Archive for the 'Gardening' Category
For this weekend’s project, we took a bunch of golden hops and tucked them into grapevine wreath. With a crow nestled in it has just the perfect balance of “festive” and “ominous” to become Halloween décor.
Without the space to grow hops in our small, urban garden, we were excited to receive a gift of freshly cut hops from the country. the Golden Hop Vine (Humulus lupulus ‘Aureus’) is a vigorous-growing deciduous vine and the prettier sibling of the common hops used to make beer. The cone-shaped flowers are green in the summer but when it’s time to cut the vine back in the fall, the flowers start to turn. The flowers arrived a pale yellow, but have dried to a rich golden colour. If you are lucky enough to get your hands on some hops, here are the instructions on making your own Halloween Hop Wreath.
Materials:
- grapevine wreath
- golden hop stems
- scissors
- Halloween decoration (crow or other)
Step 1: Pick out strong stems 3″-6″ long with clusters of hops at the ends. Snip off the leaves and flowers at the base of each stem, enough so that the stem can inserted into the wreath and hold.
Step 2: Starting at the inner bottom edge of the wreath, tuck each stem into the web of grapevine branches, enough so that when the wreath is hung they will not fall out. Insert the stems around the grapevine wreath from inner bottom edge of the form to the upper top edge. As the hop flowers will hang once mounted upright, this will ensure that the wreath will look symmetrical. A good practice is to periodically lift the wreath to its finished position to check the arrangement. Give it a light shake at the same time to remove any flowers that are loose.
Step 3: Use your creativity to decorate the wreath for the season. We used a crow but a spider, rat, or even a severed hand would have been just as compelling.
Step 4: hang your wreath and enjoy the flowers as they deepen in colour and release the most delicious hop aroma.
October 22 2011 | Flowers and Gardening and Harvest and Projects | 4 Comments »
If you grow Alpine Strawberries (also know as Fraises des Bois) you appreciate them for their powerful punch of flavor and easy-going plants that produce well in some shade. In colder areas where plants may not overwinter, sacrificing a few of these delicious berries for their seeds is a smart back up plan.
Alpine strawberries will grow true from seeds which are simple to save. First, pick the best, ripest, largest berries from your plants.
Second, smoosh them on a paper towel with the variety written on it.
Third, let them dry somewhere warm. We use the top of the fridge. When dry, you can fold up the paper and stick it in an envelope for the winter. Next Spring, scrape off some seeds into some potting soil to germinate. It’s that easy!
October 19 2011 | Gardening and Growing Food | 5 Comments »
It’s no longer possible to deny that it’s autumn (no matter how hard we try) so perhaps it’s best to start winding down along with the temperatures and light. Hanging some dried lavender around the garden could be just the aromatherapy needed to help de-compress after a long day, or perhaps it will just make you smile. Regardless, it’s a quick weekend project that will leave you calm enough for an afternoon read or a good night’s sleep.
Materials:
- wire coat hanger
- scissors
- twine or wire (in a colour that matches your flowers*)
- dried lavender
Instructions:
The best part about this project is that you don’t need any special materials beyond what you can likely find around the house. Start by bending a wire coat hanger into a circular form. The hook of the hanger will be hidden when the wreath is complete, and it makes it easy to hang the wreath when finished.
Gather a bunch of dried lavender and snip the ends with the scissors to get a nice neat edge. Secure the bunch to the form by winding the twine around it a few times and tying a knot. (*We’ve used green gardening wire for demonstration purposes, but a twine or wire colour that matches your dried flowers will have a much cleaner look in the end.)
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Leaving the twine on the roll, wind each new bunch to the form as they are added. Continue adding bunches until you complete the circle. Tuck a final bunch under the first bunch, and secure with twine and tie off.
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Be sure to work on a table or tarp where you can collect the dried flowers that fall of in the wreath-making process. Those wonderfully scented blooms are great for
lavender sachets, cooking, or soap-making. We keep a big jar in the house over winter for a variety of uses.
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October 15 2011 | Flowers and Gardening and Harvest and Projects | 8 Comments »
Not long ago I saw some very cool, modern concrete planters that I added to my DIY To Do List. Not long afterwards the lovely folks over at Timber Press sent me a copy of Concrete Garden Projects: Easy & Inexpensive Containers, Furniture, Water Features & More
to review so when I had a crafty friend stop by for a visit + a sunny afternoon, I needed no more hints to dig into some projects.
The projects in the book are great starting points for concrete projects that will suit many different garden styles. In addition to modern planters we made some leaf print stepping stones: some in moulds with pressed leaves and one where we used a giant hydrangea leaf as the mould.
The authors, Malin Nilsson and Camilla Arvidsson, layed out each project in six simple steps which were easy to follow, especially easy given each step has a beautiful photograph. The best part was the ease and speed at which you can create concrete projects; we had seven planters and seven stepping stones curing within an hour of arriving home with the materials.
For the planters, we used a variety of different sized plastic tubs that we collected. I filled my three square tubs with concrete and used round tubs and cups for the holes. I then filled the some of the larger hole-spacers with concrete and a small cup so each would produce yet another planter.
I particularly loved how this one square planter turned out when planted with sedum.
The stepping stones were also formed in plastic tubs, but larger, shallower ones. We pressed interesting leaves found around the garden (lady’s mantle, Japanese maple, and hosta) and weighted them with small stones. When un-moulded, they have depressions that will hopefully fill with little pools of water or perhaps moss.
Near the end, we took the left over concrete and piled it in a mound on top of a giant hosta leaf. When nestled into the shade garden it is right at home with the hosta who donated a leaf for the mould.
