Yearly Archives: 2010

Three for Thursday

Posted on October 7, 2010 by | 1 comment

Cindy, From My Corner of Katy is the host of 3 for Thursday, and really a delightful garden blogger. See for yourself.

Three for Thursday I’m seeing a pattern here…

Margarita

  • 1 (6 ounce) can frozen limeade concentrate
  • 6 fluid ounces tequila
  • 2 fluid ounces triple sec

Keep it simple.

Really, I just order Margaritas for the limes.

I love limes.

The bar tender said it was a margarita.

Margarita Chicken

  • 4 boneless chicken breast halves
  • 1/2 cup tequila
  • 1/2 cup fresh lime juice

Combine chicken, tequila and lime juice in small shallow dish. Cover and marinate at least 30 minutes and up to 2 hours, turning occasionally.

Prepare barbecue (medium-high heat) or preheat broiler. Drain chicken; reserve marinade. Season chicken with salt and pepper. Grill or broil until just cooked through, occasionally basting chicken with some reserved marinade, about 4 minutes per side.

Cut each chicken breast crosswise into thin slices. Arrange slices on platter. Garnish with lime wedges.

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Posted in My Homeplace, Oh Grow Up!, Recipes

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Friends of Fall Foliage Friday

Posted on October 3, 2010 by | Comments Off on Friends of Fall Foliage Friday

Fall Foliage Friday – Every Friday this month post a photo of something natural and colorful. The perfect red leaf, a sweeping panorama of golden Aspens, the rusty reds of the Ozarks Mountains.

It’s just for fun. Post a photo and tell us where it is. That’s all.  Or, include a little story, a poem, a did you know fact. Or, tell us about other cool fall foliage sites.

Friends, it doesn’t even have to be Friday. Just Fall Foliage.

This tree is beside one of my favorite hotels in Springfield

Missouri Fall Color Guide by the Mo Dept Conservation

Share your favorites.

One of the nicest Fall Color sites

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Posted in Gardens (not mine), Go Away, My Gardens, My Homeplace, Oh Grow Up!

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Three for Thursday

Posted on September 30, 2010 by | 1 comment

Three for Thursday,
Cindy, From My Corner of Katy sponsors Three for Thursday every week, and the nice thing about this meme is that you can choose whatever three things you want.

Tuxcedo, Confetti, Red Velvet

3 cupcakes. Why do people love Red Velvet cup cakes and cakes? It is such a favorite at The Cup.

Three containers of coffee

3 coffee containers. btw, what is the point of decaf in the morning?  I am drinking coffee at Holiday Inn Express

Lovely aren't they?

I would tell you if I knew what they are. Do you know?

OK, just to wrap it up,

3 Cup cakes, coffee, flowers. Enjoy!

For a good time in Springfield MO click here.

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Posted in Go Away, Ozarks Travel Examiner, Traveling

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My Patio

Posted on September 23, 2010 by | Comments Off on My Patio

2 New Coleus

Red Head (Solenostemon hybrida)
Versa Crimson Gold Coleus ( Solenostemon scutellarioides)

Red Head coleus

I combined these two coleus in hanging baskets that had late afternoon shade. Generally these plants were left on their own. I cut them back only twice during the growing season.

Red Head is truest red color in the Ball coleus collection. I like these newer coleus that can take the heat and hold their henna color in both full sun and part shade.

The Versa Coleus series includes Crimson Gold. These coleus were neglected, not fertilized, and inconsistently watered in hanging baskets. The bicolor leaves held their color, were vigorous, and quickly branched into a full mounded hanging basket.

All coleus will be gone with the first freeze, but till then, these plants provide bright, bold color on the patio.

Bright color all season

I’ll be using more coleus in my gardens because, unlike flowers, you get bold, season-long color.

If I can get bright , fade proof red in my garden all summer, I am inclined to plant it again next year. Most folks look at a garden at a distance. They just see the red. And this Ball Horticultural trial plant is a long lasting, fade proof busrt of red in my garden from spring till frost. Look for it next spring.


Most of my trial plants went in containers like this.

Coleus gave my garden bright season-long color.

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Posted in Herbs in the garden, My Gardens, My Homeplace, Oh Grow Up!, Product reviews

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Disease free home garden roses

Posted on September 19, 2010 by | Comments Off on Disease free home garden roses

Grow coral-orange Showboat roses in zones 4-9

Good news on the commercial release of a sweet little rose that thinks it’s a big shot blooming spring through summer with another heavy color burst in fall.

These StoryBook™ roses are tiny but mighty bloomers. They are highly disease-resistant and low maintenance. One delightful note to home gardeners: StoryBook™ roses can be easily propagated since they can be grown from cuttings on their own roots.

I’ve have two StoryBook™ roses growing in the front of my house for three years. With the exception of an occasional watering during the drought, I’ve generally neglected them. They are disease free, and don’t need the intensive care that keep many folks away from roses.

My StoryBook™ roses do not get pricey rose food, have no spray schedule and are happy to have a shovel full of compost and a couple inches of mulch every year. Thanks to its compact habit, they require very little pruning.

