Harriet's Version

Mom said I had to stay out of the way today because there would be a great big truck in the parking lot and lots of equipment moving around. She was just waiting around when another small truck pulled in and this guy jumped out and ran up with some boxes. He brings them just for me sometimes.It's my favorite size too.....

No way, I'm not staying in any box that had rhubarb in it. Those red things make my skin crawl. I'm getting outta here.

Guess this is the truck she was waiting for. About time we had some new trees for me to climb in.
Guess I'll just hang around in this new pot. Mom says there is some kinda osha rule that I can't play around the forklift.It's good to be the Queen of my Green Kingdom.


Pruning with Jay 2010

Well our luck held out once again, as predictions of rain/snow and cold temperatures took a back seat for our annual pruning class. The green room filled to overflowing, we settled in with the fireplace going, just in case. This was #2 in this years "Think Green Garden Series".

Jay Davison, who is our area soil & plant expert with the University of Nevada Co-op Extension, has been teaching this seminar for the last 9 years now, and I still learn something new to take back out to the garden with me each time. This year it was a "fruit tree" moment when I realized I (read "Robert" here) was probably cutting off the majority of my fruit producing branches every spring on our plumcot tree.

We downloaded his PowerPoint presentation to MyPassport backup, and I hope to have it uploaded to our website later today. But for now here a quick few highlights to keep you going if you just HAVE to get out in the garden today. It is a beautiful sunny day isn't it....and don't forget to gaze up at the moon tonight, should be a full one.

Why to prune:
Physically control (manage & enhance) plant growth and development
Change shape of a plant
Improve plant health
Remove hazards
Increase fruit production
Etc. etc. etc. (Have a reason to prune)

Four Rules for Successful Pruning Cuts:
1) Never leave a stub
2) When “heading back always cut to an outside facing bud or branch
3) When “thinning” cut just outside the branch collar
4) Do not paint or seal pruning cut

Useful Web Sites for Pruning
Fruit Trees
http://ianrpubs.unl.edu/horticulture/ec1233.pdf
Evergreens
http://csfs.colostate.ede/library/pdfs/pruning/pruning_evergreens.pdf
Shade Trees
http://www.na.fs.fed.us/Spfo/pubs/howtos/ht_prune/harm.htm
Shrubs
http://www.extension.iastate.edu/Publications/PM1958.pdf
Roses
http://www.urbanext.uiuc.edu/roses/prune.html
Thanks again Jay! As always, your class was a fun learning experience.


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It's for the Birds!

seed that is...............the other morning after the huge unexpected snowfall, I went back out to fill up all the yellow finch socks. All it took was a few minutes to find my camera and sneak out to the back deck so the little yellow guys couldn't see me, and the socks were covered. ahhhhhhh ......spring really is just around the corner...............
(ps, I have six of these hanging in one tree by the fountain.......it takes 5lbs to refill ALL of them. Quite the savings over buying new ones, and this will be the third season for them)

Nevada Rock Art with Sarah

Thought you might like to see what some of the rest of the Flower Tree/Red Zinnia family has been up to........our contributor today: Sarah Henderson

Here are some pictures from my Nevada Rock Art trip! It consisted of a week long adventure way down south in Laughlin, NV in a place called Grapevine Canyon. This was an interesting rock art site because it is still a worship area for the local Native Americans. Because of this, we were not able to use the brightly colored flags to indicate panel number like we usually do, and ended up running all around and up and down the mountain many times a day. Talk about some hiking!The petroglyphs in this canyon were beautiful though. While they can't date them back to an exact date, they speculate they the glyphs are about 6,000 years old. Also, none of the archaeologist will tell you what they think the images are of, or if they symbolize anything; they like to leave each one up to the individuals imagination.It was a beautiful and hard working trip, but I am glad to be a part of a thing like this to help preserve something so old that has never been documented extensively :)p.s: they need more volunteers! www.nvrockart.com
Also, a bit of current news: I am going to Europe post graduation! I bought my ticket last week and I will fly into Dublin on May 25th and fly back out of Dublin on June 27th. Wish me luck! And, if anyone has a *must see* place in Europe, I would love to hear about it.

