by angela@diggingbliss | Apr 18, 2008 | Uncategorized
Will more people– of all ages, not just Gen X/Yers nursery consultants are urging nursery owners to woo– start growing their own food? Gardening? Yup.
How I learned to stop worrying and love the recession
The market’s in a slump and America’s heyday is long gone. But I’ve found comfort in being a coupon clipper.
By Heather Havrilesky, Salon.com
Store-bought vs. homemade
Sometimes convenience makes sense — and can even save cents
By Gwen Schoen – gschoen@sacbee.com, SacBee.com
Bring back the WWII-era victory garden
Philip S. Wenz
Saturday, April 12, 2008, SFGate.com
by angela@diggingbliss | Apr 16, 2008 | Uncategorized
Thought I’d pass this along…
You are receiving this because you signed the online petition at
savethecowpalace.com...
Dear Friend of the Cow Palace,
Great news!
The Senate Agricultural Committee today (4/15/08) voted to "approve" SB 1527
with amendments that protect the Cow Palace and most of it's parking lots,
and allow the potential sale of ONLY the 13 acres that the Cow Palace Board
has been working to lease to Daly City from the beginning!
In other words, the Cow Palace is saved and the Senate will continue to work
on lease or sale of 13 acres of the Cow Palace parking lot for a retail
center.
You, along with thousands of others, made your voice heard.
You helped save the Cow Palace! All 5 Senators were delivered a BOUND copy
of all 2,800 signatures (and your comments!) received by
savethecowpalace.com
Thank you for signing the petition and for everything you did to help!
So, we can breathe a sigh of relief and perhaps write letters of thanks to
the 5 Agriculture committee members, but this is not the end of the issue
forever.
The amended bill has now moved to the Government Organizational Committee.
If the language is not amended again to require a lease of the 13 acres
instead of an outright sale, the Cow Palace will not have enough money over
time to pay for needed upgrades to it's facility and operations.
We will keep you posted and let you know if there is anything else you can
do once we have seen the actual amendment language.
In the meanwhile, say "Yeeee-Haaaaa".
We will continue to communicate about ways to assure a bright future for OUR
Cow Palace.
Spread the word! If your friends that you tell the good news have signed
the online petition too, they will automatically receive updates as a
"Friend of the Cow Palace".
If they have not signed the petition, please tell them to do so! It will
stay up for a while and will put them on the email list for the ongoing
"Friends of the Cow Palace"!
Thank you again for everything you did to help!
Sincerely,
Kevin
Kevin Patterson
Friends of the Cow Palace
(formerly the Coalition to Save the Cow Palace)
http://www.savethecowpalace.com/
Email: info@savethecowpalace.com
--
by angela@diggingbliss | Apr 12, 2008 | Uncategorized
During a much-needed plant-fondling trip to Berkeley Hort yesterday, I spied another gorgeous Osteospermum, ‘Nuanza Copper Purple’, in a planter. It’s very reminiscent of ‘Sunny Sheila’ in its jewel-toned color blend and iridescence, but here purple dominates with just a hint of copper. Didn’t take a pic, but here’s a link to a pic. None in stock at B.H. that day, unfortunately, but I’ll keep my eye out for it locally.
When Weeder and I left Sac, it was downright chilly; bizarrely, Berkeley was experiencing a scorcher! Note to Berkeley… we like you better when we need a sweater.
Fun site: http://www.capedaisy.com/
by angela@diggingbliss | Apr 9, 2008 | Uncategorized
I’m still loving Osteospermum hybrid Sunny ‘Sheila’. The colors are amazing… much more intense and coppery in person than in photos and the way light plays with the petals is really fun.
by angela@diggingbliss | Mar 29, 2008 | Uncategorized
The secret to growing orchids? A sunny corner kitchen window. This magic orchid-growing window faces south and west. I water every few days with a quick squirt from the kitchen sprayer. For added humidity, the pots sit on pebble-filled drainage trays and I leave the accumulated water.
Every month or so, I rinse off my plants and give them a little liquid orchid food. I believe I’ve had the same container of orchid food my whole life. I should probably feed these guys more often, but likely won’t. I would like to divide them soon; things are getting crowded, especially since I don’t tie up my orchids like the pros do.
Hard to see, but on the lower right, my little Tillandsia plant is about to bloom! Other than these, I don’t do houseplants.
by angela@diggingbliss | Mar 28, 2008 | Uncategorized
My first plum crop on my “Backyard Orchard Culture“… um… orchard. Tastings to follow, I hope. I planted three varieties 18 inches apart and each tree has lots of little plums. Fingers crossed!