Advertised as “highly resistant to powdery mildew and little affected by black spot”, they proved to be disease-free in my hot, humid zone 6 garden. Even in containers, these hardy roses have survived week-long 100 degree days and weeks of freezing weather.

I have two StoryBook™ Roses. One is a floriferous coral double rose named “Showboat,” and the other, a bold and bright white rose with a yellow center, named “Moby Dick”.

There are two more StoryBook™ Roses. “Little Women”, is a soft pink semi-double rose. And the newest is “Sundance Kid” starts as a coral bud and opend to a soft yellow with a faint coral blush. Mature blooms are a soft yellow and hold their color even in the hottest weather.

Just imagine how beautiful they would be if I lavished a little attention or fertilizer on them. But after three years, I really do need to shape and trim them up. Now, I am headed out to cleanup these long ignored little roses because we are expecting company. This spring, you can come by and see my roses. Or, call 1(800) 770-2777 to order Storybook Roses.™

Brought to the industry by the breeder of Patriot™ Lantanas, R.J. (Jack) Roberson, StoryBook™ Garden Roses will be “whats next” in easy care home gardens. These little gems are perfect as patio roses or hardy in containers.

Story Book™ Roses are the closest thing to a maintenance free rose I have ever grown.

For more information: contact Jo Roberson at jo@americandaylily.com or go to www.gardensofglory.com.

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Posted in My Gardens, My Homeplace, Product reviews

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Cute as a Baby Bell

Posted on September 16, 2010 by | Comments Off on Cute as a Baby Bell

Bright and crisp

These little peppers are crisp and sweet. I ate the first ripe pepper right in the garden. I’m growing a few  chilies and several different mild or bell peppers.  These mini bell pepper plants are compact and heavy producers. Baby bells are a good choice for growing in containers.

There are truly a rainbow of colors for bell peppers. Try something new, like Baby Bells, beautiful in the garden and tasty in recipes. The green peppers are not as sweet and sometimes more bitter than the red, yellow or orange peppers. Bell peppers are at their sweetest when allowed to ripen on the plant in full sun.

Red peppers also have twice the vitamin C content of green peppers. Bell peppers are an excellent source of vitamins C and A. One raw pepper provides more vitamin C than one cup of orange juice.

Red Baby Bells

The red and yellow baby bell peppers are beautiful together on an antipasto plate or in a big summer salad.  This pepper seed is easy to find in several catalogs.

I got my seed at Renee’s Garden. I like that both the red and yellow peppers came in one seed pack. After all, how many pepper plants does a home gardener need?

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Posted in Herb Everything, Herbs in the garden, Herbs in the kitchen, Ozarks Travel Examiner, Product reviews

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Homemade Sun-dried Tomatoes

Posted on August 26, 2010 by | Comments Off on Homemade Sun-dried Tomatoes

Try Tomaccio Tomatoes

The most prolific tomato in my garden is ‘Tomaccio’™.

Cluster after cluster until frost.

‘Tomaccio’™ originated at Hishtil Nurseries in Israel as the result of a 12 year breeding program using wild Peruvian tomato species to create the world’s finest, sweetest snack tomato, fresh or dried. Europeans in France and Germany have been growing and enjoying tomato ‘tomaccio’ for several years.

These tomato plants are huge, about 7′ tall, so I trimmed the tomato plant and hung some of the tomato vines to dry to show you how to do it. Tomaccio are the first tomatoes to ripen, continuously producing cluster after cluster of fruit.

Bargain sun-dried tomatoes

I’ve been drying cherry tomatoes for many years because I love the intense tomato flavor in winter soups, on pizza, and in spaghetti sauce. Tomaccio are rich and sweet fresh off the vine, drying simply intensifies their flavor.

Living next the Mississippi River, the air is usually too humid for fruits to dry naturally, but a 5-tray food dehydrator makes fast work of drying cherry tomatoes. I cut each tomato in half and fill the trays in a single layer.

You can also dry tomatoes in an oven on 100-degree F for about 3 hours. Snack on the dried tomaccio or store in a plastic zipper bag in the freezer.

C. Raker & Sons partnered with the Israeli firm Hishtil to bring Tomaccio to the United States. Look for Tomaccio plants at independent garden centers next spring, or visit www.raker.com to find a retail source near you.

As a member of the Garden Writers Association, I had the opportunity to trial Tomaccio this summer. These plants are prolific. I think I am getting more tomatoes from a single Tomaccio plant than I would from three or four cherry or pear tomato plants. That’s more produce in less garden space.

Plants will grow to 9'

The plants continue to grow and produce sweet cherry tomatoes. Later, I’ll have more details about drying Tomaccio.

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Posted in Herbs in the garden, Herbs in the kitchen, My Gardens

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La Crema sage for fashionistas.

Posted on August 20, 2010 by | 1 comment

IN THE HERB GARDEN

Flavorful Bicolor sage

Hort Couture is a company that offers “the most sought after new plants and genetics from the world’s best breeders and plants people,” according to their website. One of their more popular plant collections is Culinary Couture, a line of fashionable heirloom vegetables and herbs.

