August 6, 2013
Today, February 6, 2014
That’s all I have to say.
Michele
Category Archives: gardening
Pinterest Gardening
In the middle of winter when it’s snowy and cold and spring seems a very long time away… I Pinterest garden.
I love Pinterest but not in a “check out what other people pin and re-pin it” way. Not that I never do that, but my time is limited and once I start I really can’t stop. I try to use it simply as a place to keep photos and articles that inspire or inform me. When I see something that I like or can use I pin the image to a board so I can get back to it.
I’ve been organizing my gardening boards into separate, more focused categories. It’s nice to have an idea on my mind and know just where to look to find that photo that I loved or the article that I remember reading. I start to see the garden coming to life again.
Recently I created a board about garden markers.
I know, that may seem a bit crazy, but I spend a good amount of time thinking about garden markers and creative ways to identify plants.
And then there’s the succulents board…
I really feel like I’m in the garden, surrounded by beautiful colors and interesting textures for a few minutes, even on the coldest winter day.
I also have a board dedicated to shade gardens. I don’t even have a shade garden right now but lots of people ask me about them so I’m hoping to fill this board with good references. It will be nice to say “If you look at my Shade Gardens board on Pinterest, you’ll get lots of ideas and information.”
And of course there’s the Front Yards board. Front yards are changing, aren’t they? I’m inspired every time I take a look at these photos to dig up my whole front yard. I’m pretty sure it’s actually happening one square foot at a time, but don’t tell anyone!
I’ve also been collecting ideas for my new herb garden…
I have new space that we opened up in the fall when we cut down a few juniper shrubs. A new herb garden will be planted there soon and this board makes it easier than ever to keep my ideas organized and ready for that day when I sit down with my afternoon coffee to sketch out the plan.
I can’t wait to start digging!
I have other gardening boards too, along with home ideas, recipes, chickens and grilled cheese. I kind of love grilled cheese and chickens.
Pinterest is a perfect way to get out to the garden in the winter. A little Pinterest gardening will help you feel the energy of this year’s garden to be!
Check out my Pinterest boards here on Pinterest and be sure to follow me! I add things all the time and I promise to follow you back.
Stay warm and enjoy everything,
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.
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
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
Garden Blogger’s Bloom Day-October 2013
Here’s my very late in the day, just under the wire Garden Blogger’s Bloom Day post! I started it at 6:30 this morning (when it was technically too dark to take photos) and I was so close to finishing tonight that I just had to do it. I love reading all of the other posts, and while I don’t generally use the latin names, and some of my blooms may have been posted in months past, I find great satisfaction in participating. So… here we go!
Our zinnias are still unfolding. I couldn’t live without zinnias.
The volunteer snapdragon carries on.
The cosmos continue, and so do the canoes.
A simple white chrysanthemum.
A pretty pink and white, very hardy chrysanthemum.
Classic yellow mums
And one of the last roses of summer. I dug this rose bush out of the Harrington estate on Essex Street in Salem right before a bulldozer scraped the top ten inches of soil out of that yard about thirteen years ago. It blooms in June then comes back a bit in the fall. I moved part of it here from my garden on Forrester Street when we bought this house in 2002. I believe that the other half is still living down on Forrester St.
Of course there are chrysanthemums in a shade of rust. See what happens when you plant the hardy varieties rather than toss them?
The knockout roses forge on as well. You have to love them!
Zebra grass
Sedum
And while not “blooming”, our woods just below the garden are full of fall color!
Be sure to visit the other garden blogs at May Dreams Gardens!
Goodnight!
Michele
Motorcycle Parades, Herb Freezing Time and Spiders
Life here in Salem, Massachusetts is so much fun and so crazy right now.
Yesterday we enjoyed one of my favorite Halloween activities, the annual Motorcycle Ride for Muscular Dystrophy.
Really, where else can you see this? I read a conversation on Facebook last night about moving the event to a different month because it disrupts traffic and creates confusion for other visitors. I guess it would be successful at any time of the year but I think that it adds a lot of fun to our Halloween season.
These are nice people dressed as superheroes
and pumpkins.
Hundreds of them ride into the downtown together, then they enjoy the city and give the economy a little extra lift, all for a great cause!
Before we left for the bike parade I chopped back some parsley yesterday.
I left some to keep it growing as long as I can.
Truly fresh parsley is the best!
I separated the chicken food from the good green stuff…
washed it off well..
chopped off the leaves…
and then chopped them finely.
I put it into an ice cube tray..
then I added some water and froze it until today.
Now I have parsley ice cubes, all ready for winter cooking!
I stuck them in a freezer bag and stored them away.
Another easy way to freeze parsley is to just pop it into a bag like Michael’s mom does. I was feeling pretty ambitious yesterday when I made the ice cubes. I enjoy that moment in January when I come home from a busy day and just pop the little cube into the dish I’m making. It’s really your preference.
And lastly, I’ll leave you with this photo that I took downtown yesterday:
How great are these guys?
We love our Halloween here in Salem!
Enjoy Everything!
Michele
Before We Know It…
This…
will become this.
And this…
will become this.
It will only take seven months and one day to happen.
But who’s counting?
Enjoy Everything!
Michele
What’s Happening In the Garden– September 30
Hey everyone! It looks like I’m a one post a week blogger at the moment. It’s fall and I’m all over the place…I know I keep saying that life is busy, but, really, it is. To add to it Halloween in Salem starts on Thursday night with our Halloween parade. I love the localness of that event. It’s really “our” Halloween as a city. From that point on we give the rest of the celebration over to the visitors. That’s fine with me, it makes money and people have a blast! Let me know if your going to be in town in October, I’d love to meet you!
