Briar Lane Flowers

Since Christmas is coming up, I decided to do a post on great Christmas gifts for gardeners. (I am not affiliated with any of these products and do not earn money if you purchase them.) I will break it up into categories of gardeners:  those that grow primarily vegetables, those that love perennials, and those that grow cutflowers.  Great gifts for those that primarily grow vegetables:  I got this as a gift for my Dad last year and he has really enjoyed it. I may pick up a copy for myself since he has liked it so much and because I am going to planting more vegetables this year. These are perfect for the older gardener that may be struggling with arthritis but does not want to give up gardening. For the gardener that absolutely loves rare and unusual vegetables and learning about the history of heirloom varieties, this catalog is perfect! Great gifts for those that love perennials: Not sure what to get your favorite gardener...

I have started planning for next year already. If all goes to plan, I will have 3 separate dahlia patches in 3 separate locations. I am planning on working on collarettes, anemones and other open centered varieties at two other locations. My closed centered varieties such as the KA varieties that I have purchased will be growing at my house. I will also be growing some seedlings at my house. These are seedlings that are more likely to be close centered and from seeds I collected this year.     Closed centered dahlia Makayla Miranda I am working on two separate zinnia breeding projects. Project one includes using some genetics from Floret's Unicorn zinnias and some other purple genetics to hopefully come up with something beautiful and unique. Project number two is going to be an attempted cross between two different zinnia species which may or may not work out the way I want it to. .  .stay tuned over the next year to see if the beginning stages turn out the w...

I planted two different varieties of Nasturtium this year: Caribbean cocktail mix from Select Seeds and Vesuvius from Migardener. Both of them were beautiful. I think the Caribbean cocktail mix was my favorite though. The Caribbean cocktail mix:               As the raspberry colored blooms aged, they turned a delightful pink. These are the Vesuvius nasturtium. I planted these ones in the ground while the Caribbean cocktail mix were planted into large pots. I didn't notice any difference in amount of blooms or plant health.  The blooms start out quite neon orange and then fade to a beautiful apricot as they age.

I grew two different varieties of Japanese morning glory from seed this year both of them from Baker Creek Heirloom seeds. The first of them was the Split Second morning glory, a beautiful double pink.  It is unusual looking and almost looks like a pink peony. The second was the Imperial Japanese morning glory and each plant was unique in color but most were some shade of blue or pink.    (Split Second morning glory) I started the seeds inside 4 weeks before my last frost. I clipped off the ends of each seed with a toenail clipper and then put them in an old no longer used Tupperware container inside of a damp paper toweling. I placed the container on the highest shelf in my house near a heat vent and closed the lid and checked on them once a day. Every single one germinated within 4 days. I planted them in trays under lights in my basement until after frost then planted outdoors.     Imperial Japanese morning glory I did not have any pro...

I collected all of my green tomatoes in my garden after a frost advisory was given. These were all from the one volunteer green zebra tomato plant seedling that self seeded from the year before. Instead of waiting for them to ripen and possibly forget about them,  I decided to make roasted green salsa.     Roasted Green Tomato Salsa Around 15 small unripe tomatoes  1 white onion 9 medium size garlic cloves 1 cup of cilantro 1 teaspoon salt 6 tablespoons lemon juice 3 jalapenos Step 1:  Cut the tomatoes in half or in quarters if they are larger. Cut the jalapenos' tops off only and peel the garlic and peel and cut the onion in fourths. Step 2:  Put all ingredients from step one under the broiler in your oven until they are slightly blackened. Step 3: Put the rest of the ingredients (the lemon juice and onion and salt and cilantro) into a blender along with the ingredients you just put under the broiler. Blend on high until texture is smooth. Step...

Nasturtium is a delicious edible flower. In fact not only is the flower edible, the whole plant is edible. The leaves, stems, seeds and flowers are all tasty. The leaves and flowers are peppery tasting and taste great in salad.  I made a simple nasturtium salad. My recipe is: 2 cups washed nasturtium flowers 1 cup baby spinach leaves 1 cup washed nasturtium leaves 1/2cup chopped carrots (I used the last of the carrots from my garden.) 1/2 cup cherry tomatoes Dressing of your choice (I used Catalina.) That's all I added and it tasted great with Catalina dressing but you can add more add-ins like: Mushrooms Feta cheese Radish Swiss chard Sunflower seeds Chicken chunks Bacon  Etc. I hope you have the courage to try to grow and eat this beautiful plant next year.