One of my New Year’s resolutions (other than losing the five pounds I gained over the holidays) is to use as much as I can of what I have on hand in my pantry and freezer before buying more groceries. It is not as easy as it sounds. This morning I was looking out my kitchen window and noticed the silver-grey Bergarrten sage. What could I do with the leaves today? I needed to cook some dry white beans for a soup - sage leaves were added to the water. I fried some in a little bit of olive oil and sprinkled them with salt and pepper - these will be used as a garnish for the soup. It has been a great while since I have explored the other possibilities of what to do with sage. This week some more fried leaves will top some mashed potatoes. I know I have on hand all the ingredients to make the sage-feta cornbread from Jerry Traunfeld’s book ‘The Herbal Kitchen’. (By the way, the Sage Rush, a cocktail in the same book was our Super Bowl cocktail - it was great).

Sage needs lots of sun and very well drained soils. There have been three or four times in the last twenty-five years that I have had to replace my plant because it just up and died. Most of the time, it was because of a particularly wet winter. The blossoms are good sprinkled on salads. The best time to trim back your plant is right after it blooms. It is so easy to forget what you have…I am going to continue the process…

This month of January has just flown by so fast. Inspired by the Ken Burns documentary series “The National Parks”, one of my sisters and her husband (both from Ontario) joined my husband and I on a trek west over the holidays. Christmas Day found us hiking down the Bright Angel trail in the Grand Canyon. Words cannot express the experience. It was 10 degrees when we started out; the sun was shining and wind was minimal. It took us 2 ½ hours to go down 1 ½ miles. Three out of the four of us (not me) had cameras. Every step and stop revealed incredible, breathtaking sights and views. I was thrilled to have snow again on Christmas day, only to learn that so did you back in Arlington Texas!

Three days later we found ourselves in warmer climes (the Canadians decided they had had enough of the cold!), hiking in the red rocks outside of Sedona AZ. I fell in love with an incredible Manzanita shrub. The red, twisting branches were so striking - I wonder if I could grow one in my yard.

For someone who loves green hills as opposed to desert, I found myself drawn to the landscape as we continued to drive south. In Saguaro National Park we hiked amongst the gigantic cactus. These monsters can grow as tall as 45 feet and live as long as 150 years. The old gnarly ones are fascinating. Woodpeckers and flickers create holes for nesting. In subsequent years, house finch, purple martins and even owls take them over.

I had no idea that there were pistachio, pecan and walnut orchards in Arizona. The Gila National Forest stretches from desert to forested hills. Watching the sandhill cranes returning from their daily feeding to roost in the marshes at the Bosque del Apache Wildlife Refuge was spectacular. I could go on and on…but it is back to work and gardening in Texas.

Thirty-one years ago this month our family drove from the Pacific Northwest to begin the next phase of our lives in north Texas. That first winter we flew back to my family home in Ontario for Christmas. We were welcomed back to DFW with a massive ice storm. The drive home from the airport was more harrowing than any drive I had encountered in an Ontario snowstorm. The next winter my family visited us in Texas. We were outside in short sleeves, cooking on the BBQ and eating fresh broccoli from our garden for Christmas day dinner.

Family members from the great white north again visited us at Christmas in 1983 in hopes of warmer weather. What a shock that was - the coldest winter on record here. That year we lost ligustrum hedges by the thousands - they were replaced with red-tip photinia. Indian hawthorn, pittosporum, crape myrtle and even live oaks suffered. We began to feel that we needed to reconsider the core plantings of our gardens. Including more native plants in our landscapes became more important.

Weather in Texas is definitely unpredictable. It makes gardening a challenge, but the possibility of harvesting broccoli, greens, radishes and carrots for Christmas dinner keeps me always trying to outwit what nature brings us.

We are going on a road trip west next week - will keep you posted.

Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah and the best to all in the New Year.

Sitting at home, sipping tea, wrapped in a blanket, sniffing and watching a cold front move in - a perfect day to clean up some computer files. I found all sorts of old photos and files. The one that caught my attention was taken 10 years ago in our front yard. My, it has changed so much (and so has fashion!). Originally there was a little bed around some trees, and the rest in St. Augustine grass. Weed killer was used constantly to keep out my neighbors travelling hypericum and the continual popping up of redbud trees, cherry laurel and Turk’s cap from seeds left by the birds. The grass has long been gone. The cherry laurels, oak trees and eastern red cedar have grown so much. Under them are a wide variety of native and well-adapted plants. Oak leaf hydrangea, Japanese maple, viburnum, lots of Turk’s cap (I let them pop up wherever they please), aralia, leatherleaf mahonia, coralberry, a solitary gardenia and camellia (for fun), salvia guaranitica, possumhaw holly, inland sea oats and many more plants thrive under the trees.

Weed killer is no longer used. My neighbor’s plants are always welcome. The earthworms are happy and so is my husband. There is no grass to mow.

I am just thrilled. My Meyer lemon tree, now probably 5 years old, has produced what I think is a bumper crop. The first couple of winters, I kept it in a spare bedroom when temperatures approached freezing. Last year I potted it up into a 19″ rectangular pot. The tree has flourished to the point that a big decision must now be made. If I want to have guests, there is no room for the tree. Which shall it be - tree or guests in the spare bedroom? Alas there is no choice. Sadly I will have to miss the fragrance of its winter blossoms - they will help perfume the greenhouse at our Arlington store instead. (As a footnote, Michael and Lorie planted their Meyer lemon outside in a protected spot. I will let you know how it fares this winter).

