- Author: Denise Godbout-Avant
As the long, hot days of summer slide into cooler, shorter days of autumn, seasonal changes are occurring in my garden. Not as many plants are blooming, the leaves on deciduous trees and plants are becoming drier and starting to change color. Some plants are producing autumn berries that will sustain many birds as insects, another source of food, begin to disappear.
Quite a few butterflies have been showing up in my garden to take advantage of flowers that are still blooming. Butterflies I have been seeing include painted ladies (Vanessa cardui), common buckeyes (Junonia coenia), fiery skippers (Hylephila phyleus)and cabbage whites (Pieris rapae).
With the advent of...
Last week I discussed ornamental edible flowers. This article features some of the edible flowers from vegetable, fruit and weed plants.
Precautions and Harvesting Review
A reminder: before consuming edible flowers, one should always proceed with caution. The flowers should come only from your garden or other trusted sources that have not been sprayed with pesticides. Many flowers share common names, so always look for the scientific name (genus and species) to ensure you have the right flowers, since not all flowers are edible.
Harvest fully opened flowers in the morning right after the dew has dried. Carefully wash them, and as needed remove the stamens, styles, pistils, and sepals (the parts that hold the...
/h3>Recently I had the pleasure of sipping a delicious margarita made with hibiscus juice. A tropical plant, hibiscus plants produce large, showy blossoms. Generally grown for ornamental purposes, the flower is also known for its culinary applications, one of which is making a refreshing juice, like the one in my margarita!
Hibiscus are one of many flowers that are edible. Edible flowers can be used to add color, fragrance, flavor, and texture to foods. They can be added to soups and salads raw, used in entreés or desserts, make tea or flavored water, candied, breaded, or fried. They have the benefit of often being healthy while providing few calories.
This is the first part of a two-part article. This article will...
- Author: Denise Godbout-Avant
When you see bees in your garden, you likely see primarily European honeybees, who are crucially important to the Central Valley's agriculture since honeybees pollinate 90% our almond crop.
With their complex social structure and “waggle dance” to inform hive members where food sources are located, honeybees are fascinating creatures.
But honeybees are not the only bees flitting about the flowers on our crops and in our gardens in search of nectar. There over 4,000 species of bees in California.
Other Bees
Native bees play an important role in pollinating our plants also. Native bees are 200 times more efficient at pollination than honeybees. Studies in the Central...
/h3>- Author: Harold McDonald
I recently unearthed a bouquet of blue statice that I had hung to dry in the pantry, and it now brightens my bathroom, along with some ‘Moonshine' yarrow and lavender harvested early last summer.
Though I do have some star performers in my desert garden, I'm afraid nothing will ever quite compare to the armloads of easily-grown flowers I could collect nearly any day in Santa Cruz. When I saw those statice, it occurred to me that I could extend my season of color by planting even more flowers for drying. I did a little research and came across this amazing site that...