by GardenLover | Mar 27, 2014 | Gardens to Drive
Small signs of hope springing up everywhere
By Michael Leach
Spring aims tiny green spears in its fight against winter.
Seemingly insignificant, the pointy shoots of snowdrops, crocus, daffodils, iris and other early bloomers take aim at winter’s soft underbelly. Sooner or later (probably later given the ice cover on the Great Lakes this year), winter will slowly collapse like a malevolent balloon, float to the ground and dissipate with the last frost.
Long before that, tiny, triumphant banners of lavender, pink, yellow, red, purple and white will wave in afternoons that grow ever warmer and twilights that linger ever longer.
Many Midwest gardens remain snow covered or ice crusted as this longest and coldest winter in ages sneers in contempt at the first warming breath of southern winds.
Don’t despair.
Nature’s pulse quickens. Shoots are drawn irresistibly to the sun. Despite the snow and the cold — blossoms will open, lawns turn green and feet run shoeless once again.
by GardenLover | Mar 18, 2014 | Gardens to Drive
By Debra Knapke
Books are a pleasure for me; second to gardening with respect to de-stressing. There is something very comforting and settling about holding a book while drinking tea – or sipping wine. I love my IPad mini, but it doesn’t hold a candle to an engaging book or magazine.
In honor of St Patrick’s Day, I offer green: in color and in lifestyle choice cookbooks. From top to bottom:
Garlic, Wine and Olive Oil – a bit about the history and use of three essentials to cooking. I love cooking with wine and sometimes even use it in the dish (paraphrased from a quote often attributed to the incomparable Julia Child).
Moosewood Daily Special – our go-to book for soup – cold and hot – and salad ideas. For those of you who are flexitarians, there are recipes that include fish and seafood. And, once you know a recipe, you can figure out how to add meat if you so desire.
Small Breads – here is a sampling of bread recipes from around the world collected by Bernard Clayton. It is a subset of his larger book Bernard Clayton’s New Complete Book of Breads.
The Fig’s Table – one of many cookbooks that have grown out of famous restaurants. If you like Italian – pizza, risotto, pasta, prosciutto, and more – and you like traditional-eclectic, give this cookbook a try.
Foraged Flavor – this weed, uh, plant, is really edible, and how do I use it? That’s the niche that Foraged Flavor fills. This year I will create the Purslane Eggplant Caponata.
The Conscious Cook – vegan recipes that do not leave you yearning for meat, and the inspiration for my use of cashew cream instead of dairy cream. This cookbook was a gift and one that keeps on giving (thank you, Denise).
And, lastly, Clean Food: a Seasonal Guide to Eating Close to the Source – another meatless cookbook that looks at a sustainable way of eating; for ourselves and for the world.
by GardenLover | Mar 14, 2014 | Gardens to Drive, Spring countdown
Experience the living “A Sunday on La Grande Jatte” within Downtown Columbus’s Georges Seurat- inspired Topiary Park
By Michael Leach
“Summer afternoon — summer afternoon; to me those have always been the two most beautiful words in the English language,” said American novelist Henry James.
Admittedly he probably was referring to an English summer afternoon, more like a late May afternoon in the Midwest. Yet in our region of often sultry summer afternoons, not to mention stifling dog days, summer afternoon still conjures a pleasantness unique to the season of school vacations, swimming pools and backyard barbecues.
Winter, on the other hand, offers little in the way of appealing — much less beautiful — word pairings. Does anyone ever want to read polar vortex again, much less survive it?
How about: mixed precipitation, freezing rain, ice storm, wind chill, snow emergency, road salt, snow shovel, ice scraper, record snowfall, record low, blizzard conditions, jackknifed semi, icy freeways, near whiteout or pot holes?
Some may cite “white Christmas” as beautiful winter words, but after this dreadful winter, is anyone dreaming of that yet?
by GardenLover | Mar 12, 2014 | Gardens to Drive, Spring countdown
By Abby Fullen
After a long winter of dull gray, white, and depressing, there’s no better way to brighten up your garden than by adding the Pantone Color of the Year, Radiant Orchid, in your garden.
