Garden Writers’ Association

Waking up at 6am on a Sunday morning is not my idea of fun. However, when I was asked by Phipps to volunteer from 8-11am when the Garden Writers' Association came to visit I jumped at the chance. Did I regret it this morning when my alarm went off? HELL YEAH! But it was so nice to meet all different people from all over! I got to meet the owners of Brent and Becky's Bulbs and Terra Nova Nurseries from Oregon who gave me an amazing catalog that I had to give to someone at Phipps, but before that happened, I had to ogle the eye candy within those pages! Can we say drool worthy??? I also had a nice chat with a man named Mort from Rhode Island. He does garden videos!

So the point of this post....Someone asked whether I was also a garden writer. The answer was no, I was not. However, then I was asked if I blogged. Why yes I do! But...not really! Why? Because this blog has always been my journal. I am inept at keeping a hard copy journal in today's world. I want to write in it when I want to and usually I am on the run. Also, this way, I don't have to find space for a journal and all the clippings I might put into it! Take a pic, BLOG! I never did think of this as "garden writing", but I guess it is in a way!

Vacation Goodies & Corpse Flower

On my trip to Seattle this month I picked up a few plant related items! I know, shocking, right? ;) I had been seeing people on my hot pepper group use these grow bags for their plants. Well I found one with a similar idea, except more breatheable (the others were plastic) at my favorite place, Sky Nursery! I thought I would give it a try and got a 5 gallon size. I also picked up seeds of two different types of pumpkins, milkweed and edamame seeds. The edamame and Japanese pumpkin seeds I got at Uwajimaya. I figured they ought to be authentic enough! Can't wait to try these out next year!

My corn is finally flowering!

I forget what types of bean this is...pole bean? Anyhow, they were fresh, tender and delicious in the pot roast I made yesterday!

Amorphophallus titanium in bloom for the first time at Phipps Conservatory! 

Spring Show Installation at Phipps

So I signed up to help with the spring show installation at Phipps and forgot since I did not make it an alarm on my phone. Luckily I was up early today, but still not quite early enough to make it there on time! I had to pick up dog food though since I had forgotten to pick it up yesterday and had to decide whether to skip volunteering or not so I decided to see how frozen the dog food was. I did end up going, albeit quite a bit late. I got there slightly before noon and stayed till 2:30-ish. It went pretty quick with so many people helping. I guess I should've taken a pic of our work, but that didn't cross my mind at the time. I did take some pics of some of the other stuff though.

I always have to visit the gift shop every time I volunteer there. They had these white sweatshirt hoodies with the Phipps logo on them, but they were asking $45 for them! Still wasn't worth it after my discount unfortunately. Instead, I got a baseball cap instead. I got khaki. There was a green, which was really nice, but I thought it was too manly and I also already have a dark hat. I didn't want the white one b/c I thought it would get dirty too easily so khaki it was!

Master Gardener Re-Certification

Tonight I went to the Phipps Master Gardener Re-Certification Ceremony. It's hard to believe that I was certified back in 2005 and this will be my fifth year doing so!

Our guest speaker was Doug Oster from the Post Gazette. His book was what made going organic so easy for me! He has a new book out called Tomatoes Garlic Basil, which he brought a few copies tonight and signed them for those that bought one, which I did! Those are the three things that I must grow every year! He remembered that I had gone organic a few years back and asked how it was going. I told him that my grass looks great! There are far less bare spots from the dog! Who woulda thunk? He said that the lawn was the hardest for people to do so, but it didn't seem that way for me. It was all or nothing! I chose to go for it all and chose nothing!

I do put down corn gluten meal as a pre-emergent as well as fertilizer, but really nothing else besides that! If I see a weed I don't like I pull it. I have been working on a patch of clover for two years now. Clovers are good actually....they put nitrogen back into the soil, but they sure don't look nice! I did find out a bit of calcium slows their growth!

Anyway...I am awaiting my time to put down some of that corn gluten. I think I'm out...going to have to pick up some! I also just realized the down side to an online gardening journal....I can't really sketch on here. Oh well...

Today was sunny and above freezing so a lot of snow melted! Check out the icicles on the back of my house!