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DIY tie back crop top | SHANiA

March 7, 2020

Now before we get into the tutorial I
have two announcements to make: the first announcement is that I’m going to try my
best, I’m going to try my best to have a DIY tutorial for you guys every two
weeks okay, but in order for me to have these
tutorials ready for you guys I’m going to need your help. I’m going to need you
to leave me comments or send me a message and let me know what kind of
tutorials you guys want to see. boom! That’s the first announcement. Then the
second announcement is that I’m going to be incorporating commercials into my
videos, really short commercials to really just promote and highlight
wonderful creators and business people who have brands and products that they
would really like to just get out there, into the realm, into the world. If you’d
like to have your product, or your brand sponsored in one of my commercials just
send me your information, send me a little bit of information about yourself,
about your product, about your brand, as well as a sample of whatever it is that
you are selling okay? And you can send all of that information to my email
address which is fashion X Shania at gmail.com. All of that information will
be down below in the description box, so for today’s tutorial, we’re going to be
making this super cute DIY tie back crop top, so it looks like a normal crop top
in the front, and then when you get to the back you’re like: damn
daniel! No really though, when you get to the back, it’s really um it’s really cute,
really sexy, and really sultry with its low tie. Okay, so let’s get into it For this tutorial you’re going to need
fabric scissors, measuring tape, pins, fabric marker, and a crop top to trace. So
the first thing you want to do is fold your fabric in half and make sure that
it’s inside out when you have folded it. Then you want to take your crop top and
you want to fold that in half as well. Now if you don’t have a crop to,p you can
use a regular tank top, and just kind of estimate where it would be a crop top. So,
fold it in half and place it down on your fabric and you’re not going to line
it up with the fold of your fabric you’re going to line it up with the edge
of your fabric, and you want to make sure that when you lie it down on your fabric
you want to leave space on the side and on the bottom so that you can include
your seam allowance line. So make sure everything is in place, and you want to
make sure that you arrange your top so that when you trace it you’re actually
just tracing the front part of the top, rather than the bottom. So, if you need to
tuck something in feel free to do that and then you want to trace i,t but just
on the outer edges. The next thing we want to do is measure the bottom line of
your pattern that you just traced on your fabric. In my case mine came out to
be 7 inches. So, you want to draw another line connecting from where this line
ended that’s also the same measurement. So, your total line at the end should be
14 inches: 7 plus 7 is 14 Make sure that your line is straight when you’re
drawing it on your fabric. Then the next thing you want to do is you want to
start from where the armpit is and you want to take your measuring tape and you
want to line it up as straight as you can get it. It doesn’t matter if it’s not
extremely straight, and then you want to go about an inch and a half in from
where the curve is of your of your pattern and make a mark, and this is
going to help you decide how low the back of your shirt will come. Then you
want to connect where the start of your your curve is to the mark that you just
made, and you’re basically going to be
creating a new curve when you connect the the mark and the line. From this mark,
you want to draw another line that connects down to the horizontal line,
which is the bottom of the crop top. When you’re finished, it should look something
like this. After that, you want to pin down both
layers –make sure that everything is straight on both layers– and then you
want to cut around the pattern about a half-inch. Now if it makes you feel more
comfortable, you can go ahead and draw a half inch line all around the pattern,
but if you are a pro like me, and if you trust yourself, then you can just free
hand it, and cut a half inch line around the pattern without drawing the line
first. Then you should have two pattern pieces like this. This lovely t-shirt
right here was purchased from the juju stile brand. The Juju Stile brand
is basically a brand that focuses on African fashion, so it really
incorporates a lot of like bright colors, geometric shapes, and patterns, and like
ankara fabric. So, you can buy one of the t-shirts from the collection by just
going to her Etsy shop. That information will be down below in the description
box. The next thing you want to do is make the front of your shirt;
to do that you want to fold your fabric in half. Make sure that it’s inside out
and then you want to take that previous pattern that you just cut and you want
to fold it in half you’ll know that it’s in half once that point –basically that
like little sharp pointy part– touches the side of the pattern. So, where the
side of your shirt will be. Okay, so it should look something like that, like
kind of like a little triangle at the bottom. It should look something like
this, then what you want to do is put this folded pattern on top of the folded
fabric and then you want to trace it the way that it is, and then later we’re
going to go back and adjust the neckline so that we have a sort of
kind of boat neck. The next thing I want to do in order to make the neckline you
want to measure about an inch down ,bring it across an imaginary line and then
then make like a half-inch line at that one inch mark, and then you want to draw a
line from the top of where the shoulder will be, and you want to connect it from
here down to that half-inch line that you just drew, and then from there just
kind of freehand a curve. So remember that the deeper the curves is, the lower
your neckline will be, and you also have to remember that this line we can assume
includes the seam allowance. Okay, then you want to cut it out, and it should look something like this once you open it up. Now
remember that the pattern that we just traced in order to get this pattern we
have here already included the seam allowance lines, so you want to just add
the seam allowance line to the inside of this pattern right here, and it’s going
to help you with hemming. You also want to transfer the similar lines to the
previous patterns that we made for the back part of the shirt. So, it should look
something like this. Now you want to hem the backside of this shirt. So, you’re not
going to worry about the side, and the armhole, just this part here. So, fold it
over and then sew along it. I recommend that you do a zig zag stitch if you’re working with cotton fabric. And you want to do the same thing with the other side of the
other flap. So fold it, and then sew all around. Don’t worry about the armhole, or
the side yet, so it should look something like this. So, starting with the front
part of the shirt you want to put it so that the right side of the shirt is
facing up. So, your seam allowance should be down. Then you want to take the back
of the shirt and make sure that the right side at the back of the shirt is
facing the right side of the front of the shirt, and you want to make sure
that they’re lined up along the edges of the side of the shirt. You want to pin down at the top of the shoulders, and the sides. Step one: hem the
sides. Step two: sew the shoulders. Step three: hem the bottom of all three layers.
Step four: hem the neckline, all right. To make the sleeves you want to fold the
fabric in half, and make sure it’s inside out. You want to put your shirt on the folded fabric and trace the curve of your
armhole. Then we want to take a sleeve of a shirt that you already have, and you
want to trace it. If you don’t have a short sleeve shirt use a long sleeve shirt
and fold it the way that I did. If it’s too long you can always adjust it, it’s
better longer than shorter. Then you want to make sure that the armhole of the
sleeve lines up exactly with the armhole that you just drew on the fabric. Then
you want to trace the sleeve as it is. So, you see there’s a sort of gap between
the sleeve of the shirt and where the fabric is, you don’t want to trace
your sleeve going down. You just want to trace from the bottom of your sleeve,
just straight up. So as you can see, with my sleeve I had to do a little bit of an
adjustment by drawing an extra line. So, if you end up tracing a shirt that’s
bigger, just make sure that the bottom of your sleeve meets the end of the armhole.
So now you want to pin down the sleeve pattern, and add seam allowance to the left, the right, and the bottom of the pattern, but not at the top of the pattern where
the fold is. Cut out the pattern and trace it to make a second sleeve. Once you have your two sleeves it should look like this. And then, what you want to do is
just make sure that you copy the seam allowance lines on the front and
the back of both patterns. So, they should be on both sides. And then, we want to sew just the bottom of both sleeves. Okay, so after you’ve sewn your sleeves
it should look like this basically, okay. And you want to do the same thing with
both sleeves. Then you want to attach your sleeve to your shirt so that it
looks like this. Take your shirt and you want to turn it
inside out. Turn your shirt inside out and you want to take your sleeve and
make sure that your sleeve is on the right side. Then you want to take the
right side of the sleeve and put it inside the arm hole. So, it should go
like this, still on the right side, and you want to take this bottom part of
where the sleeve is and you want to match it up with the bottom part of the
armhole okay. Still with the sleeve inside, so match it
up like so, and you want to pin it, okay. And then, you wanna –from this part– you
just want to go all around the armhole and just pin the sleeve to the armhole
together okay. But, it’s important to start with that seam line because it
helps to make sure that everything is in place because you don’t want to have the
seams not matching up when you’re done. It should look like this, okay and you
just want to go ahead and sew all the way around, okay. When you’re done do a
top stitch and that will be it, and then the final part is to try your shirt on
and make sure that your sleeves are okay, and then you can — while you’re trying to
shirt on– you can just decide how far in you need to
hem the sleeve of your shirt, and then turn it inside out like we already have
our shirt inside out, and then just hem it down, okay. And that is basically it,
okay. So, let’s go ahead and do it.

