Serenity in the Garden

Ruby Slippers Oakleaf Hydrangea - photo by Sandra Reed  So you want to plant a native shrub that tolerates half shade  (shade in afternoon),  has big blooms  in the summer  and has great Fall color? Oh yeah, and it should be compact, fairly minimum maintenance  and grow to -20 degrees F.   And it should be reddish/pink. 'RUBY SLIPPERS' OAKLEAF HYDRANGEA   is the answer.  Monrovia - Ruby Slippers close up Its 9" long flower clusters start out  white, then gradually change to pink and then red, growing above the beautiful oakleaf foliage, which also turns an amazing mahogany red in the fall.    It grows to just 3 1/2 ft. by about 5 feet wide.  Zones 5-9. Developed by the U.S. National Arboretum in McMinnville, TN in 2010,  the compact Ruby Slippers is a cross between  Snow Queen and PeeWee hydrangea. It does not grow higher than 4 feet.   It is...

The French have long understood that vegetable gardens can be places of beauty. They located their traditional  potagers , or kitchen gardens, outside their kitchen windows and included vertical structures, flowers, and artistic plant groupings designed for aesthetic appeal.  Flowers look beautiful and attract the all important pollinators to your garden. Read the wonderful article I have linked here for learning how to include beautiful flowers and more in your veggie garden.  Infographic - go here for more

Now More than Ever - Lets Get Kids Gardening -  When did we abandon the simple pleasures of growing carrots in milk cartons, planting hollyhocks along old fences or having fragrant lilacs at the corner of a house?  Let's reclaim this as part of our ordinary life... Hollyhocks We all have such memories - even city kids like me... It might be the 'weed' that smelled like licorice (anise hyssop),  or the buttercups that you put under your chin,  or the honeysuckle that you could suck a teeny drop of 'honey' from,  Honeysuckle the sweet smell of roses as you walked past a certain house,  or the bright yellow daffodils in early spring that sprang up overnight it seemed. daffodils by Jan Johnsen I would like us to revive 'garden memories' - to bring flowers, plants and gardens back into our lives. This kind of knowledge has been cast aside in favor of math and physics but I say children can learn thos...

Every year I reprint this at dandelion time where I live-   The dreaded Dandelion (Taraxacum officinale) , for which we spend tremendous amounts of weed killer money to eradicate, has been prized over the years for its medicinal and nutritious properties. In fact, dandelion roots, flowers and "dandelion greens" (leaves) are all edible! Dandelions are a rich source of vitamins A, B complex, C, and D, as well as minerals such as iron, potassium, and zinc. And in traditional medicine, dandelion roots and leaves were used to treat liver problems. Native Americans used dandelion decoctions (liquid made by boiling down the herb in water) to treat kidney disease, swelling, skin problems, heartburn, and stomach upset. Young Dandelion leaves • Dandelion roots can be roasted as a coffee-substitute, or boiled and stir-fried as a cooked vegetable. • Dandelion flowers can be made into a wine. • Dandelion greens can be boiled, as you would spin...

Just as a forest is connected by an underground fungal network, enabling individual trees to communicate with each other, and can warn each other of danger by releasing chemicals into the air, so are we all connected together deep within, sharing the wisdom and knowing of the Earth, our common home.  And this network is sending us warning signs, that our present way of life is not only unsustainable, but over .  Even when this pandemic comes to an end, we cannot afford to “return to normal” for very long. This present crisis can awaken us to the reality that we need a new way of life, one that is truly sustainable with the Earth and Her “other-than-human” inhabitants.  This virus can be heard as a part of the cry of the Earth—calling to us to change, adapt, awaken from our dream of eternal economic growth,  the nightmare that is destroying so much of Her fragile beauty and wonder. - Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee go here for the entire post -   h...