Rockin’ and Rollin’

Pay more attention to your blog…Pay more attention to your blog…pay more attent….

Awe LOOK!!

Smooch smooch..Kiss Kiss

errrr… What was I saying? Oh yes, I was trying to remind myself to blog more, but I keep getting distracted for some reason. I am so busy these days that sometimes I even forget to finish getting dressed. I’m pretty sure the UPS man has been fully traumatized by now. It’s too bad I haven’t been keeping up with my blogs because some major happenings have been taking place in our family and my Wenderfloina world. Now I have to spill it all in one long rambling post.

Jude is 10 whole weeks old and time is flying by at a blinding pace. He is doing so many fun things like smiling, cooing, and laughing. He is also doing some not so fun things like show his emerging temper, decide not to take a bottle of expressed milk no matter what you promise, and decide that he no longer needs to nap or sleep ever again, in his whole life. He told me so. Anyway, he keeps me very occupied. Like right now. You won’t really be able to tell, but I am going to have to pause and save this as a draft and see if I can convince him to go to sleep. Just for tonight and then he can stay up for the rest of his life if he so chooses. Just sleep..Pause….Pause….Pause….He disagreed…He is mulling over his decision to remain awake in his crib right this very second…

Meanwhile… other happenings are, as a family we decided to eat better. I spent a fateful day watching several documentaries that made me open my eyes about the state of our food consumption. The most influential of which was Food, Inc. This documentary also helped me make a decision I had been contemplating for a while now. I gave up meat. I have been following a vegetarian diet for almost a month and don’t plan on going back. Parker and BFS are still amongst the flesh eaters but that’s ok with me. Mine is a personal decision. However, as a family, we switched to organic foods, simple foods that have as few additives as possible, no GMOs, growing vegetables and herbs in our own little garden, and their meat and our eggs are cruelty free…etc etc. Our mission is to make food joyous, and a priority. To know what we are putting into our body and why. I’ve even decided to make all our own bread. We are also following Jamie Oliver and his food revolution. He is desperately trying to get America to wake up to the appalling way in which the government and schools are feeding our sweet babies while they are in school. I am totally on board.

These guys will thank me for it later. I’m pretty sure…

In the mean time, I must pause again to re-convince the tiny sleepless one that sleep is, in fact, a good thing. And sleeping at least 10 hours at night will ensure that he lives to 100. No joke…..check this out.

Pause…Pause…Pause….

On the Wederflonations front, my painting time has been at an all time low. I’m still having a hard time fitting it into my schedule. However, I have recommitted my self to truck on through these rough patches and do what I can. I did FINALLY manage to finish a commissioned piece for a beautiful soul and will be mailing this to her on Tuesday. Just in time for Mother’s day.

I really can’t post a picture of the painting in her entirety because the new owner wants to be surprised, but as soon as she receives it I will post a pic and brag and brag. I just love how it turned out.

Oh! Also, I landed another job and will start working on that commissioned piece tomorrow

…hopefully….one moment please…Insomniobaby is calling…pause….pause…pause…..

Lastly, and most excitedly, I got my Mother’s Day gift from my favorite guys in the whole world. I will be registering for Kelly Rae Roberts’ Flying Lessons e-course. Mrs. Roberts is truly an inspirational artist and was inadvertently responsible for my reemergence into the art world. I will be posting more details later. I couldn’t think of a better gift. Thank you so much men of mine!

pause…..pause…pause…..

The house is quiet now. This is my cue to sleep while the sleepin’s good. Peace and Love.

and in the mean time, check out my etsy shop……… riiight [here]

October 14, 2009

Before It is Gone

If all this cold and rain is any indication, my beautiful garden is soon to be a victim of winter. Despite the spoils of the season, I love this time when the air is crisp and the first sign of dropping leaves emerge. I am still conflicted with sadness, as I see the flower babies that I nurtured all summer begin to fade away. I definitely need to get outside with the camera more and capture the last hoorah.

