The Plant Nanny - Christine

During our vacation, that led to the start of this blog, Amanda and I visited Habersham Vineyards & Winery in Helen, Georgia.

As you may have already noticed, we are always up for tasting new wines!

We were happy to pay the $7.50 to taste 5 wines and walk away with a souvenir glass.  Overall, the wine was good.  I bought 6 bottles.

Their shop was full of wonderful gadgets which included The Plant Nanny which uses wine bottles to water plants.

I had never seen this gadget and was drawn to it immediately.  The truth is that I love indoor plants but I can't remember to water them to save my life or theirs.  My husband is constantly trying to figure out how I can kill a plant so quickly.  Ironic for a gardener, don't you think?

So when I saw The Plant Nanny, I thought of our poor lime tree and how this would probably benefit it greatly.

As a Missourian, I am reliant on my local grocers to bring in citrus fruits.  Two years ago, the limes that they were bringing in were small and limited.  These limes were making it difficult for us to enjoy our home made margaritas and Coronas.  One day, while shopping at our local Home Depot, we had a brilliant idea of growing our own limes.  Great plan until you forget to water the plant as often as it needs it.

I am not sure how the plant survived, but because of the lack of water, we did not get any fruit.

The Plant Nanny was selling for $24.99 for four (4) "nannies".  The link above takes you to Amazon that has them for $16.99 plus shipping.  I am not a big internet shopper so I don't mind paying a couple of extra dollars to get something right then but it is nice to know I can get more.

I came home and inserted the spike into my pot:

(yes, I even used a Habersham wine bottle)

This is the best this little lime tree has ever looked after using this gadget for about a month.

In winter, our house runs between 30% - 40% humidity WITH the April Aire System running so  I have noticed that the wine bottle of water lasts about a week before I need to refill it.

When the wine bottle is empty, I remove it only and not the spike.  When replacing the bottle, there is a little water that will come out of the spike and spill over into the dirt.  If you do it quick enough, you don't lose that much from the bottle.

I like using the Traminette Habersham wine bottle because it is clear with a hint of green.  It is easy to see the water level in the bottle.  I decided to keep the wine label on as a further reminder of what a great vacation I had with my sister's family.  And so far, the label is holding up just fine.

This is one gadget that I highly recommend for wine drinkers with indoor plants!

Oh and PS - I loved the Traminette as well!

A Zone of Our Own - Amanda

It's January and the height of my cool weather growing season here in Zone 9, Central Florida!

What does that mean for me and my To-Do-List you may be wondering?  Well, I'm glad you asked!  In December (yes I was a little behind) I planted:

-8 Mustard Green plants
-8 Buttercrunch/Bibb lettuce plants
-1 lunchbox Orange Pepper plant
-1 Yellow Cherry Tomato plant and
-1 Roma Tomato plant

Tomatoes and Peppers love warm temperatures so typically I would not have planted them until February time when the last chance of frost may occur.  However, December was turning out to be warmer than I expected, my STRAW BALES were cooked up and my tarps ready to go in case of cold temperatures, I braved it and planted them.

 I am pleased to say that they are blooming and loving the 70's temps and rain showers we have been receiving this week!

I am also rooting and growing a few herbs in our Florida room which is screened in and gets wonderful sun all morning long.  Our herb growing season is primarily from November-April time outside since Florida summer heat can be overwhelming for many herbs, so planning your herb garden throughout the year is very important.

So what's next on my To-Do-List?  Well, this week I will be prepping for Warm Season gardening. I have seeds ready to be planted, which will be growing in our Florida room so they can be protected from the elements.  This will give them the start they need before being planted outside at the end of February.

Glass in hand and a moment to reflect, my wine of choice this week is a Bold and Robust Proprietary Red from Sonoma County, Angels & Cowboys.  Picked for its gentle touch of blossom mingling with ripe fruit and dark spice...it made me smile thinking of my blossoming plants and my hope for the ripe fruit this new year will bring.

Cheers!

A Tale of Two Sisters - Amanda

It was a beautiful South Florida day, you know, the kind you see in movies.  The sun was shining at full light, the beach was a sea of colorful umbrellas lining the shore and children of all ages are staying cool with an icy drink while poolside.

