The Accidental Gardener

help needed

2007-08-29T20:53:00.001-04:00

in planning my garden layout.

i'm thinking my gardens need an overhaul from the raging heat spells we had this year, a weird short period of drought, my neglect, weeds taller than a building, 71 pound dog running rampant, etc etc etc.

i have garden beds that, despite some amending of the soil in the spring, are mostly clay based and in full sun. right now the only things that are growing well there are hostas, typical orange day lillies, and weeds. so i need some help in getting some garden flowers and plants that will tolerate those conditions fairly well. i will have a 1 year old running around next summer, so i also want plants that will be kid safe (although every year i get some weird plants that just show up from a neighbor's garden blowing in the wind) and if they can stand up to a dog that will run over some things even better (but not a requirement).

i'm also thinking about putting up a garden fence that is hopefully not that obtrusive around the garden beds to that, at least for the time being, my little bugger won't be able to easily get in my garden beds. any ideas?

i also really really really like the look of russian sage, but i don't know if that is a plant that grows well in my garden beds, or if it is kid friendly or not. i read somewhere that it might create an allergic reaction if handled? anyone?

the fruits of little labor

2007-08-29T19:25:00.000-04:00

my poor, neglected garden, i vow to make it better next summer.
as i was hacking through the 3 foot weeds and starts of trees this past weekend, this is what i found:

the majority of my sweet peas (which have taken it upon themselves to grow all over my garden) are going to seed.

some sort of morning glory or other vine is crawling up my fence.

and crawling around the only bush that grows well in my clay side beds.

and yet another mystery plant (or tree) that is growing and crowding the only bush that grows well in my side beds.

i have volunteer tomatoes growing in 3 different places. they are about 6 inches tall, and while most of the tomato growers are harvesting fruit, mine are just starting to bear any fruit at all (actually, just this one. the others look like their flowers are just starting to die off).

ivy is fun.
but it's a love hate relationship.

i love the look of ivy. i hate how it's so invasive. i love the evergreenness. i hate its creepy suction feet.
i tend to cut it back to a manageable growth every year. this year, not so much. it, not unlike the rest of my garden, i have neglected, and it's pissed and taking its revenge by growning rampant.

and it's growing in my gutters, windows, and starting to grow on my roof. so, of course, i freaked out. i don't want it infiltrating my trim and under my roof shingles. so i cut it and ripped it down. but it did not all come down, leaving a little on my chimney and a long, free swinging bushy tendril to sway in the breeze.

but then a pending severe thunderstorm starts to move in with the POSSIBILITY of gusty winds up that MIGHT get up to 65 mph, and i start to freak out again and irrational thought takes over and i start to ACTUALLY BELIEVE that if the wind gets my "free swinging in the breeze" tendril it will rip off all the brick from the side of my house and cause my chimney to come smashing down and through the roof causing irrepairable damage until i can get a ladder and chop it down. but the ladder is in the garage, and honestly, i'm a little afraid of ladders, so i nix the ladder idea and hope. all the while trying to balance out of my window with a extendable hedge shears in the middle of diagonal shooting rain and wind, swiping at my extremely long awkward gardening tool trying to cut off at least the bulk of the free swinging vine.

and after 5 minutes, the wind died down, the sun (or sunset) came out, and i'm sitting soaked looking at my still intact chimney and brick house.

now, for all of you ivy lovers out there aghast while reading my story, i did not rip out the root, because i do like a little ivy, and feel as though i will have fun watch it grow again next year (if i haven't killed it...but i haven't killed it in 4 years).

amazing that MOUNDS and mounds and yards and yards of ivy (and heaps and heaps of irrational thought) have come from just these 2 vines.

update

2007-06-16T21:22:00.000-04:00

the snake (i named him pookie) in the post below, i believe has died. my husband said he saw pookie in the middle of our neighbors lawn in full sun, and it hadn't moved in a half of a day. i cannot understand how it might have died, other than a lack of food (which means we have no vermin in our yards, can't say that i'm sad about that). we are hoping that he was taking a sun nap, for a really really long time. or molting. which would be really cool. but, we are very sad if he did pass, especially my dog, who thought she found a new friend.

