Eye On Life Magazine

Make every day a beautiful day.

Eye on Life Magazine is a Lifestyle and Literary Magazine.  Enjoy articles on gardening, kitchen cooking, poetry, vintage decor, and more.

From the Garden Into The Kitchen - Pickled Peppers

While interviewing Pepper Joe, I got to thinking about Peter Pipers Pickled Peppers. Now, as far as we know, Peter Piper, is the only person of fact of fiction, who every managed to pick his peppers ready pickled. The rest of us poor mortals must pick first and pickle later.

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Save Your Garden (and house) By Growing A Mortgage Lifter

I like to think about this man behind the seeds and the story, inseparable in my mind, as the foundation of what we’ve always had in this country — and perhaps forgot — men and woman who dared to create for themselves a way out of disaster when the world headlines were telling them there was no way out.

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Franklinias -- In Honor Of Old Ben Franklin

There is a lot of merit in considering making your garden a sanctuary for growing trees and plants that are not only native to America, but also so rare that if successful, you’d be hopefully ensuring the survival of a species.  As American as The Revolution, and in point of discovery almost as old, the Franklinia Tree (Franklinia Altamaha) is not only completely indigenous to this, our native land but actually a part of its history.

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BALANCE BY MOTHER NATURE

Our friend’s evident horror at this slight theft is evidence of what, for want of a better term, may be called the “garden jitters” — worrying about too many things which, if given a chance, may right themselves.  Seems to me, it’s one of the many things that are wrong today — people stressing over details that will take care of themselves. Perhaps we are taking far too seriously the normal ups and downs, or at least the downs, not only in life — but also in gardening operations. Nature is a great balancer — if you but give her a little more time!

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Inquisitive Gardener Answer - Do You Know Your Berries?

Botanically, a berry is defined as a pulpy fruit which developed from a single pistil, with few or many seeds, and which is indehiscent (does not split open). Of the fruits listed on Inquisitive Gardener Question - Do You Know Your Berries? — those having this characteristic are:

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FOR INQUISITIVE GARDENERS QUESTION -- DO YOU KNOW YOUR BERRIES?

Things are seldom what they seem,
Skim milk masquerades as cream;
Highlows pass as patent leathers;
Jackdaws strut in peacock’s feathers.


—— W. S. Gilbert, in H. M. S. Pinafore

Some of the fruits popularly known as berries are, to the botanist, something entirely different. Below are listed twenty well-known fruits. Ten of them are true berries, ten are not.


The trick is to tell which is which. Give yourself ten points for every real berry you can pick. When you are through, go to Inquisitive Gardeners Answer - Do You Know Your Berries?  Some of the answers that a real botanist gives may surprise you.


Avocado
Banana
Blackberry
Blueberry
Cherry
Chokeberry
Coconut
Cranberry
Currant
Date
Fig
Gooseberry
Grape
Guava
Loganberry
Mulberry
Orange
Raspberry
Strawberry
Tomato

Out In The Garden With Bob Ewing

This week we are out in the garden with Bob Ewing.  Bob’s not just any ordinary gardener, but a gardener who prolifically writes about his gardening, someone who is active in his garden community and the schools in promoting this passion, and no doubt a wonderful cook.    Avid gardeners like Bob, are a wonderful example to all of us in how gardeners can inspire other gardeners their whole life long.  Let’s take a peak into Bob Ewing’s garden world:

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All In The Plant Family - The Geraniums

I never see a geranium that I don’t think about candy, chocolate, or floral liquor. Great Tante Julienne was a feisty lover of the weird and unusual, and delicacies made from geraniums were her specialties. When you came to visit her, you could expect to find geranium laced candy, chocolate, or floral liquor — all there for the taste bud’s guaranteed shock value.

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GARDEN TRENDS AND PICKS - Organic Gardens

Now, there are so many organic and natural solutions to choose from that it is becoming the norm for gardeners to understand that it very irresponsible to use chemicals in your garden or yard. In the past, most of us poisoned our environment, putting ourselves, our kids, our pets, our neighbors and our community at risk — thankfully for many now, that is no longer acceptable.

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BRILLIANT BEAUTY IF ONLY FOR A DAY

Suppose you were only beautiful for one fleeting day, would it be worth it? What if your beauty was spectacular, but hardly anyone knew your name? That’s the position, of the Tigridias, for few gardeners seem to know their name, and fewer still, among flower lovers, have ever seen it, much less grown it. Yet, it has marvelously brilliant blooms.

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Out In The Garden -- With Dolores Monet

Without the gardeners out in the gardens, mother nature’s but a wild jungle and sometimes a very tangled one.  There are those gardeners among us, who really know their craft, and also manage to share what they know with others.  They, who also write about gardening, have a lot to say.  They also have a lot to offer when it comes to helping other gardeners.  Today, I’d like to introduce you to Dolores Monet.

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OLD ROSES - MOSS ROSES

In the broad field of rose culture, past and present, a big question mark stands out. Why is it that the Moss Rose was so universally popular, present in every garden, over a hundred years ago, yet so seldom seen in gardens today? Many a present day rose grower has never seen one. Many more little of the usefulness and the charm of this type of rose.

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All In The Plant Family - The Marsh Mallow Family

In the broad field of rose culture, past and present, a big question mark stands out. Why is it that the Moss Rose was so universally popular, present in every garden, over a hundred years ago, yet so seldom seen in gardens today? Many a present day rose grower has never seen one. Many more little of the usefulness and the charm of this type of rose.

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