Herb Gardening 101 Class at the Desert Botanical Garden

For the last 3 Sunday afternoons I had the chance to attend a class at the Desert Botanical Garden in Phoenix.  The class was called "Herbs from Garden to Kitchen".  Our teacher was Catherine Crowley, also known as "The Herb Lady" (this is a link to her blog) and wow does she know her stuff!   I got a notebook full of tips and useful information.
We also toured the Herb Garden on site at DBG and had a chance to touch, taste and smell some unique herbs that Catherine brought in from her own garden.  Have you ever seen Chocolate Basil?  How about Cinnamon Basil?  My favorite was Lemon Basil.  Actually pretty much anything with lemon smelled delicious.  There's also Lemon Thyme, Lemon Grass, Lemon Verbena and even more.

We learned about shopping for plants & seeds, as well as planting, location, watering, sunlight, fertilizing, insects, etc.  I always thought it was nearly impossible to grow anything but cactus here in the desert, but I'm learning that there are actually quite a few plants that will thrive here.  The most important thing is WHEN you plant and how much sunlight the plants will get.  Even though our days a quite warm, Catherine says that EVERY edible plant needs at least 4 to 6 hours of sun each day.

For the grand finale of the last class Catherine brought in several samples of recipes that she had made with herbs, plus we watched some video of other recipes that she had created.  You can see 4 different kinds of tabouli in the photo above. We got copies of the recipes to take home too.  Oh, by the way, in case you don't know...everything tastes better with fresh herbs!

We're pretty much at the end of our range for springtime planting now, so I wanted to pick up a few things before it was too late.

On Saturday Terry and I did some shopping.  Here's what I planted today.

Yellow Pear Tomatoes, Strawberries, Alyssum, Lavender, Basil, Lemon Basil, Parsley, Rosemary, and Chives.  We also picked up these yellow flowers that I thought were Euryop daisies, but the tag on them says some kind of Butterfly something or other...oh well, they look similar, so we'll see how they do.

We picked up a nice Star Jasmine vine for the atrium in the back yard too.  I hope it does o.k.   The area doesn't get a lot of sun, so it's iffy.   But, I love the scent of star jasmine, so I'm hoping we can make it work.

This last photo is what the front entry area looks like now with our humble little garden...or maybe I should call it my humbling little garden (depending on how it does).

I tried a few things that weren't recommended, but we can't really afford to buy a bunch of big flower pots right now, so I had to use what we had.  The Herb Lady recommends that you use pots at LEAST 2 FEET across if you do container gardening in Phoenix, in order to insulate the plants from the heat.  Most of the pots we have are smaller than that, so I tried to keep them away from the edge.  We'll see how they do....

Eventually we need to extend the water drip lines so we can run one into each pot, but for now we'll hand water them.  And the long term plan is to fill the plant shelves in the front of the house with pots as well.  I think it will add some nice color, scents and even some goodies for eating too.

I really love having God's amazing creation around.  My grandmother made her living as a farmer, but the knowledge wasn't passed down to my generation.  I always thought it would be great to have my grandmother come and live with us for a year or so and teach us how to garden, but unfortunately, that never happened.  Terry did pretty well with a garden when we were in California, but so far he hasn't had the time or inclination for it.  Hopefully this will get us started and eventually our yard will be overflowing with little bits of God's glorious beauty.

Herbs Gardening Class at the Desert Botanical Garden

I just signed up for this class at the Desert Botanical Garden in Phoenix and I'm so excited!  I've heard that it's relatively easy to grow herbs here in the desert climate, but they surely don't last on my window sill in the kitchen.  I'm looking forward to finding out the secrets of planting them (and keeping them alive) outside.  I will mostly plant in pots to start with, if that's workable.  When I'm finished with the class and my herbs are thriving it will be exciting to use them for cooking.  Fresh herbs are SO much better than dried ones!


Herbs from Garden to Kitchen

Take your herbal knowledge to new heights–from growing herbs in your garden to dazzling your senses in the kitchen. In three sessions you will learn herb gardening for success in the desert, herb varieties and their uses, and delicious herb-inspired recipes and menus for healthy cooking. Open your senses to the bounty of herbs that grow in the desert. Also included is a wonderful informational and instructional manual prepared especially for this series by your instructor Catherine The Herb Lady. Limit 20.

Session 1: Edibles in the Desert - Learn to garden for success in this introductory session designed to get you growing.  From planning to planting, ‘The Herb Lady' will teach you about our ‘flip- flop' planting times, give you the scoop on soil, and why "location, location, location" is as important in growing herbs as in buying real estate. You will also learn about one of  most important tools for desert gardening, bugs both good and bad, and more.

Session 2: Herbs - Anise to Zahtar - Discover the incredible variety of herbs that can be grown right here in our desert. While some are used to beautify, others are aromatic and flavorful, and many are "multitaskers", fulfilling many roles. Learn about gardening with themes, plants that play well with others and some that do not. This session includes an interpretive guided tour of the Herb Garden.

Session 3: Beauty on the Table, Delicious on the Dish - Treat your taste buds in this savory session by sampling some herb inspired recipes prepared by ‘The Herb Lady.' This interactive session will lead you, step-by-step, through a wide range of healthy, mouth-watering menu ideas. All are tasty, some unique, and all guaranteed to put more real food with real flavor on your plate, while minimizing fat and salt.

What a Crazy Week!

First we came home from our marvelous trip to the Grand Canyon to discover that our dishwasher wasn't working properly and when the repairman came, we found out it was going cost nearly $400! Yikes! So we decided that instead of repairing a 5 year old appliance, we'd just buy a new one, since the cost was about the same and we'd have some warranty for a little while. Bad news!

Next Terry's "check engine" light came on in his car plus he needed new pads for his brakes, so he took the car in on Saturday to a mechanic that he had used for basic service, but not for anything major. As is the case with some mechanics, he had a less than ideal experience and after SEVERAL HUNDRED MORE dollars, the "check engine" light still wasn't diagnosed or fixed and we still needed to take it somewhere else for that repair.
That was more bad news!

On Monday when he drove to work he discovered that the "check engine" light was off! Yea! So, either the issue that triggered the light was inadvertently fixed when it was in the shop or at least we've delayed it for now. Good news!

Then, tonight when I came home from work, I was running some water at the kitchen sink and the top of the faucet just FELL OFF RIGHT IN MY HAND!! What?!? I have NEVER had that happen before. Crazy news!

At least it's a Price Pfister faucet and my information says that it has a lifetime warranty. Let's hope that's good news when I call the company tomorrow!

O.k., let's recap - no dishwasher to wash dishes and no kitchen sink to wash dishes. I guess that means we're eating out a lot, or washing dishes in the bathroom or the pool. Fun, fun, fun!

The new dishwasher will be delivered on Friday and I'm hoping we can get the faucet guy out then too. We'll see...

A week like this makes me thankful for all the weeks that aren't like this and reminds me of all the amazing blessings that we are constantly receiving both large and small. It also makes me realize that so many others are going thru far more difficult things than the few inconveniences that we've had this week.

God takes such good care of us with the cherished love of so many family, friends and brothers & sisters in Christ, in addition we enjoy good health, stable jobs, a more-than-comfortable home and everything we could possibly need.

The truth is that even if all these precious gifts were taken away, God would still be a good and gracious God. (Read the book of Job sometime.)

"And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work." II Cor. 9;8

Am I alone?

No comments on the last 3 posts. I'm beginning to wonder if I'm writing this just for myself or maybe it's just that my content isn't interesting. Let me know. Of course, Ginny tells me that she reads it to Terry's dad, but she doesn't comment, so I guess there's one person out there reading sometimes.

My crazy busy weeks are starting to settle down and hopefully I'll catch up on posts soon. Of course, I'm a social person, so may need a little confirmation that I have at least a small audience out there.

Linda, I'll try to get the Mozingo ones posted soon for you.

Fun news! I've started taking a Photoshop Elements (non-credit) class thru Scottsdale Community a few hours a week. My work is paying for me to go during work hours as long as I go back and teach it to two of my bosses, which will give me good practice anyway.

It was not a good sign that I was probably the youngest person in the class and it moved pretty slow with the "older" folks trying to follow along on their computers. But it appears that the teacher knows a thing or two at least about the technical aspects of Photoshop Elements. I looked at his website (here) and overall it's pretty average. He's quite a traditional portrait photographer, but hopefully has good knowledge of Elements tools.

My main goal is to get familiar with the various tools and how they work, so I'm hoping this will help.

The first class was excrutiating in pace, but hopefully they'll get that under control in the coming classes. After the overview and intros, etc. the teacher showed us a few quick processes that were pretty cool. Amy, he had some tips on making people look better in portraits, which was great! Things like fixing someone's eye that was half closed, doing a little nip and tuck with the extra bit of fat along the jaw line or waist line, enhancing color in the sky when it looks too washed out. You may already know all of these, but if you ever want to hear what I found out, let me know. There might be some tips that you haven't learned yet.

The assistant in the class is Diana Gunning. I looked at her site and she has some interesting photos in her "Pets" & "Cards" categories. Some cute, some strange, some a bit disturbing...especially the ones of the tarantula. Really! I do like some of her photos in the "Artwork" section. These are more representative of some of the creative things you can do with photos, hopefully with Elements.

Anyway, I'm looking forward to this class and an upcoming full day Nikon class in February. I get really excited when I have time to play with my photos and do creative things with them.