Considering Chickens?



Chickens are all the rage now that more and more cities are making it legal for residents to keep a couple of hens in their backyard.  I was lucky enough to hang out with award-winning landscape designer and Timber Press author Jessi Bloom this week at the San Francisco Flower and Garden Show.  Her book, Free Ranch Chicken Gardens, includes everything you need to know about integrating chickens into your backyard- from coop designs to chicken care, and which plants you should or shouldn’t have in your garden.  She covered all of this information to an eager crowd at her “What the Cluck!” seminars at SFGS. Her book has been so popular that it has sold out at the last two garden shows she's spoke at- prior to her book signing event!   I personally have wanted chickens for a while, and will definitely be getting my hands on a copy of her book once we finally get them.

After returning from my trip to San Francisco, I connected with Greg Howes and Brian Fikes, owners of Two Flew the Coop.  I first saw their super cute chicken coops at Talini’s Nursery, and I’m eager to add one to my own garden one day. 

They have raised chickens for over twenty years, and were nice enough to allow my family to come visit their little urban farm.  Little is not exaggerating either- their 700 square foot home sits on top of a postage stamp sized yard, yet they have beautifully designed the space to be inviting and practical. 

Both Greg and Brian are gardeners and they have a wonderful selection of edibles in their backyard and front yard.



Kumquats, blood oranges, and an olive tree all look fabulous this time of year, and we can’t forget the beautifully blooming rosemary which seems to be the chicken’s favorite plant to hang out around.  Their previous garden was featured in a book called The Herbalist’s Garden, and was photographed by one of the greatest garden photographers around, Saxon Holt.



Walking up to the chicken pen in their backyard, the chickens came RUNNING at the sound of Greg’s voice.  As we walked around their habitat, the chickens were always within a couple feet from us- even pecking at my tennis shoes occasionally to try and get my shoe laces.  These feathered ladies were all very friendly, and quite tolerant of my five year old and her constant need to pet them.



The coops that Two Flew the Coop make are all one-of-a-kind.  They spend their free time browsing antique stores and garage sales to collect fun and decorative items for their coops.  Each coop will have a theme- whether it’s shabby chic’, Buddha, cowboy, etc.  Each coop is a beautiful art piece made of mostly recycled and reclaimed items.  I was able to check out a couple of the coops they are currently working on, which I’m sure will make their way to Talini’s Nursery soon.  In addition to the ones available at Talini’s, Greg and Brian will also design coops based on your personal preferences if you wish. 



In addition to chicken coops, Two Flew the Coop also offer books, organic chicken feed, and various supplies for tending to your feathered friends.  They are also available for consultations and speaking engagements.  They should have their website up and running in the next few weeks which I’ll share here once it’s up, but if you’d like to get in touch with them in the meantime you can call them at (916) 737-2043. 

They are such a great resource for those of you in Sacramento who are considering getting chickens (now that you can do it legally).   Whether you have questions about which breed would be right for you, or how to protect your chickens from predators- these guys have practically done all of the guessing work for you!  And did I mention that they've never had a complaint from one of their neighbors? 



We wish we were their neighbors!  Look at this beautiful selection of eggs they sent home with us!  I'm almost ashamed to admit that we cooked a few of them up the moment after we got home from visiting them.  One thing is for sure- you can't beat the taste of organic, free-range chicken eggs!

Thank you again to Greg and Brian for letting us tour your garden and meet your beautiful chickens. 

Flora Grubb Nursery= Awesome

After seeing this place in numerous magazines and splashed all over the internet, I was happy to finally step foot for the first time in Flora Grubb Nursery.  The very first succulent living walls I had ever seen were from here, and I have been itching to try and build some myself. One of these days I will come and take one of their classes on building one (as soon as I have collected enough succulent babies to do so!). If you can't wait for a class, you can always buy one of thier DIY kits. And speaking of their classes, you can find a list of their events on their website, and it looks like Sunset Magazine's Johanna Silver is coming in April!  Yee haw!

On this particular trip though I fell in love with their Tillandsia displays.  These "air plants" are perfect for my bright office, and I proudly displayed my six new air plants the moment I returned to work from this trip.  I may have bombarded my co-workers with emails on how they can decorate with tillandsia as well.....  I'm sure they are sick of me and my talk of plants but I just can't help myself (and thank you to those of you who tollerate me and pretend to be interested- I appreciate it!).  The Thigmatrope Satellite Fleet hooks used for the wall displays are wicked cool, and I am pondering where I'm going to place them in my home.  You can buy them with the air plants here, or purchase without the air plants here.

If you're one that loves color, then this is the place for you.  I was happy to be able to have a Fermob bistro set in my garden for the Arden Park Garden Tour, and I admit that I have been dreaming of it ever since.  Talini's Nursery carries a nice assortment of them here in Sacramento- but Flora Grubb has this amazing wall display of them that makes me wish I had a large warehouse just to hang Fermob chairs from!  Is that sad?  Of all the art pieces in the nursery this was my favorite.  My second favorite display of color were these little colorful "cups" (upper left).  You can find more display options for these wall ornaments here.

The whole reason we came here on this day was to check out their staghorn fern displays.  Specifically we were looking for the ones that Matti and Megan from Far Out Flora made.  Matti and Megan make some pretty cool $hit.  There, I said it.  Somehow I managed to leave this glorious place without one (I was scared it would die over the next couple of days on my road trip!), but my friend Amy from the Lamm Farm bought one.  I'll let her be my guinea pig and see how it does here in Sacramento!     

Like what you see?  Flora Grubb is open Monday through Saturday: 9am - 6pm; Sunday: 10am - 6pm.  You can find them at 1634 Jerrold Ave, San Francisco CA.

You can also go like them on Facebook, and while you're at it you can like Far Out Flora too.

Cheers to the weekend!  Enjoy your garden :)

PS- thank you Chuck for driving us here, because I totally would have gotten lost, yet again.

Guest Post: Making Seed Tape With Kids

Today we have a guest post by Stacy Tornio, author of Project Garden! Stacy is blogging here today as part of her virtual book tour.  After you’re done reading about making seed tape with kids, hop on over here because she’s giving away TEN copies of her book this month!  While you’re there, check out some of the other fun garden projects she has on her site that your kids will surely love! 



I remember the first time I discovered seed rolls or seed tape. (You know the seed tape you can buy from gardening supply companies?) Genius! You simply roll out the tape or roll, and the seeds are already in place, perfectly 1-2 inches apart or whatever the particular seed calls for. Then I heard about someone at my Master Gardener’s organization making their own version with kids using paper towels and toilet paper. Double genius! Ever since then I developed my own version, making a spider. It’s now  one of my favorite, cheapest and easiest activities to do with a group of kids. Seriously, you can entertain an entire class for less than $2! Here’s how to make some spider seed mats:

1.) Cut out your spider shape. You can see here that I cut out two circles and eight legs. Depending on how old the kids are or how much time you have, you can pre-cut these to make it easier.

2.)You can plant any kind of seed, but I love using spider flower (cleome) for my spider shape. It’s an easy flower for kids to grow, and it’s fun, too. You can follow the directions on the back of the seed packet for placement, but I like to tell the kids to put 1-2 seeds on the tip of each leg. So get your seeds ready.

3.)Now make a glue-like mixture out of flour and water. Mix until it’s a little bit sticky. Then dab just a little bit (you don’t need much) on the end of each leg. Let dry for 5-10 minutes.

4.) Once dry, gently roll up your spider legs. If it’s too early to plant in the ground, save it. Or if you’re ready to plant, go out to the garden and place it on the soil. Then cover your spider with just a thin later of soil. Water and wait for your spider to start sprouting!

