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Propagating Plants

Posted by

rstapholz on October 3, 2021

*I recommend that all bachelors have a garden. It will give them the experience of being a parent.” Richard Goodman

One time when I was the celebrity garden guest on an HGTV program, the discussion turned to relationships and family. My advice was like Richard Goodman. I announced that relationships and parenting are like gardening. They require being present, constant nurturing, detailed attention, consistent efforts, and sometimes sacrifice. If you can grow a plant, you can grow a relationship.

We parent for a lifetime. A garden is forever evolving.

Autumn is the best time to plant. The temperature is usually a bit cooler, yet the soil is warm. Hopefully, a bit of rain will also provide precipitation. During this season, I encourage more people to become plant parents. The secret is to get going now before the first frost.

There are so many easy and inexpensive ways to get started. You can grow in containers, on windowsills, even in cardboard boxes. You can buy seeds, bulbs, seedlings, or full-grown plants. Or you can get plants for free by propagating them yourself, with a little help from your friends.

If you are a beginner, start small so that you don’t get discouraged. Since growing our own food is empowering and nutritious, perhaps start with containers of your favorite herbs or vegetables. Soil is the most important aspect of growing a successful garden. Great garden soil is full of organic matter and crumbles like cake in your hands. According to the Home Garden Seed Association, rich soil is the home of an array of organisms, bacteria, fungi, and insects. It drains efficiently, yet it still retains essential water for the plants. They offer these tips to determine if your soil is ready to accommodate plants.

1. Take a handful of your garden soil and squeeze it. It should hold its shape. Then drop it. It should crumble. This is optimum.

2. If it stays in a ball or falls apart the second you open your hand, you need to add compost to correct the poor drainage. The point is to assist your soil in retaining water and nutrients. Work about three inches of compost into your existing soil, then try the experiment again.

You can buy bags of garden soil, potting soil, and compost. If you are planting in a pot, make sure to purchase new potting soil which has the necessary nutrients to help your plants flourish.

If you are buying plants to boost your autumn curb appeal, simple-to-grow suggestions include pansies, ornamental kale, snapdragons, chrysanthemums, primulas, violas, and Iceland Poppies.

My favorite way of birthing new vegetation is through propagation. Many of the specimens in my garden have been slips, cuttings, seeds, divisions, roots, bulbs, or pinches from my mom’s, sibling’s, or friend’s gardens. A garden is to share and there is nothing more satisfying than growing floras derived from a beloved garden.

https://www.lamorindaweekly.com/archive/issue1516/Digging-Deep-with-Goddess-Gardener-Cynthia-Brian-Plant-parenthood.html

Here are ways to become a plant parent or grow your current plant family for little or no cost. In the botanical world, we call it sexual propagation or asexual propagation.

Sexual Propagation

Seeds:

Be a seed saver. Save seeds from your favorite flowers. Because of random pollination by a variety of insects, the baby may differ from the mother. My favorite seeds to save from my flowers are nigella, sunflower, hollyhock, cosmos, nasturtium, calendula, marigold, and lavender. I’m scattering the nasturtium this autumn and the rest will be sowed in the spring. In my potager, I collected the seeds of arugula, sugar snap peas, pole beans, and Swiss Chard. If you saved these vegetable seeds from your summer crops, sow them now. I have grown numerous trees from seeds (and pits) including magnolia, Asian Pear, apple, plum, peach, flowering cherry, Japanese maple, pistache, and loquat. When you gather the seeds, dry them on a screen and place them into a brown paper bag. Label with the date and store in a dark space until you are ready to sow.

Asexual Propagation

This is also called vegetative propagation because the vegetative parts of the plants are used: stems, leaves, roots, and organs.

Cuttings, pinches, and slips: Soon I’ll be pinching my geraniums and pelargoniums. After letting the cuttings harden off for a few days, they will be planted directly in the ground throughout my hillside in sunny areas. Every year in February, I hard prune my many rose bushes. I gave over a hundred cane cuttings to my neighbor and within three months, she had a glorious blooming rose garden. Pinch a small piece of a succulent and it will grow in a pot or the ground. My prolific grapevines are the result of cuttings from our Napa vineyards.

Dividing: Using a garden fork, divide daylilies, Bearded irises, Bergenia, peonies, astilbe, bleeding hearts, Oriental lilies, Naked ladies, and other perennials that are getting too crowded. Rhizomes that are divided such as Bergenia and Bearded iris, can be cut into smaller pieces and planted. Many bulbs multiply including Naked Ladies and daffodils. By digging up a few, you can greatly increase the blooms in your landscape. I started with one Naked Lady (Amaryllis Belladonna) bulb and now boast a blanketed slope of hundreds.

Rooting: Kids love rooting in water in a jar and putting the jars on a windowsill. Sweet potatoes, green onions, ginger, avocadoes, and lettuces can be sprouted in this manner. The ones you buy in the vegetable aisle can be used, although they may not produce as abundantly as ones from a garden center.

My preferred method of growing potatoes and sweet potatoes is to cut chunks with an eye or two, let them harden for a couple of days, then plant in a cardboard box placed in my potager with compost-rich soil. By planting them in the box, I always know where to harvest. The cardboard box decomposes adding to the mulch. Layering cardboard in your raised bed before adding the soil is also an environmentally friendly system to suffocate weeds. Ginger can be grown similarly, however, let the sliced pieces of ginger soak in water for twenty-four hours after cutting and before planting.

Grafting, budding, and layering are other ways to propagate plants but if you want exact clones, investigate tissue culture techniques. Whatever way you decide to be a plant parent, you will be rewarded. If something doesn’t work, don’t worry. Failure is fertilizer. Put the mistakes on your compost pile and grow a new garden.

Photos and more: https://www.lamorindaweekly.com/archive/issue1516/Digging-Deep-with-Goddess-Gardener-Cynthia-Brian-Plant-parenthood.html

Happy parenting. Happy gardening. Happy growing!

