Debra Lee Baldwin's recently released book, Succulent Container Gardens: Design Eye-Catching Displays with 350 Easy-Care Plants, is a terrific follow up book to her wildly successful book, Designing with Succulents.

Debra Lee Baldwin's new book Succulent Container Gardens, focuses on the infinite possibilities and versatility of succulents in containers. Her new book is armed with over 300 succulent-rich photos that Debra Lee Baldwin photographed in Southern California, and beyond. She visited talented designers, nursery owners, home owners, and folks who every day design with succulents, sell succulents, and in general appreciate the beauty and textural elements of succulents.

Succulent Container Gardens is organized into four chapters of pairing plants, designing with succulents, plant palettes, and all of the necessary basics in starting, maintaining, and caring for succulents in containers. As an extra bonus, she gives us detailed design lists of succulents by color, size, and function.

VintageGardenGal, caught Debra Lee Baldwin's attention, and has two cameos in her book, the first is a succulent-potted vintage chicken container, and the second, is a succulent-planted table top wreath adorned with a crimson candle for the holidays. Many thanks.

If you are not on the succulent bandwagon yet, Debra Lee Baldwin's new book, Succulent Container Gardens, will inspire you through the many possibilities of succulents in containers. Please share if you have been bitten by the succulent bug. Please comment on what attracts you to succulents, and how you design with them in your garden and in containers.

Even if you provide your chickens with a chicken coop "extroadinaire" and an adjoining spacious outside pen, their preference will always be out roaming free in your yard and garden. So much garden to explore, bugs and worms to forage, dirt baths to indulge in, and plain ol' sunshine and breeze to enjoy.

I encourage you to let your chickens out to roam and free-range in your yard and garden, mind you with a watchful eye. It is important that you protect your chickens while they are outside of their pen, and on the "flip side," you are aware of the necessity of protecting your flower and vegetable gardens from your chickens, too.

If you let your chickens out in your yard and garden, be aware of possible predators such as dogs, coyotes, raccoons. Never let your chickens out to roam at night, only day time. Make sure your yard and garden is free of any glass, nails, and sharp objects which could possibly cut or puncture a chicken's foot. Punctures in a chicken's foot, has enormous consequences, and can lead to infection and bumblefoot. Use common sense to eliminate anything in your yard and garden which could potentially harm your chickens.

If you have a prize-winning garden, or an incredible green thumb growing organic vegetables, you should take precautions to keep them protected from your chickens. Chickens love home-grown vegetables, and will be in your vegetable garden, if not protected with a surrounding fence or netting. Our beloved hens will jump a foot or so to eat a lush cluster of grapes in our vineyard. We net our vineyard to dissuade wild birds, as well as own chickens. Chickens know where the good eats are, rest assured.

In your flower gardens, chickens are more likely to wallow in dirt baths at the base of shrubs, rather than eat actual plants. They are foraging for bugs, worm, small lizards more so than your flowers. Dirt baths for chickens are a form of cleansing their feathers, cooling themselves in the moist soil, and general relaxation.

Chickens if roaming outside, naturally head for their coop at dusk to perch on their roost at night. If it is not dusk, and you need to coax your chickens back into their coop and outside pen, try training them to herd.

Herding works with a small flock of chickens, not usually a large one. Herding chickens is a bit like "herding cats." When you first get your chickens, start training them at a young age to herd as soon as possible, especially if you are going to let them out to roam. I have never had a rooster, so I don't know if this method works for them, too.

My technique for herding chickens, is to gently walk behind them, patting or clapping my hands together, using my left or right arm out to steer them. It works. If you have a small flock, once you get the leaders heading towards your coop, the others fall into place. Gently clap walking slowly behind them, and they will march back to the coop.

Chickens love to be in your yard and garden. They love to have the freedom to roam and explore, but don't have to be out in your yard and garden all the time. Let them out, when you have time to keep an eye on them, and when you have time to be in your yard and garden.

Please share if you let your chickens out in your yard and garden at times. Please comment on any method you use to herd your chickens.

