Author: Lilac

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Terrariums – Part I

Terrarium by Flower Factor

Winter is the time that most gardeners are stuck indoors and are frustrated because they can’t get outdoors with their hands on a trowel, in soil (not dirt – dirt is something you want to get rid of) adding plants to the garden.  Well, if you can’t garden outdoors, why not make gardens indoors?  Why not make miniature gardens in glass containers which are called terrariums.

Terrariums can be any size from very tiny to perhaps something that can be used as a coffee table. I know someone who did just that, she got so carried away with the tiny terrariums, that she started making coffee tables out of slabs of plexiglass. She bought plastic cut to the size she needed and glued the boxes as she desired.   Watch this video:

 

and check out this site.

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Gold Medal Plant Awards

Every winter when dreaming of your garden and wondering which new plants to include, one method for choosing best plants that will grow in your area is to check out which plants have been voted or chosen as the best plants for this year or past years in the US. For these plants, look at plants that have won the prestigious Gold Medal Plant Awards. The plants that are chosen must exhibit standards of excellence in disease resistance, ease of growing in your area and beauty. The judges look at all of the plant, not just its flowers.

Where does one go for the Gold Medal Plant Award list?

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Kirstenbosch Botanical Garden in Cape Town

kirstenbosh backdrop

Lynn who is a Peace Corps Volunteer stationed in Mmathethe, Botswana in Africa recently visited Cape Town, South Africa with a group of other Peace Corps volunteers. She visited Kirstenbosch Botanical Garden  in Cape Town that TheGardenLady has dreamed of visiting.  Here is what she wrote about the visit. PS You will see Lynn in one of the photos.

I ventured to Cape Town, with one of the highlights of my week being my day at the world famous Kirstenbosh Botanical Gardens.  The gardens, which are nestled at the foot of Table Top Mountain and Devil’s Mountain, was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2004, and I believe, it is the only botanical garden in the world that has this fame.  It is renowned for the beauty and diversity of indigenous plants, and along with its location, it makes for the most stunning gardens in the world.
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Beaucarnea recurvata – Ponytail palm

Beaucarnea recurvata (Pony tail palm)by brewbooks

One of my favorite indoor plants is the Ponytail palm (Beaucarnea recurvata). It does look like a pony tail with its long thin leaves arching from the top of the trunk. Though in nature it is a tree that grows tall, taller than some houses, indoors it can remain small for years if kept root-bound in a pot. I have had my Ponytail palm for at least 40 years and it never grew an inch because I had it in such a little pot- the same pot that it was in when I first got it. It likes some fertilizer during its growing season, but I have never fertilized my plant. This summer, I felt a little guilty about not giving its roots room to stretch in all those years, so I put it in a larger pot and used potting soil with slow release fertilizer. I hope I didn’t make a mistake.

Another nice thing about this plant is that it needs very little water. It has a trunk that is fat at the bottom, near the soil. This fat area stores water so it doesn’t want to be watered more than once a month during the winter. In its growing season, it doesn’t need to be watered more than twice a month. That is perfect for TheGardenLady who hates spending time watering indoor plants. But it does need soil with good drainage. It doesn’t want to stand in water.

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The Kingdom of Lesotho

lesotho

My friend who is  in the Peace Corps in Botswana visited The Kingdom of Lesotho and wrote to TheGardenLady:

I knew Lesotho would be beautiful, but I was completely unprepared for an environment that is truly untouched by man, a small mountain kingdom entirely surrounded by South Africa. Most of the Drakenberg World Heritage Site is a spectacular and seemingly unpenetrable range of mountain and wilderness, looking exactly as it would have before humans walked the planet.  It was indeed a patchwork of quilt, stitched with time and aged with silence.   Hiking for 7 hours per day, and some pony trekking, was filled with intriguing vistas that touched every one of my senses.  The hills were adorned with yellow and purple wildflowers, the colors and shapes of the hills differed at each turn, water falls with swimming holes were set in valleys surrounded by rock formations that were stunning, and a small amount of 100,000 year old rock art was seen.  Apparently, the art was drawn with blood and dirt, and how this held up for all these years is just remarkable.  Most of the art was of human figures, but we did see an eland, and a few other animals.  The Basotho people are proud of their Kingdom, they plant local veggies and sorghum seasonally while living without electricity and most amenities.  Nine of us stayed at Malealea Lodge, which consisted of Eco friendly rondoval huts, and other structures for eating and lounging that were so welcoming to the eye.  Hiking is not easy in these parts, but the surrounding beauty made us all forget our legs!

peacock

(My friend did not see many flowering plants when she visited, but like South Africa, the Kingdom of Lesotho does have numerous wildflowers – see here.)

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Why perennials help save the environment

Dust Bowl by USDAgov

If TheGardenLady readers have not seen the documentary The Dust Bowl by Ken Burns, you should. It chronicles one of the worst man-made ecological disasters in American history.  (read this)  I think it is MUST watching.  You will see what planting just annuals in great expanses or overplanting with annuals in one area can do to our soil in adverse weather conditions like drought and heat.  This Dust Bowl catastrophe did not last one day or one week or one month, like the destruction from Hurricane Sandy. This dust bowl disaster lasted 10 years.

We may not have known that we needed perennials to keep the soil intact and to help the environment when they had the Dust Storms, but by now we should know what can happen when we despoil our lands.

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Project FeederWatch

Make Room!!! by …-Wink-…

There is a new project this winter for those of any age and skill level in North America who love birds and who have bird feeders or have access to watching bird feeders. It is called Project FeederWatch and is sponsored by The Cornell Lab of Ornithology and Bird Studies Canada/Etudes d’Oiseaux.

FeederWatchers are asked to periodically count the birds they see at their feeders from now through early April 2013 and send their counts to Project FeederWatch. The information that is sent in helps scientists track winter bird movements and shows long-term trends in bird distribution and abundance

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Check out the attractive centerfold in the garden catalog

Bessera elegans by Sericea

It is that time of year again when glossy seed and plant catalogs are arriving in the mail box. So dreams begin. What is new that one’s garden must include? Which plant have I wanted for years that I will finally buy? These seed and plant catalogs are for me now what the old Sears catalog used to be when I was a child. How many of you recall the old Sears Christmas Wish Book catalog.  We kept one in our outhouse.

So now with seed and plant catalogs we have visions of flowers, vegetables and other plants, shrubs or trees dancing in our heads. One friend calls the seed catalog, Flower Porn because every flower is so lusciously, even lasciviously (I will let my dear reader look at the meaning of this word, if you do not know it.) photographed. Looking at some catalog photos, one cannot tell whether the flower is miniscule or gigantic- they all look gigantic. Some catalogs only have photos of the flowers, so one doesn’t know whether the plant is an unattractive one with a pretty flower or if the entire plant looks attractive. I know that photography is an art but when it comes to selling plants there should be truth in advertising. Let the buyers know what they are really getting, not buyer beware.

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Toast in the New Year with Egg-Free Eggnog

eggnog (gluten free and vegan)by elana’s pantry

To all my readers- all my long time readers of  TheGardenLady blog and new readers, young of heart and old of spirit readers, TheGardenLady wishes you all a happy, healthy New Year with wonderful, successful gardening in 2013.

May I offer a toast to all with my favorite nonfattening, nonalcoholic, egg-free eggnog.
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Oprah’s true love….Potatoes

Heart potato by cuorhome

Potatoes are a popular winter vegetable. They are easy to grow and they store over winter well. Many people today love them. Oprah Winfrey is quoted as saying “My idea of heaven is a great big baked potato and someone to share it with.” And when potatoes are fried, the fragrance and taste make them ambrosial so that even the poorest person can celebrate with a feast fit for a king in the coldest, darkest of nights. 

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