this side of heaven

While waiting for the rain to pass ...

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Spring garden assessment

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Prolonging cut flower blooms

I am posting the bare bones information from an article in the May issue of Better Homes and Gardens -- a magazine my mother subscribed to her whole adult life -- so I can keep the information, but not the magazine. I save quilting magazines, and that is quite enough! The name of the article is Prolong the Bloom by Suzy Bales about horticulturalist Allan Armitage.

1. Pick in flowers in the bud stage for the longest cut flower life.
2. Put freshly- cut flowers up to their necks in deep, cool water, to activate the water rising up the stem.
3. Keeping the flowers in the refrigerator for six hours before they are arranged triples the life of most flowers.
4. Recut stems at an angle just before placing them in the water in the vase.
5. Keep the water in the vase six inches deep or less to promote air circulation.
6. Use floral cut flower preservative to prevent bacteria from rotting the stems.

Variations on these generalizations:

Astilbes: place them in hot water first, allow it to cool, and then refrigerate them until they are ready to display.
Daisies, and any in the daisy family: flowers should be fully open before cutting.
Delphiniums: there should be a few flowers on the spike fully open before cutting.
Lilacs: lightly crush the base of woody stems with a hammer to improve their water intake.
Poppies and other flowers with a milky sap: seal the stems over a candle flame.

More information on specific flowers is posted online.

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Garden notes

I am behind on my garden planning and seed starting. There were some improvements I was wanting to introduce that did not get done either. This is all good, I am going to grow with the garden I have, not with the garden I wish I had. I am going to plant the garden I can realistically care for, not the ‘keep up with the Joneses’ garden.

Yesterday I got my little pots ready; today I am planting, Lord willing, my tomato seeds and my kitchen herb seeds. The tomatoes are pink brandywines -- my favorite for fresh eating -- and romas -- my favorite for canning and making salsa. The kitchen herbs are the usual, along with summer savory, something I love to use in cooking but can never find around here in the market. So I am growing my own. The only herb seed or plant I have not found is tarragon; I am still looking for that.

I have my green onion seeds and will be sowing them soon. I still have to get my pepper and beet seeds; normally I order them, but this year I did not get that done, so I am finding them locally. Yum, fresh beets, and fresh beet greens. I canÂ’t wait!

Oh, and my pansies are in! I was working in my perennial flower bed over the weekend, my pinks are up, my JohnsonÂ’s blue geranium, mountain cornflower, yarrow, daisies, and purple coneflower are all coming up. My columbines did not come back for the third year in a row. They do not like the spot I keep putting them in, so I will cease putting them in that spot. I need to reseed my California poppies and my white alyssum. I love having white alyssum in the border of my perennials, since it blooms so early, it attracts the good bugs -- the ladybugs and the hover flies -- right away, by giving them something to eat. Plus it smells heavenly. :)

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More flowers for the memorial garden

I have found some more ‘Shirley’ flowers that need to go in the memorial garden. There is a Shirley foxglove with rose pink bells, a fragrant Shirley Temple double peony, which looks absolutely beautiful (and like many Shirley's of the 30s -- my mother-in-law is also a Shirley -- my mom was named after Shirley Temple). I have found a Shirley Pope Siberian iris, which is a lovely deep periwinkle blue. There is a ground cover, a speedwell, named Shirley Blue. I found a yellow-orange daylily named Shirley My Love. I was certain a found a Shirley carnation, or dianthus, at my local garden center a few years ago, but I haven't found any information on the cultivar online, so I will have to double check that. And would you believe there is a Shirley tomato, LOL? This one has to go in the veggie garden! There are more beautiful Shirley flowers - Louisiana iris, water lilies, hibiscus, trumpet flowers - unsuitable for my zone and climate, so I am not considering them.

