"What am I planting?"

The question came from an office colleague who was given her last "Secret Santa" gift from me wrapped in one of my favorite finds this year, bloomingbulb.com plantable wrapping paper.

Like me, she said she gets through January dreaming of her new flower garden. Rummaging through last year's leftover seed packets, pouring over new seed catalogs and cleaning pots are only a few January chores. The rest involves a lot of daydreaming, including what to plant where.

The plantable wrapping paper includes two sheets of tissue paper, one with a design, the other white, with flower seeds nestled in between. Can you see the seeds?

To plant, the instructions say to place the paper under soil; add water and allow seeds to sprout.

What kinds of seeds? It's an impressive butterfly mix:

Here's the same butterfly mix seed list from the plastic wrap around the plantable wrapping paper in the photo. One sheet 20 inches by 8 feet wraps 3 shirt boxes and contains 2,500 favorite butterfly seeds:

Zinnia elegens 30%

Love in Mist Nigegelie damascena 20%

African Marigold Targetes erecta 20%

Cornflower Centaures cyanus 10%

Gloriosa Daisy Rudbeckia hirta 10%

Cosmo bippinatus 8%

Plains Coreopsis tinctoria 4%

This looks like a nice mix of taller flowers best planted in a sunny flower bed. If butterflies don't mind, these would also make a great source for a few cut flowers!

Charlotte

Flying Through Chicago's O'Hare Airport

Turning a corner at Chicago's O'Hare airport January 2, 2015, these lovely birds in white lights appeared to be flying towards me amidst green garlands with huge red bows.

They reminded me of summer days in Missouri when humminbirds approach as I carry sugar water bird feeders out into my garden.

The birds are even more fun up close and gave the airport corridors a dramatic holiday theme as some of us flew to catch connecting flights.

There definitely was a lot of flying going on!

Charlotte

Homemade Vertical Herb Garden

Want to have herbs handy but no room to plant them, and get a little extra privacy at the same time?

Try what my sister-in-law in Minnesota set up on her deck. A vertical herb garden using standard wooden trellises and plastic pots. The wooden trellises give her a little privacy from looking down on her next door neighbor and provide a handy space to hang pots for favorite plants and herbs.

No herbs growing in the middle of winter in Minnesota but you can better see how the pots have been hung on the pre-assembled and painted wooden trellis.

The plastic pots were originally black. My sister-in-law ordered them online because these had the longer lips on the side to hook onto the "S" hooks. 

The pots are the same size and shape, spray painted different colors. To easily hang them, place two large "S" hooks about 2 inches apart.

Once in place, the "S" hooks securely hold the pots on the trellis next to the outdoors table for easy reach during meals.

I volunteered to come back next summer to thoroughly research how well this system works, especially when my brother is cooking. My sister-in-law said that was a wonderful idea!

Charlotte

Welcome New Year 2015

"The merry year is born
Like the bright berry from the naked thorn."
~Hartley Coleridge

So much about life we can learn in our gardens. From the joy of the different seasons to what challenges us, a garden teaches patience, perseverance, determination and compassion. We are rewarded for efforts but not always in the way we expect. Garden flowers add beauty, and sometimes sustenance, and having a helping hand from another gardener makes the journey more enjoyable.

Here's to a new year in your garden being interesting, productive and fruitful. Happy New Year!

What are you hoping to learn this year?

Charlotte

Christmas Memories

"Like snowflakes, my Christmas memories gather and dance - each beautiful, unique and too soon gone."  ~Deborah Whipp

What are your favorite memories of this holiday season?

Charlotte

Vintage Postcard Book Marks

Grandma used to sneak vintage postcards in old books she would give us at Christmas. One of the first books I remember getting was an old gardening book with mid-century color photographs. I used to pour over that book; frankly looking more at the pictures at first but I eventually migrated over to words once I learned to speak English.

This vintage postcard one is one of my favorites. I now have it displayed on a table as part of my Christmas decorations. Love the cats in the vintage postcard. Love even more the memories, and gifts, of books.

May your Christmas be filled with lovely new memories. Merry Christmas!

Charlotte

Dear Santa

So which was it this year, will Santa say you were naughty or nice?

Charlotte

Green Prints "Weeder's Digest" Gardening Gift Idea

This next gift suggestion is for anyone who enjoys hearing about gardening from a variety of experts and points of view. It's a good choice if you are running out of time to order something by Christmas but it would be a nice gift any time of the year as well.

This is the 25^th Anniversary of Green Prints “Weeder’s Digest,” a charming publication sharing hilarious, inspiring, consoling, frustrating, nurturing, heartwarming true garden experiences.  The 25th edition includes lovely seasonal prints suitable for framing. At least I would consider framing them if I didn't already have a lot of favorites on my walls.

Easy to see why it twice has been voted "The Best Small Garden Magazine in America." 

Publisher Pat Stone started Green Prints magazine when he lost his job with a major garden-related magazine and now publishes this once a quarter publication himself with a lot of help from his family.

Holiday gift orders will get a “Best of the Weeder’s Reader” and a fifth edition free. Order at greenprints.com or call 800-569-0602. Cost $19.97 per subscription.

Download a picture of the edition and add it to a card saying the subscription has been started. Nice addition to a stocking, or two, too!

Charlotte

Hello, Winter!

"There is a privacy about it which no other season gives you.... In spring, summer and fall people sort of have an open season on each other; only in the winter, in the country, can you have longer, quiet stretches when you can savor belonging to yourself." ~Ruth Stout

Shortest day of the year, now we will start getting more sun every day. Can spring be far behind??

Charlotte

Garden Vine Tree Trimming

There are many decorations unique to Christmas but none as iconic as the Christmas tree.

