HAPPY HALLOWEEN/DIOS DE LOS MUERTOS!

Hello all! Sorry for the late post...I've been running around like a mad woman with the relatives here and I figure hey, getting this in now rather than later is still better than not at all!

 I did a pumpkin for myself that is a repeat of one I did in a past year (sadly was too busy to think originally at the time!)

(yeah... pic from last year, but it's the same idea)

...but I made a cat pumpkin and mouse thing for the place I volunteer at:

 (Sadly didn't take this pic, the place I volunteer at did... since I forgot to after I carved it.  It's a cat--- that had awesome spaghetti whiskers that broke off in some high winds :(  Maybe I'll go back and add them back on)

(Mouse to with the cat)

Also, I found these at the Dollar Store and while I'll plan to paint them up with fun Dios de los muertos designs in the future, it is plain now other than the festive flowers!

Have a great spooky season!

Pod People: specifically Green tea mania

I have a great attraction to all things pod-like.  Don't know what it is specifically but it's as though pods are sort of nature's boxes, inflatable organic gifts (ok, no big surprise what the gift is, seeds of course) but still the variety of shapes and sizes of pods that are available just dazzles me.

Here are a few that I enjoy before I get to the real rarity:

I was recently bopping around my potted green tea plants checking out this green fruit thing that feels like it's been hanging out there forever when I noticed it had split!


The lovely bright green seed pod exposed a creamy white center and brown seeds.  Pretty snazzy colors there Mother Nature!

Interestingly enough the pod itself was relatively soft and spongy (much less so a couple of days later)


Germinating green tea seeds to my understanding is somewhat tricky and needs to be done when they are ripe, therefore just dropped from the seed pod and not shriveled.  Many places simply take cuttings for tea propagation, but I suppose if I plan to live until I'm a 150 years old, I have time to make more green tea plants! (It doesn't take 150 years for a good tea plant to develop, it would just feel  like that to me mentally because I'm impatient!)


Here are some sources I found on germinating the seeds:
http://www.au.gardenweb.com/forums/load/ozherb/msg0301175628958.html
http://narien.com/store/teaseeds

House guests and plants--- particularly relatives

AH!!!!!!!!!!!!   My mother is visiting from out of town today and she's going to see all my crazy plants!

(She's not into the plant thing as much as I am, as you might guess)

Here is where I wave the green leafy flag and hide behind it in shame:

I know, I know, I know, I don't need 5 pots of kohleria... but they are SO cool and easy to propagate!  The rhizomes just SPAWN like bunnies!

 (Last night I was moving them around to get to some dust, and did a stupid "Oooh!" because one bud bloomed!)

I know I don't need one of every kind of citrus (that have still yet to produce fruit for me and barely a bud last year--- despite receiving/purchasing them in bud/flower)...

I know I have an orchid fetish (they're my guilty pleasure... when they're in bloom.  Come on guys, you can do it!)

And while I try to keep mostly edible things (herbs and peppers) indoors, the random begonia with some AWESOME hairy foliage comes in (and thrives on me for once) so how can I say no?

I have no idea why I have the stupid fern or tiny parlor palm... but... they were cheap?  (*smacks self* WHAT WAS I THINKING WHEN I BOUGHT THOSE?!?!?)

But yes, houseguests.  Particularly relatives.  Specifically, moms.

The nagging, can you feel it?  Can you feel its power all the way from where you are at???

Bring 'em in! (and the every fall/winter this happens post)

We had a mini-bit of frost here earlier, that worried me a little enough to cover the vegetable beds with a sheet and bring in some of the other more tender plants, but when it said 39 degrees F for the low with another week of nice weather before consistent lows at night in the 40s, I said, "Not worth it," and decided I might as begin the process of isolating them in the sunroom for a while where they could acclimate themselves to the horrors of less light.

I know you're supposed to acclimate them my bringing them in and out of the house for some hours each day, but with this:

I don't even bother.

After a week in there, with the sunroom window panels being opened and closed here and there depending on temperature and light conditions and for air flow, I figure they'll be fine mostly with the changes in the house and survive.

There's almost always whining and crying on their part in the form of some leaf drop and other issues, but in my house, only the mighty are allowed to survive!

(I find it funny when people comment I have a "green thumb."  No... I just grow easy things to make it look easy ;)

When I first bring the plants into the sunroom, I tend to do it in the early evening so that the temperature and light isn't a big change.  Then I douse the plants with neem oil solution to get rid of any pests that might have been brought and also drench soil with neem oil solution as well because many things probably made it their home their over the summer.