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Sistema de riego inteligente: Set de Control Sensor Smart de Gardena 🌿

March 7, 2020

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Outstanding Succulent Design |Jeff Pavlat |Central Texas Gardener

March 6, 2020

Jeff Pavlat and Ray Clayton accept
steep challenges with creativity and curiosity. When they bought a house on a
rocky slope in deer country they’d never built a retaining wall planter for
succulents or a staircase patio from the ground up. They’d never even grown a
succulent. Now Jeff’s become an educator as well as a collector who experiments
with propagating all kinds of plants along with succulents. I wasn’t really
much of a gardener and then when we bought this property there was
absolutely nothing here and I was looking for things that I could use for
my landscape that the deer wouldn’t eat and that I didn’t have to water and take care
of a whole lot. A succulent is any plant that has evolved to be able to store
water so it can go for periods sometimes prolonged periods without water and they
do that by storing the water either in modified roots or stems or leaves.
Succulents include all sorts of things from all over the world they’re all
different plant families they’re not just cactus. Cactus are one particular family. I
try most anything that’s cold hardy and there are a lot of succulents that
aren’t but that’s what I have greenhouses for that. The pond was
actually the very first gardening thing that we put in and there was sort of a
hole right at the entrance of the house and it looks like it’s in the ground but it’s
basically the pond was built above ground with a concrete block walls to
raise it up so it just raised the whole area up so I didn’t have to dig down. He
tucked in aguaves and aloes, but you won’t find sedums since deer go for
those tender succulent leaves. Streetside, deer ramble past Jeff’s diverse collection that makes a small and tall textural contrast in greens against silver and grey.
Many agaves make offsets or pups to divide. Sadly the whales tongue does not
but this splendid agave goes out with a bang. I’m excited to see the flowers but I’ll
be sad to see the plant go in the end. To bank the hill below he and Ray built
a retaining wall planter. My partner Ray and I did all the stonework, it took
years, it was kind of a slow in the evening and on weekends project and we started
at one end and started building the limestone walls and filled in with dirt
and then began the landscaping kind of as we went along. He builds momentum
along the slope with contrast including connectivity to the street gardens
backdrop. By the time we got to this end I knew more what I was doing. It
went more from necessity, getting started, and then I started being
a little more creative and thinking of you know what I would like the space to
be like. And then when our son was born, when he was little, he helped pitch in a
little bit. He liked to help scoop mortar out. I wanted to have a sitting area it has
a nice view from there and can look down on other parts of the garden and I also
wanted the millstone fountain and that was a good place to put that. There was already
a little bit of a natural flat spot in the hill right there. On the back wall,
Jeff arranged a stately trio of pedestals constructed with concrete tube forms. Yucca gloriosa Variegata anchors bold entrance pillars spilling with native
silver pony foot. He dotted the hillside with sotal agaves and cold proof aloe saponaria. Its flowers attract hummingbirds for months in spring through summer. Near the greenhouse, a swimming bed
clusters golden barrel cactus against specimen cacti, agaves and a standout sotal. Two robust yucca rostratas hold court above them. I tend to buy plants
without thinking of where they’re going to go. A lot of the time I’ll buy them
and sit them in pots for a while and then I sort of think, you know and I’ll
take into account how large they’re going to get and what I think they would
look good with. Sometimes he moves things around to find a better fit. Succulents
don’t mind though it’s easier to do when they’re small. He experiments to like
with an Ocotillo that had been hack-sawed off at the nursery to about 18 inches giving it
a more spreading form. Ocotillo normally goes straight up but when it was cut off
it branches out a little bit to the side so it tends to wanna grow horizontally
so as it gets a little longer I keep trimming and getting it a little bit more
upright just by careful pruning. The more things I found the more interested I
got and then I went beyond just what would grow in the ground here and
started the greenhouse plants. Along with winter protection he propagates
succulents in the greenhouse. There’s just a lot of diversity out there and there
are some really exciting new succulents that don’t look like they should even exist I
mean they’re so foreign looking. Greenhouse tents provide more indoor room.
I do cover plants still in the winter time. I cover less after the three-day
freeze we had, took out some really not cold hardy things. I did put a few things
back but I tried to replace a number of things with more cold hardy. In a shady
spot near the house, he grows cycads, dionns and coonties. Silver Mediterranean fan palm and spreading
plum yew get marginal sun. His favorite agave for shade is agave bracteosa.
It will grow in more Sun but it does great in shade. For a larger agave I found the dark
green agave salmiana does pretty well in shade. They grow slower in shade. Jeff’s garden is alive with pollinators going for the flowers. Wrens nest in the
tops of the Yuccas. I have a lot of lizards. There aren’t many pests though mealy bugs can be annoying
in Spring. He keeps a vigilant eye out for the killer agave weevil though. It’s not
a terrible problem for me but it has been an issue at different times and
when I get something infested I try to take it out as fast
as I can so it doesn’t allow the beetles to keep spreading. There are also some
little bugs that do chew on the Yuccas and I’ll try to spray,those are pretty
easy to kill with soapy water so I try to keep on those. I will spray usually in
the morning and a lot of insects cluster the ones that get on the Yuccas and things you’ll find some of these things a little cactus bug that
chews on a them clusters in the morning and that’s a good time to hit
them and then it’s not as hot. I haven’t had a problem with like safer soap burning, you do want to watch anything that has neem oil and a you know horticultural
oils those can really burn if they get too much sunlight on the cactus because it leaves
an oily residue. He doesn’t fertilize since these plants natively grow in
poor soils. Rainfall generally provides enough water but in severe drought he
wanders deeply once a month. When the prickly pear and things start to shrivel you
know it’s time that they want some water. For cutting old leaves off agaves I use a
serrated bread knife and I like the restaurant supply for buying things like
that knives and scoops for soil the ice
scoops work great. The sticky point for new succulent gardeners is realizing how big a tiny nursery plant will get. You want it to look good now and if
you put a one gallon agave or one gallon sotal and then you have six feet of
clearance all the way around it looks like a big empty patch and it’s going to
look that way for the next 4 or 5 years. If that is a concern you know you can put
other things in there to fill the space that you know won’t last quite as long
or that are temporary but you do have to keep in mind that some of them are going
to get huge. I would also recommend you know for a lot of people leaving things
in containers in your garden is very pretty. Particularly in small gardens you can set out
smaller pots and they are very easy to rearrange then if the pot is on the real
small side though you do need to protect it probably in winter even for cold
hardy things. I feel very comfortable being around the plants, I enjoy the
beauty of them just being able to be around them all the time is a big part
of the joy of having them it’s a nice peaceful place to sit and be in the garden.

