thesalemgarden

Gingerbread

I just had a gingerbread cookie a minute ago that was made by the friend’s husband who I was talking about when I wrote this post last year. They use their secret family recipe and it was absolutely delicious! Anyway, here’s the recipe that we use here at The Salem Garden. We love it and it’s quite easy to make and roll out. I hope we make some here in the next few days! Snow is coming so I think there’s a good chance it will happen. Enjoy everything (especially the gingerbread)! Michele

The Salem Garden

There’s nothing like the smell of gingerbread. Yesterday one of my friends came home to the scent of gingerbread baking and posted a thank you note to her husband on facebook. I thought that was so cute! It really does welcome you in. We love to make gingerbread in our house and my oldest daughter has taken our gingerbread recipe to new heights.

Here she is baking a batch last Christmas.

These days she uses a very simple confectioners sugar and water icing and pipes designs on each cookie. If we make them this weekend I’ll try to share some photos. They are simple and delicious!

Here they are a few years ago with lots and lots of buttercream frosting…the younger the kids the more frosting and sprinkles.

This is last weekend’s creation….

Piping is big right now, Buddy Valestro does lots of this…

We love this gingerbread! Here’s the…

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Winter Lettuce and Spinach On the Rooftop!

I’d like to introduce the “other blog” in my life! Bass River Gardens is the blog that I’ve created with the individuals who I work with in my position as an adaptive gardening specialist. Last week we planted an experiment in our new “cold frame” and I thought it might be a good time to share Bass River here on The Salem Garden. This is a really cool project and so easy to do! Check it out, and while your there please look at some of the other posts that we’ve created and follow us! We’re having a good time in the Bass River Gardens, even in the cold weather! Michele

Bass River Gardens

We made a cold frame for our rooftop garden a few weeks ago. A cold frame is like a little greenhouse and it’s used to extend the growing season by keeping in the heat and keeping out the cold, snow and wind. We made ours very inexpensively using window well covers, metal clips and bungie cords. You can watch the video that showed us how to do it here.

We decided to try to grow different kinds of lettuce and spinach to see what varieties would grow best in the cold frame.

We made labels for each packet of seeds,

Then we went up to the roof, lifted the cover off and got ready to plant.

Each set of seeds was gently planted.

And carefully marked with a white label.

When we were done planting we had five varieties of lettuce and three types of spinach ready to grow!

We…

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Nelson Mandela: prisoner, president…gardener?

I’ve read several quotes by Nelson Mandela in the last day or so that were garden related so of course my curiosity was piqued and I had to learn more. I simply googled Nelson Mandela garden and a page full of articles came right up. He gardened for the same reasons that many of us do… for peace of mind, for control over what were uncontrollable situations, and perhaps for the simple joy of it. Here’s the link to a post published yesterday by the Christian Science Monitor.

Nelson Mandela: prisoner, president…gardener?.

In the post Kurt Shillinger, former Africa Correspondent for the Boston Globe, describes his experience living in South Africa at the time of Mandela’s presidency and his association with him as a journalist and a gardener.

“Gardening is a metaphor for life, teaching you to nourish new life and weed out that which cannot succeed.” —Nelson Mandela

May you rest in peace, Mr Mandela, in the most wonderful garden of all.

Michele

The First Annual Salem Garden Holiday Wish List

It’s the holiday season and that means it’s time to find a gift for your favorite gardener. There are so many choices and ideas everywhere you look, from your local garden center to millions of places on the internet. Here’s a few of my favorites this year:

First up, how about a pair of great gardening clogs? I’m really love the adorable chicken design. These are $36.95 here at Gardener’s Supply company.

If I were in the market for a greenhouse, I’d choose this one.

The sides are polycarbonate, it appears to vent well and it’s a nice size. I found it here at Greenhousemegastore.com for $749.00.

Look at these great garden markers! I found them on etsy for 3/$22 at this cute shop called FromArtisanHands. I think they would add a nice punch of color and they look nice and sturdy and fade proof.

