Are You Ready???

Remember our tulip bulbs that we put into the refrigerator back in October? 

 Well, it's time to plant them.

  I used to plant my tulips in early December, on my dad's birthday in fact, but I since learned that planting them that early increases the chance that when they bloom there will still be danger of frosty mornings.  So this year I am planting later so that it should be warmer when they bloom creating conditions for prettier blooms.

I plant in beds across the front porch and also put a few out in front of the garden gate.  They should be planted at a depth of about 5 inches here in the South.  Planting in groups is prettier than planting in a row.  They should be about 3 - 4 inches apart.  Then I will plant over the beds with pansies IF I can still find any!  I really need to remember to buy my pansies in the Fall when all the nurseries have a big selection, and then hold them for planting at this time.  But I wonder if I could plant the pansies early and then insert my tulip bulbs.  Well, something to experiment with next year.

This year I am also going to try planting some bulbs in pots on the back porch. (As you may know, I am raising two puppies so the only plants I can have on the porch will need a safe perch high up on the table.) The LSU AgCenter website has a helpful hint for planting tulips in pots:

"There is a trick with tulips. Look carefully and you will see that one side of the bulb is flattened. Plant the bulbs so that the flat side faces the outside edge of the pot. The first leaf the bulbs send up will all face the outside, creating a more attractive presentation."

For me, planting tulips kicks off the spring garden season and I get SO excited!  It's time to order seeds and prepare to germinate them for spring planting.  Prep work for new garden projects starts now too. I am playing with plans for a new fall garden area - round with pie wedge raised beds.  James and I will soon be cleaning out the back corner of the existing garden to make room for the chicken coop.  Looking forward to biddies in the spring!!!

But the best thing about this time of year is the upcoming garden seminars!! Master Gardeners all around the state will be hosting informative seminars with great guest speakers and fabulous door prizes.  Our North Central Mater Gardeners' seminar is Saturday, February 7. (More on it to come.)

Well, I hope you enjoy the upcoming cold winter days in a toasty warm house, planning fun spring garden projects!!

Nature looks dead in winter because her life is gathered into her heart.

She withers the plant down to the root that she may grow it up again fairer and stronger.

She calls her family together within her inmost home to prepare them for being scattered abroad upon the face of the earth.

 ~Hugh Macmillan, "Rejuvenescence," The Ministry of Nature, 1871

                                                                                              Love ya'll,
                                                                                              Shelli

Merry Christmas!!

Carole and I wish you and your families the happiest of Christmases!! 

May your holiday be filled with love and joy!

We'd like to share with you one of our family favorites at this time of year. 

It is a story read by Paul Harvey during his radio program.  You remember Paul Harvey, he is well known for, "and now you know the rest of the story..."

The best way to enjoy this story is to hear Paul Harvey read it himself, which you can do at this link:

http://www.everydaychristian.com/blogs/post/christmas_classics_the_man_and_the_birds_by_paul_harvey/

***********

 

The man to whom I’m going to introduce you was not a scrooge, he was a kind decent, mostly good man. Generous to his family, upright in his dealings with other men. But he just didn’t believe all that incarnation stuff which the churches proclaim at Christmas Time. It just didn’t make sense and he was too honest to pretend otherwise. He just couldn’t swallow the Jesus Story, about God coming to Earth as a man.

“I’m truly sorry to distress you,” he told his wife, “but I’m not going with you to church this Christmas Eve.” He said he’d feel like a hypocrite. That he’d much rather just stay at home, but that he would wait up for them. And so he stayed and they went to the midnight service.
Shortly after the family drove away in the car, snow began to fall.

 He went to the window to watch the flurries getting heavier and heavier and then went back to his fireside chair and began to read his newspaper. Minutes later he was startled by a thudding sound…Then another, and then another. Sort of a thump or a thud…At first he thought someone must be throwing snowballs against his living room window. But when he went to the front door to investigate he found a flock of birds huddled miserably in the snow. They’d been caught in the storm and, in a desperate search for shelter, had tried to fly through his large landscape window.
Well, he couldn’t let the poor creatures lie there and freeze, so he remembered the barn where his children stabled their pony. That would provide a warm shelter, if he could direct the birds to it.