April 20, 2009April 21, 2009

Rustic Trellis

This year’s decision to concentrate on container growing has hit a snag. A serious budget snag, to be precise. I have purchased many pots and containers over the years, but most of the budget went to planting plants strait into the ground. Unfortunately, most of the aforementioned containers are in use and the ones that are left are not even close to the size I need. Here’s where the snag really sets in; I got a really good deal on some Cadenza roses. I really need to keep them containerized for a few years in order for them to be as mobile as possible. I could easily spend hundreds of dollars purchasing containers and trellises that are not even of high quality. Money spent on these expensive items is a serious issue right now. The plain truth is that there is nothing in the budget for anything else but dirt. Therefore, I made the decision (or was forced) to get handy and start reclaiming lumber to build the things I need.

It is good to learn how to use recycled materials for garden solutions rather than head out and buy something new and less effective. Discarded ceder fence posts soon became the perfect solution for sturdy trellises.

It also became the perfect opportunity to get PCH involved in the gardening process. PCH had a great time designing and building the first one. That was about all I managed to get out of him, but it was a victory none- the-less.

Once we g0t the hang of how we wanted the wire wrapped, everything flowed smoothly. I managed to get 3 finished in a few hours. The time spent was also relaxing. The shade was cool and the breeze was refreshing. I also enjoyed knowing that the interesting and rustic trellises might be ugly to some but to me they were free!

When I say rustic, I mean rustic. These old fence posts are aged and worn. I simply used a saw, some old bailing wire and a few tie techniques my father showed me and voila! a simple trellis for the rose to climb on for a while until a more permanent solution can be made.

These flower babies need planters and soon. Now that I have the hang of the trellises, I should be brave enough to make the planters. My plan is to make them at least 10 gallon size. The main problem is that there is only so much time in the day and week. I am already overextended beyond belief.

April 6, 2009April 7, 2009

On Your Mark…Get Set…!

It is Almost Time!

What can be more inspiring on Easter weekend than celebrating life and joy outside digging in the dirt? To me, this is just as much a religious experience as sitting in church. This may sound blasphemous to some, and in no way am I negating the importance of this holiday or church, but I feel closer to God when I am enriching His soil and really connecting with the spirit of nature. I’ve also never been one who felt very comfortable in church, or a church family, but consider myself a very religious and spiritual person. So my main desire this weekend is to create a spotlight of beauty that comes from my soul, seeds, and sweat.

I am already piling my gear up and getting ready to head Dallas way to BFS’s house. The goal for the weekend is to get all the soil ready in the front bed in order to add my highlights and edging plants, and then my specimen at a later date. I would love to plant it all in one go but unfortunatelythe plants on order with the AgriExtension Office won’t be here until the 19th.

In the mean time, Imy plan is to use white as the main color accent. I am usingSweet Alyssum (white) along the border edges and in a few large patches throughout. Alyssum is great because it is a heavy flowering and scented plant. Perfect for sitting on the front porch on beautiful spring and summer nights. When the flowers start to die or look sparse, then simply hedge them back and there is a new burst of growth and blooms fit for a rolling country meadow. Two of my favorite spring flowers are Shasta Daisy and Sweet William. Sweet William comes in a variety of colors but I chose the white variety, and should be fabulous bunched together with mounds of daisies in a wave of white. This may look super magnificent on it’s own without the addition of the other plants.

So much has to be done first, however, to get the dirt ready for new vegetation. The grass that infiltrated the beds has been “dealt with”, and hopefully will not be a problem, and as you can see from the picture above, I have the soil amender and mulch ready to go. Since the soil hasn’t been worked with insome time, I will need to replenish and balance the nutrients in the soil. Amending the top soil with one part organic mulch and one part enriched soil (enriched with organisms, enzymes and other good, growy stuff) should do the trick. Once that is thoroughly mixed in, would be beneficial to let it sit for a week or two to acclimate. But since I’m there, and won’t be back for a few weeks, I wanted to go ahead and get the border and accent plants in. Then, I will put a 3 to 4 inch layer of Red Cedar Mulch down. Red cedar has an advantage that some mulches don’t have. It detracts bugs and roses love red Cedar. Also, the reflection of the red has been theorized to produce healthier and bigger blooms. Side note: Tomatoes and strawberries love red mulch. They have been proven to yield a larger and tastier crop.

