New Additions to the Garden

Yesterday was a lovely garden day. Lots of butterflies were out

I’ve updated with flowers, the usual Marigolds with the addition of Lobelia, Verbena, Dianthus, Alyssum and Ageratom. I also picked up orange, red and pink Gerber Daisies, they looked so pretty and reminded me of my wedding.

I also went ahead and purchased small veggie plants to put in the garden. From seed I was only able to get 2 tomato plants (woo hoo!) so I supplemented with Romas, a Brandywine and a German Johnson Pink which I have never heard of.

I also picked up pepper since none of those came up: We have Jalapenos, a Sweet Red, and Purple and a Chili.

It looks a little bare now but I've also added a few flower seeds to it

I also picked up zucchinis and cucumbers since my squashes didn’t do so well either. I do have a calabaza growing. There’s a rogue chard right next to it so that's probably why I missed it.

As you can see the greens are doing well and I have started to harvest the spinach. The leaves are smallish but I know if I let them go any longer they will bolt on me.

I’m really looking forward to having tons of chard on hand, we’ll have 3 varieties: Italian; Ruby Red and the Rainbow.

I'm really excited about the garden this year!

Greens Baby!

So our greens are starting to come in - it’s a great seeing the different colors of the Rainbow Chard coming in, I can't believe that I never planted them before. We also have some rogue Chard growing here and there. It ‘s possible I planted it but it’s not in an area I would have put it.

We also have Spinach coming in. Now this was planted last fall in the hopes of an early spring crop. No such luck but I am happy to see the seeds didn’t go to waste.

And of course our beloved Collards are doing well. It’s so nice to see how easy it is to grow Collards, they are so hearty and can easily winter over.

The newest addition to our greens garden is Kale. I don’t know what variety this is, probably Red Russian Kale. Jared planted some 2 summers ago that still had roots attached and we had it growing last year. I harvested seeds but those aren’t really growing, however, the seeds that fell where the plant was are doing very well.

We also have a brown & white that's doing pretty well. We did have to put her on a special diet but she seems to be back to her old self.

What are you seeing in your garden already?

Happy (Everyday Should Be) Earth Day!

Here on the East Coast it's a rainy day - perfect for the earth. I see a lot of things that went on this weekend. I think it's great that people want to make a big deal about it but shouldn't we be doing these things everyday anyway?

So let's not talk about what you did this weekend for Earth Day, let's talk about what you have done for the earth.

What positive changes have you made?

Spring has Sprung!

Well it's definitely spring time in Jersey, it's going to be in the 80s next week...  I went ahead and took an inventory of what's popping up - other than a ton of Lamb's Quarters - UGH!

We have tons of scallion that Jared has been cultivating

They're pretty huge - I thought they were the leeks we planted years ago. We also have some pretty mint weed that been taking over one side of the yard. Jared believes it's Creeping Charlie.

And of course we can't forget about our Dandelions

Personally I love the way the yellow and the purple looks together, since they are complimentary colors  it's obvious they would be compliments in nature

On the other side of the yard we have a couple of our veggies coming in, here are Collards, Spinach and Kale

Our Asparagus is also doing pretty well. This is the year we can finally harvest them - yay!

Our herbs also did pretty well. We have some Sage 

and Oregano.

Let's not forget the rogues, here is some Lemon Balm that sprung up in an unexpected spot

and a Kale that popped up in the yard.

And of course we can't forget the Catnip that Lola found!

One of those days

I'm sitting here at lunch listing to relaxation music. Why? Well, I'm having one of those days at my day job and I needed to walk away. It's important to know when you've had enough and more  important to acknowledge those feelings. 

Photo Credit: koratmember

I strongly believe that being kind to yourself leads to being kind to others. I have more patience when I take that time out. 

Stress is a fact of life so we might as well learn to work it out of our system. Sometimes it's not always possible to physically remove yourself from the situation, this is where a few handy dandy techniques can help.

