Hey Cindy! You don’t blog much here. What’s up with that?

Well, everybody. I’ve been super busy keeping up appearances at Dirtdujour.com and running my online garden store at DirtCouture.com. Please feel free to visit me there.

Plus I’ve got a new project on the horizon that I will share as soon as it’s ready for its close-up.

Thanks for dropping by, and I’ll see you around,

Cindy

Why not when you think about it?

Adding a dash of color and pairing perfectly with smaller succulents, buttons make a wonderful and water-friendly mulch for potted arrangements. And you could go on and on with color/plant combinations.

Every once in a while you come across a completely pretty deer fence that not only does not obstruct the view, it actually adds to it.

This one by landscape designer Lisa Byon featured in House Beautiful magazine.

It gets a bit tricky when it comes time to harvest avocados. The best answer is pick when they are mature. And mature is not the same as ripe.

Since there are so many types of backyard avocados maturity is difficult to determine until you’ve known your own tree for a few years. Avocados do not ripen on the tree. It is only after they are picked that they soften up.

But maturity means they are full grown for the type of avocado you are growing. You will want them to give them plenty of time to develop their full oil content before picking. This can be 6 to 8 months after the bloom period if you garden by the calendar.

In general, a mature avocado will be dull, not bright and shiny. When cut, the seed will have a brown paper coating and will not be fleshy and white

An immature avocado will taste watery when soft, unlike the rich, buttery flavor of an avocado that has developed its full oil content. Sometimes when the largest avocados begin to drop from the tree it indicates that the rest will reach maturity soon.

Since avocados actually reduce cholesterol levels in the blood, use them as a sandwich dressing in place of mayonnaise.

Purdue’s hort department recommends an avocado, cream cheese and pineapple juice blend as a dressing for fruit salads. My favorite: sliced tomatoes and avocados sprinkled with salt and pepper and a squeeze of fresh lime juice.

And here’s a link for growing your own from seed from, believe it or not, the California Avocado Commission.

Oh yeah, I get it. Not supposed to love wild mustard. Invasive plant, and all. But frankly, when the mustard blooms in early spring I can’t help but love the hillsides in Southern California. The blooms are one of my all-time favorite smells.

Mustard, brought here by Spanish Missionaries in the 1800s, was the inspiration for so many early California Impressionist painters. And present day painters, too. Check out this current painting by Andrew Daniel.

Love this grey and mustard inspired color scheme too, from House Beautiful.

There are too many reasons to have a garden crush on Dan Hinkley. In the 80s his nursery, Heronswood is where we spent the bulk of our retirement funds on strange and unusual plants. And I am proud to say that two of the plants I bought there are still alive: a lime green pelargonium that he pinched from Rosemary Verey’s garden and a polygonum.

Okay, sure, two of the easiest plants to grow in the Kingdom Plantae. Whatever. They are alive!

Heronswood was the escape from the everyday plant – and in Southern California everyday was agapanthus. So I was shocked, shocked I tell you, and perhaps secretly pleased that what Hinkley collects now is agapanthus. In Hinkley style, he has hundreds. And who knew there were so many? But they are probably not as easy for him in chilly Washington as they are for us steamy Southern California.

Hinkley’s challenge is our Home Depot staple.

Now my love of Hinkley is complete as he quotes Princess Bride in a recent adventure on his website. No way! I am a huge Princess Bride quoter having seen the movie probably 20 times.

Favorite PB quote for garden purposes: Miracle Max: He’s only MOSTLY dead (change “he” to “it” and refer to plants. Emphasize MOSTLY and use a lisp.)

Peeking into his web site further it looks like he is still tromping around places like Yolong Shan looking for the next new plant. Hinkley is the last of the exotic plant explorers.

Fare the well Mr. Hinkley. PB translation: Have fun stormin da castle.

Come to think of it, African violets are perfect for humid terrarium environments. And these, created by Beverly Turner at M & M Nursery are too cute. Morning sun is what African violets like, and a weak feed during the bloom season. But be careful you don’t burn them as a glass terrarium in direct sun will be intensified.

When the plants stop blooming you’ll want to give them a rest for a few months, then start feeding again to prompt blooms. Trick of the trade for getting African violets to bloom again, once they’ve stopped? A pinch of Epsom salts watered in.

And don’t over water – easy to do because African violets look like they like a lot. But in fact, do better when they are allowed to get near-dry between watering.

You’ve heard before: drifts, drifts, drifts. When planting bulbs you’ll get more impact if you plant many of one kind instead of one of this and that.

These parrot tulips in orange, pink and yellow look fantastic because there is an of eye-full. And they especially stand out against the all green lawn.

If you look closely, you’ll also see nasturtiums coming along just in time to hide the foliage as the tulips fade away.

In this pretty potager from Cote Maison magazine, kitchen garden edibles and herbs are tucked into an ornamental garden. What’s more, it’s about as raised garden bed as you can get.

This kitchen garden doesn’t take up much room either, and gets the best sun in the morning and reflected heat from the stone wall at night. A perfect place for heat loving edibles such as squash, thyme, tomatoes and melons.

Tovah Martin, the gal that wrote the book The New Terrarium is blogging, appropriately for H. Potter the manufacturers of Wardian cases and tabletop terrariums.

If you are a little confused about what to do to care your terrarium, vent it, feed it, clean the glass, and (we didn’t even think about this) turn your terrarium once in while, check out her terrarium tips here.

The terrarium pictured is actually a Wardian case. The super-short history of Wardian cases: glass boxes used to transport plants on sailing ships during the Victorian era.