Berry-Greens Smoothie Recipe

One of the things that I'm looking forward to making with the raspberries I'll be harvesting from the 'Raspberry Shortcake' plant I wrote about yesterday is smoothies. I love how easy smoothies are to make and what a good pick-me-up they are either first thing in the morning or for a late afternoon burst of energy. There are a lot of recipes out there now for green smoothies, which use spinach, kale or any other kind of leafy green to add more iron and other nutrients. Here's a concoction I've been playing around with that has a nice, bright flavor without a lot of ingredients.

Berry-Greens Smoothie

1 cup greens (spinach, kale, or other greens)
1 cup of frozen berries (raspberries, blackberries, blueberries or strawberries , or a mix)
1/2 cup green tea, brewed and cooled to room temperature or colder
2 ice cubes
Squeeze of fresh lime juice
2 heaping tablespoons of nonfat greek yogurt

Put all ingredients in a blender and puree completely. Serve immediately. (1 serving)

Raspberries in Containers: You Can Grow That!

Photo credit: BrazelBerries

When gardeners think of growing berries in containers, they usually think first of strawberries growing in classic strawberry pots. I'm growing my strawberries that way this year, having lost my usual strawberry bed to the encroaching shade of a growing tree. But I want more berries! There have been some good blueberry varieties introduced in recent years that are bred for container gardening, such as 'Top Hat', 'Sunshine Blue', 'Patriot', 'Peach Sorbet', 'Jelly Bean', and 'Northsky'. But I was really excited to see BrazelBerries come out with a dwarf, thornless raspberry called 'Raspberry Shortcake', perfect for container growing.

You can, of course, grow other varieties of raspberries in containers but they require some kind of support structure for the canes. And unless you plant a thornless variety, you have to place the container somewhere out of the way so that you won't constantly be pricked by thorns as you walk by. 'Raspberry Shortcake' requires no trellising or other support and because it's thornless, it would work nicely on a sunny deck or patio, even in a high-traffic area.

'Raspberry Shortcake' is intended for zones 5-9, although I'll be growing it in my zone 10a garden and I expect it will do fine. It grows to a 2- to 3-foot mounded shrub and fruits on second-year canes in mid-summer. It needs full sun, well-draining soil, and moderate water. If you plant it now (early spring), give it a couple weeks to settle in and then fertilize with a balanced fertilizer. When it fruits you may want to cover with a net or remay cloth to keep the birds from robbing you of your harvest. After the fruiting period is over, prune out the canes that had fruit, so the only canes left will fruit next year. More canes will appear next spring that will fruit the following year. It's self-pollinating, but it's true of most self-pollinating fruits that you tend to get a heavier yield if you have more than one plant.

'Raspberry Shortcake' may not be easy to find yet in your local nursery, but if you can't find it there you can order it directly from White Flower Farm. I was really happy to find one at the booth for Wegman's Nursery at the SF Flower & Garden Show last month. I still need to pot it up in and I better do it this weekend because it's already leafing out quite a bit. I can't wait to taste the first berries this summer!





You can also check out last month's You Can Grow That! post about Swiss chard.

8 Things to Consider When Choosing a Site for Your Greenhouse

I did a guest blog post at the website for Advance Greenhouses today. Check it out to determine what essential elements you need to consider when deciding where to put a greenhouse in your garden. Then nose around their website and dream about the really cool greenhouse you could find the perfect spot for in your yard. This is called "window shopping for gardeners."

The Tiny Door in the Elm Tree at Golden Gate Park

I had to share this news report of a tiny door that has mysteriously appeared at the base of a tree in Golden Gate Park. I love how beautifully made the door is (whichever gnomes or fairies created it really know their craft!) but I also love how people seem to be reacting to the door. Watch:

Update: Click here for further developments regarding the tiny door.

6 Ways to Keep Gardening on a Rainy Day

We've been having off and on showers here today, making the garden off-limits for any of the weeding and planting I'd like to be doing. Spring is such a busy time for gardeners, it's hard to let any day slip by without accomplishing something garden-related. So I came up with a list of a few useful tasks that can be done indoors that will save you lots of time and possibly money when you get back out in the garden. See how many of these you can accomplish during the coming April showers:

1. Start some seeds. Load up a plastic box or old dishpan with fresh potting soil, lay down some newspaper on your kitchen table and get sowing. This works particularly well when you're sowing seeds in small batches, which for most home gardeners is the best way to do it.
2. Wash your garden gloves. Yuck! Those things are disgusting! Not only do they look awful, but they're almost certainly crawling with bacteria and fungi from dirt and sweat that can cause skin rashes. For pity's sake, take the opportunity of this rainy day to toss them in the washer and hang them up to dry. If they're cotton gloves, you can add bleach to help disinfect them; if they have synthetic materials, try adding a little vinegar to the rinse water.
3. Research a garden problem. Have you spotted a pest or disease problem you can't identify? Or do you have a problem spot in your garden that's maybe so shady or has such poor drainage that you can't get anything to grow there? A rainy day is the perfect time to take to the Internet or your stack of gardening magazines and try to track down a solution. The answer is out there--you just have to dig it out.
4. Clean and sharpen your tools. Again, spread some newspapers on your kitchen table and haul in your pruners, loppers, hedge clippers, trowels, shovels and spades (wipe them off with a dry rag first). Start by washing them with a wet, soapy rag or a Lysol cleaning cloth and drying them. Then take a sharpening stone and sharpen those cutting edges. Finally, wipe the metal parts using a cloth and some mineral oil.
5. Write out some plant labels. How many of us actually take the time when we're planting to write out plant labels? I certainly don't. What I usually do is take whatever label came with the plant and throw it in a box in the laundry room, with the full intention of writing out my own label later. Now is the time! Stock up on one style of plant labels (check your local garden center or an online store like Gardener's Supply) and grab a permanent, waterproof marker and get busy. With the labels all written out, you can run around your garden after the rain stops and stick your neatly printed labels where they belong.
6. Shop for more plants. A little rain should never stop a gardener from buying plants. If you don't feel like trudging around a drippy nursery, go online and shop in the comfort of your very dry desk chair. Try an online nursery you haven't ordered from before or for some varieties you're not likely to find anywhere else, check out one of my favorite mail-order nurseries, Annie's Annuals.

Just in Time for Easter: A Super-Easy Strawberry Dessert Recipe

I spent some time this week transplanting my everbearing strawberry plants. For the past three years I've had them in a bed surrounding what was a very young, small flowering cherry tree. Well, that tree is now a good 10 feet tall and it casts more shade on the bed than strawberry plants can take and keep producing. The bed has also become a favorite place for my dog to take a nap and I think that accounts for a number of the plants dying. So I dug up all the remaining plants, put most in a tall strawberry pot and the rest in a hanging basket. With any luck they'll start fruiting by May.


All these strawberry thoughts brought to mind a strawberry dessert I tasted a couple years ago when I was out wine-tasting in the Livermore Valley. The Amphora Nueva company had samples of their olive oils and vinegars to taste and they also had a simple dessert made with fresh strawberries, angel food cake, slivered almonds, and maple balsamic vinegar. It was delicious. The following recipe has only a couple changes, such as using pomegranate balsamic vinegar (which is easier to find) instead of maple, and adding a topping. The measurements are very approximate because this is something you can really just throw together to taste. It's soooooo easy and very yummy. Enjoy!

Strawberry-Angel Food Dessert

2 lbs. fresh strawberries, sliced
3 or 4 slices angel food cake, torn in bite-sized pieces
Pomegranate balsamic vinegar, approx. 1/4 cup
slivered almonds, approx. 1/2 cup
1/2 cup sour cream
1 tbsp. brown sugar

Put the sliced strawberries in a mixing bowl and sprinkle with 1 or 2 tbsps. of the vinegar. Let rest for about 10 minutes. Add the angel food cake bits and almonds and toss to combine. Sprinkle a little more vinegar over the mixture, but not so much that the cake pieces get soggy. Spoon into large wine glasses. Mix the sour cream and brown sugar and top each glass of the strawberry mixture with a dollop of the sweetened sour cream. Serves 5.

All the Garden's a Stage: Choosing the Best Performing Plants for a Sustainable Garden (Book Review)

By Jane C. Gates

(Schiffer Publishing, 2012, $29.99)

 

It was a sad moment the day I realized that I didn't have the "eye" to be a great, or even good, garden designer. Although I'm comfortable designing interiors (to suit my tastes, at least), I think garden design is much more challenging than interior design. After all, when you pick out living room furniture, you don't have to worry that the sofa will grow so big that it shades out the coffee table until it withers and dies.

So I long ago set aside any dreams I had about designing gardens. But now Jane C. Gates' new book, All the Garden's a Stage, has come along and rekindled the thought that maybe I can put together a pleasingly designed garden after all--or at least one that pleases me. Using the analogy of staging a theater performance, Gates breaks down all the elements involved in garden design. She begins by covering basic plant needs, so that even beginning gardeners will be comfortable moving on through the rest of the production. In the chapter titled "Bringing the Characters Together," she introduces the concept of plant communities--grouping plants that are well-suited for each other and have similar needs. In "The Show Must Go On" she covers maintenance issues like watering, lighting, and sustainable gardening methods. "Putting Together  the Show" really brings design issues into focus and offers simple design tips that even a non-designer like me can grasp. Gates then wraps it all up by introducing the "cast"--profiles of desirable plants grouped by settings such as "Mountaineers," "Tropical Beauties," "Beach Babes" and more.

Compared to so many garden books that present their topics in more or less the same fashion, All the Garden's a Stage is a fresh, new take on planning a garden. It's basic enough for a beginning gardener, but can also guide a gardener who's experienced with growing plants but needs help in putting together a cohesive garden plan. The tone of the book is light-hearted, right down to the charming illustrations by the author, but the information is solid and usable. I'll be referring to this book again and again as I continue to try get my garden show in shape.