I love Christmas…
Not just the day itself and celebrating our Savior’s birth, but I love all the preparations and celebrations that occur this time of year.
At this point, I can usually take a deep breath and sit back and enjoy the coming days. Gifts are wrapped, the house is somewhat clean and desserts have been made.
If you haven’t realized this before – I love making desserts. If there is a birthday to be celebrated, I am often asked to bring the cake. Of course, the holidays bring a whole other slate of desserts – pumpkin bread, cinnamon sugar monkey bread, snickerdoodles, toffee bars AND Christmas sugar cookies.
Every year, I invite my nieces and nephews over to join my kids and I in making Christmas sugar cookies.
This year was extra special because my granddaughter, Lily, joined us for the first time.
Making sugar cookies is always a bit messy. However, when you mix in a bunch of young kids, the mess is amplified.
My son Kai, and nephew Oliver, had fun choosing their favorite cookie cutters.
Lily was excited to see that there was a snowman cookie cutter. After watching “Frosty the Snowman” for the first time this year, she is obsessed with snowmen.
Ready for the oven.
My nephew Finley and daughter Ruthie, got to work with frosting their cookies.
Lily decided to use a fork to spread the frosting with.
You really shouldn’t wear black if you are working near flour 😉
Oliver was determined to put as many sprinkles as his cookie would hold.
Finley made a gingerbread man wearing shorts.
I remember doing this when my two oldest daughters were young. Now they are grown, but it was so nice to have my granddaughter take part in our annual tradition.
We have a rule that the kids each get to pick one cookie to eat and the rest will be saved until Christmas Day when we all gather together.
It is fun to see the kids show off their finished cookies to their parents on Christmas.
After the cookies were finished, I thought that we would try something new that I had seen on Pinterest.
These are sugar cones that have been frosted and sprinkles added to make miniature Christmas trees.
We used buttercream frosting on the cones.
Then the kids got to decide which sprinkles they wanted to ‘decorate’ their trees with.
It is so much fun to see my oldest daughter all grown up and making desserts with her daughter 🙂
Finley’s tree is finished with a mini-chocolate chip as the start on top.
Oliver had to make sure that the frosting tasted good.
I think that the kids really enjoyed making the sugar cone Christmas trees.
You could use them for decoration or eat them. The kids decided to eat theirs.
My husband (who has a huge sweet tooth) filled the inside of his cone with frosting and then frosted the outside before eating it.
Making Christmas cookies is fun, but awfully messy. I am glad that I used paper plates, bowls and plastic knives.
After a busy morning of making cookies, Lily decided to take a little rest next to her aunt Gracie.
***********************
The sugar cookie recipe that I use makes soft cookies and I am often asked for the recipe.
It starts with a sugar cookie mix (I use Betty Crocker’s Sugar Cookie Mix).
4 oz. softened cream cheese
17 oz. bag sugar cookie mix
1/4 cup + 1 tablespoon flour
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Mix all ingredients together and bake following the directions on the sugar cookie mix package.
You’ll love these cookies!
For the frosting, I used royal icing.
Merry Christmas Cookies!
Cookies and Sugar Cone Christmas Trees
az plant lady familyI love Christmas…
Not just the day itself and celebrating our Savior’s birth, but I love all the preparations and celebrations that occur this time of year.
At this point, I can usually take a deep breath and sit back and enjoy the coming days. Gifts are wrapped, the house is somewhat clean and desserts have been made.
If you haven’t realized this before – I love making desserts. If there is a birthday to be celebrated, I am often asked to bring the cake. Of course, the holidays bring a whole other slate of desserts – pumpkin bread, cinnamon sugar monkey bread, snickerdoodles, toffee bars AND Christmas sugar cookies.
Every year, I invite my nieces and nephews over to join my kids and I in making Christmas sugar cookies.
This year was extra special because my granddaughter, Lily, joined us for the first time.
Making sugar cookies is always a bit messy. However, when you mix in a bunch of young kids, the mess is amplified.
My son Kai, and nephew Oliver, had fun choosing their favorite cookie cutters.
Lily was excited to see that there was a snowman cookie cutter. After watching “Frosty the Snowman” for the first time this year, she is obsessed with snowmen.