It was so surprisingly easy to make stepping stones that I’m happy to say that my days of hunting for rocks in rivers and back alleys might just be over (insert grinning husband here). I would certainly recommend the book to anyone looking for a fun and creative way to spend a sunny afternoon in the garden.
October 01 2011 | Garden Therapy and Gardening and Projects | 6 Comments »
The race is on. It’s the time of year when you encourage (plead) with tomatoes to ripen before they succumb to the horrors of Late Blight.
It first starts with a few yellowing leaves. Yikes. Remove these right away!
Then a few brown leaves and whitish-grey powder (spores) can be seen. Ack! Remove these immediately! At this point you could also top the plants by cutting the main runnier to prevent more flowering and send the plants energy into fruiting.
Sadly, there will start to be grey-brown spots on the stems which means the race has heated up. Cut off the stems that you can, and if the blight is widespread, begin defoliating the plants to allow all the plants energy into ripening the tomatoes.
It all happens so fast. You can go from lush green plants with many hidden tomatoes (August 2011), to sad looking sticks with ripening fruits (September 2011) in no time as seen in these photos of our raised bed tomato garden and self-watering container tomato garden.
Generally, we win the race and see late blight as a reality of growing tomatoes. Taking the proper precautions in the beginning of the growing season will greatly improve your odds.
- Rotate tomatoes to different parts of the garden each year. It takes 3 years for the fungus to leave the soil.
- Grow healthy plants: start plants off strong as seedlings, and feed and water them well through the season. Healthy plants are the best defence to disease and pests.
- Keep the leaves dry by watering the soil below as opposed to top watering.
- Grow plants undercover such as under a greenhouse, plastic dome, or roof overhang.
- Wash tools every time you use them, particularly when snipping off the blighty bits.
If you must remove green tomatoes, many can be ripened on a warm windowsill.
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When they are ready, those that haven’t been gobbled up fresh, made into sauce or salsa, can be wiped down and frozen whole for a winters’ worth of recipes.
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So far blight has taken about 5 of our tomatoes, out of the hundreds that we have harvested off 40 plants. Take that, Blight.
September 19 2011 | Gardening and Growing Food and Harvest | 2 Comments »
If you missed the giveaway on the Timber Press blog for Ruth Rogers Clausen’s new book, 50 Beautiful Deer-Resistant Plants: The Prettiest Annuals, Perennials, Bulbs, and Shrubs that Deer Don’t Eat
, you’ll be happy to know we are holding another one this week for the readers of Garden Therapy.
50 Beautiful Deer-Resistant Plants makes keeping deer away as simple as choosing the appropriate plant. Instead of the typical barriers and fencing, expert plantswoman Ruth Rogers Clausen has chosen the 50 most beautiful (and least palatable) annuals, bulbs, ferns, grasses, herbs, perennials, and shrubs.
For your chance to win:
- Post this contest to Twitter or Facebook and then leave a comment here letting us know that you did.
- Receive a bonus entry for “liking” the Garden Therapy Facebook Page.
The winner will be chosen at random next Thursday, August 25, 2011. Good luck!
August 18 2011 | Flowers and Gardening | 17 Comments »
I bought a Kew Red lavender plant at the farmer’s market this past spring at which time I met a Lavender Guru. He told me the secret to beautiful lavender on the West Coast is to harvest the flowers and cut back the shrub by half all before August 15th.
I have eight different lavender plants scattered around the garden, all in bloom now and covered in bees. It’s hard to harvest these gorgeous plants and take the blooms way from the bees, but my plants are leggy, patchy and woody the rest of the year so I’m committed to cutting them back for the greater good.
I started with one plant today, and stumbled upon a problem, what to do with all that lavender? First I will have to dry it, and that leads me to a space issue, which I’m proud to have resolved by decorating the Virginia Creeper that trails along my side fence.
Next up? I’ll harvest the rest and use it to make a dried lavender wreath for the house. Stay tuned for that project.
August 07 2011 | Flowers and Gardening and Growing Food and Harvest and Projects | 6 Comments »
Finally some nice weather has me outside to check on my newly transplanted early tomatoes and WHAT THE?!
The wilty and pale sad little transplants looked perfectly healthy 2 days ago.
I pulled one up to replace it with a backup and WHAT THE %$^&%$%^&*?! There’s worms eating them from the inside out.
I think this one is actually drooling….
I dug around in the soil only to find a whole bunch of these ugly critters. I had planted lettuce transplants early in the season in the same raised bed which all mysteriously disappeared days after planting. I blamed the slugs. I killed LOTS of baby slugs to terrify the other hidden slugs. But could it have been these nasty little wireworms that ate my lettuce?
Gardeners out there: help me, please! What are these worms and how do I rid my nice, organic garden of them?
May 18 2011 | Gardening and Growing Food | 21 Comments »
The current state of my herb garden is sad.
A collection of pots in which I have overgrown, root-bound sage, oregano, nodding onion, anise, mint, rosemary, and wild arugula. I usually tuck in some green onions, parsley, lettuces, and basil or cilantro (although the latter two don’t really tolerate the limited sun).
This year I plan to dig up the whole thing, give it some yummy compost and start some new seeds. My thoughts are to plant the usual suspects:
- sage
- nodding onion
- hot n’ spicy oregano
- anise
- mojito mint
- wild arugula
- rosemary
and a few new ones:
So what do YOU think…are there any more herbs that I should be growing? Herbs that do well in containers and part sun are best and I’d love anything that inspires new recipes. Feedback from those amazing minds out there will only serve to make this years herb garden more luscious than last year.
March 28 2011 | Gardening and Growing Food | 18 Comments »
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