This picture is a just a wee bit misleading.   It’s not snowing  in Atlanta today, although the temperatures are right for it.  Forecasters are warning us to wrap our outdoor pipes and to bring in Spot and Fluffy, especially before the thermometer drops into the teens this weekend, and the wind chill makes it feel like we’re in the single-digits.

Since it’s going to be sooo cold, please don’t forget the wild birds that bring color and music to our gardens.  Pick up a bag of seed at the store; most birds will eat black oil sunflower seeds, if you can’t find a nice mix.  And be sure to keep clean water in your bird bath.  Birds need to drink as well as bathe.

Three male cardinals in the snowy trees

When you see the handsome red cardinals in these photos, remember that red is the color of passion, and passion is our theme at this year’s flower show.
Have you commented on one of the posts in our blog yet? Be sure to send in a comment, and we’ll enter you in a drawing for a beautiful, free 2009 gardening calendar.  Just tell us what you’re passionate about in your garden!

cheers,
Lynn

“Another season of celebration is through, the boxes packed away, old toys replaced with new, and I can breathe again. On a surprisingly warm January afternoon, I get the girls, ages 3 and 10, out of the house and we go on a nature walk. Although we live in a neighborhood, we’re at the end of a cul-de-sac on a fair, triangle-shaped piece of land. It’s mostly scrubby hardwoods, with a nice stretch of pines, making what my movie-loving mom refers to as “Dr. Zhivago” woods.

Today, we find the usual moss and lichens, and due to the recent rains, a spate of mushrooms. The moss is thick like shag carpet, deep emerald green. The hardwoods are bare, and I can see my next door neighbor’s house through the tree trunks. In summer, their ivory house disappears behind the tree cover. A crow flies overhead. We have other birds, mostly cardinals. The hawks and wild turkeys make certain we are safely indoors before they show their beaks.

There is a little road that leads to the back of our property, where we can view the farm behind our house. We take this walk most often in late fall through late spring. The vines and brush grow too thick in summer to make it past the most well-travelled areas.

My first baby was a summer baby and being new to the mothering business, I fretted over getting my baby to sleep. (I know, the things you worry about. But she was brand-new and perfect and I wanted to be perfect.) When the days cooled off in mid-October, I began taking her for walks in the piney woods to soothe her before her nap. I held this feather-light package in my arms and strolled under the trees, stepping over fallen limbs and snapping spiny pine arms that reached out at baby level. On these afternoons, Laura would fall asleep in my arms, and I would carry her inside and lay her ever so carefully in her crib and back away ever so quietly into my sanctuary downstairs.

I continued these walks on warm days through the winter and spring, observing the changes in my woods. The woods stayed pretty much the same until one May day, I found the most unusual flower, a pink bulbous shape springing from broad, slightly fuzzy green leaves. I blinked to make sure I was seeing this correctly. This exotic flower belonged in a hothouse, not my scruffy woods. By chance, a botanically knowledgeable friend came to see me not long after and informed me that I truly had something special in the woods: pink lady’s slipper orchids. She had seen yellow ones, she said, but the pink ones were considered very rare. Well, a quick Internet search proved that they weren’t all that rare, indeed I found photos of entire bogs of pink wild orchids, but they are precious and should be treated as such. They require just the right alchemy of soil, light and a certain fungi to thrive.

wild pink orchids

Now that I know what to look for, in late March, I begin to look for the shoots of the lady’s slipper orchids. Just before Mother’s Day come the blooms. The girls and I walk through the woods together to search for the orchids, no more babes in arms, but three explorers looking for surprises under the trees.”

Lucy Mercer

www.acookandherbooks.blogspot.com

Lucy, thanks for sharing this with us.  I’m marking my calendar and planning my own ramble through the woods this spring, looking for those beautiful little orchids.

green blessings,

Lynn

a field of tulips blooming in Keukenhof, Holland

Sadly, I’ve never had any luck getting tulips to come back for a second year in my Southern garden.  Scott Kunst, who specializes in rare and antique flowers at his mail order company, Old House Gardens and Bulbs, has told me that the trick is to give tulips very little water during our hot summers.  Still, mine usually disappear.

But I love these romantic-looking flowers, and I plan to be there when Darryl Wiseman, of Darryl Wiseman Flowers, talks about them from the Home Depot Stage on Jan. 30 at 11 A.M.   Look for his presentation, called “Darryl’s Dutch Treat…A Celebration of Holland Flowers,” on the show brochure you’ll get with your admission ticket.

While I’m not successful enough with tulips to tell you how to grow them, I can give you a bit of advice about designing with them.  They look best when they’re planted in informal groups of 5 to 10 bulbs, so that you get blocks of color in the landscape.  They’re also stunning with combined with annuals and perennials like bleeding heart, pansies, alyssum, and columbines.

