Nadia Knows Gardens » Living Healthy

Merry Christmas

nadiaqh — Sun, 25 Dec 2011 18:01:03 +0000

Merry Christmas and Happy Gardening.

Wishing Peace, Joy and Gratitude today to all.

www.nadiaknows.com

Linus and the True Meaning of Christmas

Charlie Brown: “Isn’t there ANYONE who knows what Christmas is all about?!?!

Linus: “And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid. And the angel said unto them, ‘Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.’ And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, ‘Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.’ ” (Luke 2:8-14)

“You see, Charlie Brown—that’s what Christmas is all about.”

Succulents and Seashells

nadiaqh — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 02:48:53 +0000

♥ At the Encinitas Fall Fair this past weekend a few vendors got clever with succulents and seashells. These were created by “Plant Kreations”.

Echeveria in an abalone shell

Hanging seashells and succulent display

creative shark planter: To order any of these gifts call: Kim at #562-608-6577. She did not have a website.

Vertical Gardens Indoors and Out

nadiaqh — Sat, 19 Nov 2011 01:12:40 +0000

The benefits of vertical gardens can be limitless. Indoors it can be the ultimate organic wallpaper, or a way to infuse more oxygen in a closed environment. Outdoors, a vertical wall adds more square footage for growing greens or simply creates a living wall. These are some of my favorite photos from the web and garden tours around San Diego. One of the most popular methods of creating vertical greenery on a wall is with : Woollypocket.com This web site has everything you need to get started on this project.

Vertical Garden - google image. Large and leafy plants give this patio "Life".

google images for vertical landscaping outdoors

beautiful indoor vertical spaces *google image*

aria ecoscpes vertical indoor garden ideas

wall planters * google image

Using unique containers for wall planters * photo from the San Diego Fair Garden Exhibit

succulent living wall * San Diego Fair Photo

I am continually inspired by plants and the unique ways that they can add to your life

www.nadiaknows.com

Thanks for visiting!

November Planting Guide: Southern California

nadiaqh — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 00:00:01 +0000

What to plant in November:

BEETS – BROCCOLI – BRUSSEL SPROUTS – CABBAGE – CARROTS – CAULIFLOWER – CELERY – COLLARDS – ENDIVE – KALE – KOHL RABI – LETTUCE – LEEKS – ONIONS – PARLSEY – PARSNIP – PEAS – RADISH – RUTABAGA – SPINACH – SWISS CHARD – TURNIPS

Here are some Companion Planting Ideas for the fall: Mixing Vegetables with Herbs

Broccoli and Rosemary planted in a sunny area with good drainage.

Cabbage and Dill planted in fertile soil in cooler weather.

Celery with anything that enjoys being watered well!

Peas and Turnip are a great pair to grow together.

Brussels Sprouts and Thyme

Beet and Mint

turnip garden

Check this out → A fun and creative guide to companion planting: Companion Planting Guide: Soil Mates by Sara Alway

Sugar Baby Watermelon

nadiaqh — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 00:16:58 +0000

♥ SUGAR BABY WATERMELON ♥

Watermelon growing in-between planters

These melons were started as small plants vs. seeds in wine barrels with the vine trained to grow over the barrell and on to the ground. If your garden has space limitations then growing the vines on the ground and along pathways may give your vine plants that extra room needed for meandering growth.

Small sized watermelon almost ready to pick

* When a watermelon is ready to be picked it should be ripe and ready for eating. Have you heard that watermelons do not continue to ripen off the vine? This was new information for me so I’m waited to harvest these beauties. Watermelon should have a dull colored rind and a brown dried stem when it is ready to be picked. Watermelon are heavy feeders meaning they need steady watering. The soil needs to be rich and fertile with a healthy amount of calcium in the mix. Trellising is also an option by using small fabric slings to support their weight as they are suspended in the air. Coastal San Diego gets a lot of overcast days with sunny and warm days leading into October creating a late growing season for my melons.

Raised planter: watermelon, rosemary, eggplant, parsley and a few green onions.

Late growing season for watermelon in San Diego. The skin of the melon is a shiny green as it grows, then turns dull when it is ready to be picked.

Super Ripe !

