Floral Friday: Countdown to Spring!

Hi, gardening friends! Have you found my new site yet? I hope you'll join the garden party at Garden Delights:

http://juliesgardendelights.com

Today, we're playing a fun game called "Floral Friday." The rules are simple: gather some items from your garden, and make something beautiful to enjoy. Stop by my new site to see what I found in the garden today, then share your own creations on the Garden Delights Facebook page! 

I hope you'll visit my new home. It feels lonely without you!

Happy Gardening!

XOXO ~

Julie

Feed the Monarchs!

Can gardeners save a species? Why yes. I think we can. To find out how, please come over to the new blog site, Garden Delights:

http://juliesgardendelights.com

I hope you'll join the garden party at my new home!

XOXO ~

Julie
 

New Site, New Garden Party!

In case you missed the announcement last week, Growing Days is now Garden Delights. I have a new home, too, after too many Blogger glitches. I hope you'll join 
the garden party at my new place:

http://juliesgardendelights.com

While it might seem like there are lots of changes--new name, new location, a few new party games like "Floral Friday" and a bigger emphasis on enjoying the DELIGHTS of our gardens--the heart of the blog remains the same: 

• Growing Gardens
• Growing Green
• Growing Locavores
• Growing Kids
• Growing One Day at a Time

It's scary making changes, and my new home feels a little lonely. I hope you'll come join the garden party! 

XOXO ~

Julie

Emerging from Hibernation...with a New Baby.

Bears do it. Bees do it. Even our beloved gardens do it. So, if it seems that a certain garden writer also crawled into a den to hibernate for the winter, there's a hint of truth there.

In reality, though, I've been locked in my office, preparing to introduce you to my new baby: a brand new (and, hopefully, improved) blog!

Gone are the days of combatting Blogger's technical glitches. Gone are the funky formatting issues, disappearing posts, and garden writer angst.

Gone, too, is confusion between my business and blog names in social media outlets. Am I Growing Days? Am I Garden Delights?

Who am I?

Instead of debating great existential questions, I finally bit the proverbial bullet:

Welcome to Garden Delights!

I hope you'll make the journey and join the garden party at my new site! (If you'd be so kind to update your bookmarks and follow along over there, I'd be grateful! Change always makes me nervous, but this is a GOOD change. I promise.)

While technically things changed, the content will remain primarily the same:

• Growing Gardens
• Growing Green
• Growing Locavores
• Growing Kids
• Growing One Day at a Time

Lately, though, as I've sat by the fire with a pile of seed catalogs, dreaming of spring, I realized that there's more. I want to showcase the pleasure of the garden, to chat about how we can benefit from the delights our gardens provide. So, look for:

• More delicious (I hope!) recipes, featuring ingredients from CSA baskets, farmers' markets, or your own garden.
• Floral Fridays, where we'll bring seasonal beauty indoors, creating bouquets from the garden to enjoy or to share with a friend.
• Nature nuts, focusing on getting kids out in the forest, splashing in rivers, playing with chickens, or digging in dirt.
• Garden tours, where we visit gardens around the world...and never need to pull a single weed.
• Resource reviews, including the most delightful new books and products I've read or personally tested.

We all know gardening is work--I'm not too Pollyannaish to pretend otherwise. But at the end of the day, when we're sweaty, tired, and have mulch in unmentionable places, isn't the point of it all to savor our Garden Delights?

The snow and ice disappeared from the garden, and the early spring bulbs are bursting into bloom. It seems serendipitous to launch a new gardening site as the daffodils and crocuses awaken, don't you think?

So, thank you, friends, for joining me on the new site. I really hope you do. And welcome new friends. I hope we'll all have great fun together at this little ongoing garden party!

XOXO ~

Julie

P.S. Did I mention there's a new site? :-) Here's the new address for you to copy and paste:

http://juliesgardendelights.com (And, if I happen to be on your blogroll, I'd be SO grateful if you would update the URL. Thank you so much!)

