Janet Bailey

Jesse Glessner wrote:HI: I just bought a NEW paperback book, read about 15 pages and a page pulled lose from the binding.
SO, HOW do I fix all of my NEW books to keep this from happening again?
YES, I treat my paperbacks roughly by curling the pages around to read holding in one hand. But, the bindings seem to grow less sturdy year after year. When I pay for a book, no matter the cost, I expect the book to last for quite some time but as the example given above this new book didn't even last a day's worth of reading.

HELP! Is there a way to reinforce the binding somehow before I start with a new book? I'm not worried about the covers as I just use clear tape on those when they get tattered. I'm worried about what is underneath those covers.

When buying new, or used, books, it's essential to fully prepare them for reading. The book spines should be evenly opened so that the stress of bending them is distributed across all the pages. Start by gently opening in the middle and at one quarter and three quarters of the pages. Continue by opening a bit further at roughly 1/10, 2/10, 3/10, etc. Go on to opening in progressively smaller grouos of pages and pushing the pages open all the way to the spine.
At each stage, be aware of how evenly the spine is opening up. The goal is for the book to be easy to open so that you don't have to force the book open to read it. Easier on you - easier on the book.
I usually finish by opening every page and firmly running my finger along the spine so that the book evenly fans open. Books usually split in places that are stressed by opening more frequently, so if you start by distributing the stress, you greatly reduce the chance of splitting the spine.
Also, always use bookmarks. Never rest an open book on its pages. Gravity causes serious stress along the spine when a book is left face-down on its pages.

@ Carla Burke

this one from the mailbox

What are you reading now?

If you're trying to grow a garden in Florida (and gardening really is different here!), this book might be helpful:

A Cutting Garden for Floridaby Betty Barr Mackey and Monica Moran Brandeis
https://www.amazon.com/Cutting-Garden-Florida-Third/dp/0961633891/ref=asc_df_0961633891/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=312170531694&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=4883409542622288340&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9011598&hvtargid=pla-571405798258&psc=1&tag=&ref=&adgrpid=62860524940&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvadid=312170531694&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=4883409542622288340&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9011598&hvtargid=pla-571405798258

The title sounds like this is a book only about flower-gardening, but it really provides best practice Florida gardening information applicable to vegetables, herbs, shrubs, and trees. Tender annuals, hardy annuals and biennials, and perennials are covered in depth - with examples for north, central, and south Florida.

I use it as a constant reference. It's helped me to organize my seeds around the Florida growing seasons and has helped me to better understand the delicate treatment Florida soils need.

Lana Berticevich wrote, "How do they multiply? Ideally I think I need quite a few more than 10 tea bushes."

Camellias can be propagated from semi-hardwood cuttings in autumn -  September, October, and November in USDA zone 8.  The first picture shows some Camellia sasanqua cuttings from 2020 that were repotted into gallon pots this month.

Here's how I hope to go from 10 Camellia sinensus (Tea Camellias) to 40 this year...

I'm taking cuttings from the Camellia sinensis (tea camellias) I grew from seed in 2019. These were set out as young plants in 2020.

The cuttings are about 8" (20 cm) long and with all but one or two leaves leaves removed. The outside halves of the leaves are cut off to reduce the leaf surface area and the cuttings are soaked in cool water.

I stuck the cuttings to just below the leaves in perlite in a plastic nursery pot and put them in a shady area where they will be sheltered from wind.

I usually do not have to use rooting hormone, but using it might increase your success rate. I find that scraping some of the cambium around the cuttings' nodes works as well as rooting hormone to improve rooting success.

Our north Florida climate is humid year-round, so I do not have to raise the cuttings' humidity as long as I keep the plastic pots under a tree and among fallen leaves. Open air circulation keeps the cuttings healthy over the winter months and I do water the cuttings often. British Columbia's humid climate should work with the open-air method. In a dryer climate, humidity could be increased by keeping the cuttings in an unheated greenhouse or high tunnel, under shade, as long as the air circulation was good and the cuttings were watered frequently - once or twice daily - or kept moist with an intermittent misting system.

Growing tea Camellias (Camellia sinensis) from seed is very economical and easy to accomplish. And once you have your own plants, you can take cuttings each year when it's time to prune your tea bushes.

There are several sources for seeds. My plants were grown from seeds ordered from Camellia Forest Nursery in Chapel Hill, North Carolina (USDA zone 7b).

Here's a link to their seed page:
https://camforest.com/collections/camellia-seeds

and here's a link to their tutorial on growing camellia seeds:
https://camforest.com/pages/growing-camellia-seeds

This page provides information on choosing the best quality and variety of seeds, what time of year to buy seed, how to store seed, and when to plant:
https://leafhousetea.com/how-to-grow-tea-camellia-plants-from-tea-seed-a-step-by-step-guide/

You can find additional seed sources through a quick Google search:

(https://www.google.com/search?q=camellia+sinensis+seeds&rlz=1C1AVNE_enUS611US643&oq=Camellia+sinensis+seeds&aqs=chrome.0.0i20i263i512j0i457i512j0i512l5j69i61.6370j0j9&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-

including this one:
https://www.caribbeangardenseed.com/products/green-tea-plant-seeds-camellia-sinensis-aka-tea-plant-perennial-shrub

There's a commercial tea grower in Athens, Georgia (USDA zone 8A).
http://www.piedmonttea.com/

and another in Brookhaven, Mississippi (USDA zone 8B):
http://www.greatmsteacompany.com/

They are part of the U.S. League of Tea Growers, working to establish tea as a new, ethically-produced, first-world crop in the southern U.S.:
https://usteagrowers.com/

Piedmont Tea Company has shared YouTube video tutorials on germinating tea seeds. Part One is here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qgsG6jtp5ZU

The University of Hawaii's Cooperative Extension Service (Manoa, Hawaii, USDA zone 11a) has provided an instructional pdf, "Germinating Tea Seeds," that also includes information about properly caring for young tea seedlings. The link is here:
https://www.ctahr.hawaii.edu/oc/freepubs/pdf/scm-17.pdf

There are so many kinds of Camellias you can grow from seeds and/or cuttings:
* C. sasanqua (a fall-blooming evergreen ornamental)
* C. japonica (a spring-blooming evergreen ornamental)  
* C. sinensis (the source of green, black, and ooling tea)
* and even C. oleifera, grown for its oil!

As Rob Meyer pointed out, growing our own is always the cheapest solution. And
as Jeanine Gurley Jacildone noted, USDA zones 7B and south are great for growing Camellia sinensis tea!

Carla Burke wrote,

I can't recall what the strawberry was filled with (do you know?), but I do remember liking the result of stabbing dirty, dull, lightly rusty points into it. I'd love a pin cushion with those qualities! Do you know where to find that filling?

The filling is called emery sand. You can find it online by searching for "emery sand for pincushions."

I agree with Carla about how well it works to restore and care for needles!

Thanks to Stacey for the Instant Pot pulled pork recipe!

Here's our daughter's recipe for homemade barbecue sauce. This sauce is perfect for those who like a sauce that balances sweetness with lots of flavor.
It's a convenient, economical, and flavorful alternative to ready-made sauces - with lots of room for your own individual touch!

BBQ Sauce - makes ~two cups

1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup water
1/2 stick butter
1/2 cup ketchup
1 tbsp paprika
1 tbsp chili powder
1 tbsp worcestershire sauce
1 tbsp cider vinegar
red pepper to taste

Melt the butter and cool it to room temperature.
Mix the paprika, chili powder, and brown sugar.
Add the water, ketchup, worcestershire sauce, and cider vinegar, mixing well.
Sprinkle in red pepper to taste, mixing well.
Use immediately or store, covered, in the refrigerator.

Will, from "From My Kitchen to Yours," revealed some fiercely contested regional preferences for barbecue sauce in the Carolinas. He includes a map showing regions famous for ketchup- and mustard-based sauces (South Carolina), sauces with tomato sauce added (western North Carolina), and sauces with vinegar and crushed red pepper (eastern North Carolina):

Eastern Carolina BBQ Sauce - from my kitchen to your kitchen

My favorite, eastern North Carolina barbecue sauce is, imho, the perfect counterpoint for rich pulled pork. Not sweet - just spicy enough - and no ketchup . You can't buy it unless you're in Raleigh or therabouts - you gotta make your own!

It seems folks either love it - or hate it. I love it - my husband hates it, preferring a sweet ketchup-y sauce.

Will's recipe starts with pork from the grill, but another take on the Eastern North Carolina pulled pork theme has the sauce cooked with the pork - right in the crockpot:

Crock Pot NC Pulled Pork Recipe

mmmmmm.... just the best - and really different from typically sweet barbecued pork. Because my husband likes a sweet sauce, I follow Will's advice for making and storing my sauce and use the all-day crockpot method for cooking my pork. Then I just add my favorite sauce to my own serving.

#uses for Sumac (cf. this thread: https://permies.com/t/8963/berry/sumac)
The intense red color of Smooth Sumac in the fall was enough to make me save a few patches for accents in my shrub borders. Providing food for wildlife was also a motivation. Perhaps most importantly, the sumacs have many uses on the homestead, in addition to providing biomass:
1)  Smooth Sumac (Rhus glabra) and Staghorn Sumac (Rhus typhina) berries can be used to make "lemonade" in the fall.
    https://www.pbs.org/food/recipes/sumac-lemonade/
2)  Flexible Sumac stems (especially from coppiced Sumac) can be used for weaving (Rhus trilobata is suggested in these links but I hope to use the Rhus glabra that grows abundantly in my area).
    https://deborahsmall.wordpress.com/2010/01/16/basket-sumac-rhus-trilobata/
    http://navajopeople.org/blog/navajo-dine-basketry-weaving-video/
3)  Sumac leaves, stems, and berries can be used for natural dyes. Because they are rich in tannins, they can even be used without mordants.
    http://vikland.tripod.com/sumac.html
    https://katiegrovestudios.com/2012/10/21/plant-dyes-of-autumn-workshop-on-a-beautiful-autumn-day/    
    https://wendyfe.wordpress.com/tag/dyeing-with-sumac/
4)  Because Sumac has a soft core, it can be used for pipe stems.
    http://dragonflydezignz.50megs.com/littlefeathercenter/stem.html#:~:text=Sumac%20is%20used%20for%20fancy,fitting%20to%20the%20pipe%20bowl.
5)  Not really related to coppicing, but another use for Sumac to provide a side income on the homestead... bonsai!
    https://rockymtnbonsai.com/index.php/bonsai-tree-information/deciduous/rhus-sumac/

I love how Dawn West's recycled denim pillow incorporates the original seams as decorative features. Very attractive!