Plant Sale Weekend - Rain or Shore!

Don't let the weather keep you from

the Annual Annisquam Sewing Circle Plant Sale!

Saturday, May 25, 2013, 8a - 11a

Annisquam Exchange

38 Leonard Street, Gloucester  MA

beside the Village Hall

Herb Fairies - In intro to the wonders of the garden

Herb Fairies

The Herb Fairies Film Festival!

LearningHerbs and HerbMentor founders, John & Kimberly Gallagher have created the series Herb Fairies to introduce the plants we see in our gardens, parks and play grounds to young and old alike.

First launched in 2012, the series takes you through months of herb discoveries in books, audio, coloring pages, journal pages, recipes and lots more! Click here to watch the video and download the free gifts.

This showcases videos kids submitted who took Herb Fairies last year. It's really cute, and a great starting video for the launch. It also features a free coloring page and poster download of Viola, the Violet Fairy.


A wonderful way to start on an herbal discovery adventure!

Carrots in a Pot again!

The carrots grown in the pot last year were so successful that we have two pots started this year. Great for deck gardens or beginner gardeners.

Below is our harvest from last year!

Signs of Spring!

Ranunculus ficaria
Black Pussy Willow Salix gracilistyla The catkin is so dark it is difficult to photograph	Black Pussy Willow Salix gracilistyla Catkin blooming
Spanish Bluebell Hyacinthoides hispanica Will be white, pink or blue Flowering in May	Spanish Bluebell Hyacinthoides hispanica Will be white, pink or blue Flowering in May

Could I eat that? Eastern Redbud

Do you have an Eastern Redbud in your yard?

The Eastern Redbud, Cercis canadensis, grows in several eastern states. There are many along the highways in Kentucky. They are grown here on Cape Ann as ornamentals. Who knew you could eat some of the parts!

The excellent video by Green Deane from EatTheWeeds.com will explain which parts and when to harvest some of your redbud.



Remember to be sure you have identified the tree correctly by checking other reference materials and do not the harvest near roadways.

The Cercis canadensis is available at Corliss in Ipswich, image from the 2012 Catalog. Prince may change in 2013.

On the light side . . .

 

A bit for humor from A Way to Garden. com!

Want to get started on your garden? 

Don't start those seeds too early. They will not grow as well. 

Check here for a calendar for your area from All things Plants.

Time give your immune system a boost?

Echinacea is known for raising the body's natural resistance to infection. 

Echinacea is native to Appalachia and the Midwest and is grown in many gardens here in the north east. You may be able to harvest your own this year!

This Rosemary Gladstar video will show you how easy it can be to make your own echinacea tincture from dried echinacea root. To get started now you may find the echinacea root at your local natural food market. In Gloucester we are fortunate to have Common Crow which has a wide selection of herbs and many other items. Mountain Rose Herbs also offers high quality herbs.

Another way to tincture echinacea is to use the whole plant collecting the leaves, buds, blossoms and roots during the growing season. A complete description for this method is found in Rosemary's book, Rosemary Gladstar's Medicinal Herbs: A Beginner's Guide: 33 Healing Herbs to Know, Grow, and Use. Set up the harvesting schedule on your calendar starting this spring!

Many of the plants used in Rosemary Gladstar's Medicinal Herbs: A Beginner's Guide: 33 Healing Herbs to Know, Grow, and Use can be found in your garden or your kitchen. Learn how to identify and harvest your own.

from Herbal Roots zine!

Directly imported from Herbal Roots 
Giveaway Monday – JyARz

I’m excited to offer 6 giveaways today, 1 JyARz per winner! These cool little containers get more amazing every day to me. Made from glass, recycled milk jugs and latex, JyARz are eco friendly, protect the contents from exposure to light and are travel and shatter proof!
JyARz are portable, airtight, glass-lined, eco-friendly travel containers that are made in the USA. They are 1.25 fl. oz.

 

The uses for these cool little jars are limitless. Store dried herbs in your first aid kit, tinctures in your back pack, even fill with a salve or oil for easy transport!
The glass liner removes from the plastic sleeve for easy clean-up. I love these little containers and will be incorporating them into my first aid kit, to protect my herbal remedies and keep them fresh.

Go to Herbal Roots for the rest of the story!

Annisquam Arts and Crafts Show 2012

Saturday, October 6 & October 7
10:00a to 5:00p
Annisquam Village Hall
34 Leonard Street
Gloucester, Massachusetts

Celebrate the beauty of the autumn season and the arts at the Village Hall, where local artists and artisans will be displaying and selling their handcrafted items including pottery, jewelry, fabric arts, children’s toys, homemade treats, photographs and paintings.  

Click here to see some of the 2011 items!

Garlic: A Growing Guide

Garlic is as beautiful in the garden as it is easy to grow.

By Chester Aaron
From Organic Gardening.com, a great magazine for all: gardeners, cooks, foodies!

Soil preparation: Garlic will tolerate some shade but prefers full sun. While I've seen cloves sprout in gravel pits, garlic responds best in well-drained, rich, loamy soil amended with lots of organic matter. Raised beds are ideal, except in very dry regions.

Planting: To grow garlic, you plant the cloves, the sections of the bulb; each clove will produce a new bulb. The largest cloves generally yield the biggest bulbs. To get the cloves off to a strong start and protect them from fungal diseases, soak them in a jar of water containing one heaping tablespoon of baking soda and a tablespoon of liquid seaweed for a few hours before planting. Plant garlic in the fall.

Spacing: Place cloves in a hole or furrow with the flat or root end down and pointed end up, with each tip 2 inches beneath the soil. Set the cloves about 6 to 8 inches apart. Top the soil with 6 inches of mulch, such as straw or dried grass clippings mixed with leaves. You'll see shoots start growing right through the mulch in four to eight weeks, depending on your weather and the variety you've planted. They stop growing during winter, then start again in spring. Leave the mulch in place into spring; it conserves moisture and suppresses weeds (garlic competes poorly with weeds). 

Watering: Garlic needs about an inch of water each week during spring growth. If you have to augment rainfall with the garden hose, stop watering by June 1 or when the leaves begin to yellow in order to let the bulbs firm up.

Scape Sacrifice: By mid-June, your garlic will begin sprouting flowery tops that curl as they mature and ultimately straighten out into long spiky tendrils. These savory stalks, known as scapes, should be removed to encourage larger, more efficient bulb growth. However, before adding severed scapes to the compost pile, try incorporating their mild garlic flavor into a delicious scape pesto, scape dip, or scape soup.

Fertilizing: Start foliar-feeding your garlic every two weeks as soon as leaf growth begins in spring (typically in March) and continue until around May 15, at which point the bulbs begin to form, says Darrell Merrell, host of the "Garlic Is Life" Festival in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Merrell uses 1 tablespoon liquid seaweed mix and 1 tablespoon fish emulsion mixed into a gallon of water.

Harvesting Hints
When half to three-quarters of the leaves turn yellow-brown, typically in late June or early July (depending on the variety and the weather), it's harvest time. Carefully dig up each bulb; do not pull, or you may break the stalk from the bulb, which can cause it to rot. Once it's harvested, get it out of the sun as soon as possible.
Tie the garlic together in bundles of 6 to 10 bulbs (label them if you've grown more than one variety) and hang them to cure for about four to six weeks in a shaded, dry, and preferably drafty area.

When your garlic is thoroughly dry, trim the roots, taking care not to knock off the outer skin. Cut off the stalks about 1½ inches above the bulb if you plan to keep the garlic in bags. Recycled mesh onion bags are perfect for storage.