Winter Garden Harvest: I Never Thought I Would Love Kale!

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Did you enjoy eating leafy greens such as lettuce or spinach as a child?


I would eat a little salad, with some needed prodding from my mother, but I didn’t really enjoy it.  Now, I love lettuce of all kinds and like to use a variety when I make my own salads.

leafy greens

Well, I may be older, but that doesn’t mean that my mother is finished with me yet. The other day she brought over some kale from her garden.

I must admit that I have been somewhat resistant to eating kale. I don’t have any good reason for it other than a deep-seated prejudice toward dark-green leafy greens.

Kale and Romaine Lettuce

Photo: Kale and Romaine Lettuce

My mother didn’t stop with just bringing freshly harvested kale over to my house.  No, she actually made a delicious kale salad with lemon zest and olive oil dressing.

I was a little hesitant before I took my first bite.  I realized that I really wanted to ‘grow-up’ and like kale and get rid of my ridiculous prejudice.

It turns out that I really did like it!  So much so that I plan on growing my own.

It just goes to prove that mothers do know what’s best for us – even when we are all grown up 😉

I hope you have enjoyed my winter harvest blog posts.  We’ve gone from broccoli to new vegetables and covered how to get kids to like cauliflower. 

Do you have a vegetable that you used to hate and now like to eat?

A Cauliflower Harvest and How to Get Your Kids to Love It

Do you have a favorite winter vegetable?


I have a few, but cauliflower is near the top of the list.

Cauliflower Harvest

Cauliflower Harvest

While I have had my struggles growing broccoli – its cousin, cauliflower grows very well in my garden.

Every January, you’ll find me in the garden looking at my cauliflower plants to see when they are ready to harvest.

Cauliflower Harvest

I’m not sure why I like cauliflower so much – I certainly didn’t as a child and I still don’t like it cooked.

As a mom of 5, I recently came up with a neat trick to get kids to not only eat, but like cauliflower.

It all came about when I got tired of spending a lot of money of bags of lettuce during the summer months after my lettuce crop had faded. So, I decided to chop up carrots, celery, cucumbers and cauliflower into small chunks.

"Four C's Salad".

 I like to call it the “Four C’s Salad”.

A Cauliflower Harvest and How to Get Your Kids to Love It

I mix all the cut vegetables together and lightly dress it with my grandmother’s “Top Secret Salad Dressing”.

The kids love it and so does my husband, who doesn’t like salad.

You can also sprinkle small cauliflower bits over your traditional salads much like you would cheese. Kids don’t really notice that they are eating cauliflower.  My kids like it now since it reminds them of small chunks of cheese in appearance.

I will be planting some new cauliflower transplants in my garden this month (cauliflower is hard to start from seed) so that I will have more cauliflower ready in early spring.

Do you like cauliflower?  How do you like to prepare it?

*This is the third post this week about my winter vegetable harvest – so far, we’ve covered broccoli, 

‘White Icicle’ radishes/Swiss Chard and now cauliflower. On Monday, I’ll show you some fresh vegetables from my mother’s winter vegetable garden.

A Neglected, Overgrown, Nameless Rose….

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rose bush

This gardening story is all about one particular rose bush which is located at our small family farm, affectionately called ‘Double S Farms‘. 

I first posted this story about an overgrown, nameless rose 2 years ago.

Since it is time in areas with warm winter climates, to prune back your roses, I thought you would enjoy this story as much as I do 🙂

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This poor rose had not been fertilized, deadheaded or pruned for a few years.  Personally, I think it looks fantastic considering the lack of care it has received. The residents of Double S Farms, (my mother, sister and her family), had only recently moved to the farm, so this rose had been neglected by the previous owners.

I decided to focus on this rose because I wanted to show how to prune a rose and I don’t have any roses that need pruning right now. So, my mother and sister (residents of Double S Farms) graciously granted me permission to prune their rose bush.  Actually, they were more then happy to have me do it so they would not have to 😉

I had no idea what variety this rose was. I was pretty sure that it was a shrub rose and it had a lot of old, unproductive growth that needed to be removed.  When finished, it would be rejuvenated and ready for the beginning of it’s new life with it’s new homeowners.

So I got started….

My tools

My tools – hand pruners, pruning saw and loppers. Oh, I almost forgot – gloves! I also recommend wearing a long-sleeved shirt as well to protect your arms from being scratched from the thorns. 

rose bush

First, because there is so much thick growth, I just started to cut branches in order to make a ‘hole’ like this, which made it easier for me to reach inside with my pruners to remove the interior wood. It is much easier for me to remove the larger branches at the beginning of the process instead of making multiple cuts of the smaller branches and working my way down.

