The show runs from Wednesday (2/8) to Sunday (2/12) at the Washington State Convention Center in downtown Seattle. Just like last year, I plan to attend the show on Thursday, Friday and Saturday.

If for some reason you can’t attend the show in person (your only excuse is that you live more than two states away), you can follow my adventures here since I’ll be posting LIVE from the show.  Sounds exciting doesn’t it. I’d love to hear if you’re attending the show and if you want to pal around. I do have a routine that consists of visiting the display gardens first. Then shopping and plant booths last. Plus, I try to fit in lunch before I start attending the seminars.

This year I mostly picked my seminars based on growing, harvesting, and cooking veggies – I’m always looking for new ideas to maximize my yield. I’m also interested in attending some design and plant seminars. Most of all I must attend Jessi Bloom’s ‘What the Cluck’ seminars – parts 1 & 2.

Here’s the list of all seminars: http://www.gardenshow.com/seminars/

Here’s what I plan to attend (so far):

Thursday

• Willi Evans Galloway’s Grow. Cook. Eat. @ 1:30
• Dan Hinkley’s Myths, Fables, Fantasies or Facts @ 4:30
• Billy Goodnick’s Design Like a Pro @ 5:30

Friday

• Colin McCrate’s The Peak of Perfection @ 2:00
• Jessi Bloom’s What the Cluck?! Part 1 @3:15
• Teresa O’Connor’s Growing Food in Small Spaces @ 5:30
• David Perry’s iPhone Gardener @ 6:00
• Richi Seffen’s Reliable Plants for the Shade Garden @ 7:00

Saturday

• Robin Haglund’s Mayhem, Murder & Must-Nots @ 10:00
• Graham Kerr’s E.G.G.S. – Eat. Grow. Gather. Share. @ 11:15 
• Jessi Bloom’s What the Cluck?! Part 2 @1:30
• Ciscoe Morris’ Bring it On! @ 3:45

For more details, visit the show’s official site http://www.gardenshow.com/.

Disclaimer: I was given tickets to attend the show this year since I plan to blog and tweet LIVE via my iPhone. That being said, I’m super excited for the iPhone Gardener seminar by David Perry since I use my phone to take all the pictures I post here.  Anyway, I would’ve purchased my tickets, attended the three days and loved the show regardless – it’s that amazing.

I finally watched Forks Over Knives last night (on Netflix Instant). Wow, what a eye opener. I don’t even know where to start.

I’ve been toying with the idea of cutting meat out of my diet for years now (ever since getting chickens). After watching the film and seeing actual data on what certain foods are doing to us, I’m even more convinced this is a path I need to go down.

Major eye openers for me:

1. On average Americans are 23lbs overweight (guilty)
2. 40% of us are obese
3. 50% are on a prescription medication
4. We’re sicker than ever
5. We mask our fatigue with sugar, coffee and energy drink (guilty)

The main cause of our health issues (other than watching TV, playing on the internet and playing video games) is our excessive consumption of convenience (processed) foods, sugars, and animal products.  I’m guilty of all these things – well, except playing video games.

Even if you don’t want to totally cut animal products out of your diet, you should watch the film and have everyone in your family watch the film.

• It talks about health conditions like cancer, heart disease, and diabetes and how we’ve seen an increase since we started eating more meat and processed foods — it’s just so convenient now.
•  They  show comparisons in cancer levels between Americans and folks living in other countries where they don’t eat as much of these foods.
• They go over real cases where people switched to a plant based diet and saw major health improvements – some folks were even able to get off their heart and diabetes medications.
• Wow.

What are we doing to ourselves? What are we teaching the next generations? It reminds me of the movie WALL-E. It may be a cartoon but it seems to have a pretty good grasp into our future if we continue on our current path. This scares me.

My goal is to significantly reduce my consumption of animal products and eliminate processed foods.

Garden Blogger’s Bloom Day takes place on the 15th of every month and all started with May Dreams Gardens.

Anyway, I’m happy to report that my first (of five) beekeeping classes was last night. It was wonderful. I still haven’t decided if I have the energy to keep bees or not — that’s why I’m taking the class. I live in a small city lot at the edge of downtown (with chickens, cats and a dog). I’m pretty sure I can find a spot for the bees but want to make sure I can make the commitment before I jump in.

The reasons I want bees:

• To pollinate my veggies and flowers
• I like having pets with benefits
• They’d bring me one step closer to being self sustaining (in town)
• I’m not going lie – I also think hives are a beautiful garden accessory

Below are some snippets from instructors Dave and Jim. If you want to know more, you should really sign up to take the Master Beekeeper Apprentice Level course. There’s another session that starts on Monday, February 27, 2012.

To be a successful beekeeper:

1. Take a class
2. Join a local beekeeping club/organization
3. Find a mentor (from local beekeeping club)
4. Subscribe to a magazine like Bee Culture or American Bee Journal

• Beware of chatrooms, books, videos and articles offering advice on beekeeping that were not written for your specific area (especially the PNW folks since we’re cool and wet)
• Beekeepers are very opinionated passionate about how things should be done & pronounced
• Bees have FIVE eyes. The two big ones you can see and three smaller ones.
• The Queen bee ‘gets busy’ with the drones from other hives – she may even hook up with as many as twelve in ‘mating flight!’
• The Drone’s sexual organs break off inside the Queen and the Drone dies
• Fertilized eggs are the Worker bees (females) and unfertilized eggs become the Drones (males)
• In the fall the women kick the Drones out of the hive to die (and for some reason I think this is funny)
• Some people swear that getting stung helps their arthritis – another reason to keep bees around!
• Bees produce honey, propolis (a glue) and wax
• Bees tend to be older and grumpier starting in August and may be more inclined to sting
• Oh, and they can sense fear/nervousness and get agitated
• If you suddenly smell a banana/rose scent, you’ve pissed the bees off and you should stop what you’re doing
• Bees don’t like the way we smell. It’s best to mask your human scent by rubbing peppermint leaves all over your body (ha ha ha) OR simply shower before handling the hive
• Be cautious if you decide to use natural wax frames in your hives. The wax comes from other hives and you don’t know the health of those hives.

I can’t wait to see what the next class brings. I feel that I learned TONS and that makes me very happy.

Angela

1. Post more often. 

2. Winterize the greenhouse. Right now we’re using the cheap interior plastic to keep out the extra cold but a recent wind storm removed a lot of it.  At least the little heater is helping keep the aeoniums and other wimpy plants from freezing. I’d like to add some heavy duty plastic panels like the ones I add to the chicken coop every winter.

On a side note, it drives me CRAZY when Travis uses the water from rain chain pot and DOESN’T PUT IT BACK RIGHT!

Greenhouse from recycled windows

3. Replace the reed fencing that hides the neighbor’s chain link fence. I’m hoping they’ll let me replace the chain link with something but they seem to be fond of it. I’d LOVE to add a composting fence. Here are some of my inspiration pictures:

• http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/ABPub/zoom/html/2008017300.html
• http://freshdirt.sunset.com/2010/08/simple-simple-wire-fence.html#

Replace Reed Fencing with...

4. Get honey bees. I’m taking the class with WSU Snohomish County Extension office starting January 9. I can’t wait! If you’re interested, here’s information on the class: http://snohomish.wsu.edu/ag/workshops/Beekeeping11.pdf

5. Add more espalier fruit. I’m planning on adding an espalier peach tree and fig tree to the garden. We’ll plant the peach on a south facing fence in the veggie garden (pictured below) and the fig on a south facing wall along the walkway between our front and back yards.

Home to my future espalier peach tree

6. Redesign the veggie garden layout. Since my green beans are losing their home to my future espalier peach tree, I need to find a new home for the green beans. I’m thinking of using rebar and cattle panels to create a bean trellis we can walk under – similar to the one I saw in the Jenning’s Park Garden in Marysville (pictured below). I’m thinking of adding it along our walkway to the greenhouse.

Jenning's Park Garden - Pea Arbor

This is all I’ve got so far. Wish me luck.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

I started my little tour in the front yard where the flower beds are already buried with leaves from the Walnut and the Magnolia trees – their winter mulch… I don’t bag or remove leaves from my garden – every last leaf is tossed in a flower bed to feed the worms (and other critters in the soil) and protect the plants from the winter cold.

Front garden - mostly sun perennial bed

Front garden - part to full shade

Front garden - part to full shade

I walked towards the back yard – hitting the side garden first. This is where I have the chicken coop and bog garden. It’s pretty colorful this time of year because of the viburnum that hangs over the fence from the neighbor’s yard – I think it likes my garden better.

Side garden view towards the back yard.

Carnivorous Bog garden and chicken coop.

Back yard - north facing mostly shade perennial bed.

Then I ventured to the back patio and veggie garden. It’s looking a little bare since all the patio cushions are in the garage and the veggie beds are resting. I do like how the patio ground cover is finally filling out – even if most of it is moss. It’s helping create the lush look I originally wanted.

Back patio

Later today, I’m going to seed Territorial’s fall cover crop blend in the veggie beds – it’s a mix of Austrian Field Peas, Crimson Clover, Hairy Vetch, Annual and Winter Rye. I’ve never planted a cover crop before so it’ll be interesting in the spring when I need to turn the soil. Oh, and can you see the tomatoes that are still trying to turn red in the greenhouse – I’m pretty sure the heater is helping.

Raised beds & greenhouse - fenced bed is planted with garlic & onions.

Then finally I walked out to the back alley to check out the garden I recently re-planted out there. A couple months ago I removed all the Iris and replaced them with grasses and drought tolerant plants – I was having a hard time controlling the creeping bent grass that was growing between the tubers. I can’t wait to see how this bed fills out next year!

I also noticed the frozen banana plant that I haven’t protected from winter yet.

Alley garden - full sun

Now that I’ve pretty much filled every possible space with a garden, I’m now eyeing the hell strip (space between the front sidewalk & street) that’s beyond the front hedge. Then maybe I’ll be done? That’s next year’s project.

Welly

Actually, Welly isn’t the only Fecal Coliform Bacteria machine out there. All pet waste that’s left sitting in your yard can get into our streams, rivers and Puget Sound (or whatever is downstream for you).  High levels of the bacteria have already been found in a lot of our local waterways.

The best thing you can do is clean up after your pets and dispose of it in the garbage. Going forward, instead of tossing Welly’s ‘business’ into my bushes, I vow to bag it up and toss it in the trash. I already do this when walking him in public so why not do the same when he’s in our yard?

Pet waste isn’t the only reason the bacteria is in our waters — cleaning it up is just a small step that most folks can take at home. Just think about how many people you know that have dogs and the amount of waste that could be making it’s way back into our rivers & streams. That’s pretty gross.

Anyway, the same goes for pesticides, fertilizers, oil, paint and anything else you wash down a storm drain or let seep into the soil – it eventually makes its way into our water. Every little bit helps. Let’s try to keep our water clean.

Oh, and I borrowed the idea of using my cute puppy to add a bit of humor. I went to a discussion on water quality today and thought I’d share what I learned.

Anyway, it’s great for creating idea boards. Plus, it links to the sites that originally posted the picture and a lot of times there are instructions to go along with the picture – like the cement bowl pictured below.

If you’re not on Pinterest and you’re interested in joining, let me know and I’ll send you an invite. After all, you need to be invited to join – it’s exclusive. ;)

Here’s a link to my jardin (garden) board pictured below: http://pinterest.com/myrubberboots/jardin/