Creating Gifts for Christmas Chicks.

Christmas passed in the blink of an eye. Didn't it? Am I the only one that feels this way? One minute, I'm up to my elbows in cinnamon roll dough (more on that next time), the next I'm frantically wrapping presents and trying to decide who needs a handwritten note on Christmas cards versus who is up-to-date with kids' happenings via Facebook. Crazy days and late nights resulting in a neglected blog...and then, POOF. 

Christmas is over.

Well, then.

I'm actually feeling a little lost.

The frantic pace screeched to an abrupt halt, and now my brain is preoccupied with seed catalogs, stone paths, chicken coops, and garden plans. The dreary rain isn't cooperating with my new projects, however. So instead, I thought I'd share some of our recent chicken escapades. 

There's nothing better than a little chicken play time to shift your perspective.

The girls enjoyed a bit of supervised free ranging in the kitchen garden. Oreo does a fine job keeping an eye on her feathered friends. (She's actually a little afraid of them.)

Sprite nibbles the herb garden.

The girls are excellent soil- and compost-turners. When the beds are full of crops, they're also excellent devourers of our dinner. Right now, though, only a few beds are occupied, so they enjoyed mostly free access to the garden.

 

Sprouting straw that insulates the garlic bed provided green treats for Willow Wisp and Resa...

...but honestly, the compost overflowing from the bins served as the biggest attraction to the girls. Bugs galore! A chicken feast!

While most of our holiday decorating happened in early December, we added some last minute decor and treats for the girls. After all, nothing says Merry Christmas like eight stockings hung by a run, right?

Along with the stockings, the kids enjoyed creating edible garland for their girls. 
 

Huh. Kristen's arms look freakishly long here.

Doesn't Mikey look thrilled at our crafty project? So. Much. Fun.

I even created my first wreath from scratch to hang on the coop.
 

Honestly, I have no idea why I haven't been making our wreaths all of these years. Using the cutoff branches from our Christmas tree trunk, floral wire, and a $3 wreath form from the craft store, it took a whopping 10 minutes to complete the wreath. 

Simply cut the evergreen branches into 5-6 inch segments, bundle, place at an angle, wrap with wire and repeat. 

So ridiculously easy.

The kids hung their completed grape and cranberry garlands on the fence that separates the chickens' run from the pool area. Three long garlands decorated the muddy fence.

Did I mention that it's been raining A LOT during vacation? The chickens' run is a muddy mess.
 

At first, the girls weren't certain what to think about the garland.
 

But then, once they saw their favorite treat--grapes--it was a feeding frenzy. 
 

 
As soon as one chicken plucked a grape from the garland, the rest quickly tried to steal it. A few brave girls plucked their own treats off the strand, but most waited to try to steal the grapes from one another.

Silly chickens.
 

The grapes disappeared in a blink of an eye--much like Christmas. The cranberries lingered a bit longer. Next year, if the girls are extra good and quit sneaking out of the run, we might make the garlands from all grapes--red and green. Festive colors and favorite food!

For now, though, their Christmas treats are just a memory. 

Many people already packed away their decorations, but we're still trying to maintain a bit of Christmas cheer here. The tree is dropping needles, but the decorations will remain up until January 1. We can all use the extra bit of good fortune by leaving the tree up until New Year's Day, right? It's supposed to be lucky, like eating collard greens and black-eye peas.

Plus, the chicken stockings just make me laugh, and we all need a little chuckle during the gray winter days.

Are you still enjoying holiday decorations, or are you all tidied up and ready for New Year's?

Hoping you and yours enjoyed a lovely holiday season!

XOXO ~

Julie 

And the winner is...

TJ! Please check your e-mail, TJ, and let me know which two books you would like to receive. Thank you to everyone who entered, and a huge thank you to my wonderful writer friends who generously added their recommendations. What a wonderful list of gardening books we all have now to help entertain us through the cold winter months!

I hope you are enjoying a lovely holiday season. 

XOXO ~

Julie

Too Cold to Garden? Snuggle Up (and Win) a Good Book!

It's 27 degrees in South Carolina. I'm not complaining. Many northern gardening friends are posting chill-inducing negative numbers and fabulous photos of snow-covered paths. (Those posts provide excellent reminders of why I moved south. The days of lake effect snow and sub-zero wind chill are not days I care to relive.) Still, 27 degrees is brutal for us southern belles. Although there's a box in the garage filled with my infamous end-of-season clearance bulbs awaiting their home in the garden, I'm not venturing out into the bitter tundra until it warms a bit.

Like maybe March.

When the temperatures plummet, what's a gardener to do? Why, we embrace the next best thing, of course.

We read about gardening.

With the holidays upon us, I asked a few of my lovely garden writer friends to share their favorite gardening books. My request is a bit selfish, truthfully. While my hoard of books overflows from the bookshelves onto the floor, I'm always on the lookout for the next great gardening book—or one that I missed. Christmas is coming, after all, and I'm hoping Santa might put a few of these titles under the tree.

I've been a good girl. Really. (Well, except for that massive bulb purchase.)

More importantly, though, I'm giving you a gift!

Not only will you have a terrific list to help stock your own gardening library or to hand to Santa when you sit on his lap, but you also have the chance to win YOUR CHOICE of TWO of our experts' favorite books! Hooray for free books!

Plus, you have multiple chances to win. For each action below, you'll receive one entry:


1. Leave a comment on this post, telling me your favorite book—gardening or otherwise. (Please include an e-mail so I can contact you if you win.)

2. Follow Growing Days.

3. Like my Facebook page, Garden Delights.

4. Follow me on Twitter.

5. Follow me on Pinterest.


Five chances! TWO books—one for a gift, one to keep! Or, keep them both if you'd prefer. The choice is yours.

Please enter by midnight EST on Friday night, December 20, 2013. My little elf, Mikey, will pull the winning name from our Magic Santa Hat. We're old school like that, but it will be fair, I promise. I'll announce the winner on Monday.

And now, for your reading pleasure...

Favorite Gardening Books

“My very favorite garden book of all time is The Backyard Parables by Margaret Roach. That will be the one that I take with me to the 'deserted island.' It has just the right amount of challenge and camaraderie. If I read it five times, I'd get something new from it every time.

“Another favorite is The Bucolic Plague: How Two Manhattanites Became Gentlemen Farmers by Josh Kilmer-Purcell. It was just pure entertainment, and I didn't want it to end.

"Interesting, isn't it, that they both have a Martha Stewart connection?

“My third favorite has to be a recent read, The Signature of All Things by Elizabeth Gilbert. It satisfied the plant nerd in me, and the style of writing was just 'period' enough that it held my interest without frustrating me. I thought it was a beautifully crafted historic novel. I read it in record time.”


~ Kylee Baumle, co-author of Indoor Plant Decor: The Design Stylebook for Houseplants

Author of the blog, Our Little Acre

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"This is a perennial favorite of mine: Yard Full of Sun: The Story of a Gardener's Obsession that Got a Little Out of Control by Scott Calhoun.

"Talented plantsman, designer, and writer Scott Calhoun tells with humor and charm the story of how he created an Arizona desert garden for his family in Tucson, Arizona. Great ideas for those of us in more arid climates than are usually featured in garden books."


~ Pam Penick, author of Lawn Gone! Low-Maintenance, Attractive, Sustainable Alternatives for Your Yard

Author of the blog Digging, Austin garden designer.

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“I loved Elizabeth Lawrence's books [A Garden of One's Own, Two Gardeners, A Southern Garden, and more.] I'm presently reading Beatrix Potter's Gardening Life: The Plants and Places that Inspired the Classic Children's Tales by Marta McDowell. I'm loving it, too.

“I also love Sunflower Houses, Sharon Lovejoy's wonderful book on gardening with children. Her other books are also wonderful, but that one holds a special place in my heart.

“I loved Garden Anywhere by Alys Fowler. I also loved The Beautiful Edible Garden by Stefani Bittner and Leslie Bennett.

“Plus, I don't know these people, but I liked their book, Gardening for Geeks by Christy Wilhelmi, founder of Gardenerd.com. As for greenhouses, I like Paradise Under Glass by Ruth Kassinger.”


