After all this time, I still find myself in awe in the garden. Forty years old and in amazing, gotta share it, garden shaking, love. Monarch Chrysalis's on two of the four garden chairs. On my daughters dinner. Hand on hip and kale in her other hand... MOM! (see, i dont always like to wash our produce from the garden...) Yesterday, she and I cut the chrysalis from the kale and tied it with gold string to the new plum tree.
Seeds, blossoming into seedlings. Becoming lavender and lemon balm. Flowers, food, fruit.
My friend died last week. She made it home on her birthday, and died two days later. An amazing lady, like no other. She was class and elegance and humor. So much style and talent. She slayed me. And I am forever thankful for the chance to know her, be there for her. With her. It was really hard and really worth it.
Spring is here. The Robins have come and gone. Cardinals are singing, and the house and gardens look like something out of make believe land. Blessed be the day.
Friday, March 16, 2012
Sunday, March 11, 2012
Thursday, March 8, 2012
Planting
Blueberry bushes, squash, zucchini, cilantro, lavender, dill, lemon balm, collards, butterfly bushes, tomatoes, and it just keeps going. What are you planting and where?
Tuesday, March 6, 2012
Monarchy
A huge part of my passion for gardening is watching all the creatures that find their way into the garden. Creating a sanctuary for birds, butterflies, frogs and the like. Above is a Monarch Chrysalis cut from the chicken run for safety measures. I made a little swing and hung it from our peach tree.
Monday, March 5, 2012
Dogwood Confetti and Compost
The dogwood is blooming and dropping petals like confetti, outside my house. Im lucky to get to garden in a place where so much awesomeness already exists. Dogwoods, palm trees, wild cherries, camellias. Our two old and established orange trees. I havent bought Orange Juice in months, and honestly its going to hurt my feelings a little bit when I do. Although, one of our trees is covered in blooms again, so maybe soon. I have been fertilizing the trees with zoo poo. For $10 our zoo will front end load freshly composted elephant poop right into your truck. Yeah! I love this shit!
As I throw myself into the gardens, as yet another spring begins, I see just how much sense this method of gardening makes. A long time gardener, this totally organic method is still relatively new. Going into my third year, nothing artificial, just nature. Compost upon leaves, upon poop (chicken, elephant, horse, worm), upon mulch, upon hay. Season after season, year after year, building the soil up. When I go to plant, when i turn the soil, what once was sandy dirt is now rich and teaming with life. Worms, and bugs, mycelium, and nutrients. Kitchen scraps, leaves, "waste" turned back into the earth. After 7 years of composting (and the nickname Compost Kristen), after watching my grandmother compost when I was a child, Im here to tell you, you dont need to buy a composter to get started. Dig a hole, or make a wire enclosure, or just start a pile. Thats it, just start throwing your scraps in there. Avoid dairy and meat, and mix it with leaves. Its compost, you just cant mess it up that bad. If it starts to stink, add more leaves. A general rule of thumb is 70% browns (Carbon - leaves, straw, hay, even your dryer lint) 30 % greens (nitrogen, your veggie scraps, fruit scraps, garden "waste"). Turn it once or twice a week if you can (once in a while, or never, it will eventually breakdown). Depending on how actively you manage your pile, you will eventually have food for your garden, or rich soil to start a garden!
In Florida its that season where people are raking up leaves, putting them in plastic bags and polluting our landfills even further. Leaves make awesome compost, or garden mulch. Instead of bagging them up, why not put them in a pile and let em rot? Your soil will thank you, and so will I.
As I throw myself into the gardens, as yet another spring begins, I see just how much sense this method of gardening makes. A long time gardener, this totally organic method is still relatively new. Going into my third year, nothing artificial, just nature. Compost upon leaves, upon poop (chicken, elephant, horse, worm), upon mulch, upon hay. Season after season, year after year, building the soil up. When I go to plant, when i turn the soil, what once was sandy dirt is now rich and teaming with life. Worms, and bugs, mycelium, and nutrients. Kitchen scraps, leaves, "waste" turned back into the earth. After 7 years of composting (and the nickname Compost Kristen), after watching my grandmother compost when I was a child, Im here to tell you, you dont need to buy a composter to get started. Dig a hole, or make a wire enclosure, or just start a pile. Thats it, just start throwing your scraps in there. Avoid dairy and meat, and mix it with leaves. Its compost, you just cant mess it up that bad. If it starts to stink, add more leaves. A general rule of thumb is 70% browns (Carbon - leaves, straw, hay, even your dryer lint) 30 % greens (nitrogen, your veggie scraps, fruit scraps, garden "waste"). Turn it once or twice a week if you can (once in a while, or never, it will eventually breakdown). Depending on how actively you manage your pile, you will eventually have food for your garden, or rich soil to start a garden!
In Florida its that season where people are raking up leaves, putting them in plastic bags and polluting our landfills even further. Leaves make awesome compost, or garden mulch. Instead of bagging them up, why not put them in a pile and let em rot? Your soil will thank you, and so will I.
Tuesday, February 28, 2012
So
Its been busy. Life is busy. My friend that I have been caring for took a tumble and is now struggling with broken bones and the like. Its tough.
And I have been gardening. Seems spring may be here again for the second time in two months. My current plan is Flowers, flowers and more flowers. The other day when propagating Milk Weed and Coquina Salvia I imagined what it will be like when there are too many flowers! Can you imagine? Ugh. Flowers everywhere. I cant stand it! Also, a Persimmon tree and two more blueberry bushes. As a former New Yorker there are still delights to discover, such as Persimmons. And to eat a fruit, fall in love and get to plant a tree... So that in a few years, I can stand in the garden and eat amazing organic fruit standing next to the tree from which it came? Okay.Yeah. Talk about local. $12.99 at the feed store folks. Learning/practicing patience, waiting for the fruit to come. It takes most trees three years to produce. Thats okay, Im hoping to be around. Beautiful in the meantime, our two year old peach tree is now ginormous with gorgeous pink blooms.
Im pulling boston ferns by the armload and depositing them in the chicken run. Makes everyone happy. The chickens eat them, and pick the bugs from the soil covered roots and I plant flowers in their wake. And a Star Fruit tree. I had a star fruit off friend Vals tree last week. Amazing, and her garden is fabulous. Perhaps pictures one day.
Last week when I was working in my most recent flower garden, The secret garden, I was appreciating how much I love the paths that form when gardening a new space. Trails you begin to walk, and begin to plant. Working with what already exists . Playing symphony with Natures work. Paths form, like crop circles in the garden.
And I have been gardening. Seems spring may be here again for the second time in two months. My current plan is Flowers, flowers and more flowers. The other day when propagating Milk Weed and Coquina Salvia I imagined what it will be like when there are too many flowers! Can you imagine? Ugh. Flowers everywhere. I cant stand it! Also, a Persimmon tree and two more blueberry bushes. As a former New Yorker there are still delights to discover, such as Persimmons. And to eat a fruit, fall in love and get to plant a tree... So that in a few years, I can stand in the garden and eat amazing organic fruit standing next to the tree from which it came? Okay.Yeah. Talk about local. $12.99 at the feed store folks. Learning/practicing patience, waiting for the fruit to come. It takes most trees three years to produce. Thats okay, Im hoping to be around. Beautiful in the meantime, our two year old peach tree is now ginormous with gorgeous pink blooms.
Im pulling boston ferns by the armload and depositing them in the chicken run. Makes everyone happy. The chickens eat them, and pick the bugs from the soil covered roots and I plant flowers in their wake. And a Star Fruit tree. I had a star fruit off friend Vals tree last week. Amazing, and her garden is fabulous. Perhaps pictures one day.
Last week when I was working in my most recent flower garden, The secret garden, I was appreciating how much I love the paths that form when gardening a new space. Trails you begin to walk, and begin to plant. Working with what already exists . Playing symphony with Natures work. Paths form, like crop circles in the garden.
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