Red Dirt Ramblings

Firmly rooted in the Oklahoma soil

The first snowdrop with more to follow

Well, most of the snow melted in yesterday’s rain, but more ice and snow are predicted for Sunday and again next week.  I’m beginning to understand why northern gardeners go stir crazy in winter.

However, as Cindy From My Corner of Katy (near Houston), wrote, “One step closer to spring, sweet Jesus.”

Isn’t that what we’re all thinking on this sixth day of February? January is gone, and twenty-two more days of February, all gray and foggy, loom ahead, but onward and upward we march.

My first terrarium since 1975

Instead of more obsessing on the weather, let’s talk instead of terrariums.  You read me right.  Terrariums. Doesn’t the word just take you back to the 1970s, elephant bells, and macrame?  Well, my friends, terrariums have grown out of their pimply teenage phase and moved on to a beautiful indoor elegance.  Tovah Martin, author of many books, including Tasha Tudor’s Garden, is coming to speak in Oklahoma on February 13-14, 2010, so, last week, I bought her latest book, The New Terrarium: Creating Beautiful Displays for Plants and Nature.  When I spoke to her on the phone yesterday, she said she wanted people to have “nature at their elbow” because it increases their intimacy with plants.

“A terrarium makes nature accessible to everybody,” she said.

Diva likes this one because the glass is more beautiful, and she likes the blue rocks inside. I like how the striped patterns on the glass echo the Dracaena deremensis 'Janet Craig Compacta' inside. I will probably have to repot this at some point, but I'm enjoying it now.

She has over 100 plants in her home, nineteen of them terrariums.  She had more, but she sold some.  She said that for those gardeners who have “a brown thumb indoors” terrariums require little care and reap large benefits.  Glass enclosures keep the temperature and humidity more constant, making it less likely you’ll kill the plants inside from neglect.  Just don’t water them too often or too much.  Also, choose plants which like humidity.  Tropicals fit the bill, as do many shade plants, but stay away from desert lovers.  They will succumb to too much moisture.

In part II of my interview, I’ll share more about Tovah’s thoughts on garden stewardship (her topic for her Oklahoma City presentation), but today, I wanted to highlight terrariums.  Before reading her book, I used to tease my friend, Elizabeth, of Gardening While Intoxicated and Garden Rant, about her indoor plant menagerie and her terrarium.  This winter, I’m an enthusiastic convert.

Faced with more snowfall, I just had to get my hands into warm soil, and I wanted to create something beautiful.  I found small plants at the nursery and placed them within their glass containers just as I would in the garden.  Different heights, different textures.  I added pebbles and a bird nest to complete the scene in the one at top, along with Sagina subulata ‘Aurea’, chartreuse green Irish moss.  I love this little plant, but the summer always incinerates it in my outdoor garden even in the shade.  We’ll see if it will thrive under the moderating effect of glass.

Cloche over an African violet

Then, there’s the African violet covered by a cloche making it a focal point on a buffet or table.  As Tovah said, “It’s about intimacy with nature . . . in sparkling glass, and all of the sudden it has value.”

“Little bits of treasure.  Encased in glass making them a phenomenal work of art.”

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A beautiful book of grasses to enjoy.

First let me say, “WOW!!!”  One hundred twenty-one comments! Thanks, too, for the tweets.  Y’all outdid yourselves.  NGBF (Non-gardening Best Friend), Aimee, and I found it hard-scrabble plowing to narrow the playing field to three potential winners.  Therefore, we also chose three Honorable Mentions.  You are all so brilliant, and you inspired me with your stories of saving the planet bit by bit.  After much cussing (not really) and discussing, we came up with the following:

First, for the Honorable Mentions:

• #31 Deborah R.  Backyard habitats are always near and dear to my heart, and I was impressed by your use of native grasses to stabilize a hillside.  Good job!

• #23 Jodi.  Paying it forward by teaching school children and their teachers how to grow gardens.  Your “Writers in the Schools” program made me think about going to my own school and giving a talk about sustainability, and what better way to beautify the planet than with a garden?