Raised Bed

The first class in this years "Think Green Garden Series" took place last Saturday. Under a sun filled blue sky, we gathered out back by the river to go over the basics of Raised Bed Gardening. Mike McLain from Kelloggs Garden Products http://www.kellogggarden.com/ was on hand to show us how to set up one of the new Gardner & Bloome Pre-made Raised Bed packages. Made from 48 recycled milk bottles, it holds 12 cf of soil and is the perfect size for a small raised garden. We also went over the what/where/whys of raised bed gardening and touched on Mel Bartholomew's method of Square Foot Gardening that I practice at my own home. http://www.squarefootgardening.com/

Bill & Korena Mewaldt from Fallon's own Mewaldt's Organics took over for the second part of the class. Bill went over all the info on starting seeds now to have them ready for the Wall-O-Waters on April 1st. YES!!! You can put your young seedlings in the ground if you use those handy tools.

It was a great class, lots of great questions and comments, and with over 40 in attendance, we may be repeating this one in a couple weeks. Don't forget, this Saturday it's on to pruning when our "Think Green Garden Series" continues with Jay Davison from the University of Nevada Co-op Extension service. His class is always a great refresher on the basics. Hope to see you there! Susan

Bill takes over..............


What a GREAT surprise when Cameo arrived with Emma and Emily in tow. We don't get to see them near often enough since they moved to Reno. Sure we can't talk you into moving back! (Just kidding, Cameo is studying at TMCC for her horticulture degree!!!! Yeah)




Bill and Korena brought their seed starts to get everyone started. They sell their seeds on line now, as well as at The Flower Tree. Check them out at http://www.mewaldtorganics.com/

oh yeah.........and this is what we woke up to on Sunday morning....................talk about a "lucky weather" day we had!!!!!



Steve, Where are You?

Ok, first off, I am going to be the absolute first one to admit that I love computers. I love the programs, I love how they can make your life so much easier - work wise, I love how I can research ANYTHING, at any time of day or night, I love how I can save 20,000 pictures, yes, it's true, and call them up whenever I want to visit with them, I love how they keep track of my finances and plans for the future...........BUT I DON'T LOVE how they fail!

For the last 10 years or so a dear friend of mine, Steve Prater, took care of all my computer hardware needs. He fixed them, he treaked them, he installed them, he made them work! Last year he moved up to Washington and now I am on my own.....and today was the first of , I am sure many times to come that the system crashed and I was pulling my hair out to get it up and going. It's ok if I can't check emails, it's NOT OK IF I CAN'T RUN THE REGISTER!!!
So this afternoon after Jaime tells me, " I think it's making a chirping noise", (which I couldn't hear with these 50 something ears) I pulled it out and headed down to our local computer store to pick up a replacement part. Tomorrow, the saga continues..............was it the right part, will it work...............................
Like I said, STEVE, WHERE ARE YOU???


Architecture of Vegas

Who could resist an Evening in Paris?
The newly opened City Center was one of the highlights of the trip for me. I had read about the sculpture garden in the Reno Gazette a few months ago when it opened, and looked forward to seeing it in person. I don't think we went into one of the shops in the entire complex, think Prado & Versace, but we did spend a couple hours walking with the art guidebook trying to find all the pieces listed. Below are just a few of them.




The Hot Pink Agate staircase.

View of the World Market
Spago.....dinner.....yumm....

This building was directly across the street from the World Market, and we saw it each day from a distance when we arrived by shuttle bus. On the last day we were there we decided to walk over and get a picture of it, but we couldn't get very close as it is still under construction. The building is the future home of the Cleveland Clinic for brain health. The institute, started by a Las Vegas businessman whose father suffered from Alzheimer’s disease, was designed by Frank Gehry.

Didn't realize this truck was in the picture until we looked at them later that night...............

Viva Las Vegas

We are here at World Market in Las Vegas, the largest gift show on the West Coast this year. A much smaller show than the one we go to in Atlanta, but what we are finding it is a lot easier to navigate around, the selection is still fabulous, and best of all, not as many people vying for an opportunity to place an order with the reps in the showroom. Not sure if this has to do with the economy, but I like to think that is because we just have great timing when it comes time to talk with someone. As my husband would say "always the optimist, aren't you!"

A few shots from Day 1:
Now this is what I call recycled and organic! Does anyone remember the paper dresses from the late sixties?
Spring Fever Anyone? Yes we have it!!

Scarves, scarves and more scarves! Can't wait till they start arriving next week.

A cool display mix of colors and textures

All fresh flowers in this showroom.....ahh....I want my tulips, and I want them NOW!

Ordered four of these spectacular sun mirrors.......heads up Bob - one is going over our sofa.

Lucia does love bears................
What more can be said..............

Till tomorrow................we have shopping to do!





Who Said?

Who said you couldn't have tomatoes off the vine in January? This is a shot Sara took last week when we had the last of the cherry tomatoes from our vines last summer. Next year I will remind you how to save them on a tray in your garage....they may not look as pretty, but they sure tasted good!