My Garden for 2014

April showers bring May flowers.  How does your garden grow?  Well is growing great and thank you for asking.  My precious seedlings are now growing into little sprouts.  They are ready to leave the mini indoor greenhouse and to be transplanted into the pot plant container phase.  I am so excited in doing this and can not wait for what June has in store for my plants.

I have now moved my sprouts outdoors since the weather has finally gotten warmer and the frost alert has officially been uplifted!!  This past week I took the time in transplanting my sprouts to the pot plant containers with rich organic soil.  My sprouts love the outdoors particularly when it rains.  Here are some pictures below:

From seedlings to sprouts

 

Transplant into pot containers

 

I was able to purchase some plants from the Master Gardener sale and was able to fix my raised bed garden for these new plants.  Check out my new garden:

My raised bed garden

So since this is the month of gardening, what are you planting and growing in your garden?  Let me know and happy gardening!!

Ribbon Cutting Alert!! I am officially having the opening of my business through the Douglas County Chambers on Thursday, May 22nd, 2014 at 11:30 am.  If you are in the Douglasville, Georgia area then click here  for details.  Love to meet you!!

Gardening Month is Here!!

Since this is Gardening Month, I want to let everyone know that I am one of the dynamic speaker at the 7 days Spiritual Body Building Tele-summit where my discussion topic is on Changing Your Temple:  Gardening with Planting: The Right Foods! I would love for you, your friends, coworkers and family to be a part of this very special tele-summit .  For more information to sign up for the 7-Day Tele-summit – Spiritual Body Building click here:  http://resultsbyrenee.com/spiritual-body-building-telesummit/

April is Gardening Month and this year I have decided to plant an indoor seedling gardening.  This is my very first time doing this and I decided to use a seedling gardening kit with organic gardening soil. I always wanted to be a part of the seed to sprout process of growing vegetables and flowers garden.  What I have done in the past, like many people, was purchase my plants from fellow gardeners and plant it in my little garden.  I never did thought how they were able to start off with a tiny seed  and produce a little sprout which would later become a healthy plant.  This year, I wanted to experience this by planting cucumbers, lettuce, squash, spinach, marigolds (for keeping the pest away from the tomatoes), zinna flowers, cosmos flowers, tomatoes, onions, sweet peppers and  carrots. Check out the pictures below on how I started my gardening adventure:

To see pictures of the different seeds that I use for my garden click here!

Next week, I will discuss about my day at the Atlanta Home and Gardening Show!

 

Hydrangea Festival – Part 2 – Standard Flower Show Results and Festival Market

Back again to Hydrangea Festival, I had a chance t0 visit the Festival Market at the Douglasville Courthouse.  The Festival Market has given a chance of local artisans, crafts-persons and gardeners to display and sell their goods.  One craftsman was selling bird houses but these houses were not your ordinary bird houses.  Some of the birdhouse were shaped and made as a church, log cabin and even a clay house.  These houses were made for rich birds!  Click here to see more birdhouses.

Also at the Festival Market, there were alots of artisans that where selling their art work such as self portraits .  Another crafts-person was selling their beautiful jewelry and handmade bags.  Gardeners and Farmers where selling their unique plants, herbs, gardening accessories and flowers especially hydrangeas.  Click here to see more!

The standard flower show  was such a beautiful arrangement and so many different flowers that I have never seen before.  Last year the flower show title “The Royals” had 398 horticulture exhibits, 24 exquisite dining table designs, plus 34 youth and two educational exhibits. This years flower show had feature the “Blushing Bride” hydrangea.  The show qualifies for entry into the State and National award categories which was awarded in April and May 2013.  This event generated visitation from 56 Georgia cities, 12 states and 5 foreign countries.  Click here to see some of the flowers that were presented at the Standard Flower Show.

I had such a great time at the Standard Flower Show and Festival Market but the best is yet to come.  Next week, I will talk about Daytime Garden Tours!!

National Women in Agriculture Association (NWIAA) Farm Tours

During the National Women in Agriculture Association (NWIAA) Conference in Jackson, Mississippi, we had a chance to do farm tours.  As you probably already know that I love farm tours and having a chance to meet female and male African-Americans that own their own working farms, I knew that I had to go!

The first farm we visited was a 100 acres farm called PEAPATCH which is run by Portia Anderson, a fellow NWIAA member.  The farm is designed and dedicates for educating families and youth about the importance of botany.  Its mission is to cultivate a desire to love nature by learning to recognize  trees, flowers, herbs, and all plants for their edible, medicinal and  ornamental value and properties. Ms. Anderson had over 20 years of experience in farming and has knowledge on herbs and its medicinal properties is her passion.  While we were there Ms. Anderson gave us a tour of the property and showed us greenhouse which had various herbs and flowers.  On her grounds she has peaches, asparagus and grapefruit to name a few.  What I found very interesting about her raised beds garden that she uses cement blocks which has few corrosion and breakage compare to wood over a period of time.

The next stop was Foot Print Farm, LLC  which is run by the famous president and CEO, Dr. Cindy Ayers who resides on 80 plus acres of land and is using only 40 acres of the land for farming.  At this farm, she grows vegetables, raises goats and educates new farmers with the assistance of Dr. Evans from Mississippi State University and Alcorn State University.  Her farms helps bring fresh affordable locally grown food to our communities in addition to introducing the policies of United States Department Agriculture and Natural Resources Conservation Services (NRCS) .  Through the NRCS  grant the farm has a seasonal high tunnel for the crops and so to be new irrigation system.  The farm is also placing solar panels at a very low cost to run electricity and the tennis courts area has been  been used as a chicken coop.  The farm is using the chicken coop for not only the eggs but most for the very hot selling chicken manure.  Eventually Dr. Ayers is looking at doing agricultural tourism and is currently working with the 4 H group and the local football team with leasing a plot for selling foods to raise money.  Now that is a truly a working farm!

The last farm that we had visited to was a  traditional ranch  called the “Spur Ranch” which is run by Mr. David Reginald Funches.  Mr. Funches is a herdsman at Hinds Community College, a small ranch owner and horses trainer at  Spurpoint Ranch in Raymond, MS.   Mr. Funches has raised cattle, chickens and goats but now trained horses for the public and competitions with his daughters.  He has teamed up with Donald Wilkson to move a higher level of completion of training horses for which the purpose of reining and cutting horses.  He also enjoys teaching the youth of community as well as his daughters how to rope and ride horses.  While we were on the ranch Mr. Funches and his crew gave us a show on calf roping, horse racing and sorting cattle.  I also had a personal encounter with an adorable suckling calf on the ranch grounds.  The Spur Ranch purpose is to promote a breed of sound-minded Quarter horses and at the same time better others in training and understanding the mind of the Equine.  It was truly an honor to meet great American cowboys whose passion is to help others and to see their appreciation for horses.

I have learned so much from these farmers and rancher that I am looking more into possibly in the future running my own farm.  It is so glad to see these incredible African Americans pursuing their dreams and making a great difference in their communities.  Their commitment for teaching the youth to that they too can pursue  an rewarding career in agricultural .  Click here to check out more pictures.

Spring Home Repair and Gardening

Spring is here and summer is around the corner.  This is the time to to catch up with all of your cleaning and to get rid of the things that you once hold onto but really do not need.  I had a chance to visit the Atlanta Home Show to see what are the new  products and home organizers that are coming out for the 2013.

I had a chance to hear a speaker name Tonya M. Williams  who is a HGTV Real Estate & Lifestyle expert discuss about the upward movement of real estate for both the seller and the buyer.  She gave us ideas on how to refreshes our home for the coming season and what are the best low cost ways to remodel our homes.  Indeed it was excellent information!

After hearing Ms. Williams, I then decided to walk around the Atlanta Home Show to see what are the new gardening items and home products.  I stop and saw  a beautiful  model industrialized kitchen that can be place any kitchen and not look too overpowering.  Easy to install closets organizers are being used in  wet rooms, walk-in closets and office rooms.  There were some unique water features  such as vases, brick waterfalls, ponds and fire lighting rocks. Outdoor lighting is very key particularly using it as a focal point for a water feature. Outdoor living is still very popular with different displays of outdoor fireplaces, kitchens and stainless steel grills.

Outdoor living would not be complete unless you have a garden with flowers, trees, ornamental, plants and herbs.  For your garden specifically use, companion herbs which can help you to get rid of any unwanted pests without using any pesticides.  Herbs such as lavender , thyme, chives or any member of the allium family can even deter larger pests, such as hungry deer.  It seems that to be that the strong aroma of certain herbs confuses pests and keeps them away from neighboring vegetables plants.  Having herbs in your garden can help reduce weeds.  Such as parsley which spreads and take over any empty spots before the weeds do.

So this summer enjoy your home both the inside and outside.  Start on your home repairs  and gardening right now!

Florida Botanical Gardens – Part 1

Since the weather is getting colder this week blog posting will give you a warm  vision of Florida.  I had the chance to visit the Pinellas County – Florida Botanical Gardens which is a free educating environmental friendly gardens. These wonderful gardens are run by Pinellas County Extension – Master Gardener which has over 30 acres of cultivated gardens and 90 acres of natural areas.  I truly loved this place and learned so much about Florida’s gardens,  wildlife and habitats.   The Florida Botanical Gardens ideas birth began in 1991. Starting in 1999,  the Florida Botanical Gardens build the gardens and it was  completed in early 2001.

The first place I visited was the Wetland Habitat where I had a chance to observed how the plants, trees and animals become at home in a man made retention pond.  The Wetland Habitat has over 150 types of bird, mammals, and reptiles that have been documented on site. Several endangered or threatened species including Bald Eagles, Gopher tortoises and Sherman Fox squirrels make their home there.  I had a chance to see a pelican looking for their first meal and alligator sunbathing in the hot sun.

There are beautiful flowers that are indigenous to the Wetlands Habitats that were planted and bloomed around the pound.  Some of the flowers and plants were the gorgeous bird of paradise, lilies, wild coffee and the blanket flower.

The Florida Botanical Gardens office has volunteer Master Gardeners to assist with the staff to keep the grounds looking beautiful.  There is indoor waterfall, water loving plants in hanging pots, drought resistant and weird looking plants coming out from the building.

Another place on the grounds was the Wedding Garden where there is a rose garden that showed a varied kind of roses. There were different types and shapes of topiary, beautiful Hibiscus flowers and unusually shape pines.  The site is perfect for a wedding with the brick pathway and open spaces.

Next week blog post is the Herb and Vegetable Garden and check out my Florida Botanical Gardens pictures in the gardening section on Pinterest.  Click here!