2012 April | You Grow Girl

April 30, 2012

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Rainy Day Books and Lemon Balm Tea from the Garden

“Rainy days and Mondays always get me down.” – The Carpenters

I’m not going to mince words — the weather is shit right now. It’s grey and cold and the coffee I drank two hours ago has been unable to penetrate its dreary, low energy malaise. I feel like a zombie and I look like one, too. I often joke that I’ve spent so much time in the company of plants that I’ve become one. But the plants are bright, colourful, and standing up straight today — we are not in sync at all.

If you can stand to be outdoors, the overcast haze makes the perfect conditions for photographing the garden. I dragged my sorry ass out there this afternoon to capture some recent changes to the garden and photograph these books. The lemon balm is reaching a nice size now and I was reminded on sighting it that a fistful lazily torn and brewed in a cup of hot water is a good rainy day remedy. I added slices of fresh ginger and ginger honey purchased at the market to mine.

The cup is empty now and while I can’t say that I am feeling any more chipper than before, I am at least cheered by the prospect of more drinks made with fresh (rather than dried) herbs from the garden in the coming months.

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April 27, 2012

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A Year of Progress in the Garden

The other day I posted the above image, a photo of the garden as it was at that very moment. I’ve been swinging back and forth lately between satisfaction with the garden’s progress, and frustration with the weather and the feeling of being behind. Or if it’s not that it’s a nagging dissatisfaction that it hasn’t come far enough and is not enough… yet. And then I find joy in a new flowering bulb that emerges, that fresh look that the soil has after it rains, and the relief in finally having laid down a new layer of mulch and I come back full circle to satisfied again.

It was that seesaw of ambivalence that held me back from pressing the post button for a minute before I got over it and let the image go live. Despite my own uncertainty and/or insecurities I am not Better Homes & Gardens and I have never aspired to be. We’ll leave that to those who are better suited to it. I have intentionally rejected that path as a gardener, and thwarted that role as a garden writer for all sorts of reasons, the most basic being that it’s not me. As a result, I feel a commitment to showing my gardens as they are, as never-ending projects that are always in progress. I don’t stage them for photos or wait for that final moment of “doneness” because in truth that moment will never come.

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April 25, 2012

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Easy Growing Winners + Assorted and Sundry

My pup Molly in the garden. Thankfully she seems to enjoy relaxing on bark mulch just as much as this remaining patch of “grass” as we will be digging it out very soon.

The winners of the Easy Growing give-away are:

Comment #27 Donna B.
Comment #48 Christy

If this is you please check your inbox or junk mail folder as you should have an email from me.

Assorted and Sundry:

My weekly gardening Q&A articles are still running on the HGTV Gardens website. Please email the folks there if you have a question that you’d like me to answer. Last week’s article was about tomatoes to grow on a patio. The week before was on planting garlic out-of-season. And the week before that provided instruction in replanting forced bulbs, which I happen to be doing right now with two massive trays of muscari and ‘Tete-a-Tete’ daffodils that I received for free from a friend.
There is an interview with me as well as a project from “Easy Growing” in Issue 6 of Craftsanity Magazine
Speaking of tomatoes, I am down to a few remaining packs of seeds in my etsy shop, including ‘Hahms Gelbe Topftomate.’ I got two harvests out of my plants last year by starting the seeds early, so depending on your location it’s not too late to get these into a pot of soil. I’m also selling a few sets of unused, vintage seed packets.
You Grow Girl was recently featured on the Birds and Blooms Magazine blog.
A fun interview about “Easy Growing” with Jen Knoch of The Keeping It Real Book Club.
A review of “Easy Growing” on the Digging Deep Campaign’s website.

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April 24, 2012

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Tulipa Praestans ‘Shogun’

I have to say that while I had been feeling a bit extravagant in my fall bulb purchases, I don’t have an ounce of regret now that spring has come and I am able to enjoy them in bloom. It’s been a joyful surprise watching each bud emerge from the soil and open. In many cases I had forgotten what was planted and it’s been like an adult version of a surprise inside bag. What will bloom next?

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April 18, 2012

71 Comments

Roses Are Red, Violets Are Blue… and White, and Red, and All Sorts Come to Think of It

The violets are blooming and as always I am taken in by their sweet fragrance and colourful little faces. I met a gardener yesterday afternoon, a woman decades my senior, and as we spoke of the violets in her garden and our mutual affection for their graceful charm, I was surprised to learn that she did not know that they are edible!

Labrador Violet (Viola labradorica) growing in the garden of the gardener I met yesterday afternoon. She said that, “…they like it underneath the tree.”