Now that my garden has been put to rest for the winter, I’ve been sorting through my images and cleaning up my files on my office P.C. hard drive. I can’t stress enough the importance of doing a back up of images every few months. I’m thankful I’ve not had experienced losing 1,000′s of images and documents due to a hard drive crash. I’m totally knocking on wood right now! Cleaning up and backing up the hard drive can be a fun ‘flip’ through memories. I just found this totally dreamy shot of P.Allen Smiths garden at sunset from a visit I have back in April.
Sunset at Moss Mountain Retreat in Little Rock at the P.Allen Smith Garden 2 Blog Event
Whens the last time you did a back up on your computer?!
While in Little Rock for the Garden2Blog event with P.Allen Smith I was asked to share a quick tip about gardening. The first thing that came to mind was something super easy and fun for all ages to grow.
You don’t need soil, just a little bit of love to grow yummy sprouts in your kitchen or garden. I share how-to tips at this blog entry all about my first try at growing sprouts.
If you are familiar with flying on any major airline these days I’m sure you are like me and consider other sources to travel to your set destination to avoid any complication commonly experienced at airports. A negative of flying is the dilemma of what to pack with flight safety in mind. I’ve been reserved about sharing what I walked through security with on a recent flight back from a garden tour event. First of all, I can’t help but think I will be put on a ‘watch list’ with our homeland security because I do feel the items I got through security could have been a bad thing if in the wrong persons carry on luggage. Second, it isn’t like me to brag about goodies I acquire for my gardening experience unless it involves sharing what it can do to benefit someones growing experience. As I’m in the heat of planting season I keep thinking about what I flew home with and I can bite my tongue any longer…… I must brag!
It was a pleasure to meet up last April with some amazing garden writers at the Garden2Blog event in Little Rock, Arkansas. We had a fabulous mini ‘vacation’ touring spectacular gardens designed by P.Allen Smiths and spending an educational day at his Farm. As a few of us caught cabs together to the airport as we began our journey home it was wonderful networking about what we had experienced in the short time we were together. We also had some awesome garden goodies to bring back home with us as souvenirs from our trip. I must say I was the lightest packer carrying a small plan tote that can actually fit in those crazy ‘example’ of carry-on size gizmos devises at the check in line and my backpack filled with camera equipment that is shoved under the ‘seat in front of me’. It was great to be flying out of a small airport because after getting through security we all met up at the one coffee shop for a last good-bye until the next garden networking event. Much to my surprise we all made it through the same security with the oddest combination of garden souvenirs. I couldn’t believe I still had in my possession items the rest of the group got thrown into ‘the box‘. You know, the box of nail clippers, tweezers and things you wonder where they go when they don’t make it through security at the airport.
One of the items that my travel friends had confiscated from them was the 9B or orange snips from Corona Tools who happen to be one of the sponsors of the Garden2Blog event. You can find the original 9B / orange snips on display at the CA State Citrus Museum as a tool that was instrumental in the success of the citrus industry. I’m proud to BOOST I have one of my own thanks to security check randomness! It is hard to believe I got it through security when on a flight a few years earlier on this same airline I got my hair pin thrown in the box after an embarrassing scene of pat-downs in the security line. Don’t get me wrong, I’m willing to obey the rules and guild lines but I just can’t believe how RANDOM the security really is.
My Treasures From #G2B11
I must admit that as we sat and swapped stories about what we made it through security with I was totally wishing I had packed those yummy sugar cookies I was worried would get smashed after hearing one of the girls had them in her carry on. It would have been one more thing I would have made it home with despite the condition it would have been in after being smashed into the over head compartment. Another item I was surprised made it through was my hand shovel. REALLY….. a shovel! I can’t help put wonder what would have set off the security personnel to act upon emptying out my carry-on into ‘the box’. I guess I will have to see what luck I will have with the next garden travel adventure through airport security. Can you blame me for wanting to brag that I made it through and the others are shovel and snipper- LESS! < na-na-na-na-boo-boo! >
I’d love to hear your traveling story so please leave a comment below!
Grow It * Prepare It * Eat It : My Motto when Gardening
As we dive into the sometimes exhausting chores of spring cleaning here in the Midwest, there is one thing going through my head that helps keep me energized: ‘Grow It * Prepare It * Eat It’. Could Gardening get any better then that? That little saying is one of the mottos that I use in some of the gardening videos to describe what I love most about gardening.
My hobby-turned-way-of-life of veggie growing started with the dream of having an endless supply of food that could be prepared for family and friends. My love for preserving tomatoes lead me to learn to grow my own in our country veggie garden here in Ohio. As I experienced first hand how easy it can be, my garden expanded to grow more of the veggies used to make dishes like salsa, stews, and relishes. Today I grow on a 40′x 60′ garden, raised beds in my greenhouse landscape area, and containers through out my home and garden. This maybe just one of the reasons why I’m loving the P.Allen Smiths ‘Seasonal Recipes From The Garden’ cookbook. In this cookbook you will find some amazing recipes that can served during the Holidays as well as every day cooking that always use fresh ingredients from the garden. Using what we grow is a theme I share here at BGgarden.com in ‘From Garden To Kitchen”collections.
I became a follower of P.Allen Smith after first spotting him sharing the Proven Winners that I so adore when I worked in a local garden center about four years ago. P.Allen Smith shares beautiful blooms in creative landscape and container designs featured in my favorite magazines that we could share with our clients. This was a great way to share ideas on what garden center shoppers could do with their gardens. It was an honor to meet P.Allen Smith for the first time last summer when he was one of the featured guest at the IGC event in Chicago. One of the first displays I visited at IGC was the debut of P. Allen’s amazing Christmas collection that I captured as photographer for Shirley Bovshow of Garden World Report.
In October of 2010, I became the administrator of #gardenchat and was honored to have P.Allen Smith and his crew as one of the first guest hosts. What a way to dive into a twitter forum of sharing the garden world – Wouldn’t you say?! His transcript about Raising Backyard Chickens has had well over 2,000 hits off of my site. And now I look forward to the Garden2Blog event that takes place in Little Rock, Arkansas this April with P.Allen Smith, which I was invited to attend along with 19 other garden bloggers from across the country.
A new webpage is ready here on the BGgarden.com website ,where I will be sharing the world of P.Allen Smith during the Garden2Blog event later this spring. You are invited along to the Garden2Blog event via my shares on Twitter where I network whats growing on Twitter as well as shares from P.Allen Smith daily.
Are you curious which recipe I brought to my table from the P.Allen Smith Seasonal Recipes From The Garden Cookbook? You know it is going to have tomatoes as a key ingredient and be super easy this time of year because I’ve got seeds to start and talk about while raising my family.
You’ll have to check out Allen’s book for this yummy Garden Tomato Salad from page 91 featuring some of the herbs that can be grown year-round. You can find more recipes and information about his book on his website at P.Allen Smith Garden Home.
In this podcast P.Allen Smith shares with me his thoughts on gardening, inspiration and the Garden2Blog event that takes place in April. I hope you will follow the event from my page here on BGgarden.com and on their facebook page at Garden2Blog.
If you are familiar with flying on any major airline these days I’m sure you are like me and consider other sources to travel to your set destination to avoid any complication commonly experienced at airports. A negative of flying is the dilemma of what to pack with flight safety in mind. I’ve been reserved about sharing what I walked through security with on a recent flight back from a garden tour event. First of all, I can’t help but think I will be put on a ‘watch list’ with our homeland security because I do feel the items I got through security could have been a bad thing if in the wrong persons carry on luggage. Second, it isn’t like me to brag about goodies I acquire for my gardening experience unless it involves sharing what it can do to benefit someones growing experience. As I’m in the heat of planting season I keep thinking about what I flew home with and I can bite my tongue any longer…… I must brag!
you wonder where they go when they don’t make it through security at the airport.