Once all this is done, I’ll let the sprinklers do their job and let the flower babies grow. I cant wait to get back around the 19th or so and plant the specimen plants and ornamental grasses (Little Blue Stem, Mexican Feather Grass, and Blue Muhly grass)

Specimen Plants

(From post on 2/27/09 Garden of Delight)

In the perennials category: White Oxalis: These are a fantastically hardy plant that is drought resistant and attracts butterflies. (Butterfly attractiveness is one of the main things I look for in a perennial.) I also ordered passion flower vines. This vine features a super spaceship looking blue flower. I was told to order 2, one for the butterflies and one for me. I also chose Cotton Lavender and Green Santolina. These make amazing ground cover and fillers in a natural landscape.

In the Shrub category: I added a Hardy Flare Hibiscus that I plan on babying in a container for a few years, and an American BeautyBerry. I have heard wonderful thing about this bush and it produces long stems of beautiful and tasty berries.

In the rose category: I chose a few eye poppers and nose tempters. The Antique Cadenza is an amazingly hardy, deep red, climbing rose shrub with an out-of-this-world fragrance. To compliment this rose shrub, I added the Duchesse de Brabant rose. This rose is cream to pink and equally fragrant. Maybe later on I will add some white Knock-Outs to add more ooompf….Phases…phases! I have to learn that I can do things in stages and not all at once.

So that is the plan for now. I am very excited to only have to concentrate my plantings on flowers for now. I have my vegetables safely tucked away for the night in the garage growing in their little buckets because the news said that there was a chance of a freeze tonight. I already have a wee tiny little tomato and the tops of a few peppers are blooming out, and am so excited that I chose to do a container vegetable garden this year. It may take a few years to perfect it, but I’m digging it so far and can’t wait to see how to utilize it in small spaces year round.

March 29, 2009March 29, 2009

Burr Cold Weekend

Weekend frost seemed to have bypassed, and the fruit trees should be fine

To Frost or Not to Frost?

Well, the weekend temperatures were down for sure. I had family in Lubbock with snow in the ground (informed via text-by-text updates) and I had family and friends in the Dallas/Ft. Wort area with ice and rain. I even had Austin reports of hail and thunderstorms. However, we had a very mild and in between weekend. It was cold, windy and bizarrely sunny. My gardening solution was the “be safe than sorry” stick everything inside the garage approach. I kept track of the garage temperature and it got as low as 38 inside. Thankfully, I chose the container route this year and everything should make it fine as long as I can fight the rabbits and ground squirrels that have seemed to flourish in the last few years. Mainly, since the farm across the way took government subsidies for letting the land go natural. Understandable and noble, but a pain in the <beep> for us fighting the critters. Anyway……

The mud finches have returned, another signal that spring is here to stay. So the time is approaching for some serious gardening and flower planting! I’m getting very excited. In the mean time….. This last week I made observations on the blooming status of already established plants are a Go, Go, Go. Below is a pic of the rose tree that I severely trimmed a few weeks ago, It is out of hibernation and ready to thrive.

This week, I am removing everything out of the garage and finding somewhere permanent to place the veggie babies in a safe protective place out of the wind. This will probably be the back patio. I have already observed that the wind might be my major battle this year.

Tomato babies in a different light. safe and sound in the garage.

Let me know if any of you had any serious weather issues this weekend and what your solutions were to protect any plants you are growing were.

March 24, 2009March 24, 2009

Buckets of Goodness and a Side Note of Tragedy

Happy Spring!