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Memorial garden

My motherÂ’s name was Shirley. I want to plant a memorial garden for her. So far I have found Shirley tulips, hardy in zone 3, where I live, which bloom in mid spring; Shirley poppies, hardy in zone 3, which bloom mid spring through early summer, and Shirley lilies, hardy in zone 3, which bloom in mid June. Any other Shirley flowers out there that I have missed? These flowers all share cream and white colors, accented with salmons, rose, pinks, mauves, and lilacs. I need to find other flowers to put in with them, as these are all tall. Her favorite colors were blues and purples, and her favorite flowers were lilacs and violets. I would like to find a dwarf lilac for the backdrop of the garden, and use purple verbena, which she loved, and the sorbet violas as fillers. I should also like to put in pinks, of all shades and heights, as I think they would be lovely with the poppies and tulips; maybe some bachelorÂ’s buttons and JohnsonÂ’s blue geranium as well. Now to get the graph paper and start planning; I will have to plant the garden in stages, and it will take a few years, but it will be beautiful when finished.  

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The sun is shining!

The sky is blue! As soon as I finish my housework, I am out the door to work in my garden today! I cannot wait ... so no more blogging until later ... but I will take my dhÂ’s digital camera with me, and hopefully there will be pictures sometime this weekend!

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Crocuses!

Spring is officially here, because I saw crocuses for the first time yesterday! Spring is always official when you see the first crocus blooming! There were tiny, bright, cheery, sunshiny yellow ones in my sister's front yard. Spring means green means new life means hope! I felt instantly better. I always plant pansies in my pots on my front porch and back deck two weeks after I see the first crocus blooming. It is nearly time to plant my pansies!

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This warm winter

I was reading some old wivesÂ’ tales recently (those old wives often knew what they were talking about), and this one caught my attention:

Who doffs his coat on a winterÂ’s day
Will gladly put it on in May.

Two things immediately came to mind. You keep hearing about the global warming crisis. The fact that warm winters were common enough in the past for there to be old wives’ tales about them, means that this winter is not the first warm winter ever experienced by man. It never made sense to me, when a naturally ocurring event that man has no control over, such as a single volcanic eruption or a forest fire, puts more “greenhouse gases” and noxious fumes in the atmosphere* than man has produced since the beginning of industrialization until the present day, how it is industrialization that is causing a global warming epidemic. There has got to be a natural mechanism in place which cleans the earth’s systems. My guess is that these natural mechanisms are not instantaneous, therefore we don’t (or haven’t until now) noticed them. This does not mean I am pro-pollution, far from it. I am just not on the global warming is the worse crisis faced by man bandwagon.

The second thing that hit me, is that if the old wivesÂ’ tale is true, I can expect a chilly May. Better keep that in mind when deciding when to set out the tomato seedlings.

* “Mount St Helens the State’s No. 1 Air Polluter,” Seattle Times, December 1, 2004. BTW, globalwarming.org is a great site with lots of research, science, and facts about the manufactured global warming crisis.

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Pinks mean spring

I took a walk around the yard today after I finished my lunch. The sun was shining, the sky was blue, and it feels like it must be about 60 degrees out. There are still plenty of leaves on the ground that can be raked and added to the compost pile. There are branches down around the trees from some of the storms this winter. If I had a mulcher, they would make great mulch for the garden. Since I donÂ’t have a mulcher, we will just chop them up for firewood. It has been nice during the day, but it is still so chilly at night! We need that fire in the fireplace after dinner to keep the house warm.

The thing that I am really excited about, though, is that the pinks in my flower garden are already coming up. Now, this is a raised perennial garden, facing south, and protected by the house, as well as thickly covered with a layer of fallen leaves. So it does stay much warmer than the gardens out in the yard. It is my beneficial insect and honeybee “welcome mat,” LOL. But it is not even the end of January! I so love pinks, the garden is under my kitchen window, and every spring they fill the house with the sweet fragrance of honey and cloves.Thank you, Lord, for making pinks!

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Two biblical principles of organic gardening

Organic gardening is simple if you remember two principles derived from the biblical worldview:

One:
The husbandman nurtures that which is under his care. Therefore, promote the life and health of your garden by promoting the life and health of your gardenÂ’s soil. The soil is our foodÂ’s food. Knowledge, time, effort, and money should be spent promoting the life and health of the soil first and foremost.

