Dried Flower Arrangements …. finally!

I grew flowers in the garden last season with the goal in mind to dry them and use them in flower arrangements.  I scanned many catalogs and online references looking for the right flowers to grow.  I succeeded with some and didn’t with others.  The flowers that I found really easy to grow, dry and arrange were Globe Amaranth, Yarrow, Autumn Joy Sedum, Statice, Strawflowers and Zinnia.  There were a few others like baby’s breath, larkspur and blanket flowers that also worked but I didn’t end up with alot of them.  I bundled up all my dried flowers and took them down south with me this weekend to create some arrangements for the home there.  Most if not all of these flowers were air dried (hung upside down secured with a rubber band).  I am happy with the results and will grow more of these this year along with others ….

 Dried Globe Amaranth … a bundle of flowers and then the wreath that was created

I will add some more design to the wreath but for the most part the flowers do most of the work in a design and everything came out pretty good I think…….finally!

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Free Seeds

I have more seeds than I could possibly plant next year and I could toss them to the worms or the compost bin, but I would much rather send them off to someone who could enjoy them.  I am working out in my head how to do this, but I am thinking I would post the address on my website where people could send a SASE and then I could just put the seeds in there and send back. SASE = self addressed stamped envelope (an envelope inside the envelope you are sending with your address and postage already on it).  That way it won’t cost me anything and all it will cost the person is postage and 2 envelopes.  I am sure I can’t send anywhere like out of the country – there has to be laws about that, but within the USA should be ok.  If I start with Marigold seeds to see how this works all should go smoothly.  Envelopes at the post office go through this machine which could crush seeds so that’s why most seed companies send your order in a box or bubble wrapped envelope (these don’t visit the machine) and they arrive uncrushed.  That’s what I read on the internet and it makes sense since I have received seeds from others that were in fact “crushed” and no good.  Marigold seeds won’t crush and they are very easy to grow!

I am open to suggestions so if anyone has ideas or experience, I am all ears.  Otherwise, watch the website or my blog to see what I come up with!

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Blog organization and Yarrow growing

I like to stay organized, I don’t go crazy about it, but I think it keeps me sane and happy … therefore, I organize!  With the addition of the Monotone theme here on WordPress which is used for photos only, I have decided to use this to help keep me organized.  It should help those viewing my blog find pictures more easily and next year when I look back at my gardening journey I can “see” with the photos how I did.  When reading other blogs and searching for information I find myself drawn to the photos so I can visualize the results….it connects in my brain faster.  So I will continue to blog on DebsGardens with all the general garden and life happenings and post Flower Photos at my new blog http://debsflowers.wordpress.com and Veggie Photos at http://debsveggies.wordpress.com. 

I would like to share what is going on with the Yarrow I transplanted from the garden last year to a bare spot.  It is growing like crazy so far!  Make sure if you grow this flower you have space for it to expand.  I didn’t dry it last year but I plan to this year.  Both yarrow and baby’s breath are great candidates for drying and using in flower arrangements.

  Yarrow in the front

I did take a few cuttings of the Yarrow and Baby’s Breath and made a Simple arrangement.  Sometimes Simple is so easy 🙂

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Flowers blooming in the garden

All of these flowers are a first for me this year except the roses and the vine flower (not sure what it actually is called)

 Baby’s Breath

 

 Chamomile

 Borage flower

 Globe amaranth

 Guardian Marigold

 Roses

 Vine flower

 

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Help the honeybee with these free items

The magazine Country Living has a short article entitled “Plight of the Honeybee” and offers … What You Can Do In Your Backyard –

“Replace some of your lawn with flower beds.  Plant native plant species, which are well-suited for local bee populations.  A wealth of honeybee resources – including a free Pollinator Garden Wheel and a poster depicting North American bee species – are available at pollinator.org.  Reduce or eliminate pesticides and insecticides in the garden whenever possible.  Visit organicgardening.com for eco-friendly alternatives.  Choose plants that flower at various stages in the growing season to provide a consistent source of food for pollinators.  For a free packet of bee-friendly flower seeds, visit burtsbees.com”

Excellent advice I agree and I did check the sources for the free items and the Free Seeds are gone … clicked on the Community link and followed through to find 50,000 seed packets are gone, but it does list the seeds that were included – Calendula, Shasta Daisy, Lance-Leaved Coreopsis, Plains Coreopsis, Purple Coneflower and Sweet William Catchfly – so at least, we know what to plant.  The Garden Wheel and poster on the other site I couldn’t locate, but I may need to spend more time searching for it.  I did see that there is a free download offered starting June 22 and the site itself seemed to offer alot of good advice.

