Author Archives: thesalemgarden

I love to garden, and blog about gardening, horticultural therapy and gardening adaptations and Salem Massachusetts!

Is It Just Me?

I know, I know, this is silly, but, when I take apart the planters it’s hard for me to throw the old plants into the compost. I’ll miss them. They were beautiful and I feel a sense of loss. I can throw anything away in the house with no problem, but plants are different. I tend to hang on for a long, long time. So the other day I took everything out of the big front porch planter and went down to the compost bin. In went the spike plant, the verbena and the stock…. then I got to the geraniums. I threw one in and took it out. Then I looked at the four plants in my hand and I knew what I had to do. So, up they went to the kitchen counter. Michael came home and they were still there. Of course he said something like “oh, please, no, not again… you know that these are going to hang out all winter and your never going to do anything with them. In the spring you’ll be buying more”…   Well, he’s probably right. I do that.  I have great thoughts about wintering things over  and re-using them.  But maybe this is the one time it will work. Maybe these geraniums will come back as beautiful as ever. So for now I’ve tucked them away in a dark, cool corner of the basement. Just hanging out, waiting for spring.

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Maybe they’ll be back, we’ll see!

Terrariums, the White House and Santa!

Today is catch up day for me. I’m trying to house clean before we start the holiday baking and cooking, and before the Grandmas start arriving next weekend. I just handed the bulk of my Christmas cards to the mailman. I have pulled pork in the crock pot, and I really, really need to fold and put away a ton (literally) of laundry! If I can do these few things, all will be well with the world… It’s coming along, that’s all I can say. Of course, over coffee this morning I did a little bit of blog reading and wanted to share a few of my favorites with you.

First off, Amy-Sue at a Healthy Life for Me blogged about how to make these adorable terrarium ornaments. They would make a wonderful gift, but I can also see them hanging in the windows of our new office.   Here’s the link  for you to check out.

Then I thoroughly enjoyed this post  that my friend Eunice at Living and Lovin had re-blogged from a new-to-me  blog called The Garden Diaries. It describes the blogger’s adventures as a volunteer decorator at the White House last year. “Decorating the White House for Christmas” has now been added to my bucket list. What a great story and wonderful  photos!

Lastly, I loved this post shared by my dear friend Joy at Diary of a Crazed Housewife.

Joy is fortunate to be related to Santa and she shares that privilege with special children in her life… very, very cute!

So, that was my early morning reading… I hope it makes you smile 🙂

 I’m off to dust, vacuum, fold and take kids places and I have two hours and twenty seven minutes before the little kids get off of the bus!

Enjoy Everything!

Michele

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Which White? and a Cute Christmas Theme Change

WordPress just released this cute Christmas/Holiday theme and I couldn’t resist.  I had also struggled with the formatting of this post for hours and a few clicks to change the theme solved the whole problem. Talk about a win, win for me…and for you too I hope! In other good news, our sunroom/office project has come along nicely lately…

Here it was a few weeks ago

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and here it is now

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Again, a few weeks ago (actually this photo is dated September 26th, so quite a few weeks ago)…
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and now  🙂
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  I’m planning to paint it white to pull it together and tone down the effects of the crazy angles and window sizes.
So, which white should I choose?

Navaho white, seems to have some yellow in it..

Antique White, definitely a green undertone…

Off-white, a pink undertone

Linen White, a pink undertone, I like this one a lot, it reminds me of our first apartment on Derby Street, I had the whole place painted this color, except for the bathroom, which was supposed to be green with white trim, but the NPS decided to paint the trim olive. Eventually I talked them into fixing that, but it took a few years…

Cottage White, this may work, I see some pink here too.

My 100th Post!

It’s very hard to believe that I’ve reached my 100th post… who’d have ever thought it…certainly not me. I remember my first post well. I was so nervous. I’d never done this or anything quite like it before, other than joining Facebook, and other yahoo groups and web sites a long time ago. This was completely different… my little kingdom where I could post anything I wanted, wide open and completely unchartered territory!  So I started posting photos and captions, and writing about them. Lots of my posts were about the garden and my family, which is where my heart is. Sometimes I think I’d like to write a very polished and professional gardening blog, then I find myself writing and sounding just like myself. I’m not generally polished and professional. I can be if needed but I don’t think I’ll ever have that well-spoken, intellectual tone that gets freshly pressed and recognized widely. That’s okay, I’m going to enjoy this and be comfortable in my own skin. I’d like to use The Salem Garden to help people. I’ve been thinking about that a lot lately. Maybe I should laser focus in on basic gardening concepts, or start another blog dedicated to helping people who are in very difficult circumstances? Those who are close know that I’ve had kind of a Forest Gump type of experience, especially in the past seven years. I may write about all of that someday, we’ll see.

