Green Planet Sanctuary

As we come out of a month of 100 degree temperatures with no rain, we enter a time of intense winds and area fires destroying both human and wildlife habitat. Oh and still no rain. So maybe this is a good time to talk about a little known oasis in west Houston called Green Planet Sanctuary.



Like a secret garden this place is unlikely to be found without specific directions. It is located just west on Briarforest near the Briarforest /Eldridge intersection. The building is hidden behind Auto Check on the south side of the road.


As you drive through the gate you notice the brightly colored house and gardens. When you step out the place instantly brings peace and calm. Throughout the site you will see intimate little seating areas along with ponds and gardens. For those looking for a massage or facial, that isn't part of some noisy strip mall, then I would highly recommend this place for atmosphere alone.


Along with tranquility they also offer an eclectic array of classes and services. Massages, reflexology, yoga and QiGong to name a few. This fall they are introducing gardening classes to their mix and that is where I, along with Jacqueline D'Elia and Jeannie Dunnihoo step in! So go look at their calendar, sign up for a class and show up early so you can stroll through the gardens!

New Website!

After a year of stating I plan to create a new website it has finally become a reality! So far I only have two tabs, one with a class listing and another linked to this blog. In the next few months I plan to add videos, a consultation tab, and a recommended resources tab. Also, I plan to update this blog on a monthly basis but as you well know "the best laid plans of mice and men..." We will see.

http://thegardeninsectary.com/

Finally the Season Changes!

We moved to Houston in 1999 and this is only the second time it has snowed. It is strange to me that my sons are growing up to be native Houstonians and that an event such as snow will be uncommon and rare in their childhood. Not that this saddens me. They will instead grow up harvesting avocados, bananas, jaboticabas and starfruit. Speaking of which many of my sub-tropicals were just as bewildered by the anomalous weather. Most of my trees did well although my starfruit was hit a little harder than I anticipated. The jaboticaba much to my surprise received no damage. The abnormally warm fall kept my citrus from going dormant so, much of the new growth on the blood orange was damaged. Any mature citrus fruit did well but young immature fruit froze. All of the warm season crops finally made their way out, making more room for winter crops. In the garden change is often good and gives us the opportunity to try something new!

Dixondale Farms

Well, onion family time is upon us, (not that the temperatures seem to be an indication of this; the day-length certainly is.) Remember if you are living in Houston, you will be limited to short day-length plants. I purchased my onion transplants and shallot bulbs from Covington's Nursery over the weekend and just ordered my 'Lancelot' leeks from Dixondale Farms updated website. Now I just need to start building more beds!

Classes, Classes and more Classes!

October was definitely my month to teach classes and take classes! On Oct3rd I taught Cool Season Vegetables at Another Place in Time, it was a small but enthusiastic crowd and I saw many of the attendees again when I taught an Herb Class at Mike's the following weekend. On the 6th I took a class taught by Angela Chandler on Seed Saving. It was an excellent class and I highly encourage anyone interested in the next level of vegetable gardening to take it. I even saw Ray Sher, a fellow co-teacher of mine taking the class! On the 16th I went to a workshop organized by OHBA on Sustainable Landscape Pest Management. It was a little different than I expected but overall it was pretty good. However, the lecture on Biological Pest Control given by Dr. Carlos Bogran was amazing!!! (Note the excessive use of exclamation points.) If you see his name on a list of lecturers please take his class. Conveniently, I taught a class on Ecological Pest Control for Permaculture this past Sunday, along with a quick one hour class on Vegetables. Whew, and the month isn't over yet!

For those of you wondering, I do plan to put my Permaculture PowerPoint presentations online, I just haven't had the chance. I also hope to put a few pictures from the Sustainable Landscape Pest Management Workshop along with a better synopsis of what I learned and what the speakers were like.

Talk at Another Place in Time Nursery Tomorrow

The Original First Saturday Sale!

Join us Saturday, October 3^rd for our
ORIGINAL FIRST SATURDAY SALE

and a special
Gardening Talk on Cool Weather Vegetables

By Diana Liga from Houston’s Urban Harvest.

Diana is an amazing gardener and will be sharing lots of information with you on successfully planting, growing and harvesting vegetables during our cool weather months.

Diana’s talk will begin at 10:00 AM Saturday morning.

Please join us for this informative talk.

Renewable Energy Roundup

Last weekend we decided to take a trip to the Renewable Energy Roundup in Fredericksburg. In the past, before we had kids, we used to spend a majority of the time going to the different lectures, speaking to the vendors, walking around town, going to wine tastings and visiting microbreweries. So when we finally made the decision to go this year after our 4 year hiatus we went with the understanding that this was not going to be like previous trips.


It actually came as a surprise to us that we could have just as much fun hanging out in the family activities area and walking around the grounds as we did before. The boys' enthusiasm for the train (wheeled barrels attached to a golf cart) was tremendous (and somewhat contagious!) They had play equipment on the grounds to the festival and a lovely native plants garden with a water mill.


The "whimsicles" were definitely the most memorable part of the trip. Henson's favorite was the "Fresh Cut Grass," popsicle made of kale, pear juice and agave nectar. Archer preferred the "Beetlejuice," popsicle which was made of beet juice, apple/ pear juice and agave nectar. Eric and I loved every flavor we tried.


Overall, the trip was a success, and like the whimsicles the days there were refreshing, interesting and fun!