Quickly he put on a coat, galoshes, tramped through the deepening snow to the barn. He opened the doors wide and turned on a light, but the birds did not come in. He figured food would entice them in. So he hurried back to the house, fetched bread crumbs, sprinkled them on the snow, making a trail to the yellow-lighted wide open doorway of the stable. But to his dismay, the birds ignored the bread crumbs, and continued to flap around helplessly in the snow. He tried catching them…He tried shooing them into the barn by walking around them waving his arms…Instead, they scattered in every direction, except into the warm, lighted barn.

And then, he realized that they were afraid of him. To them, he reasoned, I am a strange and terrifying creature. If only I could think of some way to let them know that they can trust me…That I am not trying to hurt them, but to help them. But how? Because any move he made tended to frighten them, confuse them. They just would not follow. They would not be led or shooed because they feared him.

“If only I could be a bird,” he thought to himself, “and mingle with them and speak their language. Then I could tell them not to be afraid. Then I could show them the way to safe, warm…to the safe warm barn. But I would have to be one of them so they could see, and hear and understand.” At that moment the church bells began to ring. The sound reached his ears above the sounds of the wind. And he stood there listening to the bells – Adeste Fidelis – listening to the bells pealing the glad tidings of Christmas. And he sank to his knees in the snow.

********

Love ya'll,

Shelli

Garden Friendly Dogs: Getting Used To The Equipment

Cesar Millan is a big proponent of letting puppies slowly acclimate themselves to new objects, people, and situations.  To prepare Fred and Ethel for walking on a leash, Cesar recommends just letting them drag the leash around for a few minutes each day.  It is working beautifully and they are getting more and more accustomed to their leashes.

The other morning I used this same theory with garden equipment.  I want the pups to be very blase' about me pulling out the wheelbarrow, shovel, and sacks of dirt.  I don't want them to get all hyped up and think it's time for a free-for-all digfest.  I put the wheelbarrow, rake, shovel, and sack of cow manure nonchalantly out in the yard and then went into the house to watch. (OK, so I couldn't resist putting them in the wheelbarrow just once.) They excitedly sniffed around, climbed on, and growled at all the equipment, but after a while lost interest in it all.

Yeah, Ethel jumped right out!

Then that afternoon, I went back out and started digging up a little cherry tree (should've done it on Washington's day, huh?) that needed to be transplanted.  They hurried over but were afraid of the shovel in action and retired to a nearby bush to watch.

They snuck back in to the action when it was time to fill in the hole and helped me dig, but then I mulched the area with a thick layer of pine straw.  As soon as the loose dirt was covered over, they lost interest again.  Out of sight, out of mind.

I never fussed or told them "NO". Cesar says we must remember that dogs don't speak English and you are wasting your breath by repeating excitedly, "No, don't dig! No, don't dig!"   In fact, he says that your excitement will encourage them if anything.

So, our first short, positive experience with our garden equipment! At the end of the day, they really weren't that impressed after all.

                                                                                                     

                                                                                                        Love ya'll, Shelli

Fall Plant Sale

The Master Gardeners of North Central Louisiana held their annual Fall Plant Sale recently at the Ruston Farmer's Market.  For the sale members potted, rooted, sprouted, started, and divided plants from their own yards to share with others.  These sales are a great way to buy some of the more unusual plants not always offered at the "big box stores".  Another bonus of a Master Gardener plant sale is that experienced gardeners are on hand to give you planting and care tips about your purchases. The prices were a bonus also!!!  They started at $1.00 and the highest priced plants were only $4.00.

The only down side of this year's sale was the weather.  Remember those really cold days we had in November?  Right, when it got down into the 20s.  Well that was the weekend of the plant sale.  We all just bundled up like we were in the Iditarod and plunged ahead.  However, one of our members proved that you can still look stylish while freezing your bum off!



When I complimented Sheryl on her dedication to style even in subfreezing temperatures, she smiled and let me in on a secret....underneath her outfit, she still had on her PJs!

 

While we are talking about the Ruston Farmer's Market, hats off to those vendors that brave the temperatures every weekend, summer or winter, to bring us all the fresh veggies and baked goods we have become addicted to, such as: 

Jarrell's specialty Foods and Catering....Yummm, chicken salad and morning glory muffins

and Renner Gardens with her beautiful produce and flowers.

 Check out all the vendors at www.rustonfarmersmarket.org

 

Love ya'll, Shelli

 

Garden writing is often very tame, a real waste when you think how opinionated, inquisitive, irreverent and lascivious gardeners themselves tend to be. Nobody talks much about the muscular limbs, dark, swollen buds, strip-tease trees and unholy beauty that have made us all slaves of the Goddess Flora.

~Ketzel Levine's talkingplants.com

Garden Friendly Dogs: Who Are Fred and Ethel?

 

 

When we picked our two new puppies from their litter, we had no idea who they were.  Now, three weeks later, they have taken on their own personalities - personalities that according to Cesar Millan in How To Raise The Perfect Dog will determine how they should be trained. So who are Fred and Ethel?

Fred:  When we took them to the vet, Dr. Sexton looked at Fred and said, "Cute Lab".  He is completely black; he barely even has the whites of his eyes. He is the more affectionate of the two as well as the more fearful. He is also more athletic.  According to Cesar, Fred needs running, fetching activities to tone down his rambunctious personality coupled with a strong owner to teach him not to get out of control. He gets very jealous and if I am petting/praising Ethel, Fred will stop whatever he's doing to run over and nudge her out of my reach. 

When Cesar wrote the book that I am using to raise Fred and Ethel, he adopted four puppies to work with while gathering information for the book.  One was a Labrador so that he could prove that not all Labs had to become Marleys. (Remember the movie?)  As I read this I sat bolt up right in my bed, shocked that it had never crossed my mind that I was getting a Marley!!!! What had I done? But like Cesar, I am determined that Fred will grow into the sweetest, garden-friendly Labrador ever known. (And I have to admit, I'm counting on the mut in him to termper some of his less savory Labrador traits!)

Ethel:  When Dr. Sexton met Ethel for the first time, he said, "You've got yourself a pretty little glass-eyed cur".  Her coat may be covered in brown splotches, but she has the prettiest blue, glassy eyes. Ethel is very inquisitive and smart.  Cesar says she needs mind challenging activities  to help challenge her problem solving skills.  Although she runs and fetches with Fred, she especially loves a makeshift obstacle course with a treat hidden somewhere inside.  She is also a chow hound and will eat her dinner and then finish off Fred's if he isn't careful.

An example of their different personalities was evident when we put some puppy treats in a cardboard box with the top folded shut. Both puppies' noses went into hyper-drive, but while Fred had no idea where the scent was coming from and just goofily hopped all over creation, Ethel went straight for the box and soon had her whole head inside enjoying treats.  We had to just give Fred some so he wouldn't get an inferiority complex. (Bless his heart, he has gotten better with time.)

They are both wonderful and I often find myself  looking into the future at the many good times we will have together.

                                                                                         Love ya'll, Shelli

If you think dogs can't count,

try putting three dog biscuits in your pocket

 and then giving Fido only two of them.

 ~Phil Pastoret

Persimmon Beer

As you know, our awesome neighbor kindly shares his produce with us.  In June it's his juicy, thornless blackberries.  Then in the fall, it is persimmons. Although we've already made persimmon bread, we thought we would try persimmon beer.

First we needed a recipe.  In my internet search I came across Euell Gibbons.  Remember him??

He was popular in the late 60s - early 70s for books and articles he had written about eating wild, natural foods.  A couple of his book titles are Stalking The Wild Asparagus and Stalking The Healthful Herbs.  He appeared on "The Tonight Show" and " The Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour", but I think we probably know him best for his Grape Nuts commercial.

Anyway, he had a recipe for persimmon beer and it was extremely simple. Never having brewed beer before, we decided to go with his recipe:

**********************************************************************************

                                                                  Persimmon Beer

10 pounds wheat bran
1 gallons of pulp from very ripe persimmons

Bake this mixture like pones of cornbread until it is brown and firm.  Break the pones into small pieces and put through a food chopper using a coarse plat.  Dump the ground mixture into a 5 gallon crock and fill the crock not quite full of boiling water.

As soon as the crock cools to the points of barely being warm, stir in 1 package of dry yeast with a little liquid from the crock.  Keep the crock covered with a cloth.  It will ferment furiously for a few days but keep watching it and in a week it will start settling down.  The moment it becomes still and clear, bottle and cap it tightly.  Store it in a cool, dark place and in about 3 weeks it will be ready to use.

www.persimmonpudding.com
********************************************************************************

As I read the words from the recipe that I've highlighted in red, vivid memories came flooding back from my high school years.  The year was probably '75 or '76 and the place was our chemistry class.  A new high school had been built, but our chemistry teacher was the only teacher that remained in the old building across the campus.  It was kind of creepy walking up the stairs to his class in that deserted building, but I think he stayed in that building because it had a large chemistry lab, plus he was just a character anyway (and a great teacher).   Anyway, at some point during the year, our he started cutting the class a few minutes short and would ask all the guys to come with him to the lab.  Girls were left behind in the classroom. We had no idea what was going on until one of our friends told us what they were doing....brewing beer.  He said they had a big crock in the lab and were fermenting beer.  The crock had cheesecloth over the top of it.  They went over each day to check on their brew.

Now I'm not saying any students ever drank any of it!  I have no idea!  Fermentation is a chemical process and therefore falls under the chemistry curriculum. Right? And for all I know they threw it out when it was done or maybe our friend was just messing with us and there was never anything in there in the first place.  Who knows??? Not me!   I'm just saying that these are the memories that came flooding back when I read those words in Euell Gibbons recipe!

Only two ingredients....

Baked like cornbread.....

Water added, then beer yeast.....

Now let the chemistry begin....

                                                                                                 Happy Fermentation, Shelli

Garden Friendly Dogs

 

 

When our daughter, Katherine, was five years old we got a beagle puppy.  She named her puppy Popcorn.  I have no idea why, it was just what she wanted.  (Many years later when she went to Madagascar, Popcorn was our code word for a true life threatening emergency.  Thank goodness we never had to use it.)

When Popcorn had been part of our family for about a month, a neighbor's cat had kittens and Katherine put in for one of those too.  We thought, 'why not?',  and took the double-pet plunge.  She named her kitten Sugar. Other than the food theme, we have never understood the choice of either name.  Sugar was a calico cat and therefore colored just like Popcorn, the tri-colored beagle.  Soon they were sleeping curled up together so that you couldn't tell where one started and the other stopped. 

Except for the mallard ducks we hatched from eggs we got at the Monroe City Zoo, Popcorn and Sugar were our only pets. They were with us for fifteen years and were great additions to our family.

James and I always said we wanted dogs in our old age, and that would mean taking the puppy plunge once again. Enter Fred and Ethel!

  Being retired is going to make this puppy owning round much easier.  I have gotten a great book on raising puppies and almost have them house trained already.  There's just one problem, a BIG problem......

Dogs and gardening don't mix!!!!!

But I am determined to be a gardener with well-behaved, garden friendly dogs!!  If Fred and Ethel dig holes, they will be so well trained that they will drag a five gallon azalea into the hole and fill in all the soil. Seriously!! I'm hell bent!!

I am going to start a series of blog posts about this topic, because it is bound to get funny. The little logo picture for these posts, with puppies eating flowers, will probably hit pretty close to home.

 Here's what I'm working with....

All my dogs have been scamps and thieves and troublemakers and I've adored them all.

Helen Hayes

 

                                       Love ya'll, Shelli

Case Closed

In the last OBC story, we talked about a "ringtailed tooter" and his Mom.  Here is a similar tale...

Polly and Sherry were doing a group project in their classes.  The children in each group pulled their desks close together so that they touched, forming a solid tabletop on which to work.  All the groups were working along when suddenly the studious buzz of the classroom was broken by the cry of a female student in Anthony's group.  Polly looked up from the group she was helping just in time to see Anthony poking Macy with his ruler under their desks.  Macy started crying and Anthony was laughing.

