Sunrize Patch (2024)

27/06/2024

This beauty is s magnet for bees and tiny pollinators 😍

12/06/2024

Some of my work that will be available at Agricole on Saturday

25/08/2023

The easiest fruit to grow and most satisfying to can the juice.

Chili and spaghetti sauce are so much better with the homemade sauce. No sugar needed to be added 😍

16/06/2023

Garlic scapes are here!

A true win win scenario to use them to their fullest potential. Cutting the seed tops allows the plant to put his energies back into growing the balb instead of seed.

The mild garlicky taste of scapes allows more of it to be used, so more fiber and more greens in every meal.

Mixed with oil and salt freezes well and it is very convenient to use it on pasta and herb butter all year round.

Garlic is antibacterial, and anti viral, so use as much as you can 😊

(I cut them up in smallish segments and cover the garlic scapes about 90% with oil before blending)

27/05/2023

"Rhubarb is the fleshy, edible stalks of species and hybrids of Rheum in the family Polygonaceae, which are cooked and used for food. The plant is a herbaceous perennial that grows from short, thick rhizomes."
(Wikipedia)

It is also a beautiful plant that can be used as a natural hedge in the garden, or in my case to cover a portion of not so pretty fencing.

I want to add one more usage to the wikipedia description.

The giant leaves that normally are discarded or in best case composted, can be used as natural mulch around freshly planted seedlings in the garden.
Cuts down on weeds and holds much needed moisture at the beginning of the growing cycle.

All deep rooted plants cycle minerals from deep down, so the decomposed leaf has its benefits too.

Use and reuse all that is available 😊

03/05/2023

Spring, glorious spring!
My favorite flowers for Mother's Day 😍

24/03/2023

My tribute to this endangered lily

03/03/2023

My latest card with a rose.
This one was commissioned. Love to paint per request, for I learn the most this way. 😍

28/02/2023

Reduce by using all your leftovers! God for your pocket book and the environment 😊
My unused whipping cream turned into butter. Than, added olive oil and puréed garlic scapes from last year's harvest.
I whipped the cream with a teaspoon of lemon juice until started to separate and transferred it to a mason jar. Takes less then 10 minutes of shaking to form the butter ball. About 1/3 olive oil and 2/3 butter makes a wonderful spread. I use it on toast and to cook with. 😍

27/01/2023

Hand painted by our own Local artist and gardener Hajnal Minger ♥️.

05/10/2022

The mini kiwi harvest started now😍

Unfortunately somewhat after the chipmunks and squirrels.

They have to be soft to the touch, just like the larger cusins. It takes just a few days to be ready for consumption.

If not consumed in time, they turn into kiwi raisins. Still good to eat!

27/09/2022

Seecond harvest of the season!

Originally I planted four trees, now after ten years, about 25 young tress have popped up alongside the originals.

This year, I had at least 400 flowers on my trees and I could have manually pollinated more resulting in more fruit. Without manual polination, I expect to harvest about 40 paw paws this year, plenty to share with my family and friends.

Beatiful shading trees with fast growing tasty fruit, what more could one hope for!?

Agricole Farm Stop has a few of my trees available for purchase, perfect for fall planting.

02/09/2022

Brown Turkey figs grown in Michigan

It can be grown outside in a protected area, but the lenght of time it takes to actually produce ripe fruit is too short. Extending the season about one month makes all the difference.

I planted two bushes in pots and dragged them into the garage for the winter. No watering needed, goes dormant.

I placed them out early May with buds formed inside. Leafing out in the sun is much preferred, for it will make a more robust plant.

I picked the first fruit today and I will have a couple of figs every day until frost. I counted over 100 green figs so far on two plants. It will bring more if we have a long worm fall.

20/07/2022

Sunrize Patch flowers

The beauty of nature works wonders for your soul.

Tending to a garden eliminates the need for gym membership.

Win-win scenario 😍

07/07/2022

Garden beauty inspired greeting cards

When gardening became impossible temporarily because of a major health setback, the raw beauty still remained and helped me heal. Also, inspired me to paint😍

The positive feedback keeps me painting.

My cards are available at Argus Farm Stop on Liberty in Ann Arbor and Agricole on Main Street in Chelsea.

03/07/2022

If you never had the pleasure of biting into a crisp, freshly picked cucumber, you should remedy that shortcoming.

You can grow cucumbers easily even if you don’t have a garden. If you have space for a hanging basket or a pot, you can grow cucumbers! Some small-scale commercial growers also use hanging baskets.

Cucumbers need a lot of water and watering them frequently enough in a hanging basket may present problems for those of us, who don’t have a watering system. Therefore, I planted my cucumbers in larger tall containers and gave them extra height by placing them on cinder blocks. This way they can droop down almost like they do in a hanging basket and not crawl so much on the ground.

There are lots of benefits growing in containers, other than overcoming the space limitations:

• Having them in our sight, we can see immediately if they are wilting. And they get watered at the root, where it is needed. Once the cucumbers start sprawling around, no more telling where the roots are.

• Cucumbers are susceptible to fungal disease, which is easier to control if not on damp soil.

• They like a little shade too, so close to the house or patio should make it easy to find a good location.

• Picking cucumbers can be tricky. It is hard to find all of them on the ground, because their color blends so well with the leaves. Once yellow, it is too late. If they start ripening seeds, the lifespan may get shortened.

Why not give it a try? It is a fast-growing plant and one that you can start later in the season.

30/06/2022

My Paw-Paw trees are as beautiful as any ornamental tree can be and bring me amazing fruit on top of it.

At least two trees are needed for crosspollination and preferably two different varieties, in case you would be considering planting some. The trees have a conical shape if grown as a single tree but can be pruned into a bushier habit as well. This property makes them suitable for many different locations. With proper placement and the proper care, they will produce abundantly.

Once established, they grow quickly, so their shading properties can be harvested as well.

As with most native trees, once they are established, maintenance is negligible because they resist most fungal diseases and have fewer pests. My plum trees planted in the vicinity had to be destroyed, for I could not battle the fungal attacks any longer and the Paw-Paws are thriving and bringing me lots and lots of babies😊

The fruit is exquisite, even if is a bit strange looking. It can be consumed in many ways, just takes a little know how.

28/06/2022

Having a mini flock of chickens on my mini urban farm is beneficial and enjoyable. They eat up a lot of bugs, and if you place them strategically, they will scratch out a lot of weeds and they are great source of natural fertilizer. And, they can be a curious lovely company digging and cultivating alone in a garden!

I the last 15 years I experimented with various breads, various mixed flocks and I came to love my Bantam chickens and roosters the most.

A few reason reasons why I love them above the others:
• They are the most colorful and varied in their looks
• Lot more docile than any other breed I had
• Half the size seems to be half the trouble of cleaning after them
• They are less noisy, especially since the full-size roosters can be really loud, so any amount of scaling back is appreciated. I am sure the neighbors do!
• They tend to be easier to manage when free ranged, because they go into the coop at least one and a half hours earlier than other breeds. I was able to eliminate the ritual of going to close the chicken coop in my PJs in June and July 😊
• They also lay as many eggs as any other good laying breads, only half the size. But for one household, five-six bantams will produce enough.
• I even love the fact that sometimes, when I need a part of an egg, there is less waste.

I would highly recommend starting with bantams if you want to venture into having your own backyard flock.

26/06/2022

Did you know you can grow Kiwi in Michigan!?

My Arctic Kiwi (also known as hybrid kiwi, kiwi berry) is one of the most amazing plants. I really fell in love with this plant after a bad spring. All my other fruiting trees and bushes lost their flowers to frost and never got any fruit, but the kiwi leafed out two more times, after two late frosts and brought a modest amount of fruit despite all.

I tell you in a nutshell why I am still in love with my kiwi plants:
• The fruit is delicious with a long season and long shelf life. Also freezes well for smoothies
• Beautiful shiny dark green foliage, with burgundy stems.
• Very fast growing once it is well established
• The birds and squirrels bother it way less than any of other fruit producing plants
• Virtually pest free which is the biggest issue producing organically
• In a garden where I have many trees affected by fungal disease, the kiwi leaves are untouched
• Can be trained to create a natural outdoor patio, because the vine gets sturdy, and the foliage is very dense.
• No regular fertilization needed, other than some good compost once a year. I just created a small compost pile at the base of the plant and that acts as a continuous feeder and extra moisture retainer.

If you are considering planting one, I recommend giving it a lot of thought. The roots are extensive. It will be impossible to relocate once it is established. And, it takes 7 years to start producing!

I am available to consult and help you find the most advantageous placement for these plants and the necessary protections needed to help them establish quickly and well.

There are multiple varieties, I found out later, with slight differences. If you want to learn more about them, visit: https://www.thespruce.com/kiwi-vines-spring-foliage-2132895

19/06/2022

I had the good fortune to have a dear old friend, who set me up with my first lemon tree about 25 years ago, and never have I had to purchase lemons since. It has been a long learning curve. At the beginning, I barely managed to keep my trees alive, but slowly I saw them thrive, produce, and even reproduce.

It is not rocket science, it just takes paying attention and some scheduled maintenance like anything else. My most important findings, specific to our location, other the general requirements that one can read up on any website are as follows:

• Lemon trees need a lot of sun, so maximizing the time spent outdoors is very important. Instead of waiting for the last frost date, which is mid-May for us, I drag them out in April and if a few chilly nights are in the forecast, I shelter them close to the house and cover them for the night.

• They really dislike a dry indoor environment, so giving them an occasional shower helps immensely. While in smaller pots, I just give them a quick shower, when bigger, I use a spay bottle and mist them periodically.

• One can create a mini greenhouse environment as well. The least trouble for me to winter them through is on my unheated porch. I have a greenhouse heater that is set at 40F degrees in the dead of winter, and I slowly raise it as the outside temperature rises. This takes the minimum energy expenditure.

• Both the greenhouse and the reduced temperature will eliminate the biggest problem that lemons face indoors. No more spider-mite infestations.

• To maintain most of the foliage, and creating better fruiting conditions, I also use a plant light for a few extra hours a day. This way the number of leaves the plant will shed when brought inside, will be greatly reduced and will have more energy to fruit rather then grow new leaves when moved outdoors.

• One of the most important things, that I do not see sufficiently emphasized is the fact that plants need to be gradually acclimated to the intense solar radiation, not unlike us having a suntan before we can spend too much time outdoors. I set my trees out in a shady spot initially and every couple of days a pull them further out of shade to increase the length of time they are exposed to sun.

• Lemon trees are thirsty in the sun, but they need very little watering when we just winter them through. Do not overwater! It is a death sentence.

• I use the commercially available lemon and cactus potting mix initially, and later add organic fertilizers and compost couple of times a year. Be mindful of the pH of the soil.

• Never pot them in too big of a pot, for the soil will be too damp and unhealthy. Increase pot size incrementally, with a 2 inches larger pot

If you wonder, why on earth would anyone spend this much attention on a tree, you never smelled lemon flowers.

Sunrize Patch