There is never a dull day around here anymore. I picked a nice red tomato from the garden today, harvested rose petals that I will use in potpourri later in the year and checked in on my greenhouse plants.

The new Theobroma seeds I planted are sprouting like mad. Even though the temperatures are cooling off some the small seedlings don’t seem to mind yet. The greenhouse they are in gets the exhaust from the dryer so it is always hot and humid in there!

The Hibiscus schizopetalus I have grown for years has finally began blooming this year and what a sight that has been. I am so thrilled with the flowers. It was definately worth the wait. Now if I could just get my Brunfelsia to bloom!

I have many plants that could use a potting up but I have decided to wait until spring as really all I do with the tropicals during the winter months is keep them alive.

We still have one greenhouse to seal up before the cold weather hits and I am getting a bit anxious as to when that will happen. I also have a few more plants outside that need brought in.

I will miss my lemon tree this winter. It bit the dust this spring. I had enjoyed harvesting lemons during the winter months the past few years. I will buy another as soon as I come across one.

Until later -

Sheri

I am currently uploading video to You Tube. My page is at http://www.youtube.com/SheriAnnRicherson I hope some of you will stop by and let me know what you think.

I also have a My Space page at http://www.myspace.com/sheriannricherson I would love to connect with some of you on there as well.

 Sheri

As a member of the Garden Writers’ Association I don’t always get to attend the annual symposium. This year it was in Oklahoma. I had high hopes of attending since I had family that lived there and that would cut the cost of the hotel bill.

Close to time to attend our only vehicle broke down. So I asked some friends to drive me out. That hope was quickly dashed when I found out that they could not stay with my family.

So, back to square one, how could I possibly go and not have huge hotel costs? Needless to say, I stayed home.It looked as though I missed a really good time. One of the members, Kathy Jentz, the editor and publisher of  Washington Gardener Magazine,  http://www.washingtongardener.com/ , wrote a blog about her first time attending the Garden Writers Conference.

I was rolling in the aisle when I read this comment on the Garden Rant blog. “One does not become a garden writer because one is a conformist. Writers in
general have earned a hard-scrabble, ornery reputation. You certainly don’t
go into it for the job security or money. Pair that with the often solitary
pursuit and love of gardening in one individual and you get someone with
little respect for authority and a whole lot of time spent living inside
their own heads.” How true that is!You can read the entire post on the Garden Rant blog at http://www.gardenrant.com/ The name of the post is Garden Writers Gone Wild – A Report from OK City, OK.

Reading the post brought back memories of the GWA symposium in

Chicago a few years back.  The

Chicago symposium was the first one I attended. I went to the usual first timers’ meeting, attended Doreen Howard’s party later that evening and then went to my hotel room to anticipate the next day.

There were loads of gardens to see, pictures to be taken – that is if you could get a good shot through all the people milling around and goodies to be picked up at every stop!

Then came the great trade show! I won $100 worth of free bulbs! What gardener would not be thrilled with that?

Renee from Renee’s Garden was giving out loads of free seeds! Woo Hoo!

I was really scoring the goods!

Then the show ended and the free-for-all started!

There were free plants, free tools, free weed cloth, free everything! WOW! How many arms did I have? Darn – only two! I piled my little cart as high as I could, practically ran back to my hotel room to dump everything and then went back to load up again!

It was great – until time to load my car.

I had a horrible time getting everything in and the other garden writers were watching. I still get comments from some of them about how packed my car was. Poor Jerry – he had to carry stuff on his lap all the way home from

Chicago so I could get it all home!Needless to say, Kathy Jentz’s blog is right on! Garden Writers’ are indeed a unique group of people who are in high competition with one another! Here’s wishing all garden writers, myself included, continued success!

I hope to see you all next year at the Portland Symposium where you will once again see me grabbing up all the goodies in my little cart and attempting to stuff them into my vehicle for the long trip back to

Indiana!

Folks you heard it here first, vanilla historically has excited the libido more than chocolate.

You can read all about it here http://www.cnn.com/2007/TRAVEL/getaways/09/11/vanilla/index.html#cnnSTCText   

The problem is I don’t know if I agree with that. 

While it is true that many people favor the smell of vanilla, it has only been in recent years that perfumes, candles and other scented items have been available with a chocolate scent.

Traditionally vanilla has ruled the roost when it came to choosing a scented item. There are still things such as fabric softener that are offered with a vanilla scent but not a chocolate scent.

So, in my humble opinion, until both scents are offered equally, I don’t think vanilla should rein supreme. 

Vanilla, like chocolate, is still harvested by hand. Vanilla is a more labor intensive crop because the flowers must be hand pollinated. Vanilla planiflora is the plant that most of the commercial vanilla beans comes from.  The flowers, which open one at a time, must be pollinated within a four hour time frame. It is possible to grow vanilla in a home environment, but be advised you will need more than one plant if you intend to grow your own vanilla beans. Once pollinated, the flower will fall off within a twenty-four hour time span. The vanilla bean will take approximately nine months from the time of pollination to form.  