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Garden Potpourri – Episode 3 – Gardening Tips, Advice & More!

March 5, 2020

hello everyone and welcome to the garden
potpourri series this is the third episode of the garden potpourri series
where we share a lot of gardening tips ideas and show you how to grow the best
plants in your home garden to start with let’s take a look at this plant which is
called sweet marjoram or Maru or Maruga this is a plant that’s available at the
Home Depot gardening store and the reason I recommend growing this herb in
your garden is because it just makes your garden so fragrant this herb has
leaves that are extremely fragrant now not only does this plant are down your
garden it can also be eaten you can use sweet marjoram leaves in salads just raw
they just add a subtle flavor to it and you can also cook them with other
vegetables like stir frying them with a lot of other vegetables like beans or
carrots and your dish will taste amazing sweet marjoram grows throughout the year
in places like Southern California and you’ll be delighted to grow this plant
in your home garden next we look at a radish variety that is extremely easy to
grow in small spaces this is the white radish variety and I have discussed the
purple or the pink radish varieties the ones that grow very quickly in my
previous episodes and this is a slightly different variety but it’s extremely
easy to grow in your home garden now we are creating two types of potting
mixes for the first type of potting mix they will be using four parts of bark
this is ground cover bark that’s easily available at most gardening stores like
Home Depot and we are going to be using two parts of peat moss you can use any
kind of sphagnum peat moss which is also very easily available and you can even
substitute peat moss with coco coir and we are going to be adding one part of
perlite now perlite improves drainage and in containers I highly recommend
that you use perlite in almost all container mixes and we are just going to
be mixing all this together now I’m using a separate container just to mix
all this up very thoroughly and when perlite is dry you will see that it is
very dusty so just make sure that if you have a lot of wind in your area just wet
the perlite a little bit just so that you don’t get a lot of perlite dust in
the air and we have two kinds of container mixes here for the other
container mix we have mixed up equal parts of peat moss and perlite and the
reason I made a separate potting mix here is to show you just how easily you
can make a potting mix even if you don’t have all the ingredients like pine bark
available locally and we’ll see how these two potting mix is produced
we’ll start sowing the seeds this is the Burpee white radish seeds and this is
one of the most common radish seeds that you will get at any of your gardening
stores it’s quite a common variety and the reason people love it is because it
produces radishes very quickly sometimes within about 60 days or so and we’re just going to be sowing this
about two or three inches away from each other and this should just suffice and
if you notice the container is there about four to six inches deep not more
than that and this is sufficient for the radishes to grow after a few days once
the seedlings emerge we will start thinning the radish seedlings and
thinning the radish seedlings enables you to keep the healthiest plant while
you remove everything else and that gives the one lone plant a lot more
space to grow now a lot of us don’t thin our seedlings and that’s because we just
feel it’s not very good or you know we don’t feel like killing our little
seedlings but remember that if you don’t thin your seedlings your plants may not
grow to their full potential now you don’t have to throw away these seedlings
you can sometimes even Transplant them in a different location if they’re still
okay or you can just eat them these are just like microgreens that you can eat
but in any case it’s a good idea to thin your seedlings the Burpee white radish
and this is the other peat moss and perlite mix that we are using
and as you can see the difference is not much this has produced equally good
radish seedlings in this container and we are just thinning these radish
seedlings as well now you need to make sure that you keep
your seeds moist while these radish seedlings are growing or any seedlings
for that matter because seedlings are very susceptible to dying when they
don’t have enough moisture in the soil within just a few days you can see that
the radish seedlings have emerged into quite large plants and between the two
potting mixes there’s not a whole lot of difference the leaves are pretty
well-developed and this is the one with the peat moss and perlite as you can see
the peat moss and perlite will retain a little bit more moisture than the
potting mix with the wood chips and the perlite and peat moss just because the
ground cover bark is quite porous now as you can see we are harvesting our radish
you can harvest your radishes once they reach about this size you can
even wait longer if you want larger radish roots but we eat our radishes
whole the leaves the roots everything so this is a good time to harvest the
radish while the leaves are quite fresh and the roots are decently sized
you can get a good crop of radish that you can eat raw you can cook them now
this is the potting mix that has the woodchips and this is the Burpee white
radish same variety and this also produced decently sized radish as you
can see and don’t be too worried about the size
of your radishes just make sure that your plant is healthy you’re growing
them organically we haven’t added any fertilizer other than compost tea and
this has been doing a great job at supplying all the nutrients that this
radish plant needs you can see the harvester it looks
beautiful the leaves are quite well-developed
the roots are also decently developed so all in all we were very happy to grow
this radish variety which is why I’m sharing this radish variety which can be
easily grown in small containers and be harvested very easily within thirty to
sixty days and now let’s look at a plan that I usually don’t talk about and this
is something that I have been growing for quite some time but haven’t
discussed as much on California gardening and this is the dill plant now
there is one variety of dill that I absolutely love it’s called mammoth the
mammoth dill is one of the best dill varieties you can grow it’s extremely
easy to grow it grows extremely well in containers as you can see we are growing
this in just a 16 inch wide container and we are growing about 3 or 4 plants
in this container which is quite a lot of plants to grow in just one container
and the good thing about dill is that it has a lord of health benefits there’s a
lot of medicinal value there’s a lot of vitamins and minerals that your body
really needs so growing something like dill and consuming this as a part of
your diet is extremely important in leading a healthy life and the good
thing about dill is that once you harvest the dill leaves like you see
here they will grow back they will keep growing back during the growing season
and dill is a cool season crop which means that you can plant it somewhere
around fall to winter dill thrives in the cooler months of December January
and February which are the coolest months here in Southern California and
as you can see here the dill leaves have grown back and they grow back pretty
quickly and the reason I recommend the mammoth dill variety is just because it
produces enormous leaves and you need a lot of dill leaves especially if you
cook the dill leaves you need a lot of leaves because once you cook the dill
leaves they become smaller in size so you need a decent quantity of dill and
the way we cook bill is we chop it up we add some spices and we lightly stir fry
them with like olive oil and garlic and some spices and it tastes amazing
now some people find dill too strong and taste the dill leaves especially just
because they have a very distinct aroma and my suggestion would be to just try
it out and then see how you feel it’s just a matter of acquiring that taste of
eating bill and here is the dill harvest as you can see a bunch of dill looks
extremely healthy very nice and delicious and now let’s look at a strawberry
variety this strawberry variety is called Loran I’ve been growing this
strawberry variety for quite some time now and other than the Chandler
variety which I have discussed in one of my previous YouTube videos the Lorraine
strawberry variety is quite a good variety
now this strawberry variety can be easily grown in containers as well as
some of the other methods like grow bag the strawberry grow bags which if you
haven’t checked out you should see how to grow strawberries and strawberry grow
bags and here we are growing them in 16-inch containers as well
they grow equally well in larger containers and as you can see we are
harvesting the Loran strawberries here now the only other strawberry variety
that have grown that produces bigger strawberries is the Chandler variety as
I mentioned but the Loran variety will also give you a lot more strawberries it
does produce a lot of strawberries I think it’s an excellent variety for
container gardening and the taste is also very good now the taste for
strawberries is very subjective some people like start tasting
strawberries some people like sweet strawberries and some like just the
perfect balance between sweet and tart flavors and this is a strawberry variety
which I can say is right in between it’s neither too sweet not too tart so if you
like this kind of a strawberry taste you will love the strawberry and it’s
important to protect your strawberries from birds which is why we have this
protective net a lot of people complain about their strawberries being eaten by
birds or by other critters and the reason for that is not protecting the
strawberries with something like a bird net and I will provide some links to
these products in the video description in the comments below and as you can see
the harvest it looks beautiful they are quite large size strawberries and you
can get a lot of strawberries from just one plant so there we have it folks that
was our garden potpourri episode 3 if you liked this video do give us a thumbs
up and if you have any questions comments or suggestions please put them
in the comments box below if you’re not already a subscriber do hit that
subscribe button as we have a lot of very interesting videos coming up for
2020 we’ll see you again soon happy gardening

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Garden for Butterflies & Bees |Drake White |Central Texas Gardener

