Okra on the vine…..

A little Jalapeno Pepper from the garden too….

Making the gumbo rue was a bit challenging ….but it turned out great! My goal was to make a Gluten Free rue. Never making gumbo before, I knew this was risky; then adding a Gluten Free rue to the mix?

I have never seen it done before,  am I nuts for trying this? Oh! What the heck?

Well….I used Bob’s Brown Rice Flour (Stone Ground) and a good quality Extra virgin olive oil.

Using my large (and I mean large) soup pot, I added a near inch thick base of olive oil. So when my friend suggested only a table spoon of flour. I think she thought I was using a tiny little 4-5″ dia. size pot.

So here we go….whisking a way…..whisk and whisk and whisking away……Okay! Why won’t this rue thicken ? I kept asking myself.

This is getting ridiculous! So I added more flour….and more flour…and whisking till my arm felt like it was gonna fall off. Then finally! This rue went from a golden brown to a very dark, almost chocolate brown right before my eyes.

Beautiful!  And it was much thicker by this time. So I added the sliced Purple onion, Garlic and Cherry Tomatoes.  The rue immediately turned into a paste type substance. There was so much rue paste, I was able to fill two large, more than a pint size containers and stuck them in the freezer for a later day.

I used approximately 1 and 1/2 cup of rue paste to make my gumbo. Stirring frequently, I poured a little bit of water at a time, and continued stirring and adding water until the paste had totally dissolved. Let it simmer for about 20 minutes, then I added my veggies and seasoned to taste. Sea salt, Cayenne pepper, a large bay leaf, Thyme from my garden, and a little “Old Bay Seasoning” (suggested for any seafood recipe) and a lot of garlic (at least 2 cloves)

A dab of red wine to finish it off, then added the fresh or thawed frozen shrimp (with the shell and tail), very important for adding flavor.

I Turned the stove to a lower heat and simmered another 10-15 minutes

Instead of making brown rice, I decided to make creamy mashed red skin potatoes. I spiced them up by adding 1 teaspoon of horseradish.

Something about a slight flavor of horseradish with a shrimp gumbo.

Just out of this world!

Bon appetit! Truly the best thing I have ever tasted.

You try it!  If I can do it ….so can you

Family: Bombacacea

This plant is well known in Feng Shui and brings good luck, representing the 5 fundamental elements.

Earth – Wood – Water – Fire – Metal

Even though I do believe in Fend Shui, I am a huge believer  in the Law of Attraction. In either case, this plant brings a positive aspect to any space. After much research, I could not find a successful attempt at propagating this plant from a simple cutting.  There were many people growing one from seed, there were people trying a complicated method called Air Layering, which involves several steps that include a partial cut, adding a sliver of wood and sphagnum moss, twine, then add plastic wrap and electrical tape. Then you would have to wait anywhere from 60 days to several months to see roots develop. YIKES!

I said …”Forget That”! I bet I can propagate this plant through a simple clean cutting and a good soil mix.

6-8 weeks ago, I took a small terracotta herb pot and filled it with a combination of Rose soil (for drainage) and Sphagnum peat moss. Good for developing root systems.

I used a very sharp pruning knife, cut a piece at a slant and dipped the cutting in a bit of local honey. Organic honey makes for good root hormone solution. No need for synthetic powders.

I then installed the end of the cutting in the prepared soil, strategically placed a couple of small pebbles to stabilize the cutting, gently watered it and cross my fingers.

Look! it worked!

A new entity of life has begun, what a good feeling of accomplishment.

Now is the time to research and gain information on what actions you can take based on specific hurricane hazards. The most important thing that you can do is to be informed and prepared. Disaster prevention includes both being prepared as well as reducing damages.

One of the most important actions a home owner can take now is to trim or prune surrounding trees. After Hurricane Ike, many of our trees in Houston suffered tremendously. Ike created such stress that we are still seeing the effects today, making our trees vulnerable to disease and weakness. The best thing right now before the next major storm is to prune or trim off any dead or weak branches. Make sure there are no weak or brittle branches that could fall on top of a roof, yours or a neighbors, creating severe damage.