Once the bean is ready to be harvested you will need to cure it. This is typically done by sweating a process which involves placing the green vanilla bean into hot water as soon as they are picked, removing them, then laying them in the sun to dry during the day and wrapping them in blankets at night. Vanilla beans should be laid in the sun daily and wrapped in blankets nightly until they are a very dark brown and develop a white crystalline substance on the outside known as vanillin. This process can take up to six months. 

Once the pods are ready to use they need to be kept in an airtight container for the best flavor.

So, back to the question at hand. What scent does you libido prefer – chocolate or vanilla?

As a gardener I wonder how many fellow gardeners are watching the CNN Special Planet In Peril, http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2007/planet.in.peril/.

 

Most gardeners, especially those that like to push climate zones can without question state that there are climate changes going on.

 

For example, here in

Indiana, which has been moved from a zone 5 to a zone 6, I am growing Livingstonia chinensis in the ground all year. I do put a small cold frame over it in the winter which I then stuff with pine needles and leaves. But, even with those protective measures, this plant should not survive the winter here.

 

The next issue they are looking at is vanishing habitats. I really think this area goes hand in hand with disappearing species and population growth, which are all areas they will be exploring.

 

One way gardeners can help is to take a section of your yard and let it grow wild. Planting native trees, flowers and grasses can help give wildlife a safe place to hide. Many of these plants also provide food for wild species. If your goal is to attract wildlife to your yard, then be sure to have places where they can get fresh water. A birdbath, a pond or even a shallow bowl will work.

 

You can even go a step further and become a certified backyard wildlife habitat like we did this spring. For more information go to http://www.nwf.org/backyard/70000goal.cfm

 

As the population continues to grow and more houses are built it is extremely important that we do not crowd out the native plants and animals. They belong here as well. We need to do what we can to preserve their native habitats and provide the ones that are displaced with new areas that provide shelter, food and water.

 

If we don’t take action now, what will be left for future generations?

 

For additional tips on going green visit http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/science/10/19/pip.greentips/index.html

Who would have thought that a ban on mushrooms would have made world headlines? Well, that is just what has happened after the Dutch government said they had plans to make these hallucinogenic mushrooms illegal.

 

From an article on Yahoo, http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20071027/wl_nm/mushrooms_dutch_dc;_ylt=AtMLvFuzDylraxHHjdOGTlYDW7oF to Reuters, http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSL2748299520071027, My Space, http://news.myspace.com/comedy_random/webhumor/item/11304861 and  even Time, http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1650873,00.html numerous websites have picked up on this story.

 

The mushrooms contain the hallucinogen psilocybin. In their dried form they are already illegal but it is not illegal to sell them fresh because the ministry considers it problematic to ban an item that grows naturally. After numerous incidents by tourists who have taken the mushrooms they are now reconsidering this.

 

It seems many of the Dutch are wondering when they will ban bread and are carrying signs to that nature!

 

I’d love to hear your opinion – should these mushrooms be banned?

While it is true that this is a gardening site, who says we can’t all use a little fiction, especially since Halloween is just around the corner and Jeremy did send me a really cool Halloween card complete with a book mark. What writer, after all, can’t use another bookmark?

Plus, I really feel that writers should support and promote each other. After all, what are friends for?

Jeremy, whom I met on My Space, http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendID=13122232, has just put out his first novel, Vacation, which is getting great reviews as you can see below.

“Jeremy C. Shipp’s Vacation is a surreal, bizarre, and utterly captivating tale. This ambitious story covers a lot of territory: it’s disturbing, funny, thoughtful, and even touching. A wildly unpredictable first novel from one WEIRD author.”
—Jeff Strand, author of The Sinister Mister Corpse

“This is an intriguing, challenging, literate, provocative novel I’m not sure I understand and suspect I’m not meant to… I recommend it to those who find reality boring; it may make them see it in new ways.”
—Piers Anthony, author of the Xanth series

“It’s rare to find a work that claims to be a mind-bender actually live up to its claims, but Jeremy Shipp’s Vacation does just that. Imagine the finale of 2001: A Space Odyssey set in a deceptively everyday world that quickly— and effectively—jumps into William S. Burroughs territory by way of Donald Barthelme…and even that comparison won’t prepare you for the head-trip that awaits you in these pages. The mundane turned mystical turned metaphysical turned indescribable. This is a genuinely one-of-a-kind trip, and one you won’t want to miss.”
—Gary A. Braunbeck, Bram Stoker and International Horror Guild Award-winner, author of Prodigal Blues, Destinations Unknown, and Mr. Hands

