December 30, 2012 by Born To Organize

Dusting and Polishing the House Plants

The days have been cold and dry most of this week. With our central heating running more than usual, the house plants needed some extra TLC.

Dusting and polishing are never high on my to-do list, but I made an exception for the plants. Just like nick-knacks, the broader the leaf, the greater the dust. I use a damp, micro-fiber cloth for the taller plants, wiping the leaves when possible. The Ficus don’t seem to collect much dust, so a gentle tap to the branches loosens what’s there.

The small plants in the kitchen window are the easiest to revive. I set them in the sink for a thorough soak, giving the leaves a quick, warm-water rinse while I’m at it. Even the saucers got a nice cleaning.

Kitchen windows are such a great place for houseplants. They enjoy the natural humidity of an active kitchen, and they rarely dry out with a water faucet just inches away. I generally have a small planter with kitty grass for KT and if we’re motivated, we try growing from an avocado pit.

It’s amazing how well some houseplants do living in cramped pots, with dry air and sometimes dryer soil. This coffee plant, below thrived in the kitchen for many years, sitting on top of the fridge. After remodeling, we had to relocate the plant to another room. It’s still quite healthy, producing these lovely shiny leaves.

Here’s what we have growing indoors:

Freshly “polished” leaves

Fiddle-leaf Fig

Dracaena

Kitchen Counter Collection

The current windowsill collection includes three “Christmas Cactus,” a small yellow rose and an as yet unidentified bulb. I must have picked it up from the garden and had it stored in a kitchen drawer with my seed keeper. It started sprouting, so I popped into a plastic martini glass, leftover from my Halloween costume. Crazy, eh?

Martini with a twist?

‘Sunrise Cactus’ gorgeous, even when not in bloom

Christmas Cactus Bloom

Do you have anything growing on your window sill?

December 29, 2012 by Born To Organize

Cranberry Hydrangea: A Lovely Bloom to See in the New Year

Cranberry Colored Hydrangea

My ever-changing Hydrangeas are now a brilliant shade of cranberry. I love their ruddy complexion. They’ve set buds for spring, but the pom-pom like blooms linger.

It’s a challenge pulling together a flower arrangement from the garden this time of year. That said, I wanted to come up with a creative way to use what I had, including these lovely flowers.

Here’s what I did:

I removed the bloom above the last set of buds, leaving a short but sturdy stem to work with.

I filled one small jar with leftover florist’s foam. I filled a second, slightly wider jar with a handful of crystal beads. Together they create the illusion of a tall vase, even though the stem itself is less than three inches long.

Hydrangea blossom with short stem, supported with florist foam

Florist foam…or volcanic rock?

Glass jars, stacked and slightly nested

Do they make a crayon this color? I would name it “Spectacular”

Bacopa Cordata

Winter Flower Arrangement

And there you have it. Simple and festive and ready to see in the new year.

How will you celebrate the start of a new year?

December 28, 2012 by Born To Organize

Sunset Gardens: A Self-Guided Tour

As luck would have it, I worked in Menlo Park today. Menlo Park, California is home to Sunset Gardens, a test garden for Sunset Books and Sunset Magazine. After work, I headed straight there and took the (frigid) self-guided tour.

Southern Pacific Railroad Company founded Sunset Magazine in 1898 . It evolved over the years to reflect the changing times. It went from promotional tool, to literary magazine, before settling into what it is today: a lifestyle magazine for the west. For over 40 years, they’ve produced the Western Garden Book, the most comprehensive book of its kind. I’m on my second copy, and though it’s now available on the web, I still enjoy the weight of the book in my hand and the ease of use.

Sunset’s headquarters surrounds the editorial test garden in addition to an array of Climate Zone gardens ranging from the Pacific Northwest to the Southern Desert. It’s a testament to the Bay Area temps that the Menlo Park location can support so many growing zones.

I’m going to make an extra effort this year to get back there in the spring, when the rose garden and many of the flowering shrubs are in bloom.

Here are the highlights from today:

Garden Bench

The one downside to self guided tours is all the unanswered questions. I was curious to know more about this bench,tucked in a corner near the chicken coop. It’s made from a variety of recycled material, including old fence planks, scraps of metal, and the insulator caps from old high-tension wires. The birdhouse posts on the end of the bench are fully functional, though probably impractical from a predator stand point. They’re awfully cute though.

Birdhouse bench detail

Healthy Chickens = garden manure

Wine Country Chicken Coop

That is one, high-end chicken coop, conveniently located near the composting bins.

Succulent Planter

This lovely planter was part of a seating area. It’s made from driftwood and scraps of lumber.

Stylish Seating Area

Test Garden Pavers

This unique patio meandered through the entrance to the Test Garden. What looks like crushed rock, is actually tumbled recycled glass (white and green). The small round objects are actually synthetic wine “corks” from a Bay Area winery. The dark squares, upper right corner, are scraps of fencing lumber. Clever use of cast off materials.

Recycled, Tumbled Green Glass

Cactus Garden: Keep your hands and feet inside the ride at all times :-)

The Old Man: Coast Live Oak

Garden Path and Plantings

To learn more about the history of Sunset, visit their website.

