If you love to grow and eat vegetables, you are going to love Deborah Madison's new vegetable bible called, Vegetable Literacy: Cooking and Gardening with Twelve Families from the Edible Plant Kingdom, with over 300 Deliciously Simple Recipes. On Sunday, October 6, 2013, the world famous Chino Farm right in our San Diego backyard, presented Deborah Madison as part of their ongoing Good Earth Great Chefs series. Look for Alice Waters and Kermit Lynch's event at Chino's on December 7, 2013, 11:00am to 1:00pm.

This event was more than a book signing. Deborah had personally selected a recipe from her book, "Corn Simmered in Coconut Milk with Basil, served with Coconut Basmati Rice," for lucky attendees to sample. An additional unexpected surprise was lightly grilled shishito peppers and sweet potato leaf as garnish. San Marcos Stumblefoot Brewing Company provided the perfect beverage accompaniment.

Madison's book is as beautiful as it is massive. Instead of presenting her vegetables by season, she has grouped them by families. She shows us how vegetables by family have remarkable similarities, and can be interchanged in recipes. She also explains how the pairing of similar family vegetables, also share the same culinary characteristics, too. I love how she explains vegetables, first hand from her own gardening experience.

Madison is the author of eleven cookbooks, and is considered an authority on vegetables. In the few minutes I shared with Deborah Maidson, I sensed a peaceful spirituality about her, yet strong-mindedness to pursue issues of biodiversity and sustainable agriculture. It was a pleasure to meet her in person.

Please don't forget about my own upcoming book signing, Gardening with Free-Range Chickens for Dummies. RSVP and more details at  San Diego Botanic Garden, 230 Quail Drive, Encinitas, this Saturday, October 12, at 10:00am- 11:30am.

Here at Domaine de Manion we are especially grateful for the family and friends who help us harvest the grapes from the vines, sort the grapes before crushing, and share a delightful dish. This year, we had a bit of a heat wave right before our intended harvest, and so had to scramble and bring the grapes in a week earlier. We had a record yield of 860 pounds of beautiful fruit clusters which reached a desired 25.5 brix, or sugar percentage.

The fruit looked beautiful, dark, and inky as syrah should be. We quickly look at the luscious grape clusters on a sorting table before they are scooped up, destined for our grape auger which gently squeezes and destems them before putting them on dry ice for about two days to extract their skin color. The grapes are then brought back to room temperature, a pre-determined yeast is carefully added, and the fermentation process begins.

A week later, we invited everyone for bottling and more celebration. Situated under our huge Torrey Pine tree providing shade, we had a huge assembly line of able and willing helpers, filling the bottles, corking, labeling, and boxing all of last year's vintage which had been carefully aged in kegs the entire previous year. We had a total of 37 cases, when we finished and broke for a huge "Bottling Potluck" and a little Domaine de Manion wine.

Thanks again everyone, for all of your help and enthusiasm!

If you are looking for help attracting more beautiful birds and butterflies into your garden, take a look at George Adams' new book, Gardening for the Birds: How to Create a Bird-Friendly Backyard George Adams is not only the author, he is an artist including his pen and ink drawings, and contributing colorful photography, too.

This book is well-organized into four sections that systematically provide you incredible amounts of information to help you create a bird-friendly garden, plants with purpose for birds, and regional bird directories.

I particularly liked the detailed calendar for seasonal fruiting by region. I have never seen anything like this before. Adams stresses that planting native plants and trees for your region is key in attracting birds. This is a great guide for studying and reflecting over in a comfortable chair.  I wouldn't necessarily want to carry it around with me in my garden. It is visually attractive and superbly detailed  with charts and listings with keys such as nesting plants, shelter plants, nectar for butterfly plants, host plant for butterflies, fall color, showy flowers, and more.

My only disappointment in this book, is that I absolutely love it when a covey of quail venture onto my property and into my garden. I consider it a magical day, and simply love their presence, sounds, and their quirky behavior. I would like to attract more quail, more frequently, and Adams briefly mentioned quail only once in the book, and that they are ground dwellers.

I would recommend George Adams' book, Gardening for the Birds (Timber Press), for all of you who would like a more bird-friendly garden.

Pat Leuchtman is one of my garden writing friends and blogs at Common Weeder . She lives in the country down a dirt road in Heath, Massachusetts. This is a gardening region vary different from mine here in Southern California.

I have enjoyed her book, as it is a lively memoir of her life, family, and gardening. Although her book has distinct chapters, this book is a beautiful read about "a life well lived."

