Fall begins this week, and we are enjoying cool weather early so it feels like fall.   I am picking the last of some of my vegetables and watching the leaves brown.  I let what was left of my herbs (oregano, mint, basil) bolt (flower), though some of the leaves could be harvested well into fall.  But the bees are delighted.  There are still flowers on my Impatiens, they seem to thrive in this weather until the first freeze.

I have been reading a lot about heirloom plants and must admit that in growing plants in containers on my deck, it has been fun to experiment with vegetables that are hybrids, plants altered so that they are smaller potted varieties.  I’ve enjoyed them, but am looking into adding heirlooms to my vegetables next year.

If heirloom plants were people, they would be able to trace their lineage back to before 1950 and would not have had anyone tampering with them genetically…they would have simply enjoyed the natural process of pollination rather than the controlled environment of hybrids. 

You can gather Heirloom seeds from your flowers or vegetables that you allow to mature and “die” before harvesting and count on them producing plants for you in the coming year.  The flavor of the vegetables is more vibrant and nutritious.  Heirloom plants and flowers are generally larger than hybrids. Everything is convincing me that next spring I will purchase heirloom seeds or starter plants no matter what the cost.  Some put together nice starter kits like the one pictured below with seeds that are heirloom and like to remind us that the seeds contain no GMO’s (genetically modified oganisms). Yes, already dreaming of next years gardens and this years are just finishing.

My “simplistic” explanation is that when the chemicals are used in an area, and build up in the soil, crops die or do not grow in that area in the future.  To further complicate things, now that the soil has been destroyed by man’s hand, future crops are being genetically altered adding GMO’s (genetically modified organisms) to certain plants so that they can tolerate living in the damaged soil….so they can resist the chemicals that destroy the plants, adding problem to problem.  It seems that doing this can only lead to further adjustments down the road moving us further and further from natural sustainable farming.

But there is so very much more to this written by people who have been studying this over a long period, more than I can write here.  I was made aware of this in a lengthy email sent by a friend, Bea Kunz of Sage Hill Farms in Tennessee.

Read the article that inspired her to contact those of us who care, and look at the pictures that prove the point, and do your part by acting as suggested in the article provided by the Institute of Responsible Technology which you will find by clicking right here.  The picture below is from the site, showing harm caused by the chemicals…please visit the site to learn much more.

Welcome to the first day of winter…and it is wintery here in northern NJ – lots of snow fell over the weekend, as most of you have probably heard on the news, and it’s cold and windy, but the sun shines brightly today! This is Christmas week, and after Christmas come New Years and January, when many begin to see gardening catalogs show up in their mail boxes as they think ahead to Spring gardening…as for me, I like to do my shopping online, and most paper mail ends up in my recycling.

Last summer I enjoyed my medicinal and culinary herb garden, simple as it is, since we have a shortage of sunny property. I’m still eyeing a big section of sunny grass that we gained when a new septic system was put in because trees were removed.  We don’t use many pesticides, and try to make some ourselves, naturally, when we can because it’s not always easy to find chemical-free pesticides and other “green” gardening products that are good for the earth that God has given us to be stewards of.  But now I think I’ve found a source.

You lucky folks that live in warmer climates may already be able to take advantage of the wonderful green, good for the earth, good for the garden products offered by saferbrand.com. I appreciate the time they have put into helping the gardener know about many garden pests, they have a great section on insects that can threaten your garden, and an equally informative section on organic gardening. Since my “green thumb” doesn’t seem to work very well when it comes to growing plants indoors, the “houseplants” section was also very helpful.

There will be events taking place all year to promote organic gardening, and it won’t be hard to keep up with these events because Safer brand is officially on twitter, I’m going to “follow” them on Twitter and invite you to as well.

Twitter and Facebook are the primary, almost only social networking sites that I use, so I was happy to hear about Safer brand’s facebook page, and will be heading over to become a fan after posting this.

