Taking on a bromeliad

Today I decided to take on the Aechmea Blanchetiana bromeliad, (not sure if this is the correct name) this bromeliad is in the front of the house, and is overgrown crowding the beautiful crown of thorns.I was dreading this job. The spikes on this bromeliad are painful and I have the scars to prove it.I...

Read more ...

Sweet Goldenrod vs Ragweed

Sweet Goldenrod (Solidago odora) isn't your common goldenrod. This one has a sweet anise-like flavor. The leaves as well as the flowers make a very pleasant, fragrant tea. It grows in part to full sun in sandy soil along the edges of pine groves and roadsides in northern Arkansas (and is found from...

Read more ...

40 Thousand Pumpkins

My little pumpkin patch here at Long Creek Herb Farm didn't produce anything this year. Between the squash bugs and the 6 weeks of drought, the vines just gave up. But look what you can do if you have 40,000 pumpkins to play with. This is what I saw being constructed when I was at the Dallas Botanic...

Read more ...

Fall is in the air

Today I worked on the road-visiting clients, I drove over 300 miles between Miami to West Palm Beach; by the end of the day I was exhausted. The thought of going biking was not very appealing.The weather was so nice that I couldn’t resist a long bike ride; it truly felt like fall. The temperature was...

Read more ...

My daily ritual

Every working day I have a morning ritual, my alarm is set for a 5:20 AM wakeup time, I usually do 40 minutes of yoga and then my wife and I take our dog Rosie for a morning walk.After walking the dog, I get ready for work and have a quick breakfast. Recently before heading out I take 10 minutes to...

Read more ...

Change of plans

My first order of business this morning was to plant my Orange Geiger tree, the one I got at a tree give-a-way last week. I had a spot all set in the front garden, but it didn’t feel right, it looked a bit crowded. I decided to plant the Geiger tree in the courtyard outside my dining room. When it is...

Read more ...

Vegetable garden ready for planting

This morning I got my vegetable bed ready for planting.I added two full wheelbarrows of home grown black gold compost, and additional soil.For now I’ll let it cook under the newspaper for month and start planting in early October.This key lime tree was not doing well in a shady area of the garden; I...

Read more ...