Easy-to-Water Strawberry Jar Video

Dear garden friends,

I've been a fan of the publications from Taunton Press ever since they published my Fabric and Fiber Sourcebook years ago. I really miss their old Kitchen Garden magazine, but their Fine Gardening Magazine is pretty good, too. It focuses more on landscaping than KG did, but the articles are all accessible to "common folks" and useful to home gardeners. I get an e-mail newsletter from them, and this issue included a video about making an easy-to-water strawberry jar.

http://www.taunton.com/finegardening/

I've always loved the idea of strawberry jars, especially for herbs, but here in this frequently hot climate, they dry out too fast. I think this might just be the answer to that problem.

The video is on their website, take a look if you're interested in a cool idea for planting strawberry jars for your container or patio garden. And of course, you can grow strawberries in them, too! (If you want to sign up for their free newsletter, there's a link on that page, too.)

Dig it!

bobbi c.

Everybody loves recipes!

Great veggies from Angel Valley Organic Farm last summer...


Dear garden friends,

My friends Jo and John over at Angel Valley Organic Farm have included quite a number of great (and easy) recipes over on their website. When you get the chance, check 'em out. This time of year Jo and John do a great job of bringing fresh organic veggies to their farmstands in Jonestown and Austin, TX WAY before anything in my little piddly garden is ready to eat.

http://www.angelvalleyfarms.com/recipes/index.htm

Enjoy them, we really have!

dig it!

bobbi c.

Free organic gardening course on-line...

From our friends at GardenVille, a free on-line course in organic gardening. Check it out!

http://www.garden-ville.com/

bobbi c.

Brrr! AGAIN!

Dear gardening friends,

I managed to finally get some EZ cedar fence picket beds filled with that great Garden-Ville humus and cedar mulch, and went out this morning to work out there and it was COLD! This is very unusual for this time of year here in Central TX. I know my new bell pepper and tomato plants will be shiverin' for sure! I told Husband it was better than working out in 120-degree heat, though.

I'm thinking that with this cooler weather, maybe I should go ahead and risk planting more lettuce and cold weather greens seeds. Couldn't hurt, right? The worst that can happen is that it'll get hot, they'll bolt, and I can either eat them bitter or compost them. I think it's worth a shot.

I still have to get pics of the new garden set-up. I'm SO behind!

dig it!

bobbi c.

Hummers are here!

Dear friends,

We always know when it's really spring when the first hummingbirds are sighted. I was in the garden the other day and got buzzed by one that was quite miffed that we hadn't hung out the feeders yet. They did have a few salvia blossoms to nibble on, but that didn't satisfy them. Husband got busy and hung the feeder, but so far they are ignoring it.

I got a comment the other day from a reader who expressed concern that our homemade hummer juice uses white sugar. According to the experts, plain white sugar is as close to flower nectar as we can get. At least we don't put synthetic food colorings in ours like the commercial mixtures. It's really unnecessary since the bottom of the feeder is red, they don't really need red water to attract them.

Happy gardening!

bobbi c.