Lettuce Share

On our way back from Alford, my mom and I stopped in Tallahassee to visit Maclay Gardens.  Great stop - it’s less than five minutes off the highway and the property covers 28 acres.  It only cost us $6 for the day because we were visiting off-season.  The gardens are at their peak between January and April; that’s when the Maclays used to visit during the 1920’s, 30’s and 40’s.  We may have been early, but the ornamental magnolias still offered a show…

…with a cameo by a zebra butterfly.

Zebra Longwing is the official state butterfly of Florida, but this is the first one I’ve seen.  They must like the cooler weather.  It was in the 50’s - brrrr!  Wearing a jacket and looking up at masses of white moss hanging like icicles from the trees is as close to winter as it gets in Florida:

This is one of the secret gardens.  It holds every color of pansy you can imagine.

The gardeners cut out diamonds in the Creeping Fig to expose the brick underneath.  The diamonds line the inner wall that keeps the garden hidden.  It seems simple to do, and the effects are dramatic.

I spent last week in Alford, FL with my mom.  Alford is a small town located deep in the woods of the Florida panhandle.  The roads are made of clay without a stop sign in sight.  We had a great time watching the birds and crafting.  We were feeling inspired by our surroundings and a blog post on Family Hiatus.  This is my Christmas wreath made with the local greenery.  The berries are courtesy of the endless Yaupon Holly trees.

This is what I started with.  The form only cost $3.17 at Walmart!  It’s an 18″ grapevine wreath.  It was so simple; I didn’t have to use glue or ties of any kind.  The leaves and twigs wound right into the wreath with no problems.

My mom made this candle holder out of pine cones and acorns.  The base is a piece of circular styrofoam spray painted brown.  She scraped out a small circle in the center to hold the candle then attached the pine cones and acorns with a hot glue gun.  It looks beautiful but may or may not be highly flammable.  To ensure a merry Christmas, do not light!

Rosemary - the überherb - is also a symbol of love and friendship.  So, where did my rosemary bouquet end up?  With my new friend Karen Leonetti at Earth Angel Preschool.  Earth Angel is a certified green preschool on Siesta Key.  Gardening is at the core of their curriculum and why I was so excited to be invited into their garden.  Here’s Karen with her cacao tree.

This tree will produce cacao nibs, which are organic, raw, dark chocolate chips.  She bought the tree at The Sarasota Fruit and Nut Society and was told that pollination can be difficult.  The flowers are not self-pollinators and the bees won’t help either; they rely on tiny gnat-like insects called midges.  Chocolate cravings can’t rely on midges alone.  Here’s Karen taking action; she calls it paintbrush pollination.

It was mouthwatering to walk through the garden and see everything from teeny tiny seedlings to the massive mango tree that shades half the yard.  Here’s some ripening papaya…

…and a Ponderosa lemon.

Ponderosa lemons can grow up to four pounds!  It might look like a ripening orange, but it’s all lemon on the inside.  The rind too will eventually catch up and ripen into the bright yellow color of a typical lemon.  Another giant to catch my eye was the Florida Sunflowers.  They had to be 25 feet tall!  This is my view looking up at them.

And here’s the beautiful bouquet I was sent home with after a delicious lunch.

Thanks, Karen, for inviting me into your garden.

I forgot to post a picture of the chicken coop.  I love it - it matches the house!  Here are the nesting quarters.

Ubermommy’s been looking for one of these, except cute and vintage.  Nesting boxes aren’t just for chickens anymore.  They make great storage.  The picture in the link is a replica that cost $295 - no cleaning necessary.  Still, $295 is out of my budget.  I saw a vintage 12-hole version on Craigslist for $100…getting closer.

These lovely ladies in brown were responsible for our delicious breakfast every morning.  The darker ones clustered in the center are roosters.  I now understand why the Sarasota CLUCK proposed ordinance bans roosters.  WTC?  This one wouldn’t shut up about the bread crumbs.  He was a total loud mouth!

Back to the ladies…this was one morning’s yield.  Each hen lays an egg a day.

I got to eat the green eggs!

Delicious!