Speaking of complimentary, what goes together better than Valentine’s Day and passion, which is the theme of this year’s show?  If you’re passionate about flowers from Holland, don’t miss Darryl’s talk!

cheers,

Lynn

P.S.—-don’t forget to click on “comments” at the end of this post to enter our contest.  Just tell us about your garden passion.   What do you love most–a flower, a landscape, maybe even a special floral design? If you have a picture to send, that’s better still!   On Jan. 21, we’ll pick 3 winning names, and send those gardeners a gorgeous 2009 gardening calendar absolutely free!

Graceful purple tulips, silhouetted against the setting sun.

a homemade compost bin

Okay, I’ll admit:  you won’t find any trashy talk here today, no matter what my heading says.  But we are going to talk about trash, because today’s blog is about compost.

As you probably know, compost is simply a mixture of decaying vegetation and well-rotted manure. You can make it by putting your kitchen scraps (except for meats, grease, or diary products, which attract animals) into an outdoor bin or pile.  Toss in grass clippings, fallen leaves, twigs, or just about any other organic matter you have on hand.  Moisten and turn the pile occasionally.  In time, microbes will reduce the materials to a kind “black gold,” a dark, nutrient-rich humus that makes a terrific mulch or soil amendment.   So forget bagging up all  your trash for the city dump.  You’re throwing money away if you get rid of stuff stuff that can decompose!

Now is a great time to plan on starting a compost heap for spring. For detailed instructions, check out this site from the University of Georgia’s Cooperative Extension Service: How To Make Compost.

And while we’re on the subject of decaying stuff—once your compost is ready, it will attract lots of highly desirable earthworms to your garden.  Make the little guys welcome, because as they plow through the dirt, they aerate the soil, and the casings they leave behind will help feed your plants organically.

Worms, we should mention, have a certain ickiness factor, which makes them very appealing to the kids in your family.  If you’d like to give your children a fun, play-in-the-dirt project to do, check out these easy directions, from the National Gardening Association, for creating a bin at home:  Making a Worm Bin.

Then bring the little darlings (your kids, not the worms) to the Southeastern Flower Show on Sunday, Feb. 1, to hear gardener Louise Estabrook teach them all about these wiggly gardening wonders!

green blessings,

Lynn
www.LynnCoulter.com

We admit, we’re a little nosy here at the 2009 flower show.  What are you passionate about?

C’mon, you can tell us.  After all, the theme for the show is Passion:  How Do You Bloom?, and there’s no wrong answer to the question.

Passion is for…

• Flowers
• Gardening
• Life well-lived
• Garden parties
• Sharing with friends and family
• Simple pleasures
• Healthy food
• Environmental stewardship
• Nature
• Fun

As you might guess from the photos I posted above, I’m crazy-passionate about wildflowers.  I saw the dwarf crested iris and yellow trilliums on a trip to the Great Smoky Mountains, and I’ve wanted to go back ever since.  Spring would be a great time, when the rhododendrons are blooming.   But even if I don’t make it back to the mountains this year, I know the flower show will be filled with blooms, shrubs, trees, and every kind of garden and landscape feature you can image.

Remember, you can win a beautiful 2009 gardening calendar, absolutely free, by telling us what you’re passionate about.  Just send us a comment.   Don’t feel like writing?  That’s okay, too.  A picture is worth a 1,000 words, so you can send us an image of your favorite flower, garden party, houseplant, fruit, veggie, or…you get the idea.  We’ll pick the three best entries received by Jan. 21, and send those lucky gardeners a calendar.

green blessings!

Lynn

It’s dreary and rainy here today, pretty typical weather for December in Atlanta, so I decided to dig out some photos from last summer.  I was looking for some colorful reminders that spring is coming, and I found these pictures.

You might recognize the yellow and black butterflies as Tiger Swallowtails , the state butterfly for Georgia.  The glowing-orange flowers are Tithonias, planted from seeds I found at a hardware store.  I didn’t pay attention to the variety I was buying, but I’ll be more careful next time.  These plants grew over 6 feet tall!  The blossoms were pretty and drew lots of winged visitors to my yard, but the stems were so tall and lanky, the Tithonias eventually fell over and became something of an eyesore.  But I will definitely plant a shorter variety next season.  They’re great for coaxing butterflies to stop by.

Want more ideas for drawing winged creatures to your garden? Don’t miss speaker Karen Garland, from the Environmental Education division of the Georgia Conservancy, when she talks about “Butterflies & Butterfly Gardening” at 3:30 pm on Thursday, Jan. 29, at the flower show.

green blessings,

Lynn
www.LynnCoulter.com

Does it really matter?  Wouldn’t a bee-free picnic be nice for a change?  No, no, no.  According to Robert Brewer, an Agricultural Extension Coordinator for Towns County, GA, bees pollinate about 85 to 90 percent of our food crops here in the U.S., crops worth $15 billion each year.  We need the little guys, especially in California, where most of our almond crop is grown.

The good people at Haagen-Dazs are feeling the pain–not from bee stings, but from the lack of bees.  According to an online article in The Christian Science Monitor, Haagan-Dazs uses  a million pounds of almonds a year in their frozen treats, so they’ve launched a campaign to raise money to help. They’re testifying before Congress for research money, selling a special honey-flavored ice cream, and even sending break dancers dressed like bees to perform across the country.  How much more serious about bees can you ”be,” so to speak?  

Want to help?  Haagen-Dazs is also sponsoring a contest to design a half-acre honeybee garden for the  Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility at the University of California, Davis. Anyone can enter, but the deadline is Jan. 30.   One limitation:  you have design a year-round garden that costs no more than $65,000 to install.  This is a terrific publicity opportunity for landscapers and designers, and who knows?   The sponsor might even throw in some of their delicious honey-flavored ice cream!

To learn more about bees, wing your way over to the flower show on Jan. 30 to hear Jim Quick, of UGA, give us the “Bee Buzz.”  He’ll have tips for planting a bee-friendly garden, and on using organic practices to avoid harming bees with harsh sprays and chemicals.

Until then, save a bee.  Eat some ice cream!

cheers,

Lynn

www.LynnCoulter.com

 

Any blog that focuses on passion, which of course is the theme for the 2009 Southeastern Flower Show, has to mention Monteen McCord, who is absolutely, passionately devoted to all things wild and wonderful.  I met Monteen several years ago, while buying sunflower seeds for our backyard cardinals and chickadees.  She was seated in the middle of the store with a crowd gathered around her, everyone trying to see the enormous Great Horned Owl perched on her gloved arm.

The owl, I discovered, was Sam, and he is Monteen’s constant companion when she speaks about protecting wild creatures and preserving our natural world through her non-profit educational organization, HawkTalk.  Based in Atlanta-based, HawkTalk works to rescue and rehabilitate orphaned and injured wild birds, especially hawks, falcons, and owls.  (You can see more about the birds at www.hawktalk.org)

Monteen took Sam in when he was an owlet, after he tumbled from his nest in the woods and was found by some well-meaning hikers.  Sadly, he can’t be released because he now associates food with humans, so he’s joined a group of permanent residents in Monteen’s  rural backyard.  She’s permitted to keep and rehab migratory birds like Sam, thanks to her federal and state licenses, and to her standing as a Master Falconer. ( There are only a few thousand Master Falconers in the U.S., and only a handful of women who hold that hard-to-earn title.)  

Monteen, also known as ‘teen, is crazy about her feathered family, but she’s also a fine photographer and passionate gardener.  You can see some of her snapshots at the top of this post.  Thanks for sharing, ‘teen.                                             

                On a sadder note, Mina, ‘teen’s beloved red-tailed hawk, and her companion on visits to schools, wildlife centers, and other groups, is seriously ill at this writing.  Monteen has been at her side throughout the night as a veterinarian who specializes in raptors tries to figure out what is wrong and how to help.  Monteen, we’re thinking of you and beautiful Mina, hoping she recovers and continues her good work with you.    

Mina, a red-tailed hawk, Monteen's friend and companion

Don’t forget to send your garden pictures to the Southeastern Flower Show.  Just email your jpgs and your name to inkycreek@gmail.com  We want to know: how do YOU bloom?

cheers,

Lynn

Master Naturalists explore the plants that grow in wetlands, forests, and more--like these cattails in a bog.

Most of us have heard of the volunteer training program that allows you to become a Master Gardener here in Georgia.   Administered through county offices by the UGA Cooperative Extension Service, it’s a wonderful educational  opportunity.  Once you’re certified in horticulture and other areas, you pass on your knowledge by helping to train others.  Since its launch in 1979, the Master Gardener Program has certified thousands of Georgia gardeners and spread to 100 counties.

But did you know about the Master Naturalist Program (MNP)?  It’s new to me, but it sounds like a terrific next-step for Master Gardeners who are ready to expand their expertise. 

The MNP is hands-on training about the environment.  Students might explore swamps, wetlands, bogs, forests, mountains, urban landscapes, or whatever natural features surround them.

Weekly classes are offered by the UGA Cooperative Extension Service and the Warnell School of Forest Resources.  Birding, agriculture, forestry, wildlife, and native plants are just a few of the topics covered.  

If you’d like to learn more about the MNP, please visit  http://warnell.forestry.uga.edu/faculty/html/mengak/gmnp.html or contact Dr. Michael T. Mengak, State Coordinator for the Georgia Master Naturalist Program, at 706-583-8096 or mmengak@forestry.uga.edu.

Butterflies, medicinal plants, tree identification: the Master Naturalist leaders are ready to ignite your passion, just as we are here at the flower show!

cheers,

Lynn

P.S.–if you’re in the Douglasville area tomorrow, Saturday, Dec. 6, stop by Borders Books in Arbor Place Mall and say hello.  I’ll be signing my new book, Mustard Seeds: Thoughts on the Nature of God and Faith, as well as my first book, Gardening with Heirloom Seeds.