Serenity in the Garden

In one of my earlier blog posts I wrote about the Native Americans' Three Sisters Garden (corn, beans and squash )  but I neglected to tell you of the Fourth Sister ...a very important member of this family! This is from Hubpages :  "Fourth Sister, didn't look anything like her other sisters, although she was as tall and as slender as First Sister (corn) . That seemed fair to all, because Third Sister and Second Sister shared similar but different features. They could climb and run, while their other two sisters were forced to stand tall and proud." Mother Sun explained that each sister had her job and each had to benefit from and protect one another.  But Fourth Sister's job was most important of all -- for she was the guardian of the North , planted firmly, to protect others from the robbers who soon would come. The fourth sister was the elegant sunflower. The Sisters are known to the Native Americans as the “mothers...

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...

The best homemade plant labels come from aluminum soda cans. from Greylustergirl blog They are inexpensive, durable, attractive and fun to make. And in the garden their reflective qualities act as rabbit repellents! You can have them dangle on supports ( made from clothes hangers) or tie them with twine on a pot. CUT THE CAN AND ROLL OUT ALUMINUM. Put on your gloves. Use the tip of your scissors to punch a small hole on the side of each end of the can. You can also use a steak knife or screwdriver to get the hole started.  Cut off the top and bottom of the can and discard . TRACE THE SHAPES AND CUT OUT. Next, unroll the metal as best you can and place the metal on a flat but flexible surface, printed side up . A pad of paper, a top of a notebook or a thick stack of newspaper are all good bases. Use a template tool to trace a shape with a ball point pen onto the metal. Press firmly to leave an indentation. Cut with a pair of sciss...

Worm tubes from National Gardening Association  Want to know a great way to  enhance biological activity in  your garden? Think of it as adding  probiotics to your soil.... Worm Tubes!  It is a fun way to use your vegetable food waste without the hassle of true composting. Worm tubes attract worms to your garden and this, in turn, creates rich, worm casting-filled composted soil for you to use.  Josh shows us how - click here And did you know that  worm compost suppresses plant diseases ? Research has shown that worm compost can successfully suppress  Pythium aphanidermatum  - a mold responsible for the dreaded 'damping off', where seedlings and young plants rot away at the base of the stem. The microbes  in the compost are key. They chemically prevent (disrupts the signalling)  the  Pythium  pathogen from accessing the plant.  This is why you should consider making worm compost with a 'worm tube' ...

never use hot wood ash....  Now that winter is coming to a close you can utilize a valuable soil amendment from your fireplace: Wood ashes. They are rich in Potash which “sweetens” the soil by r aising the pH (more alkaline). Sweet soil is the balm of lilacs and other flowering  shrubs .  If your lilacs produce too few flowers, Potash can help.  Composting ashes is an ideal way to put them to use in the garden. Decomposing materials in the compost pile can become acidic and wood ash is more alkaline and helps offset this. Apply r egular wood-ash applications on soil beneath your shrubs in fall, winter and early spring.  You cannot apply too much; rain and snow dilute the concentration of Potash considerably. Empty  t horoughly cooled   fireplace ashes into a large container and then pour a large amount in a wide circle beneath the drip line of  mature lilac shrubs. For small ornamental, herb and vegetable plants,  pour about...

“In Hindi, seed is  bija  or ‘containment of life." Vandana Shiva Ah, so true.... One of the most alarming films I have seen in a long time is Seed the Untold Story.   Please get your library to get it! It is not to be missed! So where should we buy our little 'containments of life' these days? Here are a few seed companies that are worthy of a look: Renee’s Garden Check out their Basil collection of seeds and their "Rainbow Kitchen Garden",  5 packets of colorful vegetable varieties that are easy to grow and great for anyone starting a garden from seed. Includes: Farmer's Market Lettuce Mix : rainbow of colors and textures Garden Candy Cherry Tomatoes : red, orange, yellow and sweet as sugar Tasty Duo Scallions : red and green skinned, savory and crisp Tricolor Bush Beans : purple, yellow and green pods Tricolor Zucchini:  gold, light and dark green, with buttery flavor Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds  - This group ...

Happy Harvest Moon! It is the full moon that is nearest the start of the autumn equinox and this year that is October 5th. It is a significant full moon because near the fall equinox the moon rises soon after sunset and thus shines bright early in the evening. This helps farmers to harvest crops in the light of the full moon. .  Additionally, it appears to rise the same time each night for several nights (about 25 minutes later) while most full moons rise about 50 minutes later each night in the US and southern Canada. In more Northern areas the Harvest Moon rises only 10 - 20 minutes later each night.  This is a great benefit at sunset for farmers.