Yellow is a Cheerful Color Trend for 2010

Yellow is bursting out of the gate as the hot color this year for inside the home, as well as in the garden. This cheerful hue can range from creamy-white butter to spicy saffron tones with endless shades in between. It’s the kind of color that, simply, makes you happy. An exuberant patch of lanky, gold sunflowers can put a smile on your face every time. So, you’ll be planting some sunshine this spring when you give these winners a try.

Gaillardia, ‘Mesa Queen’: The blanket flower is recommended for its drought-hardy, daisy-like flower. The 20-inch tall ‘Mesa Queen’ was chosen as a 2010 Flower Award Winner for its cheerful, yellow blooms that continue to bloom all summer. As an extra, bees and butterflies are attracted to it, too.

Echinacea ‘Mango Meadowbright’: A glowing-yellow addition to the coneflower family boldly separates itself with its narrow petals and sassy new color from its pinky-purple cousins. Grow some fireworks in your summer garden!

Hosta, ‘Dawn’s Early Light’: Bright, yellow leaves can be just as exciting as flowers—and foliage lasts longer. Heavily, textured hosta leaves emerge as gold in spring and change to chartreuse in the summer—an excellent way to brighten up a shady area.

Clematis, ‘Guernsey Cream’: Pale yellow petals combine with a dark, yellow center for a more subtle appearance. Blooms cover a compact, 6-8 ft. vining plant in late spring to early summer.

‘Golden Bowl’ tree peony: These huge flowers point to why tree peonies became the favorites of the Greek gods and Japanese emperors. ‘Golden Bowl’ is a royal expression of sunny-yellow with its papery petals and fluffy, gold-red anthers. Its blooms are the ‘event’ of the mid-spring garden.

Appeared in the Chicago Sun-Times GreenHouse issue: February 4, 2010

Eat Your Colors

Plant a colorful vegetable garden and you’ll be healthier for it.

Cauliflower ‘Graffiti’— Large plants showcase bright, purple heads of cauliflower wrapped in dark-purple leaves. They look amazing in the vegetable garden as well as on the plate. The heads keep most of their color when cooked. Try microwaving it to make it even easier to eat healthy.

Sweet Pepper, ‘Thor’

This 12-inch variety matures in 70 days turning from green to chartreuse and then to red—ready for picking. Perfect size for roasting or stuffing.

Available through John Scheepers Kitchen Garden Seeds

www.kitchengardenseeds.com

(860)567-6086

Edible Flowers

Nasturtium ‘Empress of India’—Petals are crimson-scarlet with a sweet, peppery flavor. Plants climb or sprawl from 12” to 18”. They are extremely easy to grow in full or filtered sunlight. Sow directly in garden after the last frost date.

Seeds are available at:

Pasquesi Home and Gardens

(847)615-2700

Johnny Jump Ups (Viola tricolor) —The flowers have violet petals with yellow and white markings and a wintergreen flavor. These dainty flowers look beautiful on cakes or desserts or freeze petals inside ice cubes for summer drinks.

Renee’s Garden

www.reneesgarden.com

(888)880-7228

‘Barely-any-calories‘ Salad Greens

Baby Mesclun Salad, ‘Paris Market Mix’—This seed mix will provide you with an imported mesclun mix of baby lettuces, mild chicory and endive, with a touch of scented chervil and nutty arugula. Perfect with a drizzle of olive oil and balsamic vinegar.

Container Lettuce

‘Sweetie Baby Romaine’—Lettuce leaves are compact and juicy with a sweet flavor. They are long lasing, slow to bolt and heat tolerant.

Available at:

The Cook’s Garden

www.cooksgarden.com

(800)457-9703

Squash, ‘Gourmet Gold— Cheery-yellow squash offers plenty of Vitamin C. Plants produce top-quality fruits and the leaves stay big, green and attractive in the garden. It is new for 2010.