Ready for the oven.
My nephew Finley and daughter Ruthie, got to work with frosting their cookies.
Lily decided to use a fork to spread the frosting with.
You really shouldn’t wear black if you are working near flour 😉
Oliver was determined to put as many sprinkles as his cookie would hold.
Finley made a gingerbread man wearing shorts.
I remember doing this when my two oldest daughters were young. Now they are grown, but it was so nice to have my granddaughter take part in our annual tradition.
We have a rule that the kids each get to pick one cookie to eat and the rest will be saved until Christmas Day when we all gather together.
It is fun to see the kids show off their finished cookies to their parents on Christmas.
After the cookies were finished, I thought that we would try something new that I had seen on Pinterest.
These are sugar cones that have been frosted and sprinkles added to make miniature Christmas trees.
We used buttercream frosting on the cones.
Then the kids got to decide which sprinkles they wanted to ‘decorate’ their trees with.
It is so much fun to see my oldest daughter all grown up and making desserts with her daughter 🙂
Finley’s tree is finished with a mini-chocolate chip as the start on top.
Oliver had to make sure that the frosting tasted good.
I think that the kids really enjoyed making the sugar cone Christmas trees.
You could use them for decoration or eat them. The kids decided to eat theirs.
My husband (who has a huge sweet tooth) filled the inside of his cone with frosting and then frosted the outside before eating it.
Making Christmas cookies is fun, but awfully messy. I am glad that I used paper plates, bowls and plastic knives.
After a busy morning of making cookies, Lily decided to take a little rest next to her aunt Gracie.
***********************
The sugar cookie recipe that I use makes soft cookies and I am often asked for the recipe.
It starts with a sugar cookie mix (I use Betty Crocker’s Sugar Cookie Mix).
4 oz. softened cream cheese
17 oz. bag sugar cookie mix
1/4 cup + 1 tablespoon flour
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Mix all ingredients together and bake following the directions on the sugar cookie mix package.
You’ll love these cookies!
For the frosting, I used royal icing.
Merry Christmas Cookies!
Red-Blooms All Winter and Spring
azplantlady, Southwest gardenEvery year as Christmas approaches and most of my plants have gone to sleep for the winter, my favorite shrub is just getting started…
It begins with small buds appearing along each branch.
By mid-January, the buds have burst open, exposing their crimson centers.
By Valentine’s Day, my shrubs are absolutely covered in masses of red flowers.
Wonder what this shrub is called?
“Valentine”
(Eremophila maculata ‘Valentine’)
You can find out more about my favorite shrub and what it looks like when not in bloom in my latest article for Houzz…
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Light up your living spaces with recessed lights, designer chandeliers or even a row of pendant lights.
A Preview of My Newest Project…
azplantladyEarlier this week, I went out for my first visit to a new landscape project…
New landscape project
As you can see, they aren’t quite ready for me to step into this project.
This church had to have all of its stucco redone.
Many of the plants were removed, but some are still intact.
New landscape project
Today, I went around and tagged plants (with red paint) that will need to be removed since I won’t be using them in the new design.
The reasons for this is that the members want more color near the church building – AND they want plants to be blooming in winter when most of the members are here. (Many spend their summers in cooler places – sometimes, I wish that I could 😉
Of course, I didn’t recommend removing all of the plants.
Believe it or not, those round, green shrubs are actually trees. I’ll recommend letting them grow up into trees.
**When designing an existing landscape, I try to keep at least a few of the plants present, if not more. The reason for this is that a brand-new landscape looks quite sparse for the first few years until the new plants grow a bit.
Keeping some of the existing plants helps to alleviate the sparseness of a new landscape. Besides, I don’t like pulling out plants that can still benefit the landscape.
Once the scaffolding comes down, I will be back after Christmas.
I’ll keep you updated as my latest project progresses, including what plants I select and the reasons why.
Plant Palette For New Landscape: Perennials and Succulents
What Do Tomatoes, Starbucks and Christmas Have In Common?
AZ Plant LadyDoes the fact that Christmas is fast approaching make you think of growing tomatoes?
Of course not. Our thoughts are focused on making sure our homes are decorated for Christmas, looking for the perfect gift for that special someone and hopefully some holiday baking.
