What's Blooming July 6th 2012

Blue hydrangea, black and blue salvia is budding out, blue veronica, black eyed susans tons of buds, small daisy on the way out, sweet William, dusty miller w yellow flowers, babies breath, few fox gloves still hanging on, astilbe both tall and short, round 2 of columbine, bleeding heart is finally done, perennial hibiscus buds, lilly buds, globe thistle globes one starting to blue, white swam, red double holly hock (I love it), random lavender bee balm, honey suckle, daisy, ebb tide-flower + buds red bee balm stating, double delight buds, white bee balm, beans starting to pop up, joe pye buds, white double holly hock, globe flowers, sedum buds, 1 cleome starting, volunteer tomato flowers, white landscape rose forming hips, pee gee buds, wisteria purple buds (completely random), star gazers , blue hydrangea, white hydrangea, blue peas starting to die back not maturing, white catnip, yellow snow peas starting to die back, morning glories low, white butterfly, hallertau hop finally growing,  orange butterfly buds/ starting to flower, hops are forming + flowers, cilantro finally starting to grow, alpine strawberries are covered with flowers, mustard still has flowers, baby eggplants are forming, and I finally have kumquat flowers again. 

I so need to get a picture of my new holly hock (new last year).  I love the color.

Update: So knowing that this has sat for a while it's time to let everyone know that the new and improved can be found over at www.gardeningfoodies.com I've learned a lot over the years and I'm super excited to share that with everyone.  So come check us out and see what we now have in store for you.  A lot of food, a little bit of bon COOK business and a sprinkling of gardening to bring everything together.  Or just check out our growing community over at www.gardeningfoodies.com/fbgroup Can't wait to see you there and catch up

Strawberry Short Cake Bites

These have got to be one of my favorite desserts right now.  They are so easy to make.

Mini tartlet mold from Demarle at Home (or bigger)



I like the 1 7/8 cutter

one pre made pie crust makes one tray easily (two batches pictured)

Whipped cream (I love my home made stabilized whipped cream)

      I whipped about 2 cups up and still had some leftover

diced up strawberries with a little sugar (splenda or truvia)

      I used about a cup here for two batches

Bake up trays ahead of time (remember to prick the dough to keep from puffing up)

pipe whipped cream onto cooled tartlets, and spoon diced strawberries on top.

I even found that the tartlet shells can be kept in an air tight container.  They weren't that bad even after a few days.  I made 120 of these for our pool party last year and there was not a single one left.  I think I got about two.  Mind you there was only about 50 people there. 

The possibilities are endless with this.  I think next I want to try it with dark chocolate on the shells before the whipped cream gets pipped in.  YUM!

Update: So knowing that this has sat for a while it's time to let everyone know that the new and improved can be found over at www.gardeningfoodies.com I've learned a lot over the years and I'm super excited to share that with everyone.  So come check us out and see what we now have in store for you.  A lot of food, a little bit of bon COOK business and a sprinkling of gardening to bring everything together.  Or just check out our growing community over at www.gardeningfoodies.com/fbgroup Can't wait to see you there and catch up

What's blooming June 29th

As I walk out my front door and around my yard this is what I get to see this week:

Blue Hydrangea, short daisy, black eyed susans (just starting), blue veronica, fox glove (done), yellow rose (done), sweet William, dusty miller (yellow flowers too), babies breath starting, wild daisy (done), Burgundy rose (done), astible starting (I think it got eaten), bleeding heart (still hanging on), Hibiscus about 3’, day lilly buds, Random plant with pink flowers, white swan, holly hock buds, filler asters, honey suckle, snow on the mt, daisy buds, fall aster up, red rose, white bee balm buds, tall daisy buds, white landscape rose, holy hock 5 stems going, pee gee buds, white hydrangea, blue hydrangea starting, star gazer, potato flowers, blue podded peas, tall catnip buds, yellow snow peas, morning glories (low), wild daisy, white butterfly bush buds, black knight butterfly bush, gladiolus up, orange butterfly bush buds, hops have gone total jungle

Its amazing how fast things change, but I still need to get some color in a few spots.  Too much green.  I've got my front side walk that explodes with color first thing in spring but then it dies down a bit.  And at the extreme oposite of the scale very little goes on in my front until about now.  So spring is the huge hole plus the time it takes everything to get going.  That’s the problem with trying to go for a full four seasons of color.  I’ll get there eventually. 

