Productive raised beds

mid-June, 2012, WNC

My raised beds in the mountains have been amazing.  Filled with commercial compost, topped up with bags of mushroom compost, and enriched with Espoma organic slow-release fertilizer, they've continued to produce. This spring, it was greens, snow peas, sugar snap peas, and lettuce.  I'm harvesting beets and leeks now, along with greens (uh, you see that Tuscan kale plant in the center of the photograph!)

raised beds in the mountains

 But tomatoes are coming along nicely, along with squash plants and beans.  Soon, there will be a switch in our 'local food' diet.  It'll be welcome, too.

sunset from the front door

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Business Advice that's Bad for the Birds

Washington Post business article is off base.

In yesterday's Washington Post business section, "Value Added: Mosquito-control business scratches this entrepreneur’s itch" describes a $300,000 business which is a franchise of the mosquito squad and the owner is a full time firefighter.

This article is wrong on several points in my opinion, but the one concerning green gardening is that the business is one that damages the environment.

General pesticides kill both the good and bad the bugs, which creates an imbalance in the ecosystem--the predators are left without any prey and so they either move away or don't survive. As the bugs recover, Mother Nature's natural predators including birds, bats, and predatory insects such as ladybugs and praying mantids are gone, so the homeowner poisons again and again. Each time the bad bugs come back in greater numbers and some even build up immunity to that poison. It's called the poison cycle.

The author of this article states at the beginning that he is jealous of this parttime businessman, but at the end of the article he hints at the problems he's caused.

The “product” — the franchisees refrain from using the term “pesticide” — paralyzes and kills the insects.

Usually when I get up in the morning, the birds are all over my front and back lawns, feeding on bugs and the millions of other things living in my neighborhood.

But on Friday, the day after Mosquito Squad sprayed, there wasn’t a bug in sight.

For more details on this vicious poison cycle read: "Just say NO to poisons" or "A poison is a poison is a poison." Plus, in "Sustainable Gardening for Florida," I spend a whole chapter on integrated pest management with details on how to manage pest bugs without poisons.

The Audubon Society estimates that some of our songbird populations have shrunk by 80% since the 1960s. That's a lot of birds and there are additional potential reasons for their demise in addition to residential poison applications: loss of habitat and roaming cats.

Green gardeners can help the birds by:
- not using general pesticides on their properties.
- creating habitat on their properties and in their neighborhoods.
- keeping cats inside and reducing feral cat populations.
- spreading the word.

For more information, see the Resources page.

Green gardening matters,Ginny

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Moving Away from Transplanted Gardener

Back in 2004 when my husband and I moved to northeast Florida, the gardening here was weird for me. Even though I have a masters degreee in Botany and have gardened all my life, almost everything I knew about gardening did not apply. So I started a gardener's log of what I learned and shared it on a website (www.TransplantedGardener.com) and various other media.

I took photos, wrote more than 80 articles, recorded more than 100 podcasts, and now I've written two Florida gardening books for University Press of Florida. The first book Sustainable Gardening for Florida was published in 2009 and has done quite well. The second book, "Organic Methods for Vegetable Gardening in Florida," which I wrote with Melissa Contreras from Miami, will be released in Feb. 2013.

In addition, I've become active in the Florida Native Plant Society, The Lawn Reform Coalition and Native Plants and Wildlife Gardens blog. I've spoken to many groups including master gardeners, garden clubs, FNPS chapters, and Sierra Club chapters. Plus, I've attended gardenfests all over our beautiful state, sometimes as a speaker and sometimes as a vendor.

So now, after eight years of Florida living, it's time to move away from the old Transplanted Gardener moniker and to this new Green Gardening Matters blog. I'll continue to share what I learn out in the garden, but I'll also cover current events and open discussions on other green gardening matters, especially here in Florida.

I hope you enjoy this new blog. Email me at garden@sky-bolt.com with questions and suggestions.

I practice green gardening. Do you?

Thanks for reading.

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Update to the yard

So here is the new front yard. I really like the twin centinal boxwood planters, they add a lot of elegance to the front walkway. Before the box woods there was only one pot on the right hand side and while it didn't look bad, this looks way better. Plus it was all super cheap. The boxwoods were on sale for $15 each, the pots were free from another job, and the soil was from last year. So really, this only cost me $30 total. Woot woot

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DIY Day

Tea boxes. Do you ever get annoyed with how they just clutter up your cupboards with random half filled boxes and the occasional loose tea bag that wanders around? You can never seem to find the teas you want because they are never where you put them last. Well leave it to me to attempt and fix this problem. We are a huge Tazo Tea drinking family. So we have lots of the Tazo Tea tins that end up just being thrown away once we are done with them. Not any more.

I recently have been seeing a lot of people doing stuff with the chalkboard paint. If you haven't heard about it its very cool. You can write on it with chalk and it rubs write off. *light bulb* Why not use the chalk board paint to re-purpose my Tazo tins into Tea tins!

Valspar makes a chalkboard paint and I found it to be AMAZING!!!!

Materials Required

The tin painted and waiting to dry off.

Steps:

1. Prepare your work area. Lay some newspaper down so as not to get the paint anywhere.
2. With your masking tape, tape around the edges of the label. This will ensure that you don't get any paint the spots you don't want it.
3. grab your brush and start painting it.

