Blog | Rose Red & Lavender

So much has been happening, I don’t know where to begin. I always promise myself that I will blog once a week. I don’t Its terrible.

We have been busy beavers over at the shop and have been making all sorts of mischief. Over the past coupla weeks we have totally transformed out outside space into a big, luscious garden. We have also planted a few thousand herbs, veggies and fruits just for you. We like to grow our own so we know its all good and organic, and we can grow all sorts of cool varieties that I never see on the market.

Mother’s Day is around the corner, I peeked in my back yard and saw the first roses. They always bloom around Mother’s Day. The market has been full of GEORGOUS! Peonies and I can’t get enough of them, Lilacs have also been coming around….but this year I have been mad about Hyacinths. Hyacinths have the sweetest scent and I have noticed an incredibly long vase life. We take a lot of care when processing them to make sure that they last extra long. Click here to place your order, we sell out.

Wedding season has begun and we are in full force production. I was excited to see that we where one of the few people selected to be in New York Magazine’s Summer 2012 issue. This beautiful headpiece is made of Wax Flower and Anenomies. I was inspired by some vintage headpieces that I had collected. These can be made and shipped overnight all over the country.

Press!! In addition, we were named as one of the top 10 garden centers in New York City by Time Out New York. I was shocked and incredibly honored to be on the same list as Jamali and the Garden center at New York Botanical Garden. Even happier because we didn’t need to have a mascot or some trendy gimmick to get there, just great plants, cool gifts, and sound advice.

Martha!! I was so excited to be on the Martha Stewart Show. OK, in the audience on the Martha Stewart Show. It was a special about Etsy and the great sellers there they featured a terrarium class that I taught at Etsy Labs. My mom was excited to see me on National Television but didn’t understand why I wasn’t interviewed and on the show more, thanks Mom.

Speaking of Mascots though…I love bees and our birds. Yesterday I had the pleasure of installing not one, but two packages of Bees. These are Italian honey bees shipped up from Georgia and they are chemical free. I am proud of my organic bees. We put a hive on the roof of our studio along side our Fruit trees that we just planted. Ok. Yes I hauled a few dozen fruit trees onto a

roof, but what the hell. A little exercise won’t kill me. I hope the bees will feel at home. I also put in an observation hive so that everyone can come and see the bees in action.

Tara, is my bee keeper partner. She grew up in Queens and has been keeping bees since she was a little girl, before it became all kinds of cool and trendy and she got me hooked on bees. Last year she got stung and discovered that she is allergic, after all, but was still a trooper and put on the white suite and ventured forward. I can’t wait for the honey and bees wax.

Moss Graffiti. We love moss and taught a fun class on how to paint with plants.

Robb put together a nice presentation and even played MC Hammer to get people inspired to make some graffiti.

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Last night we had the pleasure of teaching not one but two classes at Etsy Labs.
Nestled in a converted factory building in Dumbo, Etsy Labs is a wonderful place full of crafting treasures. All the work is done on huge, over-sized wooden tables and the walls are lined with all sorts of scissors, brushes, glitter, glue, screen-printing materials and more. I love it. Lavender and I have taken classes there and we really enjoy them its a lot of fun.

We were joined by Britta Riley of Windowfarms , Just Food, and Compost for Brooklyn to talk about all things green and good.

SEED BOMBS!

We were invited to teach about Terrariums and Seed Bombs there. Those are two of my favorite things!

Seed bombs are made with clay, organic matter and seeds. They were invented by native Americans who lived in nomadic tribes. The seed bombs are a way to insure that the seed will have enough moisture and food to grow if gardens are planted and not tended to. By doing this, the tribes were able to plant gardens, travel and come back to reap the rewards. They are perfect for chucking into some piece of land where access may be prohibited.

The clay acts as a binder and as a source for water and moisture. Clay retains water very well and slowly releases it to the seeds and little plants. The organic matter, compost or worm castings, feed the seeds.

Seed bombs can be placed on the surface of a pot to grow or they can be put in a tree pit or chucked into a vacant piece of land. If sowing “in the wild” so to speak, please make sure that you use native plants and not invasive species. What a way to get your Guerilla Garden going

How to make Seed Bombs.