Cynthia Brian, The Goddess Gardener, is available for hire to help you prepare for your spring garden. Raised in the vineyards of Napa County, Cynthia is a New York Times best-selling author, actor, radio personality, speaker, media and writing coach as well as the Founder and Executive Director of Be the Star You Are!® 501 c3. Tune into Cynthia’s StarStyle® Radio Broadcast at www.StarStyleRadio.com.

Buy copies of her books, including, Chicken Soup for the Gardener’s Soul, Growing with the Goddess Gardener, and Be the Star You Are! www.cynthiabrian.com/online-store. Receive a FREE inspirational music DVD and special savings.

Hire Cynthia for writing projects, garden consults, and inspirational lectures.

Cynthia@GoddessGardener.com

www.GoddessGardener.com

Harvest Time and Bulbs

Posted by

rstapholz on September 17, 2021

Empowerment

“Tickle it with a hoe and it will laugh into a harvest.” English Saying

Every September I think about two major garden projects that transpire throughout the autumn season: harvesting and bulb buying.

Fall boasts a spectacular bounty of pears, Asian pears, grapes, apples, tomatoes, tangerines, blackberries, walnuts, kiwis, and more. The last of the peaches and nectarines are being picked while festivals celebrating the end of the fruit and vegetable collections transpire throughout the next two months across the United States.

We also kick off fall by thinking about what bulbs we’ll want to plant for spring. Alliums, daffodils, tulips, crocus, hyacinths, iris, snowdrops, muscari, and fritillaria top the lists of many gardeners.

Let’s get started on this month’s workload!

Fruit and Vegetables

What do we do with all the produce that is harvested? Besides eating your fruits and veggies fresh and raw, autumn is a plum time for canning, freezing, pickling, and drying the season’s extra yield to enjoy during the winter months when “fresh-picked” is not possible. Use a dehydrator to dry apples, peaches, tomatoes, and pears. Put grapes into an ice-cube tray, add water, and make grape cubes that are pretty and delicious in drinks. After cooling, freeze batches of various fruit sauces that have simmered in a pot with a dash of salt, sugar, honey, and/or vinegar. For canning and pickling, check online sources for simple recipes and make sure to follow the safety requirements. Making jams, jellies, pies, and chutneys is easy and fun, especially when you involve the kids. Next to Christmas, harvest time was always a favorite family experience when I was growing up.

Although my vegetable garden did not return the abundance I had anticipated for the year, my fruit trees overcompensated. I’ve been slicing crunchy apples into salads, sauces, compotes, soups, and making crumbles, pies, and crisps. Peaches or nectarines with fresh cream is one of my favorite breakfast treats. For a refreshing and invigorating weekend cocktail that I call Sunday Sensation, try this beautiful and delicious combination. It can be made with or without alcohol.

Sunday Sensation

In a clear pitcher, muddle cut pieces of peach and nectarine. Add slices of an orange, tangerine, and Meyer lemon. Stir in a shot glass of Campari or Aperol for an alcohol infused drink, add ice cubes, and top with sparkling wine or Champagne. For a virgin sensation, use a cup of orange juice topped with sparkling water or apple cider. Garnish with sprigs of basil and mint leaves.

Yummy!

While you are enjoying your Sunday Sensation, it’s time to contemplate the bulbs and rhizomes you’ll plant this fall for a spring showcase. Bulbs can be planted mid to late fall in a sunny location with well-drained soil. Daffodils can be planted anytime and anywhere. They are especially great in areas where deer roam as the deer are repelled by them. There are so many varieties of tulips for early, mid-season, and late blooming that it may be best to peruse bulb catalogs to get an idea of the specimens that speak to you. All tulips will need six weeks of refrigeration before planting so it is doubly critical that you decide on what to buy now. For rock gardens and borders, you may be thrilled by Water Lily tulips that naturalize when left undisturbed. When you want exotic-looking tulips, consider the flamboyant Parrot or Peony flowering tulips. If you want to force flowering, single or double early tulips are the most well-known as well as Species and Triumph tulips.

Forcing How-to:

Plant bulbs in well-draining pots in October, place them in the dark for 12-14 weeks while chilling at 35-45 degrees Fahrenheit. Gradually move pots to filtered sunlight to allow sprouting and acclimation. Water as needed.

Ponder the Pollinators:

Happy bees stay in our gardens helping nature thrive. By planting bulbs in colors most attractive to the bees––blue, purple, white, and yellow––fresh food is provided for them after winter when they need it most. The best bulbs for bees are allium, anemone, camassia, corydalis, crocus, fritillaria, Galanthus, hyacinths, muscari, tulips, and scilla.

Best Way to Plant Large Quantities:

Most people plant bulbs in groups of five to seven spaced six inches apart and buried four to five inches deep. However, if you want to create a bold and beautiful impact with large swatches of color, try trenching. You can mix bulbs or use one variety or one species.

Dig a long five-inch deep (or whatever depth the bulb packaging indicates) trench wherever you want to make your floral statement. It can be straight or made into a circle or pattern. Add soil amendments if your ground is clay and hard. Arrange a minimum of a hundred bulbs with the pointy side up. Cover area with soil and mulch. Water, wait, and WOW!

After blooms fade in the spring, cut the flower stalks to allow the bulbs to conserve energy for the next year while the foliage continues to flourish.

Hose Repair:

Every time I or my siblings telephoned my Mom during a summer or fall day, the first words out of her mouth were “I’m busy. I’m pulling hoses.” That line became a code sentence for us whenever we were doing manual labor that others may not think was important, but what was critical to us. This past summer, to save water by not turning on my irrigation system, I found myself pulling actual hoses daily. By spot watering, I was able to water deeply and accurately, but it was arduous work pulling those heavy hoses. Several tore or broke during the process and I mended them, giving them new life. I have always repaired frayed or cut hoses and figured everyone repaired theirs when necessary. But then I saw a couple of hoses in the recycle bin area of a client’s yard with new hoses sitting next to the front faucets. They didn’t realize that hoses are easily repaired with inexpensive parts. If your hose is damaged, head to the hardware store to buy either a female or male coupling. If your hose is broken in the middle, you can buy a connector. Cut off the damaged hose part with a shear or sharp knife. Use a Philipps screwdriver to open the connector. Push the new female or male plug into the hose and tighten the connector with the screwdriver. Test the hose. It will be good as new. I tend to use more female couplings than males, so I always buy extras.

