham, Shahad, Amara (ph).

SIMON: What put that scene in your mind?

LAVERTY: And I'm glad you mentioned that scene, Scott. That's just one of these little gifts that come to you, I suppose, when you're trying to dramatize trauma, I suppose. That scene came out of talking to kids who missed their friends because it's like some great big iron fist has smashed into the country, and people have been scattered around the world to the four winds, and they've all ended up in different countries and different spots in the world. But these kids have lost their precious friendships.

What you try to do when you're writing, I suppose, is to write things that seem seamless, that might touch you but also give you insight into the imagination of a child. So, you know, the actual Syrian children in the film just come from local schools close by. The mother - she lives in a little village close by, too. She was really at the heart of the story. So what we found was just remarkable people who shared their lives with us, who gave, you know, flesh and blood to the story.

SIMON: Speaking of flesh and blood, so this is the last film you and Ken Loach will do, you're sure?

LAVERTY: I think so, Scott. I think we've made about 14 feature films together now. So I'd like to see the glass as half full. We've had the most remarkable run together doing films all over the world. And so it's been an absolute privilege for me to work with Ken and also our wonderful producer Rebecca O'Brien, who makes it all possible for us. So rather than mourn it, I'd celebrate just the wonderful journey we've had.

SIMON: Paul Laverty, screenwriter for Ken Loach's new and maybe last film, "The Old Oak." Thank you so much for being with us.

LAVERTY: Great pleasure, Scott, and thank you for having me on your program.

(SOUNDBITE OF BILL FRISELL'S "FARMER")

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Home + Garden | Why the colorful blooms of this water-wise…

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Things To Do

Home + garden, home + garden | why the colorful blooms of this water-wise plant make it ideal for gardens, plus, why it's ok to be nasty to nasturtiums..

5 things to do in the garden this week:  

1. If at all possible, do not plant tomatoes in the same spot from one year to the next. They will bear much better if they are planted in an area that has not been home to growing tomatoes for at least a year or two, and preferably more. Rotate tomatoes with corn or sunflowers and then plant cabbage or kale in that spot in the fall. If you insist on planting tomatoes in the same spot from one year to the next, you can get away with it by planting in five-gallon containers that are then sunk into the ground. Containers that are submerged in this way will not require the same watering frequency as when they are situated on a hot patio or wooden deck and, in any case, could still be watered with the same drip system they would utilize if their roots were wandering through the soil below.

2. If you are in search of a plant to border your property that gives an abundance of multi-colored blooms and, once established, needs little, if any, water, consider the butterfly rose (Rosa mutabilis). I have had three of them growing along the edge of my front yard for almost two decades. At full size, they reach eight feet tall and wide. Mine get mildewy every few years whereupon I cut them back almost to the ground. Soon they are growing again and will reach six feet in a year’s time. The butterfly rose has many facets to its beauty. Quite possibly unique among flowering plants, the blooms of the butterfly rose change color from sulfur yellow to apricot to pink to crimson. Imagine looking at all these colors at once against a background of invariably five-leaflet leaves on mahogany red stems. Incidentally, butterfly roses nod on the stem and, at times, resemble the eponymous fluttering lepidopterans although they do not attract butterflies themselves. Blooms may be seen in all four seasons.

3. Butterfly bushes (Buddleia spp.), however, do attract butterflies and are more magnetic in this respect than any other plant. The National Garden Bureau has declared 2024 to be the year of the butterfly bush. The reason for this is the unprecedented interest in the hybridization of this plant. New varieties are appearing all the time, including dwarf species such as those in the Chrysalis series that grow only 30 inches tall and some — such as Blue Chip and Pink Micro Chip — that are are no more than two feet tall by two feet wide and are small enough to be grown in hanging baskets. The Cascade Collection shows off varieties reaching six feet in height with fat, 14-inch-long flower wands that completely obscure the plants’ foliage when in bloom. Butterfly bushes are not water-needy and flower from spring until fall. 

4. Last winter, I had my grandchildren plant nasturtium seeds. These are the largest of all flower seeds and are a great way to get kids interested in gardening, not least because of the abundance of blooms they follow. The saying “Be nasty to nasturtiums” reveals the secret to their flower power, which is absolute neglect where fertilization is concerned since applying nitrogen — the main fertilizer constituent — will result in explosive vegetative or foliar growth at the expense of flower production. Not only do kids love to gather Nasturtium flowers, but they are pleasantly surprised by the fact that both flowers and leaves are edible. The peppery flavor of nasturtiums resembles that of watercress, whose botanical name is Nasturtium. In truth, the yellow- and orange-flowered nasturtium — which is closely related to the Brassicas or cole crops, explaining why cabbage moths hover around it — has no botanical relationship to watercress but was given its name due to the similar taste of the different species’ leaves. Plant nasturtium seeds now and you will see flowers in as little as 30 days.

5. Now is the time to plant an olive tree. At one time, the San Fernando Valley was the center of the olive industry in California. In Sylmar, you can still see the remnants of what, in the 1920s, was the world’s largest olive grove, a 2,000-acre spread that yielded thousands of tons of fruit and 50,000 gallons of olive oil annually. Grow your tree in fast-draining soil or plant it in a container or trained up flat against a wall as an espalier. Roots are shallow and must be handled with care when planting. Self-fruitful varieties, not needing another variety to produce a crop, are available but they will produce more fruit with another olive variety planted nearby. The tree needs no water once established and has foliage that shines with a silvery glow from a distance. If you consider its fruit to be a messy nuisance rather than an edible once properly brined and cured, fruitless varieties are available. There is also a dwarf known as Little Ollie that is highly popular as a shrub. 

Please send your gardening questions, comments and tips to [email protected] . 

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