Category Archives: succulent

Feb28

Word and Plant Gardens

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I mentioned in last month’s post about my Valentine poem My Delicious Lover being published. I feel honored as it won 1st Place and a $100 award from Flapper Press. You can find this poem in my Word Garden page or on Flapper Press’ website. I have been journaling and writing for years as well as blogging for 12 years. This blog is speckled with stories, photos, recipes, poems, inspirations, and information on various topics. Take a couple of minutes for an inspirational thought or comical relief while reading a monthly post or page. Writing has been a fun winter occupation while the lousy weather is relentless. No place to be except at the desk typing on the laptop in my retirement days.

While on vacation in Florida we purchased some small succulents and brought them back undamaged in the long road trip. I immersed my hands into soil especially made for succulents one afternoon this week. I used a repurposed teapot, small pint jar painted yellow, tall & skinny vase-like ceramic, and galvanized metal box for planters. They turned out quite cute. I hope to sell these succulent planters and garden ware in the days ahead, as spring is only 3 weeks away. True gardeners like myself are itching to plant and attend to their green life once again. We dubbed the flea market booth as Flock Together Mercantile. Please find the details of what, where, who, and why this booth was created on this page found here on this blog site.

As a culinary instructor and life-long learner, I have many online and printed resources I turn to for recipe creations. The most inspiring these days is the making of herbal teas or tisanes. One of my resources is Mountain Rose Herbs based in Oregon. An article “How To Create Your Own Herbal Tea Blends” was included in one of their monthly newsletters years ago. I want to try these herbal blend principles and will attempt to make some of my own blends using my organically grown herbs this year. I love a glass of iced tea while gardening or a cup of steeping hot tea while writing and reading. In the future I hope to share some tea-blend recipes on my Recipes page right here on this blog site.

Thank you for joining me in my gardening adventures. Writing about them is all a part of this pure joy!

Jan28

Winter Daydreams

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Winter Daydreams

“I have dreamed something entirely pretend with my eyes wide open. The sweet wonder of it makes me smile. I believe in the emotions implanted by dreams, for they are not pretend, and they will never cease to bloom.” ~ Richelle E Goodrich

Enough of the cold already! Cloudy skies bring snowflakes, some days more than others. Temperatures have dipped into the single digits on more days than not. I know winter has to run its course, that is the nature of things. But January brought us enough coldness and viruses to last us through the year. I want to play outside, go for walks, and garden. The seed catalogs plant the thoughts and bring on daydreams of flourishing flowers and gorgeous green life. I want to plant more flowering perennials and herbs. And I aim to grow some succulents this year, planting them in unique planters, repurposed vessels to sell in the flea market booth. There isn’t enough room for more plants in the basement, so it will have to wait until spring.

With my allergy to the cold being outdoors is difficult to do without serious repercussions. So I busy myself with reading, decluttering the house, and new writing projects. I submitted poems to six publishers’ contests and challenges this month. The latest is a “black-out poem” with a Valentine theme. I loved the challenge of taking an already published piece and reusing specific words that had meaning to me to write an original poem, then marking out the words I did not want in my poem. The link to my black-out poem will be shared once it is published on Valentine’s Day. Of course, my poem has a culinary theme. That is my other time occupation this winter.

Soups, soups, and more soups! Every week this winter it has been a big pot of soup or chili homemade. They fill our souls and tummies. Chicken-noodle, wild rice & mushroom, Italian stone, and cheesy broccoli soups, and 3-bean chili so far. Speaking of soup, my Italian Stone Soup recipe is featured in the Winter issue of e-Merge online magazine that just published. Click on the link above and make it! Full of veggies and robust flavor. I have refrained from baking sweets and breads. Those holiday cookies were enough to throw off my A1c numbers. I have to be good to my body. Those winter daydreams include fresh picked organic greens from the garden bed. My cooking classes for 2022 finally start up in February. Italian Cooking Made Easy and Cupid’s Brunch are on the agenda for next month. A warm destination occupies those winter daydreams and planned for February, too. More on that next time …

“She was always daydreaming. She never wanted to live in the real world; she always seemed to be separated from other children her age. They couldn’t understand her or her imagination. She was always thinking outside of the box, breaking rules, and only following what her heart told her was right.” ~ Shannon A. Thompson

Nov28

Blooming Encouragement

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The winter chill came a month early in Missouri, and I believe most of the Midwest.  The perennials came indoors to their wintertime home.  The last of the ketchup and mustard rose buds were snipped and put in a shot glass, my make-shift bud vase.  A welcome greeting in the kitchen.  We have space for only one of perennials, our arrowhead in our little cottage living room.  And how it has grown during the summer months and brief autumn weeks outdoors as we place it under the front window.  The other plants are housed in the temperate climate of the basement under a plant light set on a timer.  Much like the wintertime shedding that a pine tree goes through in this region, our perennials shed during the winter indoors.  My pot of colorful lantana and geraniums dropped many leaves, but are still blooming.

