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.

Its almost St. Patrick’s day and time to plant potatoes.

My mother always told me that you plant potatoes on st. patricks day. She said thats because the irish love to eat potatoes. She lived in zone 6 in the Appalachian Mountains and by words of wisdom, that is too early for them, but thats what they did and it seemed to work, she ate lots of potatoes growing up.

We live in zone 7 so St. Patrick’s day is just right.

I have a bag of potatoes on my counter and they all have sprouts, maybe they know something I don’t.

Potatoes, are one of my favorite things to grow.

I get small potatoes at the farmer’s market and soak them in water for a little then put them in a warm place in a paper bag to sprout.

After they sprout, I cut them into quarters or plant them whole (if they are tiny) into the place I want to grow them, about 12″ apart, 3-4 inches deep.

Not all soil is equal in Brooklyn and I did read in a NYT article that potatoes grown in soil that may have lead are ok to eat as long as you wash them. That being said though, it is much, much easier to plant potatoes in a container and just empty the contents of the container at the end of the growing season (after the plants turn yellow) and pick out your potatoes. I almost always miss and damage some when I dig them out.

Sometimes, I get antsy and shove my hand under the plant and steal a few during the growing season. The plants don’t seem to mind and I get really tasty new potatoes that are amazing.

Once in awhile I have had problems with Potato Bugs, I have found that planting potatoes with marigolds has kept them away.

Five gallon buckets make great containers for potatoes as do trash cans or a large bag of soil, just cut some slits in the bag and plant your potaoes, isn’t that easy?

Another method is to plant your potatoes in a tire and as the plant grows, keep stacking tires on top of the plants and add more soil, compost, old leaves, hay, shredded newspaper, well you get the idea. At the end of the season, take away the tires and pick out your potatoes.

Potatoes like either a high or low PH soil. Low PH will make a more waxy texture potato and High PH will make a more dry-textured potato. Think pine needles, citrus rinds, eggshells and sulfur, for low ph, think vegetable fats (avocado peels) and lime (the powdered type) for a high ph.

They really are super easy and taste oh so much better than the ones you get at C-Town. I saw a few volunteer plants growing out of my compost bin last year, I can’t wait to see what grew when I turn the compost this week.

Thats, my 2 cents, try them, they are fun to grow.

Kimberly Sevilla

Rose Red & Lavender
Flowers Plants, and Beautiful Things

653 Metropolitan Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11211

www.roseredandlavender.com

Tire Planter Potatoes

Seeds, seeds, seeds.

I love seeds. I really do. I like looking at the catalogs, reading all the descriptions, trying all the varieties, saving seeds, collecting seeds, trading seeds. I love talking to seed growers and getting all nerdy about all the different cultivators and reminiscing. When we say Brandywine, or Moon and Stars, Even Freckles and Deer Tounge, we smile, because we know what that means an we all have our favorites.

If you haven’t tried it, using seeds to start your garden can be very rewarding. There are so many varieties that just wouldn’t be available to you if you didn’t grow them yourself, even things that (gasp) would not be available at the Farmer’s market. I know, I know, they seem to have everything but there are some bizarro things out there, Purple, Conical Cauliflower?. Lettuce, radishes, and beans and sunflowers are very easy and if you are timid, I suggest you start with those.

We teach a few classes on how to start seeds. I am always proud when my students come back and show me pictures of what they grew. One of my very first students moved on to create his own Roof Top Seed company, I am so proud.

I personally have tried almost every method of seed starting and there are two that I will swear by, ok, three that I swear by. These are; winter sowing, jiffy pellets, and baby beds.

Seeds are a miracle and once water is added, the whole process of life begins. Have you watched your garden in the spring, and notice how bare the earth is, and suddenly, after a warm day, life pops up out of nowhere? Weeds, weeds, weeds and lots of them. No one mollycoddles these plants, no one sets up growlights or painstakingly cares for them and yet they grow. Whaddup with that? Sometimes you will notice that the seedlings look a little familiar and many times, healthier, but smaller versions of ones you started in your home weeks before. Those volunteer tomato plants, sunflowers, and herbs just pop up, all on their own. Get Out! These seeds rest in the ground all winter and when the time is right, for them, POP! I have noticed that the volunteer plants almost always catch up to the ones I started, and even out grow them, not fair.

