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Pass the Mustard!

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Empowerment
Pass the Mustard!

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“In seed time learn, in harvest teach, in winter enjoy.” William Blake

The thunder clapped. The lightning bolted. The skies opened. 

Rain, life-giving rain.

The garden rejoices. 

The lawn, browned from the hot summer and autumn, is once again a lush verdant emerald. Fresh new leaves are beginning to unfurl on plants presumed expired. Weeds are sprouting in every crevice and worms are back working their tilling magic.  Tiny pink buds are exploding on peach trees, white blossoms already cover the flowering pears, and scarlet blooms of Chinese flowering quince, a member of the rose family highlight the barren landscape. We are smack in the middle of winter with the opportunity to learn, teach, and enjoy.

 

lush lawn.jpgAs you drive along the local roads, you’ll witness fields carpeted in yellow. This is the wild mustard plant, the magical staple of my childhood. Every year in March our walnut orchards would be blanketed in five-foot tall plants that provided my siblings and me abundant opportunities to build forts, hide from our parents, and make mustard leaf sandwiches. We’d collect the seeds, mix them with vinegar and sea salt, and make our own culinary creations. Our Dad would eventually till this beneficial cover crop back into the soil as a green manure to add nitrogen, increase drainage, and water retention.

If you planted seeds of edible greens and cool loving crops in the fall, you are now harvesting many members of the mustard family including cabbage, kale, collards, kohlrabi, broccoli, yellow mustard, bok choy, and cauliflower. Buds of Brussels sprouts are forming their “sprouts” in the axils of leaves on the stalk.  Flavor improves with Brussels sprouts after two or more frosty nights. The mustard family includes the genus Brassica whereby most of the leaves and flowers taste peppery. Since the flower pattern is in the form of a cross, the plants are referred to as cruciferous. Called super-foods, cruciferous vegetables pack a punch with disease- fighting phytochemicals, attributed to preventing cancers and cardiovascular diseases. Brassicas are also nutrient and fiber-rich with healthy plant omega-3’s, vitamin A, C, E, B-1, and folic acid. They are easy to grow from seed in well-drained, fertile soil enriched with compost.  Because Brassicas are prone to pests and soil-borne diseases, make sure to practice crop rotation and never compost the roots. Although you can use recycled containers to start seeds indoors in the winter, these plant varieties are more successful when seeds are sown directly in the garden. 

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With the recent outbreaks of e.coli infections found in a variety of leafy greens and specifically romaine lettuce, growing your own vegetables is not only less expensive, but it is safer because you have the power to control what goes into your soil. Seeds of arugula, Swiss Chard, lettuces, spinach, scallions, sorrel, fennel, and nasturtium can be succession scattered to ensure year-round eating pleasure. 

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Your vegetable garden has the potential to feed your family throughout all four seasons at a fraction of the cost of what you’d pay for equivalent produce at the market. In winter, you will rarely have to turn on a water source, and you can fertilize with your homemade compost.  When you save the seeds of your favorite plants, you also won’t have to buy new seed packets. During every planting period consider adding an unfamiliar crop that you’ve discovered by perusing seed catalogs.

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Even when the inclement weather is keeping you bundled by the fire indoors with a cup of hot tea to ease your sore throat, if you’ve taken an hour or so to sow your favorite seeds, germination will be happening underground. One sunny day you’ll walk outside to witness the miracle of nature. 

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Voila! Instant leafy greens sown and grown in your personal hearty-health home garden. 

Pass the mustard!

Cynthia Brian’s Mid Month Gardening Guide for February

PICK UP the fallen blooms of camellias to prevent the fungus Camellia blossom rot which causes blooms to turn brown from the center out. Do not compost spent blossoms. Put the dead blooms in the trash bin. 

red camillias.jpghttps://www.cynthiabrian.com/gardening

USE Chinese flowering quince as a spiny hedge or barrier.

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DON’T mow your lawn after a rain when the soil is too moist or you will damage the grass and cause rivets in the soil.

PLANT seedlings of celosia next month for a late spring show.

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FINAL time to heavy prune your roses. Dig canes in a rooting solution and plant in rich soil in small containers to give as summer hostess gifts.

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GROW your own Brassicas and leafy greens by sowing seeds in succession.

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MAKE homemade mustard from the seeds of wild mustard by grinding them and adding salt and vinegar.

PRUNE and shape pelargoniums and geraniums for fuller flowering.

WASH leaves of indoor plants that are dusty. Re-pot if necessary. 

FEED the birds as winter is challenging for them to find essential food.

Happy Gardening. Happy Growing. 

View photos and read more at https://www.lamorindaweekly.com/archive/issue1226/Cynthia-Brians-Digging-Deep-Pass-the-mustard.html

Cynthia Brian

Cynthia Brian, The Goddess Gardener, raised in the vineyards of Napa County, 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 Are1® 501 c3. 

