A Gardener's Notebook

Food, Photos, Plants, Tomato No comments yet

Photo: Tomatoes in February?!?!

By Douglas E. Welch on February 3rd, 2012

Our little volunteer tomato plant is kicking up production this week. I don’t know if it the mild weather or a bit more sun, but I count around 20 new flowers on the plant and I am already seeing new fruit being set. Hard to believe we can have this much production in February, even here in Los Angeles.

This tomato was a volunteer that sprouted from the homemade compost I used to start some other seeds. I left in several seedlings until I could identify them and was so happy when I spotted this tomato. It continues to surprise me everyday with its vigor, even stuck in a pot like it is.

Cooking, Flowers, Food, Products No comments yet

Product: Garden flower cookie cutters

By Douglas E. Welch on February 1st, 2012

I came across these in the Baking Bites blog, which I read via RSS. This posts crosses a couple of my interests. They are cookie cutters, so this post is about food, but they are flower-shaped and other garden shaped cookie cutters, so this crosses in the gardening topic. Oh what to do? Where do I post this? Everywhere, I guess. (SMILE)

These cookie cutters have deep indentations so that they shape the cookie as well as cut it out. You can highlight the design with icing, but I usually just like the plain cookies. The article has some good advice on the best cookie dough to use. You want something that doesn’t spread very much when baked, so that the detail remains in the final product.

Link: Even more cookie cutters from Amazon.com

Garden Cookie Cutters

It may not be time for spring as far as the flowers in your garden are concerned (even during a mild winter), but with this set of Garden Cookie Cutters you can get spring started in the comfort of your kitchen. These cookie cutters are some of the cutest cutters I’ve seen in a long time because the plastic is shaped just like the finished cookies. The cutters punch out very detailed cookies not just the outlines of cookies – in eight different designs, including a rose, daisy, tulip, dahlia, ladybug, butterfly, bumble bee and dragonfly. They’re easy to grip and kids will have just as much fun with them as adults, especially since the plastic handles are more kid-friendly than you’ll find on some cookie cutters.

[…]

Read the entire article on Garden Cookie Cutters from BakingBites.com

Photos No comments yet

Free Garden Wallpaper for your computer – Paperwhites

By Douglas E. Welch on January 31st, 2012

Click the link below to view/download your own copy of this Paperwhites Desktop Wallpaper for your computer from A Gardener’s Notebook.

Download this garden desktop picture for your computer

Flowers, outdoors, Photos, Plants No comments yet

Photo: First Daffodil 2012

By Douglas E. Welch on January 29th, 2012

The daffodil foliage had been pushing up over the last few days, but as I drove away from the house today I noticed a flash of yellow from the street side bed. Sure enough, this daffodil was fully opened. Many more tome come, but there is something special about the first one of the season.

Announcement, Discussion No comments yet

Speak Out! – What is happening/will happen in your garden this year?

By Douglas E. Welch on January 28th, 2012

What is happening in your garden — or what will happen once the snow subsides?

Share your stories, ideas and information here as a comment.

This is an open thread and all non-spam comments will be posted.

Design, DIY, Elsewhere, How-to, Photos, Projects No comments yet

Project: Steel pipe garden edging

By Douglas E. Welch on January 28th, 2012

You have probably seen my photos and videos of our wine bottle garden edging project. This photo shows a similar approach using an entirely different material. I am not sure where you would source enough of this pipe cheaply, but obviously this person did.

One issue with using unique items for your garden edging is that their small diameter means you need A LOT of them. The wine bottles are probably 4″-5″ in diameter but that is still much smaller than a brick, a stone or using some bender-board edging. This also means it takes more time to install, as you have to lay each piece separately.

I like that the gardener filled each pipe with soil and stones and then planted small succulents. I think this is a great use of otherwise wasted space in the edging.

Still, I really like the look of our wine bottles and these steel pipes. Click through on this Pinterest link for more garden photos and ideas from the original blog.

Source: floradoragardens.blogspot.com via Douglas on Pinterest

Elsewhere, Landscape, outdoors, Photos, Plants, Video No comments yet

Video: Vertical Garden Installation at Descanso Gardens, La Cañada Flintridge, CA

By Douglas E. Welch on January 28th, 2012

We haven’t made a trip out to Descanso recently, but this would certainly be cool to see in person. There is a lot of interest in vertical gardening lately and this does it on a grand scale.

Link: Descanso Gardens Web Site

Vertical Garden Installation at Descanso Gardens from Descanso Gardens on Vimeo.

DIY, Elsewhere, equipment, Food, hardware, How-to, Plants, Projects No comments yet

DIY: PVC Pipe Strawberry Planter

By Douglas E. Welch on January 27th, 2012

Vertical growing, whether upside down (tomatoes) or right side up (the strawberries below) has been a big trend of late. The fact is though, vertical growing has long been a way to make the most of small space. Espalier is a way of pruning fruit trees to have them grow in a flat plane i.e. against a wall and yet still produce abundant fruit. I have recently seen pallet gardens — shipping pallets filled with soil and place vertically — for growing on apartment balconies, too.

This creative idea builds on the concept of the traditional strawberry pot, but allows you to plant as tall as you might wish. This picture I found on Pinterest links to a Flickr set of photos, but it seems pretty clear that they have taken a length of PVC drainage pipe, cut out holes for the plants and then filled it with soil. I could see 3 or 4 of these in a row along a sunny fence. Water is probably added from the top and allowed to flow down each tube.

Source: flickr.com via Ananda on Pinterest

Announcement, News No comments yet