The dried oregano went home with me, well at least a pound or so of it. I used it all winter long, in many a recipe. To die for!

The only thing better than last year’s crop of oregano dried for you by an authentic Greek cook, is using your own oregano out of your own herb bed.

This year, I opted to grow my own.

I researched, and researched so that I’d buy the right seed. I read up on how to grow oregano, I prepared the beds, planted my seeds, watered tenderly and waited.

I was rewarded with fresh oregano for different recipes all summer long. The excess I dried myself. We’ll we using ‘our’ freshly dried oregano all winter long.

oregano

Buy the best garden tools and garden equipment you can afford and they’ll serve their purpose for years.

You should also consider a garden cart! Having your own cart makes hauling mulch, fertilizer and flats of flowers so much easier.

And fun!

dog in garden cart

But our friends down under don’t have that issue. They can just visit Bell’s Beach Nursery for plants that grow well in their region.

Bells is open to the public and is in the Victoria’s Surf Coast area, close to Bells Beach (hence the name!) There you’ll meander amongst plants (flowers, herbs, trees and more) that are native to Australia (and the Surf Coast region) thereby making certain that the plants you choose for your own home will flourish.

There’s even a cafe on the grounds! How cool is that?

There’s more to tea (camellia sinensis) than just the few brands you find at the local grocer. In fact one of my favorite kinds of tea is Dragon Well. Dragon Well is a green tea, sometimes called Lung Ching. It’s hand processed and pan-fired and gives classic Chinese green tea flavor in a signature flat shape.

Gunpowder is a very popular green tea as well. It’s tightly rolled and panfired resulting in a sweet mellow brew.

Have you tried roobius? Roobius (Aspalathus linearis) is an herbal tea and is naturally caffeine free. I sometimes brew it for the spouse.

Get out of your black-tea rut and experience some of the various flavors that other teas can bring to your palate. There’s a whole other world of tea flavor awaiting youl

green-tea field

Some folks just want to be more self sufficient or at least try to see how self sufficient they could become. After all, our grandparents didn’t just run to the store for anything and everything. They ate what they produced OR they traded something they produced for other goods.

You find some folks growing a little Nicotiana Sylvestris (A wild tobacco) around here, and I’ve even noticed in the nearby college town there’s a hookah bar where they
an Herbal shisha in their pipes. (Or so I’ve heard.)

Seems very 60’s to me.

That garden was kept when I still had kiddos at home. When I finally gave up the formal vegetable garden, I gifted my big old honkin’ tiller to my Dad.

He loves it and still uses it to this day.

Whenever I visit, I’m blown away by his garden, the lushness, the vitality and it makes me want to squeeze time into my busy day to grow food, and flowers, and ornamentals.

Only the area where the garden once was, and where water lines are run to, is now overrun with grasses and weeds (I live in the country.)

First things first. In order to start my own garden up again, I need a new tiller.

Tillers have come a long way since that big monstrosity I once had. Today’s garden tillers range from small lightweight models that anyone can handle, to big rototillers made for big jobs (big gardens). You can even find electric models! Perfect for folks that have trouble cranking the gas variety. There’s front tines and rear tines and lots of choices.

If you’re tillerless like me, and in the market, you’ll need to do your homework to find the best tiller for you and your situation. Learn more about garden tillers at BestGardenTillers.com

potatoes

One way to do this is through custom work (all my sites are custom) OR you can now find wordpress gallery themes that work great to help showcase and even sell your photos.

You get a choice of themes AND styles as well as options like slideshows, tiles or the normal ‘blog’ appearance. The addition of paypal buttons (which works with these themes by the way) is a great way to sell your own photos and make some ‘net income.

These new themes have built in gallery management (way easier than DIY and cheaper than hiring it done), built in e-commerce (it’s not Ascender but it’s great for a beginner), IPhone and Ipad functionality, albums and much more. So the next time you get a great idea and decide to start a new site or blog, consider these wordpress gallery themes for your new site!

You may also like to check out this site with MORE Wordpress photography themes!

standing cypress

This is Standing Cypress.

Except for my own yard, the only place I’ve ever seen this wildflower is along the highway down by the Arbuckle Mountains near the Texas border (in Oklahoma). It grows WILD here on my property and tends to like open spaces. We mow around it and scatter some seeds every year. It’s gorgeous red flowers supply additional food for the hummingbirds and beauty to the yard.

Standing cypress, Texas plume, Red Texas star, Red gilia
Polemoniaceae (Phlox Family)

Earthworms open the earthBto air and water. Birds feed upon insects. Some insects feed on other and harmful insects. And toads are wonders in the number of insects they can consume at one meal. (Which is why there IS a market for toad houses for the garden!)

Each gardener should try to make her or his garden into a place attractive to birds and toads. A good birdhouse, grain sprinkled about in early spring, water, are invitations for birds to stay a while in your garden. During a hot summer day a toad likes to rest in the shade. By night he is ready to go forth to eat. How can one “fix up” for toads? Well, one thing to do is to prepare a retreat, quiet, dark and damp. A few stones of some size underneath the shade of a shrub with perhaps a carpeting of damp leaves, would appear very fine to a toad as would a chipped and overturned clay pot.

There are two general classes of insects known by the way they do their work. One kind gnaws at the plant really taking pieces of it into its system. This kind of insect has a mouth fitted to do this work. Grasshoppers and caterpillars are of this sort. The other kind sucks the juices from a plant. This, in some ways, is the worst sort. All the scale insects fasten themselves on plants, and suck out the life of the plants. Where DO squash bugs come from?

There are pests which attack many kinds of plants (aka the dreaded squash or pumpkin bug.) Discouraging, is it not? Beans have pests of their own; so have potatoes and cabbages. In fact, the vegetable garden has many inhabitants. The tomato hornworm. Yucky looking thing. Best hand picked off. (Got chickens? They love these buggers!)

I’ve heard ducks make a great garden defender as they go for bugs, where chickens tend to scratch up the plants.

grasshopper_on_rose

Yes, it WILL BE LATE. But late is better than never!!!

Open a new window right now and look for some ProFlowers coupons really fast. (I have my favorite spots to look for coupons and I bet you do too!)

Yes, ProFlowers coupon codes SAVE YOU MONEY even if you’re ordering, now, a day or two late… … …

She’ll think that you remembered, she’ll just think that the delivery was late! LOL

You’ll have tons of choices now that Mother’s Day has officially passed. Choose from roses (always good), daisies, tulips or whatever Mom’s favorite flower is.

She won’t be angry. She’ll understand that Mothers Day Flower Delivery is HARD!

And that the week after, well that just shows you really do care!

Mom’s forgive forgetfulness and tardiness, and the other little things you might have done (or not done) over the years.

Sure, you can go ahead and call and say “There was a mix-up!” and that her lovely present is on it’s way!

And since you’re LATE, you can comparison shop. Compare a dozen roses to a hundred baby tulips. Compare lilies to sunflowers, potted plants to gladiolas. Compare to your hearts content JUST ORDER!