~ Dee Nash, author of The 20/30 Something Garden Guide: A No-Fuss, Down and Dirty, Gardening 101 for Anyone Who Wants to Grow Stuff (Available February 2014)

Author of the blog Red Dirt Ramblings

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“Lois Trigg Chaplin's Southern Gardener's Book of Lists. I have two copies, one for home and one for work! My other favorite, of course, is Container Gardening for All Seasons by Barbara Wise.”


~ Barbara Wise, author of Container Gardening for All Seasons: Enjoy Year-Round Color with 101 Designs

Author of the blog bwisegardening

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“American Horticulture Society A to Z Encyclopedia of Garden Plants. My first BIG reference book to learn about plants.

“Remarkable Trees of Virginia by Nancy R. Hugo and Robert Llewellyn. Love my trees!!!!

“Pam Harper, garden author, lived down a couple miles from me in Seaford. Time Tested Plants: Thirty Years in a Four-Season Garden. She had the best garden...one to drool over.

“Margot Rochester's Down to Earth: Practical Thoughts for Passionate Gardeners. A Greenville gardener whose down to earth gardening habits are a good read for a gardener in our area.

“And for my wormies, a book I didn't think I would read through. I thought it would be a reference, but I thoroughly enjoyed reading it, plan on reading it again: Amy Stewart's The Earth Moved. I will be doing a talk on vermicomposting to a garden club.”


~Janet Ledebuhr, Master Gardener

Author of the blog, The Queen of Seaford

~~~~~~~~

“I keep a dog-eared copy of The Vegetable Gardener's Bible by Edward C. Smith in my storage box out by my garden. It really helps me to plan my garden layout every season.

“I also love the story, French Dirt: The Story of a Garden in the South of France by Richard Goodman. It just speaks to me about the discovery of gardening and community. Love it!"


~ Carolyn Binder, freelance writer and author of the blog Cowlick Cottage Farm

~~~~~~~~

“Hardly a day goes by that I don’t find another must-have book, classic or brand new, on every topic under the sun (or shade). But one that grounded me as a new gardener and that I revisit often is Scott Ogden’s Gardening Success with Difficult Soils.

“In poetic and conversational prose, Scott expertly connects us to the garden’s backbone: soil. It’s not a scary dissertation; rather, it’s a revelation about the essential relationship between soil, plants, and wildlife.

“Also, I recommend his many others books, including those in collaboration with wife Lauren Odgen Springer, like the remarkable Plant-Driven Design. And Lauren Springer’s beautifully written The Undaunted Garden boosts my knowledge, energy, and creativity.

“When I want an escape from it all, I curl up in bed with popcorn and mystery garden novels by my dear friend Susan Wittig Albert and newcomer Rosemary Harris. Rosemary strikes a close chord, since in real life and in her novels, she was a TV producer who cancelled her ratings to go dig in gardens!”


~ Linda Lehmusvirta, Producer, Central Texas Gardener

Web: www.klru.org/ctg
Blog: www.klru.org/ctg/blog

~~~~~~~~

“One of my fave garden books—dog-eared, well-worn after handling with garden-gloved hands and stained with coffee cup circles, is Fallscaping by Stephanie Cohen and Nancy Ondra, with photos by Rob Cardillo. I believe in gardening for four-seasons and often find that many of my clients and readers give up after a hot summer. This book is good inspiration to keep you gardening through the first frost.

“Anything by Tovah Martin. Both the New Terrarium and Unexpected Houseplant are perused often. Tovah has a unique eye for style, one that agrees with my sensibilities.

“And just because it is so ADORABLE, I love Radical Prunings by Bonnie Thomas Abbott. Read closely for her innuendoes...she is the master of them.”


~ Helen Yoest, author of Gardening with Confidence—50 Ways to Add Style for Personal Creativity and Plants with Benefits—An Uninhibited Guide to the Aphrodisiac Herbs, Fruits, Flowers & Veggies in Your Garden. (Available January 2014)

Author of the blog, Gardening with Confidence

~~~~~~~~

“Gardening did not come naturally to me. I could kill a plant at one glance. I decided to start a garden after the birth of my third child. We needed access to better vegetables, and a home vegetable garden was our first choice. Reading the backs of seed packages would make my head spin when I was first learning how to garden.

