10 Facts About Me

I was invited by Missy from Missys Garden to play a game that told my fellow gardeners 10 things about me. Ok! Sounds like fun...:0)!

1.  I live in the Virginia suburbs outside of Washington DC. It is the land of long commutes, horrific traffic, and unpredictable weather. But I'm close to DC, which I love, and also close to the gorgeous rural countryside of Virginia, which I also love. ( I didn't take the picture below, unfortunately!)

2.  I am a volunteer for the no-kill animal shelter Friends of Homeless Animals, which is why I have five dogs!! Two of my dogs are foster dogs. I love to work with dogs that are shy/have issues and need the help of a patient human/canine pack. My three shelter rescues do as much, if not more, canine rehabilitation than I do. I would be less successful if I didn't have three easy going, goofballs that welcomed every new pup into the pack. Check out The Dogs of Casa Mariposa to see the crew.

Rigby was one of my former foster dogs. His previous owner had cut his ears off and later dumped him at a high kill shelter. FOHA rescued him off death row before he was euthanized. Needless to say, he had major fear aggression issues and didn't trust humans. He stayed at FOHA for six months while I worked with him every weekend. Adopters avoided him because he barked so much and hid in the back of his run. But I knew this sweet boy had potential so I took him in as a foster dog. He stayed with us for 2 1/2 months and in that time, he became confident, very silly, and learned to trust humans and accept canine leadership, as long as it was female. He was adopted three weeks after he returned to the shelter and is now living the good life!!! PLEASE adopt shelter dogs!!


3. I enjoy cooking, especially if I have the time and energy to spend creating a wonderful meal, but I truly LOVE baking, and make great cookies! Baking is pure chemistry - it's all about the quality and combination of ingredients. It's a relief to take take my frustrations out on the contents of my mixing bowl and create something beautiful in return.

4. I love to make jewlery and am hoping one day to have crazy mad skills at wire wrapping! I love beads that are made from natural stones. Being a CA native, I'm currently working on a necklace that I want to evoke the colors of the Pacific ocean.

5.  I love the rain, crazy storms, and the sound of the wind howling as it comes rushing in from the Dakota prairies. Have you ever been to the Dakotas? Go! It's beautiful! It's life in the vast lane.

6. I love being a teacher and have no patience for teachers that are mean, lazy, incompetent, or indifferent. My favorite subjects to teach are English/writing and science.

7. I would love to be independently wealthy so I could travel more. I have a great love and appreciation for other languages and cultures. Egocentric, close minded people frustrate me! My way is simply my way - it's not the only way!!

8.  I love to read, especially books that force me to look at a situation from a different perspective. I recently finished The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein and Little Bee by Chris Cleave. Both were wonderful! One of my favorite books is Join Me by Danny Wallace. It's laugh till you cry funny. :0)

9.  I have a bubbly, goofy personality but am very calm around animals. I love fashion, especially clothes that are a bit retro or artistic. I have no desire to look like everyone else.

10. When I was in high school, early college years, I had no desire to be a teacher and used to kill every plant I came near. When my son was born I asked people NOT to give me plants because I knew they would face a slow, dry death in my care. When my son was about 2, I was in the plain, ugly yard of my Air Force base house lamenting to myself the utter drabness of my surroundings. I looked at my yard and then at my son and thought, "Hey, I kept him alive for 2 years. I could probably keep a plant alive." Thus, my gardening adventures began. I created a garden at several base houses and at each house we purchased later. Having moved 17 times in 34 years, it was my way of saying, "Yes! I was here! And this small patch of Earth is the better for it!"

I originally wanted to be a foreign correspondent, so that I could make a career of writing and traveling. Marriage, kids, teaching, suburbs were NOT in the plan! Fast forward to age 41 - I've been married almost 21 years and have a 15 yr old and an 18 yr old. Life's just like that sometimes but I'm very glad I made the choices I have. There's only one road to NOW and I'm happy I'm on it!!!

11. I decided to add one more fact!! I LOVE live music!! In the past year I've been to concerts by No Doubt, U2, Muse, Pink, and Sheryl Crow. I would really love see Allison Kraus perform!

(I will try to add more pix to this post later. Blogger is telling me to get my pix off Picasa instead of the My Pictures file on my computer which is slowing me down to a glacial speed. UGH!!)

