Serenity in the Garden

rose hips photo by Jan Johnsen  Allow your roses to form hips. Did you know that, like  many plants that produce fruit, the formation of rose hips is a signal to the rose to go dormant for the season? from Monrovia - Japanese rose  Rose hips provide wonderful color in the garden and are a good source of vitamin C for birds in the fall and winter.  They are one of the highest plant sources of Vitamin C. 'Cherry Pie' Rose makes great rose hips: Oso Easy Cherry Pie Rose -from May Dreams Garden Blog  You can eat them too. Rose hips are used for jam, jelly, syrup, soup, beverages, pies, bread, and wine.  They can also be eaten raw if care is used to avoid the hairs inside the fruit.   The redder they are, the softer and sweeter.   source: live by the sun blog  for more info on roses go to Chris Van Cleave - click here . 

Amsonia foliage sparkles in fall Speaking with Earth Spirits  Deep down, in the warmth of the fecund earth, the spirits sing songs of life. Hoping we hear, they inhale and exhale along with the seasons. Beautyberry in November Now, in the cool days of November, they sing to us of rest and replenishment  and ask us to be calm. Molinia stands tall in late fall The time has come to listen and of course, to rake the leaves...the leaves... - Jan Johnsen the deep reds of November

Caked on dirt on these shovels....  Winter is the time to get your garden tools in shape... hand tools such as shovels, picks, trowels, loppers, etc. should be cleaned, sharpened and well oiled. Steel wool can clean off any rust or caked-on dirt. And pure white vinegar works to remove rust too:  pour into a bucket or small plastic tub. Submerse rusty pruning shears in the solution and soak overnight, or roughly 24 hours. The acid of the  vinegar eats away  at most of the surface rust.  Wash off the next day...for more on this go to the Backyard Boss article on cleaning pruning shears.  This photo is from a great article about renewing your tools. Click here .  But the most important thing I have found is to make sure to oil the tools . It is a rust preventative and a wood saver.  Moss in the City A while back, in our shop (I own a landscape design/build firm and we have trucks, crews and lots of tools) we would have a large container filled with sand an