Okay, so, here’s the Salem Garden this morning. 
It’s beautiful out there today. The summer garden is winding down but the fall garden has it’s own special character and charm.
I think I said this a few weeks ago— I love these Romano beans.
The swiss chard is doing okay. I should spend some time weeding and trimming so the center leaves can produce. See my little asian cucumber hiding in the back?
Here it is up close, we’ve eaten some and there are several growing. Not bad for an early August afterthought. I think there will be more of these next year.
Broccoli and lettuce are perking along too. I really believe that the broccoli is all about the chicken manure… that’s it. If you don’t have some available it’s very easy to purchase. Just read the labels at your favorite garden supply store and you’ll find it easily.
A broccoli flower that actually looks like broccoli! Will there be more? Time will tell…
These need to be picked and cooked or frozen today. I wish I was a canner…
We have five or six happy Brussel sprout plants. My Uncle Ossie says that they sweeten up when the frost hits them.
What do you think about this bit of browning on the bottom of the stalk? Anyone? Miss Betsey, you may have a thought here. I’m hoping it’s okay.
Tomatillos… hundreds of them… salsa verde here we come!
And the leaves on the trees are just starting to turn. It’s going to be a pretty few weeks here in Salem. I hope I can share some of that with you.
So there we are. Thanks for hanging in with me and for stopping by. Let me know how your garden is growing, I love, love, love your comments!
Enjoy everything!
Michele
Process or Product?— I’m a Process Gardener
I’m sorry, I’ve been away, lost in the realm of back to school routines and commitments that make me run (sometimes literally) from 6 am to 9pm most days. I need to get back to my blog so I’m going to jump right in and just talk about what I’m thinking about today. I’ve been tossing around the idea that I am a “process” gardener. In other words I love the process of planning the garden, planting and growing things. The end product is not that important to me. I enjoy the fruit of my labor but producing a zillion tomatoes is not my goal. The enjoyment for me comes from the act of gardening. I think that this is very different from gardeners who have their eye on the prize at the end and consider the work it takes to get there to be hard labor. It isn’t ever hard for me. I can weed, water and prune all day and love every second of it. If I loose to the conditions, so be it, I’m okay with that. I have to stock my freezer with dinners in the spring because I know I won’t want to come inside and cook. I just love being out there.
What I’m not too okay with is the idea that it’s almost over. Fall in New England is really beautiful but I get hit with a little case of the blues at this time of the year. I just can’t believe that summer is ending. Where did it go? Do I really have to wait through three long seasons for it to return? That seems like forever right now.
Okay, enough wining… there’s still a ton of work to do. We have broccoli, lettuce, Brussel sprouts and herbs growing . I’m planning some winter gardening activities to keep things busy. I have lots of window space here in my new office that my rosemary plant, geraniums and other herbs will love. Maybe I’ll finally get a cold frame going and stay in the game for a longer season. At the very least I could add some new houseplants and spend some more time reading garden blogs from the southern hemisphere.
It may be fall but spring will be here before we know it, right?
What kind of gardener are you?
Be well and enjoy everything.
Michele
What’s Happening In the Garden– September 10
I am hanging on to summer, that’s what’s happening here. With fall on our doorstep people keep saying that fall is their favorite season. I’m sorry, I just can’t join them, I’m a summer girl, that’s all there is to it. 
That said, the mums are getting ready to pop, which does help a little with the transition.
The oregano is still beautiful. I gave this a good cut back a couple of weeks ago. I’d like to dry some to enjoy this winter.
We still have plenty of green tomatoes. I’m hoping that the sun that’s forecast for today and the heat of tomorrow will help these along.
The romano beans took off and are climbing. Next year I think I may start some of these earlier in the season. 
This cute little gourd just peeked out and surprised me. I need to scrounge around and see if there are more hiding along the fences.
We still have zinnias!
And here’s the asian cucumber that I planted from seed in late July. It kind of took off. I don’t see much fruit but there were several bees flying around it pollinating the other day. It may still happen.
The morning glories reseeded from last year and are happy in the herb garden.
We have several banana peppers to enjoy. I may try drying a few of them.
Broom corn, so pretty! Next year we’ll plant a nice strong row of it and make some serious brooms. 
Lettuce, with broccoli next to it. I’m kind of surprised by this broccoli. I wonder if it’s one of the few plants that likes being close to the chicken coop. I’ve been reading about broccoli and learning that it responds well to the high nitrogen content of chicken compost. The trick seems to be growing nice leafy plants before the flowers form. I think we may be on our way here. I’m growing these at work too but I believe that the heat on the rooftop caused flowers to form before the plants really matured. We deadheaded those, then composted and fertilized them heavily with poultry manure a week or so ago, so I’m watching and hoping that they’ll take off.
We have lots of tomatillos, another nice surprise. I froze several over the weekend. It’s as easy as taking off the outer skin and putting them into a freezer bag. This week I’m planning to make some salsa verde, and I’ll likely freeze a nice gallon bag or two of them for the winter.
The foxglove is back in all it’s glory! I love this plant. It will probably reseed all over the place!
This is tucked into the front border on the outside of garden… is it ragweed or goldenrod? Pat at Commonweeder (one of my favorite garden blogs), just talked about this yesterday. I’m not sure, but I think it’s goldenrod.
And I’m already missing the black eyed-susan. It’s hard to see them go.
How’s your late summer garden doing? What were your biggest surprises this year?
Tell me about your garden, I love to hear from you!
Happy still summer! Enjoy Everything!
Michele
The Salem Garden 