Weekly Garden Thread - December 3-9, 2022 [Best Home & Garden Books of 2022]

December 3, 2022 | Diana in WI/Greeneyes in Memoriam

[Diana in Wisconsin]

The Weekly Gardening Thread is a weekly gathering of folks that love soil, seeds and plants of all kinds. From complete newbies that are looking to start that first potted plant, to gardeners with some acreage, to Master Gardener level and beyond, we would love to hear from you.

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[Diana in Wisconsin]

Thanks, Pete!

[Diana in Wisconsin]

Must be nice to have something blooming, but I’ve always been a ‘Four Seasons Gal’ and I love the down-time of Winter. :)

Those ‘helpers’ are cuter every week! Somehow I just knew there would be a Christmas-themed doggie sweater involved, LOL!

Are you still getting that new puppy? I am getting Puppy Fever these days. Hoping I can hold off until Spring. ;)

[Diana in Wisconsin]

These two links have absolutely nothing to do with gardening, but in the Spirit of the Season, they were too good not to share.

Eight Hours of Vintage Department Store Christmas Music:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d2tx5NHDcHA

The 2023 Master List of Reading Challenges:

https://www.girlxoxo.com/the-2023-master-list-of-reading-challenges/

Merry, Merry! Happy, Happy! :)

[Bon of Babble]

Yes on the puppy.

My daughter is picking her up on the 15th of December after she’s had all of her shots and some training.

They just got brand new (expensive) rugs for their home which I didn’t think was a good idea with a new puppy. I suggested they put them away for at least a few months.

[Pollard]

Don't have any of those. I have

• The Basic Book of Organic Gardening; Organic Gardening Magazine - 1971 small paperback - Edited by Robert Rodale
• Rodale's Encyclopedia of Organic Gardening;
• How to Grow Vegetables and Fruits by the Organic Method; JI Rodale - Rodale Press
• Complete Book of Composting; Rodale Books
• The Encyclopedia of Country Living; Carla Emory
• All New Square Foot Gardening; Mel Bartholomew

The Complete Book of Composting has an insane amount of info, 1,000 pages. Bigger than any others in my list.

[Diana in Wisconsin]

We have a neighbor that is currently composting a horse. Another guy I know composts his goats when they pass.

It’s actually an efficient process. Not suggesting it for humans, though, LOL!

I need to add Elliot Coleman’s books to our list. :)

[Qiviut]

I particularly love the touch of blue in it.

One of my dearest friends and my hiking companion virtually every weekend for a couple of years (we did about 1,500 miles together), got lost in a snowstorm & died in the Sierra Nevada mountains in 2005. It took a year to find/recover him. I was crushed, more than I can describe - the ‘sharp edges’ of losing him have dulled a lot, but the grief still lingers.

Anyway, he is in a Vet’s cemetery about 45 minutes away. He loved the outdoors, nature, lived a simple, frugal, unpretentious life. For the first 5 years or so, I made him a Christmas wreath every year .... red nandina berries, running cedar (our woods are loaded with it), cedar (especially with blue berries - lots of that, too), pine, maybe some cones .... they turned out really nice. I would get the forms/stand at AC Moore (which is now Michael’s). The first one was tough, but I got pretty good at making them. After NEEDING to go see/talk to him after he ‘came home’ for the first couple of years, I don’t need to go to the cemetery any more like I used to, but I think of him all the time.

From my experience, I can highly recommend making wreaths out of things you find in the yard/fields/nearby woods - beautiful, meaningful & satisfying. Also, we have a book showing the wreaths that decorate Williamsburg & instructions for making a basic wreath. These wreaths are made from naturals (no ‘fake’ anything in Colonial days!), including a lot of fruit - they’re gorgeous. There is one that is mostly pine cones & seed pods ... so beautiful - gave my niece the book for that wreath alone. I think she has on her property what it would take to make it.

For those not familiar with the Colonial Williamsburg decorations, you can scroll through & see many of them here:

https://www.qwant.com/?client=ext-firefox-sb&t=images&q=colonial+williamsburg+wreaths

[Diana in Wisconsin]

I lost my BFF, Cathy, to cancer over a decade ago. You’re right about it not hurting as much, but the grief does linger. I ‘talk’ to her all the time, though. We laugh a lot. ;)

And you’d think I’d be sick to death of Christmas wreathes and bows and all that Holly Folly after selling thousands of Christmas Trees, Wreaths, miles of Garland and making at least 10,000 BOWS at the Garden Center, but strangely, I’m not!

Finishing up Christmas Decorating, today; still have the Mantle and the Dining Room Table to finish. I told Beau I’d have the house back in order by today.

I moved my tall porch planter to the kitchen window, covered it in evergreen boughs and red twig dogwood, put a plate in the middle and filled it with birdseed & peanuts. I’ve got Blue Jays right in my kitchen window and all kinds of finches and juncos and nuthatches. The cats are especially loving it. Cat TV, LOL!

First Christmas Party, tonight. I am so READY to Holly Jolly! :)

Wish I had your Bacon Socks to wear, LOL!

[small farm girl]

I have always been a huge fan of that book - spent many years making and decorating wreaths with our own apple and other things I gathered on the farm (dried artichokes, chili peppers, herbs, etc). I have even made the fan over the door with a real pineapple and apples! Weighed SOOO much! Killed me to hang it over the door and I love climbing the rickety ladder perched on the front step, LOL. We passed the wreath making baton to the oldest son, but I still make lots of decoration for the home by hand. Last year's feat was cutting down several yuge multiflora canes with all the rosehips attached and weaving it in to a garland that hung over the fireplace in the kitchen - it was great!
We've seen several nights in the 20s and one on the teens, but we are still picking an epic amount of beautiful cabbages of all sorts: red, green, savoy and our favorite Deadon red savoy, so pretty. Even the Napa is hanging on in some fields. It was also a great Brussels growing Fall and we had a huge amount of Red Ball to add to our green ones. Boy are they amazing after the frost! It rains today and I am thankful it is not snow, we are still going to farmers markets and, though it is a lousy day, it could be so much worse if this was snow. I am sure glad Brandon and Co were visiting Boston yesterday to talk about climate initiatives!

[MomwithHope]

Thanks for the great pictures. Love the Christmas one, did you make the tree skirt? Cute idea.

[Qiviut]

Thanks for sharing - fun to hear about other folks who liked the book and used it for making wreaths, decorations.

There is one decoration I would love to make for this year - it’s a “tree” made of oranges, with cloves poked in the oranges. Mmmmmmm ..... I can just imagine the glorious smell of oranges & cloves!

Here’s a link to a pic of something similar:
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/89227636345416731/

You can also make Christmas ‘balls’ with the oranges & cloves:

My mom was taking deviled eggs to a ladies luncheon Thursday. I have to make the eggs for her & I pipe in the filling & sprinkle with paprika (put in an empty salt shaker - works like a charm). The eggs are pretty enough, but she had a platter where the eggs go around the outside. She wanted to put some olives/sweet gherkins in the middle. Her initial thought was to put them on lettuce. I went to the garden and picked some rosemary & got some red nandina berries and decorated the center of the platter, alternating with the gherkinss/olives. Boy, was it pretty & VERY seasonal! The other thing I loved - the smell of the rosemary ... again, mmmmm ..... ‘delicious’!! :-)

[MomwithHope]

"I am getting Puppy Fever these days. Hoping I can hold off until Spring."

We will remember you said that when they are all underfoot next year. LOL

[MomwithHope]

That does sound pretty. Sometimes instead of paprika on deviled eggs, I use organic tomato powder. Same color but a nice tomato taste that goes great with the eggs.

[Qiviut]

I am the “expert” (in the family) on making deviled eggs, so I am always the one asked to bring them. Normally, making them is no big deal, but I had a ‘disaster’ Thanksgiving morning. My pastry tip kept clogging - I thought I had gotten it all mixed well (using my stick blender ‘processer’ unit), but evidently not. I ended up with filling squirting out of the top of my pastry bag - it was awful! I finally got enough egg halves filled to make a tray (holds 20). The rest was not ‘pipe-able’ so I chopped up the remaining whites, mixed it with leftover filling & had egg salad.

The eggs I made Thursday were the best ever! Mom had accidentally used up the sweet pickle relish (which will also clog the pastry tip when piping) so I used sweet gherkin juice. The juice worked two ways - flavor AND it thinned the filling instead of having to use more mayo. Boy, those eggs were just delicious & the filling piped like a dream! Sweet gherkin juice will be my go-to ingredient from now on.

I was not aware of tomato powder - will have to look into that ..... or do you make your own? I DO have a dehydrator that I rarely use. I got it initially to dehydrate tuna for backpacking trips - too stinky to do inside so I would do it on the front porch .... I think every neighborhood cat was attracted to the tuna smell, wafting on the breeze (LOL)!

[MomwithHope]

I got my tomato powder on Amazon, link here -

https://www.amazon.com/Organic-Tomato-Powder-Superfood-Supplement/dp/B08JJL9WCY/ref=asc_df_B08JJL9WCY/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=475718186634&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=2389994949882147312&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9017451&hvtargid=pla-1159894451910&psc=1

I have never used a pastry bag, I always use a quart ziploc. Put all the ingredients inside, close bag, mush it up by hand and then cut a tiny corner and pipe it into the whites. Then the best part, throw the bag away.

[metmom]

Here is our old family favorite. Classic Christmas carols done the classic way, not all jazzed up.

Christmas Sing-along Mitch
Mitch Miller and the Gang

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLHnRj3uwOOemcW0VZ5Puu7N54bX09c9T7

[Qiviut]

Thanks for the link!

I’ve done the ziploc method before - finally “splurged” (not much) & got a tip/bag. The bag cleans up easy if you do it right away. The tip makes for gorgeous swirled filling .... people “eat with their eyes” so I think that’s one reason the deviled eggs are so popular plus, there’s one guy in the family who would probably eat the whole batch if he weren’t so polite!

[NautiNurse]

We have serious gardening activity in Florida! These are my Christmas decorations.

Indeterminate beefsteak tomato is reaching for the moon. Nearing 7 feet tall. Also growing yellow plum and mortgage lifter.

Salad table is percolating tom thumb, red romaine, and freckles lettuce, green and scarlet scallions, baby carrots, radishes.

More container gardening with russet potatoes, broccoli, turnips, beets, red creole onions, and slow-to-germinate celery. Additional tomato seedlings will be planted over the next few days and weeks. These include black cherry, red cherry, sungold and little blonde girl.

[Diana in Wisconsin]

I am my own worst enemy, LOL!

[Diana in Wisconsin]

The Spice House makes a nice Tomato Powder. I like either that or their (Spanish) Smoked Paprika on top of Deviled Eggs.

I think you can buy both in a Flat Pack and they ship those for free.

https://www.thespicehouse.com/