March 5, 2020

– All right, we’re going to be talking about
pollinators right now, one of the hottest topics in the garden. I’m joined by Drake White from San Antonio. She is with The Nectar Bar. – Yes. – Again, this is a topic that everywhere I
go, people are on fire for gardening for pollinators and butterflies. Tell me how your passion got started. – Well it really got started with an herb
garden. – Okay. – So, it was going out clipping here and there
and discovered some little worms on it – Okay. – And I asked the neighbor, hey, what are
these? And she was like, well you can get rid with
this and that. I didn’t wanna kill it. So I wanted to find out And I just didn’t– – Find out what this is before I kill it right? – Yeah! And so I just found out what it was, it ended
up being a black swallowtail on my fennel – Okay. – And the obsession just began I just completely
got obsessed after one butterfly to the next and started creating habitats – Yeah. – In my own yard and then decided you know
what, this is a need that other people should have. – Part of your business– – Is educational, mm-hmm. – Is educational but you also have a small
nursery? – Yes. – Okay. But when people come in, what are the big
questions they really need to answer? – Well, one is understanding about host plants
and nectar plants. A lot of people don’t know what that is. So, you need to have both. First, the host plant is adult food or baby
food actually. – Okay, right, right. – So– – The baby in your garden. – Exactly. So the host plants are needed where the mom
can lay the eggs and the caterpillar hatches and eat the plants. Now, if you have the nectar plants, which
are the adult food that is the one that will give the adult her food, she’ll lay her eggs
and continue throughout the habitat. – Right. – It also provides shelter for the eggs and
caterpillars – Right. from predators as well. Sometimes you get a double bonus cause some
host plants are also nectar plants as well. – Yeah. For the baby food, – Mm-hmm. – For the plants that the little babies are
munching on, that’s okay, let them munch – Yes. Absolutely, that’s what it’s there for. We have to have both. So, you just make sure you create a nice thick
lush area, habitat for them and you won’t see it as much. – This is such a huge topic right now. Why do you think that’s the case? – Well, one of it is with what we call our
gateway butterfly, the Monarch Well, it’s– – The gateway. – [Drake] Yeah, it’s the gateway insect for
learning to conserve. – [Tom] Right. – Their numbers have gone down so it’s partially
because of our faults – [Tom] Yeah. – Eradicating their food sources. So not using pesticides also and then just
putting back into the habitat. We’re taking away, if we could just put back
in what’s being taken away, then we actually help increase the numbers and when we talk
about that, it’s not just, if one butterfly is going, there’s gonna several types of butterfly – Sure. – As well as different bees and native bees
and things like that, that we don’t even think about being pollinators. How many birds, for an example – Oh yeah. – Are also are pollinators, so – right, right. – These are important ways and that’s kind
of what sparks it to people. They learn about one, and it’s kind of like
the same with me. I learned about one and then here I am, just, – Yeah. – I couldn’t stop learning cause once you
get that hook and it gets you. – And you’re right. You plant for one and then it’s like a party
being thrown for a bunch. Absolutely, it absolutely is and it’s not
just the party just for the one, you have everything – Yeah. – So everything just kind of move in, it’s
a whole little ecosystem and you can do it in any, in your own backyard even if you don’t
have a backyard, container gardening. – Yeah. – A lot of people don’t believe that you can
but you can have a very diverse ecosystem sitting on your patio as well. – Absolutely, absolutely and you’ll be amazed
what stops by for a visit. – Absolutely, yup have your morning coffee
and watch the hummingbirds too. – Right, so let’s talk about some of your
favorite plants to include, to kind of fill the roles that you’ve been describing. – So some of the favorite ones, definitely
mistflowers, any type of kinds. So that’s one very happy plant – Yes. – To put for any type of pollinator. They love it, it’ll be filled with anything
and you have, there’s several different types. Any type that you get, you’ll have blooms
all year round till we get our first freeze – Right. – And then, Flame acanthus and Flame acanthus
is a host plant and a nectar plant and hummingbirds just absolutely love it as well. – Yeah. – Cone flowers, Cape daisies, things that
are host plant and nectar plant just kind of put together. – Okay, on Flame acanthus, I’m just curious
which butterflies are attracted to that and other pollinators – So the the two is used as a host plant is
the Texan Crescent and also the Crimson Patch. – Okay. – Those are two butterflies that use them
as host plant. So, if you see the little caterpillars on
there, it’s okay, it’s meant to be that way. – All right so, and when you’re educating
people and teach them or even installing a garden for folks, the soil conditions for
the plants that we’ve talked about as group, is there kind of a preferred range for those
plants? – Well, especially when you talk about native
plants, you have to understand what soils you’re working with. So, in San Antonio, we have four different
eco-regions. So depending where you’re at in town, – [Tom] Of course, yeah. – Something that’s gonna grow up near the
Edwards Plateau is not gonna grow somewhere that’s in a sandy soil or Blackland Prairie. – Right. – So it’s just understanding where you’re
actually at. Whether you’re in San Antonio or you’re in
Oklahoma, native plants are gonna be working best for your area and finding out what those
are. I educate folks everywhere on what they have
and what would work best. – [Tom] When I’m think about the plants you
talked about, almost all of those would perform well together I think. – [Drake] Yes. – They could do with some dappled shade but
they really would prefer Sun. – Yes, they do prefer Sun. They would do some dappled shade. For example, everyone almost knows of the
Antelope Horn, the beautiful– – Yeah right. – The one you drive down the highways – Yeah. – And you see them down along the medians
and it does want Sun but it does work in dappled shade as well but you have to understand the
soil that it likes and also understanding how to grow it or, literally talk to your
plants, tell them how pretty they are and – Well they are pretty, yeah. – And that’s kind of all you have to do, because
native plants don’t like to be babied and one of the biggest mistakes – Oh, yes it’s true. – That people make is baby them and over watering. So, now that doesn’t mean you don’t have to
ever water but once you have them established, – Right. – Then they definitely need to just be talked
to – Yeah. – And reminded how beautiful they are. – A good deep watering once a week really
will carry – Yes. – Through for most of the species we’re talking
about. – Exactly, even in our hot heat that we’re
dealing with now. – Right. – I actually had just put up some things about,
it’s like 500 degrees outside – Right. – And still we’re having blooms and it’s basically,
this is what it’s meant for. Our plants here – Yeah. – [Drake] Are used to what we get, whether
we get rain or not. – I started using some bit of advice I learned
from a guest on the show in terms of how to recommend watering in our heat, in our summertime
temperatures which were so brutal this past Summer. – [Drake] Yes. – But, if it’s wilted in the morning and looking
tired in the morning, that’s a good time to water it. – That’s a perfect time to water. – But if you see it’s wilting in the afternoon, – I would leave it alone. – All plants would wilt in the afternoon. – Yes, I wilt in the afternoon – Right, exactly. – Yes. – Don’t get too upset about that. – Exactly and it will tell you when it needs
a drink and if there’s nothing wrong, don’t water it. – So tell me, I know that you’re involved
in educational activities. – Yes. – In fact, there’s a festival coming up that
you’re involved – Yes. – With, just tell me about that. – The Monarch Butterfly and Pollinator Festival. It is October 20th this year. I am Chief Docent for that festival – Good for you. – And what we do is we basically get volunteers
together, they are trained on how to tag, why we tag and then we go out into the crowd
that day and we actually teach them how to tag and release the butterflies. This way they understand the importance of
the citizen science – Sure. – And what goes into it because Monarchs are
the only butterfly that we are aware of that do a two way migration – Yeah. It’s fascinating, yeah. – Just like birds, yup so all the way from
Mexico to Canada and back. – Okay. – So, pretty unique. – Well, it’s very unique – Yes. – And you are a great spokesperson for this
whole movement that’s a foot here and not just central Texas but all across the country. – Yes. – It’s so gratifying to know that people are
taking citizen science and ecological responsibility into their own hands and doing something that
may save these species, so it’s really cool. – Yes it’s really cool cause it saves everything
around – Yes. – Not just the butterflies. It really does tie everything in and we get
a good result from it. – All right, well Drake, it’s been a real
pleasure. Thank you for coming up from San Jose – Thank you so much – to be on the show. – For having me. – Okay, you’re most welcome and coming up
next is our friend, Jim Kamas.

