Inspirations from a foodie, artist and landscaper: Lavender

Author: Carrie Johnson; Published: May 23, 2011; Category: New Mexico Plants and Trees; Tags: Culinary and Artistic Inspiration, Gardens, Plants and Trees, Residential Landscape; No Comments

Lavender adds a beautiful splash of color to any garden or landscape.

Lavender- Très magnifique! Lavender is a lovely plant to provide at the access to your home so that it fragrances your guests entrance and exit to your abode. It can be planted in a more natural & xeric concept, strategically placed to provide the pop of color against a chamisa or Mexican evening primrose. Or perhaps in a more traditional layout, in front of boxwoods and Indian hawthorns with autumn blooming bulbs peeking up around the masses of silver and purple. Or, if you have some time on your hands, perhaps a Lavender Knot Garden… Too intricate? Try the very Zen art of Bonsai or Topiary on a potted Lavender plant.

Lavender has an amazing selection of different varieties, from the dwarf at 8 inches tall to the taller plants which reach 40 inches in height. Leaf, shoot and flower colors vary as well, from silver-white to blue-green to spring green, with yellow, white, pink, and varying purple flowers. Color, leaf texture, height and flower are all items of consideration when planting your Lavender. Not to mention hardiness zones.

Spring is such a trying time for us folks that cook with our landscaping plants. The garden veggies are just now sprouting (if the wind hasn’t blown them away), the fruit trees have months before they bear edible fruit, and your semi-evergreens are no where close to being mature enough to use. So, this is where last years “harvest” comes into play (or some hunting for the appropriate ingredients). English lavender keeps well in a mason jar of sugar: just bundle your lavender together, use a string to keep together and pour sugar around the flowers while holding your bundle down, so the stems are up out of the sugar and easy to pull out. Now you not only have preserved lavender to use, you have a fragrant sugar for your teas, cookies or cakes.

Don’t have any lavender on hand? Not a problem. Albuquerque Metro has an amazing lavender community; tea houses, co-ops, health food/herb shops, and weekend farmers markets where you can buy lavender wands, bags of dried lavender, lavender sugar and even Lavender scented teas.

Lavender is a wonderful herb to use in summer savories, but for spring I like to use it in sweet indulgences. Easter weekend I made a new recipe I found in my Tea Time Magazine for Earl Grey Lavender Cheesecakes. A table of 8 skeptics turned into 8 new lavender fans. I was so pleased!

Earl Grey Lavender Cheesecakes

24 mini vanilla flavored wafers

2/3 cup heavy whipping cream

1-1/2 Tablespoon Earl Grey-Lavender black tea leaves

1 tea. Dried lavender

2 (3-oz.) packages cream-cheese, softened

2/3 cup sugar

3 large eggs

2 Tablespoons all-purpose flour

Garnish: Fresh Lavender

Preheat oven to 325°F

Line a 12-well mini cheesecake pan with paper liners. Place a wafer in the bottom of each cup. Set aside.

In a small saucepan, bring cream to boil over medium-high heat. Remove from heat. Add tea leaves and lavender to saucepan. Cover and steep for 5 minutes. Strain, discarding tea and lavender. Cool cream for 1 hour.

In a medium bowl, beat cream-cheese and sugar at high speed with an electric mixer until smooth, approximately 3 minutes. Add eggs, mixing until combined. Add cream mixture to cream-cheese mixture, mixing until combined.

Pour batter into prepared wells of cheesecake pan. Wrap bottom of cheesecake pan with aluminum foil to keep out water. Place cheesecake pan into a roasting pan. Carefully add enough water to roasting pan to come halfway up sides of cheesecake pan.

Bake until set, approximately 25 minutes. Remove cheesecake pan from roasting pan. Cool in pan for 1 hour. Refrigerate for 2 hours.

To remove cheesecakes, place a cutting board over pan, and invert pan and board in one motion.

Garnish with fresh lavender if desired.

Yield: 24 mini-cheesecakes

Prep: 10 minutes

Bake: 25 minutes

Cool: 1 hour

Refrigerate: 2 hours

Honestly, lavender is one of my absolute favorites. It’s all over my house. Hanging from lacy ribbon bows to dry, dried buds mixed with glass baubles in my candlescapes, bunched together in the linen drawers, stuck here and there in dried arrangements for a pop of color and fragrance, I even pour some dried buds into my lavender oil salt scrub for extra character and a froufrou spa like experience worthy of Provence, France (OK-I’m easily entertained).

C’est bien.

Before you buy your next house, have the trees inspected

Author: Fred Roybal; Published: May 12, 2011; Category: Tree Care; Tags: Residential Landscape, Tree Care; No Comments

You would never think about buying a house without having the roof, plumbing or electrical inspected. What about the trees at the home of your dreams, did you have them inspected?

It is that majestically wonderful, mature shade tree in the backyard that really sold you on the house. You’re dreaming about sitting under this tree in the summer and having barbecues with the family. It will be a delightful spot. But, is it really a safe tree?

Then, after you purchase the home you call in arborist to have your tree trimmed. The arborist notifies you that the tree has multiple structural issues that deem it a safety hazard and you need to remove the tree. The cost for removing the tree could run into the thousands! Now, not only have you lost your prized shade tree—the whole reason you bought the house—but it’s going to cost you thousands of dollars to remove it! Your idyllic backyard is now becoming a money pit and the sweltering sun is cooking all your dreams of lazing around the backyard enjoying the cool shade of the magnificent tree.

Hiring an ISA certified arborist to inspect the trees before you buy a house could save you money in the long run. An arborist could point out the positive aspects of the tree as well as any of the negative aspects, such as structural issues that may lead to limb failure or entire tree failure. The arborist may also identify disease or insect infestation. These issues could all be addressed and accounted for, if necessary, during your negotiations of the final purchase price for your new home.

Some of the things a Cerified Arborist will look for include:

• Top-heaviness, e.g., as indicated by excessive swaying in the wind.
• Lifting root plate, tearing out of roots, extensive root damage, or root loss.
• Cracks or splits in trunk or large limb.
• Broken trunks or large limbs.
• Hanging broken large limbs.
• Large amount of decay in a trunk or large limb.
• Forks involving big limbs that show signs of weakness or possible failure at the center of the fork, e.g., cracks, bark-to-bark contact,
• Hollows that may be full of decay
• Bulging growth
• Fork failures, leading to shed branches
• Signs that the tree is in poor health, or may be dying, e.g., smaller than normal leaves, dead leaves in summer, dead limbs, much fungal growth.
• Cuts and other indications that the tree may have been damaged by machinery, vehicles, or construction

Having established trees inspected during the purchase of a home is important because you can avoid the expense of taking down trees that are unsafe after you purchase the home. Although a tree inspection does not guarantee that your tree will never die at the least you can get a general idea of the health of the tree and plan accordingly.

Inspirations from a foodie, artist and landscaper: Rosemary

Author: Carrie Johnson; Published: May 10, 2011; Category: New Mexico Plants and Trees; Tags: Culinary and Artistic Inspiration, Gardens, Plants and Trees, Residential Landscape; No Comments

Rosemary, Tuscan Blue. Click on image to se other Rosemary varieties.

In this series of posts, I’ll be sharing my favorite uses for my favorite plants. Culinary uses, artistic uses and general landscaping uses.

Waiting for your newly planted tomatoes and cucumbers to grow? Stop twiddling your thumbs! You already have options from your own landscaping that you can use to make a great meal. What better way to welcome the warmer weather than to spark-up the grill?

Upright Rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis) is one of my favorite plants—evergreen, unique form, fragrant and attracts bees/butterflies while blooming the lively purple flowers. I typically plant this guy next to an entrance, so you might gently brush by it and come away smelling lovely. It’s also a great backdrop to lighter green flowering plants such as Mexican Evening Primrose and Lambs Ear.

If you haven’t cut back your ornamental grasses yet (hint: you need to), here is a great showpiece for your table: cut some ornamental grass blades (Pampas, Maidengrass, etc) , 3 Rosemary branches, a hyacinth or winter jasmine branch, a small branch from the smoketree, and a few wisps of English ivy. Arrange in your favorite vase and add a simple lace ribbon. The look is very American Prairie; romantic and down-to-earth.

Rosemary is a fantastic accompaniment to poultry. I always throw in a large sprig when boiling a chicken to pick apart later for chicken salad or whatnot. It’s also a great way to skewer meat and veggies for a shish kebab (recipe below). Simply cut of some branches of mature Rosemary and with a rubber glove on, slide your hand down the branch to push off leaves and little branches. Don’t forget to save the leaves to dry and use another time. Use a knife or scissors to cut away any knots or wooden hang-ups that your meat and veggies might get caught on while skewering them. Since the branches are ‘fresh’ you won’t need to soak them in water like you would store-bought (dried) wooden skewers. But always ‘wash’ any herbs or flowers that you bring inside.

One of my biggest pet-peeves when it comes to the grill is a Chef’de’Grill who leaves his station in between checking, rotating, flipping. Stay on deck and watch that meat!

Grilling Marinade

Marinade for at least half an hour, then skewer meat and veggies. Assemble on Rosemary skewers with cherry tomatoes, red bell pepper, mushrooms, onion chunks and pineapple or apple.

Save marinade after assembling skewers, and add 2 Tbsp apple butter, brown sugar or honey. Baste shish kebabs with this mixture while grilling. Fantastic with cheese, herb risotto and cubed fruit.

Vinnie sez: “Your mudder wants roses”

Author: Admin; Published: May 6, 2011; Category: Residential Landscaping; Tags: Gardens, Plants and Trees, Residential Landscape; No Comments

I got a frantic message from my friend Vinnie. “Hey Victor, I really need your help! Come over as soon as you can!”

Vinnie is a very good customer of mine and I didn’t want to make him mad (besides, I think he’s in the witness protection program). I figured there was something wrong with the new landscaping we had put in. I met Vinnie at his house. The new Xeriscape that we had put in his front yard was doing very well, the plants were starting to bloom and the deep purple-blue catmint was astoundingly beautiful. The new vegetable garden was doing quite nicely; the tomato plants were thriving! Nothing wrong with the landscaping, something else is must be wrong, I thought.

“So what’s up, Vinnie!” I asked concerned.

“Mudder’s day is coming up and I just don’t know what to do! My Mamma is gonna come stay wit’ me for a while and I wanna do sumting special.” Vinnie said with a wild expression on his face.

“I always read your blog and I think you write pretty good so I wanted to see what you thought of dis poem I wrote for her.”

Vinnie is a big burly guy and he can seem a little menacing if you don’t know him. But suddenly his expression changed into one of angelic tenderness as he launched into his poem. And that was scarier than the tough guido I know. I was very uncomfortable.

“Mamma I love thee with all my heart
I cannot bear to be apart
Yer face—“

“Vinnie stop! Stop!” I yelled breaking his reverie. “Sorry, but a poet you’re not.”

“So whatta am I gonna do for my mamma!” cried a desperate Vinnie, looking a little hurt.

“Why don’t we put in a rose garden for her?” I said.

“Oh shua! Now why din’t I think if that? Mamma loves roses and besides she won’t be able to get out much. She can tend to the rose bushes and putz around in the vegetable garden while she’s here.”

“Using roses is a great way to add color and beauty to any yard. Roses that are available today have longer lasting blooms and they are easier to maintain. Small, compact rose bushes make beautiful container plants and brighten up a walkway. A good ground cover is a low spreading rose. The tall variety of roses can be planted three to four feet apart to form a border hedge and climbing roses are good on fences or trellises.

Dramatic effects can be accomplished by using combinations of different colored roses together in mass plantings. Your choices are endless; it all depends on what mood you want to create. Miniature roses can be planted in containers as accents for your patio. Tea roses are great for cutting and putting in vases. Roses not only attract wildlife, but will also liven up the patio with added color and fragrance.”

“Victor, you’re a genius!” said Vinnie excitedly. “Let’s get started on a rose garden right away! So, you wanna heah the rest of my poem? I’m gonna put it in a Mudder’s day card for her.”

“Sure Vinnie let’s hear it.” I said reluctantly. Vinnie again assumed a theatric pose and clasped his hands near his heart.

Mamma I love ya with all my heart
I cannot bear to be apart
Yer face is a work of art
And you been wit’ me from the start

You’ve been gone for no good reason
And your smile I have been missin’
Soon yer face I will be kissin’
Welcome home from Federal Prison.

“It’s beautiful Vinnie” I said wiping a tear. “Just beautiful.”

Happy Mother’s Day from the Hilltop.

Landscaping Can Improve Your Home Value

Author: Admin; Published: May 3, 2011; Category: Residential Landscaping; Tags: Affordable Landscaping, Residential Landscape, Xeriscape; No Comments

Many homeowners care about the interior appearance of their house. This is especially true when they are trying to sell their home. A fresh coat of paint is put on the walls; the carpet is shampooed and everything is made ship-shape for a new buyer. But when it comes to the outside of the home they are not quite sure what to do. When selling a home, not only is location very important, curb appeal is important also.

Whether it is to enhance your home or business for cosmetic reasons or to make it more salable, a licensed landscaping contractor has the special training and experience needed to handle all of your landscaping needs. We can design driveways, patios or a pool area, do decking and yard grading and give you a completely personalized landscape design. We will show you how the use of a pond and bridge, pools, trees, shrubs and flowers can beautify and enhance your home and increase its value.

You may even decide to have a yard designed around using drought resistant plants and ground cover that will conserve water. This will significantly reduce your lawn care time and be more attractive to prospective buyers.

Smaller sized yards can be made to look deceivingly larger with the secrets that a great landscape contractor will know. It is a technique called “forcing the perspective”, by planting the shrub and foliage to face each other; this extends the rear of the landscape. Making the yard appear longer and wider, this adds more beauty and makes it appear interesting.

An experienced landscape company can do wonders for your landscape. They can correct any existing problems and be able to show you problems that are not so apparent. Trees that are in need of pruning or removal, for example. Shrubbery that needs to be cut down. Irrigation problems that should be fixed. It is amazing how removing an old dying tree or manicuring the yard will dramatically improve the look of the yard. This will increase the curb appeal and value of your home, should you ever decide to sell it. This is why it is very important to choose the right contractor for the job.

Busy homeowners who care about the external appearance of their home as much as they do the interior can turn to a landscaping contractor for design ideas and to handle outdoor projects.

Few homeowners are savvy as to the best way to enhance landscape features using contour lighting, uplighting, grazing, moonlighting, or backlighting techniques. A licensed landscape contractor, however, knows how to exploit the benefits of low voltage lighting features.

Hiring a landscape contractor to help you get your home ready for sale is a smart move and will help you improve your curb appeal.