Nature journaling and watercolor fun

Writing a blog about nature and gardening is really nature and garden journaling, but I've always wanted to practice real-time with sketching and art, too, but found the format intimidating, even though I loved drawing and art when much younger.

So an all-day workshop around using watercolor in your nature journaling, taught by Elizabeth Ellison, a wonderful artist based in Bryson City, NC at the NC Arboretum, was a wonderful way to encourage myself towards some watercolor artistic expression.

I've never done watercolors before (aside from pen and ink colored ones), with only a dabble into watercolor pencils, but have always loved watercolor art (and wanted to do it.)

I had a totally fun day -- great to learn some techniques and play with color.  I'm signed up for another class (much longer) in a couple of weeks.  It'll be fun.

Here are some of my impressions of trees and mountains, and a container planting (our "subjects" today).

mountains, evergreen trees, and deciduous trees

evergreen and deciduous trees

inspired by a container planting!

heading off with (pristine) art supplies

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Growing peanuts

I can't claim that I've ever grown peanuts, even after living in the South for 3 decades.

I know it's possible. One of my younger colleagues grew giant Spanish peanuts with the kids in one of our after-school programs (at the botanical garden where I worked, and now volunteer) some years ago.

Peanuts need warmth and space. They flourish in the coastal plain of SC and GA.

So I found this article in the NY Times quite interesting; here's a fellow trying to grow peanuts in NYC.  Lovely!  And learning more about the history of peanuts -- fascinating.

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Penstemon digitalis "Husker Red"

Penstemon digitalis in the pocket meadow

Penstemon digitalis (in the pocket meadow) is looking lovely now, in full flower. Its lovely clear white flowers are a great addition to the mix!

Penstemon digitalis

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Neem - The organic insecticide

Neem is one of my favorite things to use when it comes to controlling disease and pests. Its Organic, and as you all know when growing your vegetables, why use anything that wasn't organic.

You want to get a 70% Neem Oil Like this one!

As Mike McGrawth, Host of "You Bet Your Garden" says,  "I like [to] use neem oil as the oil form of this plant seed is a very effective anti-fungal. (In another, harder-to-find form, neem acts as an anti-feedant; and if pest insects eat anyway, they die. You go, neem tree seed!) 

Anti-fungal! Do tell you say!

Neem oil can be used to treat a number of garden ailments, including:

• Insects: Neem oil kills or repels many harmful insects and mites, including aphids, whiteflies, snails, nematodes, mealybugs, cabbage worms, gnats, moths, cockroaches, flies, termites, mosquitoes, and scale. It kills some bugs outright, attacks the larvae of others, and repels plant munchers with its bitter taste.
• Fungus: Neem oil is also effective in preventing fungal diseases such as black spot, anthracnose, rust, and mildew.
• Disease: As if that wasn’t enough, neem oil also battles viruses that can harm plants.

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Flame azalea and Eastern hemlocks

We've gardened in our neighbor's yards on both sides of our house in the mountains (with their permission - so not guerilla gardening, but shared landscaping).

It's been fun to replace weedy things with desirable native plants, ones that restore some mountain habitat to an old urban neighborhood (and the formerly weedy woodland ravine behind the house).  This has my gardening companion's major gardening focus (and a welcome break for him). I appreciate the results!

A flame azalea and a couple of Eastern hemlocks were additions to the "blue house side"-- along with a number of other things.

flame azalea and Eastern hemlocks

The flame azalea (Rhodendron calendulaceum) is beautiful right now.

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Carolina rose

We've enjoyed our Carolina rose: we planted it last year and it's flourished.

This is how it looked this afternoon. Lovely.

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"Pocket" meadow

The plants in the pocket meadow out front are such a nice mix, flowering sequentially throughout the growing season.  This is somewhat (although not entirely) by design.

It was heartening to see how many of them survived the exceptionally cold winter -- and the ones that didn't; well, their spot just gives me an opportunity to plant something else.

The hybrid Penstemons, even though they were western species, were casualties, probably from the wet summer more than the cold, but the species Penstemon now in flower (also western species, I think), are a lovely lavender.  An single P. hirsutus, planted last week, makes a nice contrast to the others and filled in a gap. And the white flowers of P. digitalis "Husker's Red" will be open soon; the purple foliage adds to the mix.

The yellow Golden Alexanders (Zizia aurea) have flourished - they're huge this year. Interestingly, I just read that the flowers and foliage were edible -- it wouldn't have occurred to me!

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Native rhododendrons

This year has been kind to our evergreen Rhododendron catawbiense, if not to deciduous native azaleas (we lost one and another doesn't look robust).  Catawba rhododendrons (species) have been lovely here in the mountains as well as around town; their hybrid forms (often with Asian species) have done equally well.