The day before I haul them in slowly, I give them another neem spray for good measure and after it's all dry I inspect them and haul 'em in!

I have REALLY limited sunshine and room, so I always need to make executive decisions as to what deserves the most light/room/etc. and most of the plants end up in the dining room and on the china cabinet.

Every so often through the winter I need to move the plants around from one room to the other so another plant can get some much deserved light.  It's tough work!

I am very excited though about a new addition to the house this winter which I have big plans for:

(ignore the messy house background...)

My jasmine I hope will grow very well and eventual give me a lot of perfumed flowers this winter/spring.  I'm having it climb all over the place (maybe even the chandelier to my husband's chagrin!)

Buried Treasure!

(Before I plunge into this mini-post I want to explain that I am taking a mini-blog vacation as I prepare for visitors!  Posts will still go up, they're just be a little abbreviated and juicy truly informative posts will be on their way next week.)

AND, back to regularly scheduled programming:

I have an admission:  I am a lazy gardener!

Earlier this summer I prepared a nice large half barrel to grow sweet potatoes in but was worried worried worried about making the soil "just right" for these babies because they were the first time I was growing sweet potatoes and I didn't want to mess this up.

Using some potting soil I had around mixed with the nasty clay stuff naturally here in Tennessee I also added some sand for drainage because I hear soggy sweet potaters are a definite non-desireable.  The pot was filled mid-way high because I figured as the vines grew I would just keep adding more soil mix to bury the vines in until the pot was filled at the top and then the leaves could ramble around merrily.

Sort of wish I could have had this sort of setup or this one with the tires, but alas, no tires nor extra scrap wood here at the time.

I planted 2 plants of the 6 that came in the pack because I figured all 6 would be a mite bit crowded in a half whiskey barrel and resolved to get back to it after the vines grew a bit more.

Then it rained.  And I got busy. Time marched on... and the other 4 sweet potatoes still in their plastic planter plugs on top of whiskey barrel full of soil where I had left them decided, "This gardener sucks.  Let's just root up here!"

...which I discovered later in the summer and subsequently yanked them out (sorry guys!) (and as my husband would say sarcastically, "They can TOTALLY hear you say that!") and I figured it was too late to get sweet potatoes from them still, but planted them around my garden to make some great ground cover and eat their leaves, in the process, so score there!
(Also, I never ended up filling the barrel devoted to sweet potatoes with more luscious dirt because I got busy >_<)

But getting to the point...
The leaves were starting to get nasty and yellow from the cold and I decided it was about time to yank up the foliage because I wasn't interested in eating it at that point.    Half way through yanking in the garden I noticed a stone-like thing, and realized I had a SURPRISE sweet potato!

I ran to get my husband to show him and he and I then began scrambling around on our hands and knees like delighted squirrels digging around for roots!

Here's the result of our efforts (including after the checking the barrel):

It was definitely a nice surprise though we just bought sweet potatoes from the store (silly us).  I'll have to cure them though to get the starches to convert to sugar, so the store ones will last us well until then.

My point is:  sweet potatoes: darn easy, literally no work!

I still think they make a great groundcover and while it might be a pain to some to go searching around for them, use it to your advantage and make it into a game or something with your family and/or significant other.  It really was like Christmas!

(N.B. Don't forget to comment here if you are interested in winning some plant label/tags by the end of the week!)

'Bout that lemongrass...

So, remember that lemongrass that I left in the shower to chill until I could get back to it?

Yeah, I got back to it, and spent about 3 hours finagling with the blasted thing, cutting it, taking apart the bulbs/clumps, and simply washing it.  After quite a few days in there it still was housing its own little eco-system and the slugs came tearing all out.

I ended up bringing the food processor INTO the bathroom because I was in no mood to carry dripping piles of lemongrass nearly 4 feet long across the house into the kitchen.

Oh, and as it turns out and I should have thought about this before starting, lemongrass leaves do not process well.  I saved the bulbs whole in the freezer because they have the most flavor and are great on their own, but the leaves... yes...  instead  of my brilliant plant of finely shredded lemongrass, I got a massive spool of it looped around the processor blades >_<.

I had to get my hand in there a million times to turn the shredded stuff to the top and the hoops of lemongrass to the bottom.   Much aggravation.  After I completed the leaves of one clump I said, "screw it, this is too painful," and decided that I would not process the other clump I am saving in a pot to overwinter in the house.

I didn't need the leaves of the clump in the pot and I knew that it'd do better if I gave it a haircut so that the rest of the plant could get a fresh start indoors and not be too stressed (and start pushing out fresh new leaves for me).   I just couldn't deal with anymore lemongrass!

