Check Out My New Blog: Horticultist

Hi all,

I've decided to start a new blog and I'd love to invite you to check it out!

My goal for the new blog is to document my day to day experiences as a horticulturist.  Between my personal and professional life, I grow hundreds of different varieties and over 30,00 individual plants each year.  I'd love to share some of their stories with you!

So if you're ready, please head over to my new blog, Horticultist.

What exactly is a horticultist?  It's a word I use to describe a person devoted to and obsessed with the art and science of gardening.  And, it's a word I use to describe myself!

MSU Horticulture Garden's Plant Sale 2015

If you're in the Greater Lansing Area in mid-May, heck, if you're anywhere in Michigan, come check out our plant sale! You'll find an amazing selection of unusual annuals, perennials, herbs, and veggies!

This happens in 8 short weeks. MARK YOUR CALENDARS!

Our Most Curious Ornamental: Castor Bean

Garden Day Live Stream Today!

Please join me for the first ever live broadcast preview of the MSU Horticulture Garden's Garden Day! Get tips from Jessica Wright and Daedre Craig (that's me!) to Green up your garden and spice up your meals! Watch Live on the MSUAA LENS Livestream, June 24th at noon!


http://new.livestream.com/msualumni/MSUGardenDay

New Batch of Baby Chicks

I picked up a new batch of chicks a couple weeks ago and haven't gotten around to sharing the news yet.

I have 11 chicks at the moment, but only a portion of them will be staying with me (the rest will go to other chicken owners). In the mix are a Buff Orpington, a Silver Laced Wyandotte, and nine Easter Eggers. I decided to keep only Easter Eggers this time. I think it will be fun because they will all look different and it will be a surprise!

Here are some photos of the chicks when they were 2 weeks old.

Easter Egger

Easter Egger

Easter Egger

Buff Orpington

Silver Laced Wyandotte

Grow Your Own Pea Shoots (Part 2)

So here's what happened with the peas I soaked and sowed a couple weeks ago.

They started to send up shoots pretty quickly (day 2 or 3 after sowing the pre-sprouted seeds).

I went on vacation for 5 days and when I got back to work, this is how they looked!

The tendrils are very pretty.

I snipped off the shoots and washed them. The shoots were very tasty (they taste just like raw pea pods). I think they would be really elegant in a fancy salad.

I'm going to wait and see if the stubs will re-grow, for a second harvest.

Shots from the Greenhouse

It was something like -20F outside this morning (with the windchill), but it's a right around 70F in the greenhouse...a lovely place to work in the cold of winter!

These plants have been potted up by the MSU Horticulture Club, which will be having fundraiser plant sale on April 12 and 13 in the Plant and Soil Sciences Building on MSU's campus. 

Coleus, lots and lots of coleus!

Ageratum

Hypoestes (polka dot plant)

Oxalis and coleus

Heuchera

Potting Up Succulents

We have quite an inventory of succulents at work right now. I spent a little time potting some of them up into clay pots, since they seem to sell better in clay pots than in plastic pots.

Temporary Tree Frog

We found a tree frog at the bottom of a pallet of potting mix bags. I relocated him to our indoor butterfly house. There currently are no butterflies in the house since we only have them for a couple months each year.

Unfortunately, I found out that these guys can eat 2 or 3 butterflies a day during the exhibit. We think there are up to 6 tree frogs in the butterfly house, so that means 12 to 18 dead butterflies a day. The butterflies cost somewhere around $5 each (we buy the chrysalis), so that's a lot of money! I think we're going to have to try to hunt down all the tree frogs in the next couple weeks and relocate them.

Grow Your Own Pea Shoots

I'm getting ready to teach a class on growing sprouts, shoots, and microgreens in mid-March, so I've been experimenting with a lot of different types of seeds and methods for growing them.  Most recently, I'm experimenting with growing pea shoots. I've never eaten them, so I'm excited to try some once they're ready.

I bought a 2 pound back of dried green peas from an ethnic food store (they whole bag was only $2.50). I soaked the peas overnight, then rinsed them every 12 hours for the next two days. At that point, they looked like this:

Then I spread them thickly over some potting mix.

And covered them very lightly with some more potting mix.

I left the pot in the mist-house at work over the weekend, so I'll update once I take more photos of the progress.

Massive Quantities of Succulents!

Last fall, the Horticulture Gardens acquired a bunch of leftover succulents from one of the undergraduate classes. I've been nursing them along in the greenhouse all winter. I started taking cuttings a few weeks ago, since I was to propagate enough to use some of them out in the garden displays.

We currently have almost an entire greenhouse bench of succulents, with about a dozen varieties. There are more trays in the propagation house rooting out.

I learned that these Aloe vera are carrying a common virus that caused black spots on some of the leaves. It's mostly an aesthetic issue, not harmful to any other plants, so we will keep them as long as they look good. I'm planning on using some of these in outdoor containers in some of our hotter areas of the garden.

These hens and chicks are doing really well, they've grown a ton since we first planted them. This is a mixture of varieties so some of them have cool purple coloration.

This variety was growing very spindly, so I cut them back hard (and used the cuttings for propagation). They are already starting to branch out from being pinched.

 This Crassula 'Campfire' is one of the faster growing varieties, so I'm going to use it in the display gardens. It goes through a rainbow of colors during the growing season.

This Senicio is also one of the faster growing varieties, so I'm hoping to include it in some outdoor containers this summer.

High-Back Chair Reupholstery (Part 1): Preparation

My high-back chair project is finally done, so I want to share the process with you, as well as some of the discoveries/mistakes I made.

Before you do anything, the first step to reupholstering a piece of furniture is to take a ton of photos. I'm only going to show you a few, but to give you an idea, I took over a hundred photos before and during the deconstruction phase! You want to document every part of the piece of furniture: how and where the cording is attached, where the fabric seams are, what it looks like underneath the chair and underneath the cushion. And you want to continue taking photos as you are deconstructing the chair, so you can remember how and where certain pieces of fabric were attached once it comes time to put the new fabric on.

So here's the chair I started with. I purchases it at a thrift store for $12. It was very sturdy and I liked the shape, but the velvet was worn and stained. Noticed the diamond-shaped pattern of buttons on the back panel (half of which were missing). I decided to forego these when I reconstructed the chair. Unless the back of the chair is concave, there really no need for the buttons and I thought it made the chair look dated.

Make sure to take photos of the detailing, such as this piping along the back cushion. Notice also how the back cushion is boxed (there's a strip of fabric on the side). I actually decided to change this aspect of the chair and replaced the back cushion with a single piece of fabric. That reduced the amount of work and I think it looked better in the end.

One of the worst parts of this chair was the sticky/greasy spots on the arm rests. Notice how the piping on the outside of the armrest is one continuous piece.

That piping on the outside arm continues down to the underside of the chair where it was attached with a nail. Also note how the front corner of the chair is a separate piece of fabric from the outside arm. These are the kinds of things you want to document, so you don't get confused later trying to recreate it in the new fabric.

Another bad aspect of this chair was the cushion and front panel under the cushion. They were both sagging and I suspected the foam inside was crumby and disintegrating. Also take photos of the cushion (how the zipper is attached, etc) if you are planning on ripping it apart to use as a template.

The panel under the cushion also had some unnecessary seams (see those little darts on the side) that I decided to forego when I redid the chair). I also switched the piece of fabric directly under the cushion with thick inexpensive muslin to reduce the amount of upholstery fabric I had to order (no one will see under the cushion anyhow).

Once you are done documenting how the chair is constructed, you can start deconstructing it (again, taking more photos as you open seams and remove panels of fabric. To get started, turn the chair upside down so you are looking at the dust cover (called cambric). And let the staple-removing fun begin!

Check out my next post for the "Deconstruction" steps...

Homemade Pillows

I churned out about 7 pillows the other weekend. I don't think I quite figured out how to do the zipper until the second or third one. Once I figured it out (which only happened once I stopped following the directions), they actually turned out looking pretty professional. I may re-do the first pillow I attempted, since I have extra fabric, but it still turned out okay.

Unfortunately, the charcoal gray fabric I ordered to reupholster my couch is still on backorder, so we are currently living with the couch covered in a chartreuse green bed sheet. At least the new pillows still kind of match!

My first upholstery project, this high-back chair is finished and has it's own throw pillow.

This chair will also be recovered in the charcoal gray fabric. I made a throw pillow for it using the leftover fabric from the high-back chair