"What happened!?" Polly asked.
"Mrs. Babineaux, Anthony's pokin' Macy with his ruler!" another member of the group offered.
"Did not!" yelled Anthony.
"Yes, you did! We all saw you!!" the students chimed in.

Polly took Macy over to the side of the room out of earshot of the other students to calm her down and gently question her. 

"Macy, I need to know exactly what happened" Polly said.
"Anthony kept botherin' me.  He said I was doin' my part wrong.  Then he started pokin' me with his ruler under the desk.  He thought no one could see."

Then Polly pulled Anthony over privately and talked with him. "Anthony, tell me exactly what happened."
"Nothin'...nothin' happened! They're just makin' it up. I didn't do nothin'."
"Anthony, when I looked over at your group I saw you poking Macy with your ruler."
"No you didn't 'cause it was under the table!"
"Oh, so something was going on under the table?"
"Nothin'...you just don't like me!!"

Polly had been dealing with Anthony's bad behavior and harassment of students for most of the first grading period.  That coupled with his penchant for denial (i.e. lying) was going to make for a very long year, so after careful questioning of the group and being satisfied that she had the full story,  Polly set up a school building level committee conference for the following day.

This is where I come into the story. I had left the classroom to work in an administrative capacity.  Dealing with discipline and mediating parent/committee meetings was part of my job.

 Proving the apple doesn't fall far from the tree, Anthony's mom had a reputation for denial too. We all braced ourselves for what we knew would be a difficult encounter.

The following morning, before going into the conference room, the school secretary squirted Polly, Sherry, and me with Holy Water she kept in a spray bottle for difficult occasions just as this.  Anthony's mom arrived and after we were all seated around the conference table, the meeting began.

 Polly started by explaining exactly what happened; carefully describing the group activity the students were working on, the sudden yelp from Macy, witnessing Anthony poking Macy with his ruler, and  the eyewitness accounts from the other students.  I added that this was not the first time we had dealt with Anthony harrassing students in his class. Sherry, who also taught Anthony, added supportive nods and comments.

 When we had finished presenting our case, we held our breath saying silent prayers about what was to come....

Anthony's mom replied, "None of what ya'll said could have happened!"

With the most neutral tone of voice I could manage I asked, "Why not?"

"Because if those kids had their desks arranged like you said, Anthony couldn't have reached under the desks to get his ruler on her and no one could have seen what happened under there, so it didn't happen."

Silence.......

"Well, ma'am", I said, "the teacher saw Anthony bring his hand holding the ruler from under the desk, Macy said that he poked her with it, and the other students backed her up.  I think we can assume that the desks were not in his way."  I felt a like a lawyer using circumstancial evidence and eye witness accounts to prove my case.

"Unless the teacher saw the ruler touch that girl's leg, then ya'll can't prove my boy did nothing! We ain't takin' no punishment either!!" countered Anthony's mom, my opposing counsel.

Once again Polly repeated the circumstances surrounding the incident. I revisited some of Anthony's prior acts from earlier this year and tried to emphasize the importance of teaching children to be accountable for their actions.

It all fell on deaf ears.  We were getting nowhere fast!


Now Polly and I had been doing most of the talking, while Sherry had been giving moral support, but I knew Sherry and she didn't have much patience for parents who were in denial about their children's bad behavior. I could tell that she was coming to the end of what patience she had........

Suddenly, Sherry reached into the supply carousel located in the middle of the conference table, pulled out a ruler, put it under the table and poked Anthony's mom with it!!!!  Anthony's mom let out a surprised yelp!!

Sherry said, " Mrs. Quayhagen, what just happened?"

With eyes as wide as saucers and visions of lawsuits dancing in my head, I carefully answered, "I think you just poked Anthony's mom with a ruler under the table."

"Are you sure", asked Sherry, "because you didn't see the ruler touch her leg?"

 Case closed.......Perry Mason would have been proud!


