Questions for the Garden Gnome

(In order to give Annake some time to finish bits and pieces of projects and samples for upcoming posts, this time we are dragging the Garden Gnome out of his hole to answer accumulated  garden-related questions that have piled up since the end of last growing season...)

Clary sage in the herb garden

How did the planting in the straw bales go?

It ended with mixed results. It depended upon how much water I could get to each one. The ones around the former compost pile did exactly what they were supposed to do and have all but disappeared. The remains can be mixed into the compost or plants can be planted into them directly. The ones that were half-successful will be broken down into compost or used as mulch on the raised beds.

All that's left of properly composted straw bales

Leftover straw used as mulch in the raised beds

Unfinished bales for garden borders

Are you going to do it again this year?

There were some bales that were placed too far for the soaker hoses to reach. They are largely intact. A few of those will be used this year as borders for other planting areas. They will get water when the interior plantings are watered and I will experiment with planting seeds in them again. However, the current severe drought will determine how much water we can use for that purpose. The rest may be made into compost.

What happens to the straw bale after you harvest the plants?

They disappear. They become dirt. This is a good thing, because good dirt is expensive and straw is cheap.

Fennel

Are you selling any new and different herbs this year?

Two, fennel and clary sage. Fennel isn't really supposed to over-winter here, but ours didn't “get the memo”. Maybe it was the hay bales? Fennel, a member of the carrot family, has been used from ancient times. Roman soldiers ate it to give them strength and spread its seeds across Europe. Roman women used it for slimming. The Anglo -Saxons revered it so much they even used it as a charm against evil. It is popular in Mediterranean cooking. Fresh leaves and stems are used in salads, sprinkled over meat and fish dishes, and used in sauces. Like dandelions, all parts of the plant are edible. The roots (bulbs) can be eaten like celery or thinly sliced for salads. For a recipe and suggestions for use of this herb, see Annake's addition at the end of this post.

Much maligned, but wonderfully versatile dandelions

Speaking of dandelions, most people consider dandelions as weeds, but they don't know about the plant's good qualities. For example, the flowers are used for flavoring wines and liqueurs. The leaves are edible if you use young, fresh ones. (Please don't spray the plants with anything if you plant to use any part of them!) The roots can be roasted to make a hot beverage, although I recommend that you add other ingredients. The roots also break up hard ground and the plants seem to prefer hard ground. I seldom find a dandelion in a prepared bed. I'm perfectly willing to let them break up the hard ground for me. The flowers make a slightly orange-yellow dye and the roots make a russet brown one. Besides, the flowers brighten up the world when few other flowers are blooming.

Clary sage (pictured at the top of this post) is a very old herb, also originally from the Mediterranean. For those of you who know the folk song (or remember the Simon and Garfunkel rendition) Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme may be interested to know that it — not our Thanksgiving sage — is the “sage” meant in the song. It can be used fresh or dried to flavor breads, stuffing, cheese dishes and vegetables. Its aroma and flavor are much more like its mint relatives than our Thanksgiving sage. It has attractive spikes of lavender flowers. Annake tells me that it is used as a fixative in perfume-making and is really nice in home-made potpourri. She also says a few crushed leaves in your bathwater makes for an invigorating soak. (I'll take her word for that.)

Oregon holly grapes

Are the fruits of the Oregon holly-grapes edible for people, too?

Yes, but they are really sour! With enough sugar, they taste a lot like vine grapes. I recommend mixing them with vine grapes to make an interesting, tart jelly. They are loaded with Vitamin C.

What can you do with rose hips?

These are also sour and also an excellent source of Vitamin C. Once removed from the rosebush, they dry quickly and keep for a long time. Early settlers used them to ward off vitamin-deficiency diseases like scurvy. They are commonly used in teas and jellies.

Our new columbine

Did you ever find out what this year's gift from the birds was?

Yes, in fact we found two. The first was a handsome pink and yellow columbine. I think we have shown you a picture of the cream-colored one they left us a couple of years ago. (April 20, 2017 post) The second was a pink sweet pea vine coming up in the rock pile near where Rasputin, our rhubarb, lives and plots world domination.

Now, go grow something and make the world a better place...

J.D., Annake's Garden Gnome

Annake's Recipe
 for

Grilled Fish with Fennel

Clean and salt the fish. Lightly stuff it with fresh chopped fennel and sage. Slit the sides of the fish twice. Coat the fish with oil. Make a bed of fresh fennel stems and leaves in a pan. Put the fish on top. Cook, turning the fish and brushing it with oil. Serve garnished with slices of lemon.

Fennel is especially good with bass, but also with other fish, especially fatty ones.

