“Many things grow in the garden that were never sown there”…Thomas Fuller

Gardens can come in many shapes and sizes.  They can be contained or sprawling, big or small.  In the traditional sense, a garden is a plot of ground where flowers, shrubs, vegetables, fruits or herbs are cultivated.  I, however, am someone of a more non-traditional mindset who likes to think of a garden in a lot of unexpected ways.  To me, it’s a plot of ‘something’, where you can ‘grow’ just about anything.  You get to choose what you want to plant.  Here are a few creative ways for you to ‘get your garden on’ during the off season, and get you thinking about all the different things you too can cultivate in your own unique way.

Idea Garden – These are plots of paper where ideas are cultivated.  Plant your ideas regularly in a journal or sketchbook. They say, if an idea isn’t captured within the first ten minutes is likely to be lost forever.  Capture them, nurture them and watch them grow and develop.

Handmade Flower Garden  - Install a window box on one of your interior window sills and then fill it up with a beautiful display of handmade flowers.  Experiment with different materials and techniques to keep things interesting.  Try wire flowers, bead and button flowers, fabric or metal flowers…you get the idea. Make additions throughout the year, change out during the holidays, etc. Plant ‘em up and enjoy!

Rock Garden – You choose whether you plant rocks that are natural, painted or both.  Rock gardens are beautiful displays that can be enjoyed year-round. Experiment with stone-stacking as a meditative exercise. Carve out a designated area where you can plant yourself and your rocks.  Then, sit back and enjoy!

Water Garden – Water features are a beautiful addition to any home .  Simply gather up a water tight container and plant it up with a small fountain pump in the bottom or other decorative features such as easy to manage water plants that will survive indoors, or floating gazing balls made out of old light bulbs.  Maybe grow a goldfish or two, space permitting.

Art Garden — Plant up areas in the yard with artful treasures such as rusty metal blooms, sculptures, stepping stones, birdhouses and more!  An art garden is low maintenance, inspirational and another colorful example of a garden that can be enjoyed year-round.

The traditional flower, vegetable, fruit and herb gardens go without saying, but when the ground is frozen, think of what else you can be planting and nurturing.   
There’s a gardener at the root of every garden, so regardless of what you plant where, plant it with care!  
What are you going to have “growing on” during the off season?

Cheers!

michele.

I admit…as I look out the window and see things starting to die back, becoming bare and less colorful, it’s kind of depressing.  It saddens me to know that the greenery, the blooms, the produce is all coming to an end.  At the same time, I guess it’s not really the ‘end’ for all things.  The annuals, yes, it’s the end of the road for them…I will not be seeing them again in the spring, unless I plant new.   And the evergreens…well, hence the name, they’ll be holding strong. But the trees, the perennials, the grasses…they’re just winding down to take a break. 

A break that I too have come to look forward to and appreciate each year because it also gives me an opportunity to regroup.  A chance for a fresh start on some things, a chance in a few months to do it over and do it better.   I get relieved of some of the time-consuming, daily duties like watering, weeding, deadheading, mowing, trimming, etc. and I have the opportunity to use that time for other creative things. Even though those two hour daily duties will get replaced with different ones, there’s still this quiet, relaxing vibe in the air…and I’m going to enjoy it and look forward to the change of pace! I hope all of you do, TOO!

Cheers to ‘changing’ things up for the season(s).

michele.

I’ve got the organic, non-toxic answer. Tonight at home, (yes, I know there’s a Dave Matthews concert in town tonight and I’m probably one of the two people NOT there!) I had a need ….a need to get rid of the gnats and fruit flies in my kitchen…they’re annoying as all get out….the cluster flies are terrible right now and I’m tired of swatting.

Now,we get stuff every once in a while to try out and see how it works…and there was a box of goodies on the desk at the office the other day, so we all snagged one to try…I brought home the flying insect killer.  (I haven’t had any issues outdoors this year due in part to the plants that I planted around, but inside has been another matter the last couple of weeks)

It was time to take action. I pulled it out.  I sprayed.  It WORKED!!!