The idea of just chucking it in the compost bin made me feel guilty (it's so precious, worth it's weight in...um, expensive grocery store lemongrass?) and thought about donating it to the local Vietnamese restaurant, but realized that they might not accept non-grocery store produce, but instead fell upon the idea of just giving it to a friend who was having a party and that was that :)

No guilt and no shame!

The great thing about processing all the lemongrass was that the bathroom and the house smelled obviously lemony fresh.   The bad news is that my bathroom looked like this:

 Blargh.  Mother visiting in 3 days and counting... Maybe it would be easier to just tell her in third world countries many people use the sink?  Just kidding!  I'll clean it up *grumble, grumble*

(DON'T FORGET, LABEL/TAG GIVEAWAY STILL OPEN UNTIL END OF THIS WEEK so comment if you'd like to be in the running!)

(100th+ post) GIVEAWAY: Tag! Maybe you're it?

Hello all! My time has flown by fast! I've been much more diligent about this blog than I expected and I appreciate all the comments and encouragement from people.

This is about the 100th (+?)  decent post I have made here after the deletion of the intro post of this blog (I know a crime, but it was so bad and incongruent I felt it had to go)

As I enjoy celebratin' and giftin' I would like to do both of those things below:

Remember I talked earlier about garden craftiness and labels/tags? Well I did some more experimenting and found that I could use my nifty glass paint on the metal can tags I make and thus create really nice durably designed ones, woohoo!

These are BAKED on, so won't wash off like regular paint or nail polish a person might use.

Here they are, being modeled with a little Cuban oregano so you can idea of them being in use. (kind of crowded I know)
So, in celebration, I will randomly choose by the end of the week (Happy Halloween) one person who commented to send these to (you'll be contacted via email as to where you'd like me to send it).

NOTE: I'd like to apologize about the purple-yellow one... I was trying to do a lotus type thing, but it didn't turn out quite as well I would have liked. I still enjoy it personally myself, but if you want tags and don't like it so much, just tell me.

Thanks again and best of luck!

Crafty gardening: Pots

Fall replanting/transplanting reminds me that I am in constant need of pots.

I am a bit of a snob about my pots too, as I hate the readily available plastic type. I hate: its texture, flimsiness, non-breatheability, essentially cheapness in quality.

Granted, they are great in a pinch and I horde the ones that I get from the store/nursery so I can do starts, propagate and etc because I am so cheap (aka poor, ok, not too poor, just cheap).

Give me terracotta, lovely glazed pottery, or metal (yeah, yeah, overheat/gets cold) pots, but plastic makes me cringe.

In my search for proper plant-ware, I hound stores like TJ Maxx, Tuesday Morning, thrift and antique stores for interesting pieces and find some awesome deals, like this plain white pot for a buck:


Which brings me to my obsession for color (I do like the minimalism of the white pot, but I get bored easily). Having just learned of glass paints I wanted to get some garden crafty on.

Also being utterly pretentious I wanted to paint a design on this pot too that I would find humorous, so here's the Space Traveler commonly known as The Little Prince:

(Little Prince on his little planet)

(The Lamplighter and King)

(The Business Man and the sun behind the Lamplighter's planet)

(The most famous Little Prince quote translated: "One cannot see well but with the heart. The essential is invisible to the eyes")

When I came up with the idea I realized that this would be best for a friend of mine who enjoys The Little Prince as well. When I was done I sort of wanted to keep it, but I knew that she would probably gain more enjoyment from it than me.

I think it's obvious she should plant a miniature rose in it, but it's her pot, her choice.

Luckily I have 3 more pots that I can brainstorm on.

But back to being cheap, in need of pots and glass paint!

My cheapness has gone to the next level and recently, I had a mini-flip out about buying yet another simple ceramic piece I wanted to paint for a buck, and thought to myself, what can I use as a pot, that I can paint cool stuff permanently on, like a glazed item?

The idea of something metal led to the idea of TIN CANS, as I already use large tomato sauce cans as planters already and glass jars and beer bottles.

Though I find the aesthetics of plain tin cans and glass jars/bottles to be fine on their own, it's nice to spice things up a bit!

Here's the result:
A gold colored design glass paint beer bottle might make a nifty vase?

Large baked on glass paint tin can to be a pot. Maybe I'll work with the lines/grooves more another time?

