Cuttings for Next Year

What a lovely September we've had this year. The temperature tied the record high today - 88 degrees. It's been warm and sunny all month so far, but as a life-long resident of western NY, I know it won't last. It's time to pick out my favorite coleus and impatiens for over-wintering.


Here's what I do. I cut several stems of my favorite plants. In our basement, under florescent lights, I ready small pots of regular potting soil. I like to use the fiber pots because they absorb a lot of water. I cut the plants apart into 4 to 6 inch stems. I strip all the leaves off except at the very top of the stem, and then plant that stem - one per pot. All the pots are arranged in a water-holding tray, and I pour water into the trays - as much water as the pots can possibly hold. By keeping these cuttings very moist for at least the first 2 weeks, they will reroot themselves. Then I can keep them going all winter, cutting them back whenever needed, and they'll be ready for another summer in the gardens as soon as the weather allows.

Cuttings for next year.

By the way, the florescent lights are on a timer - 15 hours on; 9 hours off. We use regular florescent lights; they are not fancier "grow lights." We try not to have the lights more than 24 inches above the plants; it seems the closer the better.

One Step Closer to Dumpster-Diving

I've read about the folks in Buffalo who are trying to live on other people's throw-aways. They claim they can get most of what they need to survive by "dumpster-diving" or scavenging through other's garbage.  I even have a couple young relatives who have tried this new urban sport.

Now there aren't a lot of dumpsters out here in small town America, but there is a well established practice called "garbage picking".  Tuesday morning is garbage pick-up day around here, and sometimes people go around late Monday evening, or very early Tuesday morning picking out select pieces of other folk's garbage.  Why not?  It keeps it out of the landfill, and if someone can reuse it, I say good for them.

I think of myself as frugal, but I have never been a "dumpster-diver" or a "garbage picker".  However, I've been walking my neighborhood every morning all summer for exercise, and I can't help but notice that many of my neighbors are now throwing away their plant pots.  I'm not sure why, but maybe they feel the season is over, and they don't want to store them over the winter.  I've resisted several times, all the while thinking, "What a waste."  Well, this Tuesday I could resist no more, and so I joined the ranks of the "garbage pickers".  I came home from my walk with 2 large plastic planting pots and a cute Halloween tin. 

My Halloween "Garbage Pick"

I bought a $2.50 mum and some tiny pumpkin gourds, and just like that I've got a Halloween  pot.  I'll leave it out front for a week or so, and then it's off to my mother-in-law at the nursing home.  (I won't tell her it's someone else's garbage.)

Is there frost in the air?

Boston Fern after its haircut

My large poinsettia

The weather has simply been lovely in western NY this summer.  The days are still sunny and warm, but with a gentler heat that feels like fall.  Actually, I believe today is the last official day of summer; tomorrow fall is here! Even though daytime temperatures are still in the 60's and 70's, we have had 2 nights that dipped into the high 30's.  Oh, yea, that frost is coming.

That means I need to start bringing in plants I want to keep over the winter. Our local newspaper had an article by a Master Gardener that warned against bringing inside unwanted bugs with houseplants on route to their winter homes.  He recommended making your own insecticide (1 teaspoon dish soap in 1 quart water), and spraying all plants before moving them indoors.  That sounded pretty simple, so armed with my spray bottle, I began to gather my favorite pots.  First I needed to wash the outside of the pots; some were quite covered with dirt from sitting in the gardens.  Most plants needed pruning, especially the Boston Ferns.  I have 2 potted ferns.  Actually they were 1 plant that I divided a couple of years ago.  They love their summer homes, and have grown to be huge.  They needed "haircuts" just to be manageable inside.  After each potted plant got clean and trimmed, I gave them a thorough insecticide spray. The spray seemed harmless to all plants I treated except one.  One of my 4 poinsettias drooped from the insecticide; it now looks pretty sick.  Did I saturate it too much?  The other poinsettias seem to be fine. 

What happened? This poinsettia didn't like the insecticide.

