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Garden to Table

5 Mar
Show of hands! Who buys wonderful, expensive, organic fruits and veggies with the best intentions of making a healthful meal, only to throw them away weeks later, after the fridge starts to produce a strong, foul odor?

Mel’s tip, which has been working for a while:  When you realize you are not going to use them and they are about to mold or go bad, throw them in a plastic bag and freeze. Frozen strawberries, blueberries, raspberries and bananas are perfect for smoothies in your blender. In fact, they are better frozen because then you can skip the ice, making for more vitamin-packed smoothies.
With herbs or the veggies (cauliflower, broccoli, kale) about to spoil in your fridge, freeze and use them later in a soup. Soups are especially great in the fall, winter and early spring.

Tip of the Day

29 Feb
Simplify Watering!
Have a tricky plant in a spot that is hard to water, or always spills over onto your nice wood furniture? Instead of watering it the old-fashioned, “normal” way, just place 2 or 3 ice cubes on the dirt once a week. I started doing this last year and now water mostly with ice cubes, as it is way less messy. And it couldn’t be easier!

Tip of the Day

17 Feb

Daffodils make a great spring bouquet! Just make sure they STAND ALONE, as they will kill any other flowers you add to the bouquet.

Mel’s Green Garden – Tip of the Day

5 Apr

Example of a Pear Tree in espalier form photo taken at Alice Water's Edible Schoolyard

If you want healthy trees and shrubs, this is the best time of year to prune. Just be careful not to take off blossoms.

For example, I will be leaving my lilacs alone; and since most hydrangeas blossom on old wood, I will leave them alone too. Mind you, if they needed it (if they were getting too big or crowding out other plantings), I would have to sacrifice some blooms and just do it. But this year my spring pruning to-do list is to prune and stake my pear trees, which I am growing flat to my garage wall in espalier form. I also need to tackle my William Baffin Climbing Rose. With no shortage of blossoms on that one, I can prune away to my heart’s content.

Succession Planting

4 Apr


To ensure you have blooms all summer long, try this method of planting that has worked really well for my garden: For example, let’s say you want to grow some zinnias. Buy some zinnia plants and buy some zinnia seeds (I like cut-and-come-again from Seed Savers).

First, plant your plants. When your area is all planted with plants (for the most part, anyway; I am forever rearranging and planting all season long), sprinkle some of the zinnia seeds. Plant the seeds every 2 weeks through the July. This will guarantee loads of blooms all summer long. So when your first plants bloom and then go to seed, your little seedlings will be up and blooming and the cycle continues through the first hard frost.

May flowers always line your path and sunshine light your day!

Tip of the Day – Use Autumn Joy to fill gaps

12 Dec

Have a spot you need to fill in your perennial bed?  Not sure where to start?  Autumn Joy looks great everywhere I put it, and after 6 years it is everywhere in my garden.

I have managed to divide this gem of a plant into almost every area of my yard, front and back.  It is really easy to divide and move around, which is what makes it such a great problem-solver when you need to fill gaps in your gardening landscape. And it helps that it is hardy in both sun and shade!

I used to exclusively plant it in the back of the border but have recently experimented in the front as well. I like this the best because of its lasting, seasonal flexibility with color. In the summer, it is a beautiful green and then in the fall it transitions to a show-stopper burgundy.

The Autumn Joy’s flexibility extends to floral arrangements as well. I routinely add it to the bouquets in my flower share service – both as a green filler in the summer as well as adding some texture and dark red colors to bouquets in the Fall.

So the next time you have a gap to fill, try the Autumn Joy!

Top 10 Reasons You Should Add a Hydrangea Limelight to Your Garden

16 Jul

Top 10 Reasons You Should Add a Hydrangea Limelight to Your Garden

1. A shrub that could pass for a beautiful perennial, it really adds to any perennial border.
2. They are extremely low-maintenance.
3. They have a super-long blooming period, from the 2nd week of July until the first frost.
4. They make a gorgeous cut flower and are a great addition to any bouquet, as they are a neutral color.
5. They’re extremely easy to grow in many different conditions. They grow exceptionally well in my garden, both in full sun and a significant amount of shade. I have 6 hydrangea limelights that stretch from the shadiest part of my garden under my large pine tree to the sunnier spots.
6. They look extraordinary just placed in a large pot. Then, after enjoying them all summer, you can place them in their permanent home in your yard in the fall.
7. This is the decade for the HYDRANGEA, so you can find them everywhere, I have bought them at Costco for $19.99, Whole Foods for $12 and Johannsen’s Greenhouse for $29. I have also seen them at Felly’s Flowers, The Bruce Company, Jung Garden Center and Winterland Nursery.
8. They make an impressive privacy hedge.
9. They look magnificent next to a plethora of flowers and perennials. In fact, they look magnificent next to anything and everything. I have some next to large black elephant ears and another next to zebra grass, and some are next to red monarda.
10. No yard is complete without an outstanding hydrangea limelight!

