Design

I've been attending a Carolina Farm Stewardship Association annual conference this weekend (my first time attending). This year, it's nearby, and it's been quite interesting. The CFSA's focus is to promote local food producers, sustainable agriculture, and local food (of all sorts). This is their 23th annual conference -- remarkable, really for our region, which is just now getting on the local food/sustainable agriculture/local farm & tailgate market 'bandwagon.' But it's welcome, to be sure, and I'm heartened by the numbers of younger people involved, as well as passionate folks of all ages. I haven't thought a great deal about food security issues, but it's an important thing to consider. Why not support local farmers when we can and grow more of our own vegetables and fruits, if we can? Or Plant a Row for the Hungry ? (This is a Garden Writers Association initiative). Many of us have space to do so. Or, why not participate in '...

Happy Halloween!! I saw this image by photographer Emily Followill on Desire to Inspire yesterday and tried not to drool on my keyboard. The colors are just perfect. I love everything about this room!

I love the clean lines of this breezy aqua living room. It all feels so fresh, so simple. - Martha Stewart

Cold nights and sunny days have accelerated fall color in the last week. Yellows, reds, and oranges are becoming more vivid (and spectacular). There have been pockets of frost in low-lying areas, but the freeze warning last night didn't materialize here. I harvested all the tomatoes and peppers yesterday, in any case, and have several large bowls of tomatoes on the kitchen counter. Coming home this evening, the bottlebrush buckeye was lovely, and the color of the dogwood in front, backlit from the setting sun, spectacular.

Serena and Lily make such beautiful bedding, as showcased in these precious nurseries. The bedding for grown-ups shouldn't be missed either! Go here to check out their collection of duvets. (I love looking around their website if only for the pretty pictures.) One day I hope to make a home for the Eve or Marina duvet!

This week in the garden I'm adding a top layer of leaves to cover the bare soil. This will help prevent soil erosion and redeposit nutrients back into the soil as they decompose. It should also help cut down on the amount of weeds that might take over in early spring. All of our foundations vents have been closed, protective covers have been placed over the outside hose bibs, and all of our sprinkler lines have been drained to prevent the pipes from freezing and bursting this winter. My geraniums have been trimmed, re-potted and stored away. We have decorated the yard and front entrance with groupings of corn stalks, mums, pumpkins and a few scary spiders. The front windows have construction paper cutouts of bats and pumpkins that were made years ago from the wee hands of my children. My only chores left before winter: put up electric heating elements in the gutters to melt ice, do some more raking and burning of yard debris, and spray the fruit trees with a home made oil soa...

I lost a gardening friend today. I shared her with many others, who knew her much better than I did. I appreciated her willingness to extend her experiences and knowledge with others, and always felt her encouragement and support. I knew her as a garden writer, speaker, and fellow wildlife gardening enthusiast, whose gardening interests encompassed an exuberant lack of tidiness, as well as a love for flowers. A recent talk focused on Flowering Shrubs: the Real Perennials , which embraced a transition to a vibrant, but lower maintenance garden as she approached her mid-seventies. Time spent with her was always interesting. Her first book, Earthly Delights: Gard ening by the Season the Easy Way , was a wonderful collection of essays honed from her gardening columns in The State (Columbia, SC) newspaper. Her second book is in press now. She was encouraging about my (small) book (written with others) about The Nature of Clemson , and always asked what my next book was. She was unf...

I am digging this bedroom I found in the House Beautiful website. The colors used in this room are the same colors of the Connecticut shore outside the window. So serene relaxing. And I just have to say...I want that bed!

I love this bright pink and turquoise bedroom designed by Jodi Macklin that was featured on Desire to Inspire last week. Its entirely delightful and cheerful. Just the thing for a Monday morning!

I enjoy the few Crocus sativus (Saffron crocus) that are planted near the kitchen door. I certainly won't be set for the year with my harvest of 15 (or so) stigmas, but they're so pretty in fall flower. After a weekend in the mountains, I was surprised to come home and see them.

Oh how I fell in love when I spotted this amazing New York City apartment on Villa Anna . Decorated by Margaret Elman, the founder and owner of Chair Couture , who described her favorite color as "Everything from the palest robin-egg blue to sky-and-sea aqua to Tiffany box blue to full-on, whipping bright 1950's-dinner turquoise". *Sigh* I seriously love this woman!! Check out Villa Anna for more pictures of this, and other fabulous apartments! I hope everyone enjoys their weekend! :)

We brought one tree to Clemson from our first house - a Japanese persimmon. I had admired several local Japanese persimmon trees, and had planted one. It struggled for years after its change in circumstances, but has done remarkably well since. This year's crop of persimmons looks good, in spite of our drought (uh, I did water the persimmon every once and awhile).