In the meantime here’s a re-cap of some of my favorite moments from the past six months or so…

The garden at the beginning of the season, all planted in and ready to go..IMG_0311

This was my third post, the one about turkeys in the yard…IMG_5727Then I wanted to give you an idea about what  Salem is really like…IMG_3908And of course, I posted about weeds. I never, ever profess to be a perfect gardener in any way. I make lots and lots of mistakes and I have no professional experience. I just love it and that’s what I share.IMG_0738Then there are these moments, when we can just enjoy the view. IMG_0751The little kids and I planted potatoes!IMG_0769and there were always chickens..IMG_7674And the Common..IMG_7732And kids helping. I love this photo, I used it on our family Christmas Card this year..IMG_7777People loved the green monster post. I should decorate more, and blog about decorating more. There is a really big audience for that!IMG_7806I should post more recipes too, this chocolate chip cookies recipe post is a big favorite…IMG_7829and there’s always more chickens… In the spring I might do some nitty gritty chicken maintenance posts with Michael, especially if we have baby chicks again. Chickens are fun!IMG_7853The bee balm grew.IMG_8605And I posted about my dream house… this was widely read too. I may do a series of dream houses…  IMG_8584We played on the beach at Winter Island a lot..IMG_8754And enjoyed one of my favorite gardens anywhere! IMG_8085There have been waterfalls…IMG_0794

And very special visitors..

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I visited lots of gardens and I have a very long list that I missed!  IMG_8306

We even painted chairs one dayIMG_0094The garden kept growing and growing…IMG_9490We had the experience of Hurricane Sandy, although we were spared the worst of it.. There was also the near miss of the tornado. Who would have ever thought this would happen?DSC00859You all seemed to enjoy this guy last weekend! So did I!
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and now we’re looking at the winter garden…

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It’s time to settle in for the long New England winter, plan for the spring and enjoy a some quiet, cold days. I have lots of thoughts for the winter edition of The Salem Garden… It will be fun!!

Thank you all from the bottom of my heart for reading, commenting, correcting, and cheering me on!

I love it here.

Michele

A Few Thoughts About Garden-Based Learning

This morning over coffee I read this link   to a story about garden-based learning on Jamie Oliver’s website. It describes a school program in Morgantown, West Virginia and the work that’s being done to teach children experientially, using the garden. It sounds quite similar to the garden that I talked about here when I blogged about the Nathaniel Bowditch School in Salem last summer. Gardens are popping up in schools all over the country as we come to realize that our children need to learn, in a very hands on way, about where their food comes from, or perhaps I should say “where it should come from”.  Many American children are growing up with the idea that food comes from a box at the grocery store. I recently sent some zucchini home with one of my kid’s friends and heard later that they had no idea what it was. It really made me think about what I could do to share home grown food with people. I’ve always liked to give vegetables and eggs away.  Now I’m trying to give them to those who might not experience them often rather than to those whom I know will appreciate them. Even if someone looks at the zucchini on the counter for a few days wondering about how to cook it, then tosses it, at least there’s some thought about where it grew. Sorry, I’m digressing a bit, the point is, kids (and adults) really benefit from the hands on experience of planting, growing, harvesting and eating. Most kids don’t experience this at home for so many reasons so it needs to happen in school. Their health and the health of our planet depends on it.  Check out the link if you have a few minutes, think about giving some veggies away freely, and consider supporting your local school’s garden.

Thank you for indulging me for a few minutes while I stood on my soapbox! Sometimes I just can’t help it 😉

Enjoy Everything!

Michele

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Pickles Anyone?

We have nice fresh dill growing in the front yard. I’ve had dill volunteering in this spot for a few years. We just never know when it’s going to pop up. We had it growing most of the winter last year. It’s amazing that a plant that looks this delicate could actually be so hardy.

I think I’ll go buy some cucumbers, or a nice piece of fish.

Enjoy everything!

Michele

The Cake Boss!!

Last night my oldest daughter and I enjoyed a fun evening at Buddy Valestro’s live holiday show in Lowell, Massachusetts.   Also known as the Cake Boss on TLC, Buddy was just as fun and engaging in person as he is on TV. He told lots of stories about his family and the bakery, decorated cakes for the holidays and really engaged the audience with chances to participate.  This was the first show on his tour so they were fine tuning some of the technical aspects and had some video difficulty.  Buddy just rolled with it as best he could and it added to the fun. I’m sure he’ll have all of that worked out asap!

Here are some photos, taken with Michael’s point and shoot camera… not perfect, but you’ll get a sense of our experience..

Buddy’s hands are always in motion, just like on tv…

His little boy, Buddy Junior was with him.  He zipped around the stage all night, what a cutie!!

Helping Dad answer a question.

The set (is that the correct word for the stage?) felt like we were right in Hoboken, NJ.

There was a big screen so that we could see the details and tons of audience participation… these kids were cute!

It was a great mother/daughter night out with my favorite baker.. If you enjoy baking and the Cake Boss show, go see Buddy if he’s in a city near you. You won’t be disappointed!

A Little Thanksgiving Garden Update

In the midst of the cooking and cleaning and prep I managed to get out to the garden this morning, and to take some photos, and to do a little blog post! Yay!!  Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. For me it’s about giving thanks, real, true thanks, from deep within. I love preparing the food and spending a quiet day with family and friends.

This morning I harvested the last of the carrots. When we grow carrots I always try to save some for Thanksgiving dinner. There were more there than I thought, we will enjoy these for a few weeks..
There’s still some mesclun… this is so resilient, it’s amazing…

And there’s still sage. I picked a nice handful for the turkey.

And rosemary and thyme… for the turkey, stuffing and dinner rolls..

And of course there’s still plenty of chickens… they look pretty happy that this isn’t their holiday,  ;

I wish you all a very Happy Thanksgiving.

Lots of love,  Michele