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New Friends and a Mustard Plant

December 31, 2010 by

This has been a great week for making new friends. On Sunday, I met a wonderful group from Providence United Methodist Church, who treated me to a delish Southern-style lunch: a buffet at the historic Green Manor Restaurant in Union City, GA.

The ladies had read and discussed my book, Mustard Seeds, and presented me with my very own potted mustard plant to take home! Thank you all again. Here’s a photo–not of my plant, but of one that’s very similar:

And yes, to answer a question that comes up a lot, you really can grow mustard here in the South (and across the U.S.), and it can be both ornamental and edible. My new plant is an annual, but I’ll enjoy it indoors, by a sunny window.

Mustard plants also come in red-purple varieties, which are great colors for a fall garden, and especially beautiful as the weather starts to turn. You can find seeds for sale at local nurseries and garden centers, or buy potted plants like mine.

I’m surprised how often people tell me that they’ve never eaten mustard, especially here in the South, where we eat a lot of garden greens. Then again, maybe mustard is an acquired taste, because it can be pungent. If you’re willing to try it, toss the raw mustard leaves in your fresh salads. It’s also good, if a big stronger-tasting, when cooked and seasoned as you’d do with any other kind of edible greens, like spinach or turnips.

Thank you again, new friends from Providence, for the gift of the plant, the lunch, and the wonderful conversation.

Thanks, too, to the Georgian Garden Club of Villa Rica. I visited last night and read a devotional from Mustard Seeds (which is a collection of essays about faith, not gardening, in case anybody is confused by now). I couldn’t have had a warmer reception, and I enjoyed the delicious mango-passionfruit tea you served–can’t wait to try it again!

Filed Under: About Faith Tagged With: , ,

Meet Miss Paws

December 31, 2010 by
Lynn Coulter, Authors, New Pet

Meet Miss Paws

Merry day-after-Christmas! I got a very special gift this year: a new friend.

We had a Golden Retriever for many years, and I’ve missed her terribly since she passed away. Somehow I kept waiting for just the right time to get another pet–and then I saw an animal rescue organization called Angels Among Us on Facebook. If you’re in the Atlanta area, check them out. They do great work, saving unwanted pets from kill shelters and housing them in foster homes until the pets can find their “forever families.”

We were drawn to a photo of a sad-looking little black-and-white girl named Yoshi and read that she’d be available for viewing through Angels Among Us the next weekend. We drove to Alpharetta, GA to meet her and fell in love. Now we’ve re-named her Dixie, and because I’m a nickname fanatic, she has quickly also become known as Dixie Dog, Moondoggie, and Miss Dix.

But today I’ve decided to give her just one more nickname. She is already showing signs of being the perfect office assistant for a working writer (that is, she sleeps on my feet while I’m at the computer and keeps my toes warm).

So, gentle readers, I’m delighted to introduce you to my new assistant: Miss Paws!

Miss Paws is of mixed heritage, but we believe she is part Border Collie and part Corgi (the kind with tails). She’s 25 pounds of sweetness, approximately 10 months to a year old, and full of energy. She’s still doing some puppy-biting, but one of our Christmas gifts is a doggie training course that starts in January, so we hope to address that bitey-business soon.

Watch this blog for updates from her when I’m otherwise engaged or simply slipping off for a nap or other such important activity. She has promised to write a post from time to time, and if anyone out there would like to know more about the writing process, be sure to drop her a line here (that is, write a comment). Miss Paws will endeavor to answer your questions about writing, getting published, etc.

Trust me on this. Miss Paws will answer; she’s a pretty fast typist.

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New friends and a mustard plant

September 29, 2010 by

This has been a great week for making new friends. On Sunday, I met a wonderful group from Providence United Methodist Church, who treated me to a delish Southern-style lunch: a buffet at the historic Green Manor Restaurant in Union City, GA.

The ladies had read and discussed my book, Mustard Seeds, and presented me with my very own potted mustard plant to take home! Thank you all again. Here’s a photo–not of my plant, but of one that’s very similar:

And yes, to answer a question that comes up a lot, you really can grow mustard here in the South (and across the U.S.), and it can be both ornamental and edible. My new plant is an annual, but I’ll enjoy it indoors, by a sunny window.

Mustard plants also come in red-purple varieties, which are great colors for a fall garden, and especially beautiful as the weather starts to turn. You can find seeds for sale at local nurseries and garden centers, or buy potted plants like mine.

I’m surprised how often people tell me that they’ve never eaten mustard, especially here in the South, where we eat a lot of garden greens. Then again, maybe mustard is an acquired taste, because it can be pungent. If you’re willing to try it, toss the raw mustard leaves in your fresh salads. It’s also good, if a big stronger-tasting, when cooked and seasoned as you’d do with any other kind of edible greens, like spinach or turnips.