Happy National Seed Swap Day! (Plus a Giveaway!)

Have you been gazing at seed catalogs, dreaming of spring? Wait! Before you place your order, let's have a seed swap!

Did you know that Saturday, January 26, 2013 is National Seed Swap Day? Nope, neither did I until I happened to read an article today. So, while it's too late for me to organize a local, community seed swap, I thought it might be fun to host a virtual seed swap. Want to join me?

Here's how it will work:

1. Check your seed inventory to see what you can share. Make a list and note quantities. (Please remember—if you save seeds from your garden, please only pass along heirloom seeds. Seeds collected from hybrids usually don't grow true to the parent plant.)
2. Make a list of seeds you'd like to receive.
3. Go to the Garden Delights Facebook page. (In case you don't know, Garden Delights is my organic heirloom plant business.) Please “Like” the page, if you haven't already, and then find today's Status about National Seed Swap Day.
4. Post your seed availability and your wish list of seeds in the Comments section of the post. I'll cut and paste the comments into a master document titled “2013 Seed Swap,” which you can find under “Notes.” It should make it a little easier to navigate than scrolling through lots of comments to see who has/wants which seeds.
5. Check out seed availability, then contact the person who offers the varieties you'd like. Please arrange to share addresses privately.
6. Make certain to pack and label your seeds carefully for the recipient. Add any information that you think the grower would find helpful or interesting, like “Germinates best in cool temperatures” or “Heirloom passed down from grandfather.” The more information, the better!
7. Please be generous when sending seeds. Remember, germination rates vary, plus older seeds may have a lower germination rate.
8. As the seeds should fit into a normal envelope that requires one stamp (unless you're being extremely generous), I'd recommend that the sender is responsible for postage. Everyone will be sending and receiving, so the postage costs should balance out.
9. Please send the seeds within a week of the request, or at least let the recipient know when to expect the seeds.
10. Have fun and make new gardening friends!

Now, I've never organized an online seed swap before...but I'm excited to try it! Please be patient if I haven't covered something or if there are any problems. I'll try my best to fix any technical issues, but any seed delivery issues is between the parties who made the agreement, OK?

And—as an extra bonus—I'm going to randomly select two seed swappers to receive a collection of seeds from Baker's Creek Heirloom Seeds and Seed Savers Exchange! All you need to do to enter the drawing is to “Follow” Growing Days, if you haven't already; “Like” Garden Delights' Facebook page; and participate in the seed swap! I'll announce the winners on February 28.

Are you ready to plant your best garden ever? Then on your mark, get set...let's swap some seeds!

Happy National Seed Swap Day (Tomorrow)!

XO ~

Julie

P.S. Here's a great site with very cute seed envelope templates. You can make your own seed packets! 

P.P.S. Check out Farm Girl Blog Fest, a great assortment of homesteading, gardening, and crafting ideas.

Winter Babies, Spring Babies.

It's Monday. It's bleak. Dreary. Cold, wet, and nasty. My girlie is home with a tummy-ache, a headache, and various other undefined aches. My plans for work are scattered and shuffled. Downstairs, boxes and boxes of seeds await planting. The Garden Delights website needs updating. The house needs scouring. To top it off, there are no. snacks. in. this. house.

Honestly, a chocolate chip cookie would cure my lethargy. I'm certain of it.

Instead of a sugar boost, I sloshed down to the big greenhouse to check on the few trays of seeds I planted Friday.

 

Unlike my friend Jessie, who has been anxiously awaiting the arrival of Baby “J” now for 41 weeks (and she looks magnificent, by the way, which is really irritating because I was never a cute pregnant woman, let alone adorable at 41 weeks of baby-ness)...

...my babies are already making an appearance!

 

 

That tiny bit of green gives me hope that perhaps spring will arrive...someday.