This is the kind of day when I looked over at my very generous neighbors yards and admired their bountiful array of fruit trees draping bunches of mangoes, oranges, loquats and limes while vines of tomatoes lingered below. I had never known a life like this in Missouri.  How amazing to be able to walk outside and pick these luscious fruits and veggies from the vine and voila, a fresh Mangorita and salsa to accompany dinner tonight!  And so I decided, I am going to plant my own fruit trees and vegetables.  It was perfect timing as my mom was about to arrive for a visit!  She was to me the all knowing gardener who could help me on my new journey to produce independence.  So we visit our local nursery to pick out that perfect orange tree and tomato plants.  How exciting, it's the perfect time to plant she assures me, it's May!  Now if you are like me and are a Zone 9 gardener, you will find the humor in this statement, if your from up north bear with me for a moment while I explain what was about to occur to take me on my journey of gardening patience.  Now this is not to say that my mother is still not an amazing gardener, nor can I leave out the part where she mentioned she had never gardened in Florida and that I should research my zone.  Zone, shmone, If it worked for her once upon a time, it would certainly work for me.

So proud of my 4ft. orange tree, which was beginning to flower and I was positive would bear the most gorgeous fruit, we began to dig.  Luckily, this happened near Mother's Day so I was able to recruit the men of the house to help with the digging.  They just love me so much they hopped at the opportunity to bless me on my special day, no guilt was used in the making of that hole!  So let's fast forward about and hour.  South Florida soil is a mix of rocks and more rocks with a little sand, crab grass and dirt mixed in.  That beautiful sun was pelting down blinding rays at a tempature of 96, creating a lovely shade of hot pink on all visible areas of our bodies. "Nevermind that, we are going to have an orange tree!", I kept saying to my super excited crew, "We got this!".  Finally, the hole is done and it is time to insert the tree.  But wait, mom says that when planting a new plant we remove all of the dirt around roots and spread the root system out and so this is what we did.  Then lastly, cover with the rocks and dirt that were once removed from the ground and water!  Ok, sounds easy.

We turn on the hose, lay it next to tree and go inside for a much needed cool drink and fresh mango salsa.  To ensure that my little tree got all of the water it needed to nourish those blossoming flowers, I let the hose run for about two hours.  I really intended on soaking the ground and giving this tree the best start it could have.  It only took about 3 days for me to know that my poor little tree wouldn't make it.  It tried to fight but all odds had been stacked against it.  I called everyone I could think of to inquire to why my once green tree was now a sad shade of brown.  My mom was stumped, it seemed I did everything right.  So I called the nursery, which to my surprise, belted a giggle on the other end followed by condolences and a bit of advice.  "This is Florida, how and when you grow something can vary drastically to gardeners up north."  And so there it was, the truth I hadn't wanted to see, I would have to research, learn and practice at gardening.  It wouldn't just happen but it would be a growing process for me and my plants.

Now, I will admit that after the local ducks and birds ate all my tomatoes I wallowed for a while.  I learned to grow a few herbs and had a little luck with palm trees but it is only now, inspired by my sisters journey in gardening, my love for fresh from the garden foods and a desire for my family to reach produce independence that I am all in!

We are two sisters going into this journey with different methods, planting schedules and obstacles, however we have one important common goal.  We are excited to learn, grow in patience, and see what this years Harvest will yield!

A Tale of Two Sisters - Christine

Sometime in early 2015, my sister, Amanda, and I had a thought – we should write about our individual experiences about gardening and combine it into a fun blog.

What can I say – she was in the middle of a big move, life happened and the blog idea fell away. 

And then we did something we had never done before, we met in Georgia after Christmas for a “family” vacation.  I knew our husbands were nervous about bring us together in this manner.  They were sure that with the explosion of combined energy that they may get sucked into a black hole.  But thankfully, it was more like a big solar flare that produce a widely seen (and beautiful) Aurora Borealis.

Our idea came back in full force!  She was headed back to Florida where the growing season was beginning anew and I was headed to Missouri to start hibernating for the winter.

I realized that I wasn’t ready to hibernate (although temps here are in the teens) I want to start my garden again.  And so I am prepared to start germinating herb and lettuce seeds.

She is “heating up” her straw bales and planting.

I buy my seeds from Menards – she gets them from people who are naturalist.

I buy commercial planting aids – she discovers cute and inexpensive ways to make planting aids.

I deal with snow – she deals with scorching heat.

I have a dog – she has three children.

I sleep in on Sundays – her faith is the basis of her life

Our approaches are different but in the end we want the same things – a growing garden, patience to ensure a good harvest and a bottle of wine to celebrate.

We welcome you to join our journey into the Harvest of Our Lives and hope that you will find seeds of humor, knowledge and fun for your own life.

Christine