Gifts from the Garden

Do you grow your own herbs? My husband and I love to cook with fresh herbs whenever possible and we have a fairly extensive herb garden. We grow some at home and we grow a lot at The Secret Garden too. Even now in the winter months I can still walk outside and snip fresh herbs from my perennial beds of thyme, oregano, chives, marjoram, rosemary. The annual herbs like basil are gone from the garden now, but we've put away enough pesto to hold us over until next summer and the spice cubboard is filled with jars of dried herbs for when it's too cold and dark to go outside. 

Dried herbs, herb blends and mixes make a great quick gift for the foodie in your life. If you have herbs hanging in your pantry like me, then it's time to get blending. This year I made a wonderful dill dip mix, some spicy hot fiesta dip mix, a dry rub for chicken and pork and blended my own herb blend similar to Herbes de Provence. (We call ours Herbes d'Elk Grove!) 

  I hang herbs to dry on my pantry wall. It's not pretty, but it's dry and dark and that's perfect.

A pretty tag makes these perfect for gift giving. 

Here's a link to the site that offered some great dip mix recipes. I used both the Fiesta Dip and the Dill Dip to make ours and they are delicious. If you don't just happen to have dill hanging in your pantry :) you can purchase dried herbs at the store and still put together mixes as quick inexpensive gifts. Or better yet, head over to The Secret Garden and pick up our mixes already made!

What about plant inspired gifts from your garden? If you grow succulents, you can no doubt take a few cuttings and put together some darling little pots of happiness to share. We also scavenged in the yard and used old pieces of wood, succulents and some fun little treasures to make fun "living scenes". If you need help putting something like this together, come see us. We also have scenes ready for purchase. Let's remember that the best gifts come from the heart.

MERRY CHRISTMAS from all of us at The Secret Garden!

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Succulent Winter Survival Guide

Cold Weather Care for your Succulents

So you started with an innocent purchase. One little, very cute succulent. Maybe you heard they were easy to take care of, maybe you were roped in by the lure of drought tolerance, or maybe it was just how different the little thing looked.

If you are like me, that innocent purchase has blossomed into an entire collection, a veritable forest of succulents. In the ground, in pots, perhaps even in clever little miniature gardens. Great. You love them.  But now it's cold and damp and frost is on the forecast. So what do you do to protect what started as a small purchase and has now grown to rival the national debt?

First thing is to warn the family that friends will be coming to stay for a while. Then start bringing all the little potted darlings inside. Succulents make excellent house plants and since most of them are dormant in winter, they require very little attention. Find a spot in your home where they can receive at least 3-4 hours of sunlight a day. It can be indirect light and cloudy days don't count. Since they are dormant they should not receive any fertilizer and you can get away with watering them once a month or so. Err on the side of neglect. (The perfect kind of house guests!)

Kitchen window sills make a great winter home for some of my succulent collection.

You do need to check for pests every now and again. Aphids and mealy bugs may have decided to come in to escape the cold too. (Mealy bugs are the little cottony looking bugs.) To combat either, just mix up a 3:1 ratio of rubbing alcohol and water. It can be sprayed on the plants but I find it more successful to apply it directly to the pests with a q-tip. 

So what if your succulents are too big to bring inside or are planted in the ground? Just consider that cold winter temperatures combined with water clogged soil is a combination for disaster. If you can provide the potted plants with protection from the rain they will thank you, so drag them up closer to the house to get protection under the eaves. If frost is on the forecast then be sure to cover them at night. You don't need anything fancy, just use an old sheet or tarp. Just try to rig it so the cover does not touch the leaves. The cover will need to come off during the day when the temperatures are above freezing. Repeat this labor of love until all threat of frost is past.

Jennifer

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Ps. Weather forecast says it will drop below freezing in Elk Grove starting early Sunday morning and run for about 4-5 days. Best to make up the guest rooms now! 😉

When Life Gives You Lemons...

It's that time of year when the lemon tree in the yard is beyond laden with fruit. The branches are bending with the weight of the lemons and practically scrapping the ground beneath. I look forward to this harvest every year and I like how it comes in well after most of the rest of the garden is done producing. Now I can turn my full attention to putting up the lemon harvest. And with frost on the forecast, looks like I better get busy with finishing up what's still out on the tree.

We grow everything organically, and this harvest is one of the best I've ever had. I wonder it it has something to do with the worm castings we put down this past summer?

I picked what seemed like a lot of lemons last week. After I'd been outside in the cold for a while picking lemons off the tree one by one I decided the tree needed pruning.  Made for faster work outside and a quick escape back into the warmth of the kitchen. 

 

I started with juicing. Do you know I still have the juicer I brought with me to college 35 years ago. Gosh I wish they still made appliances like they used to. I juiced and I juiced and I juiced. Fresh squeezed juice should be used within a few days, even if stored in the refrigerator. It's not pasteurized and can develope bacteria. So all this juice needed to be bagged and frozen. 

I bagged it in 1 cup amounts, I bagged it in 2 cup amounts, and I bagged up little blocks of 3Tbls amounts by using ice cube trays. These are great for throwing in a pot of food on the stove for that lemon zing I love. Good thing I have an extra freezer in the garage. I bagged 30+ cups of juice and 48 cubes.