in other news, we are having a stretch of near 90 degree weather, with the nights still very warm. i haven't had much time, energy, or enthusiasm for gardneing still, and i've never been a fan of hot weather, sweating, or working under the blazing sun. i guess having a 3 month old sucks the life out of you. not that i'm complaining, i'd take playing with my son over gardening any day.

but i did manage, between naps and in 10 minute intervals so i could duck back into the air conditioning, to finally mulch part of our garden beds to stop the sun from burning the plants and their roots, and plant the near dead violas we'd purchased almost a month ago. unfortunately, the red salvias we bought did not make it into the ground before the sun burnt them up. all the other plants we bought (snow in summer, bellflowers, veronica) are still living although are just short of being baked due to the summer heat. when i checked them after spreading the mulch though, they are growing, and growing through the burnt parts.

and the bellflowers are still blooming, the veronica is doing okay in the clay-like soil, the near dead violas are reviving, and the dog ran over my peony plant.

i think i might try to transplant the peony. any suggestions of how and when?

i almost peed my pants...

2007-06-01T21:51:00.000-04:00

...and freaked out so many times in the span of 30 minutes that i KNOW i did some damage to my heart.

so i'm walking outside to let the dog in. i stopped when i saw her hunched over and staring at the bush near the fence with one paw up (think hound dog pointing at a duck). so, i go over to take a look, thinking it was a cute bunny or chick or something.

well, no, not that cute. i almost peed my pants. this is what i saw.
the snake was in my driveway IN THE SUBURBS and i would guess that, if stretched out, it would be about 4 feet long (seeing since, coiled up, it was at least 2 feet).

after my initial freak out complete with near pants-wetting almost loud scream, i tried to stop the dog from trying to play with and eat it and get her inside. she, of course, did not want to with her new friend slithering in front of the door so i tried the age old trick of "wanna go for a ride?" which made her run to the car and jump in. then i went back inside to get my camera.

even knowing it was there, i still freaked out a little when i stepped outside to snap photos of it. mostly, i wanted proof of the snake since no one would believe my story, but also wanted pictures to look it up on the internet and to take to the emergency vet in case the snake bit my dog before i came out on the off chance it was venomous.

i finally got it inside to look it up, and after i thoroughly examined my dog for bites, the first web page i come to has a snake that looks like this:
which is the eastern massasauga rattlesnake, the only venomous snake in michigan. i freaked again, thinking that it was just my luck that i would have, in the middle of the city, the only suburban postage stamp yard that the ONLY venomous snake in michigan had made it its home. after calming down a bit, i compared pictures, and told myself that the snakes in my backyard did NOT have a rattler, and the head is totally different, and my snake is skinnier.

so i've decided that my snake is like this one. it's an eastern milk snake. non venomous and minding its own business. and now that the shock is over, i just wonder what it's doing here, in the city, and even think it's kinda cute. i shall name him Pookie.

my final freak out startle complete with sky high jumping out of my seat came when i was researching snakes on the internet and came across this webpage and scrolled down to see this photo...
i don't know why it freaked me out but this little tiger salamander just did. and it is kinda creepy in a cute way.

daily garden inspiration

2007-05-31T23:18:00.000-04:00

i love this.

6/11/2006

last year, we planted these dianthus for my friends memorial garden. they started out as just a single flower or two growing atop some leafy greens. they were sold as annuals from a local farm market. we let them overwinter, and they got all brown and straw-like.

5/3/2007

then, with the help of a few rain showers, some sun, some warmth, they've exploded again this year.

5/23/2007

almost like a perennial, but i have a feeling these will bloom all summer long, as they now have HUNDREDS of little flowers with HUNDREDS more buds every day.