But, I am going to tell you why you should also be thinking about growing tomatoes this time of year.
But, did you know that December is the best time to start growing your tomatoes from seed indoors?
For those of you who have grown tomatoes in the arid desert, know that our tomato growing season occurs in spring and fall.
Oh, your tomatoes will live through the summer with a little shade – but they will stop producing new tomatoes once temperatures hit the 90’s because their pollen is not viable.
The other limiting factor is that you can’t set out tomato plants into the garden until the danger of frost is past, which is usually around the beginning of March in the Phoenix metro area.
So, to get the most tomatoes, you want to plant the largest (oldest) tomato plant you can in early March.
Many nursery greenhouses are starting their tomato plants from seed right now where they will grow, protected from the elements until March arrives when you will find them on the shelves of your nursery.
You may be wondering why you should start your own tomato plants instead of buying them at nursery?
Well the problem with purchasing your tomato plants from the nursery is that they have a very limited selection of tomato varieties. And, they may not have the variety you want, or it is sold out.
**Right now, many seed companies are having Christmas sales on their seeds including Burpee and Botanical Interests.
Growing your own tomatoes from seed is very easy and rewarding.
Here is how I have done it…
I like to use Starbucks coffee sleeves or toilet paper rolls, cut in half as my seedling containers.
Grab some seed starting mix from your local nursery or big box store. Some seed mixes have fertilizer already added. If not, then I recommend adding a slow-release fertilizer to your potting mix.
Wet the soil before adding to your containers.
Fill your recycled containers with the seed mix and add your seeds.
Place your newly planted seeds in a warm area, such as the top of your refrigerator. The heat will help them to germinate.
**Use a spray bottle to keep them moist. Don’t allow the soil to dry out.
Once the seeds begin to sprout, put them in front of a sunny window.
In just a few weeks, you’ll be surprised at how quickly your tomato plants will have grown.
During warm winter days, you can place them outdoors to get a little extra – but be sure to bring them indoors at night until the danger of frost is over.
As your tomato seedlings grow, you can transfer them to larger containers until you are ready to put them out in the garden.
*For more information on seed starting, click here.
How to Protect Plants From Frost
Citrus, desertFreezing temperatures are coming tonight and forecast to last for the next several days.
Take a drive down the street in your neighborhood, you will probably see landscape plants covered with assorted sheets, towels or frost cloth.
Those that don’t protect their frost-sensitive plants such as lantana, bougainvillea, yellow bells, orange jubilee or hibiscus will soon have plants that look like this…
In most cases, you do not have to cover your frost-sensitive plants when temps dip into the lower 30’s.
There is nothing wrong with allowing the top growth of your ornamental plants to get frost damage. You just prune it away in spring.
For those of you who don’t like the look of frost-damage, then you will need to protect your plants from the cold.
**If temperatures are predicted to dip into the 20’s – then I do recommend protecting them from frost because temps this cold can kill a plant.
I wrote a blog post earlier this year when temps hit the low 20’s. It talks about how to protect plants from frost (and how NOT to) along with the types of plants to protect.
You can read it here…
“Prepping For Deep Freeze”
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I hope you are having a great week. I must confess to being a little behind on writing blog posts this month with all the Christmas goings on 🙂
Add Dramatic Flair With Ocotillo
AZ Plant LadyBeautiful Ocotillo Flowers
There is little that can compare to the dramatic silhouette that Ocotillo add to the landscape.
I have been fascinated by these plants ever since I moved to the desert, over 27 years ago.
Since then, I have planted Ocotillo in landscapes around golf courses and even have one of my own, which was a gift for Mother’s Day years ago.
If you would like to learn more about Ocotillo including the fact that they are actually shrubs and not cactus, like many people assume – please check out my latest article for Houzz.com
Hire residential landscape architects to help with all aspects of landscape design, from selecting or designing garden furniture, to siting a detached garage or pergola.
As you get ready to host an event, be sure you have enough dining benches and dishes for dinner guests, as well as enough bakeware and kitchen knives sets for food preparation.
**I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday and that your refrigerator is filled with delicious leftovers 🙂
Now on to Christmas, my FAVORITE time of year!