As an added perk, the first daffodil of the season popped...bliss! If I lean way back in my chair and turn my head a bit to the left, I can waste some more time gazing at its cheerfulness.

Alas, it's time to get busy. My husband has accused me of treating my business like a hobby, and as much as it kills me—today, I agree. So, it's time to update the site and add all of the new offerings, give some crackers to my girl, and finish planting the herbs and heirloom flower seeds.

Because tomorrow, it's time for tomatoes...lots and lots of tomatoes.

I hope your Monday is far more productive than mine.

XO ~

Julie

P.S. Heaven! I found a lone, unclaimed Lindt chocolate truffle. Ahhhh....

The farmer in the 'burbs.

It's official--I'm a farmer! In a shameless bit of self promotion, I thought I'd share an article about my heirloom plant company, Garden Delights, that's appearing in the most recent issue of Urban Farm magazine. Urban Farm is a great source of information for those of us with soil in our blood--but who have limited acreage. You, too, can play farmer--in your own backyard!

(Just don't tell your neighbors, especially if you plan to add chickens.)

Happy farming!

XO ~

Farmer Julie

I'm back...

Hi.

Remember me?

I feel a little like a teenager, who blew off her date--and then wanted him back.

(Not that I ever did that.)

This is awkward.

I'm sorry I abandoned you. You know it wasn't intentional, right?

See, this little thing called Life got in the way of my writing. I know you've probably imagined the worst. But no, we didn't buy an SUV, I didn't take a job at Monsanto, and we haven't lost our Greenpeace membership.

Did I mention that I'm sorry?

If I tell you a story, will you forgive me? It might help you understand why I've been absent lately.

~~~~~

Once upon a time, there was a girl/woman/mom who loved to garden. She loved to garden so much that she would dream of flowers. She would garden all day. She would garden at night—in the dark. On Mother's Day, while her friends visited spas, her wish was to plant the vegetable garden. In the rain.

Eventually, she realized her gardening habit had become an obsession. At about this same time, she also realized that soon her youngest child would be firmly ensconced in that lovely institution called kindergarten. Because she had no desire to return to her former life as a PR exec, she knew it was time to turn the obsession into something more. A business. A green business. A green gardening business.
 

Garden Delights.

The end.

~~~~~

Actually, there's a little more to it. Like:

• 130 varieties of heirloom tomato plants
• 35 varieties of heirloom pepper plants
• Dozens of herbs and assorted heirloom veggies
• 5,000 seedlings growing in the downstairs of our house
• A commitment to use only organic methods and sustainable resources, including all shipping supplies and potting materials
• Even the plant labels biodegrade in a home compost system

Oh. Did I mention that many of the plants I'm growing are in danger of extinction? And that through my business, I'm hoping to encourage a new generation of organic kitchen gardeners?

Then, of course, there's the marketing, selling, writing, tending, babying, nurturing, and general coddling that both the plants and the business required.

Oh. And the family. Yep, they had needs, too.

So, there it is. I abandoned my writing for a bit, but not my greenish ways. If anything, starting Garden Delights has been an enormous learning experience in finding fabulous renewable resources—and not settling for less. It's been crazy, hairy, frustrating, and delightful...and time-consuming.

I love it.

So, I hope you'll check in now and then, because I'd love to renew our green conversations. While I've been seeding and weeding, with my nose in fish emulsion fertilizer (nasty, good stuff)--what have you been up to? Learned any good environmental lessons lately? Have some tips to share? I'd love to hear!

Happy growing and greening!
XO

Julie

Holiday recap.

Well. That was a pretty long food coma, huh?

I'm slowly re-emerging from post-holiday lethargy. I know—you thought the Adolfs had gone off the green wagon. You thought we couldn't handle the pressure of forgoing Christmas traditions that involve non-LED lights. You thought we'd cave and let Santa bring crappy plastic toys that will soon litter the landfill. You assumed we couldn't handle the pressure of a non-battery-driven, non-electronic Christmas.