Thank you again, new friends from Providence, for the gift of the plant, the lunch, and the wonderful conversation.

Thanks, too, to the Georgian Garden Club of Villa Rica. I visited last night and read a devotional from Mustard Seeds (which is a collection of essays about faith, not gardening, in case anybody is confused by now). I couldn’t have had a warmer reception, and I enjoyed the delicious mango-passionfruit tea you served–can’t wait to try it again!

Filed Under: About Faith Tagged With: , , ,

Earth to Table – a book review

June 19, 2010 by

Let me admit it right up front:  I’m a pushover for a beautiful book cover.  If a new book jacket features lush photography or an intriguing design, I usually can’t pass it up.  (That’s the one downside of my Kindle.  You still get to see the covers of the books you buy in e-format, but they’re in washed out shades of gray.  Not very appealing.)

So that explains how I happened across a new book by Jeff Crump and Bettina Schormann called Earth to Table: Seasonal Recipes from an Organic Farm.

Crump and Schormann, according to the jacket flap, are chefs and members of the slow food movement, which is an international effort to preserve regional and traditional cuisine.  Slow “foodies” also support local farming and livestock practices.  There’s a political element to their movement, in that members want to raise awareness about the dangers of depending on too few genomes and varieties in our food supply, and that’s one reason it interests me.   I’m convinced that we need to save our heirloom food and flower varieties, and not let them disappear because big corporations control what kinds of seeds and plants we can buy.

Slow foodies also encourage organic gardening, as opposed to the use of potentially dangerous pesticides, and remind us that the opposite of “slow food,” which is fast food, isn’t a particularly good nutritional choice for most of us.

But back to the book.  Turns out it’s as beautiful on the inside as the outside.  The book is packed with how-to tips on such things as creating a compost pile, canning and preserving, and planting an herb garden.  Each chapter also contains seasonal recipes, so you can best use whatever is growing in your garden at any given time of year.

I won’t use everything I read about in this book; I can’t see myself gathering and preparing a dish of stinging nettles for my family, for example, and no matter how luscious some wild mushrooms may appear, I’m not going harvest my own for the table.  I’ve read too many warnings about how poisonous ‘shrooms can mimic the kind that are safe to eat.

But there’s plenty more that I can use, like a recipe for a refreshing watermelon drink sweetened with honey and tarted up with lime.  I’m already planning to make a Chez Panisse recipe from the book that makes corn soup with fresh corn, garlic, white wine vinegar, chicken stock, and freshly cracked black pepper.  Sounds delicious served with cayenne pepper sprinkled on top.
There’s a recipe for a beet salad made with heirloom beets, feta, and pumpkin seeds, and one for roasted autumn fruits.

I also enjoyed reading the profiles of heirloom cooks, dairymen and women, and farmers.  Makes me determined to eat more local and seasonal foods, not only to benefit the economy in my area, but also to improve the quality and taste of the meals I serve my family!

“Lord, make me see Thy glory in every place” – Michelangelo
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June flowers

June 14, 2010 by

I knew my gardenia bush was blooming before I even saw it, because I could smell the perfume of the flowers from my porch last week.
I love June–that’s when my gardenias put on their best show.

Fortunately, these beautiful white flowers don’t seem to be bothered by pests or diseases, even in our hot, humid weather.

These purple petunias and orange blossoms are in a big pot on my front porch. The heat hasn’t slowed them down at all.  The picture on the right shows how they’re planted alongside scarlet red geraniums–love the “hot” color combination.

And this little turtle has been wandering around in my garden for several days; as you can see, he’s burrowed into some pine straw here. I wondered why he was hanging around, since we’ve been feeding some kittens in the yard–until we caught him eating the dry cat food one day.  Who knew?

“We give thanks to thee, O God; we give thanks; we call on thy name and recount thy wondrous deeds.” Psalm 75:1.
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Hydrangeas

June 6, 2010 by
This week-end is the 3rd annual Penny McHenry Hydrangea Festival in Douglasville, GA, and the hydrangeas have been more beautiful this summer than in years and years.  Maybe the heavy rains we had several months ago got them “plumped up” and ready to bloom, or maybe it was the late spring temperatures, which were cold, but not freezing.  Anyway, they are gorgeous!
This is a lace-cap, in case you aren’t familiar with hydrangeas.  The larger flower, shown above, is a mophead type.
You can modify the pH level in your soil to change the color of your hydrangea flowers, but I’ve never tried it.  I like these just the way they are!
By the way, if you’re looking for a source for hydrangeas, one of the best nurseries I’ve found is Wilkerson Mill Gardens, in Palmetto, GA (I am not affiliated with them in any way, and actually, I haven’t visited there in several years.  But when I used to go regularly, they were great.)
They have a wide selection of unusual and hard to find plants, and they take good care of them, so you don’t pay hard-earned money to get your plants home and find them root-bound or sickly.  They also know their stuff and can answer your questions.  Wilkerson Mill doesn’t ship plants during the summer months, but I think they’ll resume shipping in September or when the temperatures cool down.  Check out their website for lots of helpful how-to-grow information.  http://www.hydrangea.com/
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Guest blog for UNC Press