Rhododendron catawbiense

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A sweet onion harvest, Frostproof, and more...

A sweet onion harvest

The sweet Granex onion harvest was variable from 5 inches across to less than an inch.

Last week (before the rains came) most of the Granex onion leaves had fallen over, so it was time to harvest them and hang them to dry in the garage. Earlier this week I harvested the short-day onion sampler crop. I talked before about rogue onions that bloomed instead of going dormant--most of the blooming onions came from the sampler crop, especially the purple ones. I made some more rogue onion soup, but this time I used some leftover rice instead of potatoes and pureed it in the food processor. It still tasted great and was so good served cold on these warm days. I planted the onions last November, so it's a long growing season, but we go through a lot of onions, so it's worth the effort. Sweet!  

Onions not suitable for drying included some blooming onions, ones without a enough leaf to hang by, and those that were too small to bother with.

I pureed the rogue onion soup this time.

A hairy chickpea pod

The cycle of crops continues with the sugar snap peas turning brown with the warmer weather, the third and last crop of leaf lettuces is beginning to bolt, the third and last crop of carrots is almost ready, and we are still enjoying our come-again broccoli and cabbages, but they'll begin to fade soon. The chickpeas and cucumbers are beginning to bear fruit. The butternut squash and zucchinis are coming along, too. Some of the okra plants have already set their first buds, so maybe we'll get a crop in a few weeks. I love our edibles--there is something new to enjoy every day.

Cucumber vines in a container and the chickpeas next door.

The Ashley cucumbers are fat.

A Mother's Day (Re)Treat

My daughter proposed a meetup in central Florida for Mother's Day. I headed south and she headed north and we met at 8:30am in Frostproof, an historic town set between 2 large lakes. The plan was to hike in 2 preserves and then have lunch before heading back to our respective homes. She knows me well. What a great day.

Frostproof, Florida mural at the unlikely-sounding intersection of Wall St. and Scenic Hwy.

Scrub morning-glory

We met at the Frostproof library, left my car there, and headed out together to Hickory Lake Scrub where there are 14 rare and endangered plants. Some are endemic only to the scrubs on the Lake Wales Ridge in the center of Florida's peninsula.

I learned a few new plants for me, including this beautiful scrub morning-glory with its soft pastel blue color. I also liked the Feay's palafox shrub--such beautiful flower heads. I could have spent more time there, because there is so much to see in a scrub if you just slow down to observe.

Feay's palafox (Palafoxia feayi), a Florida endemic shrub in the aster family with a beautiful flower head. 

Dori on the bank of the Peace River.

Our second hiking spot was the Peace River Hammock, which was more heavily wooded and more mosquitoed, but still some interesting plants including this beautiful spring-run spiderlily. The Peace River has a pretty good current. It would be fun to float down it sometime.

After the 2 hikes, it was time for lunch. Dori had scoped out a cool 50's diner called Frostbite, where you can get "ice cream and more." I enjoyed my apple, pecan, & chicken salad; Dori liked her shrimp & chips; and then we did of course order ice cream sundaes. What fun.

A spider lily in the Peace River Hammock.

I stopped on the way home to admire the cloud formations in the Ocala National Forest. A storm was on the way, but it didn't start raining until about the last 10 minutes of my drive.

Clouds outline the landscape in the Ocala National Forest, the 2nd largest forest in Florida.

Do you know your snails?

Rosy wolf snails doing their thing on our sidewalk.

Another view of the snail sex.

These rosy wolf snails (Euglandina rosea) are predatory and will feed on slugs, other snails, worms, and other small critters in your gardens. You don't want to kill these helpful snails, so use caution in fighting plant-eating slugs and snails. After taking these photos, we gave them privacy so they could continue their procreation duties.

It runs in the family: my grandson Weber is majoring in chemistry and food science at University of Delaware. He'll be putting his education to good use at his summer job at a Delaware farm.

Ooh, the Stoke's asters (Stokesia laevis) are attracting the native bees.

Summer's upon us. Sustainable gardeners know to get out in the garden only in the early morning hours when it's cool enough to be comfortable.

Green Gardening Matters,
Ginny Stibolt

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Fairy Garden DIY: Picture Frame

Fairy gardens are my favorite things to look at. Last year I did an article on fairy gardens that I saw at the garden centers. They were so fun. I have started to collect my own supplies and I will be doing a series on creating your own Fairy Garden! To start us off nice and easy here is how I made Fairy Garden picture frames that are made from plant tags.

The Great thing of using plant tags is that you never have to worry about the pictures turning bad since they are plastic. We all have these things that we have laying around and end up throwing them away. I don't know about you, but I think they look pretty good.