You're right.

Yes, I failed miserably at the greening of our holidays. I knew I would. I hate to say it, but I know how I am at Christmas time. I am a holiday fanatic. I love the lights, I love aimlessly driving around, looking at decorations. I'm the first to suggest that we pile in the van (not Prius) and drive to the zoo where there are millions of energy-wasting lights. You can drive into the “Deer Forest” and feed the animals out of your car, all while wasting gas as the car idles with the heat on, doors open. I try to be good and order presents online—but then they arrive, with the non-recycled boxes, plastic, and styrofoam peanuts consuming the house. I still send the old-fashioned Christmas cards and will probably never embrace e-cards. We bake too much, indulge too much, and throw away too much. It's a glutton's dream.

So, I suppose, I've been a little ashamed to write about our family's “green-ness” after our holiday lapse. There were, however, a few things we did right:

We recycled. A LOT.

In Christmases past, I must admit to throwing away bags and bags of trash, just to get the clutter out of the way. This year, we made a very concerted effort to recycle anything and everything we could. During our present-opening frenzies, both at home and at my sister's house, we took the time to separate paper, cardboard, and plastic that could be recycled. We took bows that weren't crushed and put them away to reuse. In past years, our trash can overflowed after Christmas. In fact, our neighbors next door, in addition to their two trash cans, had at least a dozen trash bags at the street post-Christmas.

We didn't even fill one-third of a trash bag. We had a very large recycling run.

VERY large. I still have piles of boxes that need to go to recycling. But at least they're not headed for the landfill, as in Christmases past.

We turned down the heat. WAY down.

This fall, when it began getting chilly, I think I shocked Peter by my insistence to keep the thermostat down. OK, in truth, it's really not that far down. However, I'm the one who usually keeps the temperature set at 72 degrees. I'm cold. Always. When I get tired, I freeze. And, since I'm always tired, I'm always cold. Still, I was determined to keep the temp at the more environmentally friendly 68 degrees. I know, I know...it's not that great. Lots of the greenies of the world turn it way down, and there's a cult of green gurus who try not to use heat AT ALL. Have you heard about these environmental gods and goddesses who forsake heat? Good luck to those dedicated souls...but can't people die without heat?

Anyway, as a mom, I'm a little torn. Our daughter has no body fat—seriously, the child is a stick. We do feed her, I promise. So, while trying to maintain my stance on our lowered thermostat, I've encouraged the kids to add layers. Personally, sleeping in my old Bradley University sweatshirt is not winning points with Peter, but hey—it's warm, I love it. Still...there are times, especially in the morning, when I'm trying to get Kristen out of bed...and it's cold. Darn cold. And I wonder why I can't get that child up and moving in the mornings? There are some mornings she puts her coat on over her PJs. It's kind of pitiful.

Someone, who will remain nameless, has been known to sneak the thermostat up a degree on really cold nights. Huh. I thought I married a tough Swiss man.

Garden Delights is going e-commerce—and I'm committed to running a very green business.

Yes, there's never a dull moment at our house. My heirloom plant business is expanding, with the website going live very soon! Now, it's one thing to grow heirloom plants sustainably and sell them locally at the Farmer's Market. It's quite another challenge to run an e-commerce business, shipping plants across the country, while utilizing only green materials for sustainable growing and packaging. Still...I've found some great vendors, terrific green packaging options, and even some ways to offset the environmental impact of the transportation involved in shipping. Stay tuned...I'll be reporting on my attempts to start the business and keep its green mantra, while continuing to get our family back on track to reducing our environmental impact.

So, friends, Happy New Year—a little late! Did you make any interesting resolutions this year regarding the environment? Want to share them here? Maybe we can help each other be more accountable and meet our goals. (Oh...and besides being better to the environment, I also plan to drop 20 lbs. And exercise every day. And not set unattainble goals. HA.)

Here's to 2010!