AND….it smells good…(or as good as a commercial bug spray can smell) Think wintergreen and muscle ointments like Ben-Gay or Icy Hot.  It’s by Eco-Smart and I can honestly say I’m very impressed.  So, for those of you who are tired of swatting….look into it…try it…quite confident you’ll like it!!  (saw they were having a 20% off sale right now if you entered “goog20″)

I felt good using it knowing I wasn’t spraying anything around that could kill us all off at some point and it really worked….A win-win all the way around…(except for the gnats and fruit flies, of course!)  

Rest assured….haven’t been paid to share this with you…all we got were a few bottles of product to try out..and if it didn’t work, I wouldn’t be writing this… but I’m in the business to share, and this is a good one! (oh, and the puppy and the child on all the containers…well done eco-smart…well done!!)

Cheers to no more bugs in the kitchen!

michele.

The pods on my sweet pea vine are starting to burst..and that has inspired me to take a stab at harvesting the seeds from the different plants in my yard to plant again next year.   However, I have quickly learned that it’s not as easy as just going around and collecting the seeds off anything and everything you desire, letting them dry, storing them properly and then planting them up next year…(or is it?!)  
First of all, I guess I need to be more selective…they say only collect seeds from heirloom or standard varieties because they’re the only plants that will offer up a true plant.  Don’t even bother with the seeds off your hybrids.  Really?  There are seeds NOT worth saving?!   Will I really end up with a worthless plant? Am I instigating genetically inferior vegetation that offers up nothing in return to nature and could even wreak havoc?  Will some of the seeds not even grow?  Does it just boil down to not ending up with the PERFECT plant?  Is there such a thing…..obviously what mother nature started us out with had everything as it should be and then when we start trying to improve on things, try new varieties, and breed them so that they are resistant to anything and everything….the simple cycle becomes much more complicated for those of use who are simple home gardeners just trying to keep things going year after year.  
Maybe my seed saving efforts might not be as large as I had hoped this time around, because I have so much more to learn, but as with everything,  I’ll never learn if I don’t try and I’m all for having a go at something, learning as much as I can, experimenting a bit, and seeing what I end up with. I’ve already collected seeds from my sweet pea vines and the sunflowers and will gather up a few more that I think I’ll have some success with, and go from there.  What grows may not be what I’m expecting, but at least I know that going in and I’m all for gaining knowledge by doing, not just reading.
All of this sure makes me think about what I plant in my yard and garden each year.  A few people along the way have also told me that  cultivars in all their beautiful glory, have been so ‘improved’ that they no longer carry any of their original characteristics which means they ultimately have nothing to provide the bees, the butterflies and the birds…..no pollen, no scent, no nectar, no seeds. They’re just another pretty face in the crowd, which is all well and good, but I sure like to think I’m also planting up a lot of things that will provide the wildlife with what they need.
Nothing is ever perfect is it?!

Cheers to learning!
And if you have something to share on the matter……please do!
michele.

When you don’t build your home from the ground up doing everything exactly as you had ever dreamed or envisioned, (and can afford::)) you take your pre-existing purchase and gradually work at it, making changes as you can.  That’s the road I’ve been traveling for the past several years and it’s been fun trying to make things work. My road is also the one that’s usually less traveled because I like to do things my own way and sometimes those are ways that I get told “won’t work”.  (A statement that just ignites the can-do spirit in all of us non-followers)  All new additions as of late have been done using salvaged, repurposed things.  Repurposed brick on the exterior..salvaged wood trim on the interior and most recently a natural touch to the entranceway.  I didn’t want steps of wood, or concrete, or tile or anything else that would be uniform and contrived.  I instead wanted the entranceway to resemble a natural stairway you’d find in the mountains or on a trail; something that looked as though it has been there as long as the earth below the house.   Yes, I received a little resistance on the concept..it was even hard for some to grasp.  I heard things like “isn’t that going to be hard to clean in the wintertime”…”it’s going to be difficult for people to walk on”…. practical concerns that we did think about…for about 2 seconds…and went ahead with staggering and tiering pieces of limestone at the front door.   It’s exactly as I had envisioned…and I love every step I make over it.  It feels good, it looks good, and it’s another beautiful reminder of all that nature has to offer.  Try it on for size at your place!  (And, I’m happy to report the snow can be cleared and no one has fallen or not been able to make their way into the house! ::)