Meanwhile we are in the process of harvesting 56 lemons. I have already made some Meyer lemon marmalade - my husband loves it. I am anxious to taste the preserved lemons - this is a new one for me. Meyer lemon limoncello is next on the list. And half of the lemons are still waiting to be picked.

What a treat this has been…

For well over a month now, one of my favorite late-blooming perennials has brightened a dark spot in our shady front yard. All summer long, lush deep green foliage fills the spot - it almost looks tropical. Then, in late fall, dark red spiky blooms shoot out and will last until the first frost. It is called firespike (Odontonema strictum).

Nothing has bothered this plant for the past three or four years that have had it. This past summer, during our hot dry spell, the wax myrtles suffered die-back; the firespike did not miss a beat, staying lush throughout. Foliage stands about 2 ½ to 3 feet tall, and the blooms are 12 inches and more. It is planted in soil that has been amended with compost and other organic materials, and is usually well-mulched. We fertilize it three times a year with our organic fertilizer (our regular fertilization for the whole yard), and that is it - a great underused plant.

P.S. When I wrote about our employee garden last week, I was in big trouble for neglecting to mention Austin’s plot. His would definitely fall in the practical category - jalapenos, radishes, broccoli, mizuna and ruby streak mustards - typical plants for a high school senior! Austin has been with us for a year and a half now. We will surely miss him when he graduates.

In early September, I handed over a small portion of the “Back 40″ of our Arlington store to our employees there. The instructions were simple - plant a vegetable garden and use only items (seeds, plants, materials) found on the premises. As hard as it was for me to do, I then stepped back and let them proceed. I am loving the progress so far. Some started the next day; others took time thinking about it. Some are works of art; others reflect a more practical bent. I hope none of them is offended as I describe them.

Laura has used chopped stone to define the perimeter and spaces within her area.

It is beautiful. A border of red romaine surrounds a Brussels sprout plant, black seeded Simpson borders a cauliflower plant. There are stands of evergreen onions, Italian and curly parsley, sage, Italian oregano and chives. Freckles romaine edges the area around a beautiful kohlrabi.

Evan has fashioned a trellis out of four bamboo poles and hog wire. Peas are planted at the base and are getting ready to climb it. Eli has diagonal rows of nasturtiums, cilantro and several varieties of lettuces. Matt is cutting arugula and endive from his space daily for salads. Ever the practical one, he also has radishes and cucumber planted. Kathy and Meaggan also have steered towards the practical, planting peas, carrots, lettuces, arugula and radishes.  The one unclaimed space has been planted with red clover - it will be turned over early next spring.

They have all had fun doing this. For those of you in the area, do take a moment and check it out.

Here it is the end of October, and so many of the plants in my garden look the best they have all summer. The African blue basil is huge and covered in bees, especially now that we have had a couple of days of sunshine (hallelujah for that). Red pentas and purple cuphea are big and beautiful. The orange hibiscus and even the bougainvillea are behaving more like the middle of summer than the waning days of fall.

However, it is a small space and I need to plant some more cool season veggies and winter color. It is such a gut wrenching decision. How can I justify tearing out these plants and send them to the compost pile? This is not easy - I cannot let go of summer and its plants. There are still tomato plants and they are still producing a few fruit. I seeded greens all around the base of them, so that when I finally do yank them there will be something growing. That is not doable in other spots. So I have finally taken deep breaths and started the painful process of saying good-bye to my summer plants…

It has been many years since I have had my “fall foliage color” fix. I took for granted, as a child, the blazing colors of fall in Southern Ontario. Maples, birch, ash and others turn to red, orange, purple, gold and even lemon-lime. What an exquisite scene.

I could not make it make to Ontario, so southeastern Oklahoma was the answer.  Driving the 57-mile Talimena trail between Mena, Arkansas and Talihina, Oklahoma was quite an experience. The stunted red oaks on top of the trail were brilliant red. Sweetgum, blackjack oak, elm and hickory added shades of orange and gold. Red Virginia creeper climbed up tall green pines. The view from the mountaintops where there was not fog, because of the rain, was beautiful.

Down in the valley, there were stands of wild asters and goldenrod providing more color. As we crossed the Red River and returned to our great state, all was green. Maybe we too, will have beautiful fall foliage this year as well. I can only hope.

It had been a cloudy day, but the sun peaked out from behind the clouds as we came out from a Memorial Service for one of the most incredible women I have ever known.  I knew then that her work would go on. 

Suzy Peacock had directed the Rainwater Charitable Foundation for seventeen years.  The goal was always to help urban low-income children have a better life.  In 2003, REAL School Gardens was founded to design, install, maintain and use school gardens as outdoor classrooms.  Today the foundation supports 66 schools in North Texas. There are more than 40,000 children and 2300 educators going outdoors daily using nature to learn art, science, math and other subjects.  Parents, grandparents and the community around these schools are all involved.  Time after time, there are stories of a child who struggles in a regular classroom, only to come alive when outdoors. 

Suzy had the vision and was the guiding light of the project.  She was passionate, always striving for excellence, so evident in the hiring of those who will now carry out her message.  No one who knew her could escape being touched by her warmth and wisdom. 

She will be missed so much.  If you believe, as she did, that school gardens can make a difference, contributions in her honor may be made to REAL School Gardens at http://www.realschoolgardens.org/en/index.html.