The "flowered shirt" book tour continues...

Vero Beach Book Center display

When I talk to groups or attend a garden event, I wear a flowered shirt, so I think of this book tour as the "Flowered Shirt" tour and try to make sure that if I return to an area that no one will see me in the same shirt twice.

I have one more talk with a Master Gardeners group tomorrow and then I'll be finished with the first month of my three-month book tour. April has been the busiest month with 17 events including four two-day events! Whew!

On Earth Day, I spoke to a nice group at the Vero Beach Book Center. I was pleased that Marjorie Shropshire, the illustrator or "Organic Methods...", was there and I could introduce her to the group.

There are still a number of public events yet to come including ones in Pensacola, Tallahassee, Deltona, and my only south Florida appearance in Lake Worth (Palm Beach County). The Lake Worth event will be the only event where both Melissa and I will be making a joint appearance--so come on over.

Earth Day at the Vero Beach Book Center. Even with the drizzly weather we still had a pretty good crowd.

At the Green Thumb Festival in St. Pete. April 27th & 28th. I shared a booth with Kelly Johnson, who wrote "Wings, Worms and Wonder," which has lots of proven ideas for working with kids in the garden and including gardens in the school's curriculum. Wow, what a festival. Thousands of people attended (bringing their garden wagons with them) and we both sold lots of books. Several people who saw us sharing the booth wondered if we were related. It turns out that our families have connections, but as far as we know, we share no recent common ancestor. :-)

Pittosporum shrubs outside of the south side of the screened porch.

Around the garden

The previous owner had planted three Pittosporum shrubs as foundation plants next to the end of the screened porch. After eight years of trimming them back, we decided that they would never look good in this mostly shady spot, so we removed them. There is a fifty-foot wooded buffer between us and the neighbors on that side, so we have plenty of screening and privacy. I have some ferns that I've been holding for just such an occasion and will plant them in this bed instead.

My husband stands outside of the hedge for scale. I'll retake this view when the ferns are in place.

A small crop of sugar snap peas this spring was appreciated.
It looks like the vines are pretty well done as it gets hot.

Edibles on parade

As part of my booth display, I've been showing off my various crops as part of show and tell. The purple carrots are one of the ways I slow people down, especially if they have kids.

Our veggies are for more than just Show 'N Tell, they play a large part in our diet. When you grow you own edibles, it's like printing money! I hope you're growing food in your yard.


The new broccolis are now producing come-again crops. Add these to the original plants from last fall & we have a broccoli bounty.	Tonight we'll have a lovely whole-meal salad using these beautiful late lettuces. I'll also fry some bread with olive oil and garlic for croutons. Yummy!

This evening's harvest of parsley, 2 types of lettuce, Swiss chard, purple & orange carrots, wild garlic, come-again broccoli, Greek oregano, sugar snap peas, and an early-blooming onion, which turned into ...

... a lovely dinner, which except for the 7-grain bread (for the croutons), olive oil, vinegar, pepper, and Parmesan cheese, was made from the garden. To make the croutons, I browned the bread with chopped wild garlic in olive oil.

The "flowered shirt" tour is over in June. Thanks for reading!

Green Gardening Matters,
Ginny Stibolt