Revolt Against High Prices and Food Recalls---

It's time to revolt against the skyrocketing costs of feeding your family healthy, safe food. A new book released just this week will help you do that. One Woman's Organic Gardening Techniques, Tips, Tricks, Methods to Work With Mother Nature...will help you garden.

It doesn't matter if you have space for only a few windowsill contains, a balcony, patio, rooftop, or a front lawn patch--you can grow some of your very own fresh produce. It's a family affair. An easy, healthy alternative to ify store bought produce.

Available from Amazon as a print edition for only $7.95 you can't go wrong.

If you prefer the kindle edition for a brief period you can go here to get that with a different cover, same book at a drastically reduced price - go take a look.

There is one page that has the formatting messed up, but if you send me an email I'll send you a printable PDF file to download --It's a section on Ant Control with a couple formulas for that. And if you find their path into your house you can always lay a dryer sheet over their entry way and they will not cross it. (any brand- and it smells way better than raid) and is not hazardous to pets or children. 

Questions or comments welcome. See you next time.

P.S. Sign up for The Mystery Reader Connection Newsletter to stay abreast of all my events, books, and news as well as news from other columnists who write in many genres other than or as well as mystery.

Why Herbs Herb?

What Do Herbs Have To Do With It?


When you think gardening do you think medicine? How about when you think herbs? Here’s a little pop quiz with some interesting answers for you.

Basil, Calendula, Parsley, Fennel, Chamomile, Lemon Balm just to name a few are herbs that could find a place in your medicine cabinet.

Okay, let’s say it’s spring and water puddles are standing everywhere. With the onset of warmer weather those puddles can produce mosquito habitat that will fill your yard with potential serious consequences. When you go outside to enjoy the beauty of the spring, I hope you will make good use of the herbal garden you’ve been nurturing all winter. How? Rub some of that basil plant on your skin. It will repel insects. Perhaps you want to stick a sprig of it in your hair its subtle aroma will lift your mood as you watch those pesky insects seek more appetizing bodies.

Calendula cures cuts and scrapes which seem to happen all too frequently in the spring yard clean up and getting the gardens ready for planting.

If the mold, mildew and pollen of spring are a bother think fennel – it can even ease asthma symptoms.

We are all familiar with the benefits of parsley to tame a tummy after meals, but it is also good for your breath. If you chew a little Parsley after a meal or after having a cup of coffee, it will freshen your breath. Peppermint will settle or tame that tummy if indigestion gets there before the parsley.

Lemon balm can ease and cure a cold sore. Chamomile battles gum disease as well as steeping you in a relaxing mood to help you get a good nights sleep.

The old timers knew of these uses and more for the herb patch. I think no garden should be allowed to grow without one—unless of course you grow several pots or containers in your home.

Growing in the Dank Darkness-Healthy Eating

When it comes to surprises mushrooms are one of the big ones. There are classes at various community colleges and County Extension offices to help you be an alive and well mushroom gatherer…I’ve wondered why people would do that and not leave it to the experts. Well, where do those experts come from, people who learn how to go out and gather their own mushrooms. Duh! I still think I would feel safer buying one of those kits that you can use to grow mushrooms in your basement or something.

So your question is probably why bother? You could buy them from the supermarket of course, but as gardeners we know that satisfaction of doing it ourselves, being in control of the soil, the vitamins we feed them and the pesticide/insecticide deterrents we use if any.

Why would we care if mushrooms are part of our culinary choices? How about major health benefits.

Mushrooms, make that edible – mushrooms--the safe ones, are a right up there with other super-foods in the forefront right now such as green tea and broccoli. Did you know that the first antibiotics were extracted from fungi. Let's examine their benefits.

Mushrooms are 80-90% water, and therefore are low in calories high in fiber. We all know the health benefits of enough moisture and fiber in our diets. Now add on the fact that they are fat-free, cholesterol-free, and low in sodium (especially good for those on a hypertensive diet). If that isn’t enough for you here are some other reasons to get more mushrooms into your cooking:

• Phytonutrients found in mushrooms have been at the center of anti-cancer research for decades. In many countries, medicinal mushrooms are used as an adjunct to other cancer treatments.
• Recent studies have shown that white mushrooms (the little button mushrooms usually sold in the supermarket)can reduce the risk of breast and prostrate cancer
• Mushrooms are considered probiotic, meaning that they help the body to strengthen itself and ward off illness. The nutrient riboflavin is part of mushrooms' probiotic ability. Mushrooms have a high percentage of that nutrient.
• A great source of potassium, a mineral which helps lower blood pressure and reduce the risk of stroke is another benefit of the lowly mushroom. A medium portabella mushroom has more potassium than a glass of orange juice or a banana.
What do you say? Shall we grow ourselves some delicious mushrooms. If you fry them in butter with some onions just until the onions are transparent they taste like steak. Imagine steak with a bunch of healthy side benefits. Have you ever had stuffed mushrooms? You are in for a culinary treat. This woman's garden will include mushrooms and since it's winter out, 8 inches of snow overnight proves that, I can feed my gardening urge by growing some mushrooms. A win win situation wouldn't you say?

Four to Six Inches of Snow Predicted

We are in a winter storm watch. It started snowing about a half hour before the weathermen thought it would. Does that mean we are done gardening?

To me it means drag out those gardening catalogs that come earlier and earlier every year and start planning for next year. Those delightful blooms and veggies, fruits and shrubs are sure to get your happy spirit up. Personally, a warm fire, a toasty mug of herbal tea and a stack of paper to plot, plan, and scheme are my respite from any storm.

I learned while I was researching cyanide poisoning for one of my mysteries that the lovely privet hedge shrub is deadly. [and so too is the Pink Lady Slipper wild orchid that was featured in "The Pink Lady Slipper"] Now that was a frightening thought. Apparently our systems, the liver to be specific, can deal with cyanide rather effectively unless it is in large doses. The apricot pit is laced with cyanide, as are apple seeds and any plum type fruit. The good news is that unless ground, chewed, or deliberately ingested like the Apricot Kernels sold at health food stores a while back--they are not lethal to you. Whew!

Remember too that those beautiful poinsettia plants are poisonous to your pets.

So I will continute to let my privet hedge divide my property into neat they and me space.

Get out those catalogs and begin your dreams for next year. I hope that they may all be productive and colorful. Oh, and after you are done with your Christmas tree this year, be sure that you hang bread cubes and peanut butter pine cones on it and stand it in your yard for the birds -- our feathered insect repelents.

Gardens On The Rise - or Vertical Response to a Small Space

Gardens on the rise — the vertical rise that is.

Have you ever thought of gardening vertically? I hadn’t given it much thought this year when I planted gourds in one of my swans that swim around the concrete fisher boy gingerly perched on a stump. He fishes there year round, though there is no pond.

The gourds started their meandering search for where the sun they liked best was available. I watched daily as they started out toward the lawn area – and then detoured back up a side table by the park bench, and turned abruptly to check out the potted petunias on that small table. Sure enough this morning when I checked they liked the moist soil in the pot and had quickly set a tendril into the soil and the rest of the plant continued on toward the back of the park bench. There is a small tree (broken off in one of our wind storms) that affords shade to the park bench – some of the branches are precariously low to the arm of the bench. I’m waiting to see what direction the gourd will take next.

But it did give me pause. I have only a small vegetable garden area. I do make use of vertical growing most years. This year I planted bush squash so I don’t need to contend with the vines. I planted the pumpkins over in the flower bed around the windmill instead of flowers – they make a beautiful flower bed. I grow cucumbers up trellis or corn, I grow whatever I can on fences and plant smaller crops like leaf lettuce at the base to help conserve the evaporation of soil moisture and to give me more yield in a smaller area. I find that companion planting lengthens my season – even in the hot weather peas will continue to grow when roses and onions shade them on one side and beets and bush squash shade them from the other.

If you haven’t tried vertical gardening you owe to yourself to try. The plants stay cleaner, are easier to harvest, and more disease resistant because most harmful plant pests do not climb. The humming birds, butterflies, and bees are delighted with the advantage you afford them with vertical plantings. Try it next year.

Happy Gardening.
Billie

What can you do with hay bales?

After reading an article in The Daily Dirt, gardening news, I was struck by the beauty of this idea. Planting your garden in hay bales. I'm sure you could buy last years bales cheaply from any number of farmers. The thought of a strawberry pyramid built of hay bales is the best thing I could think of...fertilizer, the necessary control of where the vines will re-attach themselves and all that. It could be a real boost to the weeding and care process.

"Hay bale vegetable gardening is a technique that was developed by a vegetable crop specialist at the University of Florida. It may sound odd but vegetable gardening in hay bales really works. Wheat straw bales are better than hay because they tend to have fewer weed seeds than hay bales and alfalfa and mixed grass bales also work well." Heleigh Bostwick, of The Daily Dirt says.

The author of the article recommends if you must use new bales that you soak them for three days in a row, then layer fertilizer over them for 3 or 4 days and let them sit for three more days, then dig a hole in them to put your plants. She says any plant could grow this way with the exception of root crops and tall ones like corn (because they would become top heavy and tip over). Can you see the posibilities - Step gardens where there is not enough horizontal space...you may have to tend them with a step ladder - but at least you could grow produce. I'm seeing pictures of a tower of vegetables...What an amazing idea.

I see a circle of bales with poles in the center where you plant pole beans and train them toward the poles - wouldn't that be a spectacular center for other vegetables such as pumpkins or cucumbers growing below them?

I hope you will try it out. I intend to as my strawberries are out of control in my flower and vegetable garden areas.

Happy Gardening.

Billie

Bananas, Salt, Tea and WD40

BANANAS, SALT, TEA AND WD-40™
By Billie A Williams
Rose bushes are they hard to raise? Depends on who you talk to. I have had terrible luck with the miniature variety, but basically the others are a breeze. They need pruning, water and occasionally a few banana peels. What you never heard of burying banana peels around the perimeter of your roses? The nutrients are ideal for them, but what I didn’t know before was, the banana peel actually retards aphids a real nasty for rose bushes and gladiolas. I usually spray my plants at the first sign of trouble with a weak soap solution. If I see any aphids near my roses, I use Mrs Murphy’s Oil soap mixed with water in a spray bottle (also good on the grape vines) but I like the double duty banana peel instead. Tea is another rose booster. It will enhance the growth of roses.


Here are a few more hints for other bugs and areas of your living space. Are you tired of uninvited guests at your picnic? To keep those pesky ants at bay try putting plastic containers under the legs of your picnic table and filling them with water. The ants may climb up the plastic container but they will fall in and drown before they get to the table legs.

Salt has always been a favorite remedy of mine for so many things. You can fill a plastic container with salt water and place it at ground level in your gardens where you have seen slugs or snail damage. The snails and slugs drown trying to get at the salt. (This works with beer too) If you need to bait them use pieces of raw potato around the dish. You can also use salt to stop weeds from growing in the cracks of your sidewalks or walkways and is one of the many things that can extend the life of cut flowers. In the kitchen you can use a light salt water solution to put peeled potatoes or apples in until you are ready to use them, to keep them from turning dark.

Tea is a great addition to any acid loving houseplants soil. I use weak tea to water my ferns, and other house plants once a month. You can also use it and the tea bags to speed up the decomposition of your compost pile. (Compost pile coffee grounds, tea bags, egg shells and any organic vegetable matter is great.)

Now here is something I bet you’ve not heard of before—WD-40 ™uses in your garden. I believe WD-40 ™ has nearly as many uses as duct tape. You can use it to spray your flower beds lightly to keep cats, dogs and other animals out of them. You can use it on your bird feeders to keep squirrels off of them (hmmm cheaper than Cheyenne pepper – perhaps.) Those dirty messy pigeons building nests on balconies and porches, try spraying surfaces with WD-40™ it makes your place very unappealing to the pests.

Also spray railings and bird feeders to keep them off. If you have a wasp problem, building nests under your eaves—next summer spray the over hang under the eaves with WD-40™. One more good use for it, spray thistle plants and they will be history.

Use it to take care of your lawn and garden tools. Spray the handles to keep them from splintering and giving you slivers, spray the tines of garden forks, shovels, hoes, to keep them rust free and in good condition. (you can do this with your snow shovel, snow blower etc to keep snow from sticking to them in the winter, too)

Like I said WD-40™ is in a race with duct tape™ and probably super glue™ to see who is the most versatile and important. I love organic solutions when at all possible, but when something works like magic it’s hard to resist using modern warfare in the garden to get rid of pests.