There is a method called Winter Sowing. Basically, you take your seed starting kit, take out container, milk jug or what have you and you plant your seeds, water them, and place the whole thing outside, in the middle of winter, in the snow. When the time is right for those seeds to grow, they will, with no help from you, and they will thrive and be healthy. Just be sure to water them when the weather warms up. The cold kills any of the damp-off fungi, and also helps striate hard seed coats. This is the only way that I have been able to successfully grow Lupins and Columbine (both native plants) from seed. Funny enough, tomatoes, and peppers also do very well using this method. It may not be as much fun as starting them inside, but you will get good results.When the seedlings are large enough, you just move them to where you would like them to be in the garden.Yes, it is that easy. You don’t need to worry about planting charts, frost dates, grow lights….ect. They will grow when they are ready to, it almost takes all the fun out of it.

Jiffy pellets, I love, love, love them. Before I had a garden in the city, I had one in the country in upstate New York and I would grow my seedlings at home; first in a walkup in Alphabet City, and then in a real grown up’s apartment in Park Slope, even in the hatchback of my Saab, which was a terrific greenhouse, as well as a fun car.

Starting seeds can be messy and the fine seed starting mix can go everywhere. Filling the trays is a hassle and it always makes a mess. One year I discovered Jiffy 7′s and I was hooked. Jiffy’s are little disks of peat-moss that are flat, but when you add water, they pop up into little pots that are surrounded by netting. Storage is easy and they last forever.

Mini Greenhouse

Put three seeds in a little pot, cover with a clear lid and wait for your seeds to sprout. Take off the lid and watch your plants grow. When you transplant, move the pot into the soil, its that easy. Sometimes I rip off the little net, sometimes not. These pellets come in little mini greenhouses with 6, 12, 20 or 72 pellets. 72 will fit into a full tray, and they work great in combination with the plastic 6 packs that come with the 72 cell greenhouses. 72 plants! once you get started, you will want more, and more and more….

Other methods, peat pots, newspaper cups, the paper towel, ect…. never worked out that great for me and I always had watering issues, mold (especially with the newspaper cups) and general poor performance.

The last method that I like is similar to the winter gardening method but uses a cold frame instead of individual containers. You basically set up a small raised bed, about 2′ x 4′ and fill it with a light mixture of vermiculite and peat or coir with some sand. 3 parts peat or coir to one part sand and one part vermiculite. A 15g smartpot would also do well.

Smart Pot

Plant your seeds, well spaced, in little rows, don’t forget to label them. When the plants are big enough, use a transplant trowel (skinny and thin) and move them to where you want them. If you like you can cover the box with plastic hoops or with an old window or piece of glass, creating a cold frame. Don’t forget to prop it open on sunny days or you will have an oven.

The backs of seed packets have lots of great information. Ignore most of the planting instructions, except for if it tells you to direct sow, some seedlings don’t like to be moved around much. Remember to always space your seeds, each seed has the potential of becoming a little plant. A pack of lettuce seed can have up to 400 seeds, so avoid at all costs, making a little furrow and sprinkling all the seeds in that furrow. Thinning is a waste of time, and a waste of seed, and it is damages the plants. Its always best to put 3 seeds in a spot, every few inches. One out of three is bound to grow.

We were invited by BMW  to pimp out Roberta’s Garden this week. It was the week before Mother’s day, one of our busiest weekends of the year, but what the heck… whats revamping a garden and turning into a wonderland?

We put a bunch of 15′ Birch trees inside the garage for the after party, little daisies in tin cans for the dinner, and pimped out the outdoor space with more birch trees, and tons (literally) of grass, sod, planters and flowers making sure every line of site was one to behold. I am not shy about getting stuff done, and this project was a lot of fun for us, and a lot of work for me.

