Posts tagged Weidner's Gardens
Holiday Vignette

Every year I bring out this vintage sleigh to decorate and place by my front door. Year to year the vignette and decorations vary. My holiday decorations and style are generally simple and rustic, and often using greens from my garden.

Making This Vignette:

Find an interesting piece for a base, such as this weather-worn sleigh. Choose a piece that is novel, whimsical, and might bring on a smile.

Use a focal piece or showstopper. I chose a 10” beautiful red poinsettia plant inspired from a recent tour at Weidner’s Gardens, organized by one of my garden clubs, The Village Garden Club of La Jolla.

Wrap the plant in simple burlap.

Cut Blue Juniper greens and Little Gem Magnolia pieces from my garden, arranging them on the sleigh. Look for greens, foliage, berries, pine cones in your garden, or possibly from a neighbor or friend.

Add another smaller interesting piece. In this vignette, an interesting pine cone from another part of California.

Add a colorful bow, if your vignette needs a pop. I didn’t want to take away from the color and beauty of the poinsettia, so I didn’t add a bow.

Make sure everything in your vignette can tolerate being outdoor for a period of time.

Enjoy what you have created. If you make a vignette, I would love to hear about it!

Bon Appétit et Bon Weekend…Bonnie

My Hens Take Five

Three Buddies In The Garden It is blissful when all of your hens get along easily. My three hens, Charley, Dolly, and Dahlia have been together since they were day old chicks. They get along famously, and move around in my garden as a unit. They are never far from one another. It was special to find them all together in the warm sandy soil under one of my Pink Breath of Heaven shrubs.

Out in the garden, my hens are usually so active, poking for bugs, greens, and treats. The sunny warm soil must have been so inviting, they had to take five, and relax together. Sand flung up on their backs is soothing and cleansing to them. This is the ultimate dirt bath that chickens love.

Hens that are the same age, and have grown up together have better chances of getting along and avoiding the sometimes cruel pecking order.

VintageGardenGal Tidbit Thyme....

The 6th Annual Encinitas Garden Festival and Tour is Saturday, April 30, 2011, from 10am to 4pm. The featured neighborhood this year is the historic tree-lined Crest Drive in Cardiff, with diverse gardens and panoramic views of our community west to the ocean, and east to the backcountry. Don't miss it!

You can purchase tickets online at Encinitas Garden Festival, and at these local nurseries: Anderson's La Costa Nursery, Barrels and Branches, Cedros Gardens, The Madd Potter, and Weidner's Gardens.

January Garden Notes

Tomato Beauties, Courtesy of TomatoFest It's January now, but fast forward to the month of August. Wouldn't you love to harvest a basket of tomato beauties for yourself this summer. That means you should be selecting your favorite tomato seeds now, and preparing to start your seedlings for this spring.

Your gardening friends, Gary Ibsen and Dagma Lacey, tomato heirloom seed experts at TomatoFest, have extended their Annual Heirloom Tomato Sale going on now through January 18, 2010, TomatoFest Seeds On Sale. You too, can have Julia Child and Clint Eastwood's Rowdy Red heirloom tomatoes gracing your garden this year. Check it out.

Weidner's Gardens, Encinitas, California

Weidner's Gardens is hosting a "Fruit Tree Pruning Workshop" this Saturday, January 16, 2010.

11:00am - 1:00pm Master Gardener, John Marsh, will discuss and demonstrate "Fruit Tree Pruning". 1:00pm - 2:00pm VintageGardenGal, Bonnie Jo Manion, will speak on "Fruit Tree Espalier Basics."

Weidner's Gardens has a nice selection of bare root fruit trees, citrus trees, blueberry bushes, and much more currently in stock. Check out their website for their business hours. Weidner's Gardens, 695 Normandy Road, Encinitas, CA, 92024, (tel) (760) 436-2194.

Increased Daylight Signals Chickens To Lay

Fresh Laid Eggs Once Again Wishing Everyone The Best 2010! What better way to start the New Year, writing about newly laid eggs, a symbol of fertility and new life through the ages.

My French Marans hens have started laying their beautiful chocolate eggs once again, only six days after the winter solstice, December 21, which marks the commencement of longer daylight. The increased daylight often measured in increased minutes of daylight, signals chickens in general to begin laying.

If you let your hens follow their instincts, and don't add supplemental light in their coop to keep them laying, they will take a natural break or molt in the fall to winter, and begin laying once again with the natural stimulation of incremental increased daylight. This can vary by a hen's age and breed. When a hen does start laying once again, after a break, her eggs might be smaller at first in size.

In a previous post here at VGG, Discovering The French Marans Chicken Breed, I write in detail about the French Maran breed, and how they actually secrete a dark chocolate tint to their eggs aided by a unique mucous gland in the last moments of laying their eggs. This is the secret of their deep chocolate color, and what is unique to their breed. In the photo above, you can see the first egg is two-toned, as my French Marans hen, Coco, turned on her mucous gland, as she commences to begin laying her first egg, after her fall/winter break. The second laid egg is fully tinted dark chocolate, and it appears that her egg-laying process is in place. It is yet another example of how beautiful mother nature is.

For more information on the French Marans Chicken Breed please go to Marans Chicken Club USA. See "Diggin' These Links", on my home page- left side bar, for more chicken-related links I've assembled especially for you.

Are your hens starting to lay since the winter solstice? Do you have any "egg stories" to share?

Announcing for all of you that live in the Encinitas area, Weidner's Gardens is hosting a "Fruit Tree Workshop" on Saturday, January 16, 2009.  Come see their fabulous bare root fruit tree selection for the season, and learn a few tips. See below for details. Hope to see you there!

11:00-1pm, Master Gardener, John Marsh, will  speak on "Pruning Your Fruit Trees."

1:00-2:00pm, VintageGardenGal, Bonnie Jo Manion, will speak on the "Basics of Espaliered Fruit Trees."

Weidner's Gardens, 695 Normandy Rd., Encinitas, CA 92024, (tel) (760) 436-2194, www.weidners.com, Saturday, January 16, 2009, Hours are 9:00am - 4:30pm