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The marigold … a lovely companion

Following is a previous post I made regarding Companion Gardening and the reason I am reposting is because the “Picture of the Week” this week (today) is my first marigold bloom and the marigold is praised as a great companion for quite a few other plants such as basil, cucumbers, melons, peas, potatoes, pumpkins, squash.

 

 

“I think the best way for me to do this analogy is just make random statements about what works with what as far as companions.  I did read “Great Garden Companions” & it’s a totally wonderful book.  I think though …… is that there is a ton of information & what happens for me is I get information overload & then the info is useless. So — I need to take a step backwards & look at the information that I want to use and document it. Alright, where do I start?  Ok… to explain what Companion Gardening is ……. Planting specific plants next to each other or intermingled so each individual plant grows better and flourishes “just because” the companion plant is nearby.  I support the basis of this & will definitely find out if it works – I won’t have my organized rows of plant after plant but that’s ok .. sometimes, you just have to give up on being organized.

 

The bottom line here is – What can I plant next to my tomatoes to ward off insects … like that gross Tomato Hornworm?  Well, Basil is a suggestion & Borage .. ok, I can do that. Some of the thought behind this is that the scents and textures of different plants repel insects or even animals like deer – deer don’t like fuzzy plants … borage is fuzzy, I didn’t even care for it as an edible in salads, but if it keeps the deer away… Let’s Grow It!  Now Marigolds are quite fragrant and if you think about it … is the smell even that pleasant?  Not really… but this plant scares away all those insects or confuses them. Marigold Golden Guardian ….. I planted these a couple of days ago and I think I will be quite guarded – Here’s what they say …hope it works.   Control Nematodes with flowers not chemicals.  Golden Guardian Marigold proved to be the most effective for controlling root nematodes, killing 99% over a 3 month period. Nematodes live in the soil, feeding off the roots of tomatoes & other veggies.  Ok, let’s give it a shot!    This is just the beginning ….. next step, figuring out what other companion plants I will grow ….”

Here are the Golden Guardians as of today so I am good.

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24 years Flew by …

Today is our Anniversary – 24 years of wedded bliss … (what is wedded bliss anyways?)  I just know that it sure didn’t feel like 24 years and I look at us and our family and we are Happy & Content.  That must be wedded bliss?!?!?  Well, I received a dozen roses …

 and guess what I DID…  guess –

I stopped at the hobby store day before yesterday to buy silicia gel for drying flowers.  Did I mention growing and drying flowers is my new ambition?  The silica was on Sale SO that made my day…so I got to try it out today with my Roses 🙂  I only took one – I mean I did just got them.  So I covered the rose with the silica gel completely and put it in the microwave with a cup of water and nuked it for 2 minutes.  It worked!  Air drying would do the same thing but the silica gel is quicker.   I don’t understand why they call it “gel” it’s tiny crystals …

 

So I will preserve these dear roses for the next 24 years :-)))

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Beaver dam and Easter lilies

Today we were able to start up our doggie walks along the  western trail path – we now have 3 new puppies (1 year, 8 months & 4 months old) all from our local shelter AND they love to go on walks! The weather is granting us a day here and there so we take turns with each puppy because we do want to enjoy the walk ourselves lol   Yesterday we were Amazed and quite frankly I was astonished to see what beavers can do when building their dams! So today I brought along the camera and I am tellin’ ya … to gnaw down a tree takes some doin”!

  

Earlier in the day I did manage to do some shopping …. garden shopping, of course!!  I discovered … if you are in the market for Easter lilies – buy them “after” Easter! I am planning a tribute to my grandmother who had a beautiful Easter lily garden and the memory of them is still fresh in my mind. When the lilies became available in the stores right before Easter I jumped on the opportunity to purchase one at $8.99 a pot – I thought somewhat high priced but it’s for a tribute. Now if I were buying for a gift I would not have thought twice either.  So then Easter passes by and I go to the store and the lilies are half price $4.50 and Today (a week and 1/2) after the holiday I buy one for $1.00!!!  Now that’s a lesson I learned ……….

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