Tickle your garden with a hoe and you’ll have a great harvest. Come visit me at the Pear and Wine Festival in Moraga at the Be the Star You Are!® charity booth on September 25^th and pick up some free goodies. Laugh on!

MARK YOUR CALENDARS!

Saturday, September 25^th, Be the Star You Are!® will participate in the first live event at the Pear and Wine Festival with a booth sponsored by the Lamorinda Weekly(www.Lamorindaweekly.com) and MB Jessee painting (www.MBJessee.com). Wear your mask and visit us! Details at https://www.bethestaryouare.org/copy-of-events

Happy Gardening. Happy Growing.

Photos and more: https://www.lamorindaweekly.com/archive/issue1515/Digging-Deep-with-Goddess-Gardener-Cynthia-Brian.html

Hire Cynthia for writing projects, garden consults, and inspirational lectures.

Cynthia@GoddessGardener.com

www.GoddessGardener.com

Sirius is Serious

Posted by

presspass on September 2, 2020

Empowerment

“When the ancients first observed Sirius emerging as it were from the sun…they believed its power of heat to have been so excessive that…the Sea boiled, the Wine turned sour, Dogs grew mad, and all other creatures became languid.” John Brady, 1813, a Compendious Analysis of the Calendar.

Forever the optimist, when I penned my last column, The Dog Days of Summer, (http://www.lamorindaweekly.com/archive/issue1413/Digging-Deep-with-Cynthia-Brian-the-Goddess-Gardener-for-August-The-Dog-Days-of-Summer.html), I intentionally left out the part of the Old Farmer’s Almanac, 1817 that indicates, “Make both hay and haste while the Sun shines, for when old Sirius takes command of the weather, he is such an unsteady, crazy dog, there is no dependence upon him.”

In the last few weeks, we have witnessed the ravages of Sirius with thousands of lightning strikes causing more than six hundred wildfires, millions of acres burned, gusty erratic winds, radically unhealthy air quality, and ash blanketing the state. More land has burned in the last few weeks than burned in all of 2019. Death and destruction are the horrific aftermaths.

Our Napa County farm was amongst the blazing landscapes. Everyone living in the valley where our vineyards and ranch reside was evacuated, yet, with firefighters engaged elsewhere battling numerous other infernos, my brother stayed behind on his tractor to cut roads, create safety zones, and clear debris. The hills and pastures burned. He saved the vineyards, barns, and our family home.

Between the brutal pandemic, perverse politics, sizzling heat, and suffocating smoke, we all have a reason to despair. To thwart a fire on my hillside, I have cut my dried perennials and annuals to ground level. The only beauty is offered by my faithful blushing naked ladies, lavender society garlic plants, and the passionflower vine that twines up my peach tree. The ground is parched.

As I was repairing a broken water pipe so that I could irrigate this arid field, my optimism suddenly resurged. Swallowtails flitted through the smoke-filled air searching for a colorful landing place. A hummingbird settled on my string of patio lights before nuzzling my pink jacobinia growing in a cement urn. A five-lined skink, also known as a blue-tailed lizard, perched on a nearby boulder completely uninterested in my cutting and gluing efforts.

I completed my project, picked a ripe tangerine from the tree, headed for the hammock, and savored the juice as it dripped down my chin. Swinging, I contemplated my future gardening desires.

This is the season to start making a list of what you want to grow for the forthcoming months. My succulent garden doesn’t need precipitation to thrive. Adding succulents to your want list is a smart idea.

Bulbs are easy to grow and most offer yearly returns. Favorites to plant in late autumn for a spring showing include daffodils, tulips, freesia, ranunculus, hyacinth, Dutch iris, anemone, and crocus. Freesias are one of nature’s greatest gifts with splendid scents, a cornucopia of colors, and the ability to naturalize. Daffodils are probably the most popular and least expensive of all the bulbs. Deer, rabbits, and other critters won’t eat them, allowing their happy flowers to bloom for long stretches. When winter is nearing its finale, crocus will make you smile as they push through the soil to reveal their rich colors of blue, violet, yellow, and white. Treat yourself to a garden filled with tulips. You’ll want to buy your bulbs soon as they need to be refrigerated for at least six weeks before planting. For more impact, group colors, shapes, and sizes together in a swath. They are wonderfully interplanted with delphiniums, pansies, and other annuals or perennials for a very merry greeting.

After a traumatic summer filled with climatic extremes, sowing seeds for a bountiful harvest of late fall to early winter salad greens and vegetables is a welcome endeavor.

What seeds do you want? Try any of these for rapid results. Make sure to water regularly.

Lettuce

Spinach

Arugula

Swiss Chard

Kale

Beets

Fennel

Turnips

Broccoli

Carrot

Kohlrabi

Shallots

Garlic

Radish

With the seriousness of the sizzling Sirius and the dangerous air quality outside, stay indoors and peruse catalogs and gardening books to get ideas for fall planting. On Thursday, September 17^th, I’ll be doing a ZOOM presentation, “Tips, Tricks, and Tonics in the Garden” for the Moraga Garden Club celebrating its 50^th anniversary. For information on this ZOOM meeting, call Membership Chair Jane Magnani at 925-451-7031 for times to join in the conversation and presentation. We’ll keep it light, fun, and informative.

Summer will soon be ending. This is an opportune time to check for sale and clearance items that you may want for your outdoor landscaping for next year. I have found great deals at https://bit.ly/3aG6qOI including winter covers for patio furniture. As much as I love the heat, the chance of wildfires is omnipresent. Make sure to read my article on how to be prepared in the event of any emergency. This article could save your life.

https://www.lamorindaweekly.com/archive/issue1414/Are-you-ready-to-evacuate.html

The Roman poet, Virgil described Sirius as “bringer of drought and plague to frail mortals, rises and saddens the sky with sinister light.” The veracity of his narrative has been realized in 2020. The sea has not yet boiled and let’s hope the wine doesn’t spoil. I’m grateful to my brother for saving our ranch and thankful to the first responders and firefighters on the front lines of the flames.

