Thursday, June 20, 2013

New article up at the Examiner: Horticulture magazine and Monrovia nursery have teamed for a garden giveaway contest! http://www.examiner.com/article/garden-giveaway-contest

Saturday, June 15, 2013

New article at the Examiner: Win an autographed copy of 'Succulents Simplified' and a $100 gift certificate! http://www.examiner.com/article/timber-press-contest

Sunday, May 19, 2013

This spring, something I've been waiting for for years has happened: the laburnum, AKA golden chain, tree is blooming. This is a big deal to me because I grew this plant from a seed. Then, when I put one in the ground, the gophers ate it. I put another one in the spot. The deer ate it. It survived, but now instead of a regular tree shape with a single trunk it's a giant multistemmed thing. But that's all okay, because it's now taller (barely) than the house and it's doing this:

Saturday, May 18, 2013

Tuesday, April 16, 2013

Saturday, April 13, 2013

Meanwhile, down at the local elks club today...

Sunday, March 17, 2013

Friday, March 15, 2013

New article up at the Examiner: the Spring issue of Leaf Magazine is available online, free: http://www.examiner.com/article/leaf-magazine-s-spring-issue

Wednesday, March 13, 2013

Topiary

I have this sudden urge to plant a large evergreen shrub for the sole purpose of topiarying it into a totoro.

Monday, March 11, 2013

Saturday, March 9, 2013

New article up at the Examiner: Santa Rosa Gardens is having a plant photography contest! http://www.examiner.com/article/santa-rosa-gardens-photo-contest

Tuesday, March 5, 2013

New article up at the Examiner: on the hardy perennial, spring blooming drumstick primrose: http://www.examiner.com/article/perennials-drumstick-primrose

Monday, March 4, 2013





The snow has melted enough that I’ve been able to do some cleaning up in the garden beds, and the primroses are blooming. They are always the first things in my garden to flower. Today I scattered white Dutch clover seed around the grass areas in hopes that it may crowd out some of the weeds. The weeds have gotten out of control around here! I also scattered some lupine seeds along the edge of the road ditch; it’d be nice if we had some of them. There are enough of them in the ditches around here!

Wednesday, February 27, 2013

New article up at the Examiner today: there are *6* free gardening ebooks being offered today: http://www.examiner.com/article/free-ebooks-for-2-27-2013

Tuesday, February 26, 2013

New article up at the Examiner: Fine Gardening is giving away five copies of the new rose book "Everyday Roses"! http://www.examiner.com/article/win-a-copy-of-everyday-roses

Wednesday, February 20, 2013

Enough snow has melted (in spots) that I was able to spend a few minutes outside, cutting back dead stuff and cleaning a couple of spots in the garden. This makes me ridiculously happy.
New article up at the Examiner, on using the color blue in the garden: http://www.examiner.com/article/blue-the-garden

Monday, February 18, 2013

New article up at the Examiner: free download available on pruning clematis! http://www.examiner.com/article/clematis-pruning-download

Saturday, February 9, 2013

Monday, February 4, 2013

Under the Sea wall hanging

Finally  posting about the wall hanging I made for a friend as a holiday gift!

This friend loves the ocean, so I decided it was time for me to make an under the sea quilt. I've admired other people's undersea art and crazy quilts for years, so I was excited to make this.

I hand pieced this onto a loose cotton base, using quilter's cottons, silk, and taffeta. I blanket stitched the edges of the pieces down. Then I drew and painted in the mermaid, sewed down ribbons and textural yarn as seaweed, used old pieces of lace as sea plants on the ocean floor and dark tulle as shadows, and embellished with beads and shells.

I then sashed and backed it with black cotton, and used dark blue ribbon for the hangers, embellished with vintage buttons.





















Close up of the anchor point of a kelp clump, with star fish (rayon trim cut apart), a shell with pearls in it, and a piece of dark green lace as plant life.












Bottom left corner, showing most of the plant life as well as more shells and the mermaid.













Jellyfish in the upper right. The body is a circle of sheer fabric folded; the tentacles are silk ribbons held down with beads. The air bubbles that are scattered around are clear beads with a 'oil slick' finish.

Monday, January 28, 2013

New article and slideshow up at the Examiner, on using orange in the garden: http://www.examiner.com/article/orange-the-garden

Saturday, January 26, 2013

New article up at the Examiner: GardenersHub.com is having a three day sale: http://www.examiner.com/article/gardenershub-three-day-sale

Friday, January 25, 2013

New article up at the Examiner: Fine Gardening is having a Groundhog Day sale!http://www.examiner.com/article/groundhog-day-sale

Monday, January 21, 2013

This little cutie was in our hen house just now:



















It's too small to hurt a chicken or duck; I assume it was in there checking for baby mice. It's a pygmy owl, about 6" tall.
New article up at the Examiner: short emag available free from Fine Gardening: http://www.examiner.com/article/free-gardener-s-catalog-collector

Saturday, January 19, 2013

Wednesday, January 16, 2013

Tuesday, January 15, 2013

Sunday, January 13, 2013

Thursday, January 10, 2013

New article up at the Examiner, on the hardy, low maintenance and beautiful genus helleborus: http://www.examiner.com/article/perennial-helleborus

Saturday, January 5, 2013

Thursday, January 3, 2013

New article up at the Examiner, on the pros and cons of de-icing compounds: http://www.examiner.com/article/de-icers-pros-and-cons