I feel like my perennials and the outdoor plants during the winter.  A major adjustment to the climate change.  Many people with auto-immune disorders have worsen arthritic symptoms during the cold season.  For some, the pain is much worse.  Depression can set in.  If you are not into gardening, I suggest to have just one potted geranium, Christmas cactus or another succulent to share life with this winter.  With winter there is loss of luster, but an indoor plant may produce a bloom or two despite the season.  Kind of like some of us people folk.

Nov7

Shelter

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My life is surrounded with people, animals, and plant life.  My home is shelter to the wandering soul.  “Happy is the house that shelters a friend”, Ralph Waldo Emerson is quoted. Midnight, Celine, Joe, and Pennylane … all adopted because someone else could not care for them.  Our furry critters are family.  Our Midnight wandered the streets of town late evening on Friday.  A construction or utility person must have left our gate open.  Thank God for the internet, digital photos, good people, and prayers.  A group of teenage boys watched him as he paced back and forth near a busy road, contacted one of their parents, and then brought Midnight to the shelter of their home. We were rejoined with our Labrador by early Saturday morning after a series of FB postings.  Well-fed and watered, he rather enjoyed is overnight stay at his new friends’ home.  The boys renamed him “Hercules”.

Saturday afternoon Dean and I prepared the garage for our potted plants to be brought inside. The first hard frost seems to be delayed, but may come this week. Geraniums, succulents, a lemon tree, bird-of-paradise, ferns, spider plants, and moses-in-the-cradle create a jungle our cats like to prowl in from time to time. Over the coldest months between November through March, my green friends are somewhat dormant under the high power plant lights, and most survive to be brought back outside with the warmer spring days. One green friend gets some special treatment going into 2017. My arrowhead plant grew lushly green and full over the summer.  Sensitive to the cold air, the semi-heated garage may not stay warm enough for it to maintain its brilliant green foliage. The arrowhead plant is sheltered near the mantel next to my palm until our room addition is completed.

 

Apr21

Green Passion And The Porch

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As most weekend mornings go, I cannot sleep in long.  Weekday awakening before 5:00am makes it difficult to sleep much past 7:00 am on the weekends.  The weekend to-do-list is long, so Saturdays are packed. On Sundays, I start at a slower place making meditation and prayer a part of my morning. The front porch welcomes a cup of hot honey chamomile tea an inspirational gardening book, and me.  The sights, sounds, and smells of a rain storm bring freshness to the morning.  I became one with the springtime outdoors, crisp breeze and tender green plants and white dogwood blossoms.  A bit shabby from winter life, my potted plants are waiting for a play date with their gardener.  I withheld that Sunday knowing next Saturday will be a better time for gardening.  This time was set aside to rest rather than produce.

Besides my green passion needs to get fluffed up like a flatten feather pillow.  For months my focus has been our house, all those details with a major insurance claim … the funds, renovation, inspections, and the move back in.   There is a good-size pile of paperwork still needs sorting through, but it can just wait.  This gardener needs to get her green thumb out again, play in the dirt, sow some herb and vegetable seeds, design some pots of virid green life.  We had no time to sow in trays, so direct sowing it will be this year.  Better late than never.

Ambitious thoughts for another Saturday, Dean and I spent a good part of the day cleaning gumballs and rocks out of the front yard.  The neighbor’s gumball tree scattered its fruit all over the neighborhood with the help of the spring winds.  The rocks surfaced during the water and sewer line repairs.  Perennials were brought out from the garage.  The babies are seated in the cart while the large potted birds-of-paradise, lemon tree, asparagus ferns, geraniums, and arrowhead plant are now situated in the newly mulched landscape.  Our succulents have been outdoors on the front porch for about a month.  We placed a covering over them with a frost-forecast.  Fortunately March and early April have been mild like much of the winter. The herbs and green leafy vegetables will be sowed next weekend as well as annuals planted in a couple of moss baskets. Only so much time during one day. The journey is a part of gardening, not just the end result … one day at time …one season at a time.