I’m going to take a stab at stirring up some moss from the woods with yogurt or buttermilk and see if I can get it to grow amongst the cracks….(anyone had great success with this…best time of year to do it?!)

Next addition…a living tree INSIDE! :) I don’t exactly live in the ideal climate for this one, but we’ll see what we come up with!

Cheers to fun, natural additions!

michele.

It was a whirlwind weekend filled with road time, flea markets, and a naturally good wedding to finish things off. I joined up with my family in Illinois and we set off on our bi-annual scavenging adventure in Pecatonica. LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the unexpected things we always find. We’re all on the hunt for different things for the most part, so it’s fun to see what everyone ends up hauling home…….and, it’s the hauling part of things that requires a little thought and roomy rides because inevitably there will be someone that buys something monsterous in size like couches and cabinets. (No one ever has to turn their back on anything because our motto is nothing is too big and we can always make room, regardless) There are about 8 or 9 of us that usually go together and in the past we usually take a larger moving-type vehicle from my aunt’s car dealership and then several others end up driving too. This time we decided to try and reduce the number of vehicles going the same direction and I ended up pulling a 12 foot (inconspicuous::) trailer behind my car so that 6 of us could ride together and we’d have enough space for everyone to get their finds home..and then only have to take one other vehicle for the rest of the gang.

I’ve pulled a trailer a few times, but have never really had to do too much backing up, so I had about 10 minutes to practice a little bit in my parent’s driveway and decided that I could do it if I had to but I was slow at it, sometimes had to pull forward and start again and would be worse if a bunch of people were watching me. I ended up heading out with the intention to just make driving choices that would always keep me in forward motion and avoid getting into a position of having to back up in the first place, which I thankfully was able to pull off. I had one smarty pants gentleman that asked if we knew we had wheels on our trailer when we were carrying a couch across his yard and across the street instead of just backing up into their driveway to load it. (It was such a busy road and I SO would have held up traffic…no thanks!) We filled that trailer up and then some…and that, my friends is the sign of some spectacular second hand shopping.  The things that get salvaged, disassembled, compiled, saved and sold at a flea market are always interesting and it’s refreshing to see the nine, ten, twenty lives an object can live!

My funniest find:
A new rack for the bathroom. It’s the perfect companion to our toolbench vanities! It’s the funny, unexpected things that make a house a home, you know! ::)::)

Will share the other treasures as we put them to good use!

Cheers to flea markets and the trailers being hauled, everywhere!

michele.

If your household is anything like mine….there’s a lot of salsa goin’ on!  The perfect snack, the perfect condiment, the perfect addition to a lot of dishes. I always prefer to make it fresh, but in the off season, it’s also nice to have a batch already bottled up sittin’ on the shelves.  This is an excellent recipe that my mom and my aunt dede shared with me. It’s quick and easy to can and will give you about 18-20 pints in the end.    
Recipe:

• 20 cups of tomatoes (scalded, peeled and squeezed to drain the juice out) — basically, you just put your tomatoes into the boiling water for just a couple of minutes to loosen the skin–they may crack slightly– then place them in cold water right away to cool, and the skins will then peel off very easily.  To remove the juice…I just squeeze them with my hands and let the juice drain out of a colander and into a bowl.
• 8 cups chopped onion
• 6 bell peppers chopped
• 5 cloves garlic chopped
• 5 TBSP pickling salt or Kosher salt
• 2 TBSP cayenne pepper
• 8 jalapeno peppers chopped
• 1 TBSP chili powder
• 2 1/2 cups white vinegar

Cook together for 20 minutes…once it starts to boil, it’s ready to put in your jars. 

