Did you know poinsettias are the most popular flowering plant in the United States, even though its sales season is only about 6 weeks?

Poinsettias are perennials in nature. With the proper care, your poinsettia can last many years. However, picking a good one is important because many big box stores sell poinsettias that are poorly taken care of and are haphazardly grown. The best place to buy a poinsettia that will last is your local garden center or nursery.

Make sure the poinsettias are being stored somewhere where there are not extreme temperature changes. Poinsettias are extremely sensitive to cold, as they are native to Mexico.

Look at the plant, is it balanced and full? If the leaves are yellow, this is a sign of stress. Check the soil to make sure it is damp, not wet. Over or under-watering is a sign of improper care. Don’t buy those weird glitter poinsettias. Glitter’s not good for the plant.

Contrary to popular belief, poinsettias are not poisonous to humans. I’d be careful to make sure my animals are not eating them, but recent testing has shown the plant is not toxic.

Enjoy your poinsettia!

I remember when I was a little girl, while reading one of the books in the Little House series, Ma Ingalls making a pie out of green pumpkins. To me, it sounded like a culinary masterpiece. From that point on, I wished to make a pumpkin pie. My mom is no baker, however. It was a long time until I had a chance to see a pumpkin pie being made.

Several years later, my husband was going to make a pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving, and I asked to help. I was shocked to find the pumpkin came from a can. "I don’t think you can make a pumpkin pie from an actual pumpkin," he said.

He was joking, but I haven’t really seen any pumpkin pie recipes from actual pumpkins until now. Modern Christian Homestead has the instructions on how to do so. Seems you have to use a pie pumpkin, the regular ones are too stringy. This is neat, I might try it.

HT: Like Merchant Ships

Do you have a hard to shop for gardener on your Christmas list? I know I sure do. My dad loves to garden, but whenever he wants something, he just goes out and buys it. So, come gift giving time, you have to think of things he wants, but hasn’t thought of yet. This is easier said than done.

I like to try to give gifts that have a little bit of "me" in them, whether they’re handmade, or something that will make the recipient think of me whenever they see it. That’s why I am totally digging Carol at May Dreams Gardens’ latest series, "Handmade Gifts For Gardeners".

In the first post, she gives a great idea of giving a handmade garden journal. Perfect for the less techy on your list, and even us tech gurus would appreciate "going analog" with such a thoughtful gift.

Post #2 is a handmade seed packet. But there’s a secret! There’s not always seeds in the seed packet! It’s a great way to personalize the gift for the gardener who really does have everything.

Post #3 is less crafty and more Shakhammer-y. It’s a compost sieve. Don’t know what a compost sieve is, or what it’s used for? Hit the "compost sieve" link.

Post #4 is halfway between crafty and Shakhammer-y, and  it’s 100% cute. It’s a fairy door, to invite the garden fairies to your garden. For guys like my dad, who believe gardening is SRS BZNESS, a fairy door is the perfect way to introduce them to some whimsy.

Carol will be continuing her series, so be sure to check back at her site for more!

[Photo credit: Heather Solos]

Create You Squidoo Lens On A Shak Subject And You Could Be Featured On Shakadoo! Once you have built your lens, submit it to the group HERE.

Welcome to my Pumpkin Patch

Pumpkins are very popular during the fall season, especially for Halloween and Thanksgiving. They have so many uses. You can plant, grow, and cook them. They can be used for decorations, or to create beautiful, albeit temporary, works of art. Pumpkins are even chunked in competitions.

My two favorite reasons to love pumpkins? Jack o lanterns and pumpkin pie!

Pumpkins, and Jack o lanterns, and Carvings!

Oh My!

On this lens, you will find information all about pumpkins! Planting, carving, growing giant pumpkins, history, recipes, books, cool carvings, strange and bizarre things, and a contest to build a machine that launches a pumpkin the farthest!

Pumpkins

A pumpkin is a squash fruit that grows as a gourd from a trailing vine of certain species in the genus Cucurbita. Although native to the Western hemisphere, pumpkins are cultivated in North America, continental Europe, Australia, New Zealand, India and some other countries. Cucurbita species referred to as pumpkins include Curcurbita pepo, Cucurbita maxima, Cucurbita mixta, and Cucurbita moschata.

The pumpkin varies greatly in form, being sometimes nearly globular, but more generally oblong or ovoid in shape. The rind is smooth and varies in color between cultivars. Although orange is the most common color, some fruits are dark green, pale green, orange-yellow, white, red and gray. Large specimens acquire a weight of 40 to 80 lb (18 to 36 kg), but smaller fruits are more frequently encountered.

Although the pumpkin is botanically classified as a fruit (the ripened ovary of a flowering plant), it is widely regarded culinary as a vegetable. Their insides are commonly eaten cooked and served in dishes such as pumpkin pie, pumpkin bread, and pumpkin soup; the seeds can be roasted as a snack. Pumpkins are traditionally used to carve Jack-o’-lanterns for use in Halloween celebrations.

Source: Wikipedia Article

Growing Pumpkins

Pumpkins can take three to four months to grow to maturity, so check a planting chart for your local area to find the appropriate time to put in the seeds in your growing zone.

Of course there is much preparation that needs to go into your garden area before planting, so on a nice day, go check out the area. Take Ph soil samples and think about the layout of your rows.

Pumpkin vines need lots of room! A single pumpkin plant will spread 4′ - 6′. Consider shade and watering sources. Start a compost pile. And dream about your beautiful pumpkins to come!

Planting Pumpkin Seeds

Does Pumpkin Planting Date Affect Yield

Does Pumpkin Planting Date Affect Yield? Pumpkins for jack-o-lantern use can be planted from the last week of May through the third week of June.

Growing Pumpkins

The Pumpkin Circle Project is designed to connect elementary school children with the web of life by focusing on the miraculous cycle of nature in a backyard pumpkin patch.

Pumpkin Nook : How to Grow Pumpkins

Pumpkin Nook is one of the largest and most comprehensive sites on the internet for pumpkins, including pumpkin growing, recipes, Halloween, fun, games, Festivals, Thanksgiving and much more.

Pumpkin Growing Tips

Pumpkins are a wonderful addition to your garden, and they are a joy to grow. This site is designed to help you grow fantastic organic pumpkins, with lots of expert gardening tips and information.

Pumpkin Varieties

The maturity days are specifically targeted for North-Eastern USA.

Pumpkin Cultivation

Pumpkin cultivation is a form of gardening that is based on growing pumpkins or other similar squash varieties. And while pumpkins are now grown mostly for autumn and winter decorations rather than for its food value, pumpkin farming is still a major business in North America and around the World. It is believed that people have been cultivating pumpkins since 7000 B.C.

Source: Wikipedia Article

Pumpkins have historically been pollinated by the native squash bee Peponapis pruinosa, but this bee has declined, probably due to pesticide sensitivity, and today most commercial plantings are pollinated by honeybees. One hive per acre (4,000 m² per hive) is recommended by the United States of America (US) Department of Agriculture. Gardeners with a shortage of bees, however, often have to hand pollinate. Inadequately pollinated pumpkins usually start growing but abort before full development. An opportunistic fungus is also sometimes blamed for abortions.

Pumpkins have male and female flowers, the latter distinguished by the small ovary at the base of the petals. The bright, colorful flowers are short-lived and may open for as little as one day.

Although in the rest of the world pumpkins are grown for eating, in the US they are grown more for decoration than for food (particularly around Halloween). Popular contests continually lead growers to vie for the world record for the largest pumpkin ever grown. Growers have many techniques, often secretive, including hand pollination, removal from the vines of all but one pumpkin, and injection of fertilizer.Source: Wikipedia Article

To learn everything you ever wanted to know about pumpkins, visit the entire lens by clicking: Welcome to my Pumpkin Patch

As we movve towards the festive season and much gardening moves indoors, there are a number of plants that will add beauty to the season. Over the next few weeks we will take a look at the plants which blossom indoors with little attention.

We start with the amaryllis which will draw peoples’ attention as they enter your home. You can force the amaryllis into bloom by following a few basic steps.

The NGA Garden shop is having a sale, now could be an ideal time to buy one.

Did you know there was a Martha Stewart gardening blog? Neither did I, until today when a friend emailed me a link. It looks to be a great blog, too. There is a lot of good info there, and the bloggers (no, sadly, Martha herself doesn’t blog there) have an interesting and engaging writing style as well.

For more great info on gardening, hit the gardening section at MarthaStewart.com.

One would think that because indoor plants are, well, indoors that they would not have problems with bugs. Not so! Earthly Garden has some great advice on controlling bugs in your indoor plants:

To prevent pests, try adding a clove of garlic to the pot. Bugs of all
kinds hate the smell and will stay away. If it happens to sprout, move
it to the vegetable garden.

There’s more info if the bugs have already moved in, head on over there and check it out!

Summer may be winding down but there is still time for a BBQ. The days may be numbered but getting together with friends and family is a great late summer and early fall activity.

If you need a new BBQ, besides having a sale Canadian Tire provides a BBQ Buying Guide to help you buy the grill that is right for you.

What do you get when five museums, universities and labs come together to bring 1.8 million known living things and make it publicly available on a website? It is called the Encyclopedia of Life and is said to be a Wikipedia of sorts for the web of life. I call it incredible!

According to a fascinating article in the St. Louis Post Dispatch, the Missouri Botanical Gardens is one of five major contributers that will help in a global effort to compile this valuable information to one website by providing the data for most of the 400,000 plants that have been discovered in the world.

Evidently, other projects have failed in their attempts to make these types of lists of species because of
a lack of funds. The Encyclopedia of Life may just have the money to make this project a success thanks to donations from the John D and Catherine T MacArthur foundation and the Alfred P Sloan foundation. Their contributions, totaling 12.5 million dollars, will be matched over the first 2 1/2 years by the consortium members.

The website is accessible now but only with demonstration pages. Once the site is totally functional, data entry will be limited to scientists but the goal is to have visitors contribute, Wikipedia style, to make this resource as interactive as possible. You can imagine, it is going to take some time but once the information of all known living things is recorded then they can get to the living things that are now extinct.

The site will be free to everyone and will have over 300 million pages that include maps, photos and research. This 10-year project is totally under way and looks to have 50,000 entries finished by the end of next year. Your involvement is crucial in helping to refine range maps, so get out those binoculars and magnifying glasses and start spotting those species.

When I was growing up…ok, about 30 years ago, I remember that every once in a while, on a warm evening, a young man would stop by our house and ask if we wanted him to repaint our house numbers on the side of the curb.  There was a small fee but the dark black numbers on the white background always looked so clean and sharp when he was done.  The funny thing is, now, some homes don’t even have sidewalks anymore let alone curbs so people are left with putting their numbers on their house or mailbox. 

The bloggers at Home Security Gadgets & Reviews say,

"clear house numbers are important and not just because they help the pizza guy find your place. In the event of an emergency, paramedics, police, etc. will get to your house more easily if the address is prominently displayed."

Okay, so we all probably know this, I mean, without house numbers no one would be able to find you, right?  But did you know that January is the peak month for residential fires?  That’s what the folks at The Money Pit suggest and it got me thinking…..

I have no curb and no young man offering to paint numbers on my curb or anywhere else so I better get to work on making sure rescue crews can find my house quickly and easily in the event of an emergency. Here are a couple of ideas that will not only keep homes safe and on the map but add a bit of style too.

These faux rocks come with address plaques attached and the numbers are done in large, easy to read fonts that you can see from down the street.  These rocks are very realistic and will add character to your landscaping.

Design Within Reach has come up with their own exclusive line of house numbers.  Their House Numbers Collection has four different typefaces that  provide a "distinct, unmistakable, legible, and clean aesthetic for a business or home."

I think there is definitely safety and style in these numbers but there’s a lot out there to choose from so, start by taking a quick look at your house to determine whether or not you need to invest in new identification.  If so, go shopping!  After all, keeping your biggest asset safe is just a numbers game.