Nadia Knows Gardens

I KNOW THAT CREATING + GROWING = INSPIRED LIVING!

Traveling Toys February 9, 2010

Filed under: Garden Design, Photography, Succulents — nadiaqh @ 6:56 AM
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TOYS AT THE BEACH FIND A NEW HOME IN MY GARDEN…

I found a few Mattel cars at the beach this weekend lodged in a sandcastle, left behind and forgotten. I scooped them up and smiled to myself just imagining what a great addition to my succulent garden they would make. As you can see from the photograph below it looks like these toys were pulled out to sea, sunken and left behind from a day of play at the beach. The great thing about a succulent garden is adding to it as the years go by and building on its theme. Creating small changes and adding a little whimsy keeps a garden interesting and fun and constantly evolving in the feng shui design of the landscape with creativity, balance and newness.

THANK YOU FOR VISITING MY GARDEN BLOG: WWW.NADIAKNOWS.COM :) Create - Grow - Inspire :)

 

“BLUE CURLS” Echeveria February 5, 2010

Filed under: Garden Design, Photography, Succulents — nadiaqh @ 10:30 AM
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This Echeveria succulent has grown in my “under the sea” planter on my backyard patio for five years now. It is perfect in my theme planter because it resembles the colorful underwater sea life found in tropical dive sites. It has lettuce type edges on the tips of the leaves and boasts colors of blue, green, reddish pink and yellow hues. Blue Curls spans out to 10 inches wide, categorized as drought tolerant, very hardy to cold temperatures (25 degrees Farenheit) and shows off a cluster of orange-pink bell-shaped flowers on a thin dainty stem about 18 inches tall. I have a long list of favorite plants and this Echeveria “Blue Curls” is no exception. 

* Origin = Mexico- North America  * Family = Euphorbiaceae 

*Scientific name: Echeveria sp.  * Common name: Blue Curls , Echeveria hybrid 

* Plant Height = 1 Foot  * Exposure = Full Sun to light shade  * Soil = Grow in cactus mix.  *Excellent in rock gardens. 

Thank you for visiting my garden blog: www.nadiaknows.com 

Create- Grow- Inspire 

Echeveria

 

Southern California Planting Guide- FEBRUARY February 3, 2010

Filed under: Living Healthy, Vegetable/ Herb Garden — nadiaqh @ 7:30 AM
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VEGETABLE PLANTING GUIDE

SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA - FEBRUARY -

Radish & Turnip Seeds

Raised planters, containers, garden beds or troughs… any size space will work if you want to start growing some vegetables of your own. Health, vitality and personal satisfaction are all the benefits of gardening and growing your own food. Eating a salad with even ONE ingredient from a home-grown garden creates tastier and fresher meals at home. Now get out there and dig!

PLANTING GUIDE :) PLANTING GUIDE :) PLANTING GUIDE :)

ASPARAGUS —– BEETS —– BROCCOLI —– BRUSSEL SPROUTS

CABBAGE —- CARROTS —– CHIVES —– COLLARDS —-CAULIFLOWER

KALE —– KOHL RABBI —- LETTUCE —–ONION

PARSLEY —– PARSNIP —– PEAS —– POTATOES —–

RADISH —–RUTABAGA —– SPINACH —– TURNIP —– SWISS CHARD

*     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *

My New Year’s Resolution was to try new vegetables with each growing season and this month I chose to plant Organic Turnips seeds.

Follow this link to Renee’s Garden Seeds for more information on ordering your own seeds online.

Some of my favorite flowers to plant this month are California Poppy, Carnation, Dahlia and Sage. Follow this link for a complete flower planting list : Flower Planting Guide by Digital Seed.

Thank you for visiting my garden blog: www.nadiaknows.com

Plant- Grow – Create

 

Bookmark Garden Project- The gift that keeps giving! February 1, 2010

Filed under: Flowers, Garden Projects — nadiaqh @ 1:11 AM
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MAKING  BOOKMARK  GIFTS

-from your garden flowers, herbs or leaves-

From the Garden to a Bookmark

1. Grow some great flowers, herbs or choose leaves from your garden.

2. Press the flower petals, leaves or herbs in-between newspaper in a heavy book, or a flower press for a week. Plant clippings should be completely dried out before going on to the next step.

