Author Archives: deannagreensandgardenart

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About deannagreensandgardenart

Personal chef and greenhouse owner using sustainable, organic methods for growing herbs, flowers, and perennial plants.
Aug3

Purple Haze Carrots and Other Veggies

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This record breaking summer heat and drought is making for miserable working conditions for Missouri farmers.   Dean & I are a part of the local agriculture scene, though we farm more for organic promotion, recreation, and creation purposes.    For the farmer who is required to be outdoors all day and everyday, it is disheartening to see your crops dry up and wither in the sun.  My friends at EarthDance Farms as well as all the local farmers cannot seed any more carrots, beets, and beans for a fall crop because the earth is rock hard, and the seeds cannot germinate without rain.  I miss my favorites: purple haze carrot, candy cane beets, and tender  bush green beans!   Please pray for rains, several rains for Missouri and our neighboring midwest states.  We need God’s divine intervention. Deanna Greens and Garden Art’s tropicals and houseplants such as bird of paradise, hibuscus, banana trees, spider plants, red leaf philodenrens, arrowheads, rabbit foot ferns, and asparagus ferns love this heat and humidty as long as they are under our shade trees during the day and have plenty of water.  We water everything twice a day when it is over 100 degrees, which means almost everyday for the past 6 weeks!  Our oldest daughter took care of the plants, cats, and house while we vacationed in cooler Minnesota.  We were so thankful for a much needed break!   Now onward to the Saturday markets and the rebuild of our greenhouse.

Jul19

I’m Dreaming of A White Christmas …

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“I’m dreaming of a white Christmas …”  I am!  I had enough of these 100 + temp days!  How about you?  Well, if I cannot have a white Christmas right now, I will settle for milder summer days in the north woods of Minnesota with friends. 

Dean & I are headed there for a few days!  Need  to hear the loons once again! 

Jul16

The Dew of Little Things

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“For in the dew of little things the heart finds its morning and is refreshed,”  Khalil Gibran shares with us.  It was a “little things day” yesterday.  I awoke early Sunday morning as usual, even after 3 of my grandkids’ slumber party continued well past my bedtime Saturday night, which needs to be at 9:00pm!  After perusing the yard, taking in the morning sunlight, I returned to my kitchen to cook eggs, sausage, and toast before the little ones and my exhausted husband awoke.  He was up late working on the jeep, trying to take apart the layers to access any engine damage.  It looks like it is “fatal” as Dean says.   Shopping for a new engine now, or a new vehicle.   I let my husband work on those details while I played and relaxed with the grandkids.   We watered the plants and played with the hose a bit.   Frisbee and the neighbors’ dogs filled up the rest of the morning.  After our afternoon nap and quiet time I feel refreshed.  We watched a hummingbird visit the canna blossom.  We played with a bouncy ball, colored, and watched a movie.   I showed my granddaughters how to propogate cuttings of wandering jew and swedish ivy.  The slower pace of the children quieted my spirit, even in the chasing after my 2-year old grandson.  “The dew of little things …” 

Jul12

Lemonade Summer Evening

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It is a lemonade summer evening, maybe the hard lemonade kind tonight.  Trying to make lemonade out of lemons!  We had 2 vehicles break down this past week, one fixed and another one to go.  Then we had a fender-bender with our white beast of a van this morning parking near my work in Clayton.   Did not damage the beast, but the nervous lady’s Mercedes luxury sedan has some damage near the bumper.   I think Dean will be ready for that spiked lemonade.  Maybe watch a summer rain storm come in tonight.  What is your favorite lemonade?  I found a recipe for Lavender Lemonade, and adapted it to suit my tastes.  I cannot wait to try with the crop of lavender in harvest season right now.  This herb is beautiful, fragrant, and so versatile.  Where is the bottle of vodka in this picture???