The folks at Roberta’s were wowed by the makeover, the folks at BMW were thrilled with the results and fast turnaround, and I got to sod a bathroom, which I have been wanting to do for about 15 years now…..good things come to those who wait. Here are some Before and After shots.

We went a little sod happy, sod heals all wounds.

A few of the plantings are staying at Roberta’s and the garden is great for party’s, events and weddings.

Oh, did I mention that we are available for special events? We are.

Cheers,

Kimberly

A few weeks ago I was chatting with some folks from Etsy about lightbulb terrariums. I love making them. There is a divine pleasure in breaking some glass, ripping the guts out of a lightbulb, and making something beautiful out of it. The folks at Etsy agreed and decided to make a video of the whole process.

Anyhow, here it is, I hope you enjoy it.

Christmas trees grow greener – Crain’s New York Business.

Rose Red & Lavender is now pleased to offer holiday decorating services for private homes, restaurants, and building lobbies.

The holiday season is an extra special time for decorating and recognizing that not everyone has the time to decorate, decided to expand their offerings. Their services can relieve some of the stress of the holiday season. Plants, greens and flowers will be used to create a warm and friendly holiday environment that is both tasteful and sensual.

Rose Red & Lavender is known for its wedding, events and floral design. They use natural, live materials in their décor and believe that flowers and plants are beautiful on their own and strive to present them in a way that represents them naturally and respectfully. Kimberly Sevilla, owner of Rose Red & Lavender, selects her materials daily and uses locally grown products as much as possible.

Prior to opening Rose Red & Lavender, Ms. Sevilla designed and built displays for retail stores. Her work could be seen at Lord & Taylor, Barney’s, Cole Haan, and Mac Cosmetics. While plants and flowers areher passion, creating unique environments is in her blood and she feels comfortable no matter what the scale.

Included in the offerings for holiday décor will be setting up and trimming Christmas trees, hanging wreaths, lights and pine roping and creating vignettes using natural materials such as incense cedar, pine cones and spruce bows with some unexpected twists. Rose Red & Lavender will work hand in hand with their clients to produce stunning and subtle decorations that will feel natural, smell amazing and transform a space.

Rose Red & Lavender is located at 653 Metropolitan Avenue in Brooklyn, NY. For more information or to schedule holiday decorating, please call 718-486-3569, or contact lavender@roseredandlavender.com

Press inquiries; contact William Sevilla, at 718-486-3569 or email at William@roseredandlavender.com.

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This past spring a very nice french man asked my husband Enrique if he could put some art on the pink fence.
Enrique told me that he had to ask me first.
The artist came in, a very nice man. He has a son about the same age as Lavender. He showed me his work and I took a look. It was big and bold and acid green.
What would the neighbors think, I wondered. I liked it, but then again, I like anchovies on my pizza, steak tartar and chicken liver, to each his own, I guess.

Cherry Skulls

He put it up, two giant skulls that were cherries. The harshest, most unatural shade of green. Nature’s Revenge is what he calls his work. http://www.thisisludo.com/outside/outside_new_york.htm

He even told me how to take it off if I didn’t like it. I decided to keep it up for a couple of weeks. I knew that it may upset some of the more conservative people in the neighborhood, they don’t buy many flowers so too bad I thought. It was awfully green and bold though.
I considered removeing it and then I grew to love those skulls. Now, after a few months they are almost all gone. Sad to see them go. I wrote Ludo and asked him to put up something else. Lets see, if not, I have a pink wall waiting for some street art.

I take soil seriously, and get downright obsessive about it. As a research assistant for the USDA, I spent four years mixing soil blends and know it really, really makes a difference. I smell soil, feel it, and sometimes taste it (yuck, I know). I wouldn’t grow a plant in anything that I wouldn’t be willing to taste. Having a degree in Chemistry gives me the inside scoop as to what is happening chemical wise, and sometimes its not nice.