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Garden Plan 2014

Hey Kids, this year is fun, we are redesigning the garden, and it's overdue. It was a large 12x12 garden. Which means that you have to walk through it, which compresses the soil and makes it hard (no oxygen, or water). Last year I wanted to break this big bed up into a couple smaller raised beds and viola we are doing it. I did a lot of research  on designs and found that the ideal width of a bed is 3-4' wide. This will give you plenty of space to reach the middle of the bed from all sides. Here is my board on all of my raised bed designs form Pinterest.

Follow Zachary's board Raised Beds Ideas on Pinterest.

So here is my new design for the garden 2014.

Let me know what you think. I made the bed on the far right only 2 feet because I can only reach it from one side since it rests against the neighbors fence. Otherwise I think it is pretty good looking.

Here is the design from 2010

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Assessing climate impacts

Here in the Southeastern U.S., we've had a very usual year weather-wise.  Way more rain than normal last summer, then bone-chilling cold in the winter.

It's made for some interesting losses and die-backs.

So, it was a reminder about how extreme our variations were over the past year to read this piece in the NY Times about the impact that extreme cold has had on midwest gardens.  It's telling that some gardeners lost plants that had thrived for 30 years.

As gardeners, we always like to push the envelope, even those of us who are trying to be mindful of our regional conditions, but certainly these were exceptional variations, and maybe a portent of more fluctuations to come. 

I gravitated towards being a gardener (and garden educator) as it was hopeful -- restoring landscapes and encouraging people to connect with nature. It's a nurturing and forward-thinking practice (vs. worrying about habitat loss, conservation challenges, etc.) -- this sort of news just makes me realize more that we need to keep planting as restoration gardeners interested in stewardship, too.

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What's New

Okay Kids, So I talked last spring about what is my favorite place to shop at for such a large variety of vegetables and flowers. Again I went to Baker's Acres and got some NEW Varieties. (Click here for last years new veggies).

Juane Flame, Big Zac, Ananas Noire, Abe Lincoln, Tomande, Lipstick

Ive never seen these varieties at my other nurseries so I had to get them. Notice the 'Big Zac' tomatoes! I got three of those! I mean, they named it after me so I really had to. I am still waiting on the beds to be done with the remodel before I can plant them in the ground. Hoping to have that all done by next week. I am deciding to use the EarthBoxes only for peppers. The tomatoes just get too big and unmanageable in them.

I hope all you kids got some new and different varieties... Try something that you never have...I double dog dare you to! Here are some of the different varieties that Baker's Acres had that I liked.

Black Magic Viola: truly a black flower!

Look at these guys, Grafted tomatoes! I don't know if you have heard about these guys yet, but way cool, also Way expensive! A grafted tomato is a combination of two tomato plants. Normally they are one Hybrid and one Heirloom variety. The rootstock is the hybrid and the scion is the heirloom. This makes the heirloom variety more vigorous and immune to soil born diseases. It does not protect it form air born diseases however. Still pretty cool. I know that you can do it yourself too. Maybe I'll try it next year.

Grafted Tomatoes

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Vegan Dandelion Pesto

Okay Kids, what about those dandelions? They are beautiful...okay take a second look and really look at their beauty. Right you see it now! I was weeding the garden and looking at all of the dandelions that I was throwing away. I am sure that I can do something with all of this "waste". What about Pesto, ever heard about arugala pesto? Here is the low down... I was so surprised at how unbitter this pesto was, really it was so delicious that I just had to make it again... and again! So surprised!

Dandelion Pumpkin Seed Pesto

Makes Makes about 2 cups

Ingredients

• ¾ cup unsalted hulled (green) pumpkin seeds
• 4 garlic gloves
• 2 tablespoons nutritional yeast
• 1 bunch dandelion greens (about 6 cups, loosely packed)
• 1 lemon juiced
• ½ cup extra-virgin olive oil
• ⅛ cup water
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• Black pepper, to tasted

Directions

Place pumpkin seeds in a large skillet and roast over medium heat. Stir consistently until golden brown and you can hear they pop a little. Remove from the pan and allow to cool.
Pulse the garlic and pumpkin seeds together in the bowl of a food processor until very finely chopped.
Add nutritional yeast, dandelion greens, and lemon juice and process continuously until combined. Stop the processor every now and again to scrape down the sides of the bowl. The pesto will be very thick and difficult to process after awhile — that's ok.
With the blade running, slowly pour in the olive oil and process. Add the water a little bit at a time until the pesto is smooth. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Here is a tip for you all, when using your Cuisinart, the most difficult thing about the Cuisinart is having to clean that silly lid. So a way I fix that is to wrap the lid is plastic wrap. Then when I am done I just unwrap the lid and viola!