I relax on the porch another Sunday.  This particular morning is special as my two oldest granddaughters join me.  Talking and soaking in the morning sunshine, it is a tender moment indeed like the fresh spring foliage…and more porch Sundays to look forward to.

May31

Garden Vignettes

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Another rainy May morning, this time meandering into the weekend. The rain may stop this afternoon. Maybe I will plant some baby geraniums into pots while home. Many weekend hours went into the creation of my garden vignettes. Planting flowers and perennials in terra-cotta pots, moss baskets, and unassuming vessels such as tea kettles and driftwood is one of my favorite hobbies. I design the various plants and art pieces into garden vignettes. This growing season the big wagon holds two large moss baskets of red impatiens, lobelia, vinca, and bridal veil. The other moss basket beds our perennials of wandering jew, spider plants, and an older, wildly growing red geranium. Another vignette is the child-size porch bench and table seated with young spider plants, moses-in-the-cradle, and geraniums while reaching for sunlight filtered by the tender bright red Japanese maple leaves. A nursery indeed. More red geraniums surround a bird bath and old red bike. A gorgeous red rooster-tail (twisted celosia) grows in the middle of our largest terra-cotta pot with marguerite sweet potato vine and clusters of yellow lantana contrasting. Pots of succulents are scattered on the patio and porch. Smaller coco-lined wire baskets of asparagus fern, wandering jew, and spider plants hang from our shade trees along side the bird houses and feeders. I hope you enjoy my garden art captured with Dean’s photography, the serene and comfort of green art.

Jul10

A Nosh, Dish, Bowl or Plate?

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As a personal chef by nature I wonder if I should name my summer time culinary creations a nosh, dish, bowl, or plate. I improvise when I cook in my kitchen. With the ingredients in hand from the garden or farmer’s market, they make way for creativity. A casual menu on a whim. This summer my herbs climb with the summer humidity. My chicken risotto served in individual bowls one weekend was laced with a leafy green herb Dean brought home from the greenhouse. It had a spicy bite to it unknown to be parsley as I had thought it might be by its look. When returning to the greenhouse mid-week for watering, I discovered on the garden sign it was watercress added to Sunday’s risotto bowl. I had never grown or cooked with this newly discovered herb before, and it paired deliciously with the farm fresh eggs for egg salad on dollar rolls last night. I hear it is the new kale in the farm-to-table culinary world. Just 1 cup of chopped water cress is power-packed with potassium and vitamins A & C. There are only 4 calories in 1 cup of chopped watercress. Calorie breakdown: 8% fat, 42% carbs, 50% protein. Oh, the flavors burst, so it goes a long way! Watercress
DillFresh sprigs of dill were snipped into the red potato-celery salad. This week a spare bottle of local summer ale went into the crockpot with the turkey breast sprinkled with lemon pepper from the Olde Town Spice Shoppe, slow-cooked for 10 hours. Succulent! Accompanied with farm fresh, roasted yellow beets, red potatoes, and carrots in a bowl! The leftover turkey breast had filled a casserole dish of enchiladas another night. When I cook, I cook for 2 or 3 meals, using one dish to accent another. Rarely does food go to waste in my home. That stock left from the turkey breast is put into the freezer and will make another risotto another rainy night. Tonight it is small plates of Three-Cheese Italian Herb-Veggie Foccocia and Italian Breaded Chicken Tenderloins. What nosh, dish, bowl, or plate are you making tonight with your garden fresh ingredients?

Apr28

Gentle Rains

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Dragon Wing BegoniaGentle rains sprinkled the Missouri earth early last week. An even soak for our plants that just came outdoors from their winter home of the garage and back bedroom. Yesterday, I finally had a day at home to prune and primp the large moss baskets of wandering jew, Moses-in-cradle, bridal veil, and dragon-wing begonias as well as our several pots of succulents, arrowheads, and ferns. As the day went, the humidity was building up, it looked like rain 2 or 3 times before the dark cloudy skies finally broke loose come early evening. I had my hair pulled up away from my face while I worked, ringlets formed by the steamy air like I had used a curling iron. The native pets became restless as the day went. Heavy raindrops and loud claps of thunder drove Celine, our cat under the furniture. Midnight, the dog panted with nervousness. The pets seemed relieved with Dean’s arrival home from his 8-hour round trip Sunday visit to his youngest son in Springfield. Devastation as tornadoes swept south of us through Arkansas, though violent thunderstorms hit most of Missouri. A long night though the sun shined bright this morning, glistening off of ultra green leaves and grass. Prayers go out to those in Arkansas. The song There’s Got To Be A Morning After by Maureen McGovern …
There’s got to be a morning after
If we can hold on through the night
We have a chance to find the sunshine
Let’s keep on looking for the light