April 1, 2010 by

Thinking about your spring garden?  Take a look at my post for the University of North Carolina Press.  I’m honored to be their guest blogger today, talking about growing some of my favorite plants.  Just click on the link below:

University of NC Press Blog


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Spring at Epcot

March 27, 2010 by

Just got back from Epcot’s 2010 International Flower and Garden Festival in Orlando–wow!  I was invited to speak at their “Great American Gardeners” series, and in between my talks (the weekend of March 19-22), I kept running outside to check out the flowers.

Epcot is always beautifully landscaped, but coming from the gray, cloudy weather we’ve had here in Georgia, where it’s raining and chilly, and going outside under the blue Florida skies to “oooh” and “aaahh” over the pansies and impatiens and Gerbera daises and roses–well, it was just incredible. Really a lift to my spirit after the long winter.  It also made me want to fly home and head straight to the garden center, but it’s still too early here–gotta wait at least until mid-April to be sure we’re past the possibility of a late frost.

Here are some of the pix we made during our trip.  One of them shows me on the speakers’ stage, surrounded by a few of the many heirloom plants the Disney horticulturists grew for me, just for my presentations.  The Disney/Epcot crew was great, by the way–nice, friendly folks with awesomely green thumbs!

I’ll post a few more pictures over the next few days.  And check back, and I’ll share some info a gardener named Greg told me about an heirloom watermelon.  It’s called ‘Scaly Bark,’ and while I’d never heard of it before, I want to try it now (in spite of its strange name).

Okay for now..enjoy the pictures!

This big green guy is positioned near– what else?  The butterfly gardens and exhibit!

You probably recognize Tinkerbell, part of the Disney gardening magic.
Finally–for now–here’s wha I’m calling my Mouscar – that’s “mouse” + “Oscar”.  I couldn’t be more proud if I’d actually won the golden Oscar in Hollywood.  The Epcot gardeners gave him to me at the conclusion of the event.  Isn’t he cute?
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Snow bunnies – Atlanta gets snow

February 13, 2010 by

As you can see, snow bunnies arrived in Atlanta today, along with a snowfall of about 4 inches of the fluffy white stuff.  We Southerners were so excited–we never get snow, and by noon, it was already melting.

Because I knew the snow would soon drip away into puddles, I immediately put some lettuce leaves out on our deck, hoping to coax out a rare and seldom-seen garden snow bunny.  Success!  He arrived almost at once.

I watched patiently for a long time.  I discovered that snow bunnies move very slowly. (In fact, I’m not sure they move at all.)
Then–amazingly–another snow bunny arrived!  It’s obviously the lettuce…they can’t resist.  Must grow more in my garden this spring.
In an ill-fated attempt to make the snow bunny feel at home, I …well, I tried to dress him up a little.  Brighten his fur against all that white snow, and that sort of thing.  Alas, a bottle of blue food coloring does not make great polka dots.  And snow bunnies do not dye well.
Do not try this at home.
In spite of everything, at the end of the day, all was well.  The snow bunnies seemed to go on a diet (at least, I suppose that’s what happened.  As the sun grew higher in the sky, they were definitely beginning to look a little slimmer. They never touched my lettuce.)
I suspect they will hop away to their hidden homes sometime during the night, and I’ll have to wait for another seldom-seen Georgia snowfall before they return.  For now, it’s all blue skies above my garden.  And a little blue snow-bunny is out there, somewhere….
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Epcot Flower & Garden Festival

February 8, 2010 by

I’m really looking forward to this year’s International Flower and Garden Festival, which will be held at Epcot in Orlando, FL.

I’ll be there as a speaker for Epcot’s Great American Gardener series.  The park’s horiculturists are already planning to “grow out” many of the beautiful heirloom veggies and flowers I’ll discuss (and I’ll appreciate having the plants already set up around the speaker’s stage. Can you imagine trying to travel with a pot of petunias or zinnias?  If you can’t make it through security with more than an ounce of, say, mouthwash, I don’t think I’d make it onto the plane with a bag of delicious Italian frying peppers or a box of heirloom tomatoes).

Hope you can join me at Epcot on March 19-21.  I’ll speak twice daily, at noon and three pm.  Think spring!

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