Serendipity Gardens 2014 “Scorecard”

Jo Ellen Roe October 20, 2014 0 Comments

Businesses have scorecards to measure their goals against their accomplishments. These scorecards typically deal with several aspects of the business, such as financial performance and customer satisfaction.

Why not do the same in the garden? Of course, the parameters would be quite different. The scorecard could be a simple measure of goals versus accomplishments. With that in mind, here is the 2014 scorecard for Serendipity Gardens.

My Primary 2014 Goal

This year, we had one primary goal, to make Serendipity Gardens even more friendly to wildlife than it already was. To achieve this goal, we planned several activities. Each one is listed below, with a comment and a “grade.” ... Read More

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Top Five Serendipity Gardens Stories

Jo Ellen Roe September 23, 2014 0 Comments

Bottle Tree

The bottle tree, based on an old tradition, adds a reliable touch of blue to the garden.

The Serendipity Gardens blog is one year old. To mark its anniversary, we are republishing the top five posts. Here they are:

My Bottle Tree “Blooms” Year Round

Bottle trees, often seen in the South, have a complicated history.

According to Felder Rushing, in his book Bottle Trees, “Clear glass was invented in Alexandria, Egypt around 100 A.D. Soon around then, tales began to circulate that spirits could live in bottles – probably from when people heard sounds caused by wind blowing over bottle openings. This led to the belief in ‘bottle imps’ and genies that could be captured in bottles … Somewhere in there, people started using glass to capture or repel bad spirits. The idea was, roaming night spirits would be lured into and trapped in bottles placed around entryways, and morning light would destroy them.” ... Read More

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Five Ways for Kids to Have Fun in the Garden

Jo Ellen Roe September 15, 2014 0 Comments

The crew at Serendipity Gardens is lucky. We have six grandchildren, five of whom live nearby. We would venture a guess that these kids do not have nature deficit disorder.

What is nature deficit disorder?

According to Wikipedia, Nature deficit disorder refers to a hypothesis by Richard Louv in his 2005 book Last Child in the Woods that human beings, especially children, are spending less time outdoors resulting in a wide range of behavioral problems … Louv claims that causes for the phenomenon include parental fears, restricted access to natural areas, and the lure of the screen. ... Read More

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From Serendipity Gardens: Three Ways to Call the Creatures and Three Reasons Why You Should

Jo Ellen Roe July 28, 2014 0 Comments

Spiral Herb garden

A spiral garden provides room for lots of herbs in a small space.

The creatures — beneficial bugs, butterflies, bees, and birds, plus a few others — add personality and fun to your garden. In addition, of course, the work they do helps make the garden a success. Serendipity Gardens blog focuses on how to make your garden more wildlife friendly. From the last quarter, here are four most-read posts that tell you how and why. Click on the titles to read the original posts:

Serendipity Garden’s New Spiral Herb Garden

This post documents the process we went through to create a spiral herb garden. Nothing much in the world smells better than a basil leaf in the hot sun, or lemon balm rubbed between the fingers. People like these fragrances, and the creatures do, too! This type of garden is also a good way to maximize the benefits of sun and water, as its design creates multiple climate zones. It’s a good idea to put the herb garden close to a garden seat, so that you can sit there and enjoy watching the visitors. It is also nice to locate it near the kitchen, so you can quickly nab some rosemary or oregano to add to a dish. This photo shows our herb spiral about two months after planting. ... Read More

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What’s Blooming in Serendipity Gardens?

Jo Ellen Roe July 11, 2014 0 Comments

It’s mid-July, and the peak blooming time is almost here for Serendipity Gardens.

Nevertheless, sitting in the back yard swing and looking across the garden, the predominant color you see is green. My husband had this vantage point a few days ago, and he said to me, “What’s blooming in the garden? All I see is green!”

I said, “Let me show you.” We began a walk around the garden, looking for beauty. We wound up finding well over 20 plants blooming away, and a few others, such as white Phlox David, getting ready to do so. True, some of the blooms were small, and some were behind other, showier plants, but they were beautiful nevertheless. ... Read More

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