Edible violas in my window box
Freesiaaaaaaaaaaah…
Nasturtiums abound…
‘Rainbow’ Swiss chard is being enjoyed stir-fried by me, and raw by my little friend.
by angela@diggingbliss | Mar 24, 2008 | Uncategorized
There’s suddenly plenty of spring garden blogging to catch up on, but for the next few weeks I’ll be giving first priority to my web design class. Yep, that’s right, I finally bit the bullet and signed up for a real class in Dreamweaver CS3. I’m halfway through the course and loving it.
My brain is delightully strained as I learn the basics of nifty things like CSS and AP Divs and soon, Spry Widgets (whatever they are). My aim by the end of the course is to totally revamp the local gardening website I made. After that, I hope to be able to offer to build nice-looking and user-friendly websites for nurseries, public gardens, florists… you name it.
This could be a fun way for me to combine my interests and earn generate some income by providing a helpful, reasonably priced service to organizations needing website construction and/or maintenance.
When I earned my horticulture degree at the ripe old age of Oh, Who Cares, I decided to forgo a career in the industry in order to continue being a stay-at-home mom to my then-young son. Not surprisingly, I started going a little stir-crazy when faced with little more to stimulate my plant-filled mind than household chores, grocery shopping, cooking, taking Master Elliot to soccer practice, swim lessons, Zany Brainy book club meetings, neighborhood parks, libraries, toy stores, play dates, doing drop-off and pick-up for Parks & Rec., kids’ cooking classes, tennis lessons, and school. Even backyard gardening failed to quench my thirst for more.
I think that’s because the web is an exciting place. In school, I learned about so many great online resources for gardeners that I want to share with fellow gardeners. I was new to computers, but my professors made sure we learned how to use search engines, and how to communicate by e-mail and send attachments. Some gardeners have no interest in online gardening and prefer the tactile appeal of traditional books, magazines and newspapers. That’s fine. You’re not who I’m trying to reach. You’re not reading this.
Alternately, some tech-savvy gardeners have little interest in… let’s call it… paper gardening. Paper gardening seems stale… and expensive. To people like that… to me… the morning newspaper seems so “yesterday’s news”. You know? A gardening book, well, that thing was written a year or more before it reached the shelf.
by angela@diggingbliss | Mar 20, 2008 | Uncategorized
make olive oil!
http://oliveoil.ucdavis.edu/
UCD celebrates another year of turning olive mess into moneymaker
By Jim Downing – jdowning@sacbee.com
Last Updated 12:13 am PDT Thursday, March 20, 2008
Story appeared in Sacramento Bee BUSINESS section, Page D1
by angela@diggingbliss | Mar 19, 2008 | Uncategorized
Another great annual return to the San Francisco Flower & Garden Show! Came home with two new orchids… the very ones I wanted to buy last year but didn’t! Ah, orchid closure. Well, almost. There was a peachy, pinky cousin of these two that I had to leave behind until next year.
Masdevallia (veitchiana ‘Pacific Giant’ x ‘veitchiana ‘Bolin’)
Masdevallia (Pixie Lavender ‘Fine’ x FalconSunrise ‘Scarlet’)
Of the display gardens at this year’s show, the Zen Spa Garden was the most impressive (to me). Not only was it a welcome drop of Zen in a sea of Cow Palace excitement, but unlike many show gardens, this is one you would actually install in a real backyard here on planet Earth. Derviss + Chavez did a fabulous job and it was really interesting watching the project’s progress on Derviss’ blog.
The crowds weren’t tooooooooooo bad for a Friday, but I still made a mental note to save the display gardens for last next year. There’s nothing more frustrating than visiting an an exhibit that can only be glimpsed through a wall of people. Yes, Monterey Bay Aquarium, I’m talking about you too. Oh, to be able to vaporize peop… um… nevermind.
My new plan of attack will be to hit the vendors/seminars for a bit upon arrival, then have lunch, then hit the vendors/seminars some more, and finally… enjoy the gardens at a leisurely pace once the crowds begin to wane. Perhaps it’ll be best to take a break for chocolate and coffee as well.
I always end up with sensory overload at the end of my Show visit, but it’s a good kind of sensory overload… the kind that later inspires new touches in my own garden. And new orchids on my kitchen windowsill.
SLIDESHOW: Click slideshow below to launch.
VIDEO SLIDESHOW– stills and a couple video clips to music (takes awhile to download)
Watch the video
Music: Demolition Man by The Police
It’s hard to believe the Cow Palace might be torn down soon. For whatever it’s worth, you can go to SaveTheCowPalace.com and sign the online petition. I did.
by angela@diggingbliss | Mar 16, 2008 | Uncategorized
(photo from http://frontiers.ucdavis.edu)
UC Davis Frontiers: Energy from table scraps
