Super Bowl? Or Souper Pass? Celebrate National Soup Month at Bob Evans With Unlimited Soup Thru February with $15 Endless Soup Pass

Super Bowl? Or Souper Pass? 

Celebrate National Soup Month at Bob Evans With Unlimited Soup Thru February with $15 Endless Soup Pass

Soup just may be THE perfect food. It’s good any time - but especially when it’s cold out and when the ingredients are garden-fresh and local.

How could soup get better? The nice folks at Bob Evans restaurants let me know about their Endless Soup promotion. How delightful!

I learned Bob Evans Restaurants is giving soup fanatics a great value this frigid winter to commemorate National Soup Month.

The restaurants are offering unlimited soup through the month of February with the purchase of a Bob Evans Endless Soup Pass for just $15.

With temperatures hitting record breaking lows across the country, there’s no better time to warm up with endless cups of Bob Evans classic soups, including Chicken-N-Noodles and Hearty Beef Vegetable.

The Endless Soup Pass will be available for purchase online at www.BobEvans.com beginning January 22, but don’t wait too long for this “Souper” hot deal – only a limited number of passes are available.

“From classic homestyle recipes, like Potato Cheddar, to savory seasonal favorites like Tomato Basil, we believe there’s no better comfort food than soup,” said Saeed Mohseni, president and CEO of Bob Evans Farms, Inc. “At Bob Evans, we’re known for providing quality, homestyle meals at a great value, which is why we are excited to offer guests the opportunity to enjoy endless soup during a particularly chilly winter for most of the country.”

Customers can purchase the Endless Soup Pass for only $15 at www.BobEvans.com/souppass from January 22–31 while supplies last to enjoy unlimited soup throughout the entire month of February. The offer is valid for dine-in services only.

I just returned from three weeks working the garden at Hacienda Cusin in Ecuador. Besides the garden glamour (see earlier posts and some to follow!) the dining room serves excellent soups at every lunch and dinner -- and always served from a tureen. Presentation matters…




       



From kale to carrot - to avocado -- most soups are anchored with potato and then the main ingredients are whatever is fresh and ready to be harvested from the garden - just steps away.


About Bob Evans Restaurants

Bob Evans Restaurants is a chain of family style restaurants founded and headquartered in Columbus, Ohio, which owns and operates 500+ family restaurants in 18 states, primarily in the Midwest, mid-Atlantic and Southeast regions of the United States. Bob Evans believed in treating strangers like friends and friends like family; and those principles are alive today at every Bob Evans Restaurant.

History

Bob Evans Farms got its start when our founder, Bob Evans, began making sausage on his southeastern Ohio farm to serve at a 12-stool diner he owned in nearby Gallipolis in 1948.

"We served a lot of breakfasts, but we couldn't get any decent sausage," Bob recalled. "So I decided to start making my own from hogs raised right on our farm, using all the best parts of the hog, including the hams and tenderloins." The restaurant drew many truck drivers who traveled through the region. "You might say the truck drivers did my research for me," Bob said. "They would tell me that this was the best sausage they ever had, and then buy 10-pound tubs to take home."

These good reports prompted Bob Evans to go into the sausage business. The building where he made the sausage was built with open ends, at the suggestion of his father, so it could be used as a machinery shed if the sausage business failed. But, it didn't fail. In 1953, a group of friends and family recognized the growing demand for Bob's sausage and became business partners by establishing Bob Evans Farms.

Farm Heritage Lives On

The farm in Rio Grande, Ohio where Bob Evans and his family once lived has evolved into a tourist destination with camping, hiking, concerts and other events throughout the year. The largest event is our Bob Evans Farm Festival. An annual signature event since 1971, Farm Festival attracts thousands of visitors and is held the second full weekend in October.

For more information and restaurant locations, also visit www.BobEvans.com.

Here’s one of my favorite homegrown soups I made for a recent luncheon - fresh onions from the garden - and lots of cheese!







Enjoy homegrown soup every day.

Editing the Space To Create Good Garden Design

It occurred to me while I’m working the gardens again this year at the extraordinary Hacienda Cusin located in the mountains of the Ecuadorian sierra that there are lessons for all about designing a garden that has more to do with editing out, cleaning up, scale, texture, color -- in other words, all the same elements that go into a great garden design plan, but using existing plants from the garden bed or your extended property.

Moreover, it’s about taking out, pruning the plants for health and looks, and moving plants for pretty much the same reasons.

It doesn’t take a lot of tools to prune and edit; here I brought with me just four: a hand trowel, a small hand-held cultivator, a foldable pruning saw, and of course, my ever-present lightweight, ARS snips that I first read about on Margaret Roach’s “A Way to Garden.com.”

I can’t recommend these razor sharp grape or needle-nosed pruner snips too much. Margaret wrote: “I haven’t used my pricey, famous-name pruning shears in weeks and weeks.” I know why once I got the ARS snips. I carry them everywhere and they certainly deserve OT!
They do almost every task and cut all but the biggest branches or limbs.
I love them and their Corvette-red grips.

Of course there are rakes and shovels that I need to borrow from the resident jardineros.

And there are indeed plenty of top-tier tools that have been engineered to make garden work easier and more efficient. For example, not that long ago I was asked to review the Radius Root Slayer for Garden Products Review.

Gardens

While I have designed gardens here at Cusin with architectural plans - approved by the owner in discussions back in the States - and we have purchased plants at local nurseries - by and large there is more editing of the gardens.

Why? Because the garden rooms or niche gardens are mature and there is no need to start from scratch. If we edit out a lot of salvageable and preferred plant material that we don’t want to compost, we simply create a new garden bed in an unused area.

Things grow super fast here in paradise so there’s essentially no need to worry about making a big mistake when editing or removing or pruning…
It’ll grow back in a New York minute, it seems.

Editing

There is approximately eight or nine+plus niche garden rooms I was tasked to work on in terms of updating or refreshing the garden designs.
After a day or two of garden work, I realized my design training and aesthetic kicked in as if on auto pilot.

See, it’s not “just” horticulture - although that is the number one, overarching concern: the welfare and health of the plants.

The other, seemingly obvious element is the look - do the garden beds look picture perfect? And I defy anyone to stop taking pictures here at Cusin. I must have hundreds (or more!) And I see the guests walking the garden grounds transfixed at the incredible beauty of the plant combinations and birds and bees and hummingbirds!

What to Do - Easy Steps to Successful Editing

First there is the need to do a Site Analysis.

Ask yourself these questions: 

How will the space be used?

Has the utility of the space changed over time?

Who will be using the space

What time of day will the space be seen and/or used?

Are there pets who visit the garden?

Can the dimensions of the garden bed be modified? Should it?

Do an inventory - whether you digitally record the plants in the garden space - or write down the plant names - it is better to keep a garden journal and track the plant’s progression as they grow and age and also note their relation to one another - to other plants that you’ve added or that the birds or other pollinators have. The botanists referred to it as “the poo factor!”

I suggest you add a photo of the plant next to the plant’s name so you can more readily identify the plants later on.

I can also heartily recommend Grow It a mobile-based App that allows you to search for plants, create a project, share your plants and flowers or search for plants - using a crowd-sourced community too. I first met the developers/founders Seth Reed and Mason Day some years ago at a Green Industry / Hortie Hoopla event at The School of Professional Horticulture’s annual happening at The New York Botanical Garden (NYBG).

Tracking the garden plants is especially important in an era of climate chaos.
Things just ain’t what they used to be…
Therefore you - and all us - need to see what the “new normal” will be over an extended timeline given the extremes we’ve experienced the last few years.

If you contract with a garden designer - he or she is probably already doing a Site Analysis and the tracking.

Showcase Your Garden with a Garden Tour

Plus, plant lists are fun to showcase when guests visit.
You can provide a garden tour and/or have the content available on a print-out, photo album, or provide a digital copy to download - so the guests can take a self-guided tour.

I keep a number of copies of my garden’s plant lists, by garden room, along with the photo of the plants which are all labeled.

I wanted to do this for a recent Historical Society event when our gardens were featured as part of the tour and I thought it would help our visitors. Following that, I found it a great aid when family and friends visit and want to tour the gardens.

Think of it like this: you’ve worked so hard to make this living work of art something you want to delight in, as well as your houseguests - so don’t be shy.  I was honored to provide a garden tour for one of my garden design clients at her annual summer family party. They loved getting acquainted with the beautiful gardens and plants...

People get very excited to see and experience a good garden. It’s your story… Share it.

Gardens Naturally Change

Because gardens are dynamic there will a natural, organic rhythm of change…

Add in the effect of plant companions, pets, extreme weather - and let’s face it, neglect, and you have a situation that more often than we care to admit, needs attention.

I see far too many suburban homes that are saddled with “Too Big” shrubs that have outgrown their usefulness. They were probably put there by the builder in the first place with no thought other than it’s green and it's a foundation plant.

Can you see me now?

And I see trees that haven’t been pruned and are now leaning this way or that or are too big in context to the house and yard. Folks just let them keep growing! Don’t do this. Work with an arborist and/or your garden designer.

Editing Plan

Be honest.

Start with the big pruning first -- rid the space of an overgrown, leggy shrub, or tree.
Then stand back. Look at the space. Take a few photos and react to the image.

Next, I determine what can enhance the opened up space.

In the example of the Ecuador beds, I cleaned out from under the areas where I cut back the African or Euryops Bush Daisy, the Euryops pectinatus, that had stolen most of the stage.



Then I cut back and pruned the dead plant material that was a result of the bigger thug taking over. I had to prop up the forlorn jade plants that had bowed under all that shrub. I used a beautiful branch that had fallen from a tree, and that is loaded with jewel or lace-looking lichen. Wow.



Once I removed what I thought was the first stage, and cleaned out the space, I was ready to add.

In one bed, for example, I grafted off some of the succulent plant pups, the agavaceae, and planted them in a group of three in front of the beds and around the side borders of another bed. This is a win/win - for the plant and for the look.

I took some of the all-too-plentiful Rose Campion or Lychnis Coronia, and balanced out the front view in the middle bed so that there is a grouping on each side there.

In another, related bed, I surgically pruned out the fern grove; there were too many of the thug crocosmia growing around and in the grove.

This was tedious but it had to be accomplished for a neater, healthier finished look.

I used the extra ferns that I had cut out here as a backdrop in a different bed in a different area. Another win/win.

It was also a fun, interesting moment when an adorable tree frog suddenly popped up as I was pruning. What a treat!       

        

As a kind of a related aside, many often remark how passionate gardeners are about working with plants -- and it did occur to me while I was preening the plants that perhaps a leading reason for that passion is that we gardeners get very, very intimate with our lovers, the plants.

I mean, I’m right in the plants’ blossoms, stems, roots, and every other plant part - cleaning and fussing and prepping like for a beauty or cosmetic treatment.

It’s no wonder we feel so familiar and loving with our plants…

On the other hand, if you’re not feeling the love yet; if you are paralyzed by the thought of tackling a bigger project element - change it up - meaning work on other areas and come back to it. Or ask a friend or family member to help.

In the Cusin beds, I also knew I wanted to uncover the pretty pots or containers in one of the gardens.
All three looked neglected so a bit of color by way of roses and geraniums added a sweet pop and the pink and fuschia colors complemented the Surprise Lily, Lycoris squamigera and well, the fuschia plant!






The pots are a bit of hardscape to be used like garden art.

If you are fortunate enough to have a yard with garden beds, don’t think everything needs to be in the ground.
Rather think about scale and dimension. In this way, pots or containers can elevate the eye with drama and color.

My favorite containers and garden art to use is Pennoyer Newman - they offer so many sublime designs and shapes and styles to create an enduring look that works in traditional as well as a more minimalist garden design. And Virginia and team are so very nice to work with.

I wanted a bit more height where the ferns were now shaped up, so after I created a curved, shovel cut around the new fern grove, later added an orange aloe here that I took from a later pruning project, to work with this emerging color scheme.





I added a tall orange Bee Balm, Monarda,



which in turn complemented the yellow and orange-colored crocosmia and the gold california poppies that I rearranged and planted on the new shasta daisies fronted by their diminutive cousins near the front of the bed.

Normally you would the tallest or taller plants in the back of the bed and layer down with a mix of evergreens, ornamental grasses, perennials and annuals near the front of the bed for the burst of color

When you have dual access to the bed - meaning paths on both sides - you can anchor the height more or less in the middle or on one side.



View of front - After and of all three refreshed garden beds.

And don’t forget to use edibles as ornamentals. I’ve designed gardens for clients using a color-inspired series of edibles-as-ornamentals beds - made the kitchen garden so much fun! And delicious. The colors practically beckon you to the garden.

Recently, Brie Arthur, the “Plant Lady” who launched her first book, Foodscaping, advises adding edibles to the front of ornamental garden beds. (PS. I had a ball with Brie in Gotham touring the High Line and indulging in champagne following her keynote address at last year’s Hortie Hoopla at NYBG.) 

Before and After of a garden using Editing and Design. Discovered new planters that were hidden! Added some pop of color here, too.




After Editing in another part of the garden opposite some of the original rooms at Cusin, I found a lichen-laced roof tile to prop up a succulent and discovered a third stone planter. Can you see it in the back and identify the plants I popped in?

Just like rearranging your furniture and adding some new items, refreshing your garden beds to meet your ever-changing needs or style is an efficient and practical way to decorate your garden rooms.

How glamorous!

I See Green & A Bit of Decay

There’s no getting around it. 

The past year has been overloaded with the dramatic diversions brought about by climate chaos that resulted in such extreme swings of toooo hot and toooo cold and tooo wet and -- well, tooo much. 

One would be forgiven for thinking this was a Goldilocks scenario straight out of a Grimm’s scary fairy tale.  

Grim indeed…

But while no place on earth is spared their own creeping misfortunes, I am most fortunate to once again be in a “plant paradise” - in Ecuador - at Hacienda Cusin - that for all the world seems to be a pocket of miracles -- where hummingbirds the size of sparrows flit among the Fuchsia and Lily of the Nile.

I think I can safely say that I have learned their marked chirp and can better anticipate their presence.  Doesn't help that they are so fast in terms of getting a video.  

I implore them, "Why do you have to zoom away like a fairy when you know how beautiful you are and we just want a moment. Or two. Or a photo...?)  

They don't stick around to explain.  

But I'm happy for the fleeting moments I can get.

Llamas are lawn mowers,  

And the Andean snow-capped mountains are terraced up with agricultural farms that look like a green-hued quilt. 

  

The Sierra, where I am - at Cusin - is noted for its dairy products - and roses. And volcanos.

The plants here are as excited to see me as I am to reacquaint with them. Check out this plant action from the welcoming committee - a big green wave! 

Did you ever see a cuter ladybug? It looks like a mini VW bug taxi – all yellow and black and so cute you just want to "hug the bug. "   

The blossoms here come in a riot of fiery, fierce bold colors – and soft, sweet hues.  

Can you name them?

  

Each bloom and its plant could be a postcard....  I cannot stop taking photos of them! 

   

        

Look at those freckles! 

Hacienda Cusin - and its gardens especially - is a magical place that fills me with wonder and awe.  

In terms of good garden design, I believe that every garden needs a bit of aesthetic decay -- that sense of mystery that if walls could talk... or the unshakeable sense that there is a story hidden in the garden - be it romance or a darker, brooding tale.  

The hardscapes and the plants conspire to whisper such a narration... 

In essence, that's why gardens captivate our imaginations and our hearts... Because every great garden tells a story. 

At Cusin, there is a sublime, intoxicating sense of artful decay: a blend of the heart-pounding, vibrant beauty and the true arc of decay; haunting, symbolic culture as nature and time transport us to the other-worldly...

There is no doubt that here I experience an intimate connection with the enduring drama of nature, the peace, the harmony, the food, and the people... 

Enjoy the Green. Especially those of you in winter's embrace.  Remember, gardens are glamorous in all seasons. In every climate. 

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Why You Should Compost Your Christmas Tree

According to research conducted by London Cleaning System, a staggering six million Christmas trees end up in UK rubbish clearance each year.
Add that to the more than 50 million Christmas trees in Europe and 35 million in the US alone and that’s a lot of compostables.
Here in New York, there is an annual Mulchfest where you can drop off your trees or leave curbside and the NYC Department of Sanitation will collect and recycle for residents.
We readily promoted this during my time as Director at Brooklyn Botanic Garden. It’s a great program.

In the UK, unless the neighborhood councils have an alternative plan in place, such as mulching them, most of these Christmas trees get taken to one of the landfills.

As the UK-based firm Clearabee pointed out to me with their content here, the trees then get buried under other layers of rubbish, causing them to decay slowly in anaerobic conditions. As it rains, water soaks through the rubbish clearance layers, creating sludge called "leachate." When this happens, methane gas is produced which has several negative effects on the environment.

Most people don't know this but methane gas is a much stronger greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide. In fact, it is 30 times more powerful at trapping in heat and raising the global temperature!
Methane gas gets less news coverage than carbon dioxide only because there's less methane gas than carbon dioxide gas overall.
However, when it comes to rotting plant material, be it yard waste, discarded brussel sprouts from the Christmas table, or Christmas trees, methane gas becomes a major factor.

Therefore, it is always better to compost your Christmas tree.

The background details are grim. According to Clearabee, methane gas is also highly explosive, even when it is underground. As water seeps into a landfill, pockets of methane gas move around as a "bubble" inside the fluid water. If there are buildings or other structures nearby, such as a playground equipment, this methane gas could actually cause an explosion strong enough to take these structures out. While many people discard their Christmas tree in their rubbish clearance, they rarely actually know about the unintended harmful consequences of doing so. It's important that more people realize the environmental consequences, and even dangers, of simply tipping their Christmas tree. It's far more safe to compost it!

There's actually another major hazard that Christmas trees can cause in landfills. Just like the branches you trim from your rose bushes, as Christmas trees rot in the landfills, and they mix with the water that soaks into these places, the resulting "leachate" that is created is highly acidic.

Thus, the Christmas trees significantly raise the acidity of the landfill. This has the negative effect of causing some of the worst toxins in the landfill, such as polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and heavy metals lead and cadmium, to become more mobile.

As this happens, these dangerous toxins can leave the landfill, become mixed into the groundwater, and then spread to creeks, rivers, and even human drinking supplies.

Therefore, saving your Christmas tree from an all too common rubbish clearance fate is a noble act of kindness to the environment, to wildlife, and to all your fellow humans.

To compost your Christmas tree, simply cut it up and mix it with brown matter such as dead leaves and newspaper.

You'll also need to add in soil to introduce the microbes that help break down the tree and other organic material into humus plus some water.

As with all compost, stir it good at least once a week to give the microbes oxygen.

I love these suggestions - and pass them on with great enthusiasm!

“If you want to wait before composting your Christmas tree, you can simply set it in your garden to serve as winter habitat for birds. They will hide within the branches to stay away from predators.

You can also put stringed popcorn on the tree to give them something to eat. Some people actually take the needles off and then use the ‘skeleton’ of the tree to raise peas or beans on as the tendrils of these plants love to climb on the many branches.

Other uses for Christmas trees instead of sending them to the landfill include “using Christmas trees as mulch and spreading this natural mulch on pathways in parks and playgrounds.

You can also use the mulch to protect your plant roots from freezing in the winter and drying out in the summer.”

In the UK, Clearabee will also pick up the trees. Clearabee has a good track record of keeping things out of the landfill and they can find a good place for your Christmas tree where it will be recycled rather than “rotting” in the landfill.

The US market could use an ethical and reliable resource that is Clearabee - especially for those towns and municipalities that don’t provide government sponsored mulching…

Remember, being responsible about what you do with your Christmas tree after the holiday season is a good way to start the year. If you have kids, be sure to explain to them why you are being so careful about what happens to the Christmas tree.

Happy New Year!