A Quote to accompany you in the garden

Quote: "Kind hearts are the gardens, Kind thoughts are the roots, Kind words are the flowers, Kind deeds are the fruits; Take care of your garden, And keep out the weeds, Fill it with sunshine, Kind words and kind deeds."

— Henry W. Longfellow

And may your harvests be full and plenty. Happy Growing!
Billie

Trash it or Compost it? Bag it or ReBag it?

Trash it or Compost it? Bag it or Rebag it?

by Billie A Williams

Compost improves soil drainage and water retention — we all know that as organic gardeners. But it makes a difference what you put into that compost heap. So what is the idea recipe?

Three parts carbon-rich brown matter like wood chips, shredded newspapers the dead leaves from your fall raking and plants you’ve culled from your thinning process in your garden.

You need to mix that with one part nitrogen-rich green matter, which can be grass clippings – that is one good reason to have a mower with a grass catcher. Green leaves and fruit and vegetable waste such as peels, cores, bruised or damaged spots from your cooking. You may also add coffee and tea grounds/leaves, egg shells just about any kitchen scraps except meat and meat by products.

Your compost pile should be at least three cubic feet – that’s three wide, three high and three deep – think a cube of soda and you will be able to visualize that cube. If you are using a barrel composter, you mound isn’t’ in direct contact with the earth so you will need to inoculate your mound with garden soil, finished compost or fresh manure. The smaller your ingredients the faster they become compost. You could use a leaf shredder, or your lawn mower or even run your tiller through your compost heap to make it break down quicker. You should turn the pile no more then once a week and keep it moist but not soggy. A useful analogy is to think of a sponge that is wrung-out, it is still wet, but it doesn’t drip when you pick it up.

Compost takes nine to twelve months to fully mature; if you add to your heap regularly, use a screen to sift out finished compost. It’s ready when it looks and feels like moist chocolate cake crumbs and smells like fresh-turned earth.

Contrary to popular belief in some areas, your compost heap when done properly will not have an offensive odor.

Which brings us to what to use when you go grocery shopping, when they inevitably ask you paper or plastic? Give this some thought.

Paper bags are made from a renewable resource, obviously trees. They are recyclable and biodegradable. On the negative side, chemicals used to manufacture paper bags pollute air and water.

Plastic bags require less energy to manufacture, equaling less air pollution and industrial waste, but they are made from nonrenewable petroleum or natural gas, and are non-biodegradable—toxic chemicals are also used during manufacture.

The best solution – recycle by bringing your plastic bags back to the store for more groceries when you shop – or — and this is the best, bring your own cloth bags to fill when you shop. This may be a little inconvenient for a major shopping trip, but if you could recycle or reuse, bring your own cloth you are saving at least some of the environment we will be leaving to the next generation.

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Billie A Williams is an award winning, multi-published author who's accidental sleuths solve crime with wit, wisdom and chutzpah. visit her website for more information at http://www.billiewilliams.com

email: billie at billiewilliams dot com

Sometimes Words are planted in a Garden of Prose

And what grows may be an amazing new career. Check out what you can do if you follow your dream - and bloom where you are planted. One Woman's Garden - not necessarily mine, but it could be.

We’ve certainly had some great comments during each stop
of the Virtual Book Tourfor Jordan Dane.

Why was she chosen to be our first vic … I mean featured author?
Because she has a very professional website.  
Because she has a very professional blog.  
Because she has a presence on MySpace and other networking sites around the ‘Net.
Because she attends every writer’s conference she can possibly get to
to network with successful writers, editors, agents.
Because she promotes herself as a professional writer.

She isn’t resting on her laurels after having sold SIX books
to Avon HarperCollins before the first one hit print.

If you’re like me and wannabe like Jordan, take a look
at how you’re promoting yourself. Does your website look
like a novice put it together  Do you remember to blog
more than once a month  Do you network with other writers?

Or do you do like too many very good should-be-published writers
… and hunker down in the corner pretending that you’ve done
everything you can and the publishing world and all
its agents are against you?

Think about that as you visit the next stops on
The Writer’s Chatroom’ “Show—Not Tell” virtual
book tour featuring debut author Jordan Dane.

Jordan and Avon HarperCollins are offering
opportunities to win great prizes all along the tour.  

Next up:

March 19 Cricket Sawyer

at http://www.Cricketshearth.blogspot.com

March 22 Diana Castilleja

at http://dianacastilleja.blogspot.com

Give yourself every advantage to learn from this marketing dynamo—

who just happens to also be a very good writer—

and read the interviews and comments at previous stops:

Billie Williams at http://printedwords.blogspot.com

Linda J. Hutchinson at http://reviewhutch.blogspot.com

Kim Richards at http://kim-richards.livejournal.com/

Lisa Haselton at http://lisahaselton.tripod.com/reviewsandinterviews/

And don’t forget to come to the “Launch P-A-R-T-Y!” on March 30^th! There are prizes galore!

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.

How To Plant an Effective Wind Break

by Billie A Williams

Today the wind whips the landscape in wintery gust of 65 miles per hour at times. The few inches of snowfall in the last couple days piles up in great drifts where little or no resistance is met. I’m glad we have an effective wind break on the north-northwest side of our home. It happens to be the L shaped protection afforded by the house and garage next door. It saves us on our heating fuel bill. What saves the neighbor’s heating bill? Another wind break in the form of evergreen trees planted in the L shape recommended by those who know how to develop an effective wind break.
Which brings me to today’s question. What creates an effective, efficient, energy saving natural wind break? According to the Department of Environmental Protection research up to 40 percent of your heating fuel costs could be cut by having a barrier such as evergreen trees against the wind velocity of those north-northwest winter winds. In dollar amounts, considering the US average heating costs, that could easily be as much as $400 per winter.
Here are a few important considerations when planning your evergreen wind break:
1. Most Important: Evergreens need to be planted north and northwest of your home. The direction that the strongest and coldest winter winds come from.
2. Planting in a “U” or “L” shape is most effective against blocking the undesirable winds.
3. The best zone of wind protection is from 2 – 7 times the height of the trees when they mature. Example: Mature tree height 20 feet = 40 to 140 feet downwind protection. Plan your planting accordingly
4. If you want a quick wind barrier plant your trees closer together. If you are willing to wait, you can plant them farther apart and wait for them to grow into a dense barrier. This could save you money on the cost of the trees.
5. Keep in mind evergreens prefer full to partial sun. Most soil conditions are adequate for them.
6. Order your trees from a reputable tree nursery.

Care for your evergreen trees with plenty of water until they are well established and they will take care of you. Not only with energy/heating fuel costs, but with a variety of birds and other wild life that will be attracted to your property.

Billie A Williams
Award-winning, multi-published
mystery suspense author
www.billiewilliams.com

Do Animals Think - or - Reason?

Do Animals Think?

I would have to say yes. I mean I put up a squirrel baffle to keep the critters off my bird feeder. It was a tube feeder that had a tray on it — to save the dropped seeds. Smart move put a baffle over it. That is until the gray squirrel decided he was too hungry to ignore the source of his delight – black sunflower seeds. He had already ruined two tube feeders. We finally hung it by a cloth covered wire so he couldn’t chew through and drop it to the ground. This is one determined squirrel.

Okay, Baffle in place. Are you ready for this. As I watched his efforts he shinnied down the wire onto the baffle —zip, slip, smash he was on the ground. Back up the tree he scoots, out on the limb, down the wire, onto the baffle. He did this three times, now he adds a little flip at the end of the slide – a near miss he lands on all four feet on the ground. The next time he timed it perfect, as he flipped he grabbed the tray under the bird feeder and crawled back up to the feeder.

I chased him away, but he had it figured out now. Turn my back and he was back at that black sunflower seed tube feeder with a vengeance. I won, I changed feeders and moved the feeder under the eaves of the house – He has not figured out how to get to that yet – oh, did I mention I got rid of the tube feeder with the tray – this one is a straight tube feeder, no tray for him to fall to – so far so good.
I have resorted to Cheyenne pepper on the other feeders – it only works briefly the reasoning behind that is that birds do not have olfactory glands (Butch if you are listening, that is used on more then the scratch off lottery tickets that don’t win) Those are the glands that allow us to smell – birds don’t have them – but apparently after a couple hours the squirrels can also by pass the pungent odor of Cheyenne pepper. So I have added a lower tray feeder especially for the squirrels where I keep a reasonable supply of sunflower seeds just for them and what the birds can steal while they are gone. They leave the upper feeder alone unless theirs is empty. Perhaps I should try moth balls in the feeder—hmmm but I am worried about contaminating the seeds for the birds. So I’ll feed the squirrels – we have a limited truce I guess.

Yes, I do believe animals have a brain and that they think with it, some more then humans = )
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Billie A Williams
Mystery/Suspense Author
Accidental sleuths solve crimes
With wit, wisdom, and chutzpah
www.billiewilliams.com

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?