Cornu aspersum (formerly Helix aspersa) crossing my path last night in the driveway.
Into the unknown
Friday, November 5th, 2010
Signs of Fall
Monday, October 25th, 2010
In case you didn’t know, it’s Fall.
For the next 8 weeks I will be gushing about falling, crunchy leaves, peeling bark, sunset colored flowers, and the like. Feel free to barf all over your computer. But believe me, it is a good, good time of year.
Here are a few pictures to prove to you it’s Fall.
Buh-Bye summer flowers! My borage and roses and salvias all got their asses handed to them in the wind storm we had this weekend. I spent most of the weekend inside doing inside-y things. Every once in a while I’d glance outside and watch the destruction of my little front garden. I’m bummed to see the sunflowers and most of the borage and salvias gone – but I can’t really complain since they were absolutely fabulous this summer. Really, they did their job and are ready to go to sleep. I don’t blame them. (Ps – above is a great way to lose your Felcos!!)
Yum, right?
This is a super cheese-tastic picture, but it was really stormy and windy and I thought it looked cool. I reserve the right to be annoyed at other people’s cheese-tastic cloud pictures, and I reserve the right to delete this one if I so choose.
What makes it Fall in your garden?
Mite you stop eating my rudbeckia, please?
Thursday, September 2nd, 2010
Just one of my little rud’s are being attached by aphids and mites and two other little creatures. Luckily, those ladybugs I released earlier in the year had babies and they are coming to the rescue.
Hey, what do you think of the new site?
Please feel free to ask any garden Q’s by clicking the red box on the side… And the resource page will be updated shortly, so make sure to check that one out as well. xoxoxoJenn
CoCo Madness
Saturday, August 14th, 2010
The day started out as any other day, in any other garden, in any other town.
I put my shit kickers on (see below) before work, since I knew I’d be working at a house that has a lawn that looks like shit in desperate need of aerating. The boots are the perfect blend of cuteness/function, as they inevitably sink into the grass. When I walked through my garden, to get to my truck, to get to said shitty lawn – I stopped short, noticing the fabulous Chocolate Cosmos in full bloom. I love Chocolate Cosmos, not just because they grow easily and make for interesting color in the garden – but because they truly smell like chocolate! Any thing that has no calories but gives you the same satisfaction as eating a pint of chocolate gelado – is huge in my book.
Above – previously noted shit kickers.
After work, the day ended on a bit of a somber note. I couldn’t get the thought of chocolate chip cookies out of my head, since smelling those cosmos earlier in the morning – so I thought it prudent to make a batch of cookies. As you can see, I was impatient and didn’t let the butter do it’s buttery-thing properly, so they were ruined. I walked away disillusioned, crest-fallen and a little resentful of the cosmos.
Chocolate cosmos planter BEWARE!
Herb Usage.
Monday, June 28th, 2010
When I lived in Berkeley, CA for a couple years, I was in need of an acupuncturist to try to help me get over my fear of needles, and de-stress. Luckily, I came across Bronwyn Michaelis, who offers many different types of body work, as well as acupuncture and healing with herbs. Going to her I learned that she had an incredible love of using herbs in our everyday lives – not just for culinary purposes. She taught me about different Chinese healing herbs, how to cook with them and use them for any ailment.
Here is a small interview with Bronwyn regarding herbs:
1) How can herbs aid us in everyday life? (Physically, emotionally, mentally)
Bronwyn: Herbs exemplify how the physical, emotional and mental worlds are connected. For example, one can use yarrow tincture topically to physically stop bleeding if there is a cut. Yarrow helps to re-establish our boundaries which in this case is a damage to the skin; that which separates ourselves from our outside world. Our skin is that which holds us together in many respects. Likewise, yarrow can also be taken for emotional imbalances where we are having trouble setting appropriate boundaries in our lives. There are many herbs that help with mental clarity. Dis ease can come from many directions; emotions, physical injuries and imbalances, mental disharmony, and psychic phenomena. However, the effect of a disharmony from any of these directions usually reaches each level of our beings.
2) What are your favorite herbs/veggies to grow that you use often?
Bronwyn: It’s very difficult to pick only a few of some of my favorite things to grow; sage, mint, chamomile, and chrysanthemum are strong herb contenders. They are beautiful and easy to grow and make great teas and the sage I use for smudging. I also really like to have enough kale in the garden. I can eat kale three times a day. there are so many things to do with it. (kale chips in the dehydrator, kale salad, kale in soup, etc).
3) What is your favorite way to store herbs, and generally how long do you keep them for?
Bronwyn: I like to store my herbs in glass jars. And most herbs last a long time this way if they are kept out of the light. How long I keep them for really depends on the herb. Roots last longer than flowers and leaves.
4) Can you ever use herbs too much?
Bronwyn: Sure, everything has it’s correct dosage. Just as with cooking there is a balance in spicing foods, there is a balance when interacting with herbs and our bodies. When choosing herbs it is like choosing our friends. There are many different people out there, but who we enjoy spending time with depends on the stages we are in our lives, and the mood we are in. And certain people we only enjoy or learn from in the correct dosage. With herbs, the effect changes depending on the dosage we use. When using safflower, for example, we use 3-9 grams to move blood and stop pain for situations like amenorrhea, abdominal pain, or dark purplish skin rashes. However, if we use it to harmonize the blood we use only about 1 gram. This effect can be achieved when adding a pinch of saffron (it’s close sister) when cooking rice.
