Love Halloween? You can have a black and orange garden all year!
(Having one bloom black and orange in time for Halloween is trickier: it depends on your climate.)

I like to mix two colors of the same flower for maximum impact.
Here are some suggestions for flowers that come in both black and orange:

Amaranths: I have a fondness for these strange flowers, and Amaranth ‘Oeschberg’ is almost black. Pair it with a bronze variety.

Asian Lilies come in black and orange. There are many varieties of orange—try “Apeldoorn.” For black, “Landini” is stunning.

Cosmos come in orange (“Cosmic Orange,” “Bright Lights,” and other varieties) and a dark brownish-black (Chocolate Cosmos.) Cosmos blooms in the summer but may hang on until Halloween in warmer climates.

Dahlias come in dark blackish-purple and also in orange. “Crossfield Ebony” is a nice dark pom pom; also check out Old House Gardens for some fabulous old-fashioned ones in both colors.

Daylilies come in many shades of orange, including the most common species-type. Plant them with “black” cultivars, including “Midnight Oil” and “Midnight Raider” which are a nice dark purple, or “Night Wings” which is a dark red but looks black most or the time.
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Technorati Tags: black flower, Garden, goth, Halloween

How exactly do we live lightly on the Earth?

Sometimes, things get a bit confusing.

I have a new (used) house. With a backyard full of St. Augustine grass, decorative pear trees, hybrid tea roses, and some wax-leaf ligustrum.
As an environmentally-concious gardener and mother, I can’t let this go on.
I know I’ll garden organically, but what will I garden?

Do I plant all natives? Is this the most eco-friendly option?
Do I garden for wildlife? Is this the most eco-friendly option?
Do I try to grow my own food? Is this the most eco-friendly option?
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Technorati Tags: 100 mile diet, fruit trees, Garden, grass to food, kids, local food, native plants, organic, vegetable gardening

There’s this old-fashioned flower, called “Butter n Eggs”…
Can you guess what color it is?
Nope, it’s not yellow and white–it’s yellow and orange! (see it here)
When it was named, people weren’t all color-blind, they just had better eggs.

If you guessed white and yellow–get ye to a farmers’ market! (find one near you here)
At the very least, buy eggs laid by free-range, vegetarian-fed chickens. They’ve been proven to be more nutritious!
You are what you eat…and apparently whatever it ate, too.

Feed yourself and your family right!
(Plus, kids looove to go to farmers’ markets, even older kids who don’t like the grocery store anymore!)

Technorati Tags: eat well, eggs, farmers markets, kids, nutrition

Wisebread has posted a list of their authors’ Green Resolutions for the coming year.
mine for my family are:
1. eliminate paper towel use (I’m down to 2 rolls per month!)
2. eliminate plastic bag use (this is tricky with packing lunches and storage–maybe I’ll allow myself to use them for long-term storage only)
3. investigate an in-line water heater for my bath and/or kitchen so I don’t waste water warming it up.

What are yours?

Technorati Tags: environment, Family, green, recycle, reduce, resolutions