Have your jars/rims/lids heating in your hot water bath in the canning pot, and remove. 

Ladle your salsa into the hot jars, put lids and rims on and then set on your rack in the hot water bath (canning pot) for 20 minutes. 

Remove, set on the counter to cool and allow to seal.  Enjoy throughout the year.  (I like to add some fresh chopped cilantro to it when I open up a jar!)

Pair it with some homemade chips: Heat up soy oil (or other comparable high heat oil) in a pan. (about 1/2 an inch to an inch of oil in the pan).  Slice up flour tortilla shells/wraps (I like to use the jalapeno cheddar ones) into chip sized triangles and place in hot oil for just a minute, until golden brown.  Remove and set on a flour sack towel or paper towel to drain.  Sprinkle with salt, dip into that salsa and be very proud of your efforts!

Cheers!

michele.

Surprisingly…it really is a joy.  For years, I always thought canning was this big ordeal, that you had to have this farm-size garden and all this equipment and it was a complicated process…..UNTIL I tried it.  I had assumed wrong on ALL accounts.  It’s actually a lot of fun, it’s an extremely rewarding process, and I seem to do more and more of it every season.  My first experience was several years ago when I attempted to can a tomato sauce.  I didn’t have a large enough pan to cook all the ingredients in, so I had lots of different pans going, and had one GIGANTIC mess in the kitchen.  I don’t even remember if the sauce was any good, all I remember is the tomato explosion I had created from one end of the kitchen to the other. I’ve since learned to take the messier tomato recipes outside to whip up on nice sunny days.  I use the burners on the grill and some monsterous roasting pan thingamajig that we have, crank the music, fix a cocktail…. and I have myself a much more pleasant experience than the one of years past.  A couple of weeks ago, we did another round of tomato sauce and I got my daughter in on peeling the tomatoes, which I knew was going to be an activity she loved because she’s a LOT like me, and I LOVE To peel things…paint, sunburns, the pulp around an orange…….I could sit and peel tomatoes today into tomorrow.  A very weird thing, I know.  I didn’t have a recipe, so I just threw in a little of this and a little of that, called my mom a couple of times, and what do you know, it’s DE-licious!  Perfect for pastas, pizzas and bruschetta!  We ended up with 17 quarts and it was a beautiful way to spend the day.  My kitchen wasn’t a disaster and every time I pop the top off one, I’ll remember the fun.

I’d share the recipe if I had one, but here’s what I threw in:

tomatoes (blanched and peeled)

olive oil

onions (chopped)

variety of peppers (chopped)

garlic

celery (chopped)

kosher salt

black pepper 

sugar

I sauteed the onions, pepper, garlic and celery first… Then squished up all the tomatoes using my hands and added to the sauteed mixture.  Bring to a boil and then simmer for several hours.  

Have a go at it yourself…it’s well worth the effort!

Cheers to bottling up your own goods!!

michele

We had some fun with canning on the show this past weekend and even though we taped that show a while back, I was doing a few of the same things this weekend, ironically. I had a surplus of veggies and decided to whip up some more of the vegetable broth, only this time I made a double batch (because the first round was gone within like a week!) and was determined to play around with all the leftover pulp and try to make the veggie burger thing happen. My mom is here this week helping with things so she was my “kitchen aid” and taste tester — (The kitchen is my least creative arena, so I’m always searching for ideas and looking up how to do this or that).  We made the vegetable broth by juicing up carrots, celery, tomatoes, peppers, mushrooms, and onions, so this was the pulp combination I was working with.  