Bronwyn also grows lots of her own herbs onsite at her clinic in Berkeley. A small labyrinth with isotoma is just one of the cool little nooks in her vast garden. There are fabulous little veggies areas, terraced herbs on a giant cliff, fountains and amazing potted plants. For more info on Bronwyn or her treatments, please go here!
The Latest…
Tuesday, June 15th, 2010Ok… hmmmmm, where to begin. Let’s start with…
I found a little blue egg, freshly laid on my lawn sunday afternoon… coincidentally right after I got home from visiting my sister who had just given birth to the most gorgeous baby girl ever! I thought it fitting for what the weekend had bought us, and placed it on my Echeveria plant my the back door. I love the icy blue with the veins of purplish-red.
Next, is a fabulous Nigella amongst the Nasturtium. I have never been a big fan of this plant, as the weedy looking foliage kind of annoys me, but I’m diggin’ this one. Love the dark stamens and pistil… very flower noir.
Ok.. onward in the garden we come to my pride and joy! A fabulous Canterbury Bells cluster I have been babying growing for three years! Each year I will it to bloom, to no avail… well, except for this Spring. I am very proud to say they are gorgeous and super healthy. Lots more blooms to come, too. Oh, and my chipped up, dirty, street-walker nail polish was not planned to match…. I just got lucky!
This is a Van Gogh cultivated sunflower, just about in full bloom. Grows super easy from seed (what sunflower doesn’t?) (and if you have thought of one, believe me – it’s you, not the sunflower) and holds it bloom for quite some time. I meant to plant more, but with everything going on, didn’t get them in the ground. I may try this weekend for a fall bloom.. we’ll see. You can buy these…Here.
Lest I forget this little gem!
Poppies. I love poppies.
There’s not much else to say.
I should do an all poppy section of my new garden.. Hmm. Project!
Forward Foliage
Saturday, May 29th, 2010
This could quite possibly be the most gorgeous cabbage in the world. I found her growing in my client, Janet’s garden, and fell in love immediately. It’s hard when you fall in love with things that are not people, since most of the time, you are the one having to pay for all the drinks and dinners. Sigh.
And now, for a little oriental poppy for your viewing pleasure!
This little gem sprouted up in an overly full pot of lineria and some how managed to grow into a huge, thorny, orange poppy. Not really my cup of tea, but pretty nonetheless. …Though the foliage was amazing.
Clipped to perfection! Loving this boxwood among the wild poppies, lavender and nepeta growing at Nancy’s house. There are few plants there that get really groomed, this boxwood being one of them. The juxtaposition between the few boxwood topiary’s and the messy, almost over blooming flowers that sprawl all over the landscape are fabulous.
Love my Buddha
Saturday, May 1st, 2010
I’ve had a pot by my front door for about a year and a half now. When I first moved to this house, I planted it with a fabulous little daphne, some nepeta and I think a couple annuals. Well, everything has filled in nicely – except growing towards the back, of course towards the sun. So I filled the empty void with Buddha. This isn’t so much a philosophical statement, as it is a literal one. I bought an amazing gold tinted Buddha head from a statuary store in HMB and I love it!
This is me, looking dead, in Montara
Saturday, February 6th, 2010This is me, looking dead, in Montara.
I was imagining what it would be like to die from a Fly Agaric mushroom… plus, my amazing paparazzi photographer, Carla, threw a little dirt on me and some got in my eye balls. I could tell right away the photo shoot was going to be amazing, since she was laughing at me and telling me how there was probably bugs in my hair – or that I was ingesting deadly mushroom spores. Nothing says professionalism, like when your photographer keeps looking down at the camera to review the shots, and says, “Ohhh man! That one is really bad. I’m going to delete it right now.”
But it’s not Carla’s fault. I lead her there under false pretenses, saying it would be a 30 minute trip to take a couple fun pic.’s of me next to these really cool mushrooms. (“let’s go! It’ll be sooo fun!”)And, I needed her to come – uh, like, now! – since rain was upon us. It probably wasn’t until she saw the pearl necklaces, wardrobe changes, and Dior lipgloss did she realize what she committed herself to.
I have been trapped by Carla many times before though. Back in the days where Carla did amazing flower arrangements – rather than amazing gardening – she would trick me to go with her to the SF Flower Market.
Carla: “Jenn do you want to come with me to the flower market!? It’ll be so fun and there are tons of flowers!”
Jenn: “Sure! That sounds great!”
Little did I know it meant getting there by 3-4AM and schlepping her bounty around like some sort of tired pack mule. It was cold and thankless… but for some reason, I’d keep going back with her… thinking maybe the next trip would be really fun.
So, I guess you could say I took a little pleasure forcing Carla to be my paparazzi for the morning. It’s a dirty job, but someone’s gotta take pic.’s of me in dirt next to deadly mushrooms.
Uh oh, dead again next to mushroom
The plants on my deck
Wednesday, November 4th, 2009
The plants on my deck are dwindling down into hibernation mode. A couple months ago I haphazardly planted sweet pea seeds in almost very pot. They just now have started to bloom, but don’t really have the characteristically spicy scent since it’s getting colder. The only things really blooming still are my salvias, sweet peas, heliotrope and a few scattered roses here and there. Most things are just leafing out and setting roots, tucking in for the upcoming rain.
