Tag: Earth Week

Gardening for beginners and the magic of gardening.

If your neighbor’s garden has you green with envy, it’s time to dig in and play dirty by planting your own garden. Celebrate the Earth, after all Earth Day is tomorrow!

“If spring has sprung and you’ve just decided to plant a garden, start with the small ready-to-go plants at the store and look forward to the joy of starting your own seeds for next season.

One of the biggest decisions you’ll make is where to plant your garden. Choose a spot with sun and shade, and away from tree roots and large bushes. Once the area is defined and the soil is fertilized and loose, you can draw lines to mark off where each item will be planted. Use the stick and string method to help you keep straight lines and an organized well-kept garden. Root vegetables grow nicely in rows; other veggies, fruits and herbs can be contained in square spaces.” mother nature network – check her out- tons of great stuff!  The above is from
www.mnn.com/your-home/organic-farming-gardening/stories/gardening-for-beginners

We here at The Botanical Beauties and Beasties garden are focusing on Herbs this year. We love containers for what we have is a deck, a bit of soil area, and some windows. No big yard here to grown on/in/from.

Today myself, and the Beauties, decided we would talk about the magic of gardening. Besides the little elfin like Beautie who has shown up each day this week, there is much more magic in gardens to be discovered. Being in the Boston region, I have decided to use a quote form John Quincy Adams. “Patience and perseverance have a magical effect before which difficulties disappear and obstacles vanish.”

I doubt he wrote this about gardens but it does epitomize the magic! When you garden, you get to use all parts of your body, brain and soul. That alone is like magic.  The body part: Obviously  it can be hard work and you may indeed you may have tried and soar muscles from the prep and the planting. The brain part: What fun to sit and dream in the winter what your garden will be, the cliché of looking at garden catalogues and seed packages! The brain makes up the plan, the brain makes up the dream of all the good things to come from your garden no matter how big or small it may be.  The soul:  Beauty of a flower, the satisfactions of your crops, the sheer simple joy of a single bloom – that’s soul food!   Need I point pout that a garden takes enormous patience and perseverance? I think not!  The piece you may be missing out on is: A garden, all the planning, the work, the caring and watching over, all that indeed can take over your mind and not only can the gardens difficulties disappear and obstacles vanish, but some of life’s other ones may too due to your new focus and creation.  Now, that’s Soul food X10!

Elf peeking out from the Herb of Rosemary

Whimsy Wednesday – so less words today.

New beginnings

New beginnings isn’t that what growing is all about?

Earth Day countdown – 3 days to go. Since the numbers are getting smaller can you do 3 bigger things today to help yourself and Earth? How about – If you buy food today – buy at least 5 organic items. … or take 5 mins to think about your house cleaning. Can you “clean up your own act” and use 5 less chemicals when you clean?
Better yet: Replace 5 toxic cleaning supplies for 5 natural ones. You will save money, save your skin and health, and help save Earth too.

How’s your Container Herb garden coming along?

Earth Day Countdown…4 days! Recycle at least 4 things today!

Gardening can be like the Kitchen sink – throw it all in – but a well planed container garden for an urban dweller can be a delight and joy. A little piece of calm oasis in an urban jungle.

Milly planted her Herb seeds have you?

Herb Seeds are in!
Herb Seeds went in over the weekend!

Container gardening is a great way to have more control over your growing herbs. You can easily move the containers towards a warmer area if needed and back into the shade if the season gets too hot. Container herbs are more readily available for use when they are grouped together. You will be more apt to use them when they are right outside your kitchen door. Here are my 5 choices for a cook’s theme container garden.  1. Mint  2. Sage 3. Rosemary 4. Basil 5. Thyme. This page will take you the planting info.. http://herbgardens.about.com/od/5bestherbsforcontainers/tp/BestHerbsContainers.htm

These pages will take you to the  Herbal or Culinary goodness of each of these 5 Herbs.

http://herbgardens.about.com/od/medicinalherbs/a/Peppermint.htm

http://herbgardens.about.com/od/medicinalherbs/p/Sage.htm

 http://herbgardens.about.com/od/culinary/a/Rosemary.htm

 http://herbgardens.about.com/od/culinary/p/Basil.htm

 http://herbgardens.about.com/od/culinary/p/Thyme.htm

Earth Week and our theme of “Growing” continues

I was thinking what would be good Earth Week postings – and it came to me that it ought to be about being good to oneself and to the earth. As I thought I was somewhat astonished how much those two overlapped.  Eat Organic (when possible) and that is certainly kinder to the earth. Grown without pesticides– better for earth and all it’s inhabitants. Spring Clean chemical free – much better for the cleaner her/himself – and again, easier on the mother earth. You get the idea and point I am sure….  Those are kind of the middle things, the big things are more like Oil and Gas, the little things are more like turn off the lights when you are done. It ALL adds up to matter.  So why not just be good to both. Do what you can this week, and every week, to be kind to yourself and you may indeed be taking care of the Earth as well.

Well, in the thoughts of being good to myself … I could not resist: sunny days and  warmer temps means spring flowers and gardens to me.  As many gardeners will attest to – I just had to have some PANSIES so I could start looking at flowers! I planted them up in containers, although I must admit not in that cool idea of a wine crate from last week.  I reused planter boxes that I have, and will have for decades, for they are plastic. I would not buy them again, but since I have them – it is more wasteful not to use them, verses needlessly purchasing new ones and using more resources of any type. Funny thing – when I was all done – there was a little elf like/Jolie like Beautie standing on the Pots edge!  (Image  below)  I guess that means Jolie is our spokeswoman of the week.  In case you don’t remember- Jolie  lives in the meadow, and  is passionate about exploring and promoting herbals and their uses for medicinal means and for beauty. She runs a shop in Meadowville to serve both purposes. (Columbine (Aquilegia) http://botanicalbeautiesbeasties.com/individual-stories/

Don’t forget- the SEED CONTEST is still going! Guess the type, date it sprouts out of the peat pot, and day it is ready to go into the grown and you could win FREE GREETING CARDS from the Botanical Beauties and Beasties.  http://botanicalbeautiesbeasties.com/product-samples/   (BTW YES – The seeds were planted this weekend!) 

Pansies and Elf
Pansies and a little magic