Best Photos from Leu Gardens in Orlando

I have been meaning to go to Leu Gardens in Orlando for a long time. Monday we finally had a good opportunity, since we also had to make a trip to Sky Craft for hardware parts for a SolarNetone project, and the first Monday of the month is also free at Leu Gardens. We took pictures until the battery died on the phone, but here are some of my favorites.  The pohots are either of my favorite garden displays or just the best photos from the batch that I took. I hope you enjoy them, and find they inspire you to go visit. The photos that I saw online previously didn't really give me a good idea of what I would find there, for example a small but unique Bonsai Garden, a Butterfly garden, a Citrus grove, a vegetable garden, a rose garden, and flower clock. I posted other photos of roses and bamboo at my Aquarian Bath twitter and personal google+ accounts.

New Flaxseed Pillows Beach & Garden Theme always with Organic Herbs

At long last we have new flax pillow fabric in stock.  We have three new fabrics, the first is this lovely sea shell print.  These pillows are made with 100% cotton sturdy decor fabric, and can be used as a hot or cold pack.  We sew up the pillow sleeves ahead of time, and when orders come in we fill the sleeves with Organic herbs of your choice, stitch, and ship.  You can have your pillow unscented or scented with various scented herbs.  The most popular are Lavender, Lavender-Spearmint-Chamomile, and Lavender-Rose.  

For the garden lover we also have these two new prints.  It is the same style of fabric.  The first is tans and cream.  The second one has a bit of blue-green and gold included.  Each have fun sayings "my garden grows," "Le Jardin," "in the breeze."

The all tan print seems to photograph better, but I prefer the one with the blue-green and gold.  

It felt great to get sewing again!  I hope you like the new pillows.  

Almost time for Fall Garden Seed Saving

My fall garden is winding down, and I am looking forward to saving seeds from what I planted back in October.  Above is Matador Spinach.  It tastes wonderful, but it got a bit yellowed around the leaf edges.  Next year I will try planting it in a more shady spot.  

I dedicated an entire raised bed to this Parris Island Cos Romaine Lettuce.  This one was a real winner.  

This is my second year growing this Yugoslavian heirloom red lettuce.  It is extremely tasty.  

This is sword leaf lettuce.  The flavor is a bit stronger than the Romaine or the Yugoslavian lettuces, but I really like the leaf shape.   The Sword leaf lettuce and Yugoslavian lettuce were having a hard time in the full sun until I threw up the shade cloth behind them a couple weeks ago.  

Lutz Salad beets.  Nice texture and color in the leaves for salad.  The leaf miners have absolutely no interest in these which is a bonus.

My Lacinato Kale from 2 Octobers ago still hasn't flowered.  I wonder if it will flower for me this year.  

I thought I planted corn salad in this spot, but I guess this is a purple Pak Choi.  I have no idea where I got these seeds.  All the purple Pak Choi I have seen online is Hybrid, so I am thinking to yank these for the compost and put a tomato in their place.  

This is the 3rd year I've grown seed saved from a brocoli Moira planted with her homeschool group.  I left the largest brocoli head for our baby sitter and the girls when I went out of town last month, but  no one harvested it so it had bolted by the time I came home.  That's ok because there will be lots of seeds to share from this plant.

Still harvesting Calendula....

...and I'm hoping to get at least a few chamomile flowers before it gets much hotter here.  It's been a very warm winter.

Here's a bit of what's on deck for my spring and summer garden...

Turk's Turban Squash Red and White Mini 

I always have to keep at least one Perilla plant going in my garden, though they would like to completely take over.

Black Krim Tomatos are waiting for space in the raised bed.  I also have Ceylon Tomatoes and Costoluto Genovese Tomatoes about this size at home.

The plants are growing fast and so are the chickens.  I will post more pictures of our teen aged hens to share soon.  

Garden Start Up Giveaway - 40 seed packs

I recently hosted a seed swap here in Daytona Beach.  I have lots of seeds left over from the swap and I have put together 2 packages of 20 seed packs each to giveaway.  Twenty seed packs will go out to 2 winners.  The packs include a mix of flowers, vegetables and herbs.  Some of these seeds are from plants that I have grown including Seminole pumpkin and Lemongrass.  Others are from my friend the Wooden Bee of the Backyard Florida Gardening Blog.  Others are from seed or garden companies who donated seed packs that were too old to sell.  These companies include Green Winters of Ormond Beach Florida, Garden Hoard of Livonia, Michigan, and Moonlight Microfarm of South Florida.  Finally there are a bunch of wonderful seeds that were generously donated for the swap by WinterSown.org.  There are still a bunch of seeds here for the community garden, so I am hoping to find good homes for these seeds.  The 20 seed packs are:

Seminole Pumpkin
China Aster
Gloriosa Daisy
Thai Basil
Mini Red Turks Turban Squash
Rose Mallow
Lewis Flax
Mixed Lettuce blend
Bibb Lettuce
Marmande French Heirloom Tomato
Aurum Cherry Tomato
White Scallop Squash
Southern Giant Curled Mustard
Lemongrass
White Milan Turnip
Matt's Wild Cherry Tomato
Summer Carnival Holly Hock
Belemcanda chinensis (She Gan) Lily AKA Blackberry Lily
Rio Grande Tomato
Marigold

 You can enter to win using the raffle copter widget below.  If you don't see the form right away, try clicking to reload your page.  This contest is open to adults with US shipping addresses.


a Rafflecopter giveaway

Lemongrass Has Gone to Seed

My lemongrass has gone to seed.  Check out how tall it has gotten. I planted it here a couple years ago and left it alone.  Comfrey and Lemon Rose Geranium plants also included.

Best of New Years Day Gardening Photos

Lacinato Kale

I spent new years day gardening I hope you like the photos.  The first set was taken at the Bonner Center Community Garden.  The Komquats are at my Father in Law's house.  It is a tree that my husband and I gave him one year I think for his birthday.  Great harvest this year from such a little tree.

Beds that my friend David and I planted at the Bonner Center Community garden.

Dave and I are taking care of them.  I mulched all around the beds the other day.

My family's favorite vegetable.

Time to take the fairy out of the sun.

Siberian Kale Bed after thinning

Transplanted Siberian Kale

Siberian Kale in the spiral garden

Brocolli and Mint

Shallots

 

Komquats from Leo's Garden

They are very mild and you can eat them whole.. skin and all.

Maybe I should be saving the seeds.

Reindeer are Eating my Lettuce

My daughter Moira took these fun pictures of her handmade cork reindeer in my garden yesterday. This is her own design she made with some wine corks that I won from The Wooden Bee blog, hot glue and pipe cleaners.   

I think she did a great job.  The first two pictures are of the reindeer in my Romaine lettuce bed. Looks like I have a little bit of weeding to do in there.  I see some chickweed hiding in there.

Looks like Santa tried to keep them contained to the flower bed with the young Amaranth plants.

But I can't blame those reindeer for wanting to eat up this yummy purple pak choi.

It was very kind of them not to trample my baby Chamomile plants.  They also left my brocolli and Siberian Kale undisturbed.

Hope you like them!

Cory and Moira