I always knew Pat loved her roses, but now I know how this came to be, and how her Annual Rose Viewing was born. A delightful read for those that love roses and especially for me, since I know Pat and her kindness. You can purchase her book, The Roses at the End of the Road at Common Weeder.

My new favorite perennial plant is Verbena bonariensis, also known as Purpletop Vervain. I planted it in mass on one side of my courtyard next to my olive trees and white iceberg roses, and I have really been enjoying it. It is very low maintenance with high "plant appeal."

It is native to South American and has naturalized in California. It does best in USDA Zones 6-10, prefers sun, and little water. It is a tall structural plant, 4'-6' high and at least 2' wide at maturity. Yet it has this airy quality which brings lightness and motion to a garden setting rather than density. It has clusters of captivating lavender-hued flowers that bloom prolifically from summer to fall. It is an incredible magnet for butterflies and delightful birds such as hummingbirds and goldfinch as an added bonus. Verbena bonariensis can reseed easily and aggressively, so be careful where you plant it.

There is even a dwarf version called Verbena bonariensis 'Little One' which reaches 18-24" high by 12-18"wide in size. A good source for both of these Verbenas is Cedros Gardens, (tel) (858) 792-8640, in the heart of Solana Beach's Cedros Design District.

Here are some tips for using Verbena bonairensis in your garden. Plant it in mass like I did, either as a background or in a foreground as it has such a nice "see-through" quality. It pairs well planted among roses, as mentioned in Carolyn Parker's everything rose blog, Rose Notes. Since it takes hot and dry conditions very well, think about planting it in your driest garden spots. I planted Verbena bonariensis "Little One' directly in my pea gravel around my water fountain. It looks like a cheery volunteer, yet adds interest and a dab of color. Or plant it in a dry spot along a flagstone pathway for a little bit of a surprise element for those walking by.

Please share if you have Verbena bonariensis in your garden. Please comment on how you have it planted and styled in your garden.

Don't you wish sometimes you could freeze time? Like after you have just finished deep-cleaning your chicken coop. All the cobwebs are swept away, all of the old bedding has been removed, dust and dirt has been vacuumed out, and the entire chicken coop has been sprayed with Orange Guard.

New bedding has been placed back into the coop, and it is the small window of time--the moment when your chicken coop is as clean as it will ever be before the next needed deep cleaning. Soon enough, the stampede of your flock rushes back in to take over their beloved coop and territory once again. It is always a moment to pause.

Don't forget about deep cleaning the nesting boxes, too. Keeping your nesting boxes clean, and with clean bedding makes for happy hens. I mention in my new book, Gardening with Free-Range Chickens For Dummies (For Dummies (Home & Garden)), keeping your chicken coop clean and well-maintained goes a long way in raising happy, healthy, and thriving chickens. How often you have to deep-clean your chicken coop is dependent on many variables such as how big is your flock, what kind of chicken coop set-up you have, and how you manage your routine cleaning.

Orange Guard is a great product that is safe for use around your pets, chickens, and chicken coop. You can safely use it on ant trails that can invade your home this time of year. I buy my Orange Guard at Ace Hardware, or search the store locator on Orange Guard. It successfully repels bugs such as fleas, ants, roaches, and mites that might harbor in cracks and hard to reach surfaces. It is a contact killer that suffocates insects by destroying their waxy respiratory lining. It is meant to be sprayed on surfaces until it saturates the surface. Orange Guard is not meant to be applied to animals directly, such as chickens. Do not apply it to water directly either as it can be hazardous to aquatic invertebrates.

When applying Orange Guard, I have my chickens free-ranging in my garden and away from their coop I am cleaning. After applying Orange Guard, I let my chicken coop air out for a minimum of an hour. I usually purchase the large 128 fluid ounce size. The handy spray nozzle that comes with this size doesn't always work very well, and I often have to use Orange Guard in a smaller spray bottle. Ideally, I clean my coop on a warm sunny day, when I can be in the garden and my chickens can happily free-range for at least half a day.

If you see actual bugs on your chickens, such as fleas, lice, and mites there is a safe non-toxic product called Poultry Protector by MannaPro. Poultry Protector is not meant to be sprayed into eyes. Poultry Protector can be found at most feed stores or online. Always follow the recommended instructions on the label. For chickens that have mites or fleas around their eyes, spray Poultry Protector in a clean non-porous container and dab clean Q-tips with Poultry Protector, gently around the eye area--avoiding getting anything in your chickens' eyes.

With the rising popularity of backyard flocks and raising chickens, there are more and more safe and non-toxic environmentally safe products to use around your chicken coop and on your chickens. Always follow the specific directions on product labels to ensure correct application and usage of product.

Please share how you deep-clean your chicken coop. Please comment on non-toxic environmental safe products you use around your chicken coop and on your chickens.

It is the special time of year in our Syrah vineyard when the grapes begin to show their color and start their verasion process. Grapes turn from green and hard to the touch, to their first blush of color and softer to the touch. Verasion in our vineyard tells us we are about 8 weeks away from our harvest, give or take the ensuing weather leading up to the harvest.

With grape clusters turning color, it is necessary to net every grapevine row to protect our harvest crop from attentive wildlife and even our free-range chickens. See my previous post on this for more information, Vineyard Ready for Netting.

For our backyard vineyard, netting takes about an hour and a half, with enthusiastic friends who lend a helping hand.

Nets have been carefully rolled up and stored since last year's harvest. Nets will stay in good shape, and can be used year after year for the vineyard. The netting is rolled out, and taking the leading net edge hoisted over the top of each row so the netting covers equally both sides of the grapevines, and essentially the entire vineyard row. Next we take simple wooden clip clothes pins and clip together the netting. The entire vineyard row with netting is clipped underneath the vines and around the end posts.

Many thanks to our friends who helped this weekend! This year our friend, Karen Contreras, owner of Urban Plantations, joined us for the netting process. Urban Plantations specializes in the design and maintenance of edible landscaping around San Diego County.

Please share if you have problems with wildlife eating your ripening fruit or grapevines? Simple netting is a simple way to protect your harvest.

Hot off the press! My new book, Gardening with Free-Range Chickens For Dummies (For Dummies (Home & Garden)) with coauthor, Rob Ludlow of www.BackYardChickens.com, is now available on amazon and in bookstores. You can order the book now from my right side bar below. Please tell all of your chicken-loving friends! Gardening with chickens is a great way to create sustainability in your garden, enhance your soil, eliminate pests and weeds, produce a delicious home-grown protein source, and all the while--be amused by these little "garden warriors." We give you basic animal husbandry elements needed to provide a healthy environment for chickens, what you and your family should expect if you are new to chickens, and how your garden will be enhanced with the addition of chickens. We focus on garden basics, and how to create a beneficial garden where chickens will be happy, healthy, and thrive. We help you understand garden structure, layering, and how to create an ornamental garden as well as an edible garden for you and your chickens.

We provide all different plant lists and purposes which are helpful for chickens free-ranging in your garden. We help you understand what is good to feed your chickens, and what is potentially harmful. We also help you with deterring predators with common sense management, innovative products, and specialty fencing.

We're excited to share our new book with all of you, whether you are new to chickens, new to gardening, or already experienced in both. Stay tuned as we launch the book!

In doing research for my upcoming new book, Gardening with Free-Range Chickens For Dummies (For Dummies (Home & Garden)) with coauthor Rob Ludlow of BackYard Chickens, I stumbled across Peaceful Vally Farm Supply's Omega-3 Chicken Forage Blend. What a find!

This organic forage blend is a real treat for your hens. It is available in 1 pound to 1,000 pound quantities. You can grow in it on a large scale in a pasture, in your garden, in a chicken run or zone, or even in 17" garden flats like I did.  Warning, Peaceful Vally Farm Supply recommends not grazing horses on this mixture. Flax can form prussic acid when exposed to frost.

This forage blend is a warm season crop in mild climates, and can be sowed after danger of frost in cooler climates. It needs regular irrigation, and most likely needs to be replanted each year. Keep your seeds moist, and your chickens away from this blend until it is the desired height for your chickens. Surprisingly, seeds germinate immediately, and in less than two weeks time is 3" to 5" high, the perfect height for chickens to graze.

Peaceful Vally Farm Supply has refined this unique forage blend from their own expertise, feedback from backyard poultry enthusiasts, and university research. This blend consists of alfalfa, buckwheat, clover, flax, millet, rye, and rye grass. Feeding your chickens this forage blend ensures their eggs will be rich in Omega-3  fatty acids, an important component of a healthy diet for those eating their eggs.

My chickens go crazy for this blend as you can see in the photo. Most chickens devour the blend before the plants can set seed. Peaceful Valley Farm Supply tells me you can try and grow this forage blend in a raised bed with a protective wire over it to keep your chickens from eating it roots, and all. With the protective wire, the grass might have time to replenish itself, if you keep your chickens away from it as regrowth begins.This blend is not only great for chickens, but ducks and turkeys,too.

If you order the Omega-3 Chicken Forage Blend from Peaceful Vally Farm Supply for your chickens, be sure and tell them VintageGardenGal recommended it.