I tried them this way and that, added a binder of bread crumbs and eggs, added different herbs and seasonings…prepared them a few different ways, and I can honestly say that I found something I like, but still think things could be better — The texture was what I was having the biggest problem with…if I worked with the pulp, as is, they were really mushy, so I chopped up a few more veggies to throw in for texture, and that helped. I also added some cooked rice.  

This too helped with the texture and then I cooked them with a brown sugar glaze which helped crisp things up on the outside.  I thought they were pretty tasty, but at the same time, I was pretty sick of tasting at the end of the session…so I’m thinking when I pull those bad boys from the freezer, they’ll taste even better next time! ::)::) 

It’s funny how I love to experiment and play around with materials and products and techniques in the studio, but in the kitchen I’m kind of at a loss with what to throw with what.  I can cook and follow a recipe, but this was the first time I ever really experimented with ‘food’ things…(for some reason, I don’t like spending a ton of time on something that is just going to get eaten and then disappear!)…and I’m not convinced I really made any big discoveries on this one either…..I’m pretty sure I’ll be the only one eating them…My mom told me to save them for when she wasn’t visiting (she was hung up on the texture thing and couldn’t get past it, and the celery fibers that stuck out here and there kind of grossed her out), Jon said, no thanks, he’d rather have a real burger,my dad didn’t think they were too bad…the brown sugar glaze was his idea… Madeline humored me with “I’ll eat them with ya, momma!”  And, since I had prepared a double batch of the broth…. I had one heck of a batch of burgers that went in the freezer….maybe the guys at the office will think they’re delicious….I’ll try them out for lunch one of these days — as long as I have lots of condiments and cheese, they’ll LOVE ‘em!  

(I’ll have to have my brother help me fine tune things when he’s here next month–he always knows what to do in this area!)  

In the meantime, if anyone has an awesome veggie burger recipe, DO SHARE!  

Congrats to Cassie Peters…The guys drew her name last week for our weekly blog giveaway and she scored a couple of our courage to create DVD’s….Jewelry and Paint!  Thanks for sharing thoughts and playing along,  everyone…the giveaways continue every week.  


This week’s prize is our reusable b.organic shopping totes and lunch bags!  Lots of fun things to share this week re: canning and preserving in the kitchen, so be sure to check back…fresh content added daily!

Cheers to the veggie burger!! 

michele.

As this season winds down and a new one takes its’ place, (you can’t beat having four different seasons to enjoy!) I reflect on what a rewarding summer it’s been. It’s truly been my best “gardening” year yet, (last year, I hate to admit, I ripped out all my tomato plants in a state of frustration — those are stories I’m saving for a very special day! ::) ha. There are still, of course lots of areas for improvement next time around but overall things stayed healthy and lush, all new plants took a liking to their home, and I’ve had a fruitful harvest that’s enabled me to do a lot more canning than usual.
There’s also been one particular plant that’s caught my attention every day. I catch myself always looking its’ way, it always makes me smile when I walk by and it’s not required one ounce of attention from me all season….they simply stand proud and let me enjoy. It’s nothing exotic, nothing fancy, nothing colorful, it’s my ornamental grasses. I had to move them two summers ago from the front of the house to rescue them from all the digging that was happening in the front yard, and I just quickly separated them out and stuck them along the fence. Well, they must absolutely love it there because they are the biggest things I have growing for me….they’re lush, full and about 9 feet tall. I have more of them planted in other locations and they aren’t nearly as showy as this particular bunch. I wish I had more of them to plant! They’ll have beautiful plumes on them here shortly and the attention will continue. I wonder if I will be as smitten with them next year. Anyone else have an extra fondness for something you’ve got growing?! A garden favorite? Is it the same fave year after year? And why?
I know that for most of us, it’s kind of like asking you to name which child is your favorite, but just curious if others can relate to what I’m sharing.

Cheers to the entertainment a plant can bring!

michele.