4. 

   The Finished Project.

Mine took about 15mins to dry completely. Now you can either use chalk or paint pens on the new tin. I am using the paint pens because they look a little better and are a tad more permanent. To remove the paint pens from your tin, get an alcohol wipe and wipe the paint pens off. Its perfect!

Side Note:
Thanks Aunt K for sending the delicious cookies!!!! They tasted so yummy, and looked so good in the pictures! :)

Aunt K's Cookies

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Vegan Yum Yum! Sweet Chili Lime Tofu with Collards and Quinoa

Have you ever been in the mood for a random food, and just like that you have to have it. Well the food that I was in the mood for was VERY random. Tofu. Yes tofu was my randomness. I stumbled upon Lauren Ulm's blog named Vegan Yum Yum. Check it out, its AMAZING!!!! My mom has been following her forever, but I just now "discovered" her... She has a recipe for a Sweet Chili Lime Tofu with Wok Steamed Collards and Quinoa. Just the description makes my mouth water!

So I made it and it was the most tasty, delicious tofu I have ever had! Go to her blog to get the list of ingredients and directions on how to make this, because it was AMAZING!!!!

Another reason I wanted to make this dish was because my friend Danielle just got back from a visit in Florida where she brought me back some delicious citrus! Fresh Florida oranges, tangerines, lemons, and limes!

Ingredients for tofu glaze. The limes are from Florida, the garlic is from my garlic, and are the pepper flakes!

Some of the Herbs for the Quinoa and the sweet and spicy cause.

A helpful tip for this recipe. Vegan Yum Yum says to bruise the Cardamom pods (Bottom Left). I had no Idea what this meant. So like any respectable person from the 21st century...I Googled it. What it means to bruise a Cardamom Pod is to crush like you would garlic. Lay the pod on a cutting board, then place the flat surface of the knife on top of the pod. With you bottom of your palm hit the knife hard enough  to split the pod open but not hard enough to crush it.

Collards from the Garden.

So I am still harvesting the collards that I planted this spring. Talk about being productive! We have had such a warm December that the collards were beautiful and I got quite a lot of collards!

This is the Finished Product.

A huge thanks to my friend Cherry who made the serving plate that the food is on. I love the huge crack running through the middle.

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Blissfully Baklava

I'm not Greek, actually I'm Puerto Rican, but tell you what, there are a couple of foods that make me wish that I was Greek; Dolmas and Baklava. It was Baklava night at my house and the result was a sweet victory! In other words, I called my Aunt and asked her for her Baklava recipe that was handed down to her from her husbands Grandmother. When my Aunt made it for her Church something or another (I don't remember what it was for) a guy from Greece said it reminded him of his Grandmother's Baklava recipe.

I brought some of the baklava into work and the crew went crazy on it. I mean I made a tray for them and it was gone in 30mins. 4 hours of labor gone in 30 mins, why does it always work that way? To this day I will never know. The labor of love, I guess you can call it that.

So it took 4 hours to make 2 batches, which all things considered I don't think it was too bad. And boy was it delicious! Not to mention incredibly beautiful!

My first dilemma was trying to find the Phyllo Dough! I mean seriously where would you put phyllo in a grocery store. I checked near the cinnamon rolls and other refrigerated doughs but no luck, and when I asked someone for help, they just looked at me blankly as if they didn't know what phyllo was! I was having no luck. fortunately Sam was there to help me and she suggested we check the frozen isle near the pizza. The PIZZA, why would anyone in their right mind put Phyllo dough near Pizza. I mean pizza is Italian, phyllo is Greek.... Oh but wait the phyllo was so innocent and sweet lying next to the pizza..

Phyllo Dough

Now that I'm off that tangent, I didn't realize how much butter baklava actually calls for... in case you are worried about the extra weight you will gain from eating this food, don't worry because there is only a ton of butter in baklava... Oh well the butterer the better (Yes I spelled butter wrong on purpose.)

All the brush stroke looking things on the top is butter is cooling!

Baklava Recipe:
All Recipes.com

Ingredients:


1 (16 ounce) package phyllo dough
1 lb chopped nuts
1 cup butter
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 cup water
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup honey

Directions:


1. Preheat oven 350 degrees F. butter the bottoms and sides of a 9x13 pan.
2. Chop nuts and toss with cinnamon. Set aside. Unroll Phillo dough. Cut whole stack in half to fir in pan.
Cover phyllo with a dampened cloth to keep from drying as you work. Place two sheets of dough in
pan, butter thoroughly. Repeat until you have 8 sheets layered. Sprinkle 2-3 tablespoons of nut mixture
on top. Top with 2 sheets of dough, butter, nuts, layer as you go. The top layer should be about 6-8
sheets deep.
3. Using a sharp knife cut into diamond or square shapes all the way to the bottom of pan. You may cut
into four long rows then make diagonal cuts. Bake for 50 mins until Baklava is golden and crisp.
4. Make sauce while Baklava is baking. Boil sugar and water until sugar is melted. Add vanilla and honey.
Simmer for 20 mins.
5. Remove Baklava from oven and immediately spoon sauce over it. Let cool. Serve in cupcake papers.
this freezes well. Leave it uncovered as it gets soggy if it is wrapped up.

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