Update: So knowing that this has sat for a while it's time to let everyone know that the new and improved can be found over at www.gardeningfoodies.com I've learned a lot over the years and I'm super excited to share that with everyone.  So come check us out and see what we now have in store for you.  A lot of food, a little bit of bon COOK business and a sprinkling of gardening to bring everything together.  Or just check out our growing community over at www.gardeningfoodies.com/fbgroup Can't wait to see you there and catch up.  

Honey Suckle and snow on the mountain

Holly Hock yr 2 I hope this one sticks around

Freshly transplanted apline strawberries from this year.  I think they like their new home.

Blue podded peas.  I can't wait to have enough for dinner.

Soy Beans.  First time this year.  The flowers are so tiny you barely see them and then next thing you know beans magically appear. 

This week's bouquet

Bouquets are finally back.  I took way too long of a hiatus, but it’s never too late to bring some sunshine inside.  Especially when the skies are opening up and lightning is flashing.  

This week’s bouquets:

White hydrangea, wild daisy’s, ebb tide that ended up red (supposed to be purple), lamb’s ear

New Canning Goals

So I finally took the dive this weekend.  I purchased a brand new heavy duty canning pot with rack, a jar lifter, wide mouth funnel, some extra lids, and one case of each size to start with.  I even picked up some of the twist on caps to use afterwards.  We have some jam we picked up and I think these will be easier then the rings etc. Now the trick will be to finally decide what to do, when to do it, and where to get the produce.  Unfortunately I don’t think there will be volumes coming out of my garden quite yet.  So this year a friend and I are going to hit up the markets to start with and then see how things go.  It will be interesting to see what we ultimately come up with.  The downer . . . . I’m pretty sure that once we start down this road there’ll be no turning back. 

Update: So knowing that this has sat for a while it's time to let everyone know that the new and improved can be found over at www.gardeningfoodies.com I've learned a lot over the years and I'm super excited to share that with everyone.  So come check us out and see what we now have in store for you.  A lot of food, a little bit of bon COOK business and a sprinkling of gardening to bring everything together.  Or just check out our growing community over at www.gardeningfoodies.com/fbgroup Can't wait to see you there and catch up

Finally a Free Weekend

Well finally got a free weekend.  Note to self NEVER EVER travel during May.  We were doing okay and managing to stay on top of things, but the reality is that I just lost way too much time that week leading up to our travel and forget about the time that we were actually travelling.  At least it’s still june though and I have at least managed to keep the veggie garden completely weeded (l’m leaving the section that we just seeded for a little while) and I’ve managed to get the veggies into the front side walk. 

Final tally so far in the veggie garden: minus some hardware lettuce ( salad bowl, black seeded Simpson, mix, spicy mix, butter crunch, spinach, arugula, romaine, white cucumber, cucumber, pickling cukes, Catalina beans, sun sugar cherry tomato, sugar beet, carrots, leeks, ca wonder, mix tomatoes, mustard, amaranth, orange sweet pepper, havarti green beans, rice, parsley, dill, parsnips, chocolate sweet pepper, amish past, basil, lemon basil, soy beans, red mini sweet peppers, san marzano tomatoes, alpine strawberries, celery, squash, cilantro, yellow mini sweet peppers, stevia, green onion, black beans and kidney beans

Still missing: flax, buck wheat, cumin, garlic, red onion, brussel sprouts, summer savory, winter savory, lovage and chervil,  I’ll be putting these in seed starting trays, I think they’re getting lost in the weeds.  olate sweet pepper, egg plant black beauty and white, corn, Lima beans, red watermelon, shallots, sweet onion, spaghetti squash, strawberry popcorn, black futzu pumpkin, small red beans, mini chocolate sweet peppers, Amish paste, basil, lemon basil, soy beans, red mini sweet peppers, San marzano tomatoes, alpine strawberries, celery, squash, cilantro, yellow mini sweet peppers, stevia, green onions, black beans and kidney beans. Now to sit back and see what grows. On to the front I go.

The front sidewalk will be a totally different story though with those damn violas.  I gave up on them and I think that will have to be a complete day at this point.  It doesn’t help that the mulch is almost completely gone, but it has been 4 years since we put anything on it and even then it wasn’t that thick (we did it in the dark).  I’m hoping to get the rest of the plants put in this week.  The rest of the front sections don’t look completely lost so crossing my fingers that they will go quickly.  So far the weather is not looking promising, but I can cross my fingers. 

Update: So knowing that this has sat for a while it's time to let everyone know that the new and improved can be found over at www.gardeningfoodies.com I've learned a lot over the years and I'm super excited to share that with everyone.  So come check us out and see what we now have in store for you.  A lot of food, a little bit of bon COOK business and a sprinkling of gardening to bring everything together.  Or just check out our growing community over at www.gardeningfoodies.com/fbgroup Can't wait to see you there and catch up.  

New veggie garden! ! !

Welcome to my new veggie garden.  Not perfect because it’s not square so it didn’t quite line up the way I would have hopped and somehow a foot got cut off on my end, and added to the back.  Made for some frustrating reworking after spending all the time to figure it all out, but at least my husband can reach the corners.  I for sure can’t.  Now it’s all filled in and finally planted.  I’m loving the layout so far.  There’s a little getting used to it because you have to walk around sometimes just to get to the other side of the lettuce, but if that’s the worst thing I think I can managed.  We’ll have to see how it works out for the whole summer, but if I could do it again I would definitely keep it to 4 feet and not try to push it to the 5.  It’s just a little too far to comfortably stretch, but live and learn.  Now to see what I can do with it.  These pictures are before leaving for two weeks.  The last one you can see how nice I left it. 

Why you shouldn't leave for two weeks

Well it's been a crazy week. We're just barely adjusting back to east coast time and had another full weekend. Didn't even touch the gardens last weekend other than to take note of what was going on, and the grass got mowed. I spent the day unpacking and doing laundry. Oh and of course taking stock of my in door plants. A couple aren't happy, but not too bad. Lost one banana that wasn't doing great before we left, but that was about it. I think the biggest lose was 5 of my lemons. The other two though are doing great and are getting big.

The yard was a mess. I swear we must have had perfect growing weather while we were gone. Lesson learned traveling in may in the middle of planting time is not a good idea. At least with the new veggie garden I got through about 130 square feet in about an hour after nothing for almost THREE weeks. That's crazy. Now I just need to get through the rest of it and get my butt in gear. I've already gotten most of the plants that I had to buy because I lost mine or they just wouldn't grow. Next year I'll again. In the mean time I'm going to try really hard to catch up and attempt to salvage this year.

Mother nature waits for no one.

Update: So knowing that this has sat for a while it's time to let everyone know that the new and improved can be found over at www.gardeningfoodies.com I've learned a lot over the years and I'm super excited to share that with everyone.  So come check us out and see what we now have in store for you.  A lot of food, a little bit of bon COOK business and a sprinkling of gardening to bring everything together.  Or just check out our growing community over at www.gardeningfoodies.com/fbgroup Can't wait to see you there and catch up.

Winter garden update

            Well another year with the winter garden.  This makes year two.  Over all I’m not sure if it was better or worse then last year.  It was planned a little bit better.  My plants were all started from seed and we had a good variety going.  However, a nice little caterpillar decided to take up home in my tomatoes so the little bugger ate all my tomato leaves and blossoms so that never really ever recovered.  Otherwise I really would have been in AWESOME shape for the winter with at least cherry tomatoes.  We had fresh peppers all the way until Christmas this year which was fantastic.  The herbs still need a little work, but maybe this year.  This biggest thing that killed us this year was actually the wood stove.  What we thought would be fantastic for the heat that it would give off but it ended up being our downside this year only because we didn’t keep up with the watering.  Great news is that now we know that the water reserves that were our down fall last year might well be the best thing ever come next year when we go for try number three.  We’ll be starting it up early this year.  Once everything else is in we’ll get it going for next year and make sure all the herbs are nice and happy by the time august comes around.  Live and learn and I am bound and determine to get this right yet. 

Update: So knowing that this has sat for a while it's time to let everyone know that the new and improved can be found over at www.gardeningfoodies.com I've learned a lot over the years and I'm super excited to share that with everyone.  So come check us out and see what we now have in store for you.  A lot of food, a little bit of bon COOK business and a sprinkling of gardening to bring everything together.  Or just check out our growing community over at www.gardeningfoodies.com/fbgroup Can't wait to see you there and catch up.  

Surprise Vacation

Well another weekend has gone by and I haven’t even touched dirt.  A last minute vacation or at least last minute booking whisked me away to see family while my husband works.  The great thing I get two weeks off with a whole lot of nothing.  I have been able to spend mornings walking and trying to get myself back into some sort of shape while enjoying afternoons on the beach, and I’ve actually read one whole book already.  The downside, it’s actually killing me to not be able to play in the dirt at such a critical time of the year.  My friends are getting theirs all set, but the most I’ve been able to do is play with some new programs to get an idea of how much I should be planting.  Now don’t get me wrong it’s been pretty fun to see the different layouts I can do, but of course I left my graph paper at home so I can only really do things on line for right now, but it’s been neat to see how the different programs work (more on that later).  I actually have someone plant sitting for me this time.  Still hoping my lemons hold on for me. 

I don’t come back until late Sunday of Memorial Day weekend, and I’m pretty sure that I’m not going to be able to do too much that weekend while I try to adjust back to the east coast time.  What’s worse is even the next weekend I’m booked, NH Saturday and then Comstock Ferre Festival on Sunday.  So in the meantime I’ll be enjoying some more sun and waves crossing my fingers that everything holds on at home.  I threw in the vine seeds right before we left so they should be HUGE by the time we get back. 

Update: So knowing that this has sat for a while it's time to let everyone know that the new and improved can be found over at www.gardeningfoodies.com I've learned a lot over the years and I'm super excited to share that with everyone.  So come check us out and see what we now have in store for you.  A lot of food, a little bit of bon COOK business and a sprinkling of gardening to bring everything together.  Or just check out our growing community over at www.gardeningfoodies.com/fbgroup Can't wait to see you there and catch up.  

Seeding starting 2012 update

            So spring hit especially early this year.  Or at least if you want to call it spring.  I can’t remember ever having 90 in March.  We usually open our pool in April as soon as tax season ends so that we’ve got it open for the first 80 degree day.  Only this year Mother Nature decided to throw us for a loop.  March is a little early for the pool even for me.  I don’t use heat mats on my seeds so sometimes it takes a little longer.  I’m also really good at not conditioning my sprouts.  I’ll start them inside and then just throw them to the wolves.  Typically my seedlings go straight from inside to the garden.  It’s not like I don’t know they should have some time to readjust, but frankly there’s just too many of them.  We can get frost all the way until mid may here, and with them going in the ground for Memorial Day typically I never get around it moving them.  Well this year I decided to try to take advantage of the extra warm weather that we were getting and moved them all out to the driveway so that they could get all the extra heat from the black top. 

            Two problems with this.  1. Way more watering then I’m use to so oops some of them dried out way too much (tomatoes took a hit so they got reseeded).  2. Still early in the season so a couple nights it dropped down into the 30’s.  Well in the fall when that happens I just throw a sheet over the plants and they’re just fine.  Not so much in the spring.  I throw a sheet over them and the first night it was just fine.  The second time it dipped through the entire sheet was frozen straight through to the plants.  Some of the peppers didn’t like that too much.  So a bunch of those got reseeded this year.  Unfortunately I missed the fact that the ghost peppers were out there and they accidentally got left outside.  I had a few seeds left over so that I reseeded with what I had. 

            So not only has it been the weirdest weather ever I’ve decided to go back to what works for me.  Those seeds are staying nice and warm inside until after mid may.  Then they’ll go out on the table in back for a week or two before going to the garden.  It might not be perfect, but at least it’s been working for me.  I’ll get this right eventually. 

Update: So knowing that this has sat for a while it's time to let everyone know that the new and improved can be found over at www.gardeningfoodies.com I've learned a lot over the years and I'm super excited to share that with everyone.  So come check us out and see what we now have in store for you.  A lot of food, a little bit of bon COOK business and a sprinkling of gardening to bring everything together.  Or just check out our growing community over at www.gardeningfoodies.com/fbgroup Can't wait to see you there and catch up.  

My lemon tree

When we bought our house i knew I wanted to get as much as I could in the way of edibles in.  I've always had an knack for doing things people say I can't do.  I also had a goal of eating my way around our yard.  So far the skeleton is in the works for that.  But honestly none of that would be complete without tropicals.  I love my oranges and I love Lemons and Limes.  So back in 2009 I got a lovely set of 4 citrus plants.  I had to wait because I went to order them too late in 2008.  So I got a Lemon, Tangerine, Key Lime and Orange.  Well so far the only one that has done anything (other then leaves) is the lemon.  I did just find out they like to be root bound before they bloom and put out fruit.  I put mine in HUGE pots for the plant size, but I didn't want to replant them for a while.  I'll find out this spring how the others are doing seeing as how they all need a little extra dirt and such. 

Last winter the lemon tree bloomed, but I didn't get an fruit.  So this year every morning I took my fingers and passed around the pollen hoping that this would be the year.  Every flower I found that was open I played with.  And this year it paid off.  I've also been watering it just a little every morning so that it doesn't try out and drop the fruit.  So far so good.  I've managed to get  8 fruits and they've been hanging on for over a month.  New record for me.  Now the trick will be can I keep them on it long enough to actually ripen. 

I'll try to contain my excitement for fear of disappointment. 

Update: So knowing that this has sat for a while it's time to let everyone know that the new and improved can be found over at www.gardeningfoodies.com I've learned a lot over the years and I'm super excited to share that with everyone.  So come check us out and see what we now have in store for you.  A lot of food, a little bit of bon COOK business and a sprinkling of gardening to bring everything together.  Or just check out our growing community over at www.gardeningfoodies.com/fbgroup Can't wait to see you there and catch up.  

It's been over a month and they're still there.  8 in total. 

Lemon

This is my absolute favorite picture of the blosoms.  It was actually my phone background for a while.

Seed starting 2012

Over the last few years I've been trying to move towards starting more and more of my own plants. And for the most part I've been pretty successful. Especially after switching to the aps units from gardener supply. Those have been a life saver. Of course they only work when you keep water in the bottom. With the unseasonably warm weather we've been having I may have let mine dry out a little too much this year. Oops I'll be trying some extra tomatoes this year just in case.

This year I'm also making the switch to mostly open pollinated varieties that I can keep from year to year. I was especially excited after getting some tomato seeds for the first time. It's amazing how just getting the how to makes all the difference in the world. So between the extra confidence I've gained and finding out that good old Monsanto actually owns most of the varieties you see on the stores I've taken the leap. Crossing my fingers it works out.

Update: So knowing that this has sat for a while it's time to let everyone know that the new and improved can be found over at www.gardeningfoodies.com I've learned a lot over the years and I'm super excited to share that with everyone.  So come check us out and see what we now have in store for you.  A lot of food, a little bit of bon COOK business and a sprinkling of gardening to bring everything together.  Or just check out our growing community over at www.gardeningfoodies.com/fbgroup Can't wait to see you there and catch up.

Orange Okra

I moved all my seeds outside to enjoy the warmth of the driveway.  Too bad mother nature decided it was too early. 

Moved all the tomatoes and pepers inside after mother nature decided to give us another good freeze.  Most of the tomatoes got a little too dry so they all got another round of seeds

The winter garden didn't do so well this year wit the catipillar eating everything so I deicided to pull it all up and put the space to better use.  Worked out pretty well.  Not sure what I'll do next year though. 

I'm like a little kid at christmas waiting for the seedlings to pop up.  Doesn't matter how many times I do it it just never seems to get old. 

Spring ? ! ? !

It's spring! Things are already blooming.  And frankly they'e been going since march this year. 

No idea what this bush is, but it's one of the first things in my garden to go and the bees LOVE it.

Well I think it's pretty safe to say that spring has sprung for real at last, but man did mother nature pull a good april fool's joke on us.  I think this has been the strangest winter ever. Not really any snow, and if there was some it never stuck around for long.  The ground never really ever froze.  My backyard has seen much better says with the puppies playing on it all winter.  Trust me I'm totally over the muddy puppies.  At least now the grass is starting to finally fill in and will hopefully start limiting the mud coming in.  As if that all wasn't enough we were seeing Magnolia trees in almost full bloom in MARCH!  I have to say it made tax season a little nicer this year.  That is until mother nature decided to throw a wrench in the works. 

Magnolia Tree Pretty much full bloom in March

Bleeding Heart already way up and it was only March

Very happy that things are already coming up this year.  Looks like we may have lost a few plants even with the mild winter, but man do the roses seem like they've enjoyed the mild winter.  I've already got lots of leaves breaking out including new branches already.  Can't wait to see how the summer goes with them. 



And Mother Nature plays a trick on us. Guess Magnolias don't like it cold. Good thin there were still parts of the tree that hadn't bloomed yet. It's starting to look like spring again.



As tax season wraps up on Tuesday let the season begin.