The only problem is to find a place for all of them inside.  I gave 1 Boston Fern and 1 poinsettia to my daughter. I'm lucky to have a nice sun room that becomes an atrium in the winter months.  Even so, I may be giving more away - can't wait for that greenhouse! 

The lemon tree leafed out nicely this summer, after dropping almost all its leaves last winter. I had thought it was dead, but my husband's philosophy of "It'll come back" actually proved true this time. There's even a tiny lemon on one branch.  We'll see what happens this year.

So I'm on my way to fall. I have more plants to bring in, especially some of those geraniums.  There are cuttings to take of the coleus, and re-potting to do with my "palm" tree.  No it's not a real palm tree, but I don't know what it is.  It just keeps growing, and this summer the roots have grown right out of the bottom of the pot.  This thing is becoming a tree, and may not get to come back in the house.  I really need that greenhouse!  :)

Can you help me identify this plant?

The roots are coming right out the bottom.

Lemon tree in my sun room

A Greenhouse - Our Big Fall Project!

OK, so we've been thinking and dreaming about it for a while.  My husband has gardened in the basement for the last 5 or 6 years.  We've decided it would be a gift to both of us, so.... we took the plunge and have ordered our greenhouse.  It's to be a cedar-built greenhouse, fully insulated.  Not too big - 8' by 10'.  We don't know if we can really grow throughout the winter, but will give it a try.  For sure, it will extend our growing season.  We are dealing with a company out of British Columbia, Canada (not too far north of Seattle, Washington).  At least they should know something about cold weather. Here's their web-site: http://cedarbuilt.homestead.com/

Example photo from their web-site

Now, it's time for us to get to work.  The greenhouse should arrive in about 8 weeks, or sometime during the first part of November.  We want it up before the snow flies.  We've monitored the sun in our backyard all summer to choose the best location.  With consideration of both the hours of sunlight and of being non-intrusive to other uses of our yard, we settled on the very spot of the pine tree which was struck by lightening last year.  The tree must come down. (Yea! This is actually a good thing. There are 2 pine trees on our back property line and I'm not a fan of either.) Our friend Ray, of the Good Neighbor Tree Service, had both pine trees down and ground up in less than 1 hour.  Wow, that was fast.  Now we're just waiting for his partner to come and grind away the stumps.  Ray left us the pine chips to spread on the blueberries and flower beds next spring.  I asked him to dump the chips right on some black-cap bushes that I've been unsuccessfully trying to eradicate.  There - take that, you berry brambles.

Note the 2 pine trees on the right.  Both are now gone; greenhouse will replace the tree closer to the house.

My husband is off to get the building permit as I type. Then we need to create the base.  Yes, we've lined up help for that also.  We're suppose to be able to put this greenhouse up ourselves, kind of like "Lincoln Logs", but so far we're asking for a lot of help.  I'll definitely keep the blog updated on this.

Pine trees are down.  Chips are smothering berry brambles. Stumps are awaiting grinding. 

Succulents - A Container Garden

I was inspired earlier this summer by an article in "Birds and Bloom" magazine that showed succulents planted in containers and on a wreath.  Since I already had some Hens and Chicks hiding in the perennial garden, and a Christmas Cactus pot-bound and left over from Christmas, I decided to see what I could create.  I found an interesting basket that I've previously used to hold magazines, and decided that could be my container. (My motto:  Always shop at home first.) I also picked up a nice looking (and cheap) echeveria at the Wednesday auction.

There are many, many different kinds of succulents with all sorts of Latin names.  Succulents are simply plants that have evolved to have water storing tissues that allow them to survive in arid environments. They come in all sizes and shapes; they may store water in their leaves, stems and/or roots.  Generally, they don't like freezing weather, but make great houseplants as long as you don't over-water them.  Here's a great web-site to help you learn everything you ever wanted to know about succulents: http://www.succulent-plant.com/home.html

Basket right after planting

Back to my container garden. There's nothing worse than a basket that leaks water and/or dirt, so first I used a plastic kitchen garbage bag to line the inside. I didn't want to completely fill the basket with dirt because that would make it very heavy, so I put in 2 medium upside-down plastic pots.  I filled around these filler pots with potting soil.  I lightly set my succulents in.  I rearranged them a couple times until I was satisfied with their placement. Finally, I tucked them all in securely with a little more potting soil.  There was extra garbage bag showing, so I rolled that down into the basket edge and covered it with a little Spanish moss.  Voila! Done.

Basket 1 month after planting

This container garden has been on my front step for about a month now.  It seems to be quite happy, because all of the succulents, and especially the Christmas cactus, have shown growth.  I'm even starting to wonder if it's not getting over-crowded already.  I'm going to bring it inside this weekend, because I know it won't survive that frost that could come most any time.  Will it still be happy inside?  Time will tell.  Right now, I'm quite pleased with it, and hopeful that the Christmas cactus will bloom again.

Share Those Flowers

It's been a busy week with Labor Day gatherings and the start of school.  Start of school??? I retired.... but I spent 2 days celebrating that fact with my girlfriends.  Best start of school we ever had!!

The weather has turned suddenly cool and damp.  Actually all my plants needed the break, especially they need the moisture.  Suddenly I'm seeing signs of Fall.  A scattering of leaves are showing up on the lawn; the hostas are tinged with brown; basil, mint, and coleus insist on going to seed no matter how many times I trim their tops.  Soon, very soon, I've got to get into those perennials and thin them out. We've had 80's temps right up to this week, but frost is surely on its way.

The asters I grew in pots from seed are finally in bloom. I have watered and waited patiently for them all summer.  The wait was worth it because just as other flowers are winding down, these gems have exploded in shades of pinks and purples.  They are similar in shape to mums, but I've never seen mums in these colors. The asters make great cut flowers, and have worked well in flower arrangements.

I used the asters to make a floral arrangement for one of my girlfriends.  This is not hard to do at all with some floral sponge.  Choose a container that can hold water and cut the sponge to fit.  Soak the sponge in water until thoroughly wet, and put it in your container.

Now comes the fun part. You want to collect a variety of flowers and greenery from your garden.  For greens I like to use sprigs of boxwood, ferns, varigated spirea.  For flowers, use any flower that can be considered a "cut flower".  Asters, black-eyed susans, mums, roses, zinnias, lilies are just a few that work for me.  Lastly, I like to add something that is a little bit of a surprise such as seed pods or colored leaves.  Coleus, silver dollar seed pods, coral bell blossoms fall into this category for me.  Strip the lower leaves before you gently push the stems into the floral sponge.  I like to start in the middle (usually the highest point of the arrangement) and work in a circle to the edges.  This helps make it pleasing to look at from all sides. Try to make sure all the floral sponge gets covered.  There really is no wrong way to do this. Try out different arrangements until you get something that is pleasing to you.  This is a fun, easy project, and your friends will be impressed.

Basil - How to Freeze

Washed basil leaves

Actually today was another day of lots of chopping - onions, peppers, garlic, tomatoes, celery - all for another batch of marinara sauce. Basil, of course, goes into this. My basil is tall and bushy at this point.  It keeps trying to go to seed; I keep snipping off the flower heads.  Japanese beetles have found the basil in the last week or so, munching away on tender leaves. So I know that my fresh basil won't survive for too much longer.  How can I preserve some for this winter?  The internet suggests making and freezing basil pesto.  I might try that another day, but today I decide to simply chop and freeze the basil.

First I stripped all the good-looking leaves from several basil plants into a cool sink of water.  I have both the traditional green basil and a purple Italian basil. I started to give the rinsed leaves a rough knife chop, but honestly, I had been chopping for couple hours all the other marinara ingredients.  There must be an easier way.  I dragged out my little food processor.  It's really small; works well for chopping nuts, but I didn't know if it would handle this. I added 1-2 tablespoons of water to a handful of basil, and gave it a whorl.  It worked great! So much easier and faster than hand chopping!

I put the chopped basil into a couple ice cube trays.  After freezing it in the ice trays, I pop the basil cubes out and transfer them to freezer bags. Now I can add a frozen basil cube to any of my recipes. Sweet!