5/28/2007

makes me think that janien is watching me, helping me cultivate my garden. and inspiring me daily. the white flowers glow, and remind me of her incredible smile. we miss you daily.

oofda!-revised

2007-05-30T00:18:00.000-04:00

i must say, my husband can really get going on a project. i have to credit him with the work he did in the garden. i weeded probably about 5 square feet, picked out plants, complained about the heat, and went inside to feed the baby. he did the rest. and boy, do our garden beds look good.

for all the complaining i did about the 75-80 degree weather (doesn't it get toasty in the sun?) and refused to weed/garden in full sun... i finally did plant our garden today.

on the hottest day of the 90 degree weather week, in the hilt of the midday sun.

seriously. what was i thinking?

i guess it was trying to take advantage of sleeping baby time, and got out there for a couple hours while he took a nap.
and it was HOT. but since my husband pruned the garden beds, all i had to do was dig holes and drop plants in. i still think i burned my back though.
here are a few before and after pics of our gardens now.
plot #1, before

plot #1, after

plot #2, before

plot #2, after

brand new day

2007-05-28T01:00:00.001-04:00

taking a cue from meagan, i have decided that since my garden is anew, i will change the garden blog look. i was getting sick of all the green anyway.

stay tuned. i promise lots of pics of my garden. just as soon as blogger lets me upload a ton o photos.

and if blogger does not, then i will change my blog yet again. maybe to one of their competitors....
mmmmmmghhhhhhhhuuuuuuuuuuuuuhhh!

memorial garden

2007-05-24T19:07:00.000-04:00

this was the 2 year anniversary of janien's death. we planted flowers in her memorial garden. this year, the dianthus we planted overwintered and came back again, in full force. also planted celolus this year too. it's looking mighty nice.

on a better note, the man who murdered our friend, who was almost done with his time served for possession of firearms decided to boast about getting away with murder. now they have him videotaped and are going to trial for her murder. God works justice in strange ways.

ho hum...

2007-05-09T22:52:00.000-04:00

all right fellow gardeners. i need a little motivation.
today, i had good ambitions and planned to get up early, weed and clean up the garden, try to amend the beds, then scatter my germinated seeds before the sun gets too hot and my baby's doctor's appointment. well.... here's how my morning went.

730am. sun is shining, looks like a beautiful day. woke up. decided too tired to move, went back to sleep.
900am. woke up to baby fussing. fed him while sleeping, decided too tired to move, went back to sleep.
1030am. woke up, decided too tired to move, but thought if coffee was made facing day might be easier. while in sleepy stupor, discovered we are out of coffee and creamer. frowned and pouted.
1035am. still frowning and pouting.
1035 and 30 sec. still frowning and pouting as i cannot find my garden clogs
1036am. begrudgingly went outside in straw hat, old flipflops, and pajammas. put on gardening gloves, armed with beloved weeder tool, and faced my jurassic park of a garden.
1037am. gasped in horror when found scary pricker weeks had grown taller than my knees with stalks as thick as my arm.
1038am. decided to abort mission, start with smaller, less scary dandelion and creeping charlies
1039am. gasped in horror when found dandelions had gone to seed and had already been scattered and creeping charlie had grown as thick as my myrtle
1040am. found worm trying to escape to neighbors garden. spent next 10 minutes chasing said worm (i love my worms) and plunked him back into hole in garden mud
1050am. thought awake enough to start on jurassic park garden
1051am. stood in front of said garden and thought "what was i thinking"
1052am. started to weed and accidentally squatted on prickers while trying to weed the prickers (i hate that).
1053am. dug up 3 prickers, accidentally broke off 3 prickers, screamed while spiders, milipedes, potatobugs, june bugs, other bugs i don't know but are still gross scattered and crawled over my bare toes in dumb old flip flops
1054am. frowned and pouted. aborted mission altogether.
1055am. smiled while in shower

please help me getting motivated to prep my beds. i cannot wait to plant, but prepping is getting in the way.

