Preparing them is not hard, but it’s nice to have a nice work area.  I have to settle for my bathroom Porcelain Sink or the stainless steel sink in my kitchen. I’d love to have a workspace with a sink, and know if I wanted one, it could be here in a flash with same day delivery, but am afraid that due to the size of my home, I’ll have to settle for one of my Porcelain Sinks.

To prepare the bulbs, it is important that they be dry during the storage period and be stored in a cool somewhat dry place over the winter, so if you do clean the bulbs off, which isn’t absolutely necessary, do so gently, allow to sit out and dry, then store in a bag or container that breaths. If the bulbs are large enough, an onion bag from the supermarket does just fine if you cut it open just right.

These are my grape hyacinths, they have come up and spread each year faithfully for over 25 years.  A tulip is peeking out in the background.  I know this is a simple grape hyacinth photo, but if you like it and use it somewhere, kindly link back to this post.

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.

And then there are my beloved trees, I love trees, but when there are tropical storm or hurricane force winds to trees that have their leaves on them still, there is always potential for branches to come down as well as entire trees, and our house is in the “line of fire” for several trees.

There isn’t much we can do about the trees except let nature take it’s course, and my gardens are going to be protected by sand bags.  It is very close to the end of the gardening season as far as many of my vegetables and flowers go, but some plants won’t be blooming until into September.  My container garden on the deck will be moved very close to the house where the plants will be more likely to be protected from the wind.

I was very impressed by a document put out by a site in the UK on preparing the garden for flooding, as well as the home.  When you visit “Flooding in the Gardens” and page down a bit you’ll find a wealth of information on protecting the garden from flooding as well as restoring the garden and the lawn after flooding.  May we all fair well during Hurricane Irene.

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Copyrighted Photo. Contact me for permission to use, or provide backlink to this post if you use this photo.

This year I am going to harvest some of the roots as it has spread nicely over the years.  Though you can harvest in the spring before the leaves come, I’m going to wait until fall, after a frost.  I’ve read the same thing about Horseradish as I have about Comfrey…that it’s hard to get rid of as the tiniest piece of root left or dropped will become a new plant, but I’ve never had trouble with either my Comfrey plant or my Horseradish plant.  Perhaps if you have very loose soil, this may be a concern, I have these planted in areas that I don’t cultivate a lot.

This image of the Horseradish Giclee is found, along with many other beautiful herbal plates in “A Curious Herbal”.

After harvesting, I’m going to make my own prepared horseradish. I found a video for you (an me) that shows in great detail how to clean and prepare the root, grind (in a ventilated area…or outside) and prepare your own horseradish. You need white vinegar, sugar and mayo…just watch, you’ll see:

Here are a few pictures, some I can identify, one is giving me a little trouble:

I know the picture above is of purple crocuses, and the picture below is a pair of yellow crocuses, but it’s the one below the “yellows” that I can’t figure out.

We have squirrels that love to do their own landscaping, they dig up my bulbs, then, if they aren’t hungry, carry them off and plant them somewhere else in the yard.  This is one nicely placed by a squirrel in our lawn.

And finally:

This is a vine, ground cover, that grows all over in between our house and the property next door, and some found it’s way along the side of our house.  I should know what this is, but can’t remember…so if you know, comment:-)

It isn’t so close to the house that it’s protected from the cold either.  In fact, last week it looked like it was fading a bit, so I thought the cold had finally gotten to it, but we had a brief warmer spell…in the 30′s…and a little rain, and it revived!  If you are visiting and can identify this for me, it would be great…I just grabbed it quickly as it looked like it would be a nice background for my long gone pink hanging petunias.  It was, and now with the Petunias gone for months, has taken over:-)

Hope you are enjoying the Christmas season!

So, I picked up some Red Fountain grass to further inspire him…and jokingly told him that it was my answer to the flowers he gave me for Mother’s Day.  We’ll be picking up some more with coupons that are good starting July 1st, the ones given by our garden shop when we buy in the spring through July 1.  I get the coupons when I shop for my annuals, and use them to add to my Perennials each year…usually, especially this year since our growing season started early, the Perennials are looking pretty sad, but they come up beautifully the next year…as did my Lambs Ear, Sweet Woodruff (herb) and a few others that I added to the collection last year.

Image from flickr.com

This week is said to be “Sun Safety Week”, but I wonder if those who thought up the day were more concerned with getting skin cancer because of exposure to the sun than they were with the benefits that come from the sun…including preventing Cancer?  The benefits that come from the Vitamin D that you gain when in the sun that is so important for the bones as it helps the calcium to do it’s work in building strong bones.  Many woman are LOW in Vitamin D when they have their blood tested.  Perhaps we are going too far the other way in avoiding the sun…balance is necessary.

For more information on the benefits of the sun, some not mentioned here, please visit a page I put together at my website on the benefits of the Sun (including preventing several kinds of cancer) and a natural sunburn remedy.

Gain the knowledge you need so that you can spend safe amounts of time in the sun this summer, enjoying your yard and gardens.

I know, that sounds completely nuts, but I have been so anxious to test a bug spray for organic gardeners, that I am EXCITED about the fact that there are aphids on my roses.  Even though the plants came up early due to an early warm spell, there have been no bugs on my rose bushes…until today.  The Aphids have arrived with a vengeance!

To show you how well the spray works, I first went outside and took this picture around the middle of the afternoon:

Just look at the fat little green aphids busy enjoying one of the several rose buds that I have on the bush I showed you in the post previous to this one.  There were many more on other branches, too.

SO, I took my trusty bottle of EndALL insect spray, which you see pictured below…oops, I forgot the enlarged picture of the aphids….yuk!  I’ll show you that first:

And here’s a picture of the insect spray good for organic gardeners sitting in front of my little rose bush:

I followed the instructions, spraying lightly all over the areas that had aphids without letting the solution drip all over the ground, just a nice mist.   Then I went inside, and waited for a couple of hours.  By then it was later in the day, so lighting was different, but the number of aphids was WAY down, and by tomorrow, I can assure you they will be gone…the few left behind did not look good at all.

I realize my picture cuts off some of the stem, and isn’t as close up, but I think you can see the difference!

This also worked great when I sprayed it around the eave of our house to keep ants from coming to our hummingbird feeder which hangs off the corner of the roof…I’m not sure if it’s supposed to kill ants, but it did deter them.  Here’s a closeup of the label for you:

I’m expecting great things from my little rose bush this year, and no aphids are going to get in the way of that, thank goodness!  I’m sure this is going to be a great help with my other plants as well, and so happy it’s safe for organic gardens!