Now more than ever, we need large doses of humor, hope, and healing. Let’s employ kindness and empathy for one another as we prepare for planting autumn bulbs and seeds. A bright and beautiful spring display is only two seasons away. Embrace optimism and gratitude.

Photos: http://www.lamorindaweekly.com/archive/issue1414/Digging-Deep-with-Goddess-Gardener-Cynthia-Brian-Sirius-is-serious.html

Happy gardening. Happy growing.

Cynthia Brian, The Goddess Gardener, is available for hire to help you prepare for your spring garden. Raised in the vineyards of Napa County, Cynthia is a New York Times best-selling author, actor, radio personality, speaker, media and writing coach, as well as the Founder and Executive Director of Be the Star You Are!® 501 c3. Tune into Cynthia’s StarStyle® Radio Broadcast at www.StarStyleRadio.com.

Buy copies of her best-selling books and receive extra freebies, Chicken Soup for the Gardener’s Soul, Growing with the Goddess Gardener, and Be the Star You Are! Millennials to Boomers at www.cynthiabrian.com/online-store.

Cynthia is available for virtual writing projects, garden consults, and inspirational lectures.

Cynthia@GoddessGardener.com

www.GoddessGardener.com

Growing Gratitude! By Cynthia Brian

Posted by

Editor on November 21, 2016

Empowerment

âGratitude is the fairest blossom which springs from the soul.â Henry Ward Beecher
Are you grateful for the simple things in life? This is the perfect time of the year to reflect upon our blessings and gifts. I am so thankful for all of you who read Digging Deep, Gardening with Cynthia Brian. Your interest and questions are always appreciated. Thank you, also, for so many of you who have hired me to help you with your planting needs or garden desires. Itâs magnificent to grow with you.
Every day I am very grateful to be a gardener to witness the beauty, bounty, and endless diversity of Mother Nature. Our landscapes are ever changing. Whatâs here today may not be here tomorrow, nor, the next year. Seeing the cows grazing in the hills, breathing our clean air, enjoying peace, safety, and serenity that only comes from living in this semi-rural environment makes my heart sing with gratitude.
Wild turkeys have moved into Lamorinda territory, immune to the possibility of becoming a holiday main dish! A big Tom waddled across my driveway as two-dozen of his hens toppled and gobbled the berries from the top of my Chinese pistache. As annoying as they can be, Iâm happy to co-exist with the wild things. You may want to collect a few of the beautiful turkey feathers as I do to add to your holiday bouquets!
Persimmon trees are bursting with orange tangy fruit, ready for our holiday puddings. Fall is still showing off its brilliant robes of reds, yellows, and gold, yet there is a nip in the air reminding us that winter in a little over a month. Pumpkins and gourds are still a seasonal favorite. Native to North America, pumpkins are a vegetable, not a fruit, genus Cucubita, species pepo or maxima. They are a type of winter squash and the really weird, ugly ones are the most delicious. The blue-green pumpkins you are growing or have purchased are derived from New Zealand. Cook them as their golden-yellow flesh boasts a sweet, mild aromatic flavor. Were you repelled by the warty pumpkins you saw in markets this year? Donât be! Those ugly growths are actually sugar secretions. The more warty the pumpkin, the smoother, creamier, and sweeter the flesh inside. Make a pumpkin puree for dinner, or a scrumptious pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving and youâll be hooked!
As we soon bid farewell to fall, let us all keep gratitude in our hearts as we look for the fertile joys that sprout with simplicity. Believe something wonderful is about to transpire.
Grow and glow in gratefulness.
Cynthia Brianâs Mid Month Garden Reminders

PLANT Woodland Herbaceous Peonies, a separate species of herbaceous peony that thrive in the shade. Naturalizing in a deciduous woodland area with the early spring sun and summer shade, they will grow to 1.5 feet tall and self-seed as a ground cover. . Woodland peonies provide three-season appeal with delicate white flowers in early spring, lush green foliage throughout the growing seasons, and dramatic indigo and scarlet seed pods in the fall. http://peonysenvy.com

LOOKING for a pre-planned garden selection. High Country Gardens offers deer and drought resident plants that have color, texture, and curb appeal. http://www.highcountrygardens.com

PRUNE those thorny creepers, bougainvillea, now to remove old flowers. Cover with burlap if exposed in an area that gets frost.

COLLECT turkey feathers to add to bouquets to wreaths for Thanksgiving.

PICK persimmons. Fuyu persimmons can be eaten like apples but the hachiyas must be mushy ripe before eating.

PUREE warty pumpkins for the sweetest, smoothest, most delicious pumpkin dish youâll ever taste. Obviously, donât puree the skins!

CUT branches from liquid amber or Japanese maple trees to use indoors for a punch of end of fall color.

PLANT your spring bulbs now through January to enjoy a meadow of continuous flowers next year.

PICK up pansies to plant for winter. 2017 has been named The Year of the Pansy.

ADD a cover crop to your garden to fix the nitrogen and make green manure for spring.
Austrian winter pea has delicious edible pee shoots. Other great mulching cover crops include clover, mustard, and vetch.

DISCOVER a tree to climb with your kids. Itâs that time of year!

CULTIVATE ornamental grasses for low-maintenance and drought tolerate plantings. Maiden hair grass, blonde ambition grass, feather reed grass, and silky thread grass are a few of the lesser known but easily propagated species.

TRAIN rambling and vining plants on a trellis or tall support for a spectacular vertical garden wherever space is lacking.

SOW wildflower seeds that will attract pollinators, hummingbirds, and beneficial bugs.

PRUNE all perennials when finished blooming. Add the stems and spent flowers to the compost pile.

FERTILIZE lawns.

GIVE thanks every day for something. Keeping a gratitude journal alongside your garden guide is a great tool for remembering to be grateful.

Thank you, thank you for being my special gardening gang. I am humbled to be your guide on the side. There is no such thing as a brown thumb, just one that hasnât turned green yet!

Happy Gardening and Happy Growing! Happy Thanksgiving and Turkey Day!

Â©2016
Cynthia Brian
The Goddess Gardener
StarstyleÂ® Productions, llc
Cynthia@GoddessGardener.com
www.GoddessGardener.com
925-377-STAR
Tune into Cynthiaâs Radio show at www.StarStyleRadio.net
I am available as a speaker, designer, and consultant.

Color Me Happy! By Cynthia Brian

Posted by

Editor on November 4, 2016

Empowerment

âI feel like a warm, red autumn!â Marilyn Monroe

My favorite part of a November autumn is looking out from my bedroom balcony to the kaleidoscope of colors dotting the landscape in the valley. Trees are cloaked in hues of magenta, sienna, umber, gold, russet, umber, purple, red, pumpkin, and a variety of greens. Wherever I walk or drive, the picturesque autumn foliage of Northern California rivals the forests of the Eastern seaboard. We are indeed fortunate to live in a climate that harks four seasons.

November of this year brings us an election as well as Thanksgiving. Since politics is not my favorite subject, I prefer to focus on what needs to be done in our November garden before turkey day. Autumn is the best time to plant because the soil is still warm and the rains are imminent. To find trees bursting with colorful leaves, visit your local nursery. Japanese Maple, pistache, liquid amber, crape myrtle, and many fruit trees put on quite a spectacular show this time of year. Buy them now and plant them where they will grow, thrive, and enhance your landscape.

Information on Grass Seed and the Rain
When it rained this past week, I ran outside to plant seeds of my hundred year old plus heirloom hollyhock seeds as well as sunflower seeds. The drizzly weather also posed the most auspicious moment to re-seed my lawn with Pearlâs Premium lawn seed and fertilize with an organic cover. My new grass is already sprouting.

Several emails have arrived asking for more information about my experience with Pearlâs Premium. Iâm not paid to talk or write about this product (although I probably should be on the payroll because Iâm so passionate about this seed). Being a believer in oneâs right to have a lawn for enjoyment, Iâve been on a mission to find the grass seed that will remain green while using less water. With my first summer of using Pearlâs Premium behind me, I offer you my personal experimental results.
1. Grass remained somewhat green with brown and bare spots where the irrigation missed the mark.
2. Pearlâs Premium definitely choked out the majority of weeds.
3. I watered twice a week in twelve-minute segments per station using 34% less water over the previous year.
4. The lawn was mowed once a week and grass clippings were left on the lawn at least twice per month to add nutrients.
5. Although not a lush green in the summer, the grass did not die.
6. With just two rainy days, the lawn has emerged as emerald. I still have a lawn!

As noted, I am re-seeding my lawns with the expectation that next spring and summer will have even better results as the instructions on the Pearlâs Premium label do indicate that it can take a year for proper establishment. According to Jackson Madnick, the founder of the company, Pearlâs Premium is not sold at retail establishments here in our area so you will need to purchase online at www.PearlsPremium.com. He is currently installing seven acres of his grass in Palm Desert. The seed is drought tolerant. As promised, for all of you Lamorinda lawn lovers, I will continue to update you on my experiences. For now, I am happy with my green!

Cynthia Brianâs November Gardening Guide

â« TIME to fall back! Set your clocks back one hour on Sunday, November 6th. Itâs going to be dark in the mornings to be advantageous for early garden chores pre-work day. Bummer!
â« HEAL by looking at nature. For over thirty-two years since the journal Science published the study by behavioral scientist Roger Ulrich, we know that just viewing trees and the outdoors enhances wellness and speeds healing.
â« GATHER guavas that have fallen to make a jam or other guava treat.
â« SOW these vegetable seeds for a bountiful early winter harvest: lettuce, Asian greens spinach, arugula, chard, chicory, kale, radish, cabbage, beets, and cress.
â« DONATE to Be the Star You Are!Â® charity as it ships books to the most devastated areas in Hurricane Matthewâs path in North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, and Georgia. Go to www.BetheStarYouAre.org and click on Operation Hurricane Matthew Disaster Relief.
â« FERTILIZE your lawns with an organic mixture and re-seed during the rains. Cover the grass with mulch or screens to keep the birds from eating the seeds.
â« SPREAD seeds of hollyhock along fence lines or at the back of your garden as hollyhock can grow to 12 feet or more.
â« HELP the birds settle in for the upcoming winter by cleaning nesting boxes and providing plenty of seed to their feeders.
â« DECORATE your waterfall, fountain, or front door with a variety of odd shaped pumpkins and gourds.
â« COLLECT acorns, leaves, and nuts to add to your festive kitchen or dining room table fall tableau of squash, gourds, and pumpkins.
â« COLOR your world by planting bushes that boast fall and winter berries including cotoneaster, holly, and pyracantha. (Pyracantha plants have sharp thorns. Plant in low traffic areas. Pyracantha donât have berries, but pomes.)
â« MULCH by shredding the raked leaves from the deciduous trees adding grass clippings, dried plants stems, and trimmings all which provide water conservation, better drainage, and nutrients to the soil.
â« PLANT your spring blooming bulbs now including daffodils, crocus, freesia, ranunculus, hyacinths, Dutch Iris, tulips, and other favorites. Youâll be able to continue planting bulbs through January. Mark the location with plant tags or wooden paint sticks.
â« BUY trees with fall color at your local nursery or garden center including Crape Myrtle, Pistache, Liquid Amber, and Japanese Maple.
â« COVER patio furniture and move potted frost tender plants under an overhang or bring indoors.
â« ENJOY the warmth and the beauty of this annual autumn fashion extravaganza.
â« CAPTURE the moments with your smartphone to compare your garden to next years show! Itâs amazing how much our landscapes change.
â« VOTE on November 8th. One person does make a difference.