Other Uses for Fennel:

• Snipped fresh leaves or minced stems are good additions to salads. Try them sprinkled over fish, pork, cheese, eggs, beans, lentils or rice. Add the fennel just before serving.

• Fennel is good with dishes of any of the cabbage family: broccoli, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, etc.

• Add 3 T. of freshly chopped fennel to an omelet of 4 to 6 eggs.

• Add sprigs of fennel to canola oil, extra-virgin olive oil, or saffron oil for a tasty cooking oil.

• Use 1 T. chopped fennel to flavor butter or mayonnaise.

• Fennel roots and lower stems can be cooked and treated like carrots or new potatoes.

• Use fresh fennel flowers, which have a delicate licorice (anise)fragrance. Mixed with nasturtiums and calendulas, they make a pretty bouquet — and you can eat it as a salad, too!

• Make a fennel sauce with ½ cup mayonnaise, 1 T. light cream, and 1 t. chopped fresh fennel leaves and stems. Good over fish.

Sweet pea, bloomed out and ready to move to a better location

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Our Fourth Anniversary Edition

It is time for our annual anniversary post. How time does fly! It hardly seems possible that we are beginning the fifth year of this blog! First of all, I want to welcome the new nations that joined our readers this past year. They are, in alphabetical order: China, Ecuador, Egypt, Estonia, Guatemala, and Swaziland. We are so happy you have chosen to “visit” us. The little blue maps that we used previously were not doing justice to lovely small countries like Luxembourg. (I have fond memories of my visit there.) So we have put a large world map on the wall by my desk. I mark each country with a paper dot.

Photo of world map from Annake's office

Lemon balm growing in Annake's Garden

As Spring draws closer, we are getting ready to plant vegetables and herbs for the seasonal Farmers' Markets. Annake's Garden is earning a good reputation for its fresh herbs. One of the things that we do is to supply a sheet of simple recipes and tips for using each herb to first-time buyers of that herb. We would also like to share some of these recipes with you. One of the most popular herbs we introduced last year was a favorite of mine — lemon balm (Melissa officinalis). These two easy recipes got great reviews. Look for more recipes during the coming year.

Lemon Balm Simple Syrup

1 C. sugar                  1 C. water             3 C. chopped lemon balm leaves

Boil water and sugar until sugar dissolves. Add lemon balm. Simmer another 5 to 8 minutes. Remove from heat. Let cool for 30 minutes. Strain syrup, discard leaves.* Refrigerate in a tightly-closed container.

* Leaves can make a second batch of syrup if used right away.

Lemon Balm Coolers

¼ C. lemon balm syrup                                              1 tsp. Lemon extract

½ can lime juice concentrate                                     5 ounces club soda

2 C. crushed ice

Combine the ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth, Serve in chilled glasses. Garnish with lemon balm sprigs if desired.

Parsnips

I don't know if you follow health food news, but one of my favorite vegetables is getting very favorable mention for its nutritional value. That vegetable is the parsnip. (Brassica rapa) It is one I use a lot, especially in slow cooker (crockpot) recipes. With our demanding schedule, we depend on having this kind of hot meal waiting for us at the end of the day. You can use parsnips in recipes that call for carrots, turnips, or other root vegetables. If you haven't tried them yet, I hope you will do so soon. Look for more about herbs and/or other food plants later this year.

Applique on one of the sweatshirts in our Etsy shop

I am always pleased when new needlework or art topics get a good response. I was gratified by the interest in Swedish weaving, optical illusion needlework, and reverse applique. There will be more information and patterns this year for all of those topics. Another thing I hope to begin this year is a series of articles relating the characteristics of kinds of art work to their applications in needlework, starting with still life. Sometimes I am pleasantly surprised by the interest in a particular post. That was the case with the one about decorated sweatshirts and the follow-up post about jackets made from sweatshirts (November 30, 2016 and December 15, 2016). I will try to include more information about clothing decoration in future needlework posts.

I really appreciate the questions I get from readers because they allow me to give additional explanations and instructions that time and space did not allow me to give in the original posts. I was especially delighted with the variety of questions based on the 'Serendipity' post (January 15, 2017), which generated so much follow-up that it will take two whole posts to cover all of it (February 14, 2017, and the first post in March 2017).

Keep those questions coming,

Some upcoming project topics...

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Spring Questions and Answers 2016

Once again, Annake answers questions about recent posts...and don't miss the Free Download of the new Butterfly needle arts pattern at the end of this post!

Some old-fashioned poppies in the Garden

My question is for J.D. What are you growing in the straw bales?

