Posts tagged ‘gardening’

There have been a million times I have driven past a nasty run down lot in Akron and thought, “We should tear down that yucky house and build a garden here.” Well, the Akron Cooperative is doing just that! I was so excited to find them at the Akron Home and Garden show talking about keeping bees and Urban Chicken raising. They were even holding a raffle to give away a chicken coop (which I entered but did not win). I went to their website to find out more about them and found this:

Our Mission: to build a local food system that improves the health and economy of our community. Our approach is to use the valuable resources and productive traditions within our community by engaging youth and families to improve the conditions of our neighborhoods.

Our Goals: Focus on sustainable agriculture, nutrition education, entrepreneurship, and youth development to create change in our community. With that in mind, our five primary goals are to:

1. Educate residents about food systems, sustainable agriculture and healthy cooking. 

2. Provide access to appropriate and affordable locally-grown, healthy, nutritional and culturally-focused food.

3. Engage and train youth as leaders in the food system and their community.

4. Build self-reliance through employment, training and local business development.

5. Building the capacity to produce food locally through sustainable agriculture. 

How exciting! Find out more, if you are interested in helping out. I don’t know how helpful I can be to them this year with my little kiddos under foot, but next year I would love to put in some man hours in a community garden!  For more information you can follow this link to subscribe to their newsletter.

I’ve slowly been revitalizing my landscaping for Fall.  I trimmed down spent plants & removed the sad-looking annuals from my pots.  Originally I thought I’d come home with colorful mums for the pots, but instead put together a pretty leafy combo of perennials (which were all 50% off at my favorite local garden center, Donzell’s!).  I used Siberian Iris in the back (it’ll have white flowers in the spring), Japanese Painted Fern on the left, and Beard Tongue on the right (more white flowers in spring).

Today I harvested some German Chamomile flowers, and I’ll be drying them to make loose-leaf Chamomile tea.  This is my first year growing Chamomile, and I only got one plant to survive from seed.  I drink a lot of tea, so I’ll surely plant more next year.

I did some research before harvesting my flowers.  The basic idea is pick the flowers, dry them, then use them in your tea.  Here are a few tips I learned:

-Pick flowers early in the morning, but after the dew has dried.  Pinch the flowers off just below the flower head to stimulate the plant to continue producing flowers.

-Dry the flowers in a warm, yet dry & dark location on a screen.  The quicker the flowers dry out, the more essential oils are held in the dried flower.  When the flowers are completely dry, store them in an airtight container in a dark, dry location.

-The flower head & petals are both used in the tea.  Don’t break the dried flower apart until you’re ready to make your tea (this keeps it freshest).  To make tea add 2 tsp dried flowers to 1 cup boiling water, steep covered for 10 minutes (covering your tea keeps the valuable oils from escaping).

*I didn’t find one particularly great reference website about Chamomile.  But here are a few I learned from: here, here, and here.

I love waiting for sales.  Not because I like waiting, but because I want my money to go a little further.  The other day I got some major bargains at Lowe’s on perennial flowers.  Most of the flowers were done blooming for the season, and some I think were just the last of their types (because they hadn’t bloomed yet).  Either way, all the flowers I purchased were $1 or $2 each, and I got more than double the flowers I would at regular price.  Even though many won’t do anything pretty this season, I have next year to look forward to.

I bought a Ball Zucchini plant last year from a farm.  I saved the seeds and replanted them this year.  Ball Zucchini isn’t different than regular zucchini except in shape, but I like unusual plants so had to try this one.

Yesterday I made my first zucchini bread of the season.  I needed a new recipe because my old one called for shortening which I don’t use anymore.  I found one on Allrecipes, made a few experimental changes, and was super-pleased with the results.  I appreciate reader comments for each recipe on Allrecipes which helps me make worthy changes to the recipe even as I make it for the first time.

Some changes I made are: used 1/2 cup applesauce & 1/2 cup vegetable oil instead of 1 cup vegetable oil; used 1/4 cup less sugar, and I used oatmeal instead of wheat germ.  The bread was nicely dense, not too sweet, and tasty.  It’s a keeper.

Just for fun my husband brought sunflowers home for me yesterday!  They’re great, but they were a little bland all by themselves.  So I searched my yard (and neighbor’s yard) for leaves & branches to fill in the bouquet.  I used chocolate mint, hosta leaves, and some purple-green leaves from a bush.  Perfect.

I first discovered my unexpected passion for lavender tea when I sampled Earl Grey Lavender Tea from Revolution.  Since then I planted two lavender plants in my yard, & now I make my own tea.  Here’s what I do…

Remove lavender flowers from the plant.  Rinse.  Allow them to dry out a few days.  Remove the buds from the stems.  Now you’re ready to store or use the buds.  Add the dried buds to your loose-leaf tea.  My favorite loose-leafs to use with Lavender are Earl Grey, English Breakfast, or fruity Herbal Teas, but you can try it with just about anything.

Photo Credit STC Crafts

STC Craft is giving away a Heather Ross garden gloves pattern, for free! You better believe I will be grabbing this up and making a pair. I love small projects like this because it gives you the chance to use up little bits and pieces of fabric that wouldn’t work in anything else, but are too big to toss out.

I just spent about 40 minutes google-eyed over Heather Ross’s Weekend Sewing at Barnes and Noble the other day, too. I really need to just give in and buy this book. I know I would make a million of the patterns in it, and I would learn a ton, too.

While grocery shopping yesterday, I ran across a program called “Farmers Can Be Heroes” which helps farmers go organic.  And if you purchase one Organic Valley product & one Nature’s Path product, you can get a year’s subscription to “Organic Gardening” for free.  I love this magazine and regularly get it from my library, so I’ll happily take the subscription!  Go to the “Farmers Can Be Heroes” website for details.  

Come July and August, especially at raspberry time, I usually fill my shirt with the harvest before I come in with the girls. Well, now that I made this garden apron, I can fill up the apron pouch instead. I am using the Glitter, Vinyl and Thread tutorial apron to demonstrate how four button holes and two buttoned straps can turn a regular apron into a very useful tool for bringing in the summer’s bounty.

This pattern can be adjusted to any apron you may already have. But who doesn’t want to have a dozen aprons hanging in the kitchen, so I don’t blame you for making a new one just to try this out.

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