With all the blessings of the season, naturally more and more people start venturing outdoors to their local parks, beaches or hiking trails. While driving along the coast, wild flowers bloom and create a sea of florals. It’s absolutely a sight to see.
If you’re a flower lover, botanical gardens are some of the best places to experience every type of blooming flower imaginable. It’s a lovely experience, especially this time of year! It’s a fabulous way to spend a leisure afternoon strolling through the lush grounds and be mezmorized by blooming cherry blossoms, daffodils, lilacs and, if you’re lucky, maybe a monarch butterfly or two.
Have you ever been curious about the average amount of produce each person consumes per year? We have! So what we found is a flowchart of approximately what each person eats over 12 months. We have a wide variety of plants calculated by the amount each one produces and what most people would need to grow to satisfy that need.
Think about the last time you made a vegetable soup. Most of us might start out with a mirepoix, which is onion, carrots, celery cooked in oil or butter. It’s the base for the most fabulous tasting soups! So already, we need three types of vegetables, just to start, for one meal with leftovers. From there, we might add spinach, fresh peas, some type of squash and potatoes. Then some fresh herbs, juice of one lemon and some Celtic salt to finish. For one healthy meal, that’s quite a lot of produce. Realistically, it makes sense that this is a good example of what the average person needs for a year’s worth of meals.
Due to climate and elevation, some produce produces a bigger crop than other places. Greenhouses can solve a lot of those challenges! It’s something to think about. After all, it’s a way to eat seasonally, right from your own backyard, any time you want.
The idea of having a living plant grow on your walls has always intrigued us. Would it insulate the building better? Is that why it’s seen throughout many places in the world with colder climates? Who’s bright idea was it to have foliage covering your exterior stucco in the first place?! The next question isn’t for the faint of heart. Wouldn’t that be an open invitation for rodents, bugs and spiders? See, we warned you!
As aesthetically pleasing as it appears, there are some things to consider. The suction on English ivy is ridiculously strong. They hold on for dear life, gripping onto anything it grows along and doesn’t let go easy. It can affect the exterior stucco, wood and paint. A better option is Boston ivy. It does require more pruning, as it grows fast, but doesn’t have the same suction strength as English ivy. Ultimately, it’ll be easier to remove when the time comes.
On the flipside, it’s undeniably charming. We adore the look of a home, especially tutor style, with ivy growing up against it. We’ve seen where the ivy is trained to grow along carefully placed wire in a diamond shape, along the lower portion of a Cape Cod style home that was so charming. It had a large lattice effect.
If you are willing to look past the possibility of little animals climbing along your exterior walls of your home, you too can enjoy the elegant look ivy as seen on old mansions, forest cottages, and grand European estates.
Recently, we spoke to someone who expressed their concern about the lack of fresh produce at their grocery store this winter. With the cold weather we’ve had, just imagine how hard our farmers work to bring whatever fresh vegetables and fruits to market they can. So we thought, why not grow your favorite vegetables inside the comfort of your home?! With consideration for space, these inside veggie gardens are designed to grow vertically, keeping the plants elevated to reach the maximum light, keeping your counters clutter-free. Now, that’s our kind of garden!
All sorts of lettuce, aromatics, tomatoes, cucumbers, onions and squash can fit, depending on the size of the containers. You don’t want to crowd the roots, so opting for a good-sized planter for larger plants is best. Finding the brightest space in your kitchen would be an ideal area to grow your vertical garden. You can make it fun by getting your family involved, as it’s a great weekend project!
Finding the vegetables and fruits you want to grow is the easiest part. Selecting the color planters that match your kitchen is important, as is choosing the hardware to hang it from is next. There are endless planters to choose from online and your local nurseries.
Once you get your favorite seeds planted, it won’t be long before you see little seedlings sprout, developing into plants you can enjoy and create beautiful, nutritious meals with, all at arms length from your own kitchen sink!
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