At the very top of my “gardening books to read” list is Margaret Roach’s “the backyard parables, lessons on gardening, and life.” I loved Margaret’s last book “And I Shall Find Some Peace Here” in which she talked about her journey from corporate life as a garden editor for Martha Stewart to a full time gardener and writer. This new book looks to be a continuation of her story. It’s available on Amazon.com for $17.57, hardcover and $11.04 on your kindle.

If your a very practical gifter or receiver this bucket caddy is perfect. For just $9.19 your favorite gardener will be able to store all of his or her tools and weeds in one place and move around the garden. This is also an Amazon find. Take a look here if you’d like to check it out!

Here’s another practical gift—a tumbling compost bin! People ask me about compost bins all the time and this one is absolutely my favorite. We purchased it for our adaptive gardens at work last spring and I love it! It makes compost in two to three months, has two chambers so one “cooks” while the other is in use, and it’s quite compact. I’ve never noticed any odor, which is often a concern of new compost makers and its quite animal proof since it’s up off of the ground. You’ll find it at Home Depot for $99 or it can be ordered online here.

This bench/kneeler is a great find for the gardener who needs a little extra help to be comfortable physically. It can be used as a bench as pictured above or flipped over as a kneeler with handles to assist when pushing up to stand. It’s $28.95 here at Amazon.

International Caravan Santa Fe Nailhead Double Rocking Loveseat

And finally, I had to include this lovely rocker for two. I can just imagine sitting in this chair with Michael enjoying our view (when we’re 99 and 102, maybe). It’s so pretty and I think it would be a beautiful accent piece without distracting from the rest of the garden. I found it on Overstock.com for $217.00 along with 117 other beautiful bench designs. If your looking for a bench, you will find something at Overstock!

So there’s my wish list. What’s on yours?

Feel free to share this post far and wide… just put hint, hint in the subject line if you send it by e-mail ;).

Enjoy everything!

Michele

A Simple Thanksgiving Table

After all of my planning and good intention about decorations, and centerpieces, and name tags, it came down to four simple candles arranged by my little guy, great food and my wonderful family. That’s all that really matters, isn’t it?

Happy Thanksgiving! I hope your day was as blessed as mine was!

Love, Michele

~Just a Few of My Favorite Houzz Thanksgiving Ideas

Gosh I love Houzz. It is just so much fun to sit with a snack or cup of coffee for a few minutes and look over all of the ideas. Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday and I like to make it special so I usually make place cards and decorate the table with a little twist. I need some inspiration this year so I spent a few minutes looking around Houzz.com this morning. I could post a thousand photos, but here are my favorites so far:

Thanksgiving Tablescape traditional-dining-room

See more traditional dining room designs

This first arrangement is just classic and pretty. I like the way the textures of the runner and ribbon accent the shapes of the pine cones.

Custom Dining Room traditional-dining-room

Photo by Jennifer Grey Interiors Design & Color Specialist. See more traditional dining room designs

Beautiful pinecones and textures again, but with a little bit of glam…

Photo by It's The Little Things.... See more contemporary spaces designs

I don’t have a mantel but I have a server that I could decorate like this.

Photo by Ann West Interiors. See more spaces designs

Simple and restful… I love it!

Photo by Delicate Creature. See more spaces designs

And a different take on the idea,pumpkins that were painted white. The “white” centerpieces really allow the food to shine.

Photo by FOCAL POINT STYLING. See more spaces designs

Candles and acorns…

Strictly Simple Style traditional-dining-room

See more traditional dining room designs

More white (white seems to be all the rage this year) embedded with upholstery tacks…

Photo by Rikki Snyder. See more dining room designs

And finally, mason jars, candles, greenery and a nice natural wood base…

At the moment I may use white pumpkins, pine cones,mason jars, candles and some greens, with some asparagus foliage for color.

I’ll keep you posted!

Love, Michele

Thanksgiving Tablescapes (interiorsbystudiom.com)
White and Gold Tablescape for Thanksgiving (30smagazine.wordpress.com)

Garden Blogger’s Bloom Day- November 2013

I didn’t think that I’d have a November GBBD post to share but I just can’t quite give up yet.

We still have a few blooms to enjoy here on the coast of New England.

Still a few knock out roses, the rest of the roses are gone. I’m really in love with this color that I chose for the front and side yards. We planted several of these recently. You’ll see more of them in the spring.

Some snapdragons too…with the right kind of winter I may be able to post a photo of these in the February and March GBBD posts (just kidding, probably)..

Not quite a bloom, but the asparagus foliage and seeds almost qualify. I love these!

And just enough foxglove to make sure that we don’t forget about it.

That’s it for me! Looking forward to looking at the other Bloom Day posts at May Dreams Gardens!

Hope you do too!

Michele

ps/ It’s the weekend! Be sure to take a few minutes to check out the video that I shared here the other day of Margaret Roach‘s gardens in New York State. It’s great!

Growing a Greener World Episode: Garden with Margaret Roach

Here’s the link to a wonderful episode of Growing a Greener World, a national gardening series on PBS, featuring one of my favorite garden bloggers, Margaret Roach. It was so much fun to see Margaret’s stunning gardens and to listen to her talk about gardening and design. She inspires me every day! Make a cup of tea or coffee and relax and enjoy for a few minutes~ Michele

Episode 418: Garden with Margaret Roach.

Now THIS is Horseradish….

It started out like this. I remember saying something like “there’s the horseradish” and going on to my next thought.

Yesterday I was cutting back and cleaning up the garden and realized that the horseradish had died back from the frost and was ready for harvest. I thought I’d pull some out for Michael to enjoy. I didn’t get the horseradish gene but he and my mom eat it like it’s candy. So I started digging, for at least an hour. Long story short, we have a lot of horseradish root out there and it’s buried very deeply. There will be horseradish on our property for many years to come.

Here’s what I was able to dig out. It was getting dark and I was tired. We had pizza for dinner.

… a view with my hand to give you a better sense of the size of this root.

I soaked it a little and washed the dirt off. My middle daughter, the Harry Potter fan, saw this and immediately went downstairs and put in the Harry Potter movie with Professor Sprout and the mandrakes and watched the whole thing, lol.

It looks like the large one is actually six roots that fused together. I might of missed it last year.

The smaller, normal size root was easily peeled and chopped.

Then I processed it with some water and red wine vinegar.

And my Michael was happy.

He doesn’t smile like this for just anything.

The larger root is still sitting on my counter. I think that I’m going to try to cut it into smaller pieces and freeze it to grate later since the refrigerated version only lasts for up to six weeks.

Looking forward to a nice horseradish cream sauce with the roast beef on Christmas Day 🙂

Enjoy everything!

Michele

Overwintering rosemary – Fine Gardening Question & Answer

Hi everyone! I miss you! I miss reading blogs, I miss blogging, I miss sitting down… but I am enjoying the good stuff that’s happening around here. I hope to post about some of that soon. Michael and I have been quite busy outside and my kids have been quite busy using this computer for homework and projects. Winter is coming so we’ll all slow down and settle in over the next few weeks.

Here’s my thought of the day…

If you want to save your rosemary, now is the time to take it in! We just transplanted a rosemary plant at work the other day that I had kind of randomly placed into a pot that had a good amount of bark mulch in it when we added it to our rooftop garden in June. I was surprised to find the root system absolutely thriving when I took it out to move it. It just needed to be in a more decorative container for it’s winter home, so I used the original soil right along with it when we transplanted it. Be sure to add bark mulch of some type and then don’t let your rosemary plant dry out.

“A dry rosemary is a dead rosemary”, Adelma Simmons, 1994 at Caprilands

Here’s a helpful article about overwintering rosemary plants from Fine Gardening.

Overwintering rosemary – Fine Gardening Question & Answer.

Have you taken your rosemary plant in for the winter yet? It’s not too late!

Michele

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