Stretching Your Garden Dollar

7 Oct

Stretching Your Garden Dollar . . .

Four things you can do now to stretch your garden dollar are divide mature perennials; take cuttings to root before the first killing frost, which looks like this Sunday; bring outdoor plants inside for the winter before the first killing frost; and collect seeds.

Dividing Perennials

This is a great time to divide your more mature perennials.  I have divided my peonies and still need to divide my large hostas.  I am really looking forward to having more substance in my garden by doing this.  I am also excited because dividing this fall will give my garden a more cohesive look with repetition.  I am also planning to divide monarda (bee balm), Autumn Joy and some of my Strawberry and Cream Lilies from White Flower Farm.

Rooting

I love trying new varieties of coleus and plan to take several pieces to root inside over the winter.  I also am taking stalks of basil, rosemary, wandering Jew,  tradescantia (purple heart), Persian shield, and black and green sweet potato vine to root over the winter.  I love, love, love propagation.  This is one of my favorite aspects of gardening:  creating more.  It is so fun to give my Grandma a piece of something and to get pieces of plants from friends to try.

Bringing the Outdoors In

Another way to stretch your garden dollar is to bring in your favorite hanging basket or potted annual.  I also take at least one cutting off it to root, for insurance.  Geraniums, begonias, coleus, tradescantia and Persian shield all overwinter well as houseplants and root very easily.

Collecting Seeds

My kids and I have fun doing this every year.  It is fun at every stage.  A really good friend taught me how to do this during a play date at her house.  Our kids were 2 or 3, and she handed me an envelope and a pair of scissors and we started cutting seeds from her garden.  It is really easy!  My daughter and I then went home and did our garden.  This is such a fun family activity, and it is so joyful to now do it with my almost-11-year-old, 7-year-old, and yes, my youngest, who is not allowed to use scissors yet but who gets the concept of pulling those dried pods.

Each plant is different so some seeds are easier to locate than others.  Morning glories get little green balls that turn brown; and when you break open the shell, there are several hard black seeds.  Cleome seeds come from those whisker-like pods that hang off the flower.  Cosmos and zinnia seeds come from the center of the flower head.  Cosmos seeds are thinner and longer, and they get hard and crunchy. The zinnia seeds are a bit smaller and softer, and they have a roundness to them.  Old-fashioned vining petunia seeds are as small as sand, and they come from the little brown cone.  (I see I need to post pictures of what each seed looks like.)  Tithonia or Mexican sunflower seedpods hurt your hands and are very prickly, so I like to pull those off with gloves that are used for working with roses.  Then I put them in a Ziploc and break them up within the Ziploc.  Sunflowers seeds look just like what you eat.

Seeds are best collected when they are dry and almost ready to drop naturally onto the ground.  After I collect the seeds, I like to let them dry out a bit more, but I have had good luck putting them right into envelopes.  My kids love to decorate the envelopes, and the seed packets make great gifts for grandparents and teachers and all your gardening friends.

Tip of the Day – July is not too late to plant seeds

9 Jul

If your summer is flying by and you haven’t gotten to everything on your to do list, it is not too late to plant seeds.  July is actually an optimal time as the ground is warm and the daytime and nightime temperatures are warm so your seeds will germinate faster and your plants will grow very well.

Starting from seeds can be a very successful way to plant in one’s garden.  Some seeds to try this time of year are basil, old-fashioned vining petunias, nasturiums and radishes.   I learned that radishes will produce within 20 days from seed, so you will be able to eat your radishes by the end of July.  I plant seeds continually throughout the summer until the middle of August and have had success with this.

Planting seeds in stages is a great way to keep your garden looking fresh.

Tip of the Day – Diggers hotline is 811

21 Mar

Before digging in the dirt this Spring please make sure to make that one simple, free call to Diggers Hotline.  It is simple, easy and free, and results in all of your local utility companies coming to visit your property to mark where dangerous lines are. Then you’ll know which areas to steer clear of them when you dig.

Just dial 811 on your phone!

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