Self-guided tours are free and open to the public Monday through Friday from 9:00 to 4:00 pm. Call ahead for additional details at 1-650-321-3600. The gardens are universally accessible.

December 16, 2012 by Born To Organize

Finishing Touches: Seed Packets are a Go

I spent the afternoon putting the finishing touches on my Cosmo seed packets. It was a good day to be indoors, with cold temps and the occasional light shower.

The seed packets are ready! I’ve been saving them in a paper cup since late summer. Today I sprinkled them into individual, 3 x 3 glassine envelopes, then sealed them with a hand-punched heart. I momentarily panicked that I wouldn’t have enough to fill 20 envelopes but I did. I even remembered to save a few seeds for my garden next spring.

I punched the hearts out of a glossy fashion catalog. The green, water-color background was just the thing. No two hearts are alike. Aren’t they fun?

Cosmo Seed Packets

Punched Fashion Catalog

Heart punched Page

Watering Can Stickers

Cosmo seed cards

It’s nice to check this task off my list, but I must admit it’s been an enjoyable one. I hope the seeds live on with friends and neighbors (and the occasional bird) in the seasons to come.

December 15, 2012 by Born To Organize

Seeing Red: Seeds, Buds and Blooms

There is no shortage of red this time of year. Nothing shouts Christmas like a rich, vibrant unadorned red. My favorite shades of crimson come straight from the garden.

The Magnolia seed pods opened in the past few weeks revealing brilliant red seeds. They’re smooth and shiny and perfectly formed. I saw a crow perched in the Magnolia tree earlier this week. They usually prefer the much taller, denser trees in the neighborhood. I often see them feeding on the ground, usually helping themselves to worms in the grass. Now that I know they’re omnivores it makes sense. I hope I get a chance to take a picture of the shiny black birds with a bright red seed in their beak.

Magnolia Seed Pod

The miniature cyclamen continue to thrive in the fairy garden. Unlike me, they love the cold weather. Don’t they look happy?

Miniature Red Cyclamen, thriving in the cooler temps

The viburnum shrubs had a rough year. Thrips took hold, infesting the lower third of all the plants lining our front deck. We bought lacewing eggs to help combat the problem. I heavily pruned the damaged leaves as well. My son spotted a praying mantis on the window just above the plants last week. It’s good to have reinforcements.

Viburnum tinus: Tiny buds

The Abutilon are a modest red. Their heads our bowed, requiring one to look up into the skirt-like bloom to get the full effect of their beauty. Our neighborhood hummingbirds are big fans. It’s fun to see their long beaks disappear into the bent flower.

Abutilon: Today’s bud, tomorrow’s bloom

Abutilon opens up

When it’s too cold or wet or dark to play in the garden, I’ve been keeping my hands busy making this wreath. I bought a steel form at a craft store, but everything else is up-cycled. I used a simple Larks Head knot to attach four layers of paper and plastic. The outer layer uses strips of green plastic bags that come wrapped around our newspaper. The second row includes clear dry-cleaning bags, filled in with old bits of tissue paper. The tissue paper is on its third life: first as gift wrap, then protection for Christmas decorations and now part of the wreath. You may recognize the bow. It’s a recycled See’s Candy wrapper. It was so relaxing working on the wreath, that I’m a little sorry it’s done.

Recycled Wreath

Recycled Wreath Closeup

Are you seeing red this time of year?

December 12, 2012 by Born To Organize

Gifts for the Joyful Gardener

Gardeners are practical souls. We don’t mind dirt under our nails, or bruises on tired knees. We’ll get up early or stay out late, weeding, pruning, planting and generally enjoying our time in the garden. We love sharing seeds and flowers fresh from the earth and enjoy swapping tips for keeping the garden pests at bay.

If you have a joyful gardener in your life, here are a few gift ideas to tuck under the tree.

Practical

Your gardener will never lose their gloves in the garden again. Floral Gardening Gloves allow you to pull weeds in style.

Floral Garden Gloves

Seed Keeper or Seed Keeper Deluxe. I’ve been using mine for several months. It’s an easy and efficient way to store and retrieve the seeds you save or buy. They come packed with all sorts of garden goodies as well.

Seed Keeper Deluxe

Fanciful

Slipcovers: They’re not just for sofas! Dress up your pots with a Patio Art Planter Slipcovers. You can change with the seasons, or simply cover up an ugly pot. It’s a nice way to wrap up a potted plant to gift as well.

Slipcover Your Plants

Fair trade birdhouses attract birds to the garden. Keep those baby birds toasty warm till it’s time to leave the nest.

Fair Trade Birdhouses

What a clever idea! It’s a card and a desktop garden all in one. It’s edible too. It’s a postcarden! Click on the photo below and check out the time-lapse video on their site.

Astronomical

For the gardener with the travel bug: “Botanically themed cruises and garden tours of Europe are designed for gardening and gourmet enthusiasts who enjoy taking in ancient castles, magnificent châteaux and stunning landscaped gardens with iconic sites.”

Let’s all go! Who’s with me?

December 9, 2012 by Born To Organize

The Big Chill: Out of the Crisper and into the Soil

Three’s a Charm

When you live in a warm climate like California, it helps to employ a bit of trickery with the tulips. So when I bought three bags of tulip bulbs back in October, the first step was a cool dark rest in the crisper drawer of our fridge. Keeping bulbs in the frigid dark, prompts their DNA into thinking they’ve been through an early chill.

Today I planted about a dozen bulbs along the rock wall near the garden fence, convinced that the racing squirrels overhead were just waiting to dig them up for lunch. I tamped the soil firmly and with determination, hoping they’ll stay planted through early spring. I buried the rest of the bulbs in a variety of pots, and in a few random locations around the garden.

Ready to Plant Tulip Bulbs

Squirrel in the Pittosporum

Squirrel in the Pine

Figuring I could hedge my bets (or chance of survival) by interspersing the bulbs in heavily planted pots, I tucked them deep into the corners and under the canopy of existing plants. I hope they survive the onslaught of the squirrels. They’ll be a magnificent if they do.

Tulip Bulbs

December 5, 2012 by Born To Organize

Cosmo Seeds for Christmas

Throughout the summer I enjoyed a magnificent display of flowering Cosmos. The color and splendor of these easy to grow annuals brought such cheer. I started gathering the seeds so I could share my joy with others.

Using Creative Memories software, I created a five-fold, two-sided panel card. Six of the panels feature photos I took over the summer. Two more panels have simple instructions for planting and growing the seeds. One panel has a greeting, and the final one is a placeholder for the seed packet.

I bought 3 x 3 glassine envelopes from the Paper Source to hold the seeds. They attach to the back panel of the card. I ordered one sample card, made a few design changes, and this week received the bulk order. They’re ready to go.

Photo Panel Card (Front)

Photo Panel Card (Back)

Folded Cosmo Card and Envelope

Cosmo Seeds

Back Panel (Placeholder for Seed Packet)

Back Panel with Seed Packet

The Stack
I love the way they look in a neat pile

I plan to seal each card with a self-made sticker using last year’s garden calendar. I’ll fill you in on the details later this week, so be sure to check back.

Are you making gifts from your garden this year for Christmas, Hanukkah or Kwanza? Please share in the comments below.

December 4, 2012 by Born To Organize

Hydrangea: Wardrobe Changes

I expect the maple to go through several “wardrobe changes” each fall, but the Hydrangea surprised me. The blooms passed from vibrant pink, to faded fuchsia, blush and soft green. The clustered flowers fade slowly over weeks instead of days.

If you squint just a little, the clusters look like tiny butterflies resting before flight. Their petals are as soft as a butterfly as well.

I admired these plants for years, amazed at the variety and color. They’re large shrubs so they’re not well suited to small garden spaces. Now that we have the space, I’ve gone a little crazy. We planted three Nikko Blue last spring, then followed up with four more in pink (seen below).

Hydrangea Fuchsia

We planted the newest ones under our living room window. I have one hydrangea in an enormous pot on the patio. It lost its blooms earlier in the season. I used the dying flowers to make a dried bouquet for my sister’s costume in October. The blue flower clusters also faded fast. This beautiful specimen, however, continues to delight.

Hydrangea Pink

Hydrangea green

You can learn more about these beautiful plants at All About Hydrangeas.

November 28, 2012 by Born To Organize

Vegetable Box Quandry

My vegetable boxes resemble “before and after” pictures, but not on purpose. Once the pumpkins were out, I cleaned the box to the right of the garden, and planted winter vegetables. The box to the left, however, was chugging along with strawberries, blueberries, raspberries and a bird house gourd so I let it be.

Vegetable Box, Stage Right: Neat and tidy winter veg

Vegetable Box, Stage Left: chaotic jumble

The top-tier of the left box has eroded nearly a foot. On the plus side, the erosion created a nice spot for one of the gourds to rest. That said, I’m not sure how to save the existing plants while topping off the box with more soil.

Birdhouse Gourd

We live on a tiny lot, so sunny space is at a premium. I try to maximize what I’ve got but was realizing today that I need to rethink the boxes.

This is year three for the “blueberries,” but they still aren’t producing. The plant remains small, though healthy but at this rate I may as well call it a shrub. We haven’t seen a single berry since we planted it.

Blueberry Shrub

Raspberry Vine

The raspberries, on the other hand, took off this past summer and produced sweet and delicious berries for several weeks. We enjoyed standing in the garden and eating them right off the vine. Is there anything sweeter than a sun-warmed berry?

I’ve considered transplanting the canes along the back fence, but I’m afraid I’ll set them back two years. It’s also a bit crowded there so they may not get adequate sun. I think the blueberry needs more room or more sun, maybe both.

My indecision (and the colder weather) leaves me in a quandary. Should I leave well enough alone and wait till next spring to decide, or should I move the blueberry plant and raspberry canes now while they’re at rest?

Recommendations welcome.