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A field trip, a Florida native plant hero, & pasta salad

I traveled over to Gainesville on May Day to meet with my editor at University Press of Florida and Marjorie Shropshire who will be illustrating my third book, "The Art of Maintaining a Native Landscape." It was a productive meeting and good progress is being made on the book--it's currently out for review. We discussed likely photos for the book and looked at Marjorie's drawings so far. (Marjorie also did the illustrations for "Organic Methods for Vegetable Gardening in Florida.")

Marjorie and I had more work to do on the drawings, so the plan was that she would come back to my house and spend the night before she headed back to south Florida. On the way back to my house we stopped to talk to David Chiappini in Putnam County, but were interrupted by this gorgeous wildflower meadow.

Wow what a great-looking roadside wildflower field.

Barbed wire study...

A Florida native plant hero

We had a great time talking with David Chiappini, a native plant wholesaler. He has done so much to advance the Florida native plant availability. In addition to supplying native plant nurseries with authentic Florida stock, he also co-wrote (with Gil Nelson), and arranged the funding for "Florida's Best Native Landscape Plants: 200 Readily Available Species for Homeowners and Professionals."

This important book includes multiple photos and detailed drawings of each plant and it also provides details on size, where to plant, type of soil, and what to plant with each of the 200 plants. If you are interested in being successful with natives in Florida, this book should be on your bookshelf. David said he is happy to talk to people when they bring his book for reference, especially when it has obviously been well-used with notes, bookmarks, and dog-eared pages.

When I first met David at the Morningside native plant sale last month, he said that he had ideas he'd like to share on what he'd like to see in my book. He was generous with his time and we spent more than an hour talking about native plants and the native plant nursery business. He offered up some great ideas for how it could be of more use from his point of view.

 

A fieldtrip

After a dinner of Mediterranean pasta salad (See below.), Marjorie and I spent the evening going over the illustrations to make sure they were clear and presented the material accurately. The next morning we put on our hiking shoes and headed out to the Ravines Black Creek Conservation Preserve. It was gray and threatened to rain, but we saw some great plants before the rains came. The preserve had been burned since I'd been here 6 weeks ago. Fire maintenance is an important tool to keep the ecosystem healthy.

Looking over Marjorie's shoulder at a pawpaw flower.

Pinewoods milkweed with a notch-tipped flower longhorn beetle (Typocerus sinuatus). I love the pink veins.




A longleaf pine seedling (Pinus palustris) after a fire. You can see how it survives with its terminal bud protected from damage.

A follow up on the mystery of the mossy patch that I wrote about last month in Mother Nature's Mysteries. This post also has more general views of the conservation area.

Marjorie explores the mysterious square patch in the mossy spot. Some of the moss had browned around the edges, but it was still in relatively good shape. I understand how it survives the fires now since it is so moist, but how it got started is indeed still a mystery.

Wow, what beautiful fungi and lichen on this downed log.

Mediterranean pasta salad

I knew that Marjorie would be here for dinner and that we would be arriving at dinner time, so I fixed this hearty salad the day before. We included a detailed recipe for this salad in "Organic Methods for Vegetable Gardening in Florida."




An eclectic harvest including (clockwise from my thumb) 3 rogue onions, leaf lettuces, come-again broccoli, meadow garlic, garlic chives, small zucchinis, sugar snap peas, Swiss chard, dill, rosemary, & curly parsley. In the bottom out of sight are the last few carrots from the second carrot crop.

The pesto dressing made from the onions, garlic, garlic chives, parsley, dill plus, olive oil, cider vinegar, sunflower seeds, plain yogurt, mayonnaise, rosemary leaves, & freshly ground pepper. 

I mix the pesto into the salad before I add in the pasta.

Here's the salad served on a bed of luttuces. Yummy

The okra swales are planted...

The okra is off and running for the hot summer season. I planted them around 2 swales that I'd enriched with kitchen scraps and then mulched with fresh marigold cuttings to reduce the nematodes. For more details see one of my most popular posts: Okra Swales.

A 10-year retrospective on our front meadow

It started when I posted this photo of my native pinxter azalea on Facebook a couple of weeks ago with the comment that most of the area in the background used to be lawn.

People wanted more information on how the lawn became a wooded area, so I posted From lawn to woods: a retrospective. Someone commented that we had done a lot of work, but in reality, Mother Nature herself did most of the heavy lifting--we just modified her planting scheme.

I hope your landscape is also being transformed into a lower maintenance design that also offers great habitat to birds and butterflies.

Green Gardening Matters,
Ginny Stibolt

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