• #65 Mosaic Mom.  Taking the Fiskars mower to schools to teach them about sustainable lawn care is a wonderful idea.  Dressing in green while doing so made us smile.

Edible Schoolyards by Alice Waters

Although I didn’t plan it in the first post, the three listed above will each receive a book of my choice.  For Jodi, I’m going to send a copy of Sharon Lovejoy’s newest book, Toad Cottages and Shooting Stars: Grandma’s Bag of Tricks, a book near and dear to my heart because it promotes teaching the love of gardening with children.  Oh, and Jodi, I’m not saying you’re a grandmother, BTW.

For Mosaic Mom, I’m sending a copy of Edible Schoolyard: A Universal Idea, by Alice Waters, which I think you will be able to use in your school program.

For Deborah, I chose Grasses: Versatile Partners for Uncommon Garden Design, by Nancy J. Ondra and Saxon Holt. I hope it will help you choose the best grasses for your “cliff.”

Now, my dear readers, it’s your turn.  Because I can’t get the poll to show up in this post, I’ve placed it prominently on the sidebar.  You can only vote once, and voting will end on February 8, 2010 at Midnight CST.

Before you make your choice, here are your contestants:

• #64 JP. “I am organizing for my farmers market to get a wireless EBT (food stamp) machine for our vendors, through the USDA. We are a rural county (Grand Isle, VT) without a full service grocery store. Now people won’t have to drive 45 minutes or more to buy good food.”  Aimee and I were touched by J.P.’s sincere desire to be more sustainable while helping others.  As Aimee said, “The poor want good food too.”  She should know.  She assists the working poor everyday.
• #92 Mary T. “One of my brothers cleans up crime scenes. Ergo, he has vast knowledge on how to super clean just about anything. Joe and I collectively decided to do something about the tires, which are dumped along a lake near his home. Joe got us some earth-friendly cleaning solution. We scrubbed the tires inside and out. Both of us put out the word that we would put up a tire swing for anyone who wanted one in their yard. I am happy to say that for a while we had more interest in the swings than we had tires!”  Aimee and I titled this entry “Of crime scenes and tire swings.”  I think it speaks for itself.
  

  Toad Cottages and Shooting Stars by Sharon Lovejoy

• #53 Irma. “We have planted our garden for the past year and have cut down buying some vegetables at the store.  We have made our own rain barrels to collect rain water so that we may water our garden in lieu of using city water.”  Although many of you use rain barrels, this entry struck our fancy because Irma actually built her own rain barrels. Aimee felt like making your own was the best reason for picking Irma’s.

One more thing, I want to thank the Plurkettes (you know who you are) and Robin at Getting Grounded for tweeting the contest several times.  Also, thanks to both Shady Gardener and Jan at Thanks for Today for blogging about the contest and even expanding on the theme.  Jan is giving away several things on her blog in honor of every day being Earth Day.  Now, if I missed anyone who promoted the contest on their blog, please let me know, and I’ll add you to the list.

Thanks so much, everyone, for playing.  This was such fun.  Also, thanks to Fiskars for providing such a nice prize.

I can’t wait to see who wins.

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Mr. McGregor’s Daughter asked all of us to take a census of our houseplants.  Somehow, this census is supposed to save her relationship with all of her houseplants, or was that her husband?  I can’t remember.  She said anything alive counts, so here goes:

Barely breathing bulbs count.

The above are barely living tulips.  Don’t ask me why they look so bad.  I also have a very sad Norfolk pine which is hanging on, and being the merciful sort I am, I did not photograph it because it was too embarrassed.  Let’s move on to the amaryllis (really Hippeastrum) which finally decided to bloom after Christmas.  I had plans for it with the jolly, red decor, but sometimes plants don’t cooperate.

'Red Lion' graced us with its presence after Christmas.

The next picture is in here just because I love the vase which I purchased online.  I also have a blue one, but forgot to photograph it.   Antique stores are another great way to find bulb vases, once you’ve gone over the edge and are growing bulbs everywhere.