Next I worked on the rinds to make lemon vodka. Remember I grow my lemons organically so our rinds are totally safe for infusions. I do not recommend doing this if you spray pesticides or fertilizers on your trees. 

I cut the rinds into sections and removed as much of the membrane and pith as possible. Then I filled mason jars full of lemon sections and added vodka. It's that simple. You don't need to be fancy and go top shelf, but don't do bargain brand either as cheap vodka will always be cheap vodka! I used Sky for this batch. 3 weeks of infusion should do the trick. Taste after 3 weeks and see how you like it. Once the lemon flavor is strong enough for your liking, strain through cheesecloth to remove any residue. Celebrate your cleverness and make yourself a lemon drop martini! Bottle up what's left for later or if you're really nice, put some up for gifts.

If you run out of vodka before you run out of lemon rind like I did, then next you can make Lemon/Rosemary household cleaner. Another easy infusion. Just fill your mason jars with lemon rind and sprigs of fresh rosemary. The best lemon scent comes from the oils in the peels, so pack in as many rinds as you can fit in the jar. The Rosemary makes a nice partner. 2-3 weeks of infusion and it's ready to strain. I store it at full strength and then dilute with water for an excellent all purpose cleanser for counter tops, floors, stove top and more. Vinegar is an all natural anti-bacterial and I like using it better than harsh chemicals in my home. It also makes an excellent carpet and fabric stain remover when mixed with baking soda.

Still have peels? Then next you can dehydrate them in your oven. It takes an hour or two at 200 degrees and you want to make sure they are completely dry before removing. I loved how the peels turned orange as they dried. The dehydrated peels can be ground coarsely with pepper and then added to salt to make your own lemon pepper seasoning. Or grind them to a fine powder to make an excellent citric powder. The powder is very high in vitamin c and adds a citrus wallup to your morning smoothie.

 

 

So there you go. I've been at it for days and I still have half the tree to go! But it's so worth the work as I'll have home grown, fresh lemon juice for a year until the next harvest. Just imagine the lemon bars, the lemon merangue pies, the lemonade! Would you like to be able to do this too? It's never too late to plant your own lemon tree and even potted trees will produce well. Visit me at The Secret Garden if you have any questions about getting started. 

Jennifer

www.secretgarden-online.com

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You Have to Love What You Do; to Drive 200 Miles for Poo.

Today's garden shop adventure is pretty exciting stuff. Ever since the vermicompost clinic out at The Elk Grove Community Garden last summer, I've been wanting to carry this black gold in the store. (Can you now hear the Beverly Hillbilly jingle in your head?)

Last Fall I also took a 10 week course in everything to do with green gardening and once again, vermicompost was up there on the top of the list of must haves.

So that leads me to today, when Vic and I drove to Petaluma to meet up with Dave from Mass Wiggle. Dave gave us the million dollar tour of his worm composting facility. "Largest worm facility west of the Mississippi" touts Dave.The tour really was fascinating, how they take cow manure, rice hulls and tree chips and turn that into premium compost. This mixture is turned 5 times over the course of 30 days, and then it's fed to Dave's worms. Dave's 200 million worms live in specially designed 3 story condos in an old converted dairy barn! 

Another month or so of feeding the worms and harvesting their (ahem) poo and then it's on through the various conveyor belts and tumbling drums until finally out falls the most beautiful stuff I've ever seen. (Poetic license used here). The end result looks and feels like finely ground coffee. There isn't any odor and it is packed full of healthy microbes.

So we "loaded up the truck" and crawled through traffic back to Elk Grove carrying our 1100 lb load of premium, ready for your garden, vermicompost. We'll have it bagged up and ready for sale by the weekend so you can get it in your garden. Your plants and vegetables will thank you. Like I said, we love what we do, and we do it for YOU!

Fitting The Pieces Together Like Mosaic

There's a lot going on around the garden store. It's not quite Spring, but the recent warm weather has everyone thinking it is. The customer traffic this weekend was awesome, with loads of shoppers out looking for water features and pottery. We spent the better part of January getting the new yard design implemented, and now it's a matter of getting all the product here faster than anticipated. Who knew it would be almost 80 in Mid February?!

A thousand pieces to the retail puzzle. What will the shopper want to buy? How many should I order? When should I have it arrive in the store? How should it be displayed? How do I entice my customers to come shop? What incentives should I offer? How do I encourage new customers into the store? Will the store be beautiful and continue to inspire people?

This morning I taught a group of wonderful people the basics of tile mosaic in one of our workshops.  We were working with broken ceramic dishes as our tiles and this was an introductory class. The pieces were inherently uneven do to the plate structure. Different thicknesses and shifts from flat to curves were challenging. While the goal was to keep the tiles positioned 1/4 inch apart, many ended up with gaps closer to 1/2 inch or more. Eight people all working on their projects together but at varying speeds. It was inspiring how each person created a beautiful mosaic stone dispute the number of variables and obstacles presented her.

Back to the garden store. I am aware that I'm my own harshest critic. This weekend I had new customers who stood in the store and could barely contain their excitement at all The Secret Garden has to offer. Like watching a child in the proverbial candy store! I guess all the pieces of the puzzle do come together to create the colorful mosaic offering that is our store.

What's your favorite part of The Secret Garden mosaic? Have you picked up something special recently for yourself or a friend? Or maybe just stopped in to browse and have a comment about something you saw? I'd love to hear about it!