Color me happy!

Happy Gardening and Happy Growing!
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Hauling Harvests and Haunting Halloween By Cynthia Brian

Posted by

Editor on October 21, 2016

Empowerment

Hauling Harvests and Haunting Halloween By Cynthia Brian

âTickle it with a hoe and it will laugh into a harvest.â English Saying

October proclaims two main events: harvest and Halloween.

Itâs been several decades since Iâve worked in our vineyards picking grapes. As a child I drove tractor, plowed fields, and watered the new vineyards vine by vine driving a refitted vintage fire truck with one sibling opening the water valve as we slowly rolled through the rows. Once September and October arrived, the grape harvest began. Crews of eight workers, including myself, combed every vine with our specially curved knife quickly dropping bunches of ripe berries into the lugs which would be dumped into big bins on the grape trailer. When the truck and trailer had a full load, weâd ride with my Dad to the wineries for the delivery. We all loved being with our Dad hauling the grapes to their wine destination. Although we worked on numerous neighboring farms harvesting, culling, or cutting peaches, apricots, and pears, none of us were fans of the grape picking process. Because of the dearth of available pickers, a couple of years ago my brother invested in a mechanical harvester. This week, on the final night of the cabernet sauvignon harvest, I rode along with my brother and nephew as the huge harvester and four men did the work of six crews with precision and speed. (Instead of picking during the heat of the day, the harvester allows harvesting at night into the early morning hours when it is cooler.) Although we still have several acres that are hand picked, I hollered âhallelujahâ to this happy mechanical harvesting experience.

Lamorinda boasts a rich grape growing precedent with a 130 year-old history. The Lamorinda Wine Growers Association, (www.LamorindaWineGrowers.com) dedicated to sustainable farming and community building, is re-establishing the areas love of the vine and wine along with our pleasant pear past. Lamorinda is now a recognized wine region with itâs own viticulture appellation thanks to the hard work of the Lamorinda Wine Growers Association. The varietals grown throughout Lafayette, Orinda, and Moraga span the French Bordeaux area with Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Petit Verdot, and Merlot to the Rhone regionsâ Syrah, Petite Sirah, Grenache, MourvÃ¨dre, and Viognier. Burgundy is represented by the Pinot Noir grape and Lamorindans also grow small amounts of Sangiovese and Chardonnay. Because the plots are small, grapes are hand picked. A mechanical harvester has not become a necessary piece of equipment…yet. Iâm hoping that 2016 will be heralded as a prime vintage year.

Preparing for Halloween, itâs time to harvest the pumpkins, gourds, and winter squash. If you donât grow your own, youâll find funky as well as colorful pumpkins at the local Farmerâs Market and even many of the grocery stores. Apples and Asian pears are still hanging from the trees awaiting their reaper. Find a recipe for making caramel or candied apples to enjoy an old fashioned treat. Cut your corn stalks to use in decorations and buy a hay bale to add to the dÃ©cor. You can later use the hay to cover your newly planted vegetable patch. The hay mulch will keep most weeds from emerging as the ghosts, ghouls, and goblins begin their rampage.

Itâs time to howl at the moon with a glass of Lamorinda produced wine! Enjoy a grape adventure!

Mid Month Gardening Tips from Cynthia Brian
The next two months are busy ones in the garden as we prepare our beds for a winterâs sleep. Chrysanthemums will be displaying their full glory soon, a certain beacon of the blazing fall colors to follow. Get out there and get it done now.

FERTILIZE lawns during the rain for faster absorption. Donât forget to re-seed during these wet days as well.
PULL any weeds you find in your garden before they develop seed heads.
CREATE a sunflower arch for a festive October wine fest.
PLANT a variety of lettuces in a window box or container kept close to your kitchen to keep your salads fresh all season Clip the micro greens as they sprout for delicate, delicious delights.
REPAIR birdhouses so that overwintering birds such as bluebirds, chickadees, and nuthatches will have a warm, safe, cozy place to rest during the upcoming cold nights.
INCREASE bird feeders in your yard as birds consume more food in fall and winter.
TUNE up your garden by pruning back overgrown shrubs and adding three or five New Zealand flax for their spiky form and variegated colors.
DIG and divide iris rhizomes now. Make sure to keep a few inches of the leaves on the stems and bury the roots two inches deep, eighteen to twenty inches apart.
WATCH the antics of the lizards as they sun themselves on rocks during these final days of warmth.
STOP watering remaining summer crops to force your final produce to ripen.
PRUNE your berry bushes, including summer raspberries, blackberries, and blueberries by removing dead canes. Thin any new forming canes.
AMEND your hard clay soil with large amounts of compost.
MULCH with wood chips to prevent erosion and maintain temperate soil temperatures.
MAKE a beautiful arrangement of fall flowers and foliage snipped from your trees and bushes.
FREEZE or can your vine tomatoes before the rains rot them.
ENROLL in a course on edible gardening, native plants, or composting.
PROPOGATE perennials through root cuttings.
INDULGE in forest bathingâ¦or just take a walk in nature.
SAVE seeds from your favorite annuals, herbs, and vegetables by gathering, drying, labeling, and storing.
HARVEST the remainder of ripe produce before the end of the month-apples, Asian Pears, peppers, Swiss chard.
IMPROVE your health by enjoying grapes, apples, pears, pumpkins, and squash.
ROAST seeds from squash and pumpkins by first cleaning, drying, soaking in salted water, then, baking at 375 degrees until golden brown. What a healthy snack!
TIE dried corn stalks together to add to your front door fall dÃ©cor.

Happy Gardening, Happy Growing, Happy Harvested Halloween!

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Â©2016
Cynthia Brian
The Goddess Gardener
StarStyleÂ® Productions, llc
Cynthia@GoddessGardener.com
www.GoddessGardener.com
925-377-STAR
Tune into Cynthiaâs Radio show at www.StarStyleRadio.net
I am available as a speaker, designer, and consultant.