We've had just enough cloud cover lately to tinge the early morning sky. The view of our side garden (from my study and out the bedroom door) is always welcoming. But it didn't always look like this, and the power of gardening transformed it from a bleak view to one that soothes us.

I don't often run into modern homes with my favorite dreamy color schemes, but this Spa House designed by Sage Architecture out of Sacramento sure fits the bill. The owners wanted their own personal spa resort, a home that allowed them to escape from the real world. To keep with the spa theme, accent colors in the blue-green shades of the sea were used in the glass mosaic tile, accent walls, lighting, and the plastered fireplace. Love!

What a cute little entryway! So fresh and summery. I love that turquoise chair and little table outside the door. Photographed by Alec Hemer and styled by John Costello for Coastal Living .

Osaka red mustard It's been busy this fall, so I've barely been able to get a few new beds changed out, and only planted some (purchased) collards and cabbage plants last weekend. I still need to get the garlic in, hopefully this week, since it's getting late in the season. But a woodchuck has reappeared, so I might as well write off growing kale and cabbage, until s/he is relocated. Our drought continues, unfortunately. Lake Hartwell, next to campus, is remarkably low, and the Army Corps of Engineers announced recently that they couldn't mark all the hazards for boaters because of the low water. But I was encouraged about how well that some of my 'donated' seeds have produced in the protected vegetable garden next to our visitor center (at work). My colleague Kathy had reworked the beds, and recently sown collards, mesclun mix, turnip greens, red-striped mustards, and Osaka purple mustard. They all look great, and some are ready to harvest. She also has ...

My friend, Pat , in Michigan said to wrap my ever so green tomatoes in newspaper to store away in the basement for a little while. Well, that method has worked beautifully for ripening them. I was able to use about six pounds of the ruby jewels to make a fresh-frozen salsa. Six pints of the delicious sauce awaits our enjoyment during the long winter months. To make it I followed Mrs. Darlings recipe below, omitting the cumin and using a jalepeno minus the seeds instead of the chili pepper. It's not too hot nor too mild. As Goldilocks would say, 'It's just right." I hope you will try it. We still have at least seven or eight pounds of tomatoes left in various stages of ripeness. Perhaps I'll make more freezer salsa next week. I have to run to the store to purchase some tortilla chips. You can just imaging how hard it is to have this wonderful salsa and no chips :) Enjoy your day. For salsa recipe, visit Dishpan Dribble's canning page here and scroll ...

This photograph by Paul Massey is simply gorgeous. The light is just perfect! Love that bed, those ceilings...wow.

I've seen a hawk perched up high in a declining oak in the early morning for some time. The tree is below our big parking lot (at work), but gives him/her a great view of the meadows in the morning. It's one of our red-shouldered hawks - we have two pairs, I think, at the Garden where I work. Today I had my camera, so was able to 'see' a bit closer. A mockingbird was singing nearby. And persimmons were ripe and ready to eat.

This blissful home is the Coastal Living Idea Cottage 2008 located in picturesque Scarborough, Maine. Designed by Tracey Rapisardi, who perfectly combined beach style with functionality. I love the easy living feel of this home. I would love to get away from it all here! Take a virtual tour and read all about the rooms in the home here .

A neighborhood black gum is putting on a brilliant show. I don't know why this tree is so colorful. It's a bit spindly, near the road, not looking terribly robust, but is gorgeous. Ours isn't showing any color at all yet.

Journey North reports that the first monarchs have just arrived in their wintering areas in northern Mexico as the migration here continues. I just saw four nectaring on the butterfly bush, and have been seeing them for weeks now. My butterflying friends tagged 50 recently as part of their Monarch Watch volunteer work. It will be interesting to hear how many of their tagged monarchs are recovered. I even saw a hummingbird yesterday at the Garden, visiting a red salvia. The previous day, there were two in the same general area. Yesterday's date is the latest that I've ever seen the last fall hummingbird before -- but there are still plenty of flowers available! Hilton Pond's ruby-throated hummingbird site reports their last fall sighting on 18 October (1986).