Vegetable Gardens of Switzerland

We love “green” on this blog, it has always been a favorite color of mine, and to me, is a symbol of new life, expressed in the new green buds and blooms of springtime. 

“Going green” is a term we are hearing more and more, and it has a little bit of a different connotation, it is more related to the preservation of the beauty we see around us by how we care for our environment. 

And then there is the term “sustainable”, which also refers to the ability to sustain our environment, and ourselves, through our natural resources, and how we care for them, how responsibly we preserve them. 

Something I did not know until the opportunity presented itself to explore a bit was that beautiful Switzerland is one of the “greenest” countries in the world.  In “sustainable Switzerland” people take caring for the environment very seriously, making it a perfect place to visit..not only because of all the magnificent beauty in the area, but because of all the things we can learn from their way of life.  We balk at the thought of being charged taxes or fees for things that will preserve the environment, but this is common practice in Switzerland, and through it, people learn to be more responsible citizens.  

When you travel in Switzerland, it is easy to get around by train, biking is very popular.  You find many organic products, in fact, a friend of mine has traveled there twice to take part in a hands-on organic farming program.  You know from reading this blog that this would be just the thing I’d like to do while there, along with visit the many beautiful, natural places to enjoy God’s creation. 

You will find “green” hotels, even staying in one of these and observing what they do to preserve the environment by how water, waste and electricity is handled can be a fun learning experience.  Take a little time to learn more about sustainable Switzerland and see if this might be a place you’d like to plan to visit…even a visit to the site is a treat!

My tulips are beginning to put out their buds, and when they flower I’ll be doing what I can to keep our cute but rascally squirrels from eating the flowers.

Deer are not a big problem for me unless they are making their way down to our lake during a drought, I believe I shared a story on this blog once before about how they came down from the woods on the way to the water and ate every one of my beautiful orange triple-flower Day Lilies. That was a major but rare disappointment, at least here on our property.  But deer can be real pests in many gardens…I have watched them grazing in yards and gardens very early in the morning when driving, while the homeowner/gardeners are still sleeping and unaware.

They are beautiful, but also do their part spreading Deer ticks that cause Lymes Disease, a disease that started here in NJ if memory serves me correctly?  Definitely somewhere nearby in the Northeast. It is quite common here, as are the ticks, I’ve found them on myself and my dog on a number of occasions.

“Deer Off”® is an organic/natural repellent that you can safely spray on your plants and in the gardening area to keep Deer away, after all that work, a deer repellent like this will save you from waking up to a great disappointment like the people that I just mentioned must have found.

havahart.com has a wonderful Havahart® Deer Off ® II Battery-Powered Sprayer that has a patented Dual Deterrent System™ formula that provides both scent and taste barriers to repel deer, rabbits, and squirrels…so not only will it take care of the Deer, but those squirrels I was telling you about that like to eat my tulip flowers.

But I had never taken time to think about the importance of the dark, night sky to all wildlife. Seems surprising since I am what many call a “night owl”. If you want to learn more about this, you can visit the Dark Sky Festival website, this is an annual event that takes place in Harmony, Florida, but even if you can’t attend the event, the site is interesting and will give you some things to think about that you may not have considered before.

Obviously a beautiful night sky in an area that doesn’t have a lot of artificial lighting is wonderful for viewing stars and planets, but “light pollution” can also have a negative impact on the natural order of things that God created. This event and some of the things at the site can help you learn to lessen the impact…in fact they give a good example of how they influenced change in their community.

Personally, I appreciate the fact that our rural area has little artificial lighting, and our night skies are quite beautiful, we love to lay out on the deck when there’s a meteor shower and watch for falling stars, and look at the constellations. I can’t imagine not being able to appreciate this part of God’s creation.

The 6th Annual Dark Sky Festival is next weekend, April 25th, at Harmony, Florida, and it is a bit out of reach for us this year, but it’s free, and I’d be there if I could…if any of you visiting happen to go, please tell us about it in a comment!