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Feel free to pass this article along as long as you leave this resource box attached.
Billie A Williams
Multi-published Mystery/Suspense Author
Whose Accidental Sleuth’s solve crimes with wit, wisdom and chutzpah.
http://www.billiewilliams.com/
www.youtube.com/basbleu43

Rose Pests - and Helpers

This morning when I stopped at our local Mathis Ace Hardware ( you know the jingle "Ace is the place with the helpful hardware - man" - er person) I needed a cure for my peonies - they haven't bloomed yet and I planted them years ago. Someone told me they need Oyster shells - I wasn't able to find any. (If any one has any ideas I'd be pleased as punch to hear them. I do have plenty of ants so that isn't the problem) Picture of Lady Bug and aphids on fennel

But speaking of ants they are a problem in another way. Every insect has a benefit - such as the need for ants to help open peony blooms. however, Ants do pose a problem in that they "farm" aphids -- aphids can mean disaster for your glads or roses. So whats a person to do? You could import some Lady Bugs - they have a special appetite for them. (not the asian beetle please, but the real Lady Bug)

A women next to me in the insecticide - fertilizer isle was searching for rose dust to kill the aphids and things bothering her roses.

I had a solution for her - since she seemed to prefer organic, but was desperate. We could use the lady bugs (we have many around here. They didn't seem to be doing their job) or at least something safe for pets, birds, people. My solution for pests is Mrs. Murphy's Oil Soap. I mix it with water in a spray bottle - about 1/8 to a 1/4 cup to a quart of water and mist my plants until the leaves drip. I've used it to get rid of the bugs in my grapevines, the bean and squash bugs. It works to spray it around my back door to keep asian beetles and box alder bugs from coming in everytime the door opens. It's a wonderful product and doesn't hurt the environment.

I love finding solutions to my gardening problems that can help others and not harm beneficial critters or people. If anyone knows a reason why my 10 year old transplanted Peonies are not blooming though - I'd appreciate a note. Thank you!

Happy Gardening.

Billie

It's Organic, It's Exciting, It's Cutting Edge

I borrowed this (with permission of course) from a lovely lady over at The Daily Dirt - if you love gardening you will want to subscribe to her daily missives they are great! Here is the link.

http://www.mygardenguide.com/blog/index.php?id=1060

Wednesday What's New: Sustainable Urban Farm

The Link for the story: the original article: http://www.reuters.com/article/bondsNews/idUSN0718100720070607

The Science Barge, a sustainable urban farm is on a mission to educate people about sustainability. Moored on the Hudson River on New York City's west side, the barge is equipped with two greenhouses and is powered by solar, wind, and biofuels, and irrigated by rainwater and purified river water--with no carbon emissions, no water use, and no waste stream.

The cucumbers, tomatoes, lettuce, and other vegetables are grown using hydroponic gardening techniques. Ted Caplow, head of New York Sun Works, the non-profit organization behind the Science Barge, believes that if vegetables were grown hydroponically in greenhouses on New York City's rooftops, there would be more than enough vegetables to feed the region.

Caplow says that greenhouses produce seven times more food and use four times less water than traditional farming methods on land. Despite the proliferation and success of community gardens, one of the reasons rooftops may be the solution is that space for growing gardens on land is limited in a region with a population as dense as New York City. Of course most people don't have access to their rooftops, but the possibility of using public rooftops is a viable option.

Photo source: www.nysunworks.org Source: Environmentalist dreams of New York rooftop farms

Heleigh Bostwick, Making Gardens Greener

One Woman's Garden - a look at Organic Gardening

I've gardened all my life. No wait, that's true. While I was growing up I spent summers on my grandfather's farm - he had two 80 acre parcels split in half by a road that twisted over the narrow bridge and through the woods to a little country town that was nothing more than a whisper on the map in Northern Wisconsin named Morse.

I learned that if you salt cabbage it heads without the intrusion of worms and a lot of other great things about gardening using ordinary things every kitchen should have to control pests and invaders. Control ants and weeds with vinegar or cheyenne Pepper. Skunks don't like moth balls. But I'll leave more on that for later.

Living on a small dairy farm with pigs, chickens and eggs, geese, sheep, worked by draft horses that eventually were replaced by the more energy efficient (?) tractor...a learning experience unequalled by anything else. I came away richer for it and I would like to share some of what I learned with you. If you garden, or want to garden in this day and age where you are afraid to buy Spinach or peanut butter because it might be contaminated-- tag along with me. It's time we all started doing, what during World War II they called A Victory Garden, near our kitchen doors. Don't worry if you live in a high rise apartment building - I've got solutions for you too. So join me, won't you! Until next time...

Happy Gardening,

Billie