Disaster Prevention should include:

• Developing a Family Plan
• Creating a Disaster Supply Kit
• Having a Place to Go
• Securing your Home
• Having a Pet Plan

If you need expert advise on your landscape, need tree work done or just need a general clean up or maintenance, please contact Leyendecker Landscape at: 713-426-0649

Be safe !

Have you ever wanted to try growing your own pineapple ? This took some time but it was not hard.

After your next pineapple purchase, Cut off the top and give yourself a good 1 and 1/2″ to 2 ” from the top down.

Use a sharp pruning knife to carve all the excess pineapple off. Get to the stem and root of the plant.

It is a dense mass. Just make sure there is no fruit left on the mass, this will cause fermentation and rot.

Cut about 3 layers of foliage off to give plenty of room for the roots to develop.

Then use a mason jar and fill it with clean water. Allow for the root mass only to submerge in the water.

To prevent rotting of the stem,  consider the area just above the main mass, where the foliage was that you pulled away. Remember, you just want the root mass to be in water.

Look at all those roots! Strong, Clean and Off  White in color.

Use a mixture of Rose soil and Sphagnum Moss. 75% Rose soil and 25%

I like to add a little Micro-Life fertilizer to the soil mix. It comes in a granular form, so it is slow release.

I encourage you to give this a try. It is a bit of a process but it is not a hard thing to do.  Pineapples make great indoor plants near a window or outside. Let me know how it goes

A deciduous bulb from South Africa and in the Hyacinthaceae family. Likes to be planted in well drained soil in a light shade to partial sunny place. Another name for this bulb is “African Hosta” even though it is not in the Hosta family, it grows well in the South and through out Texas (Zones 8-10) and does not get devoured by snails like the Hostas.

This little gem prefers to be a bit dry and can take very cold temperatures. It makes for a great container plant or try it in a rock garden, just remember to divide it every few years.  A spring bloomer and 1 plant will reach 1 foot tall by 1 foot wide.

Next….

We have the Yellow Butterfly Amaryllis.

We know this as a Hippeastrum genus. The species, we are not exactly sure.

“Hippeastrum” is greek for “Horsemans Star” or also know as “Knight Star”. The Dutch were the first to commercially grow this lovely bulb back in the 18th century. It also makes a great container plant or try it in the garden.

Again, I am not sure of the genus but I will challenge anyone to correct me.  I am going out on a limb by calling this a “Miniature Papilio”  I am betting this beauty has been crossed with both Cybister and Single flower.

Looking forward to any input on this one.

Happy Easter everyone!

All the photography was done by Debora Smail at Reality Photography.

www.realityphotography.net

The Waxwing have a high pitched tone, similar to the Cardinal, you will most likely hear them before you see them, especially in large groups. It is a very intense sound.

This species is called B. Cedrorum or Bombycilla Cedrorum. These amazing and beautiful birds will migrate as far as South America and there have even been rare sightings in Western Europe and Great Britain.

Here are some plant names and things you can do to attract these wonderful birds to your property.

* Dogwood

* Serviceberry

* Juniper

* Hawthorn

* Cedar

* Winterberry

Plant plenty of tall evergreens to create housing and a safe haven. They love water, installing  fountains, a bird bath or a pond will make them very happy.

See these lovely photos below provided by Reality Photography!

Waxwings gather before the feeding.

During the feeding.

Hovering similar to a Hummingbird.

A short video I took while the Waxwing were feeding in my front yard.

This is after removing all the grass in the front and preparing it for the Pavers. We actually brought in a tractor to help with the grading. I really like installing Pavers in Houston. It is a very porous application and they offer more flexibility due to the constant movement of the earth between Summers and Winters. Plain concrete will just crack over time and that usually means a complete demolition and redo. With Pavers, you can just go in and make simple repairs and adjustments if there is ever noticeable movement or shifting.

Placing the Pavers, sometimes they need to be cut with a saw to fit just right. Especially in curved or rounded areas.

Since there is so much area being done in Pavers, in this case, approximately 240 square feet. I suggest creating a green space to break it up a bit. This will offer a softer, more inviting feel.