I would like to note, like plastic shrinkies, I think the large tin can has a lining and may off-gas (I could be paranoid about a smell coming from the oven, but I like to always add caution when necessary). So, while it was fun to make, I may just stick with regular tins or paint that doesn't need to be baked on, even though this makes them super-able to weather the outdoors!

Either way, fun experiment and may the garden crafty be with you, especially during the doldrums of winter!

Gentlemen (and women)! Please prepare to activate your compost!

Baby it's starting to get cold outside and you want, nay you NEED to keep the heat on in your compost pile, so why not do it the easy natural way? 

Pee in your compost.

Ok, that was a little blunt, but really, not to get all "Dodgeball" the movie on you (j/k), but human urine is really a great method to get your compost hot and bothered and eventually broken down.  The urea in urine is chock full of nitrogen and trace minerals (little did you know your were a little fertilizing machine!) and heats up compost like nothing else.  In case you were worried about sanitation, do not fret.

OK, there is the issue of cold buns, and while I could talk about men having it easy and methods akin to the doctor's office, I'll get off the topic of bodily fluids/functions and mention the other natural methods because purchasing something labeled: Compost activator? Phhbbbtt.  Don't buy those.

Before I continue on to what a person can use as compost activators, let me explain what it is (other than the obvious in its name).

Compost activators are heavy boosts of nitrogen added to a compost pile to get it to heat up and break down faster and thus giving your your pirates booty of black gold quicker, because hey, am I not American?  I loves me the instant gratification ;)

So yes, cheap easy activators (other than urine):


Alfafa?  I've spoke of it before, and here I'll say it again.  It's awesome! And will heat up your compost too, so chuck some pellets in there.


Dry dog/cat food is also considered a good compost activator.  Just watch fido/fifi in your garden for a while.


Coffee grounds will jolt things right up, especially if you are a daily drinker or are a Starbucks stalker.


Beer, though this seems like a crying shame to waste a brew on, it's less of an issue if you are poor and have some of the more flavorless type.


Ammonia is a killer of slugs too (and our nasal passages), but did you know that it also is a byproduct of urine?  Oh the connections!

Really, there are so many easy, accessible ones there you'd be surprised!  This post may seem like a reiteration of me spouting on and on about amendments and such, but this is a great time to get things in the ground/compost bin/pile so that the freezing/thawing of the upcoming seasons will allow for organic matter to decompose and release nutrients more fully.

For the most part, many of you who compost already most likely are consistently keeping your bins hots without trying by inadvertent addition of these elements above, but for those who are trying to figure out why things aren't heating up or breaking down accordingly try the above materials and always remember that you need a good mix of browns and green and sometimes, you may need to water your pile.  Don't forget, your in luck, you have an easy source right in you! ;)

Thank Google! (and I am sorry Rodale if this is your bane) but here is an excellent link with more amendment info:
The Rodale book of composting - Google Books

Halloween decorating with a little help from my garden friends

I'm not much into holiday decorating. Just this thing I have about keeping stuff around that you only take out once a year.

I have a few Christmas things I have been given that I like to take out here and there because of sentimental reasons, but as I : 1) have no children who care about that stuff and 2) no one visits during those times to see it, yeah, I'm kind of boring in that regards.

I do have a soft place for Halloween though because I loved it as a child and I decorate a bit then because pumpkins can be bought, eaten and used/composted each year, so there's nothing left to store/put away once it's over!

This year however I have some little (well, not so little depending on your definition) friends to help me with some extra special decorating!


I was surprised too by their enthusiasm! On a recent rain I only noticed this :
(pardon some bad pics, it was rainy and some angles were difficult and shot from inside my sunroom grainy screens)
(over 3 ft in diameter! ...and near the hummingbird feeder, hmmmm...)

(This is web is unfortunately by the back door, however built intelligently out of the way of human traffic!)


(Once again, I keep tilting the camera video feature the wrong way. My apologies, but I think it's still worth it when you tilt your head right a bit. The rain and wind make this so beautiful I think. Ah spiderwebs, lightness and strength.)

(Hi-five for effort!)(ooh! Click on this one above! The hairy detail is great! I had to get really close to this, it was in the huge web and the background was cloud white, thus the brightness)

So, yeah, Halloween decorating? Me and my little friends have got it down.

Now if only I could convince them that the front door would be an excellent place to catch introduce children to the joys of spiders.

(N.B. The golden orb spider traversed to my next door neighbor's backyard, and spun a huge web outside her kitchen window.  My neighbor hates spiders, dubbed it Bruinhilde and then called me and asked me if I might want the spider back.  So I brought it back, let it loose and the next day it ate the spider in the last pic :(