Tune into Cynthia’s Radio show and order her books at www.StarStyleRadio.com.

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Buy a copy of her new books, Growing with the Goddess Gardener and Be the Star You Are! Millennials to Boomers at www.cynthiabrian.com/online-store. 

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Veterinary Savings, Grow Grass, Fitness Freebies By Cynthia Brian

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Empowerment
Veterinary Savings, Grow Grass, Fitness Freebies By Cynthia Brian

If you are looking for upbeat, life-changing, and mind stretching information, you’ve come to the right place. Host Cynthia Brian takes you on a journey of exploration that will encourage, inspire, and motivate you to make positive changes that offer life enhancing results. It’s party time on StarStyle®-Be the Star You Are!®. And YOU are invited! Join us LIVE 4-5pm Pt on Wednesdays or tune in to the archives at your leisure. Come play in StarStyle Country.

If you family pet gets ill, veterinary costs can be prohibitive. As heartbreaking as it is, you don’t want to let your pet suffer nor break your budget. We’ll discuss ways to save money on vet costs while maintaining the health of your beloved family member.

We are not talking about marijuana today but how to grow the most sustainable, drought resistant lawns. To manage your efforts maintaining the health, beauty, and benefits of your lawn for the remainder of the year, get started this month with simple best practices with Goddess Gardener, Cynthia Brian. Love your grass!

We are instructed to get at minimum of thirty minutes of exercise per day. By doing a little bit throughout your workday you can easily acquire the benefits of activity. Learn ten simple fitness tricks to keep you healthy and in shape.Listen at Voice America, Empowerment Channel

#StartWithaSmile at smile.amazon.com/ch/94-3333882 . Amazon donates to Be The Star You Are, Inc..

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Smile, Mood Decor, Rubik’s Cube,Turf Wars

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Empowerment
Smile, Mood Decor, Rubik’s Cube,Turf Wars

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with Cynthia Brian and Heather Brittany on StarStyle®-Be the Star You Are!® Radio brought to the airwaves under the auspices of Be the Star You Are!® 501 c3 charity, LIVE, since 1998.

This hour is fun, informative, and lively. Join us!

Does it hurt when you smile? If so, you may have sensitive teeth. Heather Brittany shares quick fixes for all your tooth issues.
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Looking to boost your mood? Try a few decorating tips that will influence your mood for the better. Cynthia Brian provides Star Style for your strategic design!

“The problems of puzzles are like the problems of life’” said Erno Rubik, in explaining the enduring appeal of a puzzle he invented in 1974 while teaching an interior design class. Hear more about the Rubik’s Cube lore and legacy.

As Americans, we love our grass, but as the years of drought drag on, the word L-A-W-N is becoming synonymous with wasteful. Daily in the USA, over 29 billion gallons of water is used and of that, 30% or 8. 5 billion gallons of water is devoted to our landscaping, mostly lawns. Learn about a new grass seed that may offer guiltless turf with Goddess Gardener, Cynthia Brian!
pearl's premium

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The award winning positive talk radio program, StarStyle®-Be the Star You Are!® broadcasts on the Voice America Empowerment Channel LIVE every Wednesday from 4-5pm Pt/7-8pm ET.  Cynthia Brian and Heather Brittany are the Mother/Daughter dynamic duo who have been co-hosting this program live weekly since 1998 bringing upbeat, life enhancing conversation to the world. With Cynthia’s expertise in interviewing the trailblazers, authors, and experts and Heather’s healthy living segments, these Goddess Gals are your personal growth coaches helping you to jumpstart your life while igniting your flame of greatness.
Brought to the airwaves under the auspices of the literacy and positive media charity, Be the Star You Are!®, each program will pump your energy to help you live, love, laugh, learn, and lead.

Tune in the Power Hour every Wednesday from 4-5pm PT/70-8pm ET and join our empowerment party.
For photos, descriptions, links, archives, and more, visit StarStyle Radio.
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Make a donation today to Be the Star You Are!® charity

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Turf Wars

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Empowerment
Turf Wars

fake turf grass

“We need to teach people that the environment has a direct bearing on our own benefit.” Dalai Lama

As Americans, we love our grass, but as the years of drought drag on, the word L-A-W-N is becoming synonymous with wasteful. Daily in the USA, over 29 billion gallons of water is used and of that, 30% or 8. 5 billion gallons of water is devoted to our landscaping, mostly lawns.  In arid states, the percentage of landscape water usage soars to over 60%.  Add to this the amount of chemical fertilizers and weed controllers utilized on grass, and we have a recipe for ecological disaster.
fall garden
The media bombards us with messages informing us that it is time to tear our the water guzzling, chemically infused turf and replace it with drought tolerant, native landscaping, shrubs, ground covers, or gravel. Many water districts offer rebates for each square foot of lawn that is replaced. Yet, as much as I believe in water conservation and fully understand that water is our most precious natural resource, I am not convinced that ripping out waves of green will solve our water shortage.  Protecting our water supply depends critically on changing how we care for our lawns. An alternative solution to the high maintenance, chemical dependency, and water waste must be available somewhere.

