No need to check the calendar to know what Sunday is, right? Yup - Mother’s Day. And right on the heel of her special day are graduations, and then Father’s Day. Commemorate births, anniversaries and even deaths with living gifts.
Here are some sentiment-filled ideas for the special people and important occasions in your life. If you also want to blow a stack of cash on a store-bought gift, that’s your prerogative. (Let me know if you need my address). But here are some loving overtures that will take root in mom’s heart.
Give mom a clipping from your garden. Do you have a plant she’s admired, or grow her favorite flowering vine? Something that has responded to your painstaking care? Present it to her in a lovely pot, or plant it at her house.
Take a clipping from her yard. Show her that not only have you noticed what she’s tended and nurtured, but you want to transplant a piece of it near you.
Put some work into mom’s outdoor space. Would she prefer if you surprised her, or worked alongside her? Maybe it’s time to swap out some high-maintenance flora for something less demanding of her time and energy. Trick-out her sprinkler system – and leave instructions. Install some path or security lighting to keep her surefooted outdoors.
Don’t forget Grandma! Even folks in downsize mode appreciate a small potted plant. And how much better if you can bring a clipping from a yard she’s left behind.
Know a graduate? Consider a living monument to their accomplishment. While the former student may not put roots down yet, what about those who footed the tuition? Sure, a Japanese Maple sapling won’t fill an empty nest, but it will probably listen as well as the teenager or twenty-something who used to live under the roof.
This season, have fun gifting what you love to those you love.
Blog reader Jamie commented on Monday’s post, suggesting Kung Pao peppers as an addition to an Asian cuisine 
themed herb garden. Just reading about her husband’s chicken dish got my mouth watering.
And what else do you need for good Kung Pao? Peanuts, of course!
Did you know that peanuts are more closely related to the pea than the nut? Since they grow in a pod, like their little green cousins, they are a legume – versus a true tree nut.
“Tomayto, tomahto,” you may be thinking. But the peanut’s legume nature makes them a great crop for summer – which they like long and warm. Sounds like Zones 7 & 8 to me! They should even grow well for those of you who get coastal fog.
The plants get 10”-20” high, and blossom into yellow flowers. The fading flowers send a shoot (a “peg”) into the soil, which develops the peanuts underground. Make sure your soil isn’t too hard packed for them to dig in there.
Some 16-17 weeks after planting, the plants will yellow. Gently pull them out and let the nuts cure, still on the vine but out of the sun, for 15-20 days.
Voila! Nuts! Err, legumes.
Planting an herb garden this year? As you select your plants, try this – think with your stomach!
Instead of the usual suspects, consider a holistic approach to the favs that will make their way from garden, to kitchen, to plate. Do you tend to cook Italian? Gravitate toward Asian cuisine? Or do you favor the flavor of fresh Mex?
In honor of Cinco de Mayo – ¡olé! – let’s start with the latter. If you like robust salsas, zesty pico de gallo, or chili BBQ rubs, then with a little planning you can have it all at your fingertips. Plant cilantro, and add some colorful chili’s: Serrano, Fresno, habañero, poblano, Anaheim or jalapeño. Not only are they fresh ingredients in many dishes, but they can also be roasted or dried, right at home.
Maybe it’s pasta that sets your mouth watering. The popular herb blend known as Herbes de Provence typically includes rosemary, marjoram, basil, bay leaf, thyme, and sometimes lavender. With all those growing out your kitchen door, you could tackle many favorite dishes from the European Mediterranean.
Do you stick with stir fry? Warm up to a good bowl of Phở? You’ll want to plant cilantro, and possibly its cousin, coriander. Also consider green onions, shallots, a pepper such as Serrano, and fennel.
And another thing:
Mint can grow roughshod over your herb garden. Consider potting it to keep it in check.
Rosemary is perennial, and pretty hardy in zones 7 and 8. Prepare to keep it cut way back, or take advantage of its inherent shrub nature and plan your space accordingly. When the shoots are long enough, cut and use them as flavorful BBQ skewers.
Chives are easy to grow and compliment many dishes
If you are considering planting garlic - hold off until the fall.
Get going! Leaf through your favorite recipes to select which herbs are best for your garden!
Make way for some very cool news! A nicer and more convienent facility awaits the San Francisco Flower & Garden Show for the next show that runs from March 18-22. The SF Flower and Garden Show is MOOVING from the Cow Palace to the San Mateo Event Center in, of course, San Mateo.
As this show is one of the largest in the world, the increased size of the facilty will be very positive for both vendors and attendees, as well as make a flattering backdrop for the gorgeous display gardens.