I was interested in knowing what kind of advancements have been made in of gardening on a rooftop. I am not thinking of container gardening in the sense that most of us are familiar with, but on a large scale, and was happy to find this video showing a large rooftop garden, and giving some information on how safe it is, and it’s benefits which include cooling the building itself, providing for wildlife, such as birds, bees and insect life, and improving air quality.

I would love to hear from anyone who is living in urban areas, what creative ways to do you find to garden in the city?

I remember when I was a young girl, I wanted to start my own garden on our property, so my mother allowed me to try to grow in a plot along the side of our house. I remember getting a few plants to grow, but not with the same skill as my mothers gardens. I was pretty much left to learn on my own by asking questions, reading, no one did the work for me. At that time there wasn’t the emphasis that there is now on organic gardening, or using organic gardening products in the garden. In fact, when I was raising my children, there was some awareness of this, but not with the same passion that we see today.

Do you garden with your children? Do you have a site about gardening with children? Please share in a comment. When thinking about organic gardening products, and how important it is to teach children to garden organically for the health of the earth, as well as our own health in the case of vegetable gardening, I was looking at some products at saferbrand.com and liked all the basic products that I saw for killing weeds, as well as organic bug control in the garden or around the home. I but also found the site educational, explaining the difference between natural -v- organic, providing mulching information, and more.

Here is a video that I hope you’ll enjoy:

At the time, I had not been introduced to the Shade Store that offers a wide variety of shades and blinds, including wood or metal blinds that can completely block the sun.

What I found unique about this site, is the fact that they offer Eco-Solar shades that conserve energy, absorb heat in the summer, protect you in the home from harmful UV Rays, and reduce glare without obscuring your view of your gardens, or in the case of the picture above, the City. Their Eco-Solar shades are made from 100% recyclable materials, another good thing for the land that we love.

Their Solar Shades are “Green-Guard Certified”, and if you, like me, are not sure what that means, visit the link above and look in the little box in the upper left of the landing page, then click on “Green-Guard Certified” for an explanation..impressive!

The theshadestore.com is offering my readers a 15% discount, this is not available at the site, only to those who are reading this post. When you make your purchase and check out, use the code IZEA01 and save.

The Use of Vegetable Dyes by Violetta Thurstan, published in Great Britain.

Juniper:

Found on rather dry, barren hills…. The berries, which take two years to ripen, are used for dyeing.  They may be used either fresh or dried.

• • Mordant (how to mordant is in the book)  – 4 oz. alum, 1 oz. cream of tarter, copper sulfate
  • Dye – 1 lb. berries
  • Process – The berries should be crushed and boiled for two hours and then the mordant yarn is entered, and simmered for one and a half hours.
  • Colour – A pretty olive-brown

Easy Dyeing – 50 Recipes for Making Colors from Plants by Frances E. Mustard (the self-published edition, copyright 1975:

Queen Ann’s Lace:

Need:

• 1 Pot Queen Anne’s Lace (whole plant)
• 1/3 Cup Alum
• 1 T. Cream of Tarter
• 1/4 t. Iron
• 1 lb. Wool
• Season – Fall
• Color – Soft Green

The whole plant, roots and all, can be used.  Chop it up, put it in a pot, cover it with water, and boil it for about an hour.  Unfortunately, this is a smelly one.  Strain and add enough water to make up to 4 gal.  Thoroughly dissolve the iron in some of the dye ooze and add it to the rest of the dye. Stir.

Meanwhile, fill another pot with about 4 gal. water.  Dissolve first the cream of tarter then the alum in some boiling water and add it to the pot.  Thoroughly wet the wool and add it too.  Now slowly raise the temperature to the simmering point and hold it there for a short time.  Transfer the wool to the hot dye ooze and simmer it there for another 45 min.  Cool and rinse til the water runs clear.   Without the iron, you will get a yellow.

These may appear to run high in price, but are offered at less than what I have found for these old editions elsewhere.