garden reflections

2007-05-09T14:32:00.000-04:00

it's storming today.

tomorrow i shall go to the garden and weed my jungle prickers that have grown up to my knees when the soil is softer.
tomorrow i shall spread my germinated seeds in the garden.
tomorrow i shall see what kind of plants have sprouted where, and play with the worms in the dirt.
tonight, i might see what beautiful florescence of green there may be after a rain, under the moonlight....

i love it when it storms.

daily garden inspiration

2007-05-07T09:36:00.000-04:00

sand cherry branch. the part that isn't dead.

weekend gardening 5/6/07

2007-05-07T00:06:00.000-04:00

my little guy helping me assess my garden.
although he did find it quite boring and just went to sleep right quickly.

not started on my garden just yet. i have walked the trodden path and this is what i've found so far...tulips are very lovely again this year

the dianthus annuals i planted last year and let overwinter have apparently self seeded and are coming in as lush as ever. in the dreaded hot zone of my yard (between the sidewalk and the road) just waiting for some dog to pee on it again this year.

and it's even started to flower. i will see if the flowers are as big and plentiful this year as they were as annuals last year before i start to hack away at them.

the war waging mint that is ALMOST being run over by pricker weeds...

stupid weird pinetree like ground cover taking over my myrtle ground cover. i am into self torture and yes i HAND PICK THIS STUFF OUT EVERY YEAR.

the small, pitiful start of my poor poor hydrangea plant
yes, it's there, amidst the myrtle and weeds....

don't really know what this is, but it's in the exact spot of my poor poor peony plant i planted last year.. i THINK it's my peony plant, but since i'm new to peony plants i will wait and see.

my poor poor young sand cherry bush which is sadly half dead, and half blooming. which is a weird phenomenon that occurs in that particular area. wondering if there is some weird tree root black plague death plotting below the surface...

this weird gross bush i cut down every year (i tried to dig it up but to no avail) which keeps on growing (but is half dead) amongst *gasp* creeping charlie....

an everbearing strawberry plant runner that ran away from it's potted home from last year and is now thriving in the weird dead spots in my garden. go figure. i'm actually thinking about letting it run wild and grow runners over the particular dead spots this year because i cannot get anything to grow there so far but this.

volunteer cilantro growing in my empty plot. i'm just waiting for it to over take my yard....

and last but not least... a random CONTAINER OF DIRT i found in my garage cabinet.
yeah i know. i was just thinking.... ????

oh wait, they might be composting coffee grounds. i cannot tell.

ugh... work to be done

2007-05-05T16:50:00.000-04:00

yes, i do love gardening

and i LOVE weeding
however, i HATE the beginning of gardening season

my empty garden plot.

just too much to do. my husband did a good job of garden clean-up last fall when i just couldn't stomach it, but we are getting a late start this year. i'm just starting to germinate seeds, i have not even LOOKED at any garden shops, turned dirt, amended soil, weeded...

we started to rehabilitate the lawn from momma little helper's running track, "fertilization", and digging.

i also picked up an array of seeds to experiment with this year. i'm leaning towards potting herbs/tomatoes this year and planting flowers in the empty plot.

okay so i started to weed. but i got through 2 plots before i got sick of it and gave up, leaving the rest for another day. was thinking it was just too dang dry to really ease the weeding... then realized it was supposed to be nice and sunny for the rest of the week...

i left jurassic park for another day. too tired to even start. click to see all the prickers and weeds growing over my lovely lily of the valleys and hostas.

daily garden inspiration

2007-05-05T16:48:00.000-04:00

we're back!