The staff is excited about this change. Duane Kelly, Show Chairman states, “In considering this move we did a lot of research. The San Mateo Event Center features good access from highways 101 and 280 and has excellent mass transit connections. Our research indicated that this move will result in higher overall attendance due to increased attendance from the south Peninsula, the Santa Cruz/Monterey area, and the central valley.”
The Show Staff and founders thank the Cow Palace management and staff for the tremendous support they have given the Garden Show over the years.
The San Mateo Event Center is located at: 2495 S Delaware St, San Mateo, CA 94403. Info.
Water is so very cool! As I type, I am listening to a small water feature built into my yard. Two tiny waterfalls splash into a ground basin, and further over is a fish pond, currently covered by a net as one bird in particular has chosen to fish-dive multiple times in the past couple of weeks. We are down by about twenty fish already. No more of that! There is a point where even I intervene in “nature”.
The Urban Farmer’s Store recommends the following considerations when you are planning or constructing water features for your garden:
- Safety: Fountains and waterfalls can be designed with concealed reservoirs that are child safe.
- Site Considerations: Carefully choose a site avoiding areas directly under plants or trees so you don’t disturb the roots when excavating. This will also keep large quantities of leaves from falling directly into the reservoir.
- Design Considerations: Plan for a way to hide electrical cords, pipe, and tubing running in and out of the water. This can be accomplished by using stones to cover them as they come up over the edge or by using tank adapters for running through the reservoir wall.
- Electrical Requirements: Electricity must be located nearby, but at least 6′ away to reduce the risk of accidental electrocution…Allow for at least two GFCI protected plugs. 12-volt pumps connected to a transformer may be an option in areas without convenient line voltage.
- Sunlight and Wind Considerations: Sun and wind play a role in how much maintenance your water feature will require. More than 5 or 6 hours of sunlight will cause algae to bloom, and the wind blows debris and leaves into the pond which can choke the filter. Use edging at least 2″ above ground surface around the reservoirs to act as a barrier to windborne debris. Plant dense perennials or evergreen shrubs around low edges to keep wind from blowing debris into raceways or reservoir and provide a built-up rim around the edges. Most water plants, like water lilies, require a minimum of 5 hours of sunlight per day to bloom, so select a level spot with the appropriate amount of sun, realizing that more sun can mean more algae. Wind and sun also help determine how rapidly water will evaporate from your pond, and how often you need to refill it.
- Water supply requirements: Plan for a convenient way to fill, drain, and refill your water feature.
Yes, it’s that time again! Time to organize your May calendar and make sure that important garden events are prioritized accordingly with everything else in your life. Here are some:
San Francisco Botanical Garden Library is featuring garden watercolors by Catherine M. Watters and her students from April 1-June 30. Catherine is one of two core instructors for the Filoli Botanical Art Certificate program in Woodside. She shows her paintings in several juried exhibits each year and her illustrations are featured in five books. Library hours: 10 am - 4 pm, seven days a week (closed on major holidays), free of charge.
California Native Plant Society presents Off the Beaten Path in the Shasta-Trinity National Recreation Area: Shrubs and Endemics May 1-4 with John O. Sawyer. Location: Shasta-Trinity National Forest. Lake Shasta and Mount Shasta dominate the list of destination points for myriad recreational pursuits in northern California. This workshop will visit botanically interesting, less-traveled sites around Lake Shasta checking out the plants growing on limestone. The focus will be on shrub identification and seeing the endemic Shasta snow-wreath (Neviusia cliftonii) in bloom. Course fee ($450/$475) includes campground fees, meals, and transportation for the duration of the workshop. Camping will be at a developed campground with pit-toilets and running water.
California Native Plant Society presents The Rugged Mendocino Coast Friday evening, May 2, through Sunday, May 4. Explore the dramatically varied coastal vegetation of the Mendocino area: redwood forests in deep canyons, wind-pruned pines and cypresses on cliffs, gardenlike coastal bluffs, sphagnum bogs with insectivorous plants, and stunted forests of pygmy cypress on ancient podzols. Instructor: Glenn Keator. Location: Mendocino County. Cost: $80 members/$85 non-members (trip fee does not include lodging, food, or transportation)
Quarryhill Botanical Garden presents Ikebana Demonstration with Sogetsu Master Soho Sakai, RIJI, AIFD on May 3rd, 11:00 am-noon. Cost $30.00 (members receive 10% discount) and reservations are required. Refreshments will be served.
Mother’s Day Tea & Tours, Sunday May 11th at the Ruth Bancroft Garden. Plan on tea in the garden at 12 noon and 1:30 PM and self-guided tours from 10:00am-4:00pm. Celebrate Mothers’ Day by bringing Mom to The Ruth Bancroft Garden for a wonderful garden Tea. Enjoy your tea outdoors among the many rare and beautiful plants. The Tea includes a gourmet box lunch of sweet and savory treats and tea served in China tea cups. End the day with a self-guided tour included as part of the Mother’s Day Tea package. Reservations are required. Plants, dish gardens, artworks and gardening gifts will be available for sale.
