Edible Aria

Posted on July 28, 2009 by Meredith

If you’d like to learn more about sustainable, healthy eating, you might want to check out Edible Aria. My friend Ren shares incredible whole, fresh recipes accompanied by beautiful photographs (I drool at every picture), and he also includes current articles about healthy eating and what’s going on in the food industry. He encourages the use of organic, local foods and having home gardens, and he shows how the use of seasonal ingredients keeps healthy eating affordable. Did I mention the delicious recipes? (I’m still drooling.) Ren tells us, “Eat as if your life depends on it.” Food for thought, eh?

Ren’s Edible Aria was recently reviewed by The Monday Campaigns, Inc., in association with the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, on their site Meatless Monday as well. This site is also worth checking out — by not eating meat one day a week, you’ll not only improve your health, but you’ll reduce your carbon footprint, helping sustain our planet.

Good food. Good living. Yay, Earth.

Pumpkin Army Bases, Day 15

Posted on July 20, 2009 by Meredith

I think I need a better name than Pumpkin Army — this veggie gardening endeavour just gets bigger and bigger. I’ve now added corn to the plan. Alas. This is what research does for you! It also gets you: trellises!

I’m back from camping. It was good fun — and nice to have a change of pace. I’d like to say that all my plants survived my absence, but I’m happy that most of them did (mourning the rest). The seedling army grows.

And of our three swallowtail caterpillars happily munching away before we left, we found one chrysalis, so we’ll try to monitor it for butterfly-ness. Of course, it’s in a place that is very hard to get a picture, and it’s also in a place that the butterfly will have a hard time getting out of without our help.

Though my DH didn’t quite get to all the plants, he certainly tried, and it was nice to return home to additional hoses and hand sprinklers so that I don’t have to drag hoses around to water those plants far away from civilization, my house. (It’s not that I hadn’t thought of it, I just was trying to avoid spending the money!) In addition, he made great progress on the raised garden beds, which means I will soon have the cantaloupes happily planted.

The jack-o-lantern pumpkins are going to be spread around the yard and will have to brave possible trampling by dogs, scary because the vines are so important to the size and quality of the pumpkins. I’ve got three jack-o-lantern pumpkins in the ground now, with more to come, maybe. I put them in little mounds, and for now I surrounded them with rocks to help the dogs avoid them. One of them is near some other plants, so I’ll have to guide the vines other directions, as best I can. It will have to do — those vines are growing so fast that I wanted them in the ground as soon as possible. I’ll get some marigolds and radishes near them for bug repellents. It’s apparently not the right season to grow radishes, but if they’ll keep the bugs away, I’ll try!

The cantaloupes will be in a raised garden bed, grown vertically on a trellis. All in all, we’ll have three raised veggie beds (for now, haha). The cantaloupes will be in one, along with corn and some marigolds, and sugar pumpkins will be in another, with some more corn. The third bed will be prepared for yummy fall planting goodness. The third bed was made for me by my kids this weekend, their first project working with drills and saws and whatnot!

To prepare the area, we dug out the grass. It was dead, so other than dealing with the hard soil, it was no loss and only somewhat of a pain. Then, with the frames in place, I mixed in compost into the existing soil. I expect some plant roots to extend into that soil, so I wanted to enrich it somewhat. How hard was the soil? Casualty, one shovel.

For the main bed soil, I decided to follow “Mel’s Mix” for square-foot gardening. I talked with the folks at Natural Gardener before doing this, and they had various suggestions (including Mel’s Mix), but nothing really any better or worse. The other option I considered was mixing compost with more of my clay soil, but that would have involved more digging. Forget that! Once I got the stuff home, I read on the bag about dust concerns with the vermiculite, and I felt a little concerned that I’d made a bad choice, but a little more research online made me feel better.