You can make these seed mats with just about any seed or shape. I’d love to try making suns with sunflower seeds next. Just follow the directions on the back of seed packet for spacing. It’s a great way to save time in the garden and get your hands dirty in spring when it’s still a little too cold to garden. Here’s a link to a video of a similar seed roll you can make.

Thanks for another fun project Stacy! This will be a great project for me to work on this weekend with my 5 year old (since rain is in the forecast all weekend long!).  Don't forget to check out other fun projects on Stacy's website here, and enter to win a copy of her book here! 

Guest Post: Label GMO's- It's Our Right to Know!

Last week my husband and I got the privilege of meeting Jere Gettle of Baker Creek Seeds for the first time.  I can honestly say that I have never met a more genuine person.  We only had a few minutes to chat with him as we stopped by the Petaluma Seed Bank, but in the first five seconds of chatting with Jere you know how passionate he is about what he does.  I left there feeling like I needed to do more.  It used to be all I cared about was what I did on our little third of an acre lot, here in Sacramento.  Now I know I can do more to make change happen; one person at a time, one state at a time, and one country at a time. 

With that, we have my first ever guest blog post thanks to Baker Creek Heirloom Seed Company.  Kathy McFarland from Baker Creek is here to tell you about a new California Intiative we are trying to get on the November 2012 ballot that simply requests that food sold in retail establishments that contain genetically modified crops are labeled with that information.  Read on for more information:

Label GMOs—It's Our Right to Know!

Guest post by Kathy McFarland

Baker Creek Heirloom Seed Company owners Jere and Emilee Gettle are in Petaluma, California, working fervently to ensure that Americans are entitled to know what is in the food they purchase. 

Having always been interested in pure food, the Gettle family has joined the Label GMO effort in California where they also own the Petaluma Seed Bank, a retail outlet for Baker Creek seeds. 

Much of the world already requires labeling for genetically engineered foods.  Fifty countries, including Japan, China, and the entire European Union already label foods with genetically engineered ingredients.  Americans, too, deserve the right to choose between foods containing GMO and non-GMO ingredients. 

The Committee for the Right to Know is a grassroots coalition of consumer, public health, environmental organizations, and food companies in California that is seeking the labeling of genetically engineered foods (GMOs).  On November 9, 2011, the coalition submitted the California Right to Know Genetically Engineered Food Act to the State Attorney General for the title and summary, prior to circulation as an initiative measure for the November 2012 election. 

The initiative needs 504,760 valid signatures by April 20 to make it on the November 2012 ballot.  Signatures can be declared invalid and thrown out for a number of technical reasons.  Therefore, the campaign plans to collect a significantly higher number of signatures to make sure they have enough valid ones to qualify.  It is imperative that anyone interested in having the right to know what is in our food should sign the petition. 

Jere Gettle teamed up with Pamm Larry, founder of labelGMOs.org, to raise awareness of the initiative.  He designed a special seed packet to be used for the campaign.  The seed packets, packed with Baker Creek's non-GMO San Marzano Tomato seeds, are being distributed free all over the state of California.  The San Marzano has been a favorite tomato of California gardeners for generations, and the campaign packets have become instantly popular.  Anyone who would like to help distribute the free packets at farmers' markets, gardening events, or any other venue may simply email  jeregettle@gmail.com with a mailing address and number of packets requested for distribution.  Thousands and thousands of the special packets have already been sent for distribution, and many more thousands are being printed and packed. 

While other states are also working on campaigns to get GMOs listed on nutrition labels, the Gettles are currently concentrating their efforts in California where there is large population of like-minded people in support of the measure.  The feeling is that if the initiative passes in California, then other states will quickly follow.  In most cases, it will not be financially feasible for companies to develop food labels listing GMOs only for the California market and also develop food labels without the listing for other states. 