Two Iconic Sonoran Desert Plants: Saguaro and Ocotillo
Happy Thanksgiving Treat…
AZ Plant LadyToday is a very busy day for me…much to busy to even step out into the garden.
But, all my plants are happy – especially since the drenching rain they received over the weekend.
Every year, Thanksgiving is usually held at my house and I can often be seen this time of year running around, trying not to stress about how nice the tables look, whether or not I need to polish the silverware since it only comes out once a year.
Of course all that keeps me busy in addition to the cooking.
However, yesterday something happened that put a wrench into our Thanksgiving plans…my son got sick. He has a ‘croupy’ sounding cough. The doctor said that it isn’t croup because he just had his shots 6 weeks ago. But, he is contagious.
So, we are having our Thanksgiving meal at my oldest daughter’s house. Of course, I will still be making everything at our house and then driving it over to her house just 5 minutes away.
You would think that my son’s illness would stress me even more. But, other then a horrible cough and scratchy throat – he is okay. AND now I don’t have to clean my house, polish the silverware or set out my special dishes.
All I need to do is cook 🙂
In our family we do a potluck for Thanksgiving where each family brings something. My mother-in-law makes delicious stuffing. My sister-in-law brings her green bean casserole and my daughter braves the crowds at Costco for their famous pumpkin pies.
I am in charge of the turkey, mashed potatoes, rolls and making pumpkin bread.
Now this is no ordinary pumpkin bread. It is quite seriously the best that I have ever had.
The recipe came from my pre-school’s cookbook – so it is old, like me 😉
This pumpkin bread has made its appearance every year at Thanksgiving and sometimes at Christmas. I make 6 small loaves of it.
I can’t tell you how often I am asked for the recipe. It is very easy to make.
So, because you are such wonderful people for taking a little time out of your day to read what I have to say, I am going to share with you this special recipe…
“The Best Pumpkin Bread You’ve Ever Tasted”
I hope you enjoy it as much as we do!
I wish for you all a very special Thanksgiving!
Rainy Day Harvest
ArizonaI don’t know about you, but I have enjoyed the wet weather of the past few days. We almost received 3 inches of rain where I live in a period of 48 hours. For those of you who do not live in the desert – that is considered A LOT of rain for us 😉
I spent Saturday morning dodging raindrops as I visited two different clients regarding their landscapes. The rest of the day, I spent indoors just thinking of how much my garden is enjoying this rain.
You may not realize that rain water is much better for your plants then the water that comes from your hose or drip emitters. Our water is somewhat ‘salty’, which is a result of its journey down the Colorado river and all the rock it passes by.
Plants do not like salt much and a heavy rain will help flush the salts away from the soil.
As the sun began to peek through the clouds this afternoon, I ventured out into the garden in order to harvest some lettuce and Swiss chard for our dinner.
A small sampling of today’s harvest.
It had been a while since I had taken a good look at my vegetable gardens and there was quite a bit more to harvest then I had expected.
I am rapidly falling in love with Swiss chard (yes, I said ‘love’).
While I do not like cooked leafy greens, I have been surprised at how delicious raw Swiss chard is in salads.
It also adds a nice bit of color with its red and yellow veins.
Sugar snap peas are covering their vines, but it is hard to find them all since they blend in so well with the leaves.
I plan on serving them on our veggie tray Thanksgiving morning.
Right now, I have more radishes then I know what to do with. But, we had 5, thinly sliced radishes in our salad. In addition to thinly slicing them, I also quarter them so that my kids will eat them.
Two of my favorite types of leaf lettuce – Romaine and Black-Seeded Simpson.
I have had some problems with caterpillars eating my lettuce, so I will head out tomorrow with my spray bottle of BT (Bacillus thuringiensis).
Fall is the best time of year for all of my pepper plants. While they can handle hot temperatures, they don’t flower during the height of summer.
Once it begins to cool down in mid September, flowers appear again followed by peppers.
Sadly, once the first frost occurs, they will stop producing and will often die. Last year, I was able to save my bell pepper plant by covering it when temps dipped below freezing.