Oh, good: an easy one! The straw bales are being planted with aromatic herbs (like basil, oregano, and marjoram) and pungent salad greens (like arugula and cress); basically, things the deer won’t like. We may try some other things later in the season, but that’s the plan right now.

(J.D., Annake’s Garden Gnome)

I received several questions about Swedish weaving patterns. I've shortened the questions for reasons of space, but added color descriptions so that you can easily find the examples the questions were about.

I have a question about a pattern from Part I (March 11, 2016). On the lower sample sheet, the fifth pattern from the top (red, black, and light green). In what order did you do the stitching? I can't tell from the enlarged photo.

First of all, thank you for looking at the enlarged sample. We use that feature (Lightbox) so you can study the patterns more easily. I hope all of you will take advantage of it. I've shown the design on plastic canvas to enlarge it even more. I did the red pattern row first, working from right to left. Next, I did the black pattern row, working from left to right. and paying close attention to the places where the two threads crossed. But I don't think it matters which one you do first because both colors pass under the two center threads. The first color sets the pattern. The second color — black in this case — passes under the first color at each crossing. To make the pattern more decorative, you might sew a tiny seed bead at each of the crossings. Finally, I put in the green row, again working from right to left. In this version, the green thread passes under the crossed stitches each time. To change the pattern slightly, make the green thread pass over the pairs of threads that the red and black threads pass under, and under the pairs that they cross over. This will make the green thread pass over the crossing threads.

Swedish weaving sample 1

On the top pattern sample sheet (on the same post), I have a question about the top pattern (purple, lavender and pink). Are the long parallel stitches that look like ‘11’ part of the outside rows top and bottom, or are they from the next rows inside?

They are from the inner rows. They skip the top row and go under the two threads one row further out than the “points” on the top and bottom rows. This pattern is stitched from the two outside rows inward, ending with the pink center row. Here the stitches are on plastic canvas.

Swedish weaving sample 2

I have a question from Part II (March 21, 2016) about the rows of (orange) diamonds at the bottom of the top sample chart. It looks to me like the two top rows of diamonds are made at the same time, while the last row is just a single one. Why isn't it a double row, too?

You are making this pattern much more difficult than it really is. No two diamonds are made at the same time. In fact, each diamond is made one half — either the top half or the bottom half — at a time. Each row is a line of simple “peaks and valleys”. They go together in a way that creates an optical illusion. I began at the right-hand side and made the first row with a stitch slanting upward. I then ran my needle under the two threads, made a corresponding stitch downward, ran my needle under the next pair of threads, and continued to the end of the row. The next row was worked from left to right and made the bottom halves of the diamonds. The two halves were held together at each side by running the needle under the same threads it went under on the row above. I've shown the diamonds on plastic canvas, but I used one bar on the canvas to represent the pair of threads on the huck fabric. When I tried that using two bars of canvas, the diamonds were distorted by the spacing and no longer looked very much like diamonds. The pattern is really quite easy and covers the cloth rapidly, as you will find if you practice it.

Swedish weaving sample 3

  
Are you going to show us more of the “mola” applique designs?

Small Cuna mola

Yes. I have several more of the authentic Cuna Indian molas from my collection that I want to show you. In addition, I will be doing another reverse applique pattern with felt, but this time I will be inserting other kinds of fabric into the felt framework to add textures like satin and velvet to the finished design. I think you will enjoy this new activity.

Why will a six-way bargello pattern be more difficult than the eight-way design was?

Four-way bargello "Green Envy"

Good question. The answer is in the angles. We won't be working in a square any more. The four-way bargello projects were based on 90 degree angles (0 degrees, 90 degrees, 180 degrees, 270 degrees, 360 degrees), and depended on the horizontal and vertical center lines on the canvas.

Eight-way bargello

The eight-way design was based on 45 degrees (0 degrees, 45 degrees, 90 degrees, 135 degrees, 180 degrees, 225 degrees, 270 degrees, 315 degrees, 360 degrees), and depends also on the diagonal lines from the four corners of the square.

Hexagon plotted for six-way bargello

The six-way design, however, will be based on a 60 degree angle (0 degrees, 60 degrees,120 degrees, 180 degrees, 240 degrees, 300 degrees, 360 degrees). The design must be constructed along each axis from the degree mark to the center. I haven't yet decided whether to use a hexagon or a circle to enclose the design. When I get the pattern worked out, I will do a sample and write a new post describing how to make it.

I appreciate your questions.

Click here to download!