“One of the books that helped build my gardening foundation was Square Foot Gardening by Mel Bartholomew. His step-by-step descriptions of laying out and spacing the garden made complete sense for my overwhelmed brain. It was a great reference guide for starting out, complete with grid layouts, garden organization, and vegetable growing tips.

“Now that I’ve been gardening for a few years, I still use the square foot gardening method (but with adjustments to our gardening style and needs). This method works well for my wanna-be orderly, keep-everything-in-its-place brain.”
~ Mia Nichols, author of the blog Modern Mia Gardening

~~~~~~~~

"My favorite gardening book is Amanda Thomsen's Kiss My Aster: A Graphic Guide to Creating a Fantastic Yard Totally Tailored to You. Because for all the talk in the industry about reaching out and cultivating new audiences and gardeners, hers is precisely the kind of thing that would have struck my fancy as a young new homeowner. (As it happened, I had a green-thumb mom and eventually a next door neighbor who was both a graphics designer and wonderful gardener.)"

~ Pamela Price, author, journalist, and blogger Red White & Grew  

~~~~~~~~

"My favorite book is Bringing Nature Home by Doug Tallamy. I am going to hear him speak in the mid-winter, our Master Gardeners and the local Wildflower Association is sponsoring him to come...can't wait. I have become enamored with native plants in the past few years, and his book really helped me see more reasons why they're so good. I was 'going native' prior to reading his book, but it solidified it for me. Plus, I became an Audubon at Home Ambassador with our MG group, and we read his book there, as well."

~ Jan Doble, author of the blog, Thanks for Today

Thank you to Kylee, Pam, Barbara, Janet, Carolyn, Linda, Helen, Mia, Pamela, and Jan for your fabulous recommendations! UPDATE: Enormous apologies to Pamela and Jan for my carelessness in leaving out their reviews in the original post. I'm SO sorry!

Now remember--you can't win if you don't play! Good luck!



XOXO ~

Julie

The Interview with An Obsessive Neurotic Gardener.

It might not surprise you to know that as a kid, I possessed a rather overactive imagination. I spent a lot of time in my little fantasy world, plotting how I would save the Earth from an evil dictator, or how I would win Olympic medals in gymnastics like my hero, Nadia. My obsessive reading habit began when I was four, so I suppose that helped fuel these fantasies.

Laura Ingalls Fan Girl. Yes, I had a dress and bonnet. I know you're jealous.

Of course, the result of my heroism/fantastic athleticism/altruism would result in the quintessential honor--a seat next to Johnny Carson's desk. I'd charm Johnny with my quips while appearing both humble and intriguing. The interview would be so spectacular that I knew--knew with the certainty of my 8-year-old soul--that he'd offer me hundreds of dollars to take the place of that goofy side-kick of his. (I had no concept of thousands or millions of dollars back then.)

Oddly enough, I never made it to the Olympics, and I'd yet to save the world or invent the cure for cancer before Johnny left the air.

But, I did have the fabulous experience of talking with another John. 

Gardening guru John Markowski, author of An Obsessive Neurotic Gardener, interviewed me, along with my friends Janet from The Queen of Seaford and Mia from Modern Mia Gardening for his podcast, which you can find here. So, if you want to know our most hated plant or the number one gardening tip you cannot live without, give it a listen. John is a great host.

And being a guest on his podcast was just as great as my fantasy of chatting with that other John. Truly. (Once John gets his own gardening TV show, I think he needs a side-kick, don't you?!)

Happy December!

XOXO ~

Julie

Growing Autumn Bouquets.

Once upon a time, when I nervously signed the mortgage for my first house, I didn't rush to Pottery Barn or Crate and Barrel. Drapes that puddled perfectly on the floor or bird cages filled with plastic plants or funky plates with funky linens weren't on my wish list to make my new house homey.