“None of the usual accolades work for Jeremy Shipp’s Vacation. The reader is not amazed, astounded, or aggrieved – the reader is achingly curious, alarmingly moved, and at the end, astonished by the vision and darkness and redemption. No one writes like Shipp, and that’s a great thing.”
—Susan Straight, author of A Million Nightingales

“I’m convinced Jeremy Shipp is a little bit crazy, in the best possible way. Vacation is edgy, surreal, and original. This is one of those books that alters your brain in a way similar to Philip K. Dick. A very good first novel.”
—Jeff VanderMeer, author of City of Saints & Madmen and Shriek: An Afterword

“I don’t think there has been a more aptly titled book in recent memory than Jeremy Shipp’s Vacation. This sprawling psychological pseudo-fantastical surrealistic mind-trip of an adventure story demands that you step out–far, far, far out–of your comfort zone, and embrace the possibilities of a universe that may be a dream, a nightmare, or just wishful thinking. Vacation is a headfirst dive into the rabbit hole, assuming those rabbits lined their burrow with mirrors, because as bizarre as this novel ultimately appears to be on the surface, there’s very little here that we won’t find in ourselves, assuming we’re brave enough, and know how and where, to look. For now, we will have to content ourselves with author Shipp’s efforts to do that very thing on our behalf.”
—Kealan Patrick Burke, Bram Stoker Award-winning author of Currency of Souls, The Turtle Boy, and The Hides

“Vacation is a potent social theory, a spiritual hopscotch from start to finish. With interesting scenarios and thought-provoking dialog, it is a compelling reason for fans of psychological fantasy to look up Jeremy Shipp.”
—Jesse Gordon, author of The Reformed Citizen

“Jeremy Shipp delivers a first novel that is surprisingly readable and thought-provoking; one worthy of being included in a college course on dystopian fiction.”
—Dru Pagliassotti, The Harrow

“Vacation is a wild romp through the fertile imagination of Jeremy Shipp.”
—Bradley Sands, author of It Came from Below the Belt

“Vacation is a bold experiment in science fiction themes that pulls few punches, recalling the works of Burroughs and Ellison, but it has a deeper, more bizarre agenda, one that may be up to each reader who experiences it to decypher for his or herself. It starts at full-blast, then like some fever-dream cartoon freak-out, blows through the roof. In a genre filled with so many safe ideas and easy solutions, what Jeremy Shipp has done stands alone . . . or at least stands in rare, bizarre company.”
—Stephen Romano, author of The Riot Act

“Parts spiritual, psychological, and scatological, Shipp’s debut novel is a fast, blistering roller-coaster of a novel that never ceases to keep the reader running to keep up. Shipp’s “Fight Club”-esque narrative and unusually adept insight into the human psyche make this novel a must read for fans of in-your-face fiction. The textual incarnation of an exploding rocket! Five stars!”
—Ronald Damien Malfi, author of Via Dolorosa

“This is a headtrip worth taking, and a short, fast-paced one at that. There’s something energetic and purposeful about every string of words in here, telling the reader when to stop and go and pause for a minute. You’re in good hands with this writer who gets a lot out of these few words. Some of the bizarre turns of phrase are jarring until the realization sets in that these are the words best suited to the situation. Get your hands on this one now.”
—Horror World Reviews

“Vacation is a diverse, unpredictable, and intelligent read. Two thumbs up!”
—Midwest Book Review

“This is a fun book! It’s gruesome in spots, wildly psychotic sometimes, and yes, irreal, but also fun.”
—Kim McDougall, author of In a Wink

“Readers looking for light horror genre reading may be disappointed at the effort and attention required to explore this brief, yet dense book, but those who accept the challenge will be rewarded with an engrossing ‘vacation’ into the world of post-modern, phenomenological, existential, but nonetheless truly enjoyable fiction.”
—Icons of Fright

“It packs a dizzyingly, stomach lurching, punch to the brain…It’s one of the rare books that once I finished it, I started to read it again pretty much straight away.”
—SciFi UK Review

“Some will find it too challenging, much like Mark Z. Danielewski’s The House of Leaves, only a hell of a lot shorter. But for those readers who are seeking something different in the current all too predictable genre fictions, Shipp delivers a vision of strangeness and truth, and a character who could be the everyman in all of us who sometimes find life too complicated and overwhelming. It is easy to feel the author’s confusion and cynicism with the real world, but it’s how he helps Johnson find his own sense of peace by tale’s end that displays the author’s maturity and compassion. I hope to see much more from this fresh voice in literature.”
—Hellnotes

 Now here is the real twist, the one I want to tell you about. Jeremy currently has a contest going on where you can win a autographed copy of his book Vacation and he will even personally inscribe the book. To view the details click here  http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=13122232&blogID=291102109&Mytoken=FB14E61D-50B9-41F8-97CCB4BBB8D0163214666156

I will leave you with that thought and wish everyone a Happy Halloween!