Awaken in a Healing Garden By Cynthia Brian

Posted by

Editor on October 6, 2016

Empowerment

Awaken in a Healing Garden By Cynthia Brian

âWho looks outside, dreams. Who looks inside, awakens.â ~ Carl Jung

We celebrate joyous occasions such as weddings, childbirths, and career moves with flowers. In sadder times or with the death of a loved one, plants and bouquets offer hope to meet the challenges.

Since the beginning of time nature has been the secret weapon of humans to combat dis-ease. From the ancient Chinese with their medicinal herbs, to the Greeks and Romans with their gardens set amongst mineral pools, green has been a sacred color. The Quakers in Colonial America believed that gardens were a place of creativity and relaxation for the body, mind, and spirit. At Philadelphiaâs Friends Hospital in 1879 a program to use plants as therapy was established after a physician noticed that his psychiatric patients who worked in the fields were calmer. The gardens were curative.

If you are feeling burned out from all the emails in your inbox, a quick boost of energy awaits you with a brisk walk in nature. Scientific studies now back up what gardeners have known forever-spending time outdoors is therapeutic! Since the 1980âs, the Forest Agency of Japan has been encouraging citizens to indulge in whatâs called âforest bathingâ or shinrin-yoku to lower stress and increase wellbeing. Researchers at the Nippon Medical School in Tokyo believe that technological distractions, city noises, pollution, and crowding lead to anxiety and ill health whereas the quiet atmosphere, aromatic smells, fresh clean air, and beautiful surroundings of nature provide relief for heart disease, cancer, anxiety, depression, attention deficit, and other disorders. A University of Michigan study discovered that individuals improved their short-term memory by 20% after a nature walk but those who walked on city streets had no improvement.

Although our Indian summer is in full swing with sometimes three digit daytime temperatures (and the possibility of being the warmest October in our history), the evenings are temperate, perfect for a stroll. The medicine of nature awakens our five senses allowing us to decompress. Bringing the natural world into your indoor environment is equally critical to good health.

Begin to create your own garden of healing and inspiration by incorporating these simple elements. Dream, awaken, and heal this autumn.

â« Make the choice for clean, healthy living. We have the ability to grow our own food no matter how small our living space. For indoor gardening experiment with grow lights or hydroponic measures.
â« Plant an herb garden that is easily accessible to your kitchen. Not only do herbs flavor food, herbs are healers. Their natural medicine can be used to increase energy, fight colds, relieve pain, and quiet the mind. Herbs can be grown on windowsills, too. Lavender will help you sleep, peppermint curbs an appetite, rosemary increases cognitive skills, chamomile soothes upset tummies, and basil is a disinfectant.
â« Encourage your children to join in garden activities that relate to healthy eating. Gardening lures children away from a sedentary lifestyle while they are learning about biology and nutrition. Let them plant, pick, and plate.
â« Minimize the harmful effects of UV rays by enjoying the shade of a tree. According to the University of Purdue, sitting under the umbrella of a tree is the equivalent of slathering yourself with SPF 10. Make sure your property has a tree or two as sun protectors.
â« Bring plants to your office to create a healthier happier workspace. Plants have been proven to increase productivity.
â« Create boundaries and define personal spaces with plants and hedges. We all need downtime to rejuvenate.
â« To maximize a small space, grow low-maintenance, compact blueberry bushes with multiple herbs and leafy greens in one large container for a continuous harvest. As a bonus, basil, thyme, sage, rosemary, chives, lavender, lemon balm, mint, and other fragrant herbs repel insects.
â« Clean, healthy gardening means no pesticides, insecticides, synthetic fertilizers, nor GMO seeds. We want to ensure the health of people, pets, and our planet.
â« Take a class or workshop to help you grow your knowledge about living in nature.
â« Encourage lizards and bats to take up residence. The western fence lizard carries a protein that destroys the Borrelia bacteria that resides in the stomachs of ticks carrying Lyme disease, and bats eat 6000-8000 mosquitoes nightly. Other pluses are that lizards eat lots of unwanted garden insects and bats are pollinators.
â« Install a water feature. Moving water contains high levels of negative ions thought to reduce depression and other anxiety disorders.
â« Grow plants that make you happy. If you like lots of color, consider annuals like zinnias and sunflowers. If you like blooming shrubs, hydrangeas, azaleas, rhododendrons are winning choices.
â« Include a place to sit and retreat in a private place. Installing a hammock is a rocking way to enjoy the beauty beneath the trees.
â« Add a focal point for healing. This could be a sculpture, a rock, or the fountain.
â« Stimulate all the senses with scented plants along a walkway for smell, a wind chime under an awning to listen, leaves to taste, textural plants to feel, and birds to watch.
â« Attract the pollinators-birds, bees, butterflies, and other insects for their remedial energy. Hang feeders, houses, and water sources, and, of course, add nectar supplying plants including Echinacea, butterfly bush, salvias, dill, and parsley.

â« Eat an apple a day, hopefully one from your own tree. Appleâs are a super food filled with fiber, antioxidants, and flavanoids. Research suggests prevention or improvement of/from numerous conditions including diabetes, stoke, dementia, obesity, cancer, and heart disease.
â« Save the seeds of your best producing flowers and herbs. Drying them and storing them in a dark, cool place is the easiest way, although with tomatoes and some other âjuicyâ specimens, you will need to access specialized information for seed preserving.
â« Prune heart risk by lowering blood pressure and cholesterol and grow bones with 30 minutes exercising and weight training in your backyard. Youâll clip calories with the pruning, weeding, lifting, mowing, blowing, and planting.

Finally, no matter how busy your everyday life is, do some of the garden work yourself. In our neighborhoods, people tend to hire outside help for everything, but if you really want to indulge in the free wellness program designed by Mother Nature, itâs in your best interest to get out there and dig deeply.