Amazingly, the rest of the conference went very well. Once Anthony's mom realized she had no recourse, she became quite subdued and cooperative.  Our conference actually ended on a positive note.  Anthony missed a few lunch recesses and I would like to believe that mother and son learned a great lesson about owning up to your behavior and accepting the consequences!

"Intelligence plus character-that is the real goal of education" Martin Luther King

                                                                                               Love ya'll, Shelli

The Natives

Recently the Master Gardeners took a field trip to Doyline, Louisiana. We went to see the natives!

Mr. G. W. Willis was our guide.  He is the owner of Willis Farm Nursery, a nursery specializing in native plants. 

According to Mr. Willis, your landscaping should consist of at least 30% native plants.  Why? Native plants are indigenous to the area, therefore they evolved with the insects and diseases of the area and are immune to them.  They have developed natural resistance!  While you wear yourself out spraying and coddling other plants, native plants manage just fine on their own.

Here are some of the plants he recommended:

Southern sugar maple: yellow in the fall
Brandywine maple: Vermont red in the fall
Japanese maple: various colors in fall, beautiful

Buckeye: pollinated by ruby red throat hummingbirds, a seed pod brings good luck if you carry it
                in your pocket

Service berry: tiny white blooms in Spring

www.umass.edu

Sparkle berry and huckleberry: similar to wild blueberry

Native azaleas: require acidic, well drained soil and filtered shade
                         Alabama azaleas - yellow

www.pinterest.com

                         Florida azaleas - easiest to grow

www.landscapeofus.com

                         Swamp azaleas - still need to be well drained
                               **never try to plant them under an oak

Sweet shrub: plant it where you can mow under it
Beautyberry: is pretty when pruned into a tree shape

Grancy gray beard: blooms better in full sun, but can live under pine canopy
                                nickname "ghosts in the woods"

www.gardenality.com

Smoke tree: like Grancy gray beard, but with a purple tinge

Best dogwoods: Appalachian Spring (disease resistant)
                           Cherokee Princess (second runner up)

Possum haw viburnum

www.rnr.lsu.edu

Spigelia marilandica: Indian pink

www.greenlightplants.com

Witch hazel: blooms in winter

www.yourgardensanctuary.com

Loblolly bay: fragrant summer bloom

Hydrangea: If you love "Limelight", try native "Phantom". It's just as good.
                    Annabell

Hibiscus: scarlet rose Texas Star

www.almanac.com

Perennials:  Texas gold columbine

www.plantanswers.tamu.edu

                    Henry's Garnet verginica

www.onlineplantguide.com

                    

Call Mr. Willis and go see the natives for yourself; you'll be glad you did!!

                                                                                                      Love ya'll, Shelli

And So It Begins....

Another Christmas season starts today!  Bring on the wreaths and ornaments, the cookies and candy canes, the gift wrap and bows, advent and carols!!!

To get us in the spirit for decking the halls while good Christian men rejoice, let me share with you something else we saw while at the Dallas Arboretum Friday.  Their brochure described it this way:

In its inaugural presentation, The Twelve Days of Christmas

 will showcase a lavish Victorian collection of original,

 three-dimensional, life-size gazebos filled with the charming

characters made famous in the old carol.

Let this picture give you an idea of the size of the gazebos.

Then we start with the partridge in a pear tree.  Photography was difficult due to the glare from the glass, but you can see the pears at the bottom of the tree and the partridge is right in the center of the tree.

Six geese a-laying.   You can see their nest, but....

here is a close-up of their head covered in black sequins.

Seven swans a swimming....

Nine ladies dancing......

and eleven pipers piping.

Each display was animated and to give you an idea of how they looked, here is a video of the maids a-milking. (Aunt Ruth, I took this just for you because Dad said you would get such a kick out of it.)

Well, on this first day of December I hope this post gets you in the mood for holiday cheer. If it hasn't made you merry and bright, then all I have left to offer is a picture of Fred in his holiday regalia...that should definitely do the trick!

Remember
This December,
That love weighs more than gold!
~Josephine Dodge Daskam Bacon

Love ya'll,
 Shelli