Milky Spore, How Do I Love Thee??

Act I

If everything had a color instead of a word, japanese beetles would be puce green and black and my garden would resemble a flaming red bull's eye. If the colors were replaced by scent, the beetles would reek of rotten fish and my garden would smell like fresh laundry, chocolate chip cookies, and Thanksgiving dinner. I would smell their evilness or see their  hideous shells before the damage was done.

Instead they sneak quietly into my garden, their irredescent shells cloaked by morning shadows and sleep filled eyes. They devour roses and crawl deep into my rose of sharon blooms, ravaging the flowers with neat, circular bites. They hang from the leaves like jewels in an Ethiope's ear, heavy and full enough to make Shakespeare proud. They sway with the breeze but do not slip, their hunger sated only when their handiwork is done and the leaves resemble lace, the stems supporting a network of open space punctuated by rigid veins. Shock and anger shake the sleep from my eyes and I run for my bucket of bleach water, furiously grabbing the hideous things and flicking them into its depths.

Again and again this scene has played out in my garden, the beetles emerge as the victor, my garden the hapless victim, and I, the flailing fool, complete with hat and gaudy garden shoes.

Act II

I stand in the pesticide row at the local garden store, contemplating my choices. So much death, so little time, and I feel my stomach lurch, my lunch headed due north. I grab a big blue bottle of a systemic insecticide and walk away. Thinking of the damage waiting for me at home, I rationalize my choice, pay, and drive away. I mix, pour, apply. The soil reeks of poison and I avoid the garden, guilty and ashamed. The beetles die, the leaves grow back, but the garden is quiet. The birds avoid the rose of sharon and the butterflies are absent, the milkweed and parsley empty. I have created an oasis but poisoned the water.

Act III

If being completely organic had a color it would be the blue of a can of milky spore and the chalky white of its powder. The puce green and black of the beetles would be splashed with the racing stripes of a butterfly caterpillar. If words were replaced by emotions instead of evoking them, "garden" would feel like pure joy and new life. Long gone is the systemic insecticide poured at the base of my roses and rose of sharon. The role of the fool has been rewritten and my garden bursts with life. Bravo!! Bravo!!!

Hello Science, Goodbye Summer...

Starting tomorrow I'll be introducing at least 150 11 year olds to the fabulous world of sixth grade science. Science in my class is a lot wackier than it is in more traditionally minded classrooms, it isn't very quiet, it always involves rodents and sometimes student created skits to illustrate a scientific concept. I even have the sheer audacity to require my students to write complete sentences instead of filling in blanks. Teaching is definitely not for the weak or weary!

But today I am simply a gardener who at 2:45 pm is still in her pajama shorts enjoying a very quiet day at home. I spent part of the morning wandering around in the garden (in my pajama shorts) and despite several weeks of high heat and no rain, beauty abounded. Here's what I saw:

This is agastache 'Shades of Orange' from High Country Gardens. It loves the heat and doesn't want much extra water. It's much loved by the hummingbirds.

I love peachy orange flowers. When I look out my kitchen window and see this plant in bloom, it's like having a constant sunrise in the garden.

This caryopteris (Blue Mist Spirea) is supposed to be a dwarf cultivar. However, it's huge and has been in a shoving match all summer with a nearby sweetspire. I finally intervened and cut back the sweetspire a bit to give the caryopteris more room. It's been covered with bees since it started blooming.

Phlox 'Delta Snow' has bloomed almost all summer. It stands stalwart under a crepe myrtle, overshadowing it's cousin 'Nicky', enjoying the shade, and growing taller every year.

The bees and skippers busily canvas the sedum even before the blooms open. This is planted near several large trees that contiually rob the soil of nutrients and moisture. On my fall to-do list: compost, compost, compost!!!

I've had so many monarch caterpillars on my bloodflower (Tropical milkweed) that every leaf is gone. I hope the new growth grows fast enough to nuture and feed a few more!

 

My father in law calls my chenille plant "caterpillar plant" even though it doesn't attract any caterpillars. It was one of the few plants, along with my rue, that survived the horrific spider mite infestation that destroyed several of my potted plants. No amount of blasting from the hose could get rid of them. I plant it in a pot with my rosemary every summer. It doesn't attract any wildlife but it does attract me, so that's good enough!!

Bird seed sunflowers under the platform feeder and verbena bonariensis. The trumpet creeper, giant hog of all moisture and fertility, is off to the left.

This section of the garden is, as we used to say when I lived in the south, a hot mess! I've tried for years to make this a low-fertility, xeric garden bed, but my plants have decided that I'M NUTS!! They would like more compost, please!! This fall I'm planning on digging up the entire 18 ft bed, which includes two small serviceberry trees, raising the soil height by about 5-6 inches with compost and peat moss, and then rearranging most of the plants. Not an easy job. My very strong 6'5" 18 yr old is going to help me, he just doesn't know it yet... He no help me. I no feed him...!!

My gomphrena are so extremely pot bound that they've become a bit anemic but are still beatiful enough to make me stop in my tracks when I saw them hanging out with the yellow lantana. I have a wonderful surprise planned for them: worm juice from my compost bin added to their daily bucket of water tonight. Yum!!

Sorry hostas!! No water for you till it rains!! I finally figured out what was wrong with my hideous heap of siberian iris: not enough moisture or sun. Plus they probably need to be divided. I already have their new home mapped out for them. I hope they're happy.

Caterpillar Pile Up!

I went outside today to check on the newest batch of monarch caterpillars and had to laugh when I spotted this. It looked like a three caterpillar traffic jam. I just hope the birds don't find them!

A day in the garden...

School has started, which leaves me less time to blog so I thought I'd just post a few pics of the garden and the flowers speak for themselves.

A wonderful friend of mine gave me a few obedient plant (phytostegia virginica) seedlings, which I've let go to seed. I've ended up with a large patch of plants and will be sharing a few with friends this fall. I love plants that gently take over because it has allowed several of my friends to create gardens out of plants I've gifted them!

I don't know how this stem was knocked over but it looks pretty growing along the dwarf glossy abelia. Both the odedient plant and abelia grow in my front yard.

Obedient plant is a southeastern native that can reach 4 ft tall. It likes a bit of bright partial shade and moist soil. The bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds love them.

This is silphium, commonly known as cup plant. It's leaves form a cup that catches rain water, serving as a "cup" for birds. They also love it's seeds, which look like they are about to shoot out of the flower like a Gatlin gun.

Silphium can grow over 6 ft tall, although mine is in a dry spot and is much shorter.

I just can't resist a reddish orange zinnia!

This is oregano 'Rotkugel', a favorite of the bees. It grows near a patch of dwarf solidago, callirhoe, and a 'Purple Dome' aster.

Yellow chrysoganum 'Quinn's Gold' and plumbago both do well in dry shade.

The plant in the front of the photo is an east coast native, spigelia marylandica, commonly known as Lipstick plant. It grows to about 2 ft and is much loved by hummingbirds. It's hard to find and I always end up ordering it from either Niche Gardens or Lazy S's Farm Nursery. It's in a moist spot with bright shade and is really happy. It grows alongside a big patch of 'Chester Thornless' backberries  and some purple milkweed seedlings that I sowed last fall.

Rain Barrel Awesomeness

The area where I live has three types of summer rainfall: all, nothing, or pratically nothing. For the entire month of June, it was hot, sunny, and dry, dry, dry. I found myself obsessively checking weather.com and scanning the skies for storm clouds. I wanted rain like a toddler wants a toy and I wanted it NOW! Frustrated but undaunted, I unrolled the garden hose and didn't bother putting it back. There was no need. It would be running almost every day until the skies opened up and it rained. Daily, I moved the hose from bed to bed, lifting it briefly to fill my watering can, before plopping it back onto the mulch, the flowers gulping the water as quickly as it flowed. I was hot, irritated and dreading the water bill.

During our summer droughts the water bill is best opened with a stiff drink in one hand and a match in the other. Our only saving grace was our five rain barrels, which by mid-June were empty.
















My very supportive husband gave me a rain barrel for Christmas and I was thrilled but stunned. Rain barrels require a bit of installation, which he doesn't enjoy. Long work hours combined with a miserable commute don't leave him hankering for a hammer on the weekends, but install the barrel he did. I am a practical gal and was so excited I bought myself four more for my birthday. The barrels were indispensible in helping keep down an already huge water bill for June. Several storms have kept them full for the past six weeks and we've barely had to use any supplemental city water. They also serve to reduce the amount of water flowing into the storm drain and out to the fragile Chesapeake Bay.

This is our biggest barrel, the Big Daddy. That's not it's official name, but it should be!! It holds 156 gallons of water and is fully collapsable. It was also the most affordable at $120. One of the things I really love about this barrel is that I can unzip the top and fill up my watering can without having to deal with the hose. The 10 ft hose didn't come with the can and was purchased at Amazon.com. I think it was called an extension hose.

Okay, here's the picture I took today of the Big Daddy. During our last big storm, one of the plastic legs cracked and bent, sending 156 gallons of water into the grass instead of my garden. Frustrated, was I? Oh yeah!!!

Here's a picture of the new Big Daddy rain barrel that I took today. We had a massive thunderstorm rip through the area last night and filled this to the top. There is a little black gadget on the top that is supposed to funnel the water into the barrel, but because the barrel is poorly designed, we opted to hook  two long tubes to the down spout and channel the water in that way. It's effective and fills the barrel really quickly. This barrel is pretty obvious but it's on the side of my house and I'm more interested in keeping my garden watered than making the HOA happy.

To solve the problem with bent rain barrel legs, we hammered pieces of rebar into the soil and then placed the cheap plastic legs over them.  We were trying to get it done before the storm and didn't have time to measure everything. Because the fabric has already started to rip, we'll be fixing the problem this weekend.

The plants around the barrel are called Painters Palette (Persicaria virginiana). They were given to me by a friend and thrive on total neglect in moderately dry soil in bright shade. They are still a bit smashed from where the first barrel collapsed. The clematis on the fence is a native clematis, clematis crispa, that I bought from Brushwood Nursery. Cick on the link for a beautiful picture of the inside of this tiny flower.

We have four other rain barrels that hold 50 gallons each. Three of the barrels are beige and blend into our house. They are mildew resistant and made from recycled plastic.

 

Here is one of the rain barrels in our front yard. This picture was taken in late spring. Here's a picture I took today. Today was drizzly and overcast.

You can barely see it behind the obedient plant (Physostegia virginiana). I often use the water in this barrel to water the hydrangeas to the right, which are always thirsty.

 Here's a side view. The shrubs in front of the hydrangea are dwarf variegated glossy abelia. The one in the picture is more green than variegated while the two next to it are pink, cream, and green. They are tough as nails and require almost no care at all. 

Here's another of the beige rain barrels that are in the front of the house and visible from the street. This one came with black tubing. The Prague viburnum and bright lantana disguise the barrel so it's not as obvious.

This barrel is tucked in between a huge American Cranberry bush (Viburnum triloba) and a pair of  'Miss Kim' lilacs. You can barely see it.

This rain barrel is the easiest one to use since the top lifts right off. When it's full, I add a 16 oz bottle of kelp meal and a little bottle of Super Thrive to the water. As it ferments, it smells weird, but it gives the plants an extra boost. You can also throw in a shovel full of compost and let it brew for a few days. You'll end up with an awesome compost tea that your garden will love.

Peach Cobbler, Anyone?

This is a repost from last summer. Peach cobbler is a summer staple in our house and this recipe is easy and really delicious.

As much as I love to garden, I truly love to bake and every summer I make peach cobbler. I don't grow the peaches and avoid buying them at the grocery store if I can. Our local grocery stores specialize in selling peaches that are hard, green, and smell more like a tennis ball than a peach. A few years ago in my quest for a peach that tasted and smelled like....a peach, I discovered Hollins Farms in Virginia. For a few bucks I could wander the orchards and stuff my bags full of white and yellow peaches, pick berries, tomatoes, etc. I was hooked and on Sunday headed back to the orchard.

Instead of writing about my garden I thought I would share my peach cobbler recipe. It's very easy and features a sweet biscuit topping. If you don't have access to great peaches, use nectarines. They're just bald peaches!

PEACH COBBLER


Peach Filling:

12 very large peaches or 24 small to medium peaches (You can mix white and yellow peaches.)

3/4 - 1 cup sugar (See Note Below)

4 tbs butter

3 tbs cornstarch

cinnamon and ginger to taste

NOTE:

Here's the deal with adding sugar to a fruit desert - fruit releases its own natural sugars as they cook. The more sugar you add, the more liquid they release. While this sounds ideal in theory, if you add too much sugar you'll end up with a very sweet, liquidy syrup that overpowers the flavor of the peaches and doesn't thicken correctly unless you add extra cornstarch. However, if you add too much cornstarch, you'll end up with a cobbler that tastes/looks like it's full of jam instead of peaches. If you are adding berries to the cobbler, add an extra 1/4 cup sugar to offset their natural tartness. This isn't a precise formula, however. You can vary the sugar from 3/4 cup to 1 cup depending on how sweet you like your desserts.

Peel the peaches and cut them into slices. I hold the peaches in one hand, peel them with a knife, and then just slice them up while holding them before plopping them into a large pot. It's messy but efficient. I give the peach peels to my worms.

In a small bowl combine the sugar, cornstarch, and spices. Add it to the pot and mix gently. Fresh ginger is excellent! Just grate it right over the pot of peaches.

This pot is full of white and yellow peaches.

Cut the butter into chunks and add it to the peaches. Cook the peaches on medium until the peach syrup begins to gently boil and changes from a cloudy brown to a clear brown. Don't cook the peaches on high heat or you'll burn them to the bottom of the pan.  Trust me on this one!!! As soon as the mixture bubbles, thickens, and looks clearer, the peaches are done!

Turn off the heat and pour them into a 13 x 9 pan or two smaller pans. If you are adding any berries, such as blackberries, blueberries, or raspberries, add them now. Mix them in gently so you don't smash them. By cooking the peaches first, you don't have to worry about the topping cooking before the filling. This method works well for apple filling, too. Avoid using a pan that's too large. You'll end up with a dry cobbler because the filling will have spread out so much that when you cut into it, there's little to no syrup. However, if you use a pan that's too small, the syrup will bubble out of the pan, onto the oven heating element, and potentially set your oven on fire. Yep, trust me on this one, too!! 

Cobbler Topping:

This recipe makes A LOT of topping! If you are making one cobbler, you might want to just make a half portion of topping. This recipe isn't written for a stand mixer, although I'm sure you could use one.
   
1 cup butter, cold and cut into cubes
1 cup half and half or milk
1/2 cup sugar
3 cups flour (I use White Lily - See Note Below)
1 tsp salt
1 tbs baking powder (The fresher, the better!)
 
NOTE:
 
Not all flour is the same. Well, okay, maybe you already knew that. White Lily is a soft southern flour. What does that mean? It means it's made from a type of wheat that is naturally low in protein. Low protein flours create less gluten in the finished product, which gives you a softer, lighter baked good. A high protein flour will create a chewier baked good. If you don't have White Lily, try King Arthur All Purpose flour. Or just use whatever's in your cupboard!!
   

In a large bowl, mix all the dry ingredients. Add the butter to the bowl and with a pastry blender cut the butter into the flour until it's in pea sized chunks. When the butter cloggs up the pastry blender, just use a knife to clear it off and continue cutting it into the flour. This can be done in a food processor, but since I don't have a processor big enough to make a dough in, I always use a pastry blender.

Pastry blenders are very old school and can be found very cheaply at Walmart, Target, etc. They just continually slice up the butter until it's really tiny and is incorporated into the flour. The weird looking thing with the blue handle is a pastry blender.

Here's what the butter looked like after I sliced it into submission with the pastry blender.

 
Now add about a third of the milk/half and half. Pour some of the liquid around the edges of the bowl and some into the middle. Using a fork, gently pull the liquid and flour towards the center. Do this all around the perimeter of the bowl until you have a thick blob of biscuit dough in the middle. There will still be flour around the edges and probably under the biscuit blob, so go ahead and continue pouring the liquid and pulling it toward the middle. Resist the urge to take your fork and mix it in circles!!! You'll overwork the dough and end up with tough topping. Ugh! Once you have a incorporated all the liquid into the flour, let it rest for a few minutes.
 
Using your fingers drop little blobs of topping on to the pan of cooked peaches. Add as much or as little as you like.
 

When the pan is covered, sprinkle it with sugar and bake at 425. How long you bake it depends on how big the pan is, but check it after about 20 minutes. Cobbler is amazing served warm with vanilla ice cream but is also awesome for breakfast!
 

Enjoy and let me know if you liked the recipe!!