San Francisco Rose Society presents a MOTHER’S DAY SHOW on MAY 11th from 12:30-4:00. For additional information please call 415/647-4486.
Basic Sketching in the Garden, Saturday, May 17, 10:00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m. Learn how to draw! By the end of this class, you’ll be able to make a quick sketch while on a hike and a longer sketch when you have the time to sit. Instructor: Gretchen McCondochie. Location: Botanic Garden Visitor Center. Cost: $35 members/$40 nonmembers.
Medicinal Plants of Northern California with Christopher Hobbs on May 17-18. Location: Valley Life Sciences Building and the UC Botanical Garden. California is a treasure-trove of medicinal plant species. Many famous medicinal species from cultures around the world grow wild in California, and others are commonly cultivated as ornamentals. Many species of European herbs such as Arnica, valerian, Angelica, and gentian are common and native to the Sierra Nevada. The herbs Grindelia (gum plant), yerba santa, and coffeeberry were official drugs in the U.S. Pharmacopeia in the early 20th century. About 60% of the major herbs in the Chinese medica are available in nurseries and are commonly grown as garden plants and street trees, such as privet, jujube, star jasmine, and honeysuckle.
California Horticultural Society presents a Philadelphia Field Trip from May 28 to Monday June 2, 2008. This field trip will include visits to private gardens, nurseries, botanical gardens, and Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell. Gardens: We will visit the gardens of Wayne & Doris Guymon, Inta Krumbolz, Jenny Rose Carey, Charles Crescent, Renny Reynolds, David Culp, Queenie & Dixie Northrup, and others. Botanical Gardens: There will be docent led tours at Mt Cuba, Longwood, Winterthur, Grounds for Sculpture, Morris Arboretum, Chanticleer, Bartram’s Garden, and Temple University. Nurseries : Hortulus, and Russel Nuseries.
Flora of the Sierra Valley with Bill and Nancy Harnach, May 29-June 1. Location: Sierra Nevada Field Campus, Sierra Valley. During this workshop, we will focus on the identification of both common and rare species. Although most of Sierra Valley is private land, we will access a number of sites that highlight the habitat diversity in order to visit botanical treasures like Ivesia aperta var. aperta. Course fee ($450/$475) includes camping fees, meals, and transportation for the duration of the workshop. Camping fees include the use of double occupancy tents with platform twin beds and mattresses and bathrooms with running water and flush toilets. Participants may choose to bring their own tents.
Pacific Horticulture Magazine presents A Weekend in Santa Barbara: Plein-air Sketching and Painting from May 30-June 1, 2008. Co-sponsored by Western Horticultural Society. Led by Professor Chip Sullivan and escorted by Leslie Dean.
Did you see them at the garden show? Grass, flowers and veggies…on a roof…and not in pots. Well, it turns out there is much more than space conservation benefits to a Green Roof, and I never even realized it. Duh.
Green Roofs can keep your house cooler and prevent cooling costs from being so high. Studies actually show up to a 25% savings in energy costs. Hello? Who wouldn’t want that? Green Roofs can also reduce the upper floor cooling load by as much as 60%.
According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Green Roofs reduce sewage system loads by absorbing large amounts of rainwater and preventing run-off, absorbing air pollution and particulates, reducing noise and more.
As we know, it also helps provide more homes for our feathered and furry friends.
So Green Roofs ain’t just for chickens.
Joe Lamp’l (aka Joe Gardener) recommends professional installation of a Green Roof as there are many considerations in engineering of them. And he says, “If 100,000 households nationwide (that’s just one household in every city and town) installed a Green Roof, we would reduce electricity consumption in the U.S. by 275 million kilowatt hours every year.”
Jasmine says, “Get green, people. Do it.”
Are you maintaining or considering a Green Roof? Let us know in the comment section.
Images of Green Roofs
Many thanks to Joe for writing “The Green Gardener’s Guide” which is chock full of information about Green Roofs and many other green gardening topics.
Almost everywhere I looked in Safeway yesterday, there were Tea Tree products including deodorants, lotions, soaps, oils, etc. As far as I can see, we aren’t eating the stuff yet on a regular basis (drinking maybe), but our skin apparently benefits from the application of it.
The Tea Tree ‘Manuka’, or Leptospermum, has long been known for medicinal benefits. Many years ago, the Maori used it to treat a variety of ailments and Captain Cook (not “Hook”) named them Tea Trees because tea from the leaves prevented scurvy amongst his crew. Bees make a dark honey from Tea Tree nectar that is known for its antibacterial and antifungal properties. You go, bees!