Nothing says "spring" like a dainty bouquet of fragrant ruffled sweet peas. There are so many colors to choose from like elegant whites, soft pastels, and even vibrant reds to purples. You might just have to grow several varieties.

Many types of sweet peas are the old-fashion kind, which need a fence or some type of support to encourage them upward. There are some new types of "bush" sweet peas which don't require any support and are equally attractive planted as a border in your garden, or in a circle around the base of a birdbath. There are also new "container" sweet pea varieties available for another very different effect. Place them on an outdoor table or on your patio for a splash of color.

If you are planting sweet peas which need a support to climb, why not get a little creative with your support fencing. Try a "garden circle of sweet peas" in your garden. Plant your sweet peas in some form like a circle, maze, square, or in parallel rows before an arbor. In other words, try some non-traditional form plantings. In the above photo, I used a perfect circle of wire reinforced with chicken wire and open at the bottom, from a load of river rock I bought last summer.

Renee Shepard of, Renee's Garden seeds, has a true love for sweet peas, and might just be responsible for a "modern day one-woman renaissance of sweet peas." She offers over 20 different delightful sweet pea seed varieties, and several articles on ensuring "sweet peas success" in your garden, Renee's Garden Sweet Pea Seeds and information.

If you love sweet peas, and can't get enough of them in your own garden, it is worth a visit to Summers Past Farms Sweet Pea Day, east of San Diego, for a life-size sweet pea maze at their annual "Sweet Pea Day" each April. Proprietors Marshall and Sheryl Lozier, encourage you to pack a picnic and bring the kids, or make it a special "garden gal" day with friends. Mark your calendar.

Welcome "spring into your garden" with romantic sweet peas, in your favorite colors, and grown in your favorite way. Please share if you grow sweet peas every year. Please comment on how you grow, and like to use your sweet peas.

When I saw this piece recently highlighted on the witty garden blog, Garden Rant, who in turn, saw it originally on Sunset's fabulous garden blog, Fresh Dirt, it was another "aha" moment for me. It is worth mentioning yet again. How many of you want to "lose your lawn" and transform it into a more sustainable garden bed? You can do it in a very simple green organic way.

On Sunset's Fresh Dirt blog, contributing editor Jim McCausland walks us through the step-by-step method, Portland Landscape Designer Margaret de Haas van Dorsser, uses to magically transform a lawn into a new garden bed simply by way of "composting" on top of your lawn and designated new garden bed, using layers of newspaper, manure, and a little time, Turn Your Lawn Into A Flower Bed. This is ingenious. No more hiring someone, adding chemicals, intensive labor, and fighting of missed seeds or grass. You can do it yourself, in a very safe green organic way, and it is easy on your pocketbook, too.

I'm just amazed at how effective green, simple, organic methods and tips work for your garden. It takes a little bit of digging, no pun intended, to find a simple, green, organic solution but the rewards are worth it. Before you start a new garden project try researching for a green organic simple solution. Chances are you will find one, and you will be be very surprised and pleased. Please comment if you have tried this method of transforming your lawn into a garden bed. Please share if you are on the band wagon to reduce your lawn area.

Here is a new and notable book for you to enjoy along with your seed catalogs, while curled up next to a warm inviting fire waiting out the Southern California winter rains. It is the highly anticipated newly released, Sunset Western Garden Book of Edibles.

Who better than Sunset to illustrate and thoroughly explain the virtues and hot trend today of growing your own food. Packed with in depth information, beautiful photographs, and "how to" design, it is a must for the backyard gardener intent in cultivating more of one's home-grown food. Thank you Sunset!

Jim McCausland, Sunset Contributing Editor, and part of the actual team who wrote Sunset's Western Garden Book of Edibles describes in detail this book, in his recent post on Sunset's blog, Fresh Dirt, Its here, Sunsets New Western Garden Book of Edibles. You can purchase it now, without leaving your chair at Western Garden Book of Edibles: The Complete A-Z Guide to Growing Your Own Vegetables, Herbs, and Fruits.

