Update On The Revamping Of My Front Yard

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nFCQFmns4vo

so many layers of exuberance!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9YU-V2C4ryU&feature=related

Papalo Seeds For Sale

This morning I harvested an envelope of Papalo seeds and their fluff. Thrives in summer and considered a hot weather substitute for cilantro though the flavor can be said to have a touch of arugula and oregano. VERY easy from seeds year round in Tampa though grows best in spring and summer. One pinch of fluff is approx. 30 seeds: $2 plus a self addressed stamped envelope mailed to: John Starnes 3212 West Paxton Avenue Tampa FL 33611 Thanks!

http://www.fireflyforest.com/flowers/3167/porophyllum-ruderale-yerba-porosa/

My Class This Morning

Frugal Holiday Gifts For Cooks and Gardeners




The tyranny of the holiday season is closing in......Occupy Your Budget and put an end to ratcheting up debt due to cultural pressure to give high-end gifts. This class shows you quite a few ways to make VERY affordable gifts FROM THE HEART for friends and family that love to either cook or garden or both. None take a great deal of time and involve easily gotten "ingredients", some of which you might already have on hand, and most involve skill levels that let children participate in too for school projects. Create a new family holiday tradition...no more slamming hundreds of $$$$ onto credit cards, and instead use your native abilities combined with your love of family and friends to create gifts that will make them think of you often for many months after the holidays have passed. The cost is $20, class time is November 20 from 11 AM until 1 PM at my home: 3212 West Paxton Avenue Tampa FL 33611. Please call to confirm your intention to attend: 813 839 0881 You will receieve 2 packets of cool seeds you can use to create edible living gifts that will be mature when the holidays roll around. Thanks!

A Lovely South Florida Wildflower

I'm pretty sure it is not a Coreopsis species, but don't have a clue as to what it might be. I'd appreciate any suggestions and plan on gathering seeds this winter during future visits to Dad. I hope to get it established in my front gardens for color late each autumn. Thanks! John

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cMwt7IEbZ_Q

Malva sylvestris

I learned of and started growing this cold hardy edible flower in Denver in 1989 I believe. I was so young then and knew so little about botany...this plant was central to my getting my mind around the wonderfully vast and varied Mallow family. It's relationship to Hollyhocks is readily apparent to northern folks who see it in my gardens. It failed for me here in Tampa my first several winters and springs back home beginning in November 2002, but a few years ago ONE seedling took off and in late spring shed many seeds which now germinate here and there in late autumn....I wonder if that newly discovered aspect of evolution based on environmental influences allowed that one seedling to adapt to Tampa then pass on the genes? I love the flowers nibbled right from the plant or as salad fu-fu, and the tender leaves are tasty raw or cooked. Today I transplanted a seedling into a 1 gallon pot to give to my friend Mary Jo for her girlfriend Robyn who loves to grow flowers in pots. It is a summer annual/weakly perennial in Denver, a VERY cold hardy winter annual here in my south Tampa yard....in my Denver  yard it was THE last thing to succumb to hard freezes and snows, and so I loved it as I loathed Denver winters, trapped there by a VERY upside down mortgage for 15 years. But 20/20 hindsight makes very clear I felt and learned and earned a great deal of personal growth there on many levels.

The form sold as 'Zebrina' has an almost white background color with darker stripes and has appeared here spontaneously in a very small percentage of seedlings.

I'd love to see this native of Europe better known and more widely grown.  John

Two More Reasons To Grow Your Own Food and Occupy!

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2011/11/47-of-congress-members-millionaires-a-status-shared-by-only-1-of-americans/

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article29744.htm