Month: January 2016

Consider This: Ferns

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Too much time has gone by without a post– these new working hours do not leave much time for me to formulate a decent blog post!

Currently, I have been waiting for a seed catalog I requested– Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds. I just recently heard about it through Twitter from my fellow gardening friends. I heard it is a great catalog and I can’t wait to get my hands on it! My husband’s co-worker gave me a couple of seed packets and I would like to look for some others. I have to admit, this winter feels like it is going much faster, given the fact we have not received nearly the snow or have had to deal with the sub-zero temperatures that made last year’s winter so darn long.

So, as I sat at work yesterday, an idea came to me. I thought I would start a new mini- series that would lead up to the upcoming growing season– I call it “Consider This”. Giving a little snapshot of certain plants/flowers/shrubs/trees that you should consider planting in your garden and/or yard if you are able to! I won’t do it every week, but as I go along I will pick out a few different botanicals that should be given some serious consideration to your landscape.

My first plant I am going to highlight are ferns. I LOVE ferns. I try to get my hands on as many varieties of ferns as I can. The simple, elegant beauty that comes from these plants cannot be emphasized enough.

Here are some quick facts about Ferns:

  • They are one of the oldest living plants still alive on our planet. They literally have not changed for over a million years.
  • Ferns came be as small as 2 to 3 feet high, or other varieties are actual fern trees.
  • Their leaves are called fronds. If you want to see a beautiful sight, watch a fern start growing and unfurling it’s beautiful fronds.

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  • Ferns reproduce by spores and not leaves. I remember freaking out as I looking under the leaves of my autumn fern and saw all these brown spots. I thought it was dying, when, it was actually growing!
  • You can harvest the tender little fronds of an ostrich fern just after it sprouts from the ground and eat them. They are called fiddleheads.

 

Ferns are a woodland plant, so they thrive in shade. There are several different kinds, as I have stated above. I will give you the list of the ones I have collected over the past few years:

  • Ostrich Fern– most common fern that is readily available. You find this one most of the time in the forest.
  • Maidenhair fern — very delicate fern with contrasting black stems.
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Maidenhair Fern

  • Japanese Painted Fern — beautiful fern that has white fronds and reddish stems.
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Japanese Painted Fern

  • Ghost Fern — gorgeous silver fern that when established, grows rapidly.
  • American Lady Fern — this fern was very popular during the Victorian Era. Beautiful, curly fronds with reddish/orange stems.
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American Lady Fern

  • Cinnamon Fern — my favorite fern, by far. The fronds in the middle grow to look like “cinnamon sticks”, hence the name.
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Cinnamon Fern

  • Autumn Fern — fronds are orange/red and bring color to your shade and woodland garden. This is by far my most hardy fern, and one of the most beautiful.
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Autumn Fern

Yes, as I said above, this is just a snapshot of the many ferns that are available. I absolutely love ferns and have always wanted to do a post all about them. I hope to keep adding to my collection, as long as I have shade, I will keep buying them!

Thank you for taking the time to read this long post!

 

 

 

Got”chia”: The Chia Pet Chronicles

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I have been slacking big time on getting posts out in a timely manner. It just hasn’t been happening because Life happens.  Work, kids, family, etc. Lots going on, and that’s not a bad thing! We did finally get some snow this week. I live north of the city, and we never get anywhere near the lake effect snow that the city and south towns get. It really does depress me, because I like to play outside in the snow! Oh well, we are forecasted to get some starting tomorrow, so here’s hoping for a few inches!

My company now allows for flex hours, and I go into work an hour later and leave an hour later. My nights are already pretty compressed — trying to get dinner, play with my daughter  and then start the bedtime routine. But now as my daughter gets older, I feel like my weeknights are flying by faster than ever. So, I have to admit I have been neglecting my indoor plants a little bit. Last year I was learning about my plants and wanting to purchase more, but time seems to be lacking for me to even really get excited about the whole endeavor. I wanted to change that!

I purchased something before Christmas that I never really EVER thought of buying. I mean, I see it on TV all the time around the holidays, but you never really buy the thing, do you?!! Yes, I did.

I bought a Chia Pet. But not just any Chia Pet. The Jurassic World version of the Chia Pet. And of course, it was my daughter who wanted the thing, and of course, I bought it.

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It also didn’t dawn on me that the “chia” in Chia Pet meant the chia seeds I put in my overnight oats were one in the same!

So, I followed the directions, and put the seeds in a quarter cup of water and let them soak for an hour. After the hour, you can start spooning/basting the seeds on the clay form. I tried to spoon them on the top like the picture, but it didn’t work so well for me. (Note: I accidentally threw out the plastic tray that came with the Chia, so I had to use one of my baking dishes.)

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Ok, so obviously mine did not look pretty. Big shocker, it looked nowhere near like what you see on the box. I know this was my first time trying one of these, so I gave myself a break and just let it be.

Now it says to keep watering it everyday by placing water in the hole on top of the clay form. They said to take the left over water in the bottom and put it back in the clay piece, but that did not happen for me. It was pretty much evaporated every day, and I couldn’t get the seeds on top to stay moist.

But, to my surprise, after a few weeks, the bottom half started to sprout, and I was pretty excited about it.

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But then, after a while, even though they did grow well on the bottom half, it started also getting moldy because of the moisture content down there. And on the top like the box shows, NOTHING happened.

What it also says in the instructions is that you can keep using this clay form over and over, but after I finally gave up on the this thing, I tried to wash the seeds off to give it another shot. It was like trying to scrub concrete off something. It didn’t happen.

So, I threw it out. The whole thing. No more Chia Pet. To be honest, I could find many other ways to waste $15 bucks. So, I will just stick to enjoying the holiday commercials.

 

 

A Natural Pause

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Yes, the temperatures have finally felt like winter around here, but with very little snow, it’s hard to think of it as such. On my lunch walk, I love to take pictures of Buffalo Harbor. This is a picture I took a few weeks ago. Enjoy.

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Ringing in the New Year with Indoor Projects

/ Earth and Oils / 10 Comments

Happy New Year to everyone! I hope your holiday season was wonderful! As always, it’s over as fast it comes. It was a whirlwind December at work, (as usual–always choatic at the end of the year), and with pretty much the first half of the year supposedly just as crazy, I thought I would concentrate on some small indoor projects that hopefully keep my sanity in check!

Christmas in our household was wonderful. My daughter got everything on her list from Santa. The only thing we didn’t get was snow.

 

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After 8 weeks of germination, the apple seed my daughter brought home from school has finally been repotted. I hope it becomes a seedling in a couple of weeks.

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Here’s hoping something starts sprouting soon!

I also purchased two amaryllis bulbs on clearance at the store right before Christmas, so I decided to try and see if they will blossom for me now. These two were a little different from the amaryllis I potted last year. I had a disc of dry medium in the box, and I had to add two and a half cups of water. It became dirt right before my eyes! LOL

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Warning: This is not brownie mix! 

So, here’s hoping they bloom for me!

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The weather was warm right up until Christmas, and then this past New Year’s weekend, it became cold, snowy and windy. We really only have a dusting on the ground, but the wind chill really gets you!

Now is the time to start sketching out your garden plans. What do you have in mind? What are some of the projects you would like to complete this year? Stay tuned for my list!