More news......Attention all ye garden bloggers. Announcing the third annual,"Garden Bloggers Meet Up 2010" in Buffalo, New York, this coming July 8-11, 2010. Garden Bloggers all over the country will converge on Buffalo, New York, to share information on gardening, blogging, photography, social media, tips, and even enjoy a few special garden tours. Could this be your year?

Southern California has been experiencing wave after wave of rain storms this past week, complete with high winds, thunder, lightning, and lots of rain. It doesn't take long for innate nettle seeds in our sandy soil to come alive as a vibrant green carpet in our backyard Domaine de Manion vineyard.

This is a point in time where the vineyard is beautiful in its simplicity. Unabashed beautiful bare structure, magnified by repetition of vine after vine exposing groomed cordon arms and last year's upward shoots held high. It is close to the last moment of calm and dormancy before this year's vineyard activities commence.

Soon, my husband John, and yours truly will begin spur pruning each vine along its cordon arms. These all-important cordon arms, host fruit spurs with inevitable buds ready to swell into tiny new shoots. This process begins the onset of this year's awakening of our vineyard.

It is an exciting time for us, considering the many unknowns, and anticipation of our third harvest this coming fall. It is a time to reflect on last year, and this year ahead, both years converging briefly at the same time. What will the weather be like this year? Will it be especially advantageous to our vineyard? Will it be a special year for our grapes? Will we harvest a higher grape yield this year? Will it be a late harvest? Will there be a surprise?

What differences will we see as our vineyard is another year older, and as grape growers we are another year wiser? Will our many footsteps amongst the grapevines this year, translate into producing a great syrah grape, and in turn a great syrah wine? Ah, only time will tell.

Please share if you have experienced the winter beauty of a vineyard. Please comment if you have helped friends in their winter vineyard.

Please welcome new sponsors, TomatoFest and BioBag!

As gardeners we all know without healthy soil, there will be no beautiful healthy garden. It's just that simple. What better way to ensure healthy soil then backyard composting. Don't laugh, but there is something magical about backyard composting. It is something akin to the "sum is greater than the parts", or two separate delicious ingredients will never compare as well alone, as when complemented and combined together as one.

As I have mentioned before, backyard composting can be paralleled to making a vegetarian recipe. It is equal parts of layered greens and browns, add water to keep moist, and turn frequently to aerate. For more detailed information, please go to VGG related post, How To Compost In Your Backyard.

Here are examples of but not limited to, what is regularly in my compost bin. I add egg shells from my beautiful eggs my hens have laid. I add raked leaves from our trees that I cherish in our garden. I add my spent coffee grinds and recycled coffee filter from the aromatic French Roast coffee I enjoy drinking each morning. I add fresh grass clippings from our lawn. I add sweet potato peels and green bean tips from an evening meal preparation. I add my chicken manure as an extra bonus.

Ten Ways Compost Benefits Your Soil and Ultimately Your Garden: -It improves the soil structure by causing mineral particles in your soil to naturally clump together. -It improves soil ability to hold moisture, and means less watering. -It improves soil aeration and the ability to carry oxygen to your plant's roots. -It acts as an anchor to hold in soil nutrients, and not allow them to wash away with ground water. -It increases the number of beneficial microorganisms and worms in your soil. -It has the ability to neutralize acidic soils and acidifies alkaline soils, this is big. -It has the ability to consume harmful fungi spores, if present. -It introduces trace elements often hard to add, and in proper amounts to your soil. -It kills harmful pathogens in the soil, which keeps your plants and garden healthy. -It creates a healthy environment for healthy plants to thrive, and inhibits weed growth.

Your compost is a custom mixture, an interesting by-product of your life. All of these ingredients throughly combined become an organic rich humus with incredible benefits to your soil, garden, plants, trees, and yard.

Besides the many advantageous perks of adding compost to your soil, composting benefits your pocketbook, and piece of mind. Please share if you compost now. Please comment on what got you started composting? What benefits have you seen in your garden since composting?

For those of you in the San Diego area, there are "Free Composting Workshops" offered this spring through Solana Center for Environmental Innovation. Pre-register online at Solana Center for Environmental Innovation or (tel) (760) 436-7986 x222

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 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.