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Greetings!
Happy Thanksgiving - are you ready for the big day? We are! Kristy and I are both spending the day with our respective families giving thanks for a wonderful year.
The year is winding down fast, it seems. Any time now, we could experience the first freeze of the season - do you have enough frost cloth? If you missed last Sunday's "Get Ready for Winter" class, here's a tip: the cloth you use to cover your plants needs to go all the way down to the ground. You're trapping heat released from the earth at night (the blanket doesn't really warm up the plant) so it's important the heat can't escape under the edges.
 | | Just one example! |
Our next class is Sunday, December 2. This one features a demonstration of three or four (or more!) different kinds of holiday centerpieces using succulents and other natural and decorative materials. The class will be indoors, as always, and is $10. If the weather permits, though, we'll set up a potting station in our picnic area and you can plant your own little conversation-starter! We'll have vessels, succulents & decor items for sale and you're welcome to bring your own vessel. Cactus soil available at no charge! Then you can bring your lovely centerpiece home and we'll clean up the mess.
Many of you are aware that some of the larger retailers are actually going to be open on Thanksgiving Day. Well, we're not! There are so very few days that retailers can actually offer employees a complete day off. I don't know about you, but I think the stores can do without me for one day!
 | | We're small - you know we are! |
We will, however, be open as usual after Thanksgiving. I know you have lots to do after the holiday, but take a moment out of the hectic 'black' weekend to relax and enjoy a green space. We're supporting Small Business Saturday and we'd love to see you here at Papershell, rather than fighting for a parking spot at the mall. If you use your American Express card this weekend at a participating small retailer (I'm one!) and spend at leasat $25 in one transaction, you'll get a $25 credit on your AmEx statement.
Thanks for signing up for our email newsletter! Come see us soon! |
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A Return to Normal Weather?
I am so thankful that the terrible drought of 2011 was mitigated somewhat in 2012. Although October and November have been so dry (and I'm keeping an eye on that!), the rest of the year has been unusually moderate. We had rain when we most needed it. There were many days in July when we enjoyed cloud cover, which slows evaporation. The long-range forecast calls for neither an El Nino winter (which would usually mean more rain for us) nor a La Nina winter (usually drier), so I am hopeful we receive our normal fair share of rain. As you can see from the State Climatologist report, Fort Bend and the surrounding counties have moved from "abnormally dry" to "moderate drought."
 | | 11/13/12 Drought Map |
The Houston Chronicle's Eric Berger notes in a recent blog post that we don't have much hope for rain through the early part of December, but I'm hopeful. Normal rainfall would mean we get about 3.75" of rain next month, which would be very welcome indeed!
 | | Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution via www.freefoto.com |
Normal weather this time of year also means the possibility of frost or freeze, damaging tropicals and warm-season annuals. (Remember to protect those fall tomatoes if you haven't gotten your harvest in!) The television weather reporters are pretty good about predicting freeze but, not being plant people, they're not so good at letting us know about frost. As of this writing, we have not had a frost at Papershell, although several nights have come close. Frost occurs when water condenses out of the air onto the surface of things, including plants, and then freezes. This can happen even though the air temperature is above freezing. All day, the earth aborbs heat from the sun's rays and then loses it at night. When the night are cold, clear and still, heat is lost so rapidly that surface temperatures drop below freezing even when air temperature is above 32°. When you look at the weather forecast, watch for temps close to freezing, no wind, clear skies and a dew point below freezing. Protect tender plants by covering them or moving them.
My favorite weather information source comes from the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration. I like the hourly graph, depicting wind, cloud cover, temperature & dew point, all in one place.
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Beneficial Insects & Birds
I am thankful there are creatures out there eating garden pests! Beneficial insects and birds consume far more bad guys than I'll ever get. Some of them (bless their tiny hearts) even eat stink bugs and leaf-footed bugs They have earned their place in my horticultural communion of saints.
I'm not much of a YouTube fan, but I loved this video of a Praying Mantid enjoying a stink bug feast!
 | | Camera-shy! |
And since the leaves are falling from the trees now, we can get a much better look at some of our local birds, busily eating insects. Here's a picture of the shy Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, eating the insects that feed on the sap of our Sweetgum tree. (He's the guy who drilled all those holes).
I don't much care for wasps but this mason wasp or potter wasp is doing me a big favor - she's carrying off the cabbage looper to feed to her larvae. Mason wasps don't bother humans but cabbage looper sure bother gardeners!
 | | Go, wasp! |
If you are interested in maintaining a healthy population of beneficial insects and birds in the garden, limit your use of insecticides. Broad-spectrum products kill as many beneficials as they do pests. Generally the fewer insecticides you use, the more in balance your insect populations will be. However, I still catch and execute every leaf-footed bug I see!
If you're interested in beneficial insects, you might like this two-page flyer with pictures & descriptions of "the good guys." It's a PDF file, so you'll need Adobe's PDF reader installed on your computer.
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New Harvest of Garden Books!
Urban Farms, by Sarah C. Rich - 16 profiles of urban farms in major metropolitan areas across the country. Gorgeous photos, inspiring stories. Here's an interview with the author.
 | | Welcome, chickie! |
Free-Range Chicken Gardens, by Jessi Bloom - practical and beautiful solutions for those who garden with backyard poultry. She's also very candid about her mistakes, so you can learn from her before you make the leap! Here's a video interview from the San Francisco Garden Show!
Taste, Memory: Forgotten Foods & Why They Matter, by David Buchanan - begins and ends with the simple premise that a healthy food system depends on matching diverse plants & animals to the demands of the land and climate. One of Amazon's Top 10 Food Lit books of 2012!
Succulents Simplified: Growing, Design & Crafting with 100 Easy-Care Varieties, by Debra Lee Baldwin - fantastic book by noted succulent expert. Her designs are creative, eye-catching, fun & easy. Here's Debra's video on aeoniums. This book is soon-to-be-released but not quite ready yet!
 | | A peek inside... |
How Carrots Won The Trojan War: Curious (But True) Stories of Common Vegetables, by Rebecca Rupp - strange and fascinating tales of 23 common vegetables. A great stocking stuffer for the gardener or the foodie who needs to know about the aphrodiasical qualities of celery! You'll like this article about the book.
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Herb Spotlight
Sage
Everyone knows sage is the quintessential Thanksgiving herb - how else are you going to make your dressing? If you love sage, you're in good company. Sage has been cultivated since time immemorial, often for medicinal purposes. There are many, many different kinds of sages (or salvias) but today, we're focusing on Culinary Sage or Salvia officinalis. this gray-leaved perennial performs best in a sunny, well-drained location and not only tolerates poor soil, but actually prefers it. It is quite cold-hardy and only a very wet winter can harm it.
 | | Ready for stuffing? |
Sage leaves, along with rosemary, thyme, bay, marjoram and dill, are easy to harvest and dry yourself to give as gifts or keep in your own pantry. Cut the leaves anytime, but preferably right before they flower. Remove any insects and damaged leaves. Tie the branches upside down in a paper bag to dry, which can take 2 weeks or longer. Alternatively, place on a wire rack in the oven and use the convection setting at lowest temperature to dry in an hour or so. Watch carefully until you know how fast your own oven dries herbs. Store in a small, airtight container away from the light.
Now about that sage dressing - allrecipes.com has over 80 recipes for sage dressing, but I wouldn't even attempt any that are not based on cornbread! But that's just me!
German Chamomile
German Chamomile or Matricaria chamomilla, is a rather weedy little herb native to Europe and temperate Asia. It is the flowers which are used in herbal teas and tinctures and those flowers typically appear in early to mid-summer. It is also used as yellow dye and as a rinse for blonde hair.
 | | Cheery yellow flowers! |
Grow German Chamomile outdoors in full sun, in a well-draining location. Water freely and don't fertilize - like most herbs, this one tolerates poor soils.
Harvest the flowers with they are fully open and use for tea, as in this step-by-step guide.
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Please stop by and visit! Have a glass of world-famous lemonade (or a beer!) -- we'd love to meet you!
Sincerely,
Elizabeth Barrow
Papershell: A Garden Gallery
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Thanksgiving Day
Thursday, November 22
All Day
Papershell is closed in observance of the Thanksgiving holiday. Please join us on Thanksgiving weekend for "Green Friday," a relaxing change of pace from the shopping madness.
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Succulent Centerpieces
Sunday, December 2
2:00-3:30pm
Bring the beauty of the outdoors inside for the holiday table! We'll demonstrate 3 easy centerpieces you can recreate at home. Supplies will be available on-hand if you want to give it a try in our potting area (we'll be right there to assist you if you need help). The class is indoors and space is limited, so please give us a call at (281) 232-4485 or email us with questions or to register.
The demonstration portion of the class is $10 and includes a coupon valid for 15% off your garden center purchases.
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Holidays!
Tuesday, December 25 through Tuesday, January 1
Papershell will be closed the week between Christmas & New Years. We may even go home early on Christmas Eve, so get your shopping done early!
During the holiday I will be checking email, so please get in touch if you have a gardening question.
Peace be with you this holiday season and we'll see you on January 2!
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