Articles, Blog

Enchanting Cabin In The Forest

March 4, 2020

Articles

Pricking Out – Backyard Veggies, Chickens & Garden – Christchurch – New Zealand – (ru)Grew

February 27, 2020

Woohoo Captioning is back! I’ll update these soon Kia ora it’s Ruth here in my backyard
in Christchurch and it’s a week on since I planted the seeds and look how awesome
they are going this is my cleanser and pansies once I’m gonna learn about this
is that Michelangelo grows a lot faster than my pansies after searching about it
afterwards it takes well it’s been a good week and already just starting to
pop up so we know plant things and the same container I really need to look at
how long they take to germinate to that plant the same things same germination
times in the same container but clean German and pansies it going well my
Brussels sprouts are going well my spinach Oh they’ve been in water so now
I’m getting dripped on my this is my purple sprouting broccoli thanks Mary my Lilith my kale from my Uncle Pete
Thank You Uncle Pete and last but not least my curly kale
that is still sitting in water because what I’m gonna be talking about today
it’s pricking out now if you’re in New Zealand and you’re new to gardening like
me I’m currently doing the open play tech free online course and horticulture
and so I’m just learning about seeds and it’s kind of well is it living free we
removal free and high school you learn a lot pricking out is something I’ve been
learning about so I’m going to do that today originally when I heard the word
freaking out I thought it was a negative thing I thought it was that so for these
I thought that it means that you just pulled out all the ones that you didn’t
want and just lift them and they’re kind of like thinning with carrots so I’ve
never done it because I thought oh my goodness I’ve grown all these amazing
and for this kale I don’t want to get rid of a whole lot so I thought I just
plant them kind of at the stage straightens together but forget but five
in all the roots are kind of inter tangled and it can be tricky pulling
them out and I’m more likely to lose him proving out is thinning kind of at this
stage but rather than discarding you put them into a new one so here’s one I
prepared earlier with the soil boiling at and I’m going to show you a quick 101
of cracking out so you are like me and you didn’t know what
it was you can do it too and get more plants without overcrowding so the time
to do it is about now they are a week on they’ve got some good growth and the big
thing that I learned about freaking out is how sensitive and how precious the
stems are the stems of the plants are really easily crushed so when you’re
handling him I thought the steamers been quite a good
place no it is the leaves so what I’ll do is I’ll change to a place up and I’ll
just show you really quick how I’m gonna pick out these and then you can do it
yourself because it’s so super easy okay so here I have my kale seeds which have
been grown for a week and here I have my new medium what I’ve done is this is
probably two-thirds sieve resumix and one-third soil what I thought I’d do is
just mix a little bit of soil in there so they get used to normal soil before I
transplant out but it still has the ability to be really well aerated for
the roots to be able to grow through well what I’m going to be doing is just
doing one cell of this to start with I’ve already soaked them and I’m going
to pinch the bottom the roots haven’t started coming down to the bottom you
and I am going to carefully sorry–but home view carefully tip out hopefully
just that one so here I have my lovely little plank of seeds and I’m gonna
carefully keep that soil carefully remove the seedlings from where they
where it’s one two three I’ve got quite a few on this one definitely overcrowded
for five six seven eight nine so what I
might do with my one that I’m transferring them into is I’m gonna put
two here and little capsule and it always recommends using a Dipper this as
a pencil there’s no point to make buying a Dipper because what I can do it as I
can sharpen the pencil and use it to make my holes so I’m just gonna make a
hole like that and then get my better care which I’m
walk being naughty picking out by the steam trying to pick up by the leaves
and here you can see there’s a nice long route I only put it straight down into
the hole and then just carefully pushing around it and there is one transplanted
little seedling so get the neat Sun make my home carefully I use this to help me
get the root down in okay
and what I’m gonna do is just keep going along like that until I’ve got them all
in here so there I have it I’ve got two more
spaces I can feel that I can use that one but there is one pricked out Punnett
of kale seedlings so the last thing to do before watering is make sure that I’d
make a new neighbour and put it on here so that I don’t confuse it but look
super easy and now these plants have got so much more room to grow in to get
strong in before they’re planted out into the garden and I can have some
wonderful kale for the winter house that I’ve got mine under my nails and my
dress just coming home from work something you can very easily do and
hopefully it’s gonna be so with it that I’ll get stronger plants ready to go
into the garden and as I said before with the study that I’m doing if you’ve
got a bit of time on your hands I can highly recommend it if you’re living in
New Zealand because it’s free and if you don’t know much about gardening there’s
a lot of lip so far I’ve only just gone through the first paper of course and
then I have a certificate and water doctor at level 3 which is really cool
so keep checking out and the next video I’m going to show you a new book that
I’ve got about gardening which I absolutely love
and there’ll be time again for garden to her so thank you so much for joining me
remember subscribe if you’d like to see more a big thank you and hello to the
new people that have recently subscribed which is really cool and I’ll see you
next time kaki say

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Eat Your Flowers! | Alejandra Rodriguez Boughton | Central Texas Gardener