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The Plants Ate My Blog Post (and Other Excuses)

Early blooming purple irises

Hello – J.D., Annake’s Garden Gnome here. Annake is taking a short break from blogging, but didn’t want to lose the momentum we’ve built these last few months; so, she’s asked me to jump in and explain what is presently occupying so much of our time and attention.

First, an apology to readers using our archived posts. Due to Google’s decommissioning of Picasa (in favor of their new Google Photo application), we temporarily lost connections to all the photographs for our older posts. It took some time and a great deal of work to restore those posts, but I believe we have pretty much fixed the problems. To be fair, it took longer than it might have because I took the opportunity to address some other issues that arose from changes made over the last three years by both Google (to the Blogger software) and in the way we use the platform.

Our archives are extremely important to us: unlike many (perhaps most) of the blogs on the Web, the majority of our content is never supposed to become obsolete. We always intended that our archives be a continuing resource for readers, old and new. We do not shut off comments for those archived posts, either; so if you encounter a problem or if you find our content useful – we want to hear about it!

On to other matters: as Annake mentioned in our 3^rd anniversary post (February 29, 2016), we are now heavily involved in area farmer’s markets. The original plan (a year ago) was just to add another venue for selling our crafts; as things worked out, we discovered a market for surplus from the kitchen and herb gardens, as well as excess from the flower gardens which Annake has struggled to give away for years. So, in an effort to make the Garden more self-supporting (a notion expressed way back in our very first blog post!), we are expanding our horticultural efforts with commerce in mind. The pictures below show some of what we are doing.

Straw bale planting - growing crops in straw bales - is an idea that seems to have taken off in the last couple of years. Since we had a good local source for the bales (a fellow Farmer’s Market vendor), we thought we’d give it a serious try. In addition to the additional crops, we've thought of other benefits this method might provide for us, such as -

Planting deer-repelling fragrant herbs among the rose bushes: even the heavy wire cages you can see around the roses don’t keep the really determined beasts out, so we’ll take any help we can – even if it’s just depriving them of places to graze from;

A “deer maze”, to discourage pregnant does from birthing more fawns in the space behind the storage sheds;

A way to contain and rehabilitate last year’s compost pile: beans, squash, and chard have already sprouted in that rich compost, and we’re planning on planting things the deer won’t like in the straw bales that surround it.

And the straw bales are not our only additions. Here’s a picture of the beginning of a new perennial herb bed we’re putting in. Up to now, our herbs have mostly been planted among other flowers and shrubs in the decorative garden areas; our aging bodies and local demand convinced us that we needed something more, dedicated to herb cultivation.

We also erected a  temporary greenhouse so that we have someplace protected to store plants we winter over in our permanent greenhouse, some of which have gotten completely out of hand despite the short days and cold weather...such as “Big Red,” the geranium shown in our last anniversary blog post or these potted herbs below.

Rosemary (left) and pineapple sage overflowing their pots; lawn sprinklers show scale

House plant "starts"

The space we’ve cleared in the permanent greenhouse is quickly disappearing under new houseplant pottings, the result of other greenhouse occupants’ insistence on  propagating themselves right out of living space. These offspring are headed for the Farmer’s Market, as well.

So, that’s a partial list of just the agricultural pursuits that are keeping Annake away from the blog at the moment. 

Additionally, we are creating more craft stock, items that are variations on things Annake has discussed in previous posts over the years that weren’t different enough to write a new tutorial on;

And, Annake is planning several new series of tutorials that haven’t gotten to the project stage yet;

Oh, and we're planning to publish several short e-books - starting this summer - based on compilations of some of the blog post series Annake has already written, complete with NEW additional content, patterns, and projects that won’t be available anywhere else (oooh, I just LOVE dropping bombshells like that in passing comments!).

As you can see, we are kind of busy around here; which is why we don’t have a craft tutorial post for you this time. But next time, we will - so keep watching!

J.D.

 Small "Jinx" irises blooming away in the Garden

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Saving the Summer: Collecting Seeds and Drying Herbs

Strawflowers

This is my favorite time of year. I was born at the autumnal equinox, so each September brings me to the successful completion of another of my many years and the beginning of a new one. It is a time of hard work and satisfaction, harvesting what we have grown and planning for an even better harvest next year. It is a time of great color: the red of ripe tomatoes and chili peppers, the yellow of squash and aspen leaves, the orange of pumpkins and chrysanthemums, the purple of asters and eggplants. It's no wonder we want to preserve that color as long as we can, even by drying these colorful strawflowers.

Orange Poppies

Another way to preserve that color is to save the seeds of this year's brightest flowers to plant in new places for next spring. Many annuals self-seed; that is, they drop ripe seeds around themselves before they die. These seedlings come up in the same place ― and often in unexpected places — the following year. To gather such seeds, you need to place bags over the flower heads before the seeds fully mature. I'm not a great admirer of plastic, but I must admit that the self-sealing snack and sandwich bags are a great help for this, saving the time and effort it takes to tie on paper bags and being waterproof besides. We start saving the seeds of our poppies this way in late spring. This year we were able to offer seeds of orange, red, pink, peach and white poppies at the farmers' markets. We hope to have an even greater variety next year.

Black-eyed Susans, going to seed

Be aware that flowers grown from commercial seeds or bought as greenhouse plants may be hybrids. Their seeds may not produce flowers that are identical to the ones that produced them! This is not always a bad thing. You can get some interesting new varieties this way. Sometimes such flowers will revert to their wild ancestors, which are probably better for the environment. We are using more and more native wildflower seeds for ground cover and filling bare areas in the gardens.

Sunflower Seed-Heads

Several herbs have seeds that may be used in cooking. While our poppies are not the ones commercially grown for the seeds you buy at the supermarket, we can use some from the prolific orange poppies in this way. Dill seed is wonderful for pickling; harvest he ripe seeds for drying. If we let our cilantro mature completely and produce seeds, they are the same ones you buy as coriander seeds. Bag them and remove the entire seed heads. Nasturtiums, which we grow for their red, orange, and yellow edible flowers and the peppery leaves we add to salads (the pickled flower buds are also an inexpensive substitute for capers), often produce a nice crop of seeds that can even be grown attractively in hanging baskets over the winter. Sunflower seeds can be salted for snacks or used as birdseed.

Spearmint, strung to air dry

We have not had a dehydrator very long and are still exploring its capacities for drying herbs. We started by air-drying our herbs, an easy process which you can do if you have a light, airy space where you can hang bunches of plants, tied together with string, upside-down for a few days. Herbs with strong odors and flavors, like peppermint and spearmint (Mentha species), are probably best dried this way. DO NOT dry herbs in a garage: the fumes and particulates from gasoline and motor oil will ruin them. Air-drying is appropriate for anise hyssop (Agastache foeniculum), sweet marjoram (Origanum majorana), dill (Anethum graveolens), oregano (Origanum vulgare), sage (Salvia officinalis) and thyme (Thymus species). Thyme, however, is best dried hung inside paper bags. I've used the scientific names here because there are so many different common names in many languages for these plants. “Officinalis” indicates herbs used for healing properties. “Vulgare” just means “common”, not anything naughty. And I almost forgot catnip (Nepeta cataria) for your cat. Our cat, Katana, would never forgive me for that!

Annake's dehydrator

Herbs best dried in a dehydrator include: sweet basil (Ocimum basilicum), bergamot ― also called bee balm and Oswego tea (Monarda didyma), cilantro/coriander (Coriandrum sativum), lemon balm (Melissa officinalis), rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis), parsley (Petroselinum crispum), and sage (Salvia officinalis). Lemon balm, oregano, and thyme should be dried with the fruit leather insert in the dehydrator. I have just included herbs we grow in the garden or greenhouse. As we acquire new ones and learn more about the dehydrator, I will update you with new information from time to time.

Herbs ready for oven curing

Although they may appear completely dry, herbs (air-dried ones especially) may not be. To avoid problems like mildew, it may be best to do a final “cure”. Preheat your oven to 200 degrees Fahrenheit. Spread the sprigs of herbs on aluminum foil. Heat for no more than 10 minutes (13 for sage). Store in an airtight container — a jar with a screw-on cap or a sealed plastic bag. You can store as sprigs or separate leaves. Or you can crumble the leaves by rubbing them between your hands over an open bowl before sealing them in a container. When cooking with dried herbs, use only ¼ to ½ of the amount you would use of the fresh herbs. The dried ones are much stronger. It is a good idea to start with a small amount, taste the result, and add more if needed. Otherwise your “culinary delight” might turn out to be a “culinary disaster”. This is true about the commercial dried herbs bought at the supermarket, as well.

Chives in bloom

Unfortunately, some of my favorite herbs don't dry well. These herbs should be frozen in ice cubes or mixed with butter and frozen (thaw and use as an herb butter). Chives (Allium schoenoprasum), which I would grow for its lovely flowers even if I didn't eat it, is one of these herbs. Others include: sweet basil (Ocimum basilicum), borage (Borago officinalis) and tarragon (Artemesia dranunculus). Sprigs of rosemary and thyme may be frozen on baking sheets and stored in air-tight jars.

Savor the summer,

Annake's spice rack, first of a planned two...

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