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Shawna Coronado

Food

Greek Olive Oil Tastes Delicious

Olive oil – I love it and use it for cooking, salad dressings, and over vegetables to add a little extra flavor. Several years ago I would have told you that it is all much the same. Yet since that time I have traveled to Europe and tried many different types of olive oils from many different regions – Portugal,…
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Garden

Drinking Water Safe Garden Hoses for Organic Gardens

If you are gardening with a hose that is filled with lead and BPA – a standard American garden hose by the way – then how can you grow organic vegetables in your garden? Your veg is being sprayed with the chemicals that come out of a drinking hose. If you need to water your garden, drinking water safe hose…
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Wellness

Secret Pro Tips for Cut Flowers – Part II

Last week we looked at the first part of my series Secret Pro Tips for Cut Flowers where Molly Reed, head florist and all around flower super star (above), gives us a tour of the floral department in the basement of the Biltmore mansion with tips for floral arranging. Above you see Molly collecting beautiful foliage from the gardens on…
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Drinking Water Safe hose

Drinking Water Safe Garden Hoses for Organic Gardens

Garden

If you are gardening with a hose that is filled with lead and BPA – a standard American garden hose by the way – then how can you grow organic vegetables in your garden? Your veg is being sprayed with the chemicals that come out of a drinking hose. If you need to water your garden, drinking water safe hose…
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Native - Big Bluestem

How to Grow Big Bluestem Grass

Garden

Big bluestem or Turkey Foot Grass is a perennial bunchgrass with greenish blue stems that can grow between 4 to 8 feet tall. It has interesting seedheads that branch into three parts that resemble a turkey’s foot, hence its nickname. Big bluestem is known as the “king of the prairie” and is one of the top four native grass species…
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Easy Elegance Roses Mid Summer Plant Review

Easy Elegance Roses Shrub Tips

Garden

Midsummer is a great time to give you an update on my Easy Elegance® Roses adventure. While traditional roses need extensive care such as spraying for rust or black spot, pest management, and adding extra fertilizer, I was surprised to learn that Easy Elegance® Roses are pretty easy to care for and the only consistent care I’ve tended to is…
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Hosta Plants copyright Shawna Coronado

How to Make Hosta Leaves Bigger

Garden

Hosta plants are the low work, super easy, perennial plants of the north. Park Seed has a great line of hostas to choose from. In the below photo you see two of my absolute favorite hostas; Hosta ‘Guacamole’ on the left and Hosta ‘idontknowwhaththeheckthisis’ — yep, I’m a classic gardener just like you and I sometimes lose or forget what…
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Organic Japanese Beetle Control

Organic Control Of The Japanese Beetles

Garden

Want a Japanese beetle? I have about 2 million of the shiny, metallic green creatures. They have copper-colored wing covers and look quite beautiful for a beetle. I can assure you, they are not nice creatures to have in your garden. In 1908 some yahoo accidentally introduced Japanese beetles to the United States. In Japan they are not a problem,…
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Native plant prairie

Native Plants are a Smart Garden Choice

Garden

Whether mixed in heavily or lightly in your landscape, native plants and wildflowers are an amazing addition to any garden, both for their beauty and their value to the environment. Native plants attract favorable insects, butterflies, songbirds, hummingbirds, and wildlife that live in your specific region of the state. They eliminate the need for pesticides or herbicides, require very little…
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Greek Olive Oil and air plant

Greek Olive Oil Tastes Delicious

Food

Olive oil – I love it and use it for cooking, salad dressings, and over vegetables to add a little extra flavor. Several years ago I would have told you that it is all much the same. Yet since that time I have traveled to Europe and tried many different types of olive oils from many different regions – Portugal,…
Read More

Flowering Tobacco Nicotiana Growing Tips

Flowering Tobacco – Nicotiana Growing Tips

Garden

A scented flowering tobacco bloom can be a little bit of heaven; many varieties have a scent that is downright alluring and are more likely to have a stronger scent toward late evening and at night. Heirlooms often have a stronger scent, some cultivars are scentless, and a few newer hybrids have light scents. Each flower is a colorful, trumpet-shaped…
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Grilled Romaine Lettuce Salad from Biltmore Estate

Grilled Romaine Lettuce Salad with Fennel

Food

Grilled Romaine Lettuce Salad   Print Prep time 10 mins Cook time 5 mins Total time 15 mins   Delicious recipe for grilled romaine lettuce salad – below are the ingredients – improvise and make the quantities and flavors your own. Author: Shawna Coronado at www.shawnacoronado.com Recipe type: Salad Cuisine: Salad Ingredients Romaine lettuce heads washed and sliced in half…
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Easy Elegance Roses

Contest and Easy Elegance® Roses in My Garden

Garden

My garden has become this sprawling affair filled with passion and color and all things green. The love of my life, a.k.a. The Husband, has come to reference our suburban acreage as “the farm” due to the sheer volume of plants housed within the fence line. With this in mind, my goal with the garden is to keep the shrubs…
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Dragon wing begonia growing tips

Dragon Wing Begonia Growing Tips

Garden

There are many varieties of begonia, from perennial to tuberous, but my absolute favorite heat-tolerant variety of Begonia × hybrida is ‘Dragon Wing’. This beautiful hybrid from the Begoniaceae family is an introduction that blooms nonstop from May until October. Because it is a sterile hybrid, it does not self-seed and puts all its energy into flowering. Dragon Wing has…
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Seed Starting Clear Cover for Seeds

Seed Starting Tips

Garden

Seed starting for your garden in mid-April is happening at the Coronado house – here is how to get started. My friends, it is never too late to plant a seed, so if you are thinking, “It’s too late to start seeds.” Last fall I featured a trick for bringing in all those tropical plants using plant stands and a…
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Alyssum flower lobularia maritima

Sweet Alyssum Growing Tips

Garden

Seemingly dainty Alyssum, or Lobularia maritima, is actually a tough little annual plant known for its explosive flower power. Reseeding is common with alyssum, so plants that flower early could easily spread by the end of the season. Flowers perform best in coolweather conditions and have a wonderfully sweet scent that attracts beneficial pollinators. Because alyssum has a mounding nature,…
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Flower Arrangement Biltmore

Secret Pro Tips for Cut Flowers – Part II

Garden· Wellness

Last week we looked at the first part of my series Secret Pro Tips for Cut Flowers where Molly Reed, head florist and all around flower super star (above), gives us a tour of the floral department in the basement of the Biltmore mansion with tips for floral arranging. Above you see Molly collecting beautiful foliage from the gardens on…
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Flowers Molly Reed Biltmore Estate

Secret Pro Tips for Cut Flowers – Part I

Garden· Wellness

Deep in the heart of Biltmore Estate in a quiet room filled with the scent of flowers you will discover Molly Reed, head florist (above), arm deep in a floral masterpiece – one of hundreds she creates every month for the property. She is passionate about design and the “wellness effect” that the flowers have on visitors to the estate….
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