After the Storm

It has been raining non-stop for the past week. Today, it finally cleared up a bit, yet there are heavy clouds in the sky. I hadn’t been to my garden this week, and today I was eager to see what is going on there. I found several interesting things.
I was amazed how green everything has become. Moreover, I was surprised to see the cyclamens blooming. Most of all, however, I was surprised to see a bunch of mushrooms growing in my garden.

New Year Gardening Plans. Part II

In my first gardening year, I experimented with many vegetable plants and herbs. Some of them grew well; others dried, died, or were attacked by snails and slugs right away. Yet others neither died nor produced the expected results.
One of such plants was spinach. Even though it started growing quite well, some of the sprouts didn’t survive the very hot California days. Those sprouts that did survive produced nice dark green leaves, but unfortunately pretty soon my spinach bolted and that was the end of it. I hope to get better results growing spinach this year by sowing it in a partially sunny place and by harvesting it more often so it doesn’t go into seeds.
I didn’t have much luck with growing radishes either. And again I made the same mistake as with the spinach by sowing them in full sun location. Radishes do not tolerate hot temperatures, and I think I will get better results this year by planting them on the east side of the house.
I was so disappointed with the cilantro. I didn’t get to harvest it even once (I so hoped to have fresh cilantro in my garden for salsa) as it bolted right away. Again, the hot weather is to blame. Growing in soil that reaches 75 degrees Fahrenheit, cilantro bolts and goes to seeds. Since I still have some cilantro seeds left from last year, I will sow them this week. We have warm winters in California and surprisingly we get little rain this year, so I might have some luck with my cilantro until the hotter days arrive.
I am not going to bother with bell peppers though. I spent a respectable amount of money on the seedling last year and it was not worth it at all. No bell peppers this year!
I had an interesting experience with zucchinis. I bought a package of zucchini seeds from Wal-Mart. From all the seeds that I sowed only one seedling came out. The soil and location weren’t the best, so my zucchini plant was weak and feeble. Nevertheless, it produced many flowers, but unfortunately the flowers would dry and fall off a few days later. By the end of the summer, the plant finally managed to produce one fruit. And what a surprise it was when it grew bigger and turned out to be a butternut squash! I would love to try growing zucchinis again, but these plants require space to grow and this is something that is very limited in my garden. No zucchinis!
Last spring I sowed onions seeds. In the fall I ended up with small (half an inch to one inch in diameter) onion bulbs. I dried them and stored for winter. I am going to plant them this spring, and I hope to end up with decent size onions bulbs in autumn.
Therefore, to my list of tomatoes, garlic, basil, and parsley, I can also add spinach, radishes, cilantro, and onions.

New Year Gardening Plans. Part I

While there isn’t much work to do in my garden yet, it is a good time to make a constructive new year gardening plan.
A good place to start would be to outline the most successful growths of the previous year and deciding on places and quantities to grow this new year. The absolute hit of my vegetable garden last year were tomatoes. While not requiring a lot of care, several bushes provided us with splendid fruits throughout the summer and fall. Moreover, if the implausible frost didn’t hit in the first days of December, I still could have been provided with green tomatoes (which actually were turning red several days after being picked, how nice). Thus, I will definitely plan tomatoes this year as well. Five or six plants should be enough and the location will be the same (I will need to fertilize the soil though). I also want to plant one tomato bush in a big pot. I’ve heard that tomatoes can be grown in pots as well; we’ll see about that.



Another easy and productive produce in my little garden was garlic. There was very little work involved; all I did was planting and several months later harvesting. I have to admit that the garlic heads weren’t quite big, but I imagine bigger size can be achieved this year by fertilizing the soil and planting garlic cloves earlier. In fact, I already planted some garlic in my garden, but I intend to plant some more one of these days.
I have to give credit to the basil as well. I was very pleased with a few small pots of this herb that I had on my deck. Fresh basil is a great addition to many dishes, but it is quite costly at the produce stores. Throughout the summer, I had this wonderful herb at hand. I still have seeds that I bought last year, and I am going to sow them in the same pots this year as well.
What about parsley? It grew very well last year (and I still occasionally pick a few branches), but it is a biennial plant and I am not sure how it’s going to behave this year. I think I will sow some more seeds this year (luckily, I still have them from last year) just to be on the safe side.
For that reason, this year I will definitely grow tomatoes, garlic, basil, and parsley. My little garden, however, won’t be limited to that. There are some cultures that I failed at growing last year, but I’m eager to try growing them again.

Norwegian Advent

My husband comes from Norway, I come from Ukraine, and we live in the United States. Therefore, in our family we have wonderful traditions from all three cultures. One such tradition is the advent season.
It starts on the fourth Sunday before December 25. This year, for instance, it started on November 29.
Each Sunday of Advent is marked by lighting one of the four candles, which are arranged on a wreath or special plate. On Christmas day, all four candles must be lit up.
In our family, each year I make the Advent wreath. I simply use the material from my backyard and the neighborhood, such as small branches of fur tree and holly, little pinecones, and/or scarlet-red branches of berries (whose name I don’t know); I also use small ornaments and decorations. Traditionally, the candles in a Norwegian Advent wreath would be purple, but I use red ones.
Our Advent wreath is placed on the dining table and a candle (or candles) is lit up during every Sunday meal.

Christmas Cards Etiquette

If someone asks me to name three things that Christmas is impossible without, I would name the Christmas tree, the presents, and the greeting cards. Well, actually I would name the holiday cards first because for me, the holiday season starts with signing Christmas cards. It’s a perfect way to get into the holiday spirit. However, when sending greeting cards, there are several things to be considered.

When choosing holiday cards, keep in mind that not all people celebrate Christmas though it doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t wish them happy holidays. Simply choose a card that has a non-religious message such as “Holiday Greetings”, “Happy Holiday Season” or “Peace on Earth”.
For a business colleague or partner, a good quality store-bought holiday card would be the best choice. With the cards for the family members or close friends, however, you can get a little bit more creative. You can add a photograph of you and your family or even make a card yourself. Recycling old Christmas cards by making new ones out of them is a great paper-crafting project; if you have children, they will love it. Other possibilities are stitching, cross-stitching, or crocheting. A few years ago, I made several cross-stitched Christmas cards; they were very cute but it took some time and patience to make them.

Once you’ve bought, printed or handmade your cards, consider a few things before signing them.
Always sign each card personally. When the card is from more than one person, the person who signs it should write her or his name last. Many cards have printed messages, but adding a couple of lines is always nice. Another thing that must be handwritten is the address on the envelope. However, it is okay to use printed return address labels, which brings me to the point that the return address should always be included.

The only thing left to mention is when to send Christmas cards. In the US, the holiday season begins right after Thanksgiving. So sending holiday cards any time after that is all right, but the first two weeks of December are preferred because that way your cards will definitely arrive on time.