Beans, Tri-color Mix—Three colors of beans keep coming all summer and through fall. Pack includes green Italian Romano; yellow Gold Bacau (Romania) and purple heirloom Trionfo Violetto (Italy). You’ll have plenty to share with family and friends.

Appeared in the Chicago Sun-Times GreenHouse issue: January 21, 2010

Spring is whispering its arrival this month

“There’s one good thing about snow, it makes your lawn look as nice as your neighbor’s.”

That might be the only comfort at this point in March. Mountains of snow still peak at the end of my driveway and continue in a ridge up to the garage. The temperatures are rising but it is hard to imagine that this amount of snow will ever give way to a green lawn with dandelions anytime soon.

However, if you look closely at the swelling flower buds on the shrubs and trees, spring is working behind the scenes. Maybe it won’t be so long after all.

Daisies?

It is December 22nd. Snow covered the yard—twice today. We shoveled twice. I baked two Swedish coffeecakes. I fed my two cats. I drank 2 cups of coffee.

However, I only have one daisy, still left from the garden—believe it or not. I couldn’t, so I took a picture of it to remember that I still had a daisy flower at Christmas time. The plants themselves are frozen or look it—as they poke their broken stems through the snow drift... and I pile more snow on their heads.

As I downloaded my camera, I came across photos taken of my garden and others last spring and summer and fall. How come I didn’t see the beauty as clearly as I do right now? Did I need the combination of Christmas lights and green, lush plantings to appreciate either of them? Enough said...I will post some of them later. The daisy is the miracle right now.

Light greens gone until next year...

I can’t believe how quickly the leaves have dropped from the trees over the last few days. It seems that I just took this photo in mid-October, when the woods were just starting to change color. Now on November 1st, when I look outside my windows, the large Maple trees have shed their golden canopy and the petite Japanese maple stands naked with scarlet plumage at its feet. The old oaks refuse to give up half of their pointy, reddish-brown leaves, just to extend the raking season for me.

Actually, nature was right on schedule as the leaves on the ground provided the annual ‘crunchy noise’ ambience for the trick or treaters last night.

Clean Hands Spritz

Yield: 1 ounce

2 tablespoons + 1 teaspoon plain aloe vera or lemon witch hazel
1/8 teaspoon tea tree oil
24 drops of essential oils of lavender, lemon, cinnamon, peppermint and/or thyme (use 2 or more for good action and a
balanced aroma, and also because these oils are potent).
4 drops of grapefruit seed extract

Mix all the ingredients in a 1-ounce glass spray bottle (available at natural food stores and online or reuse a bottle that something else came in).

Shake well before using.

Spray 2 or 3 times on dirty hands and rub them together.

Note: Use this to sanitize hands on the go. It has an indefinite shelf life. Add a handwritten label for a nice touch—use an address label or simply tape one on with clear shipping tape. Give bottles of this spritz as gifts during the winter holidays or when colds and the flu are rampant. —Easy Green Living by Renee Loux

More than a whispering...

I know that I felt a hint of fall in the air a few weeks ago before there were any signs, at all.
Now, I am sure that autumn is lurking, even as we try to celebrate the last summer holiday, Labor Day. Earlier, the rainy days came and were followed by clear and sunny ones with no humidity. The oaks are starting their long process of dropping leaves and my show-off Japanese maple is shifting to a brighter red. Still, we will be a bit in denial as we drag out the BBQ and hot dogs, trying to believe that the warm sun is still a summer one.
I should be sad, but I look actually look forward to the beautiful brights and tawny tones of this coming season. Hiking, actually walking, in the Rollins Savanna near my house gives me the full, fall experience with the high grasses, dried and tanned by the sun, sky-high, yellow flowers—prairie dock, late sunflowers—that fall scent of so much green turning to crunchy brown—gravel underfoot, birds flitting, swooping or riding high. It is the full 360 degree show of autumn. Enjoy the long, sultry weekend and what’s to come.