Roasted Red Peppers

Yes, I brought home huge sweet red peppers from the Wednesday Farmer's Market also.  They were just so big, so red, so firm, and cheap... who could resist? Now as sweet and delicious as these peppers are, their skin is paper-like and never seems to soften even when stewed a long time. So they needed to have the skin removed.  This is done by charring the outside black; the skin will then separate from the pepper and slide off. 

Last time I used the broiler, and that worked well, but this time I decided to see if using the outdoor grill would be an even easier method.  I heated the grill nice and hot before laying on my red peppers.  You may notice 2 smaller purple peppers.  These were a couple of surprise peppers I found on my own pepper bushes.  I assumed I could roast them as well.  Well, I grilled and turned, grilled and turned for over a half hour.  The peppers softened and sizzled.  Some of the skin charred, but not as much black as I got with the broiler.  When I decided I just didn't want to cook the peppers any more, I transferred them to a large bowl. I covered the bowl to trap the steam from the peppers because this helps the skin loosen from the flesh.

After another 30 minutes or so, when the peppers were cool enough to handle and the steam had time to do its trick, I began to peel away the skin.  Usually this is pretty easy - cut them in half, remove the seeds and stem, and slide the skin away from the flesh. Not today.  Apparently I did not have a good enough char on the outside.  The blacker the skin, the easier it came off, but there were way too many places that I had to struggle with a pairing knife to remove the skin.  And it did not want to budge!  Lesson to self: stick with the broiler. 

Another interesting discovery was that the purple peppers turned green when roasted.  They tasted like green peppers, and their skin did not want to separate from the flesh at all.  I will treat these purple beauties like a green pepper from now on.  They would be better served raw.

Finally after fighting with the skin for a while, I could cut the roasted peppers into strips.  I froze them first on a tray (note the parchment paper under the peppers).  Then I broke them up with my fingers and put them into a freezer bag for long term storage.  Now I can take out just a few at a time.  Roasted peppers add so much color and flavor to all sorts of recipes.  Next week I plan to get more of these beauties because I have a roasted red pepper bisque recipe that I'm just dying to try.  More on that later. 

Freezing Corn

September 1st - Really? All ready?  It's also a Wednesday so an early morning trip to our local Farmer's Market was the plan for me today.  I purchased 3 dozen ears of corn - 1 dozen Silver Queen, 1 dozen Bodacious, and 1 dozen of a Bi-color corn.  I wanted corn for the freezer, but the few times I've purchased corn for eating this season have been less than satisfactory.  It seems I keep bringing home over-ripe corn.  So I was careful to really examine an ear of each kind, as well as asking when it was picked.  No old corn for me; after about 18 hours off the stalk the sugars turn starchy. By getting 3 different varieties I figured I had a good chance of creating a tasty mix.

Why don't we grow our own corn?  Frankly, it takes up too much room in the garden.  We have great local corn growers, so we are happy to purchase the few dozen ears we like each year. We love it in my "famous" Corn Chowder, and that's where most of the freezer corn will end up.

After husking the corn out on the patio, I'm ready to get down to business.

• Step 1: Cut the raw corn off the cobs. I do this by first cutting the tip of the cob off to create a nice flat end on which to set my cob. Then I run my chef's knife down the cob to remove the kernels. All kernels go into my large soup pot. 
• Step 2: Boil 1 quart of water, 1/2 cup sugar, and 4 teaspoons salt. Add to the corn, and bring the entire pot back to a boil for 3 minutes.
• Step 3: Freeze the corn with juice.  Now I like to freeze it first on trays before putting it into freezer bags, so that it will be loose in the bag and not one solid block.  That way I can use exactly as much as I need without thawing an entire bag.

And that's it.  Really it's pretty easy, and so much better than frozen corn in the grocery store.  That stuff is always over-ripe, and who knows how many times it has been thawed and refrozen before you get it.  It's a good feeling to know that every time I reach for corn, it will have that sweet fresh taste of summer.