Normally, I remove about 1/2 of the height of the rose bush. But, in this case, I decided to remove quite a few of the large, old branches (canes) at the base of the rose as they no longer produced as many newer branches and roses as the newer canes do. This neglected rose bush has a lot of old growth that had to be removed, so I would be pruning it back by 2/3.

First, I removed the old and dead canes. Then I selected the green, healthy canes that I wanted to keep and pruned back to an outward facing bud and cut at a 45 degree angle.

A Neglected, Overgrown, Nameless Rose....

Okay, you may be wondering why I am included this gross picture of a borer cut in half. Well, borers burrow into the center of the rose canes, causing damage as you can see in the cane to the right.

My son thought it was so cool….he likes anything that is gross.

*To help prevent borers in the future, simply apply some wood glue to the top of the newly pruned canes, which helps seal them out.

two rose bushes

Surprise!  As I continued pruning, I discovered that there were actually two rose bushes which had grown together.

beautiful blooms

Every January, it just kills me to prune back roses and watching all the beautiful blooms fall to the ground. But, beauty hurts and pruning will ensure that there will be more beautiful blooms for these rose bushes in the spring.

pruned incorrectly

Here is an example of a cane that has been pruned incorrectly long ago, (I told you this rose bush had been neglected and mistreated).  You can see where it turned brown and died. When pruning the canes, be sure to prune back to a bud or back to the base of the larger cane.

pruning

I really did the pruning myself and am not just taking credit for someone else’s work 😉

I was almost done. I continued cutting away all the remaining small canes and dead growth with my hand pruners. I used my loppers for the large canes that need to be removed.

A Neglected, Overgrown, Nameless Rose....

I enjoy pruning very much, but I hate this part….

roses and clean up any leaves

But, I was lucky.  I was able to bribe my son and daughter to help me clean up.

Now all I had left to do was to remove all leaves remaining on the roses and clean up any leaves lying around the area surrounding the roses. I do this because the leaves can harbor fungal diseases that will reinfect the new rose leaves.

Glamis Castle

Guess what? I found the old tag from when the rose bushes were planted. It is a ‘Glamis Castle’, which is a David Austin English Rose. I put the tag back on one of the rose bushes.

rose bush

I finally finished.  The roses were no longer “Nameless, Overgrown or Neglected”. Pastor Farmer (my mother) came outside to see what I had done to her roses. She was a bit dismayed to see so little left of her rose bushes. But I assured her that they would be happy and healthy and covered with blooms in spring.

Fast forward a few months, and these formerly neglected rose bushes were thriving again!

beautiful and fragrant

And the flowers were so beautiful and fragrant…

rose bush

It never ceases to amaze me how pruning, done the right way, can bring new life to an old, neglected rose bush.

Trying New Things In My Winter Garden: ‘White Icicle’ Radishes & Swiss Chard

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Do you like to try new things?


I do – especially in the garden. I’m always on the lookout for new vegetables to try out, including some heirloom varieties, which aren’t technically new.

container corn

One year, I tried growing ‘container corn’.  You can read here how it did.

This year, I tried growing ‘White Icicle’ radishes, which are a cross between radishes and turnips. My mother had given me the seeds and I’ve always had a very easy time growing regular radishes, so I thought I’d try these.

They grew easily and the leaves reached over 2 1/2 ft. long!

Trying New Things In My Winter Garden

It was exciting to pull them out and I couldn’t wait to try them.

Radishes & Swiss Chard

 While they were very easy to grow, I must confess that I didn’t like them.

I really wanted to and their flavor was a lot like a turnip, but they burned my mouth – much more than the radishes do.

Swiss chard

My grand experiment last year was growing Swiss chard and afterward, I wish that I had been growing it all along. It’s not only easy to grow, it also tastes great in salads!

vegetable gardens

I grow it both in my vegetable gardens and in pots.

So, while I wish that I liked ‘White Icicle’ I don’t. But, it wasn’t a waste of time growing them. You see, gardening is a grand experiment and it’s always fun to try growing new things and while there are going be some failures – there are also great successes (like my Swiss chard) when you discover what grows well that you like.

*This week, I’m sharing what I’ve harvested from my winter vegetable garden and sharing lessons learned. Yesterday, it was broccoli and how to freeze it.

Winter Vegetable Harvest: Broccoli and How to Freeze It

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Do you grow vegetables in the winter? Here in the low desert regions of the desert Southwest, we can grow vegetables all year. 


My winter vegetable garden is filled with a variety of cool-season vegetables and I have rarely had any problems growing any of them except for broccoli.


For some reason, in past years my broccoli has been rather lackluster. Oh, the plant grows, but the broccoli heads are always small with no real central head forming.

winter vegetable garden

winter vegetable garden

It’s been frustrating because my mother’s garden (just 2 miles away) always produces gorgeous heads of broccoli. Every year, after harvesting a small amount of broccoli stalks, I decide that it is the last time I will grow it.

But come fall, I always relent and plant some more. So, imagine my delight when I ventured out in to my garden this month and found two large heads of broccoli ready for picking!

heads of broccoli

Aren’t they beautiful?

So, what did I do differently?

I simply planted them in a different location (about 10 ft. away) in the vegetable garden – that’s it!  When planting them this year, I remembered that many people plant tomatoes in a different location from year to year to allow the soil enough time to replenish and I thought that I’d try it with my broccoli and it worked!

My entire family loves broccoli and nothing compares to the flavor of fresh broccoli. But, you can also freeze it for later. To do this, you need to ‘blanch’ it by cutting the broccoli into florets and then putting them into boiling water for 3 minutes.  Immediately afterward, dip the florets into cold water with ice cubes to stop the cooking. Dry the cooled broccoli the best you can and place meal-sized portions into plastic freezer bags and freeze until you are ready to use!

So the lesson is, that if you grow a type of vegetable that does not seem to grow well despite doing everything right – try growing it in a different location.

Come back tomorrow, when I’ll share with you a new vegetable that I grew in my garden!

My Newly Planted Vegetable Gardens

Winter Harvest From a Desert Vegetable Garden

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I love living in the desert Southwest.


I really do, except in August.  That’s when I start to tire of the long, hot summer and yearn for fall. By September, the days begin to shorten and the weather begins to cool and I plant my cool-season vegetable garden.


One of the things that I love most about gardening in the desert Southwest is that you can grow fruit and vegetables all year long – even in the midst of winter when most of the country can only dream of growing things outdoors.

delicious vegetables

 Where else can you look outside and see delicious vegetables coming up and picking them fresh for your table in January?

desert Southwest winter garden

desert Southwest winter garden

Oh, and how about the citrus fruit that not only provides us with sweet, tart fruit – but also adds bright color to our desert gardens?

Over the next few days, I thought that I’d share with you what I have harvested from my winter garden in hopes that you will be inspired to grow your own desert Southwest winter garden.

Even if you don’t live in a mild winter area, growing vegetables is not all that different in other regions, except for the calendar.  So, you can always pick up some helpful tips from vegetable gardeners who live in other places.

Tomorrow, I’ll share my first-ever success in growing a vegetable that has given me problems in the past.

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Baby Watch Update:

Our second-oldest daughter, Rachele, is expecting her first child soon! She is in the Navy and currently stationed in California – about 7 hours away from us.

She is being monitored closely because of the baby’s low birth weight and now the latest ultrasound shows a lower level of amniotic fluid.

Rachele has been seeing having weekly ultrasounds, stress tests and seeing the doctor.  On her last visit, she was told that they may have to induce her maybe a week early.

So, what does that mean for me and my husband? Well, I had to reschedule a speaking engagement on “Updating Your Landscape”.

Our plan is to hit the road as soon as we get the call from her that she is being induced and/or in labor. Hopefully, we will get there before the baby does!

Meanwhile, I’m off to pack my bags!

Vegetable Garden Before The First Frost

A Fun-Filled Family Holiday

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Every year, I always look forward to Christmas.  It begins in late October when I start shopping for the perfect gift for those on my list.

I am blessed to have my entire family living within 20 minutes from me (with the exception of my daughter, Rachele, who is in the Navy).  However, it didn’t use to be that way.  My family used to all live in California, therefore, we spent much of the holidays on the road. 

It’s because of this that I am so thankful that they are all nearby now and our holiday celebrations are even more special.

Here is a glimpse of how we spent our time together.

Christmas cookie

It all begins early in the week with my annual Christmas cookie baking day.  All the old and young kids in the family are invited, ranging from ages 20 on down to 3 years old.

My neice Sofie, my daughter Brittney and granddaughter Lily

My neice Sofie, my daughter Brittney and granddaughter Lily.

The kids look forward to it every year and so do I, although it is rather a chaotic few hours.

twin nephews came for the first time

This year, my 4-year old, twin nephews came for the first time.  They really enjoyed cutting out the cookies.  We have a standing rule that the kids can eat one cookie and then we save the rest for eating on Christmas day.