The San Francisco Botanical Garden has a variety of Tea Trees for your viewing pleasure, and indeed, the twisting trunks are a cool sight and the flowers are spiffy. Go now to catch ‘em in bloom! Outside the Fragrance Garden there are several prostrate types and also some on the axis leading from the fountain to the Zellerbach garden. There are L. scoparium ‘Helene Strybing’ around the fountain plaza.
The hardiest species are L. lanigerum, L. liversidgei, L. polygalifolium, L. rupestre and L. scoparium. They are good in most soils but need good drainage and full sun. After they are established, they are even drought-tolerate so they make a great plant for our area. They flower in white, red, pink or neon (just kidding-about the neon anyway).
If you want a colorful and hardy shrub-line, Tea Trees are a good choice and the fun, twisty trunks make a great focal point and conversation starter. I would encourage you to look up specific information on your species before injesting it or placing it on your skin. Come on now, Jasmine says you gotta!
Anyone growing Tea Trees? Send your comments and pics to me at sanfranjasmine@gmail.com
Dear Jasmine,
My kids and I want to start a small vegetable garden. Finances are a concern so I want to cut corners where I can but I don’t want to do that in the wrong places. I also want them to see the results in our home before moving the plants outside so that we can journal about the progress. How can I put together a budget-friendly plan where they can see and participate in results?
Just Starting
Dear Just Starting,
Long before the craze of planting seedlings in peat cubes, which recently has been shown to NOT be so environmentally friendly, my mother used paper Dixie cups and then just tore away the cup to plant when ready. This worked especially well with brocoli. A friend on another blog has even more recommendations for starting seedlings inside, including:
- Using coir pots (made from coconut fiber) instead of peat
- Cutting cardboard toilet paper tubes in half and pinching in the bottoms to make pots
- Cleaning out eggshells and using them as planters (powerful symbolism, huh?)
- Making pots out of old newspaper (gotta see the picture of this one-very cool)
There are many ways to plant within a budget, especially with kids. Of course you will invest in the seeds and the dirt but sun is free and water low-cost.
Set your plants in a sunny window and coach the kids on the importance of light. Help them water without over-watering and if they are old enough, have them research specific needs of each vegetable that you plant and make an index card with important information for each one.
Soon the seedlings will be ready and your kids will be totally thrilled to help them move into an outside home. Continue the horticultural education outdoors and I guarantee you that these veggies will taste much better to them when they are finally ready.
And, Jasmine guarantees that you will make up for the money that you spent when you have fresh vegatables to put on the table.
~Jazz
Dear Jasmine,
I’m moving to Santa Barbara from Denver and will need some guidance in the garden. Any book, gardening or landscape architect advice?
Mimi Kaupe
Dear Mimi,
Wow! What a move! Glad that you found us and are already researching new ventures in new lands. And of course, I have way too many sources to list. But let me start with the local organizations that have been so helpful to me. Make sure you read through their websites, and also take notes of any classes that they are holding. Many are free or cheap and well worth it when you are learning to design and garden in a new climate. And don’t forget to put next year’s San Francisco Flower & Garden Show on your calendar-it is March 18-22 at the Cow Palace in San Francisco. Hope to see you there!
California Native Plant Society
Pacific Horticulture Magazine
San Francisco Rose Society
The Bay Area Gardener
San Francisco Botanical Garden
~Jazz
Here’s a fun, space-saving idea to implement in your vegetable garden – interplanting.
Interplanting, or intercropping, is a fun foray into biodiversity for even the fair-weather suburban gardener. When we strategically combine our veggies – or perhaps mix kitchen gardens with flower gardens – we can leverage individual plant strengths to the advantage of all. One crop’s blossom can boost pollinator traffic for its neighbor.
The latter can repay the kindness by repelling pests naturally attracted to the first. Ain’t it great when everyone plays together nicely?
A great combination to get started with is the tried-and-true mix of corn with climbing beans or peas. As the corn shoots skyward, it provides a natural stalk for the winding climbers. And, by the way, growing corn doesn’t necessarily require a great deal of land. You can grow it in a washtub, barrel or large pot – provided it gets enough sun. Your beans can root there too. Good news for those of us without a back forty.
For yet a third tier in your bed, add something from the vine family - melon, cucumber, squash or pumpkins – as a complimentary crop. The vine will remain low to the ground (blocking weeds) while the other two mature above. Do I hear a chorus of “We are the World”?
Interplanting just requires thinking outside the traditional row. For instance, consider adding corn to a Sunflower Hideaway project.
Go on — put on your thinking caps and gardening gloves and dig in!