Two:
Deter the effects of the curse on creation from stealing our foodÂ’s vitality. The most common thiefs are pests, weeds, and disease. If you do not learn to control pests, weeds, and disease, then the knowledge, time, effort, and money expended on point one can be wasted knowledge, time, effort, and money.

All the rest of the gardening trappings: greenhouses, seed starting, seed saving, open- pollenated and heirloom varieties, etc. must take a back seat to the critical knowledge, and the critical effort, required by the two principles of promoting life, and detering death. By all means, learn about seed starting ... after you have a working grasp of soil health. By all means, research greenhouse designs ... after you have planned for the pest invasion a healthy garden attracts. More detail to come!

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My garden catalog short list

I posted about seed starting with aluminum foil a few days ago ... and I got to thinking, perhaps I was ahead of myself there. Before we can think about seed starting, we have to think about seeds. So here is my incomplete list of seed companies, whose catalogs I pour over every winter, and from whom I have received wonderful, high-quality seeds for excellent varieties of (mostly) vegetables:

The Cook's Garden (free catalog available)
A wonderful variety of tasty vegetable seeds, plus some flowers. They specialize in lettuces, though, beautiful, sweet lettuces of all kinds.

Gardens Alive! (free catalog available)
This company does not sell seeds, but tools, fertilizers, botanicals, and other support for the organic gardener.

Johnny's Selected Seeds (free catalog available)
Only the highest quality vegetable, herb, and flower varieties of seeds make it into Johnny's. They sell quantities for both the commercial and the home grower. Their catalog is a wealth of information for the organic gardener, too.

Seed Savers Exchange (free brochure available)
This is a group of growers, who must pay membership fees to be included (translation: they are dedicated), who are committed to saving many, many antique and heirloom (open-pollinated) varieties of vegetables, flowers, ornamentals, everything. You do not have to be a member to buy seeds from the exchange.

Seeds of Change (free catalog available)
This was one of the earliest seed catalogs specifically dedicated to organic seeds, organic growing, and heirloom varieties. They carry many wonderful and unusual varieties of vegetables and grains.

Territorial Seed Company (free catalog available)
I think this is the only company where every seed I purchased sprouted and grew into strong and healthy plants. Their seed quality is high. They cost more, too. Their catalog is loaded with info, like an illustrated gardener's textbook. I see they are specializing in Pacific Northwest varieties now. Too bad for me.

Tomato Grower's Supply (free catalog available)
Every variety of tomato imaginable, for every purpose, growing season, or situation. They carry hybrid and heirloom varieties ... I get my wonderful pink brandywines here (huge and luscious!) Plus, they have a huge variety of peppers and eggplant as well.

Vermont Bean Seed Company (free catalog available)
Beans, and lots of them. Plus other vegetables too. But lots and lots of beans.

Wood Prairie Farm Seed Potatoes (free catalog available)
I grew the best potatoes I have ever grown from Wood Prairie Farm Seed Potatoes, and the variety of delectable potatoes they offer is mouth-watering. My plants were huge, thick, and healthy, until the Colorado Potato Beetles discovered them ... I didnÂ’t know, at that time, how to control the buggers organically, so they just multiplied like crazy on my beautiful potato plants. I recommend covering the plants with secure insect netting before they ever arrive (see Garden's Alive, above).

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Extraordinary uses for ...

aluminum foil: build a seed incubator! (It is getting to be that time of year.) To give plants grown from seeds a healthy head start, line a shoe box (or two, or twelve) with aluminum foil, shiny side up, allowing about two inches of foil to extend out over the sides. Poke several drainage holes in the bottom--penetrating the foil--then fill the box slightly more than halfway with potting soil, and plant the seeds. The foil inside the box will absorb heat to keep the seeds warm while they germinate, and the foil outside the box will reflect light onto the young sprouts. Place the box near a sunny window, keep the soil moist, and watch 'em grow!

From Extraordinary Uses for Ordinary Things

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