For the past three years, I hesitated to plant a vegetable garden, fearing the damage that deer could possibly do. But when I spoke with David at The Farm about the many steps you can take to keep those deer from munching on your leafy greens, I got confident. My dreams of serving tomato salad, bruschetta and zucchini fritters – garden-fresh — at my summertime parties were alive and well.

After stocking up on our plants, soil and Bumper Crop at The Farm, we headed inside to load our trolley with an arsenal of deer-deferring items. I have to admit, I wasn’t too confident in the deer netting. Couldn’t a buck just push his way through? Didn’t we need wrought iron fencing? Wisely ignoring my worries, my husband grabbed the roll of 6’ high netting, the garden stakes and a couple of bottles of repellants, and home we went to put in our raised bed vegetable garden.

With our raised bed put together at 4’ x 4’ for starters – we can add on later – my husband rolled out what looked like a black cotton tarp to keep any grass or weeds from growing up through our little garden bed. Together, we dumped and spread our bags of soil, and I sat down to write out Zucchini, Red Bell Peppers, Beefsteak Tomatoes, Spinach, Cilantro and other plantings on the cute white garden tags we also picked up. I slid out my plants, placed them tallest to shortest in the bed, stepped back and beamed, and in a short while, our garden was fully planted and ID’d.

Up went the stakes and the netting [which my husband staked a good three feet distance from the edges of the bed to prevent a deer from nudging and noshing,] and the first perimeter spray of Deer Off and Critter Off was our scented fortress security. I apply them every night, and watched with great glee when our lawn invaders step gingerly up to the garden, take a whiff, and turn away. It’s working.

Now I’m not saying that there’s no way any deer or chipmunks will attack your garden if you follow our three-step plan; a hungry animal will find a way to dine. But I am saying that it’s working for us. I spray every night, and every morning, I get to see my tomato plants grow taller, with telltale flowers starting to sprout. I’m going to serve bruschetta this summer. I’ve got my dream garden, and the deer aren’t invited to sample.

Sharon Naylor is the author of over 35 books on family celebrations, including weddings, bridal showers, vow renewals, and more. She is beyond thrilled to be the new guest blogger for The Farm, and she will be posting inspirations and tips for your parties, get-togethers and big family moments throughout the year. Visit her website www.sharonnaylor.net for more on her books and articles.

You might not know that you can try out climbing vines in your garden plantings and landscaping before committing to climbers that will become an everlasting look in your plantings. I love the look of climbing vines trained up and over trellises, giving that English garden look, and if you have rock walls or fences, climbers can paint those blank canvases with natural greenery and color.

Here are some of the top annual climbing vines to plant now, and since they grow quickly, you’ll soon have lush greenery and flower-filled effects on many of your vertical garden elements:

Balloon Vine: requires plenty of sun, and grows quickly, producing tons of tiny white flowers.

Black-Eyed Susan: Normally considered a ground flower, there is a vining variety that also works as a ground cover. This flower isn’t known for growing up trellises well, but it’s a popular draper that grows in hanging baskets, cascading downward for visual interest.

Cardinal Climber: Will often grow up to 20 feet in a single season, blooming bright red flowers all summer long.

Climbing Snapdragon: Climbs up trellises and also cascades from hanging baskets or window boxes. Blooms in late spring through the summer, producing colorful snapdragon flowers.

Dutchman’s Pipe: Native to our region, this climber can grow to over 15 feet tall and 20 feet wide in a single season, which means it requires plenty of space of its own, so that it doesn’t crowd out other nearby flowers. Dutchman’s Pipe doesn’t produce showy flowers but it may produce mahogany and cream blooms and grows easily even in the shade.

Hyacinth Bean: The climbing variety of this plant is a fast-grower, often reaching 30-40 feet in a single season. This plant comes in many varieties and is a top choice for scaling trellises and fences. In summertime, you’ll get lots of white or purple flowers.

Moonflower: Interestingly, moonflower prefers less than perfect soil conditions and will not produce blooms in fertile soil. It produces large, white flowers that bloom during the night hours, and is a great grower.

Morning Glory: Owing to its name, the morning glory flowers greatly during the morning hours, and is available in varieties that bloom in different colors. It prefers a sunny location and does well in almost any type of soil.

Nasturtium: A preferred plant for growing and covering a trellis, arbor or pergola, since it thrives with very little care. It doesn’t require a lot of sunlight or moisture and will grow even in poor soil conditions. Blooms with colorful and fragrant flowers in summer.

Sweet Peas: Sweet peas are a popular climber, coming in many different varieties. In one season, it will grow to approximately 6 feet tall, providing colorful blooms all through the summer. It prefers cooler temperatures and lots of moisture.

Once you see how your annual climbing vines perform on your property, with your soil and light conditions and your hand at positioning, you might decide to plant perennial climbing vines for your garden’s lasting beauty.

Sharon Naylor is the author of over 35 books on family celebrations, including weddings, bridal showers, vow renewals, and more. She is beyond thrilled to be the new guest blogger for The Farm, and she will be posting inspirations and tips for your parties, get-togethers and big family moments throughout the year. Visit her website www.sharonnaylor.net for more on her books and articles.

If my last post piqued your interest in giving bamboo as gifts, or having someone give you bamboo to bring luck, health, wealth and happiness into your home, here are tips for caring for your bamboo plant.

Light: Avoid too much sunlight. Lucky bamboo grows naturally under the canopy of wet tropical rain forests, so it needs very little sunlight to thrive. In general, the more indirect the light, the better. If you see browning on the tips of the leaves, the plant’s location may be in too much sunlight.

Water: Keep your bamboo plant moist at all times. The plant prefers a few inches of fresh, filtered water, especially when planted in a vase filled with small rocks. If you notice yellowing of your leaves, your natural tap water supply might have too much chlorine or salt. You may need to buy fresh spring water for this plant and others in your home. You can grow bamboo in soil, provided you keep the soil quite moist.

Feeding: Most bamboo will grow well in simple water, but since water doesn’t contain the nutrients that bamboo enjoys in its natural environment, ask our staff which plant foods work best with bamboo plants.

Avoiding pests: Bamboo is a plant inside your home, and pests might see it as the perfect home. So talk with our staff about your potential needs for organic pest treatments to remedy your bamboo’s unwelcome visitors.

Sharon Naylor is the author of over 35 books on family celebrations, including weddings, bridal showers, vow renewals, and more. She is beyond thrilled to be the new guest blogger for The Farm, and she will be posting inspirations and tips for your parties, get-togethers and big family moments throughout the year. Visit her website www.sharonnaylor.net for more on her books and articles.

In my previous post, I wrote about the meanings of flowers and giving symbolic blooms to graduates, and now I’m suggesting lucky bamboo plants as a perfect gift for any summertime celebration. It might be a wedding or bridal shower, baby shower or baby arrival, new home party or even the welcoming of a new neighbor.

Bamboo is a top eco-friendly plant, since it grows so quickly and is counted as extremely renewable in a variety of industries. And who doesn’t love a super-soft bamboo tee shirt, blanket or spa robe? But for gifting purposes, nothing beats a pretty potted collection of bamboo stalks.

Decide first on the style. Do you wish to give straight stalks, or ‘curly bamboo’ shaped into an attractive spiral? Think next about the number of stalks, which is an important factor in the message you deliver, as well as the ‘good luck benefit’ the recipient enjoys.

• A bamboo plant with 2 stalks will double your luck
• A bamboo plant with 3 stalks will attract happiness, long life and love
• Never give a 4-stalk bamboo plant, since that is seen as a symbol of death
• A bamboo plant with 5 stalks will attract wealth, as well as spiritual, mental, emotional, physical and intuitive enhancement
• A bamboo plant with 6 stalks will attract wealth
• A bamboo plant with 7 stalks ensures good health
• A bamboo plant with 8 stalks is related to fertility
• A bamboo plant with 9 stalks is a symbol of very good luck.
• A bamboo plant with 10 stalks is a symbol of having a perfectly content life, with everything you’ve ever wanted
• A bamboo plant with 21 stalks offers an all-purpose blessing

According to ancient tradition, luck comes in its greatest form when it’s given as a gift. So if there’s no party for me coming up, I’ll just have my husband give me the bamboo plant that I’d like! My bamboo plant that I bought from The Farm last summer is growing and thriving in my kitchen window, bringing us health, wealth and everything we’ve ever wanted.

Sharon Naylor is the author of over 35 books on family celebrations, including weddings, bridal showers, vow renewals, and more. She is beyond thrilled to be the new guest blogger for The Farm, and she will be posting inspirations and tips for your parties, get-togethers and big family moments throughout the year. Visit her website www.sharonnaylor.net for more on her books and articles.

Originating in Victorian times, flower symbolism presented the chance to express sentiment through floral gifts, and the practice is still with us today.

You may have heard of the Language of Flowers, the lasting record of which flowers carry which symbolism, and you might have thought about floral meanings in relation to weddings. Certain flowers mean true love, some flowers mean innocence and purity, and so on.

Right now, though, we’re in the midst of graduation season, and what better way to wish the graduate good luck or honor their dedication and hard work than to give flowers that tell the tale?

Here are some of my choices for meaningful, symbolic graduation flower gifts:

Alstroemeria: aspiring
Azalea: abundance
Crocus: foresight
Gardenia: joy
Ginger: proud
Gladiolus: strength of character
Hydrangea: perseverance
Iris: inspiration
Lily, Casablanca: celebration
Lily, Day: enthusiasm
Lily,Stargazer: ambition
Marigold: desire for riches
Star of Bethlehem: hope
Stephanotis: good luck
Statice: success
Wisteria: steadfast

Giving plants allows the graduate to plant your good wishes and watch them grow, and – a little secret from event-planning world – when you give a pretty potted plant upon your arrival to the graduation party, the hosts and guest of honor don’t have to scramble to find a vase for cut-flower bouquets. Your thoughtful gift goes on display easily and beautifully.

Sharon Naylor is the author of over 35 books on family celebrations, including weddings, bridal showers, vow renewals, and more. She is beyond thrilled to be the new guest blogger for The Farm, and she will be posting inspirations and tips for your parties, get-togethers and big family moments throughout the year. Visit her website www.sharonnaylor.net for more on her books and articles.

When you think of wildflowers, you might think about scraggly, grassy, almost weedlike handfuls of flowering stalks hand-gathered from the side of the road. The common perception of wildflowers is that they are rustic, suitable for a country style of décor or a casual, country party, perhaps even a bridal bouquet at an outdoor wedding. But plants that qualify as wildflowers, in their natural form or as cultivars, come in a range of surprising varieties…and now’s the perfect time to get to know them.

Wildflower grow quite easily in gardens, and are often used as accents along fences, as unique height and color in landscape plantings, and many are cut to display indoors, or given as potted plants for a fragrant, flowering, easy-to-grow gift.

Here are some of the loveliest wildflowers to consider for your organic garden, including some surprising blooms in this category:

African daisy (white, yellow and orange flowers)
Agave (yellow-green flowers)
Baby Blue Eyes (Blue cup-shaped flowers)
Celandine (butter-yellow petals)
Clasping Cone (Looks like a sunflower, but the yellow petals droop delicately downward)
Cornflower/Bachelor’s Button (Originally blue flowers, now available in white, pink and red)
Dog Violet (Purple flowers)
Drummond Phlox (Yes, pretty, bright phlox counts as a wildflower!)
Speedwell (Large, blue flowers offer a unique bloom for blue-themed party décor and garden ‘pop!’)
Fivespot (My new favorite! White flowers with vivid purple centers)
Gold yarrow (Yellow, tufty blooms)
Iceland poppy (White and yellow flowers)
Primrose (Pretty, delicate, spring and summer colors)
Rose Angel (1” pink and red flowers)
Snowdrop (White flowers with a delicate arch)
Sweet Violet (Pretty purples)
Wall Flower (Vivid orange flowers)
Wine Cup (Dark purplish-red flowers)

There’s not a weedy flower in the bunch! So come look at the wildflower selections at The Farm and you may discover a new favorite planting or potted gift option!

Sharon Naylor is the author of over 35 books on family celebrations, including weddings, bridal showers, vow renewals, and more. She is beyond thrilled to be the new guest blogger for The Farm, and she will be posting inspirations and tips for your parties, get-togethers and big family moments throughout the year. Visit her website www.sharonnaylor.net for more on her books and articles.

Purple is in this year as a top color choice for everything from home décor to fashion, and a great many summer parties and weddings will have a purple color scheme. So bring that passion for all things purple to your garden, as well as to your collection of indoor flowering plants.

Here are some of the top purple-colored flowers to consider:

Bellflowers
Campanula
Candytuft
Clematis
Cyclamen
Fan flower
Geranium
Heliotrope (pretty purple heads with a surprising, gentle vanilla scent)
Hydrangea
Impatiens
Iris
Lady’s Mantle
Lavender
Lilac
Meadow Rue (looks like baby’s breath, but the flowers are lavender to deep purple)
Morning Glory
Orchid
Pansy
Passionflower
Petunia
Purple Hibiscus
Purple Phlox
Purple Salvia
Purple Statice (pretty ruffled flowers)
Snapdragon
Tulips
Verbena
Wisteria

Sharon Naylor is the author of over 35 books on family celebrations, including weddings, bridal showers, vow renewals, and more. She is beyond thrilled to be the new guest blogger for The Farm, and she will be posting inspirations and tips for your parties, get-togethers and big family moments throughout the year. Visit her website www.sharonnaylor.net for more on her books and articles.

Bright, cheery zinnia bloom from mid-summer all the way to winter, and come in a wide variety of colors including yellow, orange, red, rose, pink, purple, lilac and multi-colored blooms. Zinnia elegans is considered the most popular of the 20 species, and likes a hot climate due to its Mexican origins.

The pretty variations of Zinnia varieties provide both miniature plants and those that may grow to 1-3 feet tall, and you’ll find those that bloom in single rows or domes.

Interesting facts about Zinnia:

• Butterflies love them, so outdoor-planted zinnia will fill your gardens with winged beauty.
• In its native Mexico, the plant was known by the name mal de ojos, because the flowers were small and considered ugly.
• Zinnias originally grew as wildflowers native to the southwest United States, Mexico and Central America.
• They will reseed themselves each year.
• In The Language of Flowers, Zinnia symbolize ‘thoughts of absent friends.’

Sharon Naylor is the author of over 35 books on family celebrations, including weddings, bridal showers, vow renewals, and more. She is beyond thrilled to be the new guest blogger for The Farm, and she will be posting inspirations and tips for your parties, get-togethers and big family moments throughout the year. Visit her website www.sharonnaylor.net for more on her books and articles.

Colorful, delicate peonies are among the most feminine of flowers and as such are a favorite of springtime brides, as well as popular flowers for Mother’s Day. These flowers have been around for centuries, cultivated in China for more than 2,000 years and cultivated in American gardens for more than 600 years. They were named in honor of Paeon, the physician of the gods, since ancient societies used the roots for medicine as well as food.

There are more than 30 species of Peonies, including some woody shrubs, and they produce large, fragrant red, white or yellow flowers that bloom in late spring and early summer. Peonies are known as hardy plants that require little care, and when planted will return year after year, often surviving harsh winters.

As an ancient-origin flower, Peonies have been known as a symbol of wealth, luck and happiness, as well as a symbol of elegance and poise, again calling to mind their perfection as a wedding or ladies’ gift flowering plant.

Interesting facts about Peonies:

• Peonies are also known as ‘Flower Fairy’ or ‘King of Flower’ in their native China.
• The Roman legions first brought Peonies to England in about year 1200.
• Peonies are known as the national flower of China.
• In Chinese art, peonies are symbolic as the ‘flower of riches and honor.’
• If grown in the sun, leaves of Peonies turn from green to burgundy in just one week.
• Peonies’ large, fragrant blossoms make excellent cut flowers, and the foliage is often used as attractive filler in floral arrangements and centerpieces.
• The word ‘paean’ means ‘a hymn of praise,’ originally meant to the god Apollo.
• If left undisturbed, peonies can live for hundreds of years.

Sharon Naylor is the author of over 35 books on family celebrations, including weddings, bridal showers, vow renewals, and more. She is beyond thrilled to be the new guest blogger for The Farm, and she will be posting inspirations and tips for your parties, get-togethers and big family moments throughout the year. Visit her website www.sharonnaylor.net for more on her books and articles.

Sweet peas are a favorite of home gardeners, and as a pretty potted plant, because of their lovely and unique fragrance. They were discovered by a Franciscan monk in Sicily, who in 1699 sent seeds to a botanist who grew them first in a hothouse and then outdoors, and eventually Thomas Jefferson added sweet peas to his own garden plantings. So this pretty flower has a unique history.

Sweet Peas are an annual climbing plant, which grow to a height of several feet, needing support to thrive, and they bloom in lavender, pink, purple, red, white, and yellow, among other hues. The bright colors of the sweet peas make them a springtime favorite.

Botanists and garden enthusiasts talk often about the captivating scent of sweet peas, finding a tremendous amount of variations according to the age of the flower, sunlight, rain and temperatures. Older varieties of Sweet Peas are said to be the most fragrant, but it’s always the best measure for you to test the scent of potential Sweet Pea plants for yourself.

Interesting facts about Sweet Peas:

• There are 110 species and countless cultivars.
• In recent years, New Zealand has also been a source of new Sweet Pea varieties, especially in the development of new color patterns, many striped varieties, short day flowering, with a focus on fragrance.
• The yellow sweet pea remains elusive to botanists; a true yellow is unlikely ever to be achieved without genetic engineering.
• English gardeners call Sweet Peas the “Queen of Annuals.”
• Sweet peas have been cultivated since the 17th century.
• The flowers and seeds of the sweet pea (Lathyrus odoratus) are poisonous, and should not be eaten.

Sharon Naylor is the author of over 35 books on family celebrations, including weddings, bridal showers, vow renewals, and more. She is beyond thrilled to be the new guest blogger for The Farm, and she will be posting inspirations and tips for your parties, get-togethers and big family moments throughout the year. Visit her website www.sharonnaylor.net for more on her books and articles.