I have a ton of bell peppers and jalapeños. I will dice them up and place them in freezer bags so that I can enjoy them throughout the winter months.
harvesting vegetables
I discovered that I had a lot of parsley growing and I only harvested about half of it.
While parsley will last through the winter months, my basil won’t survive the first frost. So, I picked some basil too.
harvesting vegetables
I plant to dry my basil and parsley. Once dry, I will crush the leaves and put them into spice jars.
Drying herbs is easy and you can learn how to do it here.
The remainder of the fresh parsley that I have growing outdoors I will harvest on Thanksgiving to use as a garnish for a few of my favorite dishes.
While I spent part of this afternoon harvesting vegetables, I noticed that I still have not thinned out my carrot seedlings. Oh, they will still grow if I don’t thin them, but what I will get in return are small carrots not worth eating.
So, I’ll grab a pair of scissors and head out into the garden and snip off the extra.
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How about you?
Have you put your garden to bed for the winter or do you still have things growing in it?
I’d love to hear what is happening in your garden…
Fall, Flowering Tree and Thanksgiving Plans…
Fall Blooming PlantsEvery year, without fail, my thoughts tend to stray away from the garden and begin to focus on the upcoming holidays.
I start to think about out how many people we will be hosting for our annual Thanksgiving feast along with a host of other things…
Will I be roasting a whole turkey or try to get away with just cooking turkey breasts like we did last year?
Can I ask my oldest daughter into making the trip to Costco and braving the line for their famous pumpkin pie?
Is my mother-in-law up to making her famous stuffing this year or will my sister-in-law be able to help her?
Of course, there are quite a few other Thanksgiving matters on my mind, but I will spare you any further details 😉
Every year when these questions are foremost in my mind and rather far away from my garden, is when my Cascalote tree begins to undergo a beautiful transformation. Although it is a nice-looking tree throughout the entire year – it gets all dressed up for fall and winter when yellow flowers cover the entire tree canopy.
I bought my Cascalote tree when I was a horticulture student in college. We took a field trip to the Boyce Thompson Arboretum where they were having a plant sale.
I came back with a 5-gallon Cascalote that I first planted in a large container because we were still in the process of building our house.
Once we moved in, I planted it in our front yard.
That was over 14 years ago and it has grown into a beautiful tree.
You can read more about this uniquely Southwestern tree and why you may want to plant one in your own garden in my latest article for Houzz…
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I hope your week is off to a great start!
Happy Thanksgiving Treat…
Growing Onion and Garlic Greens for Flavoring My Favorite Dishes
Vegetable GardeningYesterday on Facebook, I showed you a photo of my latest project and encouraged you to guess what I was going to do next…
As you can see, I have two pots filled with potting soil. In front of the pots are a head of garlic (grown in my garden) and onion sets (not grown in my garden 😉
So, what do you think I will do with the garlic and onion sets?
Hint: I am not planning on harvesting the garlic and onions in spring.
I am growing the garlic and onions in order to use the ‘green parts’ to flavor my favorite dishes.
Garlic ‘greens’ like a mild form of garlic while onion ‘greens’ have a mild onion flavor.
You can dice them, much like you would chives and sprinkle them onto garlic bread, on salads or on your favorite Asian or Italian cuisine.
After you snip off some greens, they will grow back.
You can grow them in pots in front of a sunny window or out in your garden.
In my zone 9a garden, I can grow them outdoors if I wanted to, but I like having some food crops growing on my kitchen windowsill in winter, where there are easily within my reach.
Other food crops that I like to grow in front of my kitchen windowsill include basil, parsley and chives.
When planting the garlic and onion sets, be sure to plant them with the pointed side upward and then cover with 1 1/2 inches of soil.
I like to use a regular spoon for planting small things like this.
Now all they need is some water. *An easy to tell when to water them is to stick your finger into the soil, up to your first knuckle. If it feels dry, then water.
Of course, you can steal out into your vegetable garden and snip off some of your onion and/or garlic greens now and then. But, you don’t want to do that too often because these green leaves make the ‘food’ for the garlic and onions growing underneath the soil.
**Last winter, I had a real garden growing on my windowsill, using what most of us would call ‘kitchen scraps’. You can read more about that gardening adventure here.