Linda sends her submissions along with an idea for helping MCMGA painlessly. Linda writes: Foxtail Lilies are a favorite of mine. Currently I only have yellow. However I just purchased: Eremurus – Foxtail Lily, Desert Candle- Pink. I got them from bloomingbulb.com, along with a few others. This order was one of the best looking set of bulbs I’ve ever gotten in mail order or from on-line. The other thing that made me happy is that they shipped from Benton Harbor, Michigan. To top off everything, Blooming Blub donated 9% of my order to MCMGA thru GoodShop. A Win-Win for sure! For sure I will be ordering the other colors that were currently out of stock soon.
Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category
FotoFriday 11/4/11
Posted in FotoFriday, Perennials, Uncategorized on November 4, 2011| 1 Comment »
Georgeann’s “Savory and Sweet Herbal Cooking” Demonstration
Posted in Events, Herbs, Recipes, Uncategorized on November 2, 2011| 1 Comment »
As a grand finale to our association meeting October 15th, fellow member Georgeann Brown (MG class of 1992) educated, entertained, and fed us during her excellent food demonstration, “Savory and Sweet Herbal Cooking.” Assisted by her sous chef, Frank Deutsch (MG class of 2009), Georgeann prepared three dishes prepared with herbs easily grown in any SE Michigan herb garden, Sundried Tomato Tapenade; Polenta Rounds with Pesto, and Sundried Tomatoes and Parmesan (she substituted kalamata olives for the tomatoes for variety), and Lavender Infused Mascarpone in Chocolate Cups.
Georgeann has been an active member of Maumee Valley Herb Society for over 15 years and works in the herb garden at Toledo Botanical Gardens. She maintains an extensive culinary herb garden of her own, which is an essential part of her company, un coup de main. Georgeann teaches the art of cooking in small classes in her home, where students learn how to choose and use the freshest seasonal ingredients. She obviously is an expert in the culinary arts – the recipes she prepared were outstanding!
Georgeann was as entertaining as she was informative, with frequent bursts of laughter from the audience punctuating her demonstration. The demonstration was fast paced – Frank was quick on his toes to make sure everything went in and out of the oven and was beautifully presented in quick succession. The results were absolutely delectable!
I tried to take notes, but by the end of the session I came away with a few “words to live by” rather than a bunch of isolated rules and instructions.
1. Use what’s fresh, locally-grown and in season whenever possible.
2. Don’t fret when you need to use prepared food items or substitute another ingredient when no fresh, in season ingredient is available. (example – store-bought pesto when your basil is finished for the year).
3. The answer to the question, “Can I substitute Kraft cream cheese for Mascarpone?” is an emphatic, “NO!”.
Georgeann, and her company un coup de main, teaches classes and has a hugely successful catering business in influential homes because of her innovative food and stunning presentations. Look for her at www.georgeannbrown.com .
Here are the recipes Georgeann made and was gracious to give us –
What the MG sees – #1 Fall Garden
Posted in MC Demonstration Garden, Trees and Shrubs, Uncategorized on November 1, 2011| Leave a Comment »
We are pleased to announce a new feature that will be appearing on a regular basis as a series of photo essays. Our new correspondent is a long time MG as well as being an accomplished photographer. These two traits have been combined to give an interesting new perspective on what we routinely take for granted around our exhibition gardens.
“When most gardeners have cut their plants and stored their tools for winter,
the master gardener sees things differently”
The knowledge of the MG plus the keen eye of a photographer have focused in on some of the overlooked aspects of the unique plants we have. Even common weeds take on a new face and have a beauty all of their own when viewed through the eyes of a MG!
When we photograph plants and flowers, the natural tendency is to want to capture as much of the scene as possible – often with a loss of detail. The trained photographer has learned to block out the extraneous and concentate on capturing the unusual or striking feature of a subject that will tell a story. Jennie, Sue and I have all shot the gardens at various stages, but our focus was mainly on just recording a specimen as a whole or a landscape vista.
To make my point, just consider how much more detail becomes apparent when a photo is cropped and all other extraneous detail is removed. You have to look no further than the header photos Sue features in the blog.
You can do this in the field by careful composition, planning and sharp focusing on the subject to minimize distracting backgrounds.
We hope you will enjoy this new take on the plants we have and that you might want to copy some of the same techniques in your own garden photography.
Unlike our Mystery Plant and What’s that Plant series – the correspondent will remain the mystery. See if you can name the plants!
A Great Gardening Resource
Posted in Favorite Gardening Websites, Seasonal "To-Do" Guides, Uncategorized on November 1, 2011| 1 Comment »
As the calendar page turns to November, our gardening season is almost completed, but there still seems to be so much work to do. I wanted to share a gardening resource I have come to look forward to in my email inbox each month. To subscribe, you visit the web site greatlakesgardeners.com. The home page will appear and directly under the heading banner, you will see a list of topics. Click on enewsletter and it will take you to a page that will subscribe you to their monthly enewsletter by entering your email. On the first of each month, you will receive a newsletter by email with timely tips and suggestions for your gardening. They are specific to the month and offer gentle reminders of what to do or not to do in your garden for the month. I hope you give it a try and see if you enjoy receiving the information as much as I do.
Friday Night Gremlins
Posted in FotoFriday, Uncategorized, Vegetables on October 28, 2011| 2 Comments »
FotoFriday Update!
For all you FotoFriday afficionadoes – hang in there!
Sue has been experiencing some technical difficulties with her cable company for the last few days and will be unable to get FotoFriday out until sometime tomorrow. For those of you that live in the country you will appreciate the havoc the strong winds this time of the year can wreak on overhead cable lines. Her internet connection has been – let’s say intermittent! Hopefully the technicians will get her up and running by tomorrow!
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I don’t want any of you shutter bugs going into withdrawal, so I have posted my favorite screen saver of a tomato horn worm devouring one of my prize tomatoes! I wonder if we should have an old fashioned TV test pattern for occasions such as this when we are experiencing technical difficulties?
So please be patient and I am sure she will reward you with a whole slew of backlogged articles.
Frank
FotoFriday – October 21
Posted in FotoFriday, Uncategorized on October 21, 2011| 1 Comment »
This week we have submissions from Chris Eddols, Linda Welch, and Frank Deutsch. Chris writes, “I spent the past few days on Mackinaw Island and captured the attached whisper of beauty before winter.”
Linda writes, “This photo comes from my front yard, where I have a small island bed that houses our flag pole. I’ve never been a great fan of impatiens. All season they have been a great colorful display. Little maintenance…a few weeds here and there, but they “self-clean”. I’m changing my mind…They just might have a permanent spot.”
Frank submitted some vibrant and contemplative scenes from his woodlot.
W & L Thurs Oct 20, 5-7 pm – Fall cleanup
Posted in MC Demonstration Garden, Uncategorized on October 19, 2011| 3 Comments »
Hello everyone,
I had hoped we could get some more of the basic fall cleanup chores out of the way with tomorrow’s session. It looks like the weather is not going to cooperate, and I am not going to ask you to work in the rain or a soggy garden. For those who want to brave the elements, Jennie will be at the office at 5.00pm and she can show you what needs doing. If it is pouring rain, obviously the session will be cancelled. Please dress appropriately!
- Ideally, I had planned on weeding all the beds…a task apparently nobody wants to do. In the Spruce garden, the barberry and the ground cover still need trimming and there are some thistles in the Flowering Quince that need pulling. The area around the compost bins needs tidying up, as does the ground cover in the tree well near the Memorial Garden. Some of you could deadhead the roses and the native shrubs and cut back the bulb foliage. Jennie has suggested cleaning up the tool storage area – maybe trimming back some of the ivy.
The peony division video shoot, Jennie will do on Friday with Karen Naimola. So please do not cut back the peony in the entry garden!
Jennie will be asking for volunteers to prepare some beds at the sundial site in the Veterans Park. Be sure to read the blog for the dates and times.
Hack House Gardens
Posted in Community Projects, Events, Garden Showcase, Uncategorized on October 19, 2011| 1 Comment »
Sign garden at Hack House
When I wrote this article last weekend looking out the window at the blustery, soggy scene – I began to think how lucky the Milan folks were with the simply gorgeous weather they had for their annual Fall Festival at Hack House.
SW porch repairs
On the contrary, this old house now serves as a living museum of what “life” was like in late 19th century rural Milan. The outbuildings and main house have been filled with numerous period furnishings and artifacts worthy of Sauder Village – with the added bonus that most of these are original to the structure. This is really a “must see” for anyone with children to not only connect them with their local roots, but to show how people can come together and volunteer their time and labor to preserve a piece of history.