In mixing the soil, I felt a lot like Hermione in front of a big cauldron at Hogwarts. It was fun mixing it, I admit. I did add in some bonus clay soil from a pile in the yard, for good measure. It’s that secret ingredient in my special sauce.

Because someone at NG told me that peat moss can be a pain to get wet at first, I decided to wet down the soil well and plant tomorrow. Sure enough, I had to work with the peat moss in a big soup of mud to get it to soak in the water. Then I really did feel I was creating a magical potion! Tomorrow will be a good planting day. First I’ll get the trellis wires in place and the grid. Then in will go the cantaloupes and marigolds and some corn seeds.

Side story… While I was digging the soil for the frames, I found a weird, soft little tube. At first I thought that it was, pardon me, some old dog poop. But then it split open, and a spider carcass fell out. Squeal. And then lots of little spiders came out and crawled over the spider carcass. Shriek! While I was wondering whether they had eaten the spider, more horrors awaited me… the legs of a gigantic spider appeared. And they MOVED. And more baby spiders crawled out and over the legs… By now, I’d made loud enough noises that the kids came running over. And finally the whole spider slid out, and it was the biggest spider I’d ever seen in my yard. Yes, tarantulas are even bigger, but I haven’t seen one as a resident yet. Despite my startled reaction to the sudden appearance of this spider and her babies, I find her beautiful. Can you see some of her babies in this picture?

It turns out this spider is a female trapdoor spider, and she creates a silk tube-like burrow for hunting purposes, laying eggs, and feeding young. I felt some major guilt about disrupting this little family. But once the babies left the tube, all I could do was scoop up (with the shovel) some of the dirt they crawled upon and get them to a prepared garden bed instead of letting them get buried under the dirt I was lifting and turning. The mom spider went to a shady spot, because she looked so shiny and that “carcass” I saw was probably her molted exterior. Or perhaps her mate, eep!

Hopefully they’ll survive. Guilt, guilt. Live, spiders, and go eat my pest bugs!

Speaking of horrific creepy-crawlies, check out this bug I found in Oklahoma. At first I saw beautiful wings and thought it was a really unique and large moth. But then I saw the head and its enormous pincher-like mouth. My guess is it’s not a moth! This bug was more than 3 inches long, front to end. Imagine this bug about the size of a house. It’s got B-movie horror written all over it! Edit: I googled and determined that this is a female dobson fly. Takes some of the fun out, knowing the name, doesn’t it? 🙂

We saw a pretty cool leaf butterfly of some sort there, too, and many spiders. This picture didn’t turn out as well as I’d like, but I like the overall effect of the image.

The Oklahoma state parks seem to be very nicely managed and maintained, more so than some of our Texas ones. I loved that they had litter bags to help people keep the trails clean. My only complaint was that they didn’t offer any recycling options for bottles or cans anywhere. We kept our recyclables and brought them back to Texas with us. Green points earned!

I loved the bark of the pine trees at Robber’s Cave.

All along the highways and in the state park itself, the beautiful but very invasive mimosa silk tree could be seen. I have a close-up of the flower, but I felt too guilty about admiring the beauty to post it. Bad invasive, bad!

At least it’s prettier than the invasive Chinaberry all over Austin.

The Austin Pond Society Pond Tour was this weekend. I have lots of pictures to post over the next couple of days!

Bee happy! It’s Pollinators Week! June 22-28, 2009

Posted on June 22, 2009 by Meredith

What’s all the buzz about? It’s National Pollinator Week here in the United States. It’s a time to spread the word about the desperate plight of our flower-visiting, pollen-spreading friends. Because of pollinators’ declining populations, many farms and flowers are already in trouble! Missing native plants, too many pesticides, and diseases have all contributed to drastically reduced numbers of bees, butterflies, and other pollinators.