Chula my Chihuahua with a Sugar Baby Watermelon. Watermelon = 7 pounds & Chula = 6.5 pounds

- In Search of the Perfect Muffin -

nadiaqh — Sat, 01 Oct 2011 03:25:18 +0000

Here is a diversion today from the garden into the kitchen. I have been in search of the perfect breakfast muffin and getting closer to finding one. I am posting this one today with a few diversions from the original Dr. Oz’s : Apricot Pecan Muffin. In a quest for a low-fat, low sugar, high fiber, good tasting muffin that borders closely as being a “plonk” or a “scone” this is the best I have come up with. Believe me, I have made some really bad scones and muffins lately. Now the trick will be to just eat one in the morning! This altered recipe came out great. Post a comment if you have some ideas to make it even better, or share a link of your favorite! Maybe my lovely blogger from Kate’s Short and Sweet can help me find a great Plonk/Muffin recipe…

THE CHANGES I MADE ARE IN RED BELOW NEXT TO THE ORIGINAL RECIPE….

Dr. Oz and Marjorie Johnson: Apricot Pecan Oatmeal Muffin Recipe

Ingredients:

1 cup quick cooking oats

1 cup buttermilk

1 cup all-purpose flour instead I used: * 1/2 Cup all-purpose flour & 1/2 Cup Whole Wheat Flour

1 tsp baking power

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 cup dried apricots, --instead: 1/4 Cup Chopped Dried Apricots and 1/4 Cup Dried Dates

1/2 cup chopped pecans — instead I used * UNSALTED CASHEW PIECES

1/3 cup canola oil (next time I will try using part apple sauce and part oil) stage #2 of revisions.

1 egg

1/2 cup brown sugar, firmly packed- instead I used a little less and topped the muffins before cooking them with Wheat Germ and Brown Sugar

Dr Oz & Marjorie Johnson Muffin Recipe

Directions:

1. Put the oats and buttermilk in a bowl. Stir well. Cover and let the bowl stand for 20-30 minutes to let the buttermilk soak into the oats completely.

2. In another large bowl, mix together the baking powder, baking soda, salt and flour.

3. Mix in the apricots and pecans. (any nut or dried fruit that you love)

4. Next, add the brown sugar, egg and oil into the oatmeal combination.

5. Add the oatmeal combination into the dry flour mixture.

6. Stir just to combine – do not over-stir! It is fine if it looks lumpy!

7. Pour the muffin batter into 12 well-greased muffin tins.

8. Bake at 375 degrees for 20-25 minutes.

9. Remove the muffins from their tray and let them cool on a rack.

Apricot and Date Muffins

Apricot, Dates, Cashews and Whole Wheat Flour - seriously good! Did I mention the buttermilk?

YUMMY and HEALTHY! HAPPY GARDENING AND COOKING!

www.nadiaknows.com

Blog Surfing: www.urbangardensweb.com

nadiaqh — Mon, 26 Sep 2011 04:15:49 +0000

I found this blog today and wanted to share it, so here it is completely cut and pasted into my blog site.

It’s good to Blog surf- I’m inspired daily by garden blogs and garden creativity on the world wide web!

Full Credit/ REPRINT OF BLOG FROM: Urban Gardens Web

Urban Citizen’s Traffic Island Garden

September 20, 2011

Last May, when New York City workers were planting a tree on the traffic island in front of the salon where he’s employed, Victor Rueda asked them if he could contribute his own plants, including some sunflowers, to the small plot of land. They agreed. Ever since, Rueda has cultivated the garden as if it were his own, protecting the tall sunflowers from the recent hurricane by tying them with nylon thread to keep them from blowing over.

The tree planting effort is part of New York City’s Greenstreets program, launched in 1996 as a partnership between the Department of Parks & Recreation and the Department of Transportation. The citywide program’s goal is to convert paved, vacant traffic islands and medians into green spaces filled with shade trees, flowering trees, shrubs, and groundcover.

In April 2007, Mayor Bloomberg announced PlaNYC, a blueprint for New York City to attain sustainable growth and improve the quality of city life. PlaNYC includes a number of groundbreaking greening initiatives, including planting street trees in all possible locations, creating 800 new greenstreets, and reforesting 2,000 acres of parkland. Mayor Bloomberg has dedicated $391 million over ten years for these initiatives, and also funded an additional 156 staff and $4.6 million in new forestry and horticulture maintenance funds to support these greening efforts. The city’s plan did not include citizen gardeners like Rueda: he’s just doing it out of the goodness of his heart.

Garden Lanterns Votives

nadiaqh — Sat, 17 Sep 2011 22:40:25 +0000

♥ Garden Lanterns and Votives can add a bit of charm to any garden or patio area and they are easy to make.

Table top or hanging, here are some creative ideas I found on several DIY Blogs.

Any of these can be created to enhance holiday decorating too or given as gifts.

Halloween Votives: DIY BLOG directions

Basic Garden Pots with candles: Image from Google images.

* Use transparent stickers and glitter glue to decorate a re-used food jar or mason jar.

Frosted glass on mason jars: Follow directions on how to create these by following this link: DIY Lanterns.

These lanterns look great during the day too:

Photo credit to : http://hearttheday.blogspot.com

Mason Jar Lantern Votive

GROW YOUR OWN SUPERFOODS

nadiaqh — Mon, 15 Aug 2011 04:12:42 +0000

How many super foods can you grow in your own garden? The super food lists usually boast about 20 beneficial foods to incorporate into your diet. Super foods are high in anti-oxidants, high in fiber, low in fat and overall the most nutritional foods ounce per ounce.

According to resveratrol.com: Super Foods, also known as anti aging foods, are foods high in antioxidants as well as high concentrations of crucial nutrients that have been proven to help prevent and in some cases, reverse the effects of aging.

Peppers growing in a Topsy Turvy Planter

The Super Foods:

avocado, broccoli, onions, peppers, soy, spinach, and sprouts, hot peppers, leeks, daikon radishes
açai, apples, blueberries, pomegranates, pumpkin, kiwi, oranges,and tomatoes
wild salmon, turkey, eggs
beans, barley, seeds, nuts, lentils, oats, walnuts and buckwheat
cinnamon, dark chocolates, garlic, honey, extra virgin olive oil (“cold pressed”), sea salt, yogurt & kefir
sea vegetables, irish moss, umeboshi plums, wheat grass, miso
red wine, green tea and water were also on this list.
Blueberries for the Southern California Garden

The Orange Highlighted items are super foods I grow year round and can be grown in a Southern California garden very easily. Radishes, Spinach, Blueberries and Peppers I find are the easiest to grow. Dwarf Apple and Citrus trees make even the smallest spaces a gardening possibility. I buy my honey locally and according to homeopathic and allergy specialists, eating honey collected from the area in which you live (local honey)“ helps to reduce allergies. (Just what I have heard folks!)

Dwarf Anna Apples

Spinach

Raw and Green: Juicing from the Garden

nadiaqh — Sun, 07 Aug 2011 17:05:15 +0000

Boost your immune system, help your bodies digestion, increase your energy, help with weight loss, add more anti-oxidants to your diet… that’s the information I read on what a juicer can do for us, so why did it take me so long to finally purchase one? Maybe it was the price tag, or another appliance fighting for space on the counter. More likely it was the thought of having to clean out an appliance on a daily basis and buy a cart-load of vegetables each week to maintain a new health habit. I have a back yard garden to grow seasonal fruits and vegetables, not a farm that produces high quantities of juicing fruits and greens. It took watching the documentary ” Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead ” to change my mind and give it a chance. I don’t have a weight problem, so the anti-oxidant and increased vitality health claims were the motivation that lead to a purchase.

Two very popular juicers are the Jack LaLanne and the Breville Elite: I chose the Breville.

Breville Die-Cast 800JEXL Fountain Elite Juicer: quoted straight from the website: “ It is called the most powerful centrifugal juicer that is available in the market today. It can juice any produce within seconds with 1000 watts motor and spinning rate 13,000.You can make any combination of juice with it. It has quite a wide chute and spares the need of cutting and dicing fruits. You can pour the juice in the plastic pitcher with skimmer to prevent foams in the citrus juice. The machine has a stainless-steel mesh basket that removes the pulp automatically into a juice container. The juicer has two kinds of speeds to juice soft and hard fruits. It is dishwasher safe.”

Great Recipe Book For Juicing: “The Big Book Of Juices“: more than 400 natural blends for health and vitality every day by Natalie Savona.

Breville Juicer

Juiced Carrots, Apples and Pink Grapefruit

* Organic Fruits and Vegetables are best*

I wanted a juicer that was easy to clean so that I would actually continue to use it. I give it a thumbs up for simple assembly and cleaning. The best part about the pulp leftovers is returning it to my compost bin and worm farm. Both compost bins are benefitting from the scraps. Another use for the pulp can be used for making soups by returning the pulp to the juice and simmering with herbs and spices. Not a bad way to juice up your nutrition and enjoy the benefits of adding more vitamins, minerals and micro nutrients to your day.

Scraps (Pulp) for the compost bins