One of the more interesting, and simple, Christmas tree trimming ideas is to use dried garden vines. This Christmas tree is wrapped in wild grapevines:

 Nice in combination with a bough-covered barnwood garden bench.

What have you used from your garden to trim your Christmas tree?

Charlotte

Garden Bench Boughs

There are simple ways we can use what is already growing in our own gardens besides putting up a Christmas tree. 

In this handmade bench bough, three different locally-growing cedar branches were woven together, giving the bough different textures. The bough was woven with a beige wired ribbon then attached to the top of this barnwood garden bench:

These should last a week to 10 days before the needles dry. Once removed, compost or pile in a garden corner for winter wildlife cover.

Simple, clean and elegant way to quickly give your garden benches a little hint of the holidays.

Charlotte

Painted Santa Gourds

If you still have fall and Thanksgiving gourds around, here is a sweet way to recycle them for the holidays as table decorations and gifts: paint them as Santas.

These should be long-necked gourds, or gourds with at least a separation between a head and body. Here is my favorite to give you inspiration, starting with the tip of Santa's hat!

 

 Here's the painted gooseneck gourd's gloved hands and back:

Show us your painted Santa gourds, have you tried to paint one?

Charlotte

New Missouri Garden Journal and Calendar Garden Gift Idea

Finding a guide to Missouri gardening used to be almost as hard as finding vintage gardening books in mint condition. "From Seed to Harvest and Beyond: Garden Journal and Calendar" is a brand new, 76-page spiral-bound book written for, and by, Missouri gardeners.

The journal includes graphs for designing gardens, container gardening, planning a flower garden, monthly listing of gardening chores, pages about pests and diseases, and a place to write your own gardening notes.

I ordered one because I wanted to try their planting guide. The one I hand write I can barely read, not that my handwriting in their journal will be any better but at least I will start with something legible.

Cost for the journal $15 each; another $7 for shipping available from University of Missouri Extension. 

To make this a fun garden gift, add something personal – handmade jam or whatever your gift specialty is, or pick up seed packets still available at most garden centers. This time of year they are usually on sale. Most seeds are viable for at least 2 years.

You can also order a lovely free catalog from Baker Seed Company, Marshfield, Missouri. They specialize in rare and heirloom seeds. Their catalog would make a great companion to this garden journal and calendar.

Plantable Wrapping Paper

Between tissue-filled gift bags to brown paper bag wrapping with jute cord, decorating gifts is almost as much of an art form as the gifts, and well wishes, themselves.

In the US, annual trash fro gift-wrap and shopping bags totals 4 million tons, according to Use Less Stuff. Half of the paper America consumes is used to wrap and decorate consumer products, an approximate 25% increase in household waste from Thanksgiving to New Year's Day.

One solution, plantable wrapping paper. I didn't get around to making any so I bought this package from bloomingbulb.com.

The paper sheets have flower seeds sandwiched in between. After decorating a gift, and the danger of frost is past in your planting area, the wrapping paper can literally be buried to grow flowers, either in a bed or a pot. Instructions included on each gift tag.

 Now that's a gift that keeps on giving!

Time to Save Egg Cartons

It's time to start saving egg cartons again. Although I initially started only saving cardboard ones for seed starting, I learned this past year to appreciate using styrofoam ones under the cardboard ones.

Cardboard egg cartons with sprouting seedlings can be cut up and buried straight into the ground. Styrofoam egg cartons serve as a protective barrier while seeds are sprouting so moisture won't quickly disintegrate the cardboard.

Yes, I am already thinking about what supplies and garden tools I will need for next year.

2015 Missouri Department of Conservation Natural Events Calendar

The 2015 Missouri Department of Conservation's Natural Events Calendar is out for 2015. The 10x14-inch lovely yearly calendar has beautiful nature photography and natural events listings: when hummingbirds migrate, when columbine flowers bloom, when chiggers start biting.

I tend to use mine to mark major gardening and beekeeping chores.

Here's a sneak peek at mid-year:

I have a special garden place to release turtles so I have my eye on this photo on the back for possible framing.

Snow Flowers

These succulent perennials go through an amazing transformation, starting as green-looking roses hugging the ground in spring. In summer, Autumn Joy Sedum grow 2-feet tall with large heads of tiny pink flowers that attract a variety of pollinators. In fall, Autumn Joy Sedum"blooms" with seed heads that dry to a burnt red. Greenery dies back, leaving only the large heads.

The striking stalks add winter interest as they dry and get covered in snow. I call them my "snow flowers." Snow protects seed-heads for late winter food for birds. The one drawback to this succulent is that it is also attractive to deer. Once munched, however, Autumn Joy Sedum will grow back again as long as they haven't been pulled completely out of the ground.

Charlotte

Ladybug or Asian Lady Beetle?

There are 5,000 different kinds of ladybugs worldwide; 400 live in North America.
Ladybugs are often confused with multi-colored Asian lady beetles, which often show up in large numbers in fall.
The difference is that ladybugs can pull their head into their shells like turtles.
So which one is this?

It's an Asian lady beetle.

Charlotte

Bird Baths Good Humidifers

Have bird baths you love but no place to store them?  Some bird baths can be taken apart for winter storage. Others, however, need to be stored in their final form. Don't risk getting them nicked or damaged; tuck bird baths in your rooms among inside plants.

I have several throughout my house, including one in the living room; another one in the den, and the last one in my bedroom. Winter homes are notoriously dry from constant heating. Most plants prefer to have conditions with a little more humidity. Besides periodically misting plants, keep baths for birds filled with water for a quick and easy way to continuously add moisture to your dry air!

Charlotte