ideas for a fall and winter of soups, with ‘bread toast crumbs’ author ali stafford

Are you seeking inspiration for captivating and artistic Succulent Ball Ideas? Look no further! Here’s the best collection of creative ideas to help you craft stunning succulent balls, infusing your living spaces with natural beauty and charm.

Everyone wants to have a place of peace and silence where they can be alone with their thoughts or even not think at all. And what better spot than a calm, beautiful garden.

Some popular outdoor Christmas light ideas include using fairy lights around trees, hanging lighted wreaths on the door, and adding electric festive figures to the yard. Considering your budget and the overall look you want, you can experiment with a plethora of outdoor lighting options. 

Plant selection

Compose your photo shot with care to get the image you want and only that image. In this photo the moss and drainpipe do not add anything to the desired result so they need to be cropped out for the next image where ‘Carols’ bucket takes center stage. If the original has been taken with high resolution the cropped image will not suffer. The spade could have been aligned better to show the handle.

Needling little care and symbolizing tenacity, strength, and selfless love, succulents make the perfect gifts for anyone. Here are Gift Ideas for Succulent Lovers that will excite anyone and convey your warm regards with these beauties.

Using freshly cut foliage for holiday decorations has been a family tradition for generations. Instead of using artificial greenery, brighten the holiday season by walking around your garden and gathering interesting leaves and berries to create distinctive and unique arrangements. Involve young folks in the process to create lasting holiday memories.

I don’t know about you, but I love a product that can be used in a variety of ways and has staying power, especially in the home and kitchen. I recently discovered fall/winter squash and the varieties and versatility that they provide. I knew about the typical winter squash that you see in the grocery store like Acorn, Butternut, Spaghetti, Pumpkins, and decorative gourds, but have been introduced to other varieties like Honey Nut, Kabocha, Carnival, Turban, Banana, Red Kuri, Sweet Dumpling, and Buttercup.

Gardening in the winter is somewhat challenging but doable. Many of the greens, some of the root vegetables, and herbs can be planted in the fall and will grow through the winter months. The saying is that greens are better after a frost.

“Last year [2012] at the overwintering sites, the area occupied was at only 60 percent of its previous low,” she says. “It had been declining, but that was astonishingly low.”The migration-monitoring program Journey North also reported lower stats in 2013’s cold spring. And though the numbers were only preliminary when we spoke that fall, University of Minnesota’s Monarch Larva Monitoring Program seems to indicate that “we’re at about 20 to 30 percent of our average,” Oberhauser says, acknowledging that these drastically lower numbers might be a “new normal.” But she’s not sounding defeated, by any means.A big positive: A lot of people are interested in monarchs. “Though it will be difficult to make up for all the habitat we’ve lost, we can make that ‘new normal’ as good as we can.”  (Ways to help are father down this page.)what going wrong for monarchs?MONARCH

On Saturday, September 5, just as Mercury goes retrograde again (heaven help us), Bob Hyland, Andrew Beckman and I will give a hands-on class from 11-1 at their Loomis Creek Nursery, near Hudson, NY. We’ll show you what to cut back, and not; review the basics of composting and offseason soil care; prepare to have fresh herbs on hand for the winter; teach you how to stash precious but nonhardy “investment plants” safely for the winter, make room for bulbs and lots more.All for $5, and a phone call to reserve a spot; we have a few remaining. Loomis Creek is at (518) 851-9801. (And p.s., that’s an oakleaf hydrangea up top, H. quercifolia, in the colors that are coming up soon.)Categorieshow-to

I PROMISED I WOULDN’T ADD EVEN AN EXTRA TRIP TO THE CURB WITH THE TRASH to my schedule, with all the mowing I have to do, but (big surprise) I layered on a couple of events, and I want to make sure you know about them, in case you are in the Hudson Valley/Berkshires vicinity this summer. Another container-gardening class, a 365-day garden lecture with an extra focus on water gardening and the frogboys, and a tour here in August (that last one you already might know about). Details, details:Sunday July 12, Containing Exuberance, container-gardening workshop, with Bob Hyland at Loomis Creek Nursery, near Hudson, New York, 11 AM to 1 PM, $5.