Spring planting 2012

Saturday Chris and I decided that it was time to plant our spring garden. So while he watched the two kiddos, I went to work. Let me just say how I miss being outside with my feet squished in the mud with gloves on my hands as I reconnect with the life force that is Mother Nature! I swear I could feel the plants in the back yard call out greetings to me as I walked around watering. It was like a buzzing in my head, an excitement of all the living things around me clamoring to tell me about what they have been up to.I think I may have even laughed out loud in glee!

So I transplanted my jalapeno peppers, bell peppers, tomatoes, oregano and basil. Here is a picture:

The tomatoes are in the back, the jalapeno peppers are in the front, followed by the bell peppers. Behind them are the basil and oregano (it got cut of by the camera)

This is a beautiful azalea bloom. We planted these around the pond that Chris dug out.

My beautiful rose bush got it's first two blooms! I have had this bush for three years, and every year it keeps giving me more and more roses. They smell so sweet, are so bright and grow pretty tall!

My blueberry bush is already starting to get some blooms. This one yielded one crop last year, but my fingers are crossed that it produces more this year. I am buying two more at UT's GreenFest, so it will have plants to cross pollinate with.

And here is a side view of my tomatoes :)

That is all for now!

Herb spotlight- rosemary

This is my second installment of my spotlight feature, where I take certain herbs, flowers or plants and just talk about it.I am going to try to stick to Florida friendly plants, so my southern followers will be able to take what I write and use it in their own yards :)

So today I want to talk about rosemary. This is the first thing three years ago that I planted and had it actually survive! Everything else had wilted away and ended up in the compost heap, but this little herb stayed strong. It's another perennial, as are most herbs, so make sure you put it somewhere that you want it for years to come. Plant it in the early spring so it can become established before any cold sets in. It can be grown in a container on your window sill or right in your ground. Be careful, giant 6 foot wide 5 foot tall rosemary bushes are not unheard of! They prefer lots of sun, and don't like to be fussed with. If you forget to water it, rosemary is a very forgiving plant :)

Rosemary has very pretty dark green pointed leaves. The fragrance is unmistakable: it's bold, heavy and very perfumey, almost like eucalyptus. Just brushing your fingers along one will get lots of plant oils on your hand.

It has many culinary uses. I like to put a few sprigs of fresh rosemary in scrambled eggs, but it is also good in lamb, chicken and potatoes. Medicinally, it's used sort of like mint, in that it is believed to help improve memory function and stimulate circulation.

Rosemary is a great starter plant. It is beautiful, fragrant, loves the Florida heat, tolerates some drought, and hates to be fussed with. So head out to your local nursery and pick up a plant or two today :)

Local gardener on the news

Here is my friend on the news talking about her gardens!

Some photos of life in my yard

Tonight I thought I'd share some photos of what I have waking up in my back yard :)

Here is my blueberry bush. I am not quite sure what these white buds are, as this wasn't productive last year. I think they may eventually turn into blueberries.

This one surprised me! This bush is about 2 years old. It produced quite a few flowers last year, but it has grown much taller in this past month. I looked at it and saw that I had two blooms that were forming. I didn't know roses could bloom this early! Anyone have advice on how to help the plant not collapse under the weight of it's blooms?

Just showcasing my beautiful wind chime I got at mystic goddess :)  it's one of the smaller, lighter sounding ones. It literally goes "tink tink tink" I love it!

My romaine lettuce! I thought it was dying, so I didn't bother to plant it. But look at it! Imagine if I actually had it in the ground!

This is my squash and zucchini plant. I thought the cold snap got them, but then they just started to sprout these yellow flowers? Does that mean they will fruit soon?

 This is a lone jalapeno pepper plant, going strong!

This is my crazy pot of beefsteak tomatoes. I want to plant them so I can put a cage around them, but I am waiting until the danger of frost has passed (the keen eye will have spotted a squash plant in there too ;)

Here are the rest of my peppers. On the left is green pepper and on the right is jalapeno. They ae doing great!

So that's what I've got going on. What does your garden look like?