A lawn has many positive benefits. It generates oxygen, helps control erosion, decreases air temperatures, sequesters carbon dioxide, and filters runoff. A lush emerald swath of turf gives our eyes a relaxing break and offers our families a place to play, tumble, picnic, or simply walk barefoot.  It makes me sad when I stroll through my garden and my thirsty brown lawn crunches beneath me. Future generations many not enjoy memories of somersaults, cartwheels, croquet, or the giggles of running through sprinklers if grass disappears from our yards. clover in grass

In my quest to find a verdant resolution to the water wars, at the recent National Garden Symposium where I was a key lecturer, I spent hours meeting with plant specialists, growers, and landscapers brainstorming the alternatives. I even visited a beautifully designed garden with synthetic turf. As pretty as it looked against the backdrop of the shrubs, it didn’t solve my desire for natural grass. Imitation lawn is fake, detracting from the splendor of the outdoors. To date, my best solution has been the slow spreading mini clover.

Then, I interviewed entrepreneur and water conservationist, Jackson Madnick, who for years has been researching innovative ways to save energy, improve surface and ground water quality and create healthier lawns that require no fertilizer, dramatically less time, money, water and green house gasses. After ten years of research and over ten thousand trials with world-renowned scientists, they discovered a mix of seven eco-friendly lawn seeds that reduce the water bill by three-fourths!  Once established, the grass only has to be mowed every four-six weeks, it thrives without chemicals, can grow in sun or shade, all the while creating a beautiful organic lawn that stays deep green all year long.
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Since fall is the best time to plant a lawn when soil temperatures range from 50-70 degrees, I am experimenting with Jackson’s miracle seed called Pearl’s Premium, named after his mother who was a life long protector of Mother Earth.  The secret to this seed’s success, says Jackson, is its slow growth boasting a twelve to fourteen inch root system as opposed to three or four inches. The seeds are natural, non-GMO, and all organic.

If the hype sounds too good to be true, hold your horses. Pearl’s Premium has already won numerous national and international accolades for innovation, received rave reviews from garden experts, and even Newsweek and Popular Science Magazines. As an award-winning environmental advocate and sustainable lawn expert Jackson has been commended by two White Houses, the United Nations, Al Gore, John Glen and numerous environmental groups for his environmental advocacy. He even lives in a sustainable house that produces 95 % of its heating, cooling, and power from the sun and earth!
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Perhaps the best news for homeowners, municipalities, city landscaping commissions, and even golf courses, is that the old lawn does not have to be removed to install the new seeds. Additionally, birds won’t eat the seeds.
Here are the steps to planting a Pearl’s Premium Lawn:
1. Cut your old grass as short as possible.
2. Rake away the clippings.
3. Test the soil to adjust the PH to between 6-7.
4. If soil is compacted, core aerate.
5. Add ½ inch of topsoil to your existing lawn.
6. Spread the seed according to directions.
7. Add a small amount of organic fertilizer.
8. If it doesn’t rain, water daily for three or four weeks.
9. The new grass will sprout in seven days and within one month, a beautiful soft, green lawn that requires only ¼ of the water of a regular lawn will be ready to enjoy.
10. Once established, it can be cut once a month to 3 or 4 inches or it can be left to grow to 6 inches, when it flops over to make a deliciously soft meadow grass.
11. Pearl’s Premium may already be at your favorite garden center and if it’s not you can ask them to carry it. You can also buy directly from their web site at www.PearlsPremium.com. If you type in the code “Blue Moon” at check-out, you’ll get 20% off your purchase plus free shipping.

I’ll be reporting on my lawn’s progress in future articles as finding a waterless grass is at the top of my gardening agenda. You can listen to the radio interview for more in depth information.
pearl's premium
Since I wanted to give everyone a head start on a possible new lawn alternative, the November Garden Guide will be in the next issue. If you are aware of another solution for organic grass without guilt, send me an email at Cynthia@GoddessGardener.com.   We want to avoid the turf wars and embrace sustainability and stewardship of nature where people, pets, and our planet are healthy, safe and happily enjoying the green.

Happy Gardening and Happy Growing.
path-drought resistant

©2015
Cynthia Brian
The Goddess Gardener
Starstyle® Productions, llc
Cynthia@GoddessGardener.com
www.GoddessGardener.com
925-377-STAR
Tune into Cynthia’s Radio show at www.StarStyleRadio.net
I am available as a speaker, designer, and consultant.

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Cynthia Brian is a New York Times best selling author, speaker, coach, and host of the radio show, StarStyle®-Be the Star You Are!® broadcasting live every Wednesday from 4-5pm PT on the Voice America Network.. She also is the creator and producer of Express Yourself!™ Teen Radio and Executive Director of Be the Star You Are!® 501c3 charity.

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