Patience of Gardening

Song - Harvest Moon by Neil Young

Happy Fall

"A garden is a grand teacher.  

 It teaches patience and careful watchfulness; 

it teaches industry and thrift; 

above all it teaches entire trust." 

 – Gertrude Jekyll

Sound Waves in the West

Song - Radio Nowhere by Bruce Springsteen

Something you probably didn't know about me .....

............that I was a radio announcer in 1973.....

....kind of.....

I went to Foothill College in Los Altos Hills for two years majoring in Ornamental Horticulture.  And during that time I was asked to be the "call in girl" on the college radio station "Tips on Gardening". 

I would take the calls from the public about gardening problems or questions and relay them to one of my professors, Chuck Konigsberg who would then discuss the situation.

It was an early morning show on Sunday's so in reality we occasionally didn't get enough calls to fill out the entire time slot so we had a page of prearranged questions to "fake it"!!!

I guess this is where you learn to lie.......college.  

"Yes Chuck, I have a call from Sally who is having a problem with aphids on her tomatoes.  What would you suggest?"

By the way, my garden is in full bloom right now and I'm loving it! 

Come on by and have a peek!!

"As every radio listener knows, it's amazing how much 

you can see with your ears." 

 -- Ashleigh Brilliant

A Little Garden in the Woods

Song - Ain't No Sunshine by Aaron Neville

On Sunday Mr. B had his baseball draft at our home.

This is his presentation of the condiments.

This is his Wild Venison Chili (served with Wild Boar Sausages) Mmmm....

This is Mr. B calmly studying his baseball stats before the crowd arrives

 because his party was kept simple.

This is my presentation.

Silver, 

linen tablecloth, 

bouquets, 

candles, 

handwritten place cards, 

games for the kids

and

clean bathrooms!

This is my "keep it simple" meal.

(This is just the ice water and the dessert....I am always too busy to snap a shot of the meal!)

You won't find a photo of me calmly doing anything prior to a party 

because it never turns out simple!  

I wonder why? 

But afterwards I'll be in a horizontal position on the couch with a glass of wine!

So on Sunday I left the men-folk to their important business of drafting a fantasy baseball team, while I headed down to the Santa Cruz cabin to do a little gardening. Mika came along as my assistant.

 

I replanted the large ferns next to the cabin where we had transplanted them about 6 months ago to do some work on the cabin.

Mom's Five-Finger Ferns are doing beautifully.

I put in three new Mother Ferns and transplanted several Spider Plants in between. 

 

Then I planted Foam Flowers (which love the shade) along with some Begonias 

in front of the living room window. 

 I planted 3 six-packs of Mckana Giant Columbines along a semi-sunny side of the cabin. They grow those beautiful long-spurred blooms and will reseed for next year. 


 

Wax Leaf Begonia which can grow in sun or shade.

Mika and I had a wonderful day in Santa Cruz and Mr. B's party was a big success.

Now it has stormed for the last two days.  I hope my little flowers don't get washed away.....

"Happiness often sneaks in through a door you didn't know you left open." -- John Barrymore

Tranquil Tuesday

 Song - Kiss From a Rose by Seal

I just love Apple blossoms!

This week we have been walking around the yard and enjoying the beauty of Spring!  My favorite time to walk in the garden are early in the morning with breakfast in hand and late in the afternoon (with a glass of wine!) I do a little watering and weed pulling but mostly just enjoy the daily treats that are popping out all over.

I have already had a bouquet of roses in the house and it's only March 25th! But my rose garden is just full of beautiful buds.

The strawberries are blossoming and setting fruit. Mika is licking her lips!

I have a huge bouquet of white lilac's in our kitchen right now.  I finally found out how to keep them from wilting in the vase and it works!  Click here for the info.

Cherry blossoms

Baby figs are covering this little tree

Beautifully scented Freesia's

Of course the roses in the front yard have already be eaten by the deer as are my primroses and Hydrangeas!

The Foxgloves will be blooming later this week

Oh yes.....and the Dandelions are doing beautifully as well!

Spanish Bluebell

Yesterday Mr. B and I retrained our grapevines and Wisteria pouring over our pergola.

(this is the "before" photo of the grapes & Wisteria vines)

 (scratch and sniff right here!!!)

The birds are happy, the flowers are happy and I am happy to have inherited the gardening bug from both of my parents as well as my grandparents!

"The glory of gardening: hands in the dirt, head in the sun, heart with nature.  To nurture a garden is to feed not just on the body but the soul."  -- Alfred Austin

A Little Green Science Experiment

What do you do with old, outdated vitamins?

While trying to "simplify" my surroundings, I discovered that I had 20+ bottles of old, outdated vitamins.

So a couple of days ago, I decided to purge my old stash of vitamins.

I looked online (as I know it is not safe to flush them) and I found it interesting that several articles said to toss them in the trash. But then I came across one article about composting them!


Boy was it fun......I felt like I was in High School science lab all over again!

Pretty cool huh?

Things were bubbling and brewing all around me.  I had several bowls going at once. 

My son, Tyler walked in at one point and kind of rolled his eyes at me while pinching his nose.  I could just hear his mind thinking.....oh, oh, mom's totally lost it this time!

But before I passed this information along to you, I decided to check it all out with my friend Taya Monfried who has a blog on cooking and going green! 

Her blog is "Me and My Green Bin" 

 http://meandmygreenbin.blogspot.com/

Please drop by and say hello!

I though she could shed a little light on the subject.....so I asked her to do some research and to "Guest Blog" on the subject.  Here is what she has to say.........


"Last week Jeanette emailed me that she had decided to clear out her family's outdated vitamins.  She came across a website that advised her to "place them in hot water until they dissolve, add coffee grounds or kitty litter, place them in a ziplock bag and toss them in the garbage."  So in the spirit of curiosity and adventure, she followed the directions exactly and documented her little science experiment.

Sensing that there had to be a green alternative, she consulted her "Green Gal"--me. I immediately thought of composting them, so when I got done chuckling, I decided to check what the experts had to say.  Interestingly, in all my respected sources, there was zero information on the effect of vitamins added to compost.  Neither the comprehensive Rodale Book of Composting, nor The Berkeley Ecology Center, not my favorite guide, Composting for Dummies, had a word to say on the subject.

Finally, it was the Internet that provided some down to earth suggestions for vitamin disposal, and some novel ideas for their transformation - i.e. bead projects, noisemakers or a base for coloring paint.  Others discourage throwing them away at all, since it is debatable whether vitamin pills actually lose potency after their expiration date, which may be merely a gimmick used by manufacturers to sell more vitamins.

The Garden Web has a lively forum with opinions and suggestions on discarding and composting vitamins.  The participants maintain that since compost is, after all, a mélange of organic matter made up of kitchen scraps and lawn clippings, etc., why not add unwanted vitamins into the mix.  These little capsules seem to have all the requirements for good compost material--they're small, non-toxic, water soluble and full of nutrients.  Why wouldn't they decompose with the other stuff, eventually turning into humus, which will in turn lighten, aerate and naturally fertilize the soil in the garden.

http://forums2.gardenweb.com/forums/load/soil/msg0221015016816.html

An Ecology Center employee, told me that it's fine to experiment with home composting, but the City of Berkeley doesn't want vitamin pills in their green waste.  That means I can't dump unwanted multivitamins in my green bin!  So I thought I would make a cleansing scrub fortified with old vitamins that I found on the ehow website.

CLEANSING FACIAL SCRUB

Grind vitamins up in a food processor and mix them with yogurt, avocado and lemon or lime juice for a gentle exfoliating mixture you can use on your face and body."

Taya's facial scrub looks much "prettier" than all of my photos of "slime" but I think we both enjoyed our little experiments and learned something in the process!  Thanks so much Taya!!


"My whole life has been spent waiting for an epiphany, a manifestation of God's presence, the kind of transcendent, magical experience that let's you see your place in the big picture. And that is what I had with my first compost heap." -- Bette Midler