St. Dorothy's Day

St. Dorothy lived in Caesarea in central Turkey, around the year 313 AD. She was tried for refusing to worship idols, and a mocking lawyer asked her to send him fruit from the garden of Paradise. In response to her prayer, an angel appeared and presented three roses and three apples. 

She wrote: 

"And then said the holy virgin with a glad semblant: Do to me what torment thou wilt, for I am all ready to suffer it for the love of my spouse Jesu Christ, in whose garden full of delices I have gathered roses, spices, and apples."

Because of this, she is the patron of gardeners. Also of brides, and brewers.

Agenda Today:
1. Make Persian Spiced Apples
2. Garden journal queries
3. Garden visualization & plan
4. Make garden markers
5. Work outside!

1. Make Persian Spiced Apples: 

You might like to make this exotic treat from St. Dorothy's homeland. The recipe is here.

2. Garden journal queries:

Each year on St. Dorothy Day I begin to fantasize about changes in my garden. I get out my seed catalogs and notes from last year, and start to dream about which new plants to grow, and which beds to plant them in. 

First I ask myself-

How can I make my garden 

• a better sanctuary for my family, 
• more comfortable for friends, 
• a greater learning-experience for my art class kids, 
• more mysterious and secluded, 
• more of a visual treat,
• more abundantly productive of food, 
• AND easier to keep up with?

3. Garden visualization & plan:

The winter garden is a blank canvas for visualizing colors, shapes and composition. Today I took a notebook outside, walked around my entire garden once, and examined it in a non-critical way. I wrote down these ideas:

• Simplify and clean up the bed by the studio- make room for a new duck coop.
• Fence in part of the front yard so the ducks can safely eat the snails there.
• Plant a protective wall of tall flowers (sweet peas, foxglove, sunflowers, hollyhocks, mullein...) along the west and also the east fences.
• Prune the hawthorns to get more sun in the front yard.
• Talk to my neighbors to plan our shared vegetable bed.
• Find a spot for new rhubarb, camus, and sages.
• Plant heavy-duty ground cover and steppers near the back porch.

4. Make garden markers:

I rotate most of my vegetable beds every year, and on St. Dorothy Day I mark the beds.

I'm going to make garden markers from wooden clothes pins and sticks again. I found this idea at Hometalk.


Supplies: Wooden clothes pins, sticks, permanent markers

1- Write names of plants on clothes pins.

2- Clip to a stick! Couldn't be easier!

5. Work Outside:

Permelia and Madeline in the snow.

It's been cold this week, with a dusting of snow, so my intentions are to step outside each day to do one small garden thing:

1- Prune the roses
2- Fill my bird feeders
3- Label my vegetable beds
4- Cut down the corn stalks (finally)
5- Tidy the beds around the front porch- trim dead flowers, move leaves