3. Use Cardstock paper to create a bookmark. Add the pressed flowers around the bookmark paper. I used a tiny bit of glue-stick to tack the petals in place.

4. Laminate them (I went to Kinko’s and used their machine).

5. Cut bookmark out from lamination leaving a little plastic space (a few centimeters)  between the paper and the cut edge of the lamination.

6. Use Photos, stickers, quotes or even decorative paper to create the bookmark.

The sunflower petals in this photo were seeds that I gave to a friend in July because we share the same birthday.  She planted the seeds on her patio in containers and they grew beautifully. She then created a bouquet from the flowers and gave me that bouquet on Thanksgiving Day. A month later I dried the petals from that bouquet and used them to make bookmarks and gave one to her for Christmas.

This sunflower went from seed gift to flower gift to bookmark gift, now that’s recycling!

* Valentine’s Day is coming up and I bet some red bookmarks with dried flowers would look great!

Sunflower Bouquet

This was truly THE GARDEN GIFT THAT KEPT ON GIVING! :)

Thank you for visiting my garden blog: www.nadiaknows.com

Create – Grow – Inspire

Saving and Drying the Flower Pedals

 

PIG PLANTER with Euphorbia Splendens January 29, 2010

Filed under: Flowers, Photography, Succulents, euphorbia — nadiaqh @ 1:11 AM
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PIG PLANTER

If you are looking for a nice upright flowering and drought tolerant plant to put into a container, this one is a gem! My pig planter pictured here is potted with a “Crown of Thorns” plant, botanical name: Euphorbia splendens. I purchased this pig planter in Old Town San Diego at a pottery shop filled with mexican pottery and ceramics.

The Euphorbia splendens plant is very low maintenance and mine flowers most of the year. The variety of colors range from coral, red, and pink to yellow and white. It’s also a great plant for propagating when it gets too large, just cut off the extended stalk and allow it to dry for a few days, then add rooting hormone to the end of the stalk and plant in cactus mix. This a good potted plant and also a great landscaping plant.

* Origin: Madagascar

* Temperatures: Ideally 62° to 85° degrees Farenheit, but tolerates cooler temperatures in the winter. It hailed three times in San Diego last week and it still looks o.k!

* Water –  Once per week and keep dry between watering.

* Negatives – This plant has a milky sap that is a skin and eye irritant. Wear Gloves!

– Follow this link to another wordpress  photography blog titled “Decent Exposure” for an amazing photo of this flowering euphorbia.

Thank you for visiting my garden blog: www.nadiaknows.com

Create – Grow – Inspire

 

Narcissus- Paperwhites & Marbles January 26, 2010

Filed under: Flowers, Garden Projects, Photography — nadiaqh @ 1:11 AM
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Narcissus In Full Bloom 1/25/2010

Every January I plant Paperwhite Bulbs indoors and by forcing the blooms I have beautiful fragrant flowers to bring in the New Year. I started this about 10 years ago to entice my kids into the pleasures of indoor gardening. We loved to watch the amazing process of an ugly onion looking bulb turn into a color burst of green stalks shooting up into the air and delivering silky white heavenly scented flowers. My children thought the best part of the project was using marbles for the foundational base, it also added beauty to the clear vase as we awaited the flowers to grow. 

Narcissus- Macro Lens

It only takes a few weeks for the blooms to emerge and by then the marbles are almost completely covered by roots and the visual focus moves from the marbles to the white trumpeted flowers with a soft yellow center. We all look forward to this little tradition we share each year and even though my kids are teenagers they still show appreciation for blooming bulbs indoors. I have to admit that the flowers this year are so pungent that it did not mix well with the smell of our dinner tonight. I think I will move them into the living room!  

Thank you for visiting my garden blog: www.nadiaknows.com 

Create – Grow – Be Inspired! 

Antique Marble Collection and Narcissus Bulbs

Setting bulbs on marbles to create a foundation for the roots to grow around.

Add some water to the bottom part of the bulbs and they are ready to grow.

 

Gardening Friendship Card January 23, 2010

Filed under: Photography, Vegetable/ Herb Garden — nadiaqh @ 1:11 AM
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My very good friend gave me this card as a “thank you” for helping organize and plant her garden. See my video blog titled “The Giving Garden” to see the results. I was able to scan and insert it on my blog today to share it with you in hopes that it will give you a good LOL like it did for me! Some cards are worth saving and this one is a keeper.

Card from Olive Sandwiches, LLC Made in the USA


* Follow this web link to Olive Sandwiches, LLC , the creator of this card and other fun cards, gifts and notepads. These cards are made in the USA… buy local!

Thank you for visiting my garden blog: www.nadiaknows.com

Create – Grow – Laugh!

 

San Pedro Cactus- Echinopsis Pachanoi January 21, 2010

Filed under: Cactus, Flowers, Photography — nadiaqh @ 1:11 AM
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San Diego had a day full of rain today and as I went out to the garden to get some carrots I noticed that there was a first bloom from my San Pedro Cactus (Echinopsis pachanoi). I watched a documentary on T.V.  a few weeks ago about Peruvian religious customs where the San Pedro cactus has been used for 3,000 years as a hallucinogen for religious divination and other healing methods.

San Pedro Cactus Exotic Flower Bloom- January 2010

This flower that bloomed today was about 9 inches in diameter and had a very light and sweet flower scent (only detectable by inserting my nose into the flower!).  The San Pedro is a columnar cactus that can reach up to 15 feet tall. It has grown very well in my San Diego cactus garden situated on a hill with great drainage and very little watering. The San Pedro also grows well in containers with a cactus mix type of soil. The flower bloom only lasts a few days and is so beautiful juxtaposed to the thorny cactus it bursted out from.

San Pedro Cactus in a San Diego Cactus Garden- Echinopsis Pachanoi

Thank you for visiting my garden blog: www.nadiaknows.com

Create – Grow – Enjoy

san pedro hiding in the background

 

Nasturtium Sandwich January 19, 2010

Filed under: Cooking, Flowers, Living Healthy — nadiaqh @ 1:11 AM
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I read on another WordPress blog about using Nasturtium leaves and flowers to make sandwiches. Since I have so much growing in my garden I thought  ”why not?”. I used some whole grain bread, mayo (I am a big fan of mayo and I use a lot!), grey poupon, swiss cheese, local and fresh tomato slices, avocado, my herb seasoned sea salt, nasturtium leaves and flowers. I think it was definitely the prettiest sandwich I have ever made with the bright orange flowers poking out of the sides. Now my Nasturtium plants can feed my bearded dragons and my lunch cravings too.

Nasturtium Sandwich

It turned out tasting pretty good, but not fantastic. Nasturtium leaves are very peppery tasting and it was a good contrast next to the swiss cheese, but there was a very “green/grassy” taste to it. The last few days I’ve used some of the leaves and flowers to brighten up my dinner salads where I think the peppery taste is a better fit. The flowers  are a nice colorful addition to a winter-time meal.

Thank you for visiting my garden blog: www.nadiaknows.com

* Create – Grow – Inspire *

Eating Nasturtium

Pretty Flower Sandwich

 

Nantes Carrot and Chula January 16, 2010

Filed under: Living Healthy, Vegetable/ Herb Garden — nadiaqh @ 12:19 PM
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Good morning! I read in the paper today that a storm is brewing to be here on Monday so I got out in my garden this morning to enjoy a little sunshine. This is my first carrot of the season, a Nantes Coreless that I planted from a “pre-seeded strip” about 70 days ago. It tasted sweeeet and my chihuahuas and bearded dragons enjoyed the green carrot tops too. Every seed on that planting strip germinated which verifies the seed packet printing that these Nantes are “guaranteed to grow”.

Chula and a Nantes Carrot

The first bloom from planted flower seeds and pulling out that first ripened veggie of the season is what makes gardening magic.

Thank you for visiting my garden blog: www.nadiaknows.com

Create – Grow – Inspire