2007-05-03T14:01:00.000-04:00

the garden plot last year

tune in soon. it's the first week in may. and i'm...

a) not pregnant so no aversion to gardening
b) have kid, will garden
c) going to the garden shop this weekend

after a looooooooooooong winter full of pregnancy and hot flashes, we welcomed our son on march 2, 2007. he's a bundle of joy, a handful, and the best thing that has happened to us yet. it's a beautiful spring (well so far), and we are interested in preparing the gardens for our little one, and this being the last year my gardens will be safe from baby, but not from our little helper, puppers. next year, i will have to try to both puppy and baby proof the gardens. *sigh*

last year...
i planted (* means not a good crop):
green zebra tomatoes
cherry tomatoes
brandywine tomatoes
lettuce
nasturtiums
calendula
thyme (lemon and english)
cilantro
basil
italian parsley
rosemary
strawberries
sunflowers
pansies
zinnias
portulaca
chili peppers*
dianthus
lemon cucumber*
pumpkin was KIA*

and that is not even the entire list, only what i could remember.

this year i would like to scale back the gardens and the apparent enthusiam i had last year. i think i will border the garden with nasturtiums again, not because we ate them, but because they tended to attract bugs away from the plants, and my dog hated the peppery taste so she stayed out of the gardens.
i am also going to plant ONLY A COUPLE tomato plants in pots this year. they did like the warmth of the garden bed last year but just overgrew, and i don't want to plant them in the same spot for fear of tomato rot. i will be planting green zebras again, as well as sweet cherrys.
and this year, i vow to only plant herbs...
and lettuce....
and try to grow flowers.

and anything else i feel like i want to try this year.

keep check back for my new escapades in gardening this year.

Guess what else has been growing around here...

2006-09-17T12:44:00.000-04:00

sorry for the lapse in gardening, but we've been having a very busy summer....

on July 24th, we found out that we are expecting a bundle of joy! confirmed by the doctor on August 10th, we are looking forward to seeing Baby V on or around March 13th, 2007.

on a gardening note, however, one of my aversions (aside from feeling sick and puking, fatigue, and gagging to bad smells) is gardening, and, sadly, to whole tomatoes. so, i'm afraid the only ones who have been eating my home grown tomatoes are the birds and my dog. i don't know if tomatoes are toxic to dogs, but my dog, who continuously defies death due to eating everything (she even slurped down a prenatal vitamin), seems to be fine.

so, unfortunately, unless my aversion subsides anytime soon, i will most likely be blogging about fall clean up next. wish everyone bright and juicy tomatoes and a gardening delight for the remainder of the gardening year! and wish me luck!

sunflowers make me happy

2006-08-01T08:55:00.000-04:00

my aztec sunflowers are finally popping.

MIA!!!

2006-07-31T10:25:00.000-04:00

sorry i have been MIA for so long. there has been a lot going on outside of gardening, as well as really not much going on in the garden (until now). yes, i'm stuck in the rut of WAITING. i did check on the garden daily though, and let me show you what has been going on:

oops. i cannot right now. blogger is having issues.

will check back this evening to see if the site is up and running.

is this a japanese beetle on my nasturtium?

2006-07-18T09:17:00.000-04:00

this bugger is gone now. and no signs of others like him. and no signs of damage to any leaves or stems. he was alone and not mating (thank heavens). knock on wood......i have been blessed (so far) with few bad bugs. maybe it's because my garden is so tiny in comparison to other's, maybe it's because i have attracted some beneficial insects, maybe it's because i have beneficial plants, such as nasturtiums to lure bugs away. maybe it's because i have weeds that are turning out to be somewhat beneficial too luring bugs away.
maybe it's because it's so dang hot that if i were a bug i would follow my dog's lead and find some cold concrete to lie on instead.

garden update

2006-07-17T10:18:00.000-04:00

so my garden has been growing fiercely, but the growth is not as noticeable as before because everything is either going to seed, trying to flower, or bearing fruit.
hot peppers in bloom.

green zebra tomato taking shape

brandywine tomatoes taking their shape.

cherry tomatos starting to tinge dark green....just waiting for them to turn red.......

sunflower trying to bud.

