Garden, Plant, Cook!

Tuesday, April 17, 2018

Mulberries!! A garden "ornament" and a Discount from My Publisher

Dear Folks,

I will be taking a few days off to be with family.

In the meantime I have Mulberries!!

I am so excited.  I also discovered I have to check the trees daily to catch them ripe and before the birds find them.

This is Dwarf Morus Nigra I purchased from Baker Creek 3 years ago.  I got them into the ground in August 2015 after getting them stabilized in pots first.

This is the first year for fruit.  They are small but sooo sweet.

This may not seem like a really big deal, but it is to me.  As a child my sister (when she arrives today I am going to be able to give her some our childhood treats!) and I "discovered" a "blackberry tree" near us and the family did not mind our climbing the tree to get to the fruit.  I had no idea it was a Mulberry until the last decade or so.  Just really did not know what the plant was, only that it was a short tree (our neighborhood had HUGE trees) and it had blackberries on it.

Taking the factors together I finally figured it had to be a dwarf mulberry and found them for sale on Baker Creek.  The listing shows it as a Dwarf Everbearing. Hope so :-)

My Publisher Is Offering A Discount

If you have been thinking about purchasing one of my books or calendars for yourself or as a gift, this would be a good opportunity to save.  My calendars are applicable to the desert southwest AND USDA Zone 9b and above - because it is not just about temperature it is about day light hours too.

Expires  April 19 at 11:59 pm ET

The code is entered while you are checking out and it is case sensitive.

Use code TWENTY18

20% on all PRINT calendars and books - does not apply to PDFs or ebooks

My Publisher - click here for the page. 

Solar Fountain
Managed to catch the spout of water!

We do not have ornaments as a general rule in our garden -- the gardens ARE our ornaments, however I really enjoy certain accents like moving water and maybe eventually a fire pit.

Some years ago I was fascinated with a small solar fountain at a friend's house.  It consisted of a solar panel tethered to a small pump which was in a small black pot, but could have been in a small pond. Anyway I went looking at the time and periodically since then and those setups are available and the challenge I saw for our small patio seating area was room for that arrangement.  Our backyard is 99% garden!

Recently I want searching again because the days and evenings are so lovely to sit out now, and low and behold there is a new type of Solar Fountain - all contained in a small "disc" about 9 inches wide and bingo, I ordered one and I am delighted.  The bowl is temporary as I want to find one of those colorful patterned bowls to put it in.  The fountain has suction cups on the bottom but is designed to float, so any body of water will work.

A couple of points.  The birds will love this so you need to make sure there is always water in the bowl.  I clean it every other day (tossing the water in one of the garden beds) and you need to keep the vent underneath free of debris.  The birds are "busy" in it so I am thinking of putting a bit of a mesh over the vent to make sure nothing gets in it.  We had it stop one day and I was puzzled and then my guy just blew in the top hole put it back and it was pumping again!. E.g., the mesh I am thinking about and you may wish to also.

The unit comes with several spray heads, but I really just like the "spout".  The sun needs to be full on for continuous running but I find it kind of fun to watch it 'bubble' intermittently as the sun moves around the patio for the day.  This unit does not "hold" a charge, just so you know.

Here is a link if you want to check it out at Amazon - may be available through other sources.  Besides the size, the price was also attractive to me. Under $20 vs over $45 for the other type of set up.

I have another garden ornament to show you in a future post when I get it set up the way I want.  That will probably do for the ornaments for the time being until we figure out a fire pit arrangement.

Have a wonderful day in the garden!


-- Catherine, The Herb Lady

If you enjoyed this post, please share and subscribe below by entering your email, to get all my posts!

Enter your email address:


Delivered by FeedBurner
Disclaimer: Clicking on links on this blog may earn me a small commission if you purchase something. Your price does not change.

No comments: