If What you grow in your garden is books

I mean authors find their garden's are a source of inspiration and relaxation where the muse often visits. To that end -- here is a contest for you writing side.

Good Luck
Billie
Time Sensitive material:

Of interest to authors who are published electronically. Please distribute to your membership

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

EPPIE Contest in Full Swing to Highlight Excellence in ePublishing

Worldwide–September 16, 2008—EPIC, the Electronically Published Internet Connection, proudly announces the annual EPPIE contest. This is the premier contest in the book industry that celebrates the outstanding achievements of electronic books by authors and publishers. The EPPIE Awards have been given annually since the first EPIC conference to recognize outstanding achievement in ePublishing. The contest deadline for entries is October 4, 2008 at Midnight CST.

Categories are judged by volunteers, the largest percentage of which are members of EPIC, an organization consisting of electronically published authors and industry professionals. Guest judges, all of whom are either published authors or publishing professionals, are used only as deemed necessary by the EPPIE Chair/Committee.

The First Round Judging delivers our EPPIE Finalists, whose works are forwarded to a second panel of judges before the winners of our thirty categories are selected. Winners from each judged category are announced at the EPIC conference's gala award ceremony, taking place at the annual EPICon Convention, taking place March 5-8, 2009 in Las Vegas, Nevada.

EPIC is also the proud sponsor of the QUASAR/ARIANA Awards for excellence in graphic cover art for eBooks.

For contest guidelines, please visit http://www.epicauthors.com/eppierules2009.html

Electronically Published Internet Connection
Contact: Karen L. Syed, EPIC Publicity Coordinator
9735 Country Meadows Lane 1D, Laurel, MD 20723
410-878-7113 (v) 410-988-2864 (f)
erevolution.epic@gmail.com
www.epicauthors.com

B is For Bare Root Planting

Bare root or potted plants--what's your pleasure? Both have benefits. Let's examine the bare root. Checking at your local nursery you can expect to pay between forty and seventy percent less for your plants - and nearly the same benefits with a catalog nursery.

Saving money may be the reason you took up gardening in the first place. Bare root purchases will be in line with that. Other than cost what else would stimulate you to purchase this type of plant?

The plants usually have a more extensive root system which will give them a good start once in the ground. You can see how root to top growth is balanced and you can trim back the roots before planing to encourage new vigorous growth, in most cases.

You can sometimes find rare and unusual varieties that are not available in the potted variety.

Last but not least, the bare roots may actually take root and grow better as they more easily adapt to your soil.

If you buy bare root plants, they require immediate care of the delicate hold they have on life. Bare root plants are like infants, very vulnerable. What you do immediately when they arrive at your home whether from local nursery, or mail order catalog, is important for their survival and productive growth.

If you are unable to plant them right away you can use one of the three methods to make their wait safer and more comfortable.

1. Leave them in the original packing material and keep them in a cool dry place. Check them to be sure the roots are not dry - if they are, sprinkle with a small amount of water as necessary until you can plant them, hopefully in a few days.

2. Use any large pot saved from another year to pot them up. Use good soil, compost and peat moss mixed to keep them alive and let them begin to grow.

3. Dig a shallow trench in a partly shaded area of your garden/yard/area where you intend to set them out. Do this where you can conveniently water them as necessary. Lay the plants on their sides with the roots in the trench and cover them with the same type of mixture of good soil, compost and peat moss. They will be good for a while there.

Make sure you label your plants held over in these ways. It's so easy to forget what is where and planting instructions may vary for those held in waiting.

You may discover that bare root is better.

ASPARAGUS

ASPARAGUS

Asparagus beds can be productive for 35-40 years if you keep the soil fertile and the weeds under control and the asparagus beetle at bay. So how do you go about this and why am I talking asparagus when you can only harvest them until the peas begin to bear sometime in June?

Preparing your bed is the start and if it is prepared properly you will have many years of superior eating. To start with, asparagus grows best with liberal applications of fertilizer. That fertilizer can be well-rotted manure or compost applied at a rate of one bushel to 30 square feet. Once a year you should spread a good 10-10-10 fertilizer, 1 ½ to 2 cups over every ten feet of a row. You can apply this late fall or very early in the spring – or even just after you finish harvesting your asparagus.

Another hint, allow asparagus tops to stand over the winter to catch and hold snow. This helps prevent deep freezing and sudden changes in soil temperature. Moisture added by melting snow is important to the shoots that produce the following spring. Once spring comes you can lop off the dead tops.

You can begin cutting your asparagus about mid-May, every other day if temperatures and moisture are favorable. Allow your bed to keep its foliage until it dies down naturally in the fall.

How soon can you harvest asparagus after you’ve started your bed? If it was started well, a few spears may be cut by the second year. It may be cut for several weeks the third year, but you shouldn’t harvest a full crop until the fourth year.

Some of the best growers now advise breaking, rather than cutting asparagus, according to Jerry Baker in his book 1001 Old Time Garden Tips. There is no danger of injuring the crown with this method the shoot will not break in the tough stringy part, resulting in perfectly crisp, delicious asparagus.

Now what about that pesky asparagus beetle? You should go through the patch daily with a pan of hot water, and shake the young asparagus heads that have the insects on them into the pan of water to destroy them.

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ASPARAGUS SALAD

1 lb asparagus juice of 2 whole lemons

1 head romaine lettuce ½ cup of cream

1 lb mushrooms ¼ tsp of paprika

Salt and pepper to taste.

1. Clean and steam asparagus until tender-crisp, cool quickly in ice water
2. Arrange lettuce around a large platter
3. Clean and thickly slice the mushrooms
4. Make dressing with lemon juice, cream, paprika, salt and pepper. Stir mushrooms into the dressing, remove with a slotted spoon.
5. Put mushroom in middle of lettuce, surround with asparagus spears—tips pointing outward. Garnish with carrot curls, cherry tomatoes, and/or English walnut halves.

Serve cold with dressing on the side.

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About the Author

Billie A Williams is an award-winning, multi-published author her

Accidental sleuths solve crimes with wit, wisdom and chutzpah

http://www.billiewilliams.com

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.