Happy Spring everyone! This is, without a doubt, my favorite time of year.

In celebrating the first days of spring, I spent the weekend working like a woman obsessed. The weekend was full of spring cleaning, planting vegetables, herbs and left me absolutely exhausted. I have been so busy that I just now have a moment to even blog about it.

Why all the ugly buckets?

I’ve had a garden most of my life. Most of them have been at least an acre in size (but felt like 100). I spent summers hoeing, picking, canning and complaining. Little did I know, that when I became a wizened adult, I would find the happy memories inspiring. I say wizened because when I first moved away to attend college, I wanted nothing to do with the roots that bound me to the land. I didn’t grow a tomato again for almost 10 years. It has really been in the last 5 or 6 years that I have really gotten back into growing things. The vegetable garden hasn’t been as large as when I was a young but the rewards have been fruitful. I love the idea of being as self sufficient as possible.

Unfortunately, I don’t have the time to work on my usual row garden, but I still wanted to have one. I also want to learn as much as I can about how things grow, so this year I have stepped outside of my traditional rows and am doing my vegetable garden in containers. I had a few terracotta pots available but mostly old 2 to 5 gallon plastic planters and buckets are what I am using. It doesn’t have to be pretty to grow, right?

So here is What I Did

On Saturday, my mother, Parks and I set off to have lunch and run a few errands. We ended up in 4 garden centers and only bought a small truckload of stuff. The highlight of the day was when I found a Brown Turkey Fig Tree at Garden Place. I spoke at length with an employee who knew quite a bit about Figs and he offered some advice for growing it in a container. Since I’m not sure where and when I want this plant to rest forever, a container will do for now.

We hit Garden World next and the favorite purchase there was a Midnight Ginger plant. Its hardy in zone 10 so it will definitely be a house plant. I then picked out my favorite veggies that I knew did well in these parts, some organic soil, and some organic fertilizer that would “do the trick”. Then it was on to Lowes where I bought shrub and tree dirt, a few hanging baskets and then it was off to Wal-Mart to get wine and terracotta pots. Both much cheaper there and I have a serious love and lack of taste when it comes to wine. (Don’t get me wrong, I like the good stuff too, I just don’t discriminate.) Back at home it was container time.

I know I said I wouldn’t plant until Easter. I still mean that. Nothing goes into the ground until Easter weekend. So I broke into the plumbing work truck, swiped a drill and a bit, went to the shop and found tons of buckets. Once I selected all the varieties I wanted, i drilled drain holes in the little suckers. That should do.

Below is a pic of the fruits of my labor. I am not sure about the placement of this bucket-o-Garden. For now, all the plant babies are taking refuge in the garage. The temps have been ok, but the wind has been awful.

My first attempt is mainly filled with the varieties of plants that I know well. One of my favorite summer activities is also canning peppers so the more the better. Therefore, I kept the garden small and stuck to what I know. Hopefully, it will be a success. If anybody out there has any suggestions or advice, please feel free to let me know.

(Magners is my garden warrior. He protects the plant babies at all cost. Even if that means laying on top of them to keep them warm. He’s not that bright sometimes, but he means well.)

Some Pictures to Illustrate the Goodness

Above are my patio tomatoes, lavender, and peppers. I am hoping for huge tomatoes this year. I am growing cherry and roma.

Mags is guarding the stash. left to right we have a pot of misc herbs, cucumbers (hanging baskets), two white varieties of crepe myrtle, figs, leeks, jalapenos, banana peppers, tomato (r0ma), tomato (cherry) lavender, various bell peppers, more jalapenos, and hot banana.

This is my wee, hundred plus pound baby. He wants to be in every shot (and even poses! u see that?!). Otherwise, Magners is a great garden buddy. No one else is able to stand my gardening OCD and follow every footstep as if it is the best thing in the world. It’s my own personal fan club.