Instead, I spent every bit of disposable income supporting local nurseries.

For me, the happiness of becoming a homeowner meant that I'd finally, finally have a garden. Of course, I wanted a lovely, lushly landscaped garden--but its primary purpose was to fill my new home with fresh flowers. Never again would I wait for someone to bring me a sad, tired vase of ugly red roses. (Please note: this was pre-Peter. He possesses great taste in flowers.)

Honestly, is there anything nicer than a just-picked, fresh-from-the-garden, cheerful bouquet of flowers to make a home feel warm and vibrant? 

No. No, there's not. Well, OK, kids and significant others and furry babies are also high up on the list, too. The smell of apple pie baking also helps. Still, flowers will always be right up there in their ability to make a blah Wednesday feel like a celebration. Plus, as much as I love fresh flowers in our home, I love sharing them even more. It's pure happiness to watch a friend receive a bouquet, because flowers make every day a little brighter.  

Lately, though, I've spent more time obsessing about growing edibles to feed my family than remembering why I originally loved gardening. Plus, it's November. The garden looks...uninspiring. It's easy to snip some tulips in spring or arrange tea roses in summer. In fact, I planned a cutting garden for spring and fall blooms, which you can read about here. In fall, though, my attention turns to seed catalogs and bulb orders. I know it's trendy to proclaim fall as everyone's favorite season, but for me? Nope. No, thank you. Bring back my sunshine and pretty spring blooms, pronto.

So, when the fearless leader of You Can Grow That!, C.L. Fornari, challenged our group of garden bloggers to write about giveaway bouquets, I pushed aside my seasonal affective disorder and took a stroll around the garden to see if I could find anything--anything remotely attractive or alive--that would contribute to a bouquet.

Surprisingly, I returned with arms full of material. 

Our camellias, hidden on the south side of the house, are heavy with blooms right now. Sadly, I tend to forget about them, because they aren't along the path I normally take to the kitchen garden. I plan to propagate some of these beauties and plant them in a more visible section of the garden, because they are the perfect fall flower.

The viburnum, however, continues to produce a spectacular, eye-catching show all fall. During spring, these two bushes brighten the back garden with their enormous blooms. While fall blooms aren't nearly as prolific, I still found plenty of flowers, although they were beginning to look a bit tired.

Because blooms are scarce during November, foliage needed to play an important part of the bouquet design. Fortunately, we have lots of variegated vines, hostas, and ferns. Even 'Gold Dust' aucuba participated in the November bouquet project.

Herbs and berries also made an appearance in the bouquets. While I intended to use bronze fennel, some little creature had eaten most of it. Instead, the airy branches of Florence fennel added a frothy texture, as well as height, to an arrangement. Encore azaleas, a bloom that I never considered for bouquets prior to our assignment, was also added to the mix.

After I cleaned the foliage from the bottom portion of the stems and sorted the cuttings, I realized that I'd gathered enough materials to make not one but three bouquets.
 

Pale pink camellias, viburnum, autumn ferns and variegated ivy.

 

Seed heads from Japanese anemone, camellias, Hearts-A-Bustin' berries, 

and variegated potato vine.

 

Encore azalea blooms, 'Gold Dust' aucuba, and Florence fennel.

My bouquet making skills need more practice, but it inspired me to remember my first garden and the passion I had--for flowers. Of course, I'll continue obsessing about our edible gardens and native plants, but I'll also keep searching throughout all seasons to bring the garden inside and share it with friends.

What flowers do you enjoy receiving in your favorite bouquets?

XOXO ~

Julie

Fall's Fading Blooms.

Today felt like autumn. A gray dreariness hung low in the sky. I waited for a bit of sun to peek through the clouds before I headed out to the garden with my camera for Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day, hosted by May Dreams Gardens. At 6 p.m., though, I decided that waiting any longer would mean that I'd need a flashlight to photograph the flowers. So out into the grayness I went, hoping to find a few blooms to share.