February 27, 2020

ALEJANDRA:
Flowers are used in food by someone who cares about you and the beauty of what you’re about
to eat. As a kid, I have fond memories of my mom making
squash blossom quesadillas and chamomile tea. It’s undeniable, edible flowers add lovely
colors, sweet aromas and surprising flavors to our gardens. Here are some of my favorite flowers. They’re not only tasty, they’re very easy
to grow. Borage is all the buzz at our farm. This self seeding annual grows vigorously
in warm soil. It’s also popularly known as bee bread as
it produces abundant nectar that bees go crazy for and yields excellent honey. So if you’re a beekeeper consider adding borage
to your flower mix. To grow borage, choose a sunny spot and give
it plenty of space. If it starts taking over the garden, don’t
fret. It takes well to being pruned. Borage leaves are packed with vitamin C and
have a pleasant cucumber like flavor that shines through in cooling drinks. Borage blooms abundantly in our farm from
spring to first frost. Its beautiful blue flowers can be used as
a tasty garnish or in ice cubes to embellish drinks. ALEJANDRA:
Fun fact about calendula. Calendula was originally used as a dye in
butters and cheeses giving them their golden signature hue. Calendula, also known as spot marigold, is
very easy to grow. Just pick a sunny spot with well-trained soil. In the kitchen calendula can be used to garnish
spreads and salads. It’s petals will add tangy flavor and golden
color to breads and cakes.When it comes to edible flowers nasturtiums are some of the
tastiest and easiest to grow. While some flowers have subtle flavor nasturtium
packs a punch with it’s peppery aroma. All the parts of the nasturtium are edible
and they have the same peppery aroma, reminiscent to arugula or watercress. It’s blooms come in jeweled tones that are
just outstanding and vinegars and when added to salads. If you like to grow nasturtiums be sure to
wait for cool weather as they will whither under the summer Texas sun. Lavender is a hardy annual that’s mainly known
for its uses in cosmetics and aromatherapy, but I argue that there’s a strong case to
be made for its culinary uses. You should try out lavender in chocolate desserts
and summer lemonades. You’ll be blown away. For savory dishes, lavender pairs beautifully
with lamb. The most commonly used variety of lavender
in the kitchen is english lavender. To get started growing lavender, get organic
plants for your local nursery and plant them in a dry spot, as it will not tolerate wet
feet. If you’ve killed lavender before you’re probably
watering it too much, so make sure to let it dry between waterings. An easy way to add lavender to your recipes
is by mixing lavender flowers into sugar and letting it infuse for a week or two. You can then use this sugar into desserts
and drinks. So edible flowers can add beautiful color
and lovely aromas to your garden, inviting pollinators and other beneficial insects. So why not grow some flowers this spring? For Backyard Basics, I’m Alejandra Rodriguez
Boughton.

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Citrus and Ficus Freeze Damage |Daphne Richards |Central Texas Gardener

February 26, 2020

– Beloved author and illustrator Sharon Lovejoy
really knows how to capture a child’s imagination outdoors, and takes all us adults along. Christine Jones and her nine-year-old daughter
Elena shared a very special discovery. Last summer they put deer fencing around an
old swing set to grow bottle gourds. When they let the gourds dry on the vine,
insects moved in on remaining growth. Christine wanted to clear out the bed a little
but then she and Elena discovered ladybug larvae and pupae along with adult ladybugs,
which were laying new eggs! Wisely, they chose to leave that garden chore
for later, and keep the natural cleanup crew around! Marie Pavlovsky spotted a cute, plump little
American Woodcock in her backyard and quickly grabbed this video of something she’d never
seen before. And, my own discovery, that I’d forgotten
to move two cherished plants out of the cold on a recent extra-frosty night. My patio citrus is a ‘Bumper’ Satsuma, and
bounced back rather quickly. The top leaves, which were most exposed, are
now simply curled, while the lower sections of the plant, naturally protected by the upper
portions, show no damage at all. My Ficus tree was not so lucky. It normally resides on a protected area of
my front porch, and I rarely bring it inside, even on the coldest of nights. But I forgot that I’d moved it over to a sunnier
spot recently, where it was more exposed to wind and cold, and the top of it is now completely
desiccated and dead. But, like the citrus, the lower portions are
undamaged. I plan to prune out the dead sections to reinvigorate
new growth once spring arrives, and this tropical tree will bounce back just fine. We’d love to hear from you! Head to centraltexasgardener.org to send us
your stories, questions, and pictures!

Articles

Bamboo Basics | Merredith Jiles |Central Texas Gardener

February 26, 2020

Alright, well we’re going to move from a beautiful romantic garden setting to one filled with bamboo. Perhaps not your idea of romance, but we’re going to tell you why it could be. I’m joined by Merredith Jiles who is a landscape designer, M. Jiles and Landscape Services. Great to have you with us, as always, welcome back to the show.
– Great to be back on CTG. – Well, bamboo, just the word bamboo strikes fear in the hearts of a lot of gardeners. Now, is it true that clumping varieties really don’t run?
– Well, Tom, all bamboos are going to spread, just like any plant. It’s going to grow and it’s going to get bigger over time. The two main types of bamboo you’re going to find are running and clumping. Clumping bamboos usually two to six, maybe as much as a foot in a season, that they will spread. I’ve seen running bamboos go 10 to 15 feet in a season.
– Right, I’ve seen it go 30 feet. But so, okay, so it’s more manageable for sure
– Yes.
– And you – there are ways to tell the difference between the two, and you’ve provided us with a sample. I think this is really cool, and I want to share it with folks. I have here 2 sections of bamboo cane. They look pretty close to the same. One’s a little different color, but one you can definitely tell is a clumping variety, and the other not. Now, what’s the difference?
– So this is going to be true for about ninety percent or maybe even more of the bamboo you’re going to find here in Central Texas.
– Okay.
– Um, the green one you have there – that is a type of philostakus, which is one of the running bamboos, and they actually have a very distinct, flat part that alternates.
– Yeah, I’m running my finger down here and I can feel this groove that runs along the calm. So that’s the flat part you’re talking about?
– Yes, that’s called the sulcus, and so you’ll notice on the golden bamboo you have there that it’s perfectly round, so that’s often alphonse car bamboo, which is a clumping variety of bamboo.
– Okay, so perfectly round like a straw, but if you run your finger along a runner you’re going to feel a little rill or depression in there.
– Yeah, and I think this is especially important if you’ve moved into a new home or if you’ve had new construction. We actually had a landscape project where I just happened to notice this bamboo the first time I went there, and the builder had planted 25 15-gallon running bamboos because he wasn’t positive about what he had. Luckily they had only been in for a little less than a year, so we were able to get them all out, but if this had remained in the ground, it would have eaten this entire lot. – Yeah, right, well they will. But there are a lot of reasons to plant bamboo though. I mean I find it an extremely useful plant, so the clumping varieties sound more attractive. Why don’t we introduce people to a few varieties of them, then we can talk more about care and control?
– Okay. You’ve brought three with you. One is called Alphonse car, and again clumping, right?
– Yes. – And so tell me a little bit about this variety.
– Well Alphonse car is probably the most useful one for what most people want. Most people want bamboo for screening because it gets height quickly, no plant gets mature height as quickly as bamboo will, but Alphonse car is kind of a more manageable height, usually around 15 to maybe 20 feet, but 12 to 15 is more common here in Austin. It is still going to have some spread to it. You want to give it some room. I’d probably give it at least five or six feet. Good manageable size.
– Ok, well it sounds like a great size. Let’s talk about conditions that it likes to grow in. I think of bamboo as being very fairly flexible, full sun to pretty heavy shade sometimes. – Yeah, I mean obviously like any plant, the more sun it gets, probably the better it’s going to grow. I’ve got some bamboos that are in fairly heavy shade, and they tend to be a little thinner, a little more stretched, just like most plants, but I have some growing under pecan trees and things like that that are fairly shaded, and they seem to be doing well. As you get into more and more sun, and you get into really heavy sun, you’re going to want to make sure that you have good irrigation form or something like that right which we can talk about some more.
– Right, the occasional good deep watering definitely makes difference. Soil types, I see them wherever you have actual soil, clay soils in this area, but they don’t seem to be doing particularly well in bamboo – I mean in limestone settings.
– Yeah, the natural habitat for most of these bamboos is going to be a little deeper, richer soil. I would say if you have that real heavy limestone or solid limestone in some cases, you might even consider removing a good bit of soil and bringing in some good rich soil. That will also help with control because if you’ve really kind of had to hollow out some heavy limestone and put in good soil, they’re not really going to want to stray into that.
– Yeah, they’ll stay in that, so to speak.
– Well, you brought in another variety. This one, I think, is particularly graceful. What’s the name of this one? This is golden goddess, and it is a slightly smaller bamboo, probably on the 10 to 12 foot range, doesn’t tend to have quite as big a comb so it’s going to be a little more arching in its growth pattern, so maybe even a little more room as far as how much space it’s going to need, but you will get more of that graceful, blowing in the breeze kind of action.
– I can actually, looking at the specimen you brought, I think this would look lovely in a container.
– Yes, and they do very well in containers. I would choose a good sized container. Don’t try to cram it in a little tiny pot and obviously use a very good potting soil, make sure the soil drains well, all that good stuff, and what is the cold tolerance for bamboo? I was just thinking about that.
– Well, it kind of varies and we did see this year with that one good freeze we had some damage around town. Things like the Alphonse car, the golden goddess, you’ll get some minor freeze damage. One that was popular several years ago, and it’s kind of fallen out of favor a little bit, the giant timber bamboo, bamboo sold haemi. Those really tend to take a hit, and I actually lost mine to the ground a couple of times, and I finally just removed it because I kind of got tired of it just having to start over again. – Well I can see why you made the effort on that variety though, it’s spectacular, but I’ve never seen a really well established stand of it in Texas and we may now know the reason why. All right, well there’s actually a more petite form that you brought, and this one, it’s called “Green hedge”, right?
– Mm-hmm.
– And can you actually shear it like a hedge?
– You can trim bamboo like a hedge. The tricky part ,and this is hard to do without a good demonstration, but hopefully you can follow me: so when bamboo grows, it gets new columns every year, and you get this shot of new growth. When that first comes up, everything is kind of in a nice, tight package, and if you have running bamboo it’s actually doing it right now in April, you’ll see that. You want to let that column come up and start to leaf out before you cut it. So let’s say you have one that you’ve trimmed a year before, and you’ve got a nice hedged off thing, you’re going to have to let it get a little shaggy and let that new growth come up and open and leaf out. Once it does that, you can come in and cut it, but if you cut it when it’s still tight together, kind of like origami it just kind of comes out strange. – Okay, well that makes sense. Now I always think of one of pruning tailing for bamboos, especially the larger ones, is thinning it out, actually creating kind of a sense of space in there instead of just the crowd of canes. Is that a good approach for the bamboos we’re talking about here?
– Absolutely, and what most people kind of have in their head, the picture they have of bamboo, is actually a manicure bamboo grove where you come in and remove columns. One individual column usually lives about two to three years, maybe a little longer, and then they die off, but each year you get new columns, so coming in at least once a year, cutting out some of the older columns that maybe don’t look as good, some of the smaller stuff. You can even cut off some of the lower leaves that have branched out to really be able to see the nice bottom part of the column, be able to get a sense of air through it and things like that.
– I was in a Japanese garden in Kyoto, actually, and talking to – it was actually, a zen priest was tending to a bamboo grove, and I was talking with him about the proper pruning technique, and he said that the ideal is that somebody carrying a parasol could pass between the caness, so maybe you can use that as a measure for thinning them out. So a lot of people, as I mentioned at the top, have negative attitudes about bamboo because they may be surrounded by neighbors whose golden bamboo keeps running into the yard. What are some good strategies for containing the spread, whether it’s clumping or running?
– Well probably the best strategy would be a product like bamboo barrier, which is a 40 mil plastic, it’s a very thick plastic. Usually we’re going to use about a 24-inch barrier here in Central Texas, which involves digging about a 20 inch deep trench and putting this barrier in. When those underground runners hit that barrier, they can turn left, turn right, turn up, but they won’t typically go down underneath and come back up on the other side. The main thing, especially if it’s coming in from your neighbor’s yard, is really getting a separation between what’s in your yard and that main column because these bamboos, they live off of stored carbohydrates that they have in their root system, and as long as it’s still connected to that root system, you can go through and cut all the stuff that’s come up in your yard, but it’s still feeding off that main route system. So to get it separated from that that mother root system, if you will, will really help control what you might have. – Okay, well this is all great tips for our audience out there, and I’m sure there are a lot of people who are dealing with the existing bamboo or are curious about adding bamboo because it is a terrific plant family and one that really can evoke the orient and just – and also create the screens that we talked about, so Merredith, as always, thank you for being on the program.
– Pleasure to be here. – Great advice, and coming up next it’s Daphne.

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