Anyone interested in joining the effort to require GMO ingredients to be labeled should contact www.labelGMOs.org to find out where they can sign a petition, how they can be trained to gather signatures, how they can donate to the campaign, or simply where they can get more information.  Our right to know what is in our food depends on this ballot.  Please don't wait to contact Jere Gettle at jeregettle@gmail.com or Pamm Larry at labelGMOs.org..  Let's get labeling on the ballot!

Kathy McFarland is a Baker Creek employee and life-long gardener. 

Our Quest for Pliny the Younger

Some may say that planning a mini-vacation around the release of a beer is crazy.  Those people don't know my husband and I, and clearly they don't know good beer.  Months ago we vacationed with friends in Bodega Bay and took a day trip to Russian River Brewery in Santa Rosa to try one of our favorite beers: Pliny the Elder.  Soon after that trip we found out about Pliny the Younger, and that it would be released for two weeks in February.  A Triple IPA? Another trip?  Um, yeah, we're game....  and it was booked. 

"Fourteen Days of Younger" it is called.  I wish I could say we all felt younger after we left the brewery, but sadly the day after we felt like a bunch of Elders that tried to act like we were Younger!  Perhaps that headache was a reminder of why one should not partake in too many beers that boast a 10.5% ABV? Do we regret it?  Heck no, we're ready to book our next trip!

February 3rd through 16th. That's it.  Friends that went towards the beginning of those "14 days" waited in line for four hours to get a taste of Pliny the Younger.  This is a beer that is not available in a growler, nor is it available via a bottle.  Your only way of having it is in a 10 ounce glass, for $4.50, at the brewery itself.....  unless you just so happen to come across one of the few establishments that get it for San Francisco or Sacramento Beer Week.  If you want to get your hands on it next year, I recommend going the 2nd week.  Our wait was less than thirty minutes to get inside- on the 9th, during lunchtime (a Thursday!).    

And was it worth the wait?  Um...  that's my husband savoring his first sip (gulp?) after 30 minutes of waiting outside.  Pliny the Elder is a double IPA, Pliny the Younger is a triple- and I'd say that the Younger was twice the flavor that Elder had if that makes any sense?  So that would be a BIG FAT YES.

As much as we were there for the Younger, Russian River Brewery had 22 beers on tap when we were there.  They had so many beers available for their favorite customers that they couldn't fit them all in their beer sampler.  So many favorites available!  We recommend sampling Blind Pig, the Pliny's (both of them), Segel Select (if you like hops), Rejection (their Black Pale Ale- great for folks who like Pale Ales AND Stouts), and Supplication, Temptation and Consecration for you Sour beer lovers (which we are...they are yummy...stock up when you are here). 

Elder, meet Younger.  Younger, meet Elder. Of course we had to compare Pliny the Elder(left) to Pliny the Younger (right).  As much as I love the Elder, I have to admit that the Younger was totally worth a weekend away from Sacramento to go and try.  So much so that I will be on the hunt next week to try and find it here in Sacramento during Sacramento Beer Week (ahem, if you're going to The Art of Beer event, I'll be volunteering there! And if you're going to Sacramento Brewers Showcase or Capital Brewfest- we'll be drunk there!) 

Elder, Younger, Damnation, Rejection, Mortification (their Quadruppel Belgian, my 3rd fave of their offerings)....  Oh my... After a few trips here we've moved past the sampler pack- we come here and order exactly what we know we'll like.  And there are so many that we like.... 

More beers, 8 growlers To-Go of Damnation, Rejection and a whole lotta Pliny the Elder (Argh- I wish they'd fill the growlers with Younger!), a bunch of food in our bellies, and we were on our way back to the beach house in Bodega Bay. 