Milan gang at work
Well, this article is supposed to be about the gardens that our hard working MGs, Naida, Norma, Amy, Doris and Barb and their fellow Milan Garden Club members managed to wrestle out of a pile of overgrown thickets! Naida is currently down in the wilds of Brazil, so I am posting her emailed comments about how the gardens came into being.
“The Milan Garden Club, which was formed in 1998, was looking for a community project. In the spring of 1999, one of our members, who belongs to the Milan Area Historical Society, suggested we establish and maintain a few flower gardens at the Friend/Hack House museum.
SE porch front garden
We started slowly the first couple of years – with a lot of willing helpers and some very good advice from Jennie Stanger – and our projects and gardens expanded quickly. In 2007 we decided to create a new garden area in front of ( at first glance) a chicken coop. We later discovered it had held exotic birds and was used in 1888 as an aviary.
Aviary front gardens
Shortly after taking on this new area in front of the aviary, we looked to the east side and saw it was just a mass of overgrown wild raspberries, grape vines, junk trees and weeds which we felt detracted from our new garden. About this time, many of our members were” running out of steam” – but that darn Doris Campbell (MG class of 2010) kept gravitating to that area, cutting out brush, etc. I got hooked also and we burned a lot of calories doing our best to clear that area. I even talked my husband into bringing his chainsaw to cut down some of the larger trees. Doris built a tower (about 8ft high x 12ft wide) of brush – and finally got help from some friends of the Historical Society to take down more of the very large trees and dispose of our pile.
Half finished aviary brush pile
Like the house and outbuildings, the gardens are a work in progress. We managed to cut back the bulbs and give a quick tidy up of the beds in time for the Fall Festival.”
Naida
Former brush area
So many stories here, but this is just a blog. This house is not your typical 1880 farmhouse. The wood paneling and doors speak of lavishness that came from other than farm labor. The inlaid marble fireplace in the parlor would not look out of place in an expensive home today. The kitchen is “period 1920” and not that unusual – unlike the 3 hole outside privy in a very elegant building that had a somewhat ingenious “flushing” system. They needed it as the farm help lived in the attic over the family quarters!
The blue "Electric Sugar Machine" on stove in Summer Kitchen
The summer kitchen contains an interesting assortment of laundry artifacts – and the “The Electric Sugar Refining Machine” – the profits from which today would be called a stock swindle or ponzi scheme, that funded all this opulence, briefly landed the grieving widow in jail and definitively her husband had he not unexpectedly died. Their farm encompassed what is now the former Ford plant and the original Owens-Illinois corrugated box facility. Infact, Sharon Diefenthaler can recall people living in the house in the late seventies when she worked at the box plant.
The elegant outhouse
After looking at that brush pile, now I can see why the Milan gang made such short work of our garden this year. These gals just thrive on the challenge of knocking a neglected garden into shape. Maybe as an association, we owe them at least one good gardening day to help them in the spring?
The museum is open from May to late November, Sundays 1-4 pm.
Linda’s Chunky Salsa
Posted in Recipes, Uncategorized, Vegetables on October 15, 2011| 1 Comment »
It was my turn to bring refreshments for today’s meeting. Since Georgeann was doing a presentation on herbs,
I thought I’d include my favorite: Cilantro
This also is an incentive to use our website’s Blog to get the recipe.
It’s easy and refreshing.
Chop 6 Roma tomatoes, 1 medium red onion, 2 avocadoes and cilantro into a bowl.
Squeeze the juice of two limes over the mixture, add salt to taste. Mix it up and serve
with Scoops, over chicken or as a salsa for a great Mexican dish. Enjoy.
FotoFriday – October 13
Posted in FotoFriday, Perennials, Uncategorized on October 14, 2011| Leave a Comment »
We have some lovely autumn pictures this week! Frank submitted a flaming ‘living bouquet’ entitled, “Woodlot scene in Fall Colors”.
Woodlot Scene in Fall Colors
Linda submitted two photos of her sedum. As much as I love sedum, it’s always a little bittersweet for me when they bloom because I know the end of nice weather is upon us.
Monroe County Master Gardener Association 