That’s a queen butterfly on Gregg’s mistflower (Conoclinium greggii) — the butterflies, especially queens and monarchs, go crazy for Gregg’s mistflower. I had hoped to get some pictures of bees visiting my flowers, but they were camera-shy (there were some yellow-jackets, though, but they were a little TOO friendly, if you know what I mean). At least my trusty butterfly and hummingbird friends came out for pictures. Ignore the lawnmower cord and ugly ground in the background.

How can you help? If you have a garden, especially an organic one, you are probably already doing tons to help the populations of bees and other pollinators. But Pollinators Week for me is an excuse to go out and buy a native plant just for the sake of the wildlife, so as soon as I finish this blog entry, the boys and I are going to Natural Gardener to pick out something new. And we are determined not to let it die in the hot Texas sun (maybe a shade plant, lol). Not sure what to get? Enter in your zip code for an eco-regional planting guide on what plants are helpful in your region.

A kidneywood — bees love this plant! Well, they will, once it’s big and blooming (it’s a tiny little thing right now). Whenever I pass a larger kidneywood, bees are swarming all over it. I can’t wait!

Plant something new in your garden that is a bee favorite. Go native — invasive plants contribute to the plight of beneficial insect and bird populations. Plant larval food for the caterpillars and rejoice when you see your plant get eaten by little happy caterpillars. Build a little habitat that might be a perfect home for a hive. Make a mud puddle for bees and butterflies to drink from. Do you have fruit bats in your area? Build a bat house for them!

Make a commitment to avoid pesticides and chemical fertilizers. This is HUGE. Even organic pest controls can affect the population of good insects — so research before you buy and/or use any kind of product or method! And educate your friends and neighbors about the plight of bees and the dangers of pesticides and chemical fertilizers!

In this picture, there’s milkweed, flame acanthus, blackfoot daisies, and pentas, all together.

This is one of my favorite butterflies — the Gulf Fritillary. It has a stunning orange wingspread, but underneath it’s orange, silver, and black. I’m not sure which side I like best, which is why I like it so much.

Ah, here’s one of my absolute favorites of the Texas natives, the wafer ash, or hop tree (Ptelea trifoliata). It can be hard to find in a nursery, but it’s easy to grow from seed, and they’re all over. Our dogs ate the top off our first one, and it amazingly grew back, the determined little thing. The wafer ash is a host plant of the giant swallowtail and tiger swallowtail. It’s part of the citrus family, and it’s one time that leaves of three (trifoliata) are a good thing. They have nothing to do with poison ivy, by the way, so get that out of your mind!

Swallowtails enjoy other citrus — we have a mandarin orange, lemon, and two lime trees growing. No fruit yet! But I’m hopeful that as long as I don’t kill them, I’ll have fruit someday. Look, here’s a little fly sort of a thing on my lime tree. Flies are great pollinators!

Here’s a yellow jacket on the baby Goldenball Leadtree (Leucaena retusa). Yellow jackets are minor pollinators as well as predatory wasps. I’m happy to have them around my garden, just not building hives under my eaves right where I’m building a new bed! The yellow jackets and I are currently having a discussion about where it’s ok to build a hive and where it isn’t. I haven’t killed one, but I do remove their little hives in an effort to get them to move elsewhere. Oh, and the dogs also ate the goldenball leadtree over the winter, too. It grew back. Yay for native plants.

This one is almost native — it’s a Mexican Anacacho Orchid. We planted it a little too deep, I think — it lives, but I feel it’s struggling a bit. I hope to get a true native Anacacho Orchid in the fall. They are gorgeous when blooming.

Bees even like catmint! Catmint’s not just for cats anymore!

And who could forget the all-time bee favorite, the sunflower. Here’s mine:

My last batch of seeds I lightly spread into the ground where I wanted them to grow. They didn’t. So now I’m trying to grow sunflowers in little planters, and hopefully they’ll grow into seedlings. I love sunflowers. My husband said he always thought of them as a weed, not as a pretty flower (gasp!). When he sees them in the back of the yard with the prickly pear and the white TX honeysuckle and the goldenball leadtree, he’ll come around. I know he will.