Jul9

The Movement of A Summer Storm

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St. Louis, Missouri and surrounding areas have encountered 10 days in a row of record high temperatures, triple digits with no or trace rain for almost a month.  The corn is turning gray and rustles with the wind like fall leaves. We have had to water our plants 2 times a day during the drought.  God, the plants need rain!  Nothing beats real rain water!  It finally brewed up yesterday, some places more so than others.  We marketed at the Chandler Hill Vineyards Farmers’ Market yesterday afternoon, watching the clouds turn to thunderheads and shift different directions.  Wind gusts would sway the tents one direction and switch in another minute.  Maybe movement for the better?  On our trip home we left the storm further behind us.  Awesome views while in the wine country hills of Defiance.  But yesterday evening finally my hometown St. Peters received 1/4 – 1/2″ of rain with the summer storm.   My cats even seemed curious about that rumbling outside.  We had not heard this in weeks.  Hallelujah, our rain buckets are full now!  Our plants are saying “aaahhh!”  Another summer storm is brewing up this afternoon.  Maybe more rain?!

Jul3

Walk The Streets of Clayton

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Every Tuesday and Thursday the  employees of St. Louis County have an opportunity to walk the streets of Clayton, Missouri.  Our personal trainer from Gold’s Gym, Phil brings us out of our offices and work stations to the beautiful outdoors.  Absorbing vitamin D in the sun and breathing fresher oxygen all the while exercising.  In a fleeting moment I captured a photo while we waited for the traffic light to change.  Happy walkers, we are!

Jun25

Create Art

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I contemplate what garden art to create as sales for starter plants have died down for now.  My antique pottery finds will make homes for some of our succulents this week, and tarnished serving spoons will make garden signs.  Relic stepping stones will feature treasures along my “gardening path”.    Pieces of  pottery,  hand trowels, canning jar lids, and  bottle caps, everything old will be cleverly displayed in these new garden stepping stones.  Creating something new from old, this is an art form to me.  Creating new recipes from standards ingredients is another art form to me.  The abundant herbs, pineapple sage and lemon thyme are needing the old branches pruned, to make way for new growth.  Those old leaves make a new crockpot dish with  chicken and brown rice for Dean & I’s Sunday dinner.   Yummy garden art!You know, God never gets tired of creating.  He is not done with me yet.  Thank you for that grace, my Father.  Many distractions, yet simply put, “Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.”   My heart cries out to God this day, “God be My potter, I am Your vessel.”

Jun21

June Bugs

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This June the Japanese beetles made their way to our yard.  (They are not really June bugs, but they arrive in June in my world.)  And of course, we have much for them to munch on as our greenhouse is still in reconstruction.   These shiny metallic looking green bugs seem to love our basil, and tasted the hydrangeas,  geraniums, and hibiscus.   We are thankful as the plants’ temporary home, our green screen house seems to capture the little critters.  And while they mate on the screen, we capture them into jars that become their coffins.  Dean & I seem to have conquered this bug invasion, but are on guard everyday, morning and night for the next  couple of weeks.   Beware!

Jun21

Close In Many Ways

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My identical twin sister and I are close in many ways.  Of course, we are close in age.  But our looks, height, weight, markings, hair color, skin color, etc are very close as well.    Those young childhood years we were instant playmates.  Though during the junior and senior high school years we developed our own interests and friendships.  So many personality traits are different.   Yet we share a common interest in organic gardening, art, and the simplicity in living as mature adults.  There is a close, understood  bond with twins.  And as we get older, this rings true in our relationship.  Here we are, my twin sister Margie & I at age 2.  I would love to hear your twin story.

Jun8

Friends Forever

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I dedicate this post to my Aunt Shirley & Uncle Lee, childhood sweethearts and best friends for life.  They were married 50 years ago in May.  The 1st photo displays the fun loving couple I will always remember in my heart, and their friends and family.  Included are my father (to the left of the bride) and my mother (to the right of the groom).   The 2nd photo is at their 50th wedding anniversary celebration with their children and grandchildren.  We lost dear Aunt Shirley on June 6 after many months of battling lung cancer, she died from a seizure.  I love you, Aunt Shirley and Uncle Lee.