zinnia trying to flower

calendula going to seed (when should i collect them and how?) it looks kinda creepy, like it's infested with some sorta larvae....just like when i opened the seed packet the first time and thought a worm had gotten in and ate the seeds and laid eggs then died. ewwwww.

you see how overgrown the garden has become? i have been meaning to do some trimming, but michigan's had a run of over 90 degrees for a while. and really, i've mulched and it's kept the weeds out pretty well, so it would just be hacking back my tomato plants. which i have done once already.

however, the calendula and the nasturtiums are blooming the most amazing colors, red, cream, fushia, golden, rose, etc. and the bees! bumble bees everywhere (a good thing) they are the cutest things bumbling around.

portulaca update

2006-07-17T10:07:00.000-04:00

portulaca grandifloras only open their flowers before noon, then close them back up again. even earlier in intense heat as we have been experiencing lately. i did not get out yesterday before noon.

but i did this morning. i wanted to catch the first bloom of the year.

it's a beautiful bright fushia color (actually, the photo washes it out a bit, yes, it's even more bright than this). very cheery, and made me instantly happy. how could it not?

mystery plant...almost identified

2006-07-16T16:44:00.000-04:00

remember this mystery plant?

i think it's growing up to be a hot pepper plant. look at the buds:
they look exactly like the buds on my known hot pepper plants. which is good. because i only have 2 pepper plants in the garden. and these look healthy.

they also could be something else. who knows. we shall see......

eeeewww again

2006-07-11T23:34:00.000-04:00

remembering that i am beginning to be an insect lover (beneficial insects only), but there are some bugs that still freak me out. such as this one.

so can someone tell me what type of bug this is? this one was crawling on my ceiling, and they have been plaguing my existance ever since i moved from minnesota to michigan. and i cannot find any information on the internet or in my parent's bug book. reminds me of the bad alien/bug in men in black. apparently it's very prevalent in michigan homes (most of my coworkers have them too), especially the older ones.
oh, can anyone also tell me (and my coworker who has them also) how to get rid of them? other than my cat or dog (my home is relatively bug free as my animals tend to eat them all) running around chasing it, toying with it, and finally eating it. although i think they taste bad since they always seem to spit it out (maybe they taste like peas). i would just leave them to the pets, but they sorta freak me out.

garden update

2006-07-11T00:54:00.001-04:00

so for a while, i thought that my garden was getting pretty boring and then thought, "what the heck am i going to blog about now?" i mean, my usually meek attention span was only now starting to wear out, my garden space is small, and with the (knock on wood) consistent but not too much rain we've been getting and the mulch i placed around the plants, there really is nothing to do now but sit and wait and let nature do her thing.

i just wish she'd hurry it up.

it took some time before the first tomato sighting, and now those tomatoes are STILL green (yes i know it's only been one week). i check with fervor each morning, noon, and night, before work, after work, before i take the dog on a short walk, after i take the dog on short walk, before a rain storm, after a rain storm, forcing my husband who just wants to have a little peace from the garden mania watching the world cup to come outside only for me to say "do you see that tomato? i think it's a millimeter larger"...well, you get the picture. i know, i know, i am a young jedi knight and need to practice patience. but we are gardeners, and most gardeners that i know are waiting with ants in pants to have their plants finally do something. i am a far cry from mr. miyagi or yoda (i just realized the amount of star wars speak i was using for someone who never actually seen any star wars completely through**insert gasp here**). it's the same reason why we might consider paying a load of money for seedlings, plants, and trees for that instant gratification of seeing a mature yard. or almost killing the dog when she chews up your well aged and expensive japanese maple (she is so lucky she has such a cute face...and some new chew toys).

but look what has been going on just today, when i checked after work. thanks to a rather scary but much needed rain storm last night. of course, none of this was here before work. brandywine tomato finally starting to fruit