My bargain tropical hibiscus continue to add a splash of color to the front garden. At the low, low price of $5 for two, lovely huge hibiscus, how could I pass them up? Granted, I have greenhouses to tuck them into for the winter, otherwise they wouldn't be very happy in our zone 7b frosty temperatures. I love a good flowering bargain!

Yes, I'm once again singing the praises of fraise des bois. The plants are still covered in their darling little blooms, and even better--they're producing another nice showing of their incredibly sweet fruit. What's not to love about these little edible beauties? They are darling in a pot, plus they make a lovely, non-creeping boarder in shady beds. Truly, they will always be one of my favorite plants.

The Japanese anemones put on quite a show for the past month. Now, they're slowly winding down, with a few dozen blooms remaining. It's definitely time to thin and transplant these beauties.

If it's fall, then you know it's time for pansies and violas--hooray! Just as I'm beginning to feel blue about the lack of blooms in the garden, the cheerfulness of pansies erases my grumpiness. The violas found their home in the potager this weekend, but the many, many flats of pansies are anxiously awaiting the blister on my palm to heal so that they, too, can get tucked into their new garden home.

One of the best things about photographing the garden is that you never know what you might find, like this katydid hiding in the hardy hibiscus...

...or the praying mantis egg case on the lemon tree. We're anxiously awaiting our new beneficial arrivals to the garden.

Also surprising are the camellias. Years ago, I planted half a dozen camellias along the south side of the house, an area we rarely pass on our way to the forest or the kitchen garden. It's a shame, because the camellias are spectacular right now. We need to add something to the area to make it a destination instead of an after-thought. The blooms shouldn't be missed, but often I do.

 

I'm not typically a mum fan, but somehow it doesn't seem like fall without a few bursts of bright cheerfulness. The tired garden certainly benefits from the mums' overwhelming sunniness.

The microclimate by the pool garden continues to encourage blooms. The tea olives smell divine...

...the Encore azaleas provide a great burst of showy color...

...and the peach Drift roses burst with new blooms. 
 

The containers by the pool continue to send out new blooms. I keep searching for seeds from my favorite heirloom, snail flower. At $1 per seed, I'm hoping to harvest a few seeds for next year. Nothing yet, but I'm crossing my fingers.

The mandevilla seems to enjoy the cooler temperatures, which seems counter-intuitive to its nature. Soon, I'll be keeping a close eye on the weather for freeze warnings to make certain these babies and my other warm-natured plants are safely nestled into the greenhouses before it becomes too chilly.

Ah, the crazy viburnum. How can you not love a plant that blooms...and blooms...and blooms some more? What an incredible workhorse of a plant. We've trimmed and pruned, and still this shrub is heavy with blooms.
 

Talking about workhorses...holy marigolds! What began as a few plants tucked into the kitchen garden beds to repel pests turned into a sea of orange and red as the weather cooled. The butterflies and bees adore the blooms. I've never been a fan of marigolds, but how can you argue with a profusion of blooms like that? I may need to show marigolds more respect!
 

The herbs provide blooms for several pollinators. Tiny wasps and bees enjoy the basil flowers. Our basil struggled this summer. I think the enormous amounts of rain caused it to suffer from a fungus, although it's looking better now that it's cooler. Again, for a heat loving plant, I'm perplexed.

While I've cleared most of the kitchen garden beds for fall crops, I left the scarlet runner beans. The multicolored blooms add a bit of color to the beds, and the vines continue to produce.

For the first time, I found small red morning glory, a native wildflower, in the clearing near the river. 

I also don't recall finding goldenrod in previous years. This year, however, we have several patches of it, which I love.
 

Our heavy rains led to an amazing season for mushrooms. The shiitake logs are producing like mad. We ate delicious risotto ai funghi a few nights ago, and I'm frantically searching my cookbooks for more recipes that can include shiitakes. The mushroom logs are truly one of my greatest garden success stories. Growing mushrooms is so easy that I'm not sure why more people don't do it. Shiitakes and fraise des bois--I'm equally enamored. 

Tomorrow, I must finished planting the potager and work on the large kitchen garden. What are you planting in your fall garden? What's your favorite fall flower or vegetable?

Happy October Bloom Day to you!

XOXO ~

Julie