1. Breathe - taking a few deep breaths can help you center yourself and expel some tension.
2. Lower Your Shoulders - when we tense up our shoulders tend to creep up to our ears. By stretching them down as far as possible you're helping to release some of that tension
3. Relaxing Music - I'm a big fan of listening to relaxing music. Sometimes popping in those ear buds for a few minutes can help
4. Smile or Laugh - when you smile and laugh it's hard to be in a bad mood.  You may feel silly at first but it's definitely worth a try.

If that doesn't work then as soon as you can, take a quick walk around the block while taking deep breaths.

The important thing is to be aware and use the subtle techniques before you are overwhelmed.

Best Laid Plans

I like to make plans, no not plan vacations I would much prefer to have someone else do that. I mean life plans. I like to make grand plans and see them come to life. One of the plans I had involved making a big change in the fall. Unfortunately, it won’t work out exactly how I was hoping. I have to admit there was a moment of grief. That “what am I going to do” button had been pushed and I wasn’t sure how long I was going to be feeling that way.

Luckily I was able to process and come up with a pretty good (maybe better?) alternative plan. This whole experience was a reminder that even the best laid plans can go awry. So for all of those moments that you think you have everything perfectly in place remember that there are about 100 other little things that can derail you. But that has to be OK. That’s a part of life, taking the good and the inevitable bad and making good (or just OK) of that too.

So when you get lemons make lemontinis

Lola Update: Sick Kitty is now Good as New Kitty, maybe a little too good as she keeps trying to escape and do other things she’s not supposed to do.

Rutgers Home Gardeners School

So today is one of my favorite days of the year. It's the Rutgers Home Gardeners School day.

It's a day-long event that includes lectures, a plant sale and a book sale.

They had a pretty full agenda with a total of 36 different classes being offered. You get to pick 4 classes to attend. Today I chose Managing Good & Bad Bugs in your Garden which really ended up being about turf management (read: lawn). Not my thing but still useful. Unfortunately, so many questions were asked during the lecture that he didn't have time to finish the presentation so we didn't get to review the beneficial insects which is what I'm really interested in.

Next it was on to Do's and Don't of Butterfly Gardening. This was taught by Rick Mikula. He's quite the clown.

But not one of those scary clowns that look like they're going to eat you, more like a good clown that tells you how to keep caterpillars alive and bring certain ones back. I've decided that I'm going to plant a butterfly garden in the front yard. I wish we could do it in the backyard but with the birdhouses we can't. Caterpillars = bird food.

How cool is this caterpillar!

Spicebush Caterpillar

I was on my own for lunch so that meant going to the book sale and the plant sale. I like to support this event so I do my best best pick up a thing or 2... or 4... I got some oregano and rosemary I also picked up 2 books:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/9768200316?ie=UTF8&tag=fromsproutsto-20&linkCode=xm2&creativeASIN=9768200316

I really want to get more into native plants and plants that will encourage wildlife so this seems like a good start.

AND

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/061890445X?ie=UTF8&tag=fromsproutsto-20&linkCode=xm2&creativeASIN=061890445X

Again in keeping with the wildlife aspect. I think it's a lot of fun to see all this life buzzing and fluttering about. Seeing that hummingbird last year really made me happy and knowing that I'm giving these guys a place to hang out really means something to us - Jared is just as passionate about the Eco system.

The afternoon was filled with native plants and perennials. What I really found interesting about the Eco-Friendly and Drought Tolerant Native Plants class was the discussion of their root systems. Some can go as far down as 20 feet! This is why they would be drought resistant, the roots can get moisture and nutrients way down below even when the surface soil is dry and nasty. This is what makes dandelion root so healthy. Speaking of dry and nasty looks like quite of few of the native plants thrive on bad untended soil. That's good to know!

Butterfly Weed and Blue Star

Here are 2 that I want to add to my butterfly garden.

The Perennials for Year-Round Interest class was based on blooms during all 4 seasons. Not all of the plants were native but some of them were definitely interesting. It was nice to see some of the plants here recommended in the native plant class and the butterfly garden class - those are definitely coming to our garden

All in all it was a fun day with lots to learn about gardening. I look forward to next years classes.