A Fun-Filled Family Holiday

The twins were really helpful until they ate their one cookie at which time, they lost interest and decided to play.  So their dad, my brother Scott, stepped in and helped decorate the others.

Christmas Day

We had a large variety of sprinkles and frosting and the kids had fun coming up with creative ways to decorate their cookies.

Christmas Day

My nephew Oliver, makes very unique Christmas cookies including his ‘zombie’ gingerbread man.

our gifts on Christmas eve

A few days later, we opened our gifts on Christmas eve.  It never ceases to amaze me how helpful my kids are with helping me get everything ready just before it is time to open gifts 😉

We had a somewhat traditional Southwestern Christmas dinner of tamales, chips & homemade salsa with Mexican rice.

Noble gift card

Gracie was thrilled with her Barnes & Noble gift card.

Christmas Day at Double S Farms

Christmas Day at Double S Farms

Christmas Day found us gathered at Double S Farms, where my mother, sister and her family live.

Because our extended family is so large, we draw names each year so that each person give one gift to one person.

This year, we picked both of the twins which made it especially fun to pick out a gift for them.

Christmas Day at Double S Farms

They have begun to move past Thomas the Train and onto Disney Cars – so their new ‘Cars’ race track was pretty popular.

A Fun-Filled Family Holiday

While we all give my mother gifts each year, my siblings and I get together each Christmas to give her a gift on behalf of my dad who is no longer with us.

Over the past years we have given her an apricot tree, perfume and a homemade cookbook.

This year, we made her an apron with the handprints from all of her grand and great-grandkids.

After the gifts have been opened, we all participate in another Christmas tradition which is a ‘treasure hunt’.

My mother leaves clues around the house and garden, which lead us on a merry hunt.  Both adults and kids get into the fun.

vegetable garden

The hunt can lead us to clues hiding in the vegetable garden…

A Fun-Filled Family Holiday

On to a nativity…

pumpkins

To leftover pumpkins…

A Fun-Filled Family Holiday

And even the family dog has a clue tied up in her collar.

Special gifts from my mother to all of us await us at the end of the treasure hunt.

Dinner is simple, but delicious, and usually features lasagna from Costco.  For dessert, are the cookies that the kids made and decorated earlier in the week.

As evening arrives the last and perhaps the most important tradition of our Christmas celebration begins.

Oliver was Joseph

The kids dress up as Mary, Joseph and the shepherds.  This year, Lily got to be Mary and my nephew, Oliver was Joseph.  The twins were the shepherds.

A Fun-Filled Family Holiday

While walking through a dark house, carrying candles, Mary and Joseph search for room to rest for the night.  Sadly, no one has room, including the inn keeper.

But, he does have room in his stable, so we all proceed to the ‘stable’ in the backyard.

A Fun-Filled Family Holiday

There is baby Jesus with Mary, Joseph and the shepherds gathered around.

Christmas story

My mother then reads the Christmas story and we all sing ‘Silent Night’.

Both the adults and kids look forward to this tradition, called ‘Las Posadas’ every year.

I hope you enjoyed a wonderful holiday season and are ready for a happy New Year!

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This coming year will bring a new member to our family.  Our daughter, Rachele, is expecting her first child in January.  She is currently stationed at a Navy base in California.

She is being closely monitored by her doctor because her baby is underweight according to the ultrasound, but developmentally, he looks good.

In the meantime, I have my packing list ready because once I get the call that she is in labor, I will be too excited and nervous to remember everything I need to bring.

It will take us 7 hours to get there and I hope we make before our grandson is born!

Cookies and Sugar Cone Christmas Trees

10 Ways Your Old Christmas Tree Can Benefit Nature

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Old Christmas Tree

Do you celebrate Christmas with a natural tree?  If so, what do you do with it once the holidays are over?

If you are like many people, your beautifully decorated tree eventually ends up at the curb waiting for trash pickup.

But, what if you could find another purpose for your old Christmas trees – one that benefits nature?

I recently did some research on the different ways that Christmas trees can be used, with some surprising results.

You can read more in my latest article for Houzz.com:

10 Ways Your Christmas Tree Can Live On After the Holidays

Christmas…..Arizona Style

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Each region has their own way of celebrating Christmas.  Of course Christmas lights seem just about universal and they are one of my favorite parts of decorating for Christmas.

Some of you may feel that it is not Christmas without snow, but growing up in Southern California near the coast – the only white Christmas that I have seen is watching Christmas movies on television.

Californians have their own way of celebrating Christmas, including a parade of boats decorated with lights and decorations.  One of my fondest memories is sitting on the breakwater and watching the boats parade along the coast.