Ingredients

• 2 parts garden soil
• 1 part Clay powder
• Worm castings or compost
• Seeds
• Water
• Trust and Love

1. To make clay powder, purchase red sculpting clay from an art supply store, cut it very thinly with a wire and let dry. Pulverize with a mallet or a meat grinder. This is the hardest part. I think about urban blight and pretty flowers when I am pounding clay. Old boyfriends, annoying room mates or a mean boss may be some other sources for inspiration.
2. Mix the soil and the clay together and sprinkle some worm castings on top. If using compost, then omit the worm castings and replace the soil with compost.
3. Add enough water to form a ball and have the materials bind together. Very similar to making a pastry crust. Not too much water, not too little, just enough to get it to stick together, add a little at a time.
4. Roll about 5 seeds onto each ball. Just 5 . maybe even 3. Remember that each little seed has the potential to grow into a plant.
5. Let dry for a couple of days and enjoy. Trust that your seeds will grow, and Love the beautiful gardens that you create.

Terrariums!

Wow, wow and just wow.

We have been making terrariums for a few years now and I am still overwhelmed by how popular these are and continue to be.

I haven’t gotten the official count yet, but from my estimate, we taught about 150 people how to make them yesterday.

It was BYOC (bring your own container) and people showed up with everything from 1 gallon jugs  to little test tubes. We made moss terrariums yesterday, just to keep it simple.

Here is how you make a moss terrarium. I must have repeated these steps about 50 150 times yesterday so I know it pretty well.

How to make a Terrarium

Ingredients

• Clear Glass Container, with or without a lid
• Rocks
• Sheet moss or Sphagnum Moss
• Charcoal
• Peat Moss
• More moss and Decor

1. Add a layer of rocks on the bottom. Make sure that you use clean rocks that are scaled with your container.
2. Add a barrier layer of sheet moss or sphagnum moss
3. Add a thin layer of charcoal
4. Add a layer of peat moss…
5. OK. Now let the fun begin. You can plant this with moss, lichens, decor, mini plants, what have you. MOSS MOSS and More MOSS!

I saw all sorts of things from a lady that looked like a mermaid in a terrarium, I call her the TERMAID, to little figurines.

I brought in some mini slate slabs that people colored with pencils. Those were pretty cool.

As always, we are available for any of your terrarium questions.

Check out the fun action below.

ps. a certain film crew from a certain tv show that has the initials MSL was there documenting the whole event. Can’t wait to see the footage!

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My parents live in West Virginia, near the Maryland border. Their property sits on the site of an old tomato and melon farm. There was once a thriving tomato industry in their area but the local farmers could not compete with the big factory farms in California so they went out of business. Unfortunately, the farmers used chemical fertilizers which left the soil depleted of organic materials and nutrients and pretty poor. It has been siting fallow for about 20 years.

They said that nothing can grow there but offered to give me a small piece of land to try to grow something if I could, I saw it as a horticultural challenge.

I fell in love with lavender when I first visited the south of France and had the opportunity to visit lavender fields while it was in full bloom. My parents had seeded their property with wildflowers and registered their property as a wildflower farm and lavender seemed like a good fit. Lavender loves to be planted in well draining soil on a slope without many nutrients. It doesn’t need much maintenance, water, pest control or fertilizer and if planted correctly, can be maintained by mowing in between rows a couple of times a year. Turns out it loves it in the mountains of West Virginia where there are hot dry summers and lots of silty, rocky soil. It also tolerates being ignored by my parents. We planted a few thousand plants on mother’s day a few years ago and it has thrived.

While you spend the 4th chomping on hotdogs or fauxdawgs trying to keep cool, we spent the holiday weekends at our flower farm in West By God Virginia picking lavender from our fields in triple digit weather. Yea Haw! Our lavender is grown without the use of chemicals or pesticides and is perfect for use in your home or for cooking.

Here is a great recipe for Lavender Sorbet

Lavender Sorbet

The vodka in the recipe makes it very soft. It’s not the kind of iced dessert you scoop into an oversized waffle cone. It’s a slushy, uncooperative dish that, in small doses, will refresh your heat-addled senses. While this style of sorbet is similar to the palate cleansers served at high-end restaurants between courses, I like it as a mid-afternoon refresher on a scorching hot summer day.

Makes 4 very small servings

1/2 cup white sugar
1 cup water
1 heaping teaspoon fresh lavender flowers (food grade only*)
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 tablespoon vodka
In a small sauce pan, dissolve sugar and water over medium heat.
Stir in lavender. Bring to a boil then quickly reduce heat and simmer 5 minutes.
Allow to cool for 10 to 15 minutes, then strain lavender syrup through a fine sieve.
Stir in lemon juice and vodka.
If you have an ice cream maker, make the sorbet according to the manufacturer’s directions.
Otherwise, pour the syrup into a flat-bottomed glass dish, cover, and freeze until semi-solid. Break the sorbet up with a fork and freeze until solid. Place frozen sorbet in a food processor or blender and blend until smooth. Cover and refreeze until ready to serve.

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