I'm Dreaming of a Green Garden!

"Dream Garden" by Maxfield Parrish

You know you have the gardening itch when you start making up songs about your garden in the shower!  The blizzard hit New England last night and mostly missed us.  Still, the near miss of being buried in snow got me really longing for the days of gardening.  My broccoli are still in the garden and hopefully wintering over for Spring.   The heirloom seeds I orderered have already arrived in the mail.  Almost daily, the mailman brings me reminders through gardening catalogs and seed order forms (including the penny sale again!).  Oh, to be out in the garden!  So I share my song that I was singing to myself this morning.

I'm dreaming of a green garden,
 Just like the one I used to grow
Where the veggies glisten
And children pick them
I can't wait for gardens to grow!

Pointsettia: The Christmas Star

The pointsettia is probably the most recognizable Christmas flower around.  It comes in reds, pinks, and whites.  I remember as a kid having that flower in our home.  In my first apartment, my landlord left one on my doorstep with "Merry Christmas" attached to it.  As a single female, starting out in a new city, that small gesture from my landlord brought Christmas cheer in the shape of a flower. 

Somewhere along the way, the poinsettia got a bad rap of being poisonous if eaten.  However, people all over still take their chances in homes with pets and kids.  What is it about this flower?  Sure, the amaryllis and paperwhites bulbs are all over the shelves as well, but the pointsettia is holding it's own in this flower market.

Taken from the Teleflora website, I love this description of the meaning of the flower:
"Also known as the Christmas Star and Christmas Flower, it’s said that this winter flower’s association with Christmas comes from a Mexican legend. The story goes that a child, with no means for a grander gift, gathered humble weeds from the side of the road to place at the church alter on Christmas Eve. As the congregation witnessed a Christmas miracle, the weeds turned into brilliant red and green flowers."

First, we all love a miracle, who doesn't?  Second, what gardener could resist the miracle of turning weeds into flowers?!  That's even better than water into wine for those of us who prefer to get our hands dirty.  So bloom on beautiful pointsettias spreading Christmas cheer!

Winter Break

The garden is winding down and the holidays are fast approaching.  I've noticed that the Lessons from the Garden are not as frequent as during the growing season.  I hope to check back in from time to time since a garden is never finished.  However, as the days get colder, I find myself indoors more working on my other hobbies.  For a glimpse into those projects, wander over to my other blog, Second Chances in Pa (click here).  You'll find diy projects, furniture makeovers, tips and anything else that has been given a second chance. 

Keep growing those cold weather veggies!

Lessons from Squanto: Gardening with fish

From This is America, Charlie Brown, The Mayflower Voyagers

This past Thanksgiving, my family watched the Charlie Brown Thanksgiving show, This is America, Charlie Brown, The Mayflower Voyagers.  I was very familiar with the other Charlie Brown Thanksgiving show where Snoopy serves up toast and jelly beans after fighting with the lounge chair.  It's still funny!  However, this Mayflower episode was new to me.  I had never seen it and was surprised to learn so much about the hardships of the Pilgrims and the amazing life of Squanto.  Of course, the gardener in me had another "take-away" from this episode.  Fish!

At the point where Squanto was teaching the pilgrims to garden (the Peanuts gang), he taught them to put a fish in the ground with the corn seeds, and then dirt.  Say what?!  How have I never heard of this and don't the cats want to dig up the fields to find the fish heads?  Then a few nights later, I'm skimming through old magazines and find an article in Whole Living magazine about how to reduce food waste.  And there it is in black and white to use our leftover fish heads by putting them in the garden!  Now in our house, I'm ashamed to say, that the only fish we eat comes out of a tuna can.  Therefore, I might have to send the kids out for some recreational fishing this coming Spring to try this theory.  From what I've read, it looks like tomatoes are especially fond of fish under their roots.  You can also put them in the garden through the winter so you have soil ready for planting come Spring.  Just make sure to bury it deep enough so the critters don't come looking for fish-head dinner!

Growing Roses: Pleasant Outcome in Pennsylvania!

When my husband and I were first married, we rented a 1940s house with two beautiful rose bushes growing on the side of the house.  They were the red long-stemmed kind that any woman would kill to have at her disposal any time she felt like a rose! Although I didn't know anything about roses at the time, I was happy to cut the flowers and bring them in to vases.  Unlike the recommended full sun, these were in mostly shade.  Those rose bushes that defied the odds made me think I could use any condition to grow roses in our new home. 

So when we bought our first home, I tried over and over to grow long-stemmed type roses in our full sun backyard.  That's what the books recommended.  Over and over the roses bushes would die.  Even the existent rose bushes that came with the house all died off within a few years (the ones in the full sun) and the ones in the shady front yard continued to grow.  What gives, I thought?  To this day, I can't explain the success of the ones in the front yard.  However, I just finally had success.  Now, it's only been a few months (and I tend to kill them after the first year), however the growth of this bush gives me hope!

Here's the rose bush only 2 months in the ground, already growing!

If you remember my deck makeover, I had added a cheapy rose bush.  I mean cheap!  I bought it at Produce Junction on a whim for $12.  Then I just plopped it in the ground where the daylilly used to sit.  I wish I could say I prepared the soil with compost or that I really cleaned up all the daylilly roots.  Nope.  I was rushed for time and just added some cheap fill dirt.  I really didn't expect it to live.  Apparently, this hands off approach has worked!  Just 4 months later and the bush has more than doubled in size and the roses are already long enough to cut for a vase!  I'm so psyched.  I wish I could tell you what kind of a rose bush this is, but at the discount store where I bought it, they were just labeled "Roses, $12", nothing more.  Looking back, it not only has full sun for almost 8 hours a day, but being in the surrounding deck bed, it is like a mini-raised bed.  And with all of our Pennsylvania rain, maybe the drainage was the biggest issue in past growing seasons.  Time to get the rose clippers and fill the vase again!

October 2012, already almost as tall as the deck rail!

Frost Watch/Warning: tips for the garden

Frost Watch/Warning!  It strikes fear in the heart of gardeners with young plants in the Spring, or those trying to extend their growing season in the Fall.  Those are the words now popping up on our forcast for Friday night into Saturday.  My initial reaction was the usual "oh no!" until I realized that my garden is now filled with cold weather crops.  They'll enjoy this drop in temps.  However, my zucchini, which does not realize that it is October 11th, might need a little help tomorrow night.  Yes, I will not give up on it as long as it's still producing!  If you're in need of some garden protection, here's a few ideas with links.  Bundle up those plants, it's going to be cold outside!  And if you remember my Spring blog on how I tried to call Mother Nature's bluff, I won't be doing that again. 

1.  Build a frame that can be used for a tarp, plastic sheeting, or mesh.   This is useful for protection from heat, cold, or insects.

PVC pipe for frame (click for more info)

2.  Place some sticks in between the rows to hold up a tarp.


Community Garden at our local elementary school "tucked in" for a night of frost last year

 

3.  Build/Buy a larger-scale cloche.

These garden "tents" look cozy!  Click here for more info.

No matter how you cover your gardens, remember to heed the frost warnings.  Your plants will thank you in the morning!

Accepting Fall

I love autumn, it's a beautiful time of year.  It's the season of my wedding annivesary.  It's the time when my firstborn was born!  The only downfall, is that it means leaving behind summer, which I love so much more.  So in my garden, I try to keep those summer crops going as long as possible.  Today, with acceptance, I went out and pulled the tomatoes.  Normally, they would last until the first frost.  However, many nights in the 40s, combined with endless stink bug bites, and my tomatoes are done.  Correction:  they are beyond done and begging me to put them out of their misery.  They are moldy done.  You get the picture.  So with my Fiscars pop-up gardening bag to catch the debris, and my clippers in hand, I proceeded to pull them out.  And with that one small act of cleaning the garden, I had to accept that Summer was officially over.  Never mind the low 80 degree temperatures we're hitting today or the summer-like humidity, autumn has arrived.  Sunday's forcast shows that today's temps are just a fluke.  Even my cold weather veggies are emerging in the garden (carrots, radishes, spinach, romaine, broccoli).  So bring on the pumpkins, and hayrides, and Halloween decorating.  Wait a minute...my zucchini plants across the yard think it's still summer.  Hooray, they're still cranking out huge zucchini.  I can live out my summer ending at least a little longer.