So in honor of Pollinators Week, bee happy and make a bee happy. And then those vegetables and fruits and pretty flowers and trees you love will be around for you — and your grandkids– to enjoy.

Arrrgh, there be treasure in that garden

Posted on June 9, 2009 by Meredith

Our house was built in 1971, and the earlier tenants were remarkable yard slobs, or this property was a dumping ground for someone long ago. I am amazed by some of the things I find deep below the earth — I have found parts of old metal tools, broken pots, and more — sometimes a foot into the soil. While digging part of a new garden bed in the front yard, I dug out this interesting item:

It was not that clean when I found it, mind you. Immediately my mind made plans for some excellent recycling project that would turn this old bottle into something fun for the garden. I had decided to turn it into a hummingbird feeder, much like the one I found at this site. However, in searching for feeder tubes, I learned that these kinds of upside-down feeders with stopper tubes are prone to leaking. The site does say that larger bottles are more likely to leak, but now I’m not sure I want spend money on supplies if it actually would leak and become less useful.

I’ve thought about putting the glass bottle on a new bottle tree, but it’s not as pretty as those colorful bottles people usually choose. Other ideas include using it with a plant nanny to water a container, using it as a vase (I already have vases, though), putting mini-lights in it, creating some sort of oil-and-vinegar thing, filling it with sand. I also thought about doing some sort of message in a bottle. Ruled the pond out for that one, though, lol. Maybe it could be a place in the house where my family looks for messages from one another, just for fun. Or even on the front porch.

I’m definitely in the market for suggestions! Or your experience with that type of hummingbird feeder tube — I was really looking forward to the project.

Gray Hairs Are Like Invasive Plants

Posted on June 7, 2009 by Meredith

Gray hairs are like invasive plants. Once you get one rooted, you just can’t get rid of them.

As I read Carol’s delightful May Dreams post about having to pull her “Snow-in-Summer” plants to save her Geraniums, I realized how uncomfortably close it struck to home. Beautiful white flowers that are taking over her garden bed… much like the gray hairs that have become rather abundant on my head. If I attacked my gray hairs by pulling them out by the roots, I’d look like… no, that’s an image I just don’t want to imagine. Perhaps I did the first one I found, many years ago. Is that what started this aggressive take-over of my native roots?

I ponder often the dilemma of being natural in the face of invasives. I love the feel of a peaceful woodland setting, native plants growing wild. But that approach clearly didn’t work in my pre-gardening days. The weeds and invasives too easily too over the yard. In order for my yard to be “natural,” I’ve had to remove unwanted plants and purchase and plant native ones. And as I find my greener nature, I long to be free of the desire to color my hair. Let it grow out, be natural. Grow wild, like I want my yard to do. But if I do, I realize I am going to look a lot more like “Snow-in-Summer” than this 40-year-old might be able to handle.

What’s one person’s weed is another person’s flower, right? Wildflowers are gorgeous to some, weeds to others. There are even butterflies that like poison ivy. I’m trying to embrace the gray hairs on my head as beautiful. Much like my garden beds full of baby plants, it will probably be easier to truly admire them once they’ve grown for awhile. Maybe I’ll just say I’m turning into a Gray Hairstreak Butterfly!

Today’s Green Smoothie

Posted on June 3, 2009 by Meredith

Bananas

Organic strawberries, with the tops still on

Rice milk

Soy yogurt (blueberry, with live cultures — but almost any flavor yogurt will do)

Organic carrot greens (the tops)

A bit of agave nectar

Use whatever quantities suit your taste. Blend together — drink! Be sure to buy organic strawberries — or grow at home — conventional strawberries are right up there in pesticide retention! Bananas are safer for conventional because of the rind, but why accept pesticides? I’m not sure about carrots, but I’d have to think that because of the greens being above ground, the pesticide level would be similar to the strawberries. So… ORGANIC!