This year’s trendy color is described by Leatrice Eiseman, Executive Director of the Pantone Color Institute and the visionary behind Pantone’s Color of the Year, as a “descend[ant] from the purple family, which is kind of a magical color that denotes creativity and innovation. Purple is just that kind of a complex, interesting, attracting kind of color…[The] back-story to purple is that it inspires confidence in your creativity, and we’re living in a world where that kind of creative innovation is greatly admired. In the world of color, purple is an attention-getter, and it has a meaning. It speaks to people, and we felt that it was time for the purple family to be celebrated.”
pantone.com
The color purple is a rare find in nature. Our earlier ancestors probably never saw a purple anything. According to colormatters.com, “The earliest purple dyes date back to about 1900 B.C. It took some 12,000 shellfish to extract 1.5 grams of the pure dye- barely enough for dying a single garment the size of the Roman toga. It’s no wonder then, that this color was used primarily for garments of the emperors or privileged individuals.”
Purple is indicative of nobility and luxury to many people around the world. The shade of purple is important, too. Lighter shades of the color are light-hearted, floral, and romantic. Seems appropriate then that Radiant Orchid is a lighter shade of purple, don’t you think?
As the name implies, Radiant Orchid can be a very bright, eye-catching color. But then, who wouldn’t want to show off their newly accented-with-orchid garden? If you’re unsure, start small. Plant a couple orchid-colored floral plants here and there, and add to the appeal by incorporating the color to a porch or patio, too. Here are some great ways to show off this bright, new, winter-busting color.
Abby Fullen is a Senior at Hilliard Davidson High School. She tends a square-foot vegetable garden with her mother. This piece was written to serve in conjunction with her Career Mentorship class at the Dale McVey Innovative Learning Center.
by GardenLover | Feb 14, 2014 | Gardens to Drive
Happy Valentine’s Day to our Heartland Gardening followers! Here’s what our bloggers are up to in the next couple weeks:
- Debra Knapke: Debra will be speaking at the 35th Annual OEFFA (Ohio Ecological Food and Farm Association) Conference in Granville on Sun., Feb. 16: Affirming Our Roots, Breaking New Ground. Check out the amazing array of speakers and topics at the OEFFA website. If you go, make sure you stop by the Exhibit Hall that is filled with Ohio Made products and Ohio business. There will be on-site registration.
- Michael Leach: Michael will be a guest on In The Garden with Ron Wilson on 610 am radio Sat., Feb. 15 to discuss the blog and The Columbus Dispatch Home & Garden Show. Ron’s program will originate from the show opening day Sat., Feb. 22. Also, for the show, Michael’s lined up an impressive slate of garden speakers and will be one of the garden experts on a panel to answer visitor’s questions on Feb. 22. He’ll also be giving tours of the show’s display gardens on Feb. 25-27. Check out Michael’s gardening articles in Columbus Monthly Home & Garden which will be distributed at the show.
- Teresa Woodard: Teresa will speak on “Daffodils: Trumpeting Spring” at the Dispatch Home & Garden Show on Thurs., Feb. 27 at 4 p.m. Also, look for her daffodils articles in Country Gardens (Early Spring 2014) and Midwest Living (March/April 2014) and her garden cover story for Ohio Magazine (March 2014).
by GardenLover | Jan 22, 2014 | Gardens to Drive
Where do you find gardening ideas?
By Teresa Woodard
In the quiet of winter, gardeners may take a physical break from backyard chores but still actively stretch their minds for new ideas. 
For me, I love pouring through garden magazines while my husband watches Sunday afternoon football. I also pull out my camera and head to horticulture trade shows, like the one in town last week. And, year round, I seek ideas from travel experiences, nature walks, garden tours and artists’ works.
Over the holidays while visiting family in Switzerland, I was amazed with the wealth of winter décor ideas packed into the tiny mountain village of Gruyere. Here, 
residents charmingly decorated their windows, doors, stone stoops, front steps and door frames. We later realized the window numbers were tied to a decorating contest to further spur the town’s creativity. Here are a few favorite designs that have winter-long appeal.
Small signs of hope springing up everywhere