'alaska' nasturtiums in the bed border finally starting to flower

this one is the most brilliant deep garnet red color

mesclun i've let go to seed, going to seed (finally, or at least flowering)

my first calendula flower in all of its glory

finally, my green zebra tomato starting to flower (i actually think this one has been pollinated and starting to set fruit...look how long the green thingys are)(i don't even know if tomatoes need to be pollinated to start to fruit i'm just babbling now over my excitement).

ahhh....i love nature. she can take as long as she wants. so long as she hurries it up. *wink*

attack of the killer tomatoes

2006-07-10T21:30:00.000-04:00

so in my pursuit of the perfect tomato, i think i've left my cherry tomato plant a little too long. and in an act of revenge to my absence, i think it is plotting to take over the world. or at least my garden (sort of like my dog i guess...i may name the plant after my dog). yep, the whole thing is one plant, invading my italian parsley, calendula, peppers, and even my other tomato plants. something had to be done.so in an attempt to save the world from my killer cherry tomato, i took to pruning the dang thing. i figured i was waiting long enough for the darn tomatoes to turn from green to red, that a little pruning would not only help this process along by redirecting energy, but save the rest of my plants from the wrath of the tomato.

only i have trouble with cutting anything that is growing well. and as anyone that knows me will tell you, i am very indecisive when it comes to most anything outside of work. so i was outside, nearing dark, with clipper in hand, marching around my garden for 20 minutes, trying to decide which branches to clip off. it was hard, as some of the more aggressive tzar branches that were threatening to conquer the space actually had fruit growing on it. but i finally did make a decision, and ruthlessly pruned the little sucker.
okay, so it doesn't really look that different. i guess i was a little less ruthless than i thought. but i really did prune:and this is the proof. yup, i cut back what i could, and got the green tangy smelling hands to prove it too.

beans and polenta

2006-07-09T13:27:00.000-04:00

so in my attempt to save money, i am trying to eat 3 meatless

dinners a week (breakfast and lunch i eat leftovers). so i revived my old vegetarian cookbook i owned in college, called "1001 low-fat vegetarian recipes" by sue spitler.

the book is a favourite of mine, and was immediately sold on it after trying the "brown sugar banana bread", so i browsed through all 1001 recipes and came across a quite peculiar one: "bean and corn bread loaf". i thought, beans, veggies, and corn meal? well, it's got cheese on it, and everything tastes better with cheese, so why not? so i tried it.

with recipes, i really only use them as guidelines, as i don't like to measure things, and i usually don't have all the ingredients on hand. and in my adapted recipe, it's not so much corn bread loaf, but a polenta casserole. some different veggies, different assembly, different seasoning ingredients, and chicken stock instead of vegetable stock. but it turned out great, pretty, and delicious. here is my adapted recipe, and my post for WEEKEND HERB BLOGGING#41. so here's how i did it.

POLENTA AND BEAN CASSEROLE

adapted by me

inspired from the bean and corn bread loaf recipe via 1001 low fat vegetarian recipes by sue spitler

3 C chicken stock
1 C corn meal (i used yellow)
2 T olive oil
1 stalk celery, chopped
1 red bell pepper
1 hot chili pepper (i used finger peppers from the farmer's market)
1/4 of a large zucchini, julienned
4 cloves garlic, minced (i used 1 garlic scape, 1 clove green garlic, and 2 cloves garlic)
1 can beans, drained and rinsed (i used kidney beans)
splash of soy sauce
2 tomatoes, chopped
chili powder to taste
cayenne pepper to taste
ground cumin to taste
salt and pepper to taste
large handful of fresh cilantro, chopped
1 C cheddar cheese, shredded

heat stock to boiling, SLOWLY add corn meal and reduce heat to a simmer while stirring constantly to avoid clumps and lumps. stir until thickened, about 5 minutes. remove from heat and add salt, pepper, and chili powder to taste. leave to cool a bit, then spoon into a nonstick or a greased baking pan.

put olive oil in skillet, heat on med heat. add celery, peppers, and garlic until tender, about 5 minutes. add a splash of soy sauce. add beans, zