Plumeria Martini
26 Jul 2011 2 Comments
in Flowers, Garden Design, Living Healthy, organic gardening, Photography Tags: martini glass, nadia's san diego garden blog, Plumeria Decorating, plumeria flowers
Decorating with Plumerias
A huge Deco Martini Glass full of Plumerias…
Plumeria Martini
Plumerias… California Style
25 Jul 2011 1 Comment
in Flowers, Garden Design, Living Healthy, organic gardening, Photography Tags: california plumerias, fertilizing plumerias, growing plumerias, nadia's san diego garden blog, plumeria
♥ I first fell in love with Plumerias “Frangipani Trees” when I went to Hawaii on a summer vacation. Taking in their fragrance in their native setting is something to put on anyone’s bucket list. I purchased a little plumeria stalk at the airport in an envelope sized plastic case and without any effort stuck it in a pot in the backyard when I got home. The following summer came the first pinwheel bloom and I have been collecting and growing plumerias ever since.
Yellow and white plumerias blooming
This year I decided to fertilize my plumerias every 3 months throughout the year and then 2x a month during the growing season. I have listened other plumeria experts give their advice on low feeding and I had very partial blooms the previous year from too little feeding. This year was different though and by increasing the feeding I in turn received an abundance of blooms.
Potted plumerias arial view
I have them decorating and creating amazing aromas all over the house in flower frogs.
Plumerias in a Flower Frog
Tips for Plumerias: not expert advice, only what worked for me this year.
1. Lots of water: 2 to 3 times a week . On average they grow best with 1 inch of rain per week. In California we have to simulate the rain with the hose.
2. 10-30-10 fertilizer: Feed every 3 months and 2x a month in the growing season.
3. Keep plumerias in 40 degree or above temperatures year round. This is a tropical plant.
4. Well drained soil. They grow great in pots.
5. 6 or more hours of sun per day. Some partial shade is ideal.
6. Spray with soap spray to rid of pests.
White Plumeria with Yellow Center
Best tip: Go out and get some plumeria plants, put them in pots and enjoy them!
www.nadiaknows.com
♥ a garden blog ♥
Garden Pests: The Aphid and The Ant
03 Jun 2011 3 Comments
in Garden Projects, Living Healthy, organic gardening, Vegetable/ Herb Garden Tags: Ant control, Aphid control, Aphid solutions, DIY Organic Pesticides, nadia's san diego garden blog, organic gardening
image from: www.ent.uga.edu
Once upon a time in a backyard garden that knew only harmony and abundance came two unwelcomed pests, the Aphid and the Ant…
Now what? A garden that has been invaded by Aphids and Ants is not a happy garden. Instead of using pesticides to solve the problem how about trying some organic methods for defense? I switch up my arsenal depending on the garden location and plants being attacked and the organic way has worked well.
According to gardening book expert Barbara Damrosch in The Garden Primer: “If you see a lot of ants in your rose blossoms, they are herding aphids- literally farming them so that they will secrete a honey-like substance the ants love to eat. Wipe out the ants by wiping out the aphids.”
* Spray Roses with strong blasts of water daily until the aphids are flushed out. Sometimes using the most simple method first will take care of the problem.
* Citrus fruit works as a natural pesticide to keep ants away by steeping a peel from 1 orange in 2 Cups of Hot Water. Let it steep for 24 hours, discard the peels and add a few drops of liquid dish detergent. Use as a spray.
* Diatomaceous earth works great. Purchase at your local garden store or online. This also helps with other soil pests like snails and pill bugs.
* Household Vinegar poured down an anthill.
* Companion Planting: Plant Mint, Peppermint, Sage and Chives around the garden- ants are repelled by these plants. 
* Sprinkle Baking Soda around plants in a thin line
* Spray Bottle Mixture with Vinegar: 1 part Vinegar + 1 Part Water
* Coffee Grounds on an ant hill or around affected area
* Cornmeal sprinkles in a line or problem areas
* Spray Mixture with Soap : 2 Parts water to 1 Part Dish Soap
* Spray Mixture with Oil: 1 Cup Vegetable Oil + 1 1/2 Cup Water + 2 teaspoons of Dish Soap
* Use Garlic: Crush a garlic bulb and 1 minced onion and add to 1 Quart of water. Now add 1 teaspoon of Cayenne Pepper and let it sit for an hour. Strain into a sprayer. (Tip from Soil Mates)
* Ladybugs: Purchase in containers and release in the evening to affected area. This works very well for Rose Bushes.
* Worm castings and worm tea. Use often as a garden bed base.
Note: Use these methods continuously for best results.
Happy Gardening!
Honor and Rememberance
30 May 2011 Leave a Comment
in Living Healthy, organic gardening, Photography, Succulents Tags: Honor and Remeberance, Memorial Day, nadia's san diego garden blog
How important it is for us to recognize and celebrate our heroes and she-roes!
~Maya Angelou
It’s a beautiful day in the garden today
03 May 2011 Leave a Comment
in Flowers, Living Healthy, organic gardening, Photography Tags: Edible Flowers, Nasturtium Flowers, organic gardening, Photography, san diego gardening
Nasturtium- Edible Flowers
Soil Mates- Book Review
29 Apr 2011 1 Comment
in Books, Living Healthy, organic gardening, Vegetable/ Herb Garden Tags: companion planting, horticulture matchmaking, nadia's garden blog, san diego gardening, Soil Mates book review, vegetable garden
Book Review: Soil Mates: Companion Planting for Your Garden by Sara Alway
Author: Sara Alway
Length: 128 pages
Price: $16.96
Online- Amazon.com (Save $5.00 of the cover price)
Soil Mates is a creative and fun gardening book for companion planting (symbiotic relationships of plants in the vegetable garden). Author Sara Alway makes learning about companion planting simple by using humor and charm in her examples. Alway says that plants are in search of the “perfect companion” and just as people find the best condition for a relationship to grow, so do plants. Each section of the book has Turn ons and Turn offs for plants and also Needy Alerts such as warnings on plants that are high maintenance. The Stalker Alerts give good advise on what pesty animals and insects will devour your plants. The Love Triangle gives a list of plant groupings that grow well together. Some of (Twenty) Soil Mates listed are: Sweet Potato & Summer Savory, Carrot & Onion, Tomato & Basil and Eggplant & Marigold.
After reading about companion planting, the second half of the book is devoted to understanding Garden Preparation, Planning and Care. Even for the practiced gardener there is great advise on Laying the Groundwork with crop rotation and making garden beds, or as author Alway puts it, “making the bed.” Another section in the book named Foreplay describes seed starting and the section on Aphrodisiacs covers the basics in fertilizers and composting. One of my favorite parts about this book are the many garden recipes included that I think most people would actually try out. You will also find a list of Botanical names and their “Quirks and Eccentricities”. There is yet so much more included in this book and I highly recommend it as a gift and as an addition to your library of garden references.
Thank you for visiting my garden blog: www.nadiaknows.com
APRIL FLOWERS
10 Apr 2011 3 Comments
in Flowers, Garden Design, Garden Projects, Living Healthy, organic gardening, Photography Tags: Flower Garden San Diego, Flowers for Pets, nadia's san diego garden blog, organic gardening, Southern California Flower Planting
“The Earth Laughs in Flowers.”
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
♥ Growing a garden is completely rewarding, but when you start to add flowers to the garden then you have paradise! I’ve had the best luck with Renee’s Flower Seeds and Botanical Interests Seeds, here’s a listing of the seeds that seem (for me) the simplest to sow and grow. ♥
Agrostemma-Purple Queen and Pink Contessa
→ For an exotic flower that dries well try NIGELLA: ‘Love in a Mist’ or “White Bridal Veil”
→ For a container of great color and beauty try: DAHLIA: ‘watercolors’ -
→ For a surprising old-fashioned amazing scent : CARNATIONS
Flowers can be started indoors and transplanted into the garden
→ This is the ‘garden fun’ summer flower : SUNFLOWER
Sunflowers growing in the vegetable garden
→ For keeping the pests away and adding color: MARIGOLD
Marigold planted near lettuce - an organic way to keep pests away
→ For feeding pet lizards and landscaping a large area with color: NASTURTIUM
→ A few more great flowers to plant: Forget Me Not, African Daisy, Zinnia, Passion Vine, and Lavendar.
Lavender- A 'year-round' plant in the garden
HAPPY PLANTING!
Planting Guide for April
04 Apr 2011 Leave a Comment
in Living Healthy, organic gardening, Vegetable/ Herb Garden Tags: April Vegetable Planting Guide, gardening blog nadia, organic gardening, Southern California Planting Guide
APRIL PLANTING GUIDE: SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
“A garden is a friend you can visit any time.”- anonymous
April is the beginning of spring and the perfect time to really get out in the garden and do some serious planting. Seeds sprout more quickly with the night-time temperatures warming up and the sun is not too hot to scorch those new plants emerging. Try planting a combination of seeds and small plant starters from the nursery to keep an instant and continuous garden growing. Happy planting!
* PUMPKIN *
* CARROT *
* CORN *
* BUSH AND POLE BEANS *
* RADISH *
* BEETS *
* CANTALOUPE
* CUCUMBER *
* EGGPLANT *
* JICAMA * OKRA * PEPPERS *
* SUMMER AND WINTER SQUASH *
* SUNFLOWERS *
* TOMATO * 
* WATERMELON *
Encinitas nursery online coupon: SUNSHINE GARDEN
♥ Plant – Grow – Enjoy ♥
Do it Yourself Raised Garden Planter-
27 Mar 2011 5 Comments
in Garden Design, Garden Projects, Living Healthy, organic gardening, Vegetable/ Herb Garden Tags: backyard garden, build a raised planter, do it yourself garden, nadia's san diego garden blog, Raised garden bed, Starting a garden
♥ If you’re always on the lookout for more space to grow vegetables like I am then here’s an easy way to create it. I decided to add a 4 x 4 x 18″ H raised bed to the very last possible open area available in my garden. I chose the easy method and had the wood planks and posts pre-cut to the exact measurements needed at Home Depot. The planter sits right on top of the designated area “without the posts going into the ground” eliminating the need for digging post holes. For the remainder of the supplies I bought L-brackets, outdoor wood screws, water based paint (with primer included in the paint by Behr)- Color :“Fig Leaf” and wood specific clear-caulking. Using a caulking in between the wood slats and around the posts keeps the planter looking cleaner from water and dirt stains. Apply the caulking to the inside of the planter before painting.
The total cost for the planter was $96.01 including all the supplies needed to finish the project, not a bad addition! Total Time: 2.5 hours- completed in a weekend.
Pre Cut wood, L-brackets, wood screws and paint supplies
Prep screw holes for the L-Brackets. Change out the drill bit for a screw driver bit to make adding screws easy and fast.
Assemble on a flat surface.
Planter is placed in designated area and painting begins
Finished Project: Thank you to my neighbor who helped me plant yesterday and find worms around the yard to add to the new raised garden planter!
Quick addition to the planter with purchased plants: Thyme, Onion, Rosemary, Sweet Pea Flowers, Parsley and Oregano and plans to sow seeds in-between next weekend.
Thank you for visiting my blog:
www.nadiaknows.com
♥ Plant – Create – Enjoy - ♥
A Lucky St. Patty’s Day to you…
17 Mar 2011 Leave a Comment
in dog chihuahua, Flowers, Living Healthy, organic gardening, Photography Tags: garden and shamrocks, nadia's san diego garden blog, St. Patrick's Day garden luck
*(a repost of last year’s St. Patrick’s Day blog and a little more)
♣ Happy St. Patrick’s Day ♣
Shamrocks are considered to be a good luck symbol; representing faith, hope and love. The age-old saying: “The Luck of the Irish” with its magical mysticism just might rub off in our gardens today.
Chula sporting a St. Patrick's Day necklace
The word Shamrock comes from an Irish word meaning little clover and is said to have gotten its symbolic meaning in Ireland in about the fifth century. St. Patrick used the abundantly growing green shamrock to teach Christianity by using a natural method to show the concept of the holy trinity. Each leaf representing the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
Shamrock door decoration- hand made (thank you for the gift sis!)
The shamrock was a sacred plant in Ireland even before St. Patrick with the Irish Druids because the leaves in a cluster of three formed a triad. Currently the shamrock is still used as a good luck symbol and popular with Irish brides as the clovers are intertwined in bridal bouquets.
Weed or Shamrock? Growing in one of my patio containers.
Botanically speaking:
“The true Irish Shamrock, as identified by Nathaniel Colgan c. 1893 is a clover. It is not one of any or many clovers, it is one species, collected from a majority of counties at that time and with the exception of a very few plants, the majority wereTrifolium repens or a form of this plant – White clover also known as Dutch Clover”. …’From Ireland’ © Jane Lyons, Dublin, Ireland
Thank you for visiting my garden blog: www.nadiaknows.com