If you're ever in Santa Rosa, you must come here.  If you're ever within an hour of Santa Rosa, you must come here.  And to somewhat keep this blog post gardening related, if you are attending The Heirloom Exposition here in Santa Rosa (Sept 11-13th, 2012), you must come here!  See you in September!  You'll know where to find me :)

Best and Worst of the Northern California Home & Landscape Expo



This weekend is the Northern California Home & Landscape Expo at Cal Expo.  If you have an interest in going, the show is still going on tomorrow from 10am-6pm.  I normally don't like going to these types of events because I am allergic to salespeople, but my friend Kat gave me free tickets (and even dropped them off after midnight last night on my doorstep!) so of course I was going to go!  I brought my mom along with me because she's wanting to do some bathroom and kitchen remodeling this year.  I can swoon over the garden decor', and she could swoon over faucets.... it was a win-win for both of us.  Here are some pictures of my favorite and least favorite things, starting with the display pictured above from Verde Creations, Inc.  I'm actually disappointed that I didn't get more pictures of their display because I really loved it.  I was too busy checking out the patio space above and dreaming of ways that I could rip out more lawn in order to implement it.  I checked out their website once I got home and I have to admit, they have some beautiful, colorful creations- and I can't wait to see more from them. 



The garden pictured above I adored.  I couldn't tell you who it was by because the people working this garden didn't really approach me in any way.  As much as I say I hate salespeople, I do like to have someone approach me if I walk into a display.  Ask me about my projects.  Heck, ask me what I think of your display....  anything is better than silence.  One company that was great with communicating was FiveStar Landscaping.   I met landscape architect Karen Blanor at their display today and she was a great communicator- and asked a lot about the projects I wanted to do in my garden.  Another great company I connected with today was G&D Landscape Construction.  Greg Phelps spent a lot of time chatting with me about my garden projects.  At these types of events you often get designers that come in with these grand displays and they are a little overwhelming, and they kind of scream "I'm expensive!" and it scares me away.  I am more interested in the displays that scream "I'm practical!  There's no project too big or too small!".  G&D also gave me the business card of someone who might be better at giving me what I was looking for (Howard Ma of HM Design), and any company that is willing to say "I might not be able to do what you want, but I know someone who can" earns major points in my eyes. 



Taking a break from garden stuff and moving to home decor', Mad Imports had a very popular display, and I can't wait to visit their store.  Think of it as Restoration Hardware type decor, at half the price.  The pieces were fun and unique, and I can't wait to see what they have in their warehouse.  The hook set pictured above was only $27, and one half this size was around $14.  You can't beat those prices!  For directions, hours, etc, you can call them at (916) 599-0600.



Lets visit some things that I didn't like.  The doorway fountain thing pictured above looks cool, right?  I can picture it in a restaurant, but where the heck would you put this in your house?  And if you're the type of person that would put this in your home, that's just spending money where you don't need to.  It's over the top.  It's way too much. 



The same goes for this spout of water.  What a waste!  The best part of a water feature is the sound, which this had none.  I would agree that my 5 year old would probably love to have this in our backyard, but the practical person in me was thinking it's a waste of water, it's probably really expensive, and it's probably a huge pain in the you-know-what to keep it clean. 



The practical person in me would rather have this in my backyard.  This is dreamy....  This I would use.  I would use it every week!  A dual purpose fireplace that could also make yummy pizzas?  Um, YES PLEASE!  This was done by Gloria Landscaping, and if I could pick one item I wanted out of the entire expo, this was it. 



My favorite display award would have to go the Green Acres.  I loved the colors, how they had so many products, and edible plants in one display without making it look over the top.  It was beautiful.  I am already a huge fan of their nurseries (most of my citrus trees are from here too), but I was happy to be greeted by a friendly staff member that works at their Roseville location.  She reminded me that their Folsom location was opening soon and that it was going to be amazing! 



 The grand opening for the Folsom location is February 15th, but they have major sales for it going through mid-March. The best time to go according to their handout would be March 1-4. March 1st has classes on combining edibles and ornamentals. March 2nd is doorbuster specials, March 3rd they have gift bags for the first 300 guests plus free food from 12-2pm, and March 4th they'll have doorbuster sales and lots of free educational workshops. 



What was I saying about non-practical items being a no-no in the garden?  Yeah, that went out the door once I saw these.  The company is called Vin de Flame, and these are their super cool propane fire pits.  Made out of old wine barrels, and each on wheels, these are perfect for your evening parties.  The practical side of me says "but I'd only use them a couple times a year", well, thank goodness you can also just rent them for events (no need to store or maintain them yourself!  Awesome!). 



My last favorite thing at the show was the display from Executive Care Landscape Mgmt.  Arthur Navarette, President, was absolutely adorable running around with his camera and snapping pictures.  You could tell he was having fun, and you could tell he was passionate about what he does.  The above photo is a picture of his drought tolerant display.  He even admitted it was over planted, but he wanted to show homeowners how you can have lush color and use less water, and this was a great example.  You can see by his website that he likes to remove lawn and make the space more usable, and more beautiful. 



And last on my list was another one of those ridiculous designs, where you wonder where the heck would this be useful.  They tried by showing that it was a perfect family backyard, and even included a little sand pit off to the side for the younger kids.  The practical mom side of me immediately thought to myself that this was an accident waiting to happen for someone with small children (ladders to fall off of, lots of sharp edges, etc).  Fast forward 15 years for me and I'm thinking I'd be too old to climb that ladder, and storing all of those cushions through the winter is just a hassle. To summarize, this design is for people in their early 20's.  The ones that can't afford it.

It's great to go to these types of events and dream big about what I could do if I had tons of money, but I'd much rather see how I can improve the appearance of my garden at a reasonable price.  Why can't they just cater to the average home owner?   

The $29.99 IKEA Seed Starting Rack

Continuing on in my quest to organize the HECK out of my office, today I'm turning my attention to my seed starting station.  Well, prior to today I didn't actually have a seed starting station because the desk that I normally start my seeds on every year has been re-purposed as a .........wait for it..........desk.  My husband built me a fabulous garden shed in our backyard for me to move my seed starting mess outside of our family home, but one valuable piece was left out of his plan.....electricity.  So, the seeds continue to be started indoors until that project is complete. 

Since I have big hopes that electricity will be added to the shed soon, I didn't want to spend a lot of money on a fancy seed starting rack.  So, I went to my trusty IKEA store, where I can always count on finding exactly what I need at a reasonable price.  I ended up buying their basic GORM shelving unit for $29.99.  This rack comes with 4 shelves, but I bought a couple of extra shelves just in case for $5 a piece. While I was at it, I went ahead and bought a couple of the GORM clip-on baskets for $4 a piece.  I figured once I no longer needed this shelf for seeds I needed to be able to use it for something else, so buying the accessories now made sense.  Lucky for me I ended up using them.

After assembling the shelf (fairly simply, took about 30 minutes), I dug into my photo hanging supplies and grabbed a few hooks for the lights. They easily screwed into the top of the shelves for hanging the chains for the lights. As for the lights?  I have one expensive Home Depot grow light ($50), and a couple of cheap Wal-Mart grow lights that cost me about $10 a piece.  Look around, your lights don't have to have to be expensive. 

The extra shelves and baskets came in handy for all of the odd and end plant stuff that I had.  The bottom shelf is now dedicated to mason jars which I use for giving flowers to people, or starting cuttings.  By the way, these were all spaghetti sauce jars originally, but they are too cute to just toss in the recycle bin.  The GORM baskets that I bought are used for holding plant stakes (for once the tomato plants get too tall), twine, plant labels, and Moo Poo Tea. 

I used the SAMLA containers from IKEA for organizing my seeds and and got an extra container to hold my seed starting mix (much prettier than looking at a bag). 

So, technically this entire set up didn't cost me just $29.99, but you can see how using some of the items you already have and improvising can save you money when starting your seeds this year.  By the way, it's time to start seeds..........wait for it..............  now.