Well, now that I have lived in Arizona for quite a while, I have become quite familiar with the unique way that desert dwellers decorate for Christmas.

The Christmas tree for our town is not actually a real tree…..

Arizona Style Christmas Celebration
p class=”has-text-align-center” style=”font-size:14px;”> Arizona Style Christmas Celebration

It is actually made up of tumbleweed.

Arizona Style Christmas Celebration

Hard to believe, isn’t it?

But, it is just beautiful, especially when it is all lit up at night.

Some residents love their cactus and it plays a starring role in how they decorate the outside of their homes.

holiday decorations

Agave also play a part in holiday decorations….

Arizona Style Christmas Celebration

I’ve even seen some agave with round, glass Christmas tree ornaments stuck on their pointy tips.

Arizona Style Christmas Celebration

Did you know that Ocotillo can also stand-in as a Christmas tree?

I hope you have enjoyed these glimpses into Christmas….Arizona Style.

Even though we may not enjoy a white Christmas in our beautiful desert, I like to think of the fact that the first Christmas occurred in a desert not that much different then ours…

MERRY CHRISTMAS

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I WISH FOR YOU ALL

A

VERY

MERRY

CHRISTMAS

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Cookies and Sugar Cone Christmas Trees

A Most Unusual Shrub With a Shocking Secret…

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Whenever I am not writing, you’ll often find me out in the field helping others learn how to grow and maintain their landscapes.

Usually most landscape consultations are fairly routine.  However, I sometimes see something truly unique.

Earlier this week, I saw something that is probably the most unexpected thing that I’ve ever encountered.

Here is how it unfolded…

new landscape

I met with a very nice couple who had a new landscape installed a year ago.  While they were very happy with the design, they wanted to learn how to care for their plants and needed help with some problems with dead plant(s) and some failing to thrive.

Other than a dead Valentine bush, some iron chlorosis, over fertilizing and a few plants growing in the wrong exposure – it was all fairly routine until I saw an unusual shrub off in the distance.

unusual shrub

I must confess that I had no idea what the shrub was from this distance.  Now every once in a while, I am faced with a plant that I am not familiar with, but I was hopeful that as we got nearer, I would be able to figure it out.

unusual shrub

As we got closer to the shrub, I still didn’t know what it was.  I’m starting to feel a bit uncomfortable because I have no idea what this shrub is.

It did have dark, dusty green foliage that started to turn red with cooler winter temperatures.

The homeowner had carefully staked it upright and it had an attractive vase shape growth habit.

unusual shrub

At this point, the homeowner complained about a mesquite tree volunteer that was coming up at the base.

I took a closer look and discovered that the so called ‘mesquite tree’ was actually a Baja fairy duster – that was a MAJOR clue about the identity of this unusual shrub.

At this point, I looked closer at the leaves of the shrub, which did look rather familiar – just not on a shrub…

unusual shrub

Does it look familiar to you?

At this point, I knew what it was, but I couldn’t get my head around what this unusual shrub actually was.

Can you tell what it is yet?

Baja Fairy Duster

The base was quite large and I could see the Baja Fairy Duster, to the left, trying to grow.

I told the homeowners that what they thought was a mesquite tree volunteer (basically a weed), was in fact the plant that was supposed to grow there.

A Most Unusual Shrub With a Shocking Secret...

So what was the ‘unusual shrub’ then?

Belive it or not, the shrub that the homeowners had carefully staked and fertilized over the past year was actually a WEED!

So what kind of weed was it?

spurge weed

That large shrub that was 4+ ft. high and 2 ft. wide was really a spotted spurge weed!

Can you believe it?

Spotted spurge is the bane of many gardeners and is a low-growing weed that spreads.  I hate this little weed.  I’ve spent hours battling this weed during my time as a horticulturist for golf courses and now in my own garden.

A Most Unusual Shrub With a Shocking Secret...

So how did the homeowners mistake this weed for a shrub?  Well, I suspect that the nursery container, with their actual shrub, had spurge already growing in it (not uncommon).

The new shrub was quite small when first planted and the spurge, like most weeds, grew quickly – much more quickly than the shrub itself.

The poor little Baja fairy duster had little chance of growing afterward since weeds are famous for being vigorous growers and out compete other plants for water and nutrients.

So what did the homeowners think, you may wonder?

Well, they were shocked, but then got a good laugh out of it.  The wife was having a lot of fun teasing her husband about his ‘unusual shrub’.

Have you ever seen an unusual plant that turned out to be a weed?  This one is definitely one for the books in my career.

**If you have problems with spurge, you can treat them with homemade weed killer that uses natural ingredients – vinegar and soap – that’s it.