These projects, whether it is Decking or other types of patios, Arbors or Pergolas, Pavers or Flagstone; are always great to do in the Winter time so by the time Spring rolls around, this will be complete and we will be ready for landscaping

So this is it for now. I will revisit this project again real soon and document the process and completion. Until then, see you soon. For any questions, feel free to contact me through my website or call 713-426-0649.

Look what I found in my front yard……

Here we have a Monarch Chrysalis with it’s jade green pupa trimmed in gold and black. This beautiful creation will undergo a complete metamorphosis in the next 7-14 days, depending on the weather. I will document the process of this magnificent creature and watch this chrysalis transform into a gorgeous Monarch Butterfly.

We will see this Pupa change from this green color to transparent, then we will begin to see the true colors of the Monarch appear with it’s black and orange tones.

This was the only Chrysalis found in the yard. Being that we are in January, it seems a bit early for Butterflies, but maybe it is natures way of saying….”Spring is coming”. What do you think? We shall see?

We wait all year for warmer weather and longer days. Once we get them, it seems new problems for farmers rise to the surface every week: overnight temperatures plunging close to freezing, early disease, aphid attacks. Another day, another problem.

The latest trouble is the explosion of late blight, a plant disease that attacks potatoes and tomatoes. Late blight appears innocent enough at first — a few brown spots here, some lesions there — but it spreads fast. Although the fungus isn’t harmful to humans, it has devastating effects on tomatoes and potatoes grown outdoors. Plants that appear relatively healthy one day, with abundant fruit and vibrant stems, can turn toxic within a few days. (See the Irish potato famine, caused by a strain of the fungus.)

Most farmers in the Northeast, accustomed to variable conditions, have come to expect it in some form or another. Like a sunburn or a mosquito bite, you’ll probably be hit by late blight sooner or later, and while there are steps farmers can take to minimize its damage and even avoid it completely, the disease is almost always present, if not active.

But this year is turning out to be different — quite different, according to farmers and plant scientists. For one thing, the disease appeared much earlier than usual. Late blight usually comes, well, late in the growing season, as fungal spores spread from plant to plant. So its early arrival caught just about everyone off guard.

And then there’s the perniciousness of the 2009 blight. The pace of the disease (it covered the Northeast in just a few days) and its strength (topical copper sprays, a convenient organic preventive, have been much less effective than in past years) have shocked even hardened Hudson Valley farmers.

Jack Algiere, head vegetable farmer at the Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture (where I have a restaurant that purchases from the farm), lost more than half his field tomatoes in three days. Other organic farmers were forced to make a brutal choice: spray their tomato plants with fungicides, and lose organic certification, or watch the crop disappear. Even for farmers who routinely spray, or who reluctantly spray precautionary amounts, this year’s blight lowered yields. (Fungicides work only to suppress the disease, not cure it.) As one plant pathologist told me, “Farmers are out there praying and spraying.”

Of course, farmers aren’t the only ones affected. If you love eating flavorful organic field tomatoes, good luck — they’ll be as rare this summer as a week without rain. And those that survive will cost you; we’re already seeing price increases of 20 percent over last year.

So what’s going on here? Plant physiologists use the term “disease triangle” to describe the conditions necessary for a disease outbreak. You need the pathogen to be present (that’s the late blight), you need a host (in this case tomatoes and potatoes) and you need a favorable environment for the disease — for late blight that’s lots of rain, moderate temperatures and high humidity.

Does that last bit sound familiar? It has been the weather report for the Northeast this summer, especially in June. Where we saw precipitation fit for Noah’s Ark, late blight found something akin to a four-star hotel. Those soggy fields and backyard vegetable plots? Inviting, and all too easy to check into.

But weather alone doesn’t explain the early severity of the disease this year. We’ve had wet, cool summers in the past, but it’s never been this bad. Instead we have to look at two other factors: the origin of the tomato plants many of us cultivate, and the renewed interest in gardening………..

For more information go to: NYT’s article.

The damage of a Pine Beetle

Sick or dying trees will attract Termites. The tree should be removed immediately.

Call Leyendecker Landscape if you need help with this matter. We will diagnose, treat and remove small or large trees, if necessary. Or we can thin out and just trim your existing healthy trees. We will also grind out and remove the stump for you.

Here we are trimming  and removing dead branches.

Dead pine tree