Happy Valentine’s Day from Chiot’s Run
Mr Chiots and I aren’t big celebratory people. Last year Brian and I were working in the office unaware that it was our 10 year anniversary. My mom e-mailed me a Happy Anniversary message and I looked at Brian and said,
“OH, it’s our anniversary. Happy Anniversary.”
He looked at me and said,
“Oh, it is isn’t it. Happy Anniversary.”
Then we went back to work. So naturally we don’t celebrate Valentine’s Day. Mr Chiots thinks it’s a holiday dreamed up by the card companies during a dead zone between other holidays (he may be on to something).
I know many of you celebrate this holiday of love, so I thought I’d share a few photos of love-themed goodies I spotted on my recent trip to West Side Market in Cleveland. I got a great variety of things to make sure to cover all the bases.
If you celebrate with chocolate, here’s some chocolate for you.
For those of you who like cookies and other delights, I thought you’d like these.
For those of you who prefer something sweet but not of the chocolate realm, some beautiful little cakes for you.
If you prefer something a little different, how about some dark chocolate Guinness stout cake?
If you like flowers I’ll give you some from my gardens.
For those of you who just want some time to relax, take a cue from Dexter and enjoy your Saturday.
My all-time favorite, “A Bunny for Your Honey”. Now that’s right up my alley, who needs chocolate bunnies when you can eat the real thing!
How do you celebrate this day of Love? Do you do anything exciting, over the top, romantic, not so romantic, boring?
(take the new poll)
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There’s Still Time for Free Seeds
Many of you have commented on the Freedom Seeds for Free post. There is still time to comment if you’d like and one of my loyal readers generously donated money so I can choose an extra winner (so now we’ll have 2 winners – THANKS generous reader). Since Lucy is still on bed rest I had to come up with a great way to choose a winner, I didn’t want to do the number in a hat thing again. Yesterday it hit me, this is a gardening blog so I should do something that pertains to gardening. Since the contest is for seeds, I decided to let seeds choose the winner. How am I going to do it?
I filled a seed tray with planting mix, added some seeds and whichever cell germinates first is going to be the winner (actually the first 2 cells). I numbered all the cells so they correspond to the number of the commenter. I chose lettuce seeds since they germinate in 3-5 days (originally I was going to use onion seeds, but they take 10-20 days to germinate).
In order to give you all the same odds, I added 3-4 seeds to each cell. I also chilled the soil on the back porch for a couple hours since lettuce likes cooler temps to germinate. I’ll be patiently checking the seed flat every couple hours for the next 3-5 days to make sure I see which seeds germinate first. There are plenty of cells in the seed tray so we still have room for a few more comments. So head on over to Freedom Seeds for Free and make a comment, you have 3-5 days. Once two seeds germinate the contest is officially over. Good luck to you all!
Anyone care to guess which number will be the first to germinate?
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You Know You’re a Gardener
You know you’re a gardener when the perfect evening at home consists of hours planning our your garden beds to make the most use of them for the short season. I guess I could be a bit of a geek too since I do it all on my computer (including a harvest total spreadsheet complete with graphs).
I had my list of things I want to order there by my side so I didn’t forget anything. I even had extra space so I added a few things to my seed list; how exciting.
A few new things I’ll be trying this year: chicory, birdhouse gourds, radicchio, rhubarb, peas, brussels sprouts and perhaps a few more herbs. I know I’m pretty late at getting my planning done, it seems like everyone else already has this finished. But last night was the first block of time I’ve had in a while. So I enjoyed a cup of tea, a few seeds websites & catalogs and my garden planning came together. I can’t wait for the weather to clear so I can actually get started!
How are you garden plans coming along? Are you trying anything new this year?
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Houseplants and Clean Air
Many of us spend a lot of time indoors, particularly this time of year. We know that the air in our homes can often be more polluted than the air outside, due to cleaning products, chemicals released into the air by furniture and building materials.
One potted plant per 100 square feet will clean the air in an average home or office. Without a doubt, the most important job of an indoor plant is its air purifying abilities.
Formaldehyde is found in virtually all indoor environments. It is used in particle board or pressed wood products to make office or household furniture, in many consumer paper products, in carpets, permanent-pressed clothes, water repellents, and fire retardants. Other sources of formaldehyde include natural gas, kerosene, and cigarette smoke. Formaldehyde irritates the membranes of the eyes, nose, and throat and can cause headaches and allergic dermatitis. It is suspected of causing a rare type of lung cancer in cases of long-term exposure.
So what are we to do? Get a few house plants. One potted plant per 100 square feet will clean the air in an average home or office. Without a doubt, the most important job of an indoor plant is its air purifying abilities.
Certain plants work better than other at cleaning the air in our homes. Here’s a list of a few plants and which chemicals they clean out of the air.
Boston fern, golden pothos, philodendron, and spider plants reduce levels of formaldehyde.
Areca palm, moth orchid, and the dwarf date palm can remove xylene and toluene.
Gerbera daisy, chrysanthemum, spider plants and peace lily can remove benzene.
Other beneficial houseplants include: bamboo palm, Chinese evergreen, English ivy, indoor dracaena species and the snake plant (also known as mother-in-law’s tongue).
All plants produce oxygen through photosynthesis, so any plant you choose, in addition to these varieties, will increase the concentration of oxygen in your home.
I have always had houseplants (probably because I grew up in a jungle of houseplants). The pothos above was on the stage at our wedding, and it’s been cleaning the air in our homes for the past 11 years. I also have a dwarf citrus, a few other pothos, baby tears, mother-in-law’s tongue and few other plants. We have houseplants not just to clean the air, they also provide much needed green in the our home during the dark snowy winter in Ohio.
Do you have houseplants? Are they for cleaning the air or for enjoyment?
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Quote of the Day
“A society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they shall never sit in.” –Greek proverb
This is a shaded walkway at Longwood Gardens. Pierre du Pont purchased this property in 1906 specifically to save the trees. The du Pont family had a long tradition of gardening, and Pierre would turn out to be one of its greatest gardeners. Du Pont had a love of trees and collected many different species of trees and plants on his property. If you ever have a chance to visit Longwood Gardens in Pennsylvania I would highly recommend it.
Do you appreciate those who came before us like P.S. du Pont and Thomas Jefferson that had the forethought to plant and save trees for us to enjoy?