Oh, can’t you see the morning after?
It’s waiting right outside the storm
Why don’t we cross the bridge together
And find a place that’s safe and warm?

It’s not too late, we should be giving
Only with love can we climb
It’s not too late, not while we’re living
Let’s put our hands out in time

There’s got to be a morning after

We’re moving closer to the shore
I know, we’ll be there by tomorrow
And we’ll escape from darkness
We won’t be searching anymore

Oct9

The Best Is Yet To Come

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Hello, followers and Word Press blog browsers! My days have been so occupied with my full-time, exempt position as the employee wellness coordinator for 4,000 employees. I hope they appreciate their wellness incentive. Just 15-minute lunch breaks, though today I decided to take my 1-hour break and write. I need it! At home Dean & I have been deep cleaning the house, one room at a time. The garage is this week. Oh my! More than 1/2 way done with this deep cleaning. We hope to be painting a fresh coat of color on the interior walls of the living room and kitchen by the end of October. With the cooler nights our tropicals and succulents have been moved inside the house. Greenhouse/screenhouse plants will be moved into the semi-heated garage soon. Anyone in the St. Louis area interested in a houseplant or two, contact Deanna Greens And Garden Art before the autumn and winter are completely settled in. An end-of-the-season sale is underway!
Onto another mental preoccupation … I have had two co-workers commit suicide within 10 days of each other, and one at my full-time job and another at my part-time job. It’s horrible, and heart-wrenching to say the least. Shortened lives. One wasted to an alleged criminal scheme. The other wasted in a wreckless lifestyle. Love and goodness wins, always.
The federal employee furlough seems minor compared to the loss of these two lives. Though to 800,000 employees (my husband included), their lives are turned upside down. Daily routines drastically changed, adjusting household budgets, taking on temporary jobs or part-time jobs, filing unemployment, and praying the politicians put into practice “compromise”. But most of all federal services that so many depend on are cut-off right now! Didn’t we as parents arrange for our children to work it out behind closed doors when the bickering continued? Can we lock all politicians in a huge room until they “work it out”?
Despite the bleak news and seemingly hopelessness … “the best is yet to come.”
The Best Is Yet To Come

Sep19

House Warming Planters

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Rain, rain, and more rain! We need it so. The plant life is saying “ahhhh!”. After such a lovely weekend, the most beautiful for Missouri that I have experienced in many, many months! And I hear we will have another one this upcoming weekend. I took last weekend off from working at the spice shoppe to enjoy the weekend with my kids and grandkids. My oldest daughter and my chef son-in-law bought a 100-year old house full of history and character in Farmington, Missouri about an hour and 45 minutes south from us. My granddaughters, Hannah and Ella helped in making some planters using kingston ferns, hibiscus, asparagus ferns, and succulents as house warming gifts. The planters bring life to their wrap-around porch, well more life. The kids do plenty of that, too! The planters will warm their house when the air gets cool, and the summer warmth will follow into their new home.
Suddenly, Dean & I’s house is empty! After 7 people living in a modest 3-bedroom home for 9-months, the house is in need of deep, deep cleaning. We are determined to conquer 1 room each week for the next 6 weeks, carpet and upholstery cleaning this evening, with wall washing, dusting, and shining the windows in the living room later in the week. We will rearrange the furniture for a pleasant change. After the deep cleaning, a fresh coat of paint will liven the rooms again. Soft hues on the walls with sparkles swirled into ceilings. Cannot wait. Autumn’s arrival will bring our houseplants and tropicals back into our home after growing taller and fuller in our landscape this summer. Their lovely green leaves will bring a nice contrast to the walls and wood furniture.
So what are some of the benefits of having house plants? Plenty. See below.
Health Benefits From Houseplants
Contact Deanna Greens And Garden Art for your houseplant needs!