Take a cue from Ralph Waldo Emerson:
âWhen I go into my garden with a spade, and dig a bed, I feel such an exhilaration and health that I discover that I have been defrauding myself all this time in letting others do for me what I should have done with my own hands.â

October Garden Thoughts from Cynthia Brian

â« MIMIC Mother Nature by scattering wildflower seeds in fall for a spring showcase.
â« PRE-COOL tulip bulbs for a minimum of four weeks and preferably ten weeks before planting. Make sure to cool in a refrigerator at 38-45 degrees Fahrenheit without any fruit or vegetables that emit ethylene gas, such as apples. Other bulbs like to be stored in an area with good air circulation, low humidity, and away from sunlight with temperatures in the 50-7- degree F range.
â« DID you know that sunflowers track the sun? Mature sunflowers will tip their heads toward the east warming the flowers more quickly bringing five times the number of pollinators. Save those seeds! (UC Davis study)
â« OVER SEED lawns right before the rains come. I am using Pearlâs Premium organic seed and am very happy with the results. Follow directions on the package. www.PearlsPremium.com.

Happy Gardening and Happy Growing!

Autumn Accord By Cynthia Brian

Posted by

Editor on September 21, 2016

Empowerment

Autumn is the hush before winter. ~French Proverb

Having spent autumns in France, I attribute a portion of this yearâs love for fall to my past travel experiences of quiet beauty in the yellowing vineyards, the crisp, cool mornings walking through fields sipping a cafÃ© au lait, and the warming scents of seasoned firewood burning in evening hearths beckoning me to dine on the produce of the day. Autumn is harvest time here in California with the bounty of grapes, walnuts, apples, and pears ripe and ready. The last bushels of tomatoes, corn, eggplant, peppers, and summer squash are making their way to kitchen tables and to outdoor grills as we all enjoy the final hours of sunshine and patio parties. The days are shortening, the nights are lengthening, leaves are turning amber, umber, and orange as we herald in the hush before winter. Nature is in harmony as gardens begin to settle in for their long winterâs nap.

Itâs time to start pondering our spring gardens by rotating crops so as not to deplete the nutrients for a healthy production next season. Cover crops, peas, and legumes are nitrogen fixers. Mix up the heavy feeders such as tomatoes, peppers, potatoes, brassicas, and corn with root vegetables of beets, onions, carrots, and sweet potatoes. If you live on a hillside, consider planting fire and drought resistant ice plant as a ground cover. Boasting an array of hues, ice plant will also keep the soil from eroding during the rains. Fall is the best time to scatter wild flower seeds, giving them time to germinate before spring. Mixes that include poppies, bachelor buttons, clarkia, lupine, marigold, aster, penstemon, dianthus, coneflower, and sweet William are available in packets as well as containers. Wild flowers attract pollinators and will keep the hummingbirds, butterflies, and bees buzzing around your property instead of your neighbors.

Sunflowers have been prolific and extra large this summer. As their heads droop, make sure to collect the seeds both for feeding the birds and also for saving for new towers.

When the weather cools, mosquitoes and other bugs tend to disappear. Enjoy the trickling of your fall fountain as you invite friends over for a final barbecue and outdoor meal as we wave good-bye to the summer sun.

The luster in the sky is a kaleidoscope of brilliance, a forerunner to the quiet before the storm. Bienvenue dâautomne!

Cynthia Brianâs Beginning of Fall Gardening Tips

WATCH for aphids on plants, especially mandevilla. Mix 2 tablespoons of dishwashing liquid with water into a spray bottle. Spray affected plants daily. The dishwashing liquid smothers the aphids.

MAKE applesauce or apple butter with the apples that fall from your trees. This year boasts a big crop of apples. You donât need to peel the apples. Wash, slice away any brown spots, cut into chunks, add to a pot filled with a small of amount of water, boil, then add cinnamon, nutmeg, all spice, and honey for a delicious, healthy treat alone or with meats, over ice cream, or yogurt.

START to think about cover crops to add maximum benefits to your soil over the winter. Fall mixes can include seeds of legumes, grass, grains, broadleaf, and brassica, vetch, rye, clover, and radish. These will suppress weeds, add aeration, and increase soil aggregation.

PROTECT your heart by eating more leeks, keep diabetes at bay with more Swiss Chard, fight colds with dandelion greens, and build stronger bones with bok choy. Yes, these leafy greens can do all of that! Plant some.

SEND a plant off to college with your student to keep the indoor air clean while offering memory and concentration improvement. Prayer plants, peace lilies, pothos, and snake plants are just a few of the easy to grow specimens that will acclimate well to dorm rooms.

PLANT shallots in well-amended beds with plenty of compost in full sun. The greens can be harvested young or wait until they die back to harvest a cluster of shallots.

MUNCH on grapes straight from the vines or buy California grapes at your favorite market.

SAVE seeds from your favorite open-pollinated or heirloom tomato plants in Mason jars topped with water. Cover the jar, but donât seal. Stir daily until seeds sink to the bottom. Rinse through a sieve and let the seeds dry on a paper towel until thoroughly dry. Fill a small jar with seeds, add a silica gel pack, store in the refrigerator until spring planting. Hybrid seeds will not provide tomatoes true to the mother.

DEADHEAD roses for several more flurries of blooms before January. It is wonderful to have cut flowers from your garden when December rolls along.

OVER-SEED lawns before the cold sets in. Pearlâs Premium is proving to be a drought resistant alternative to regular seed grass. It sets deep 14-20 inch roots and with two seasons of seeding should be hardy and fuller next summer. www.PearlsPremium.com

INCLUDE colorful coleus in both indoor and outdoor fall displays. The leaves are the flowers and the designs and patterns are endless.

SELECT tulip bulbs for November planting. Tulips need to be refrigerated for six weeks.

ATTEND the Pear and Wine Festival at Moraga Commons on Saturday, September 24 from 10-4pm. Pick up complimentary potpourri and a new childrenâs book from the Be the Star You Are!Â® booth sponsored by MB Jesse Painting, StarstyleÂ® Productions, llc, Lamorinda Weekly, Childrenâs Success Unlimited, and Michael VerBrugge Construction. Click on events at www.BetheStarYouAre.org

Hello Fall! Happy Gardening! Happy Growing!

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