Think about it, soil is the foundation of growing a plant. Plants need sun, water and nutrients, and those nutrients are in the soil. Those nutrients aren’t limited to just the big three, Potassium, Nitrogen and Phosphorus either. Those nutrients include iron, magnesium, calcium, zinc, you know, all the stuff we take in the vitamin pills to supplement our bodies with the stuff that is not fruit and vegetables anymore. Yes it’s true, we have less vitamins and minerals in our food than our grandparents did because of big factory farms and chemical fertilizers.

Occasionally someone will come and ask me if I have Miracle Grow products, I really don’t want to get all record store attitude with people but no, I don’t and there are many reasons why. In short, Miracle Grow is like wonder bread, yes it’s cheap, it fills you up but at the end of the day its not good for you, or the planet. I wouldn’t use it for house plants, or for the food I eat. Yes its cheap, but sometimes cheap is expensive, and here’s why.

Miracle-Gro and Hyponex are produced by the Scotts Company, a billion dollar chemical company that also produces fertilizer, bagged soil, pesticides, and hoses. Miracle-Gro Fertilizer is a chemical based, INorganic fertilizer, Miracle Grow soils contain peat and inorganic fertilizers (those yummy grow crystals). Scotts also makes Hyponex, the worst soil on earth, its made of construction waste and crap, its so bad that the Colorado State University released a warning, http://www.coopext.colostate.edu/4dmg/Plants/pottmix.htm and was a topic of a lengthy discussion on a popular gardening site (http://forums2.gardenweb.com/forums/load/contain/msg0520500510183.html) Who wants that?

These are soils that are sold at your local hardware stores and orange big box stores that call themselves “garden centers”.

It makes me sad to see this crap being used to grow food that our kids are eating and it makes me angry to see it being sold in local stores. They don’t care about you, your plants or the planet, they just want a cheap product that will make a buck.

Here is whats wrong with inorganic fertilizers.

SALTS

Using inorganic fertilizers over a long period of time will decrease the available nutrients in the soil, depleting it of the building blocks that plants need to make VITAMINES.

PESTICIDES

In 2008, the EPA ordered the Scotts company to recall two Miracle-Grow products because they contained trifuralin, a herbicide. This ingredient was not listed on the label. Herbicides are a commonly known carcinogen. Who knows what else is not listed, I don’t, its a trade secret.

ENVIRONMENT

Many of the ingredients in inorganic fertilizers do not come from sustainable resources. Coal and Gas are used to produce the nitrogen used in Miracle Grow. The excess salts that are not absorbed by the plants are washed into local water sources. These are the nutrients that responsible for excessive algae growth which create “dead zones” in our rivers, lakes and oceans (yes oceans).

Miracle Grow Soil is a peat based soil, peat is a non-renewable resource. Hyponex Soil is made from construction waste and sewage debris, not something I would taste.

OTHER INGREDIENTS

Miracle Grow potting soil contains OTHER INGREDIENTS, these include plastics, wetting agents and peat, a non sustainable resource. These ingredients have not been tested or proven to be safe for use with FOOD!!!!!> Most wetting agents are detergents and many are known carcinogens.

Miracle Grow does have an “organic” line of products, these also have wetting agents, peat, and who knows what else. In my opinion, who would want to support a billion dollar chemical company that is single handily responsible for polluting our environment and depleting the food we eat of nutrients, I don’t.

Anyhow, no, we don’t sell Miracle-Gro and we never will.

We do sell soil that is made with organic ingredients, worm droppings, leaves, compost, bird poop, all the stuff that makes for a list of THOUSANDS of available nutrients. All the stuff that makes plants grow better and food to taste better and all from renewable resources. All the soil we sell and use is made within 100 miles of our shop. We carry a few brands but Organic Mechanics is one of my favorites. I have met the dude who makes it, his name is Mark, and he is decent person, a person with a soul and a conscience. http://www.organicmechanicsoil.com/. That is a great foundation for healthy living.

Anyhow, enough with record store attitude, I have some growing to do.