OK working with dirt is not glam, so I look……well, not glam……and eerily alot like my dad…..yikes….MAKE-UP! Anyway, my fan club rested his head on my shoulder and decided we needed a pic together. so CHEEESE!

Meanwhile, in the house…Catastrophe Strikes

On the seedling front….CATASTROPHE! I went away for a fun filled spring break. In the mean time, my hardy little seedlings were growing away in a specially designed, self watering container. I guess that’s what I get for trying to take the easy watering way out. We have mold people!

It hit with a vengeance. Two of my trays have been infested. I hope I got to it in time. So I don’t loose the whole crop, I immediately removed the plants and bleached all my trays. I then flushed out my plants with water. It’s is the only thing I can think to do without spending any money and still maintain my organic principles. It is survival of the fittest around here. It is a week later and It looks like the remaining plants will be survivors. I didn’t loose too many.

These guys are still kicking butt! go purple basil and zinias!

March 6, 2009March 17, 2009

Goddess of Gardening Update

Ok! Maybe Goddess is a bit much! But still……….

I included lots of pics in this blog because I just lurv clicking away at my flower babies. It’s all I can do at the moment, since the more I leave them alone, keep them watered and sunbathing the better they will be.

A few observations about my wee little seedlings :

Zinnias planted in first planting are way too leggy. I am not sure if it had to do with amount of sun exposure but I kept them in the same window as Zinnias planted in # 2 tray.
The fennel are not as strong grown indoors as they were when I started them outside last year. I’m going to put a fan on them for a few hours a day in order to develop some strength to their stalk. I’ll just have to keep an eye on the water. I don’t want them to dry out.
So far everything has sprouted beautifully

My mother, being a master gardener herself, brought a few store bought herbs because they were a steal…but can you see how jealous the plant babies are sitting next to them?! Total Performance anxiety; but I told them that size didn’t matter….it’s the ability to photosynthesize that gardeners look for. I think they feel better.

Grow herby babies! Grow! The purple basil looks good enough to eat already. I love to plant purple basil in my show beds for their deep color. It adds a beautiful contrast to the vibrant colors of spring blooms and bright greenery. Also, infusing your beds with specific herbs are a natural pest deterrent. Less chemicals and more smarts peoples. I plants herbs everywhere (outside and inside) The nature woman in me believes in the innate healing properties of herbs just by proximity alone.

These guys are reaching for the sun. I have to rotate my flats so everyone can get enough full sun. I seriously need a green house as big as a house. Currently, I house my seedling nursery/overwinter storage/plant hospital in the south facing utility room. There is a washing area and a huge window that allows for an abundance of light and protection. It’s a pretty smooth operation, but I’m greedy. I want more! I ran out of room for my overwintering facility in the Utility room, so a good portion of my non-winter hardy, containerized plants are in my bathroom. It is literally a jungle in there!

So what’s going on outside?

We’ve got pink buds! Peaches are all set for go. Please, Please, Please no freeze! Last years peaches were amazing. We still have a freezer full ready to go for cobblers and ice cream toppings! The apricot and plums have leaf nodules but since they are only a few yrs old and were planted last year, I’m not expecting a crop. The grapes are budding as are the Wisteria and roses. I am so excited to see the bees out and about and the Mud Finches back. That means Spring is almost here. I won’t officially be excited until after Easter. Then I will let superstition pass and dig like a mad woman.

The sad aspect of gardening this year is the lack of a vegetable garden. I made the decision to not do a veggie garden this year, due to the fact that I will be moving during the critical summer gardening period. I love having a garden and have had one most of my life. So a good way to make me jealous is to talk about how good your tomatoes and onion sets are doing! I am still maintaining and caring for whatever is currently rooted in the ground, but will not be adding anything to this property. I am propagating my seeds for my new residence, family and friends, the buzz garden for the zoo, and plant sale.

Never fear, I have my perennials and annuals on order for April and my seeds are set and it looks like all the cutting back and hedging has done its job and I see more and more sprouts every day.