Make your own cleaning solution

Cleaning products are a necessary evil. You need to use something to clean your house with, but I for one do not like the nasty chemicals found in many of the ones sold in stores. They smell like chemicals (not fresh to me) and aren't very good for the environment. Now that I have two children, I don't want them to be exposed to all that stuff if I can help it. So I sat down and looked up how to make my own cleaners. Much of the ingredients were things I had around my house anyway. I decided to make an all purpose cleaner to use on my kitchen counter and table. Here is how I did it:

**Ingredients:
2 tablespoons of white distilled vinegar
2 teaspoons of Borax
2 teaspoons of baking soda
Enough hot water to fill your spray bottle
1/4 teaspoon of Castile soap or 1/8 teaspoon of natural dish soap
A few drops of essential oil

Mix the vinegar and Borax in your spray bottle until dissolved. Add hot water almost to the top of your container. Add your soap and essential oil and give it a good shake to mix it. You don't need the essential oil, but as I stated in my last blog lavender has natural antibacterial properties. Plus it masks any lingering vinegar smells. Voila! You now have yourself an environmentally safe, all natural all purpose cleaner for your house :)

Herb spotlight- lavender

I want start posting occasionally about specific plants. Some of you reading this may be thinking hey, I know all I need to about gardening! Well just sit back and relax, and I will do my best to entertain!

Today I want to talk about my favorite herb: lavender. There is nothing like the smell of fresh lavender after the rain. It is a perennial, meaning it will come back year after year. It prefers a warm climate, since it is native to the Mediterranean area. The less you fuss with it the happier it will be. Water it every 3-4 days or so, and give it 6+ hours of sunlight every day. If you are kind enough to it, it can get 40 inches tall and even be used as a hedge. Otherwise it's just as happy in a pot on your front porch.

Lavender has culinary uses. It is very versatile, as it can add to the flavor and appearance of a dish. I think it has a sweet taste, almost bitter if you use too much. Use it in sweets and desserts, or in dishes like Indian or Chinese if you want to give it a surprising sweet kick.

Lavender can also be used medicinally. It is believed that smelling the aroma of lavender has a calming effect on the nervous system by lower blood pressure and triggering calming chemicals in the brain. Many products on the market exist that are marketed as "calming" or "sleep aid" that actually contain lavender. Lavender can also be used for it''s antiseptic properties. I know I add a few drops of lavender essential oil to my daughter's wet cloth diaper pail, and it not only freshens them but also kills bacteria on them naturally. You can also dry the flower heads and use them in potpourri.

If you decide to grow lavender, know that it is extremely hard to start from seed. The seeds are as tiny as a pinhead, and do not germinate easily. I got mine from a local nursery. Make sure it gets plenty of sun, and do not over water it.

Until next time friends!

Garden under construction

I came home today, and to my surprise, Chris had hooked up our rain barrel and drawn up plans and started building a water area in our back yard! We had received a pond from a friend of ours, and it has sat in our back yard for about two years now. I am glad we will finally be able to put it to use! The space faces east and gets the morning sun until about 12:00. Here it was being built:

Here is Chris and Piper in a carrier:

Here are the plants he picked out, azalea bushes, yellow and white shasta daisies, and delpheniums:

This is our vision of the space:

I think we will keep the pond as just an ornamental thing for now. We still have to install a rain gutter over this area to keep it from eroding every time it rains. Also, that border is temporary. We will probably buy a plastic or stone border and make it the same shape as the pond. I love how misshapen and  unusual it is.

While he worked on that, I got my 18 bags of rich compost and soil and started adding it to my two raised beds. Chris bought a drip hose, so that we could snake it through our veggies and water them without soaking the leaves and eroding the soil.

Spring gardening is in full swing!

Final tally

Results of last nights' freeze: tomato, peppers, poppy flowers, all herbs, rose bushes, gardenia, aloe, and baby crepe myrtles made it. Squash and zucchini did not :(  the large myrtle is dormant and just a bunch of sticks, so only time will tell with that. Also, my frangipani looks fine, but I cannot tell if it is okay on the inside. I know they are sensitive plants, so fingers crossed with those. My bougainvillea was half dormant, and has some lingering flowers. It looks exactly the same as it did a few days ago so I guess it made it as well. Being so close to the beach helps me I suppose. I consider myself lucky!