Great class on Saturday!  It was the first in a series of free classes on organic gardening offered through the Sarasota County Extension.   They’re held on the third Saturday of the month at Laurel Park and the first Saturday of the month at Orange Blossom Park.  This is the series line-up for October through February:

• Soil Management
• Crop Management
• Pest Management
• Water Management
• Cover Crop & Compost Management

After the organic gardening overview, I walked around the Laurel Park Community Garden.  It’s smaller and sunnier than the Orange Blossom garden, but it has everything you need.  The hoses are conveniently located in a line down the center aisle. 

Here’s a peek inside the shed…

and at the compost pile.

Preparing for the fall garden has me searching for inspiration.  Don’t look at the weather widget, it’s back in the nineties again.  I started to sweat a little carrying my groceries in from the car this morning.  Instead of doing any planting of my own, I headed over to the Orange Blossom Community Garden to see what other people were doing.  I’m already feeling better about my late-September start.  I didn’t find any seedlings, but there were a few leftover crops from summer. 

Watermelon

Peppers

Pineapples

There aren’t any pineapples left, but I love the way this person designed their plot.  Someone else has a miniature white picket fence around theirs.  It’s fun to walk around and see the different garden personalities.  No one was out today, no doubtedly because of the heat, but it seems like a nice place to gather.  There are benches in the shade and a couple of tables and chairs.  Compost and mulch are ready and waiting.

There are four community gardens in Sarasota County - two are in the city and two are in South County.  The plot sizes vary, but an average size is about 12′ x 12′.  They’re priced right.  It only costs $20 a year plus a fully-refundable deposit of $30 up front.  All four gardens are full right now, but there’s a waiting list that apparently moves pretty quickly.  People make other arrangements in the meantime and it’s right on down the list.

http://sarasota.extension.ufl.edu/Hort/commgarden.shtml     

I’ve been off-line for a few days.  My computer needed a major overhaul; surfing had become wading.  My computer is nearly four-years old, ancient by PC standards.  Yet another reason to love and appreciate your plants - some of them will last forever!  My mother has Peonies that were once her grandfather’s.   They line the pathway leading up to her front door.  Too bad they weren’t in bloom during my visit. 

The last time my mother visited, we went to Mariposa, a nursery off Lorraine Road in Bradenton.  We love it there - the plants, the products, the staff, the whole attitude - we love it all!  Their prices often beat Target, and Target won’t give you the keys to a golf cart to drive around in while you shop.  What does this have to do with my mother’s garden?  Mariposa deserves the credit for this crafty display of flowers she has next to her shed.  They have a similar set-up as you walk up to the nursery except they used ceramic pots. 

It’s very simple: Stick a metal dowel in the ground and string the pots through, stacking them off center.  Instead of ceramic, Mom went the less expensive route and bought plastic pots, but there’s a trade-off here.  The plastic pots required an extra step because they weren’t sturdy enough.  She had to reinforce the bottoms (the light green disc underneath the pot in the close-up photo below).   I don’t know what she used because I know myself - an extra step?  I’ll wait and splurge on ceramic.   

I hardly posted last week because I was in my home town of Patterson, New York visiting family.  I know I could’ve moblogged or done a number of things to keep up-to-date, but what kind of vacation would that have been?  Instead, I enjoyed my time off and took 373 pictures along the way, most of which feature butterflies, flowers and very cute children.  Our first day-trip was to Wave Hill, a beautiful 28-acre public garden in the Bronx.  

Parking is $8 and admission is $6 - a steal for NYC.  If I lived nearby, I’d be tempted to carve my initials in a tree to mark my hammock.  Oh yes, there are handmade hammocks in the shade and 6 ft. Black-eyed Susans!  Maybe these things don’t ordinarily shout excitement, but my yard doesn’t have two trees within 50 ft. of one another, and Wave Hill’s Susans dwarf mine. 

I was reminded of how many variations of plants there are.  My hydrangea horizon, in particular, was expanded.  The common variations in this area are Mopheads.  To me, they look more like popcorn balls - one big ball, substitute kernels for flowers.  They’re great to have around because each bloom is an instant bouquet.  Wave Hill’s were no different by that account.  On the left is a Hydrangea paniculata; its huge conical bloom caught my eye immediately.  On the right is a Maple leaf variation named after the shape of its leaves.  I’ve never had much luck with hydrangeas; every place I put them, there’s always too much sun.  Although the Maple leaf hydrangeas were all planted in the shade garden, it was thrilling to see the Hydrangea paniculatas in full sun.  Just when I gave up, there’s new hope!

You can check out the rest of my Wave Hill pictures on Flickr.