Just love this vase. A hyacinth bulb

My double pink hyacinth called the double Chestnut Flower (1880) is starting to bloom.  It is surrounded in the pot by white hyacinths which, I’m guessing, aren’t going to catch up to the pink one.  Oh well, something to look forward to I suppose.  I bought the double pink from Old House Gardens, and it does live up to the catalog’s glorious praises.  It is nicely scented and beautiful to gaze upon.  At the moment, watching it unfurl those double petals is about as good as houseplants get in my opinion.

Double pink hyacinth is so heavy she's being propped by a marker.

“That’s not fair,” cry the Christmas cacti, Schlumbergera et al. (one of them may be a Thanksgiving cactus).  All three are perched indignantly around the tub reminding me that they have now bloomed twice.  I do enjoy bathing with them, and after reading the new issue of Country Gardens magazine, I think we should add some African violets in vintage containers to the mix.  They could sit in the windows I think.

The red one

The bright pink monster I've had for years

The light pink one I saved from Wal Mart last year.

I’m really rather ashamed of how light pink is potted up.  Its original dark brown pot was knocked over by one of the cats, and HH threw it into this pot.  Because I’m a terrible indoor gardener, I’ve never re-potted it.  I think I’ll fix that this weekend.

If we're counting, this is four in one pot.

I found this little number at a local nursery last winter.  I felt bad because I didn’t have any indoor plants except the cacti, so I saw this little jungle number and brought it home.  It also resides in the bathroom which is the best place in my house because of the humidity.  The aforesaid kitten likes to hide between the leaves and eat this plant.  It hasn’t killed her yet, so I guess it isn’t poisonous.  Oh, and before you call PETA, I’ve tried to get it away from her.  I really have.

Isn't that pretty?

A few more bulbs (about ten in all), and that’s it.  However, against my better judgment, I’m considering a terrarium.  This afternoon I bought and I’m now reading Tovah Martin’s, The New Terrarium: Creating Beautiful Displays for Plants and Nature because she is coming to Oklahoma to speak in Tulsa (February 13, 2010) and Oklahoma City (February 14, 2010) as part of the OHS’s education series.  By the way, the talks are open to the public and free.

Martin almost has me convinced.  The terrariums look easy care, and if you want to live inside this house, you almost need to care for yourself, especially if you’re a houseplant.  Just ask the cacti.

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Yesterday, an inch and a half of freezing rain fell on most of  Oklahoma creating a crystalline and cold paradise.

An apple tree bows to the weather

Today, in a repeat performance of Christmas Eve, snow started to cover the ice, and it continued snowing all day.  These photos were taken at the beginning of snowfall.  Beautiful, isn’t it?

R. 'Carefree Beauty

But, it’s a 007 kind of beauty, dangerous with a license to kill.

Goldfinches wait for their turn at the feeders

The birds come from everywhere to eat.  We probably saw 50 birds around the feeders and in the nearby trees.  If you’ve been feeding birds, you must now keep the feeders filled.   They also need sources of water so, if you don’t have a lake or other body of water nearby, heaters must be placed in bird baths.  The birds now depend on us.

Although the ice and snow are beautiful, being outdoors can also be dangerous.  The southern part of the state saw the most ice, and tree limbs have snapped right and left.  So far, we’ve only lost a couple of trees because the wind wasn’t extreme, and we didn’t get as much ice.  Sometimes, it is better to live further north.

A path to the upper pasture

I still heard cracking and splintering noises as I walked under the tree canopy, and I felt better on open ground.  I told Bear to stay out from under the trees while playing.   Challenging since we live in such a wooded area.

Maiden grass is completely bent over with the weight of the ice.

It may be beautiful, but it’s dangerous to folks who lost power last night.  Heat often runs on electric power.  So do the lights and water pumps in the country.  Again, we are blessed that there was little wind.   However, even if we did lose our electricity, we have a fireplace to keep us warm.

An electric line that used to run up to a light in the upper pasture. It led to horse arena.

Now, we have three or four inches of snow covering the ice.  This is good news for those who must drive.  We’ll remain by the fire and play board games with Bear.  She loves a good board game, and HH is playing Battleship with her now.  Heartfelt prayers go out to my friends who have it worse.  May you get your electricity back soon, and may your lives return to normal.

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