Color in the Garden

I had a grand plan for a bright, white spring in my garden.  I envisioned the existing white tulips, snow drops,  and daffodils interspersed with fragrant white freesias – all peaking their heads over a blanket of white Santa Barbara daisies.

I thought all of this would tie in beautifully with the pale pick roses, clematis, fuchsia,  and penstemon that would start blooming a little later.

But my garden loves surprises. – the first of which was that I  had forgotten that many of the daffodils that I planted two years ago were marked incorrectly and were yellow instead of white.

But the biggest surprise was that about half of the hundred white freesia that I planted were not white at all.  They were a bright red with a yellow throat. My small garden was filled with passionate red and yellow color – that I just love!

I expect the red and yellow will have disappeared by the time that all the pale pinks start their blooms, so I couldn’t have planned it better if I tried.

Red Freesia

If you need help figuring out how to bring color into your garden, I have found some fabulous sites.  Click on the binder below to see my collection of sites that help you select color for your garden:

Color in the Garden

Green Gardening

Even though we’ve gotten a heavy dose of rain this past week, California is still on drought alert. But if you’re like me you still want to keep your garden blooming. I started a binder to collect interesting tips on how to maintain your garden on a tight water budget, and I’ll be adding other useful tips for keeping ‘green.’

Click on the link below to view websites with some helpful ideas for keeping your garden green and environmentally friendly. Once you open the LiveBinder, click on the tabs at the top of the page to go through the different articles and websites.

Green gardening tips

Ladybugs in my Christmas Tree

Every year we go out to the tree farm and cut our own Christmas tree. It is a beautiful area with a stream running through it and I’ve always hoped that they can sell enough trees to keep it as beautiful as it is.

This year when we took the tree off of the car, we noticed quite a few ladybugs at the base of the stump. We left it outside for a little while for them to find a new home. I love how the ladybugs take care of the aphids in my garden in the spring, so I was hoping they would stick around.

Then we brought the tree in the house and within ten minutes of being in the warm environment, thousands of ladybugs thought it was spring! They were all hiding close in to the trunk, but the warmth of the house brought them out to the branches ready to launch into the warm air! We grabbed the tree and put it outside, but have been chasing ladybugs around the house ever since.

I did some research on the web to try and figure out how to give them a good place to overwinter, but from everything I’m reading, they would prefer to be in the house. It makes me think that putting that tree just outside the door was not a good move. Here are some of the sites I found on Ladybugs:

lady bugs

LiveBinder It update!

We are happy to announce that the LiveBinder It bookmarklet tool has been updated.

Here are some of the changes in this release:

Auto-open:

Now when you add a link to a binder through the LiveBinder It bookmarklet tool, the binder will automatically open so that you can see where the link was added in your binder.

Non-conforming Links:

Some users have come across links that override the binder trying to open the link in its own browser window.  LiveBinder has now corrected that problem by adding the URL link to the tab page and launching a separate window for the web page.  Everytime you click on the tab of that particular link, the browser window will come to the front of the binder.

Error messages:

Any error messages caused by odd characters typed into a binder title has now been fixed.

To benefit from these new updates, replace your bookmarklet by going to livebinders.com/tool.

Let us know how it goes and if you encountered any problems.

Enjoy collecting!

Learning to compost

Living in San Francisco, we have the advantage of Sunset Scavenger, the company that removes our trash and recycling, taking care of the composting in our neighborhoods.  They provide the cans and pick up of the compost and all we have to do is put it out on the curb to get taken away.

However, if we wanted to keep the compost for our own use, we’d be out of luck.  This binder below has found several different websites that can give you guidelines on how to start your own compost.

Just click on the link below to view the different websites.  Enjoy!

Composting

Extreme Gardening

I love gardening, but as my dear friend Carolyn always says, “Anything worth doing, is worth over doing.”

Here are some gardeners who have done just that and taken gardening to the next level.  I’m so glad that they are willing to share their creations and adventures with us on the web. Click on the binder below to see some of these great sites. They are a true inspiration for the backyard gardener!

Beyond Gardening

Fresh produce delivered right to your door

Wouldn’t you love to have fresh, seasonal produce picked from your garden every week?   When I read this article by the SF Chronicle about fresh and seasonal produce delivered to your door, I realized that the trend might finally coming to the Bay area.

Looks like more people are shopping for organic produce, but they want even fresher produce than what their local markets can provide.  Bay Area residents are signing up with local farms to have fresh seasonal fruits and vegetables delivered directly to their homes.

To find one that will deliver in the San Francisco Bay Area, click on the binder link below to view 10 local farms that deliver.  Click on the different tabs in the binder to view the different farm websites, and the article from the San Francisco Chronicle.

Enjoy!

 

Produce door to door – Bay Area

 

Great Gardening Websites

The City of Belmont had their Spring Garden Faire today. It was a nice event, and I especially enjoyed the tour of the award-winning Belmont gardens. The weather was warm and it was a picture perfect day.

Handed out at the event was a list of gardening and going green websites. Too bad they didn’t know about LiveBinders. It would have been a lot easier (and saved paper) to just handout two urls, instead of two pages of urls.

I have put these lists of sites into binders so that they can be more easily shared (and shared in a more environmentally friendly way) via email. Click on the binders below to see these great gardening and going green websites:

Great Gardening Websites

Go Green

Decorating with House Plants

When I moved into my first apartment, I didn’t have any furniture – and no budget for furniture. So I went down to the local drug store and found some downtrodden plants on sale. They helped fill the empty spaces of the vacant rooms and, with a little care, soon grew faster than my budget for furniture.  The one mistake that I made way back then was just enjoying the way the greenery covered that dated paneling on the wall.  Much to my surprise when it came time to move, I found that some of the plants had actually rooted into that lovely mock walnut paneling!

Ever since then, house plants have been my “indoor garden”.  When it is too hot or too cold to garden outside I plant and replant my indoor garden. I have about 40 house plants and that number is always growing! The fun thing about house plants is that you can just stick cuttings in water and grow more. My kids have filled our house with ficus plants this way.

But the one thing that I never wanted was that hodge-podge look of plants all over the place.  I wanted the plants to be a part of my decor, not detract from it.  Here are some of my “decorating with plants” tips:

1. I picked pots that match each room decor, but leave the plants in their own pots so that I can rotate them based on their size, lighting needs, and my desire for change.
   

   Plants grouped

2. The plants are grouped together to provide a variety of textures and to add to that “jungle look”.
3. I also like to use Pothos plants as “live garland” across my fireplace mantel.
4. Use plants to camouflage electronics.
5. Add small shelves with plants to a wall.

I’ve gathered some great sites on selecting, caring for, and decorating with house plants. Click on the binder below to see these sites:

House Plants

Plants on shelves

Living garland

Propogating house plants from cuttings

Aerial Pesticide spraying this Summer in Bay Area

If any of you live in the San Francisco Bay Area – you might want to check out these news stories concerning the Light Brown Apple Moth Pesticide spraying that will occur in the Bay Area this summer. Somehow it has gone unnoticed by the community until recently and it is causing an uproar by local residents concerned for their health. This includes a group of mothers who are lobbying to change the spraying, but it might be impossible to do at this late notice.

If you click on the binder link below – it has the latest articles, and websites that can help you find out more information on what to protect yourself if you are stuck in the area during the aerial spraying. Everything is organized by tabs and sub-tabs just click on them to view the websites.

Moth spraying in Bay Area