So far, I’ve grown the following plants with panache this summer: Salvia officinalis ‘La Crema’, ‘Black Krim’ (an heirloom tomato) and the worldwide hit ‘ Tomaccio’ (a new dried snack tomato). I’ll share the results of my tomatoes later this year. (It will be more than a month before I’ll have dried tomatoes and a final report.)

One of my favorite herbs from Culinary Couture is ‘La Crema’, a fragrant, variegated sage that is currently thriving in my Zone 6 garden. Reminiscent of the familiar common garden sage, ‘La Crema’ is aromatic and beautiful enough to be in the flower garden.

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Look for ‘La Crema’ in independent garden centers next spring.
It is thriving in my humid, Zone 6 garden.
Photo by Patsy Bell Hobson

What I’m most excited about is using this flavorful herb in my family’s cornbread and sage dressing this Thanksgiving. I suggest that you use this sage as you would any other garden sage. Low-growing sage can grow as a border plant in a perennial garden. In spring, blue sage flowers appear about the time chives have blossomed. The flowers also make a pretty bouquet or can be used as an edible garnish.

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Photos by Patsy Bell Hobson

Hort Couture is the fastest growing plant brand in North America. Their plant collections include Avant Garde Annuals, Prêt a Porter Perennials, Tres Chic Tropicals, Culinary Couture and Sunny Succulents. ‘La Crema’ is from C. Raker & Sons, a wholesale plant propagation specialist based in Litchfield, Michigan. C. Raker & Sons is in partnership with Hort Couture, the fashionistas of the plant world.

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Photo by Patsy Bell Hobson

Have you ever bought herbs from Hort Couture? What do you think of their products?

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Lawnmower Heaven

Posted on August 18, 2010 by | 1 comment

Jakes lawn mower repair

According to legend, older elephants instinctively direct themselves, when they reach a certain age, to the elephant graveyard. They then die there alone, far from the group

Need a part for an old lawnmower? It’s here.

There is no such thing as an elephant’s graveyard. Metaphorically it’s come to mean a resting place for a collection. And it was the first thing I thought of when we drove up to Jakes. If you need help with lawn mowing, you can hire experts from this link https://msglawncare.com/lawn/mowing/.

Hanging Tree of Weed Whackers

I know landscapers like King Green and now I have arrived in a place where lawnmowers come to die in Southeast Missouri. Then I saw the weed whacker tree. For all the tree damage that weed whackers have inflicted on trees, it came down to this. Ironically, all the tree abuse ended here. The hanging tree for weed whackers.

Jake’s is the best illustration I’ve ever seen of a “It might come in handy some day,” collection. Jake has amassed what others see as a junk pile. But to him, it’s a used lawn mower parts store.

He sometimes a has a used lawnmower, weed whacker or leaf shredder for sale. If you’ve found your way to Jakes, you probably are not of the “ buying used lawn equipment is just buying someone else’s problems” mind set. If Jake repaired it and would even consider selling it to you, it works. Lawnmowers, trimmers, shredders, there is probably one at Jakes.

No one would just happen to be driving past Jake’s while looking for a lawn mower. He doesn’t advertise and he lives in a remote area. If you know about North Star Tree Service and Jakes Lawn Repair service, it’s a testimony to word of mouth advertising.

Bring your lawn tools to Jakes to stretch out their life.

In my effort to live a greener, more earth-friendly life, I try to stretch out the life of everything. The goal is to keep it out of the landfill or junk yard for just one more year. So, in and effort to keep that old mower running just one more year, I took it to Jake’s.

Earthwise or not, it made sence to repair a lawnmower. Repairing the mower I had, gave me time to do a little consumer research before my next purchase. I can also put a mower in the budget for next summer. Instead of making an expensive “gotta have it now!” purchase, I can take my time. Giving me a post season and pre season to look for lawnmower Bargains.

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My Patio

Posted on August 14, 2010 by | Comments Off on My Patio

Neon Rose Wave Petunias

Beautiful spring to fall

Wave Petunias are hardy and faithful bloomers all season. They will make a ground-hugging carpet of color, but I grew my Neon Rose petunias in a hanging basket.

faithful Bloomers spring to fall

Bright colorful plants drew butterflies and hummers to my patio all growing season.

I could have had this plant photo ready by removing the spent flowers, but this pink petunia has survived on it’s own with no additional fertilizer or attention, just water.

Wave petunias were introduced in 1995. They’ve been around, introducing wave after wave of vibrant colors and  easy care annuals for 15 years.

Wave petunias have their own website. If you are a fan of this flower, let Ball Horticulture know you want to Join The Fan Club.

Twitter

BALL HORTICULTUE

Thanks to BALL HORTICULTUE who provided  the petunias

to me to trial and  evaluate.

Wave petunia fill beds with color

“Easy Wave® Neon Rose:  hot pink petunia from the Easy Wave series of spreading petunias is new for 2011. It is more mounded and controlled, making it ideal for baskets and containers.”

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