Cold February night

Once again we are under a freeze warning in the Bay area tonight. I don't remember it ever getting this cold so late in the year, but then again we had an unseasonably warm January. So my potted tomatoes, peppers, squash and zucchini are all on the back porch (yes I decided to make cookies instead of planting). I need to venture out and cover my gardenia, as they are still quite young. And my frangi pani as well, those things are extremely cold sensitive plants (being native to the tropics and all).

The unfortunate part of it all is that the warm temps last month "tricked" a lot of the local plants into waking up. My dormant baby crepe myrtles have tiny little green leaves on them, my rose bush has two buds, and my blueberry bush and apple tree have already have blossoms. I am crossing my fingers that this last cold snap doesn't stave off my new growth! I guess tomorrow morning will tell. At least it's supposed to go up to 60* all week next week.

Oh, here are the cookies I made with my son and my mom:

Freezing tonight?

Wow, I step away from the weather updates for a few days and it takes a turn for the cold! Well, cold for us anyway :) check this out:

My dilemma: I really want to plant my sprouts. I have tried twice now and something has always come up. I have 4 tomato plants, 8 pepper plants, 4 zucchini plants, and 4 squash plants. I even arranged for my mom to come over and watch the kiddos so I could give it my undivided attention. I guess I will make my decision when I wake up in the morning...

Grown with love

Today I went to a baby shower for a high school friend. She is a budding fellow gardener who loves organic food and generally being "green". After much thought, I decided that I wanted to make her gift instead of buying it. She had mentioned that she wanted to grow her own lavender. I toyed with the idea of giving her lavender seeds, but I know from experience that they are extremely hard to grow from seed. So I went to Willow Tree Nursery and picked up a lavender plant (along with a few things for me!) and a ceramic pot. To make it more special I decided to paint the pot. I included her name, her wife's name and baby Olivia's name, 3 bees (the theme for their nursery) and a giant flower. I'm definitely no artist, but here is how it turned out:

I think it turned out pretty good, and it was fun to do too :)

Gardening Hall of Fame

Hello all! Spring is starting to creep in (I will write about that once I get some good photos!) and we gardeners are busy getting our beds ready and tilled. One of my friends runs a great blog about urban farming with a family, raising chickens, growing heirloom seeds and connecting with nature called Gardening Adventures. She is so great, in fact, that someone from News Channel 8 ran across her blog and mentioned it to the station manager, who decided to do a piece on her garden!! The news crew comes out tomorrow morning, and the piece should be running some time in the next week. Stay tuned, I will have more information soon. In the meantime, check out her blog!

The sky is falling!

My husband and I have two lovely friends who each own chickens. Chris has always wanted chickens, and even has names picked out for them! I, on the other hand, was like 98% of the population and considered them to be dirty and pointless. I grew up with tales of how farm animals have all sorts of crazy diseases, like salmonella and e. coli, and how dirty they are. It's hard to shake that. However, seeing how much fun our two fiends have, and how easy it looked, I have begun to warm to the idea. I mean, who doesn't want eggs at their disposal every morning? Plus I think my children would really have fun with them. From what I saw of my friends' chickens, they seem very entertaining and full of personality. And ever since last month it is legal to own chickens in my county. We have the space in the back yard, and now is a great time to buy chicks. I borrowed two book from my friend Chris (not hubby, a friend) and she sent me numerous sites all about living with and raising chickens. Very informative! I think my problem is that I am a little overwhelmed at the myriad of choices of breeds and coups and feed. I told Chris (hubby this time) that I would need some help with research this time.

So my question to you my readers is: can anyone recommend a good small breed that is generally easy going? What kind of shelter do they need and how big does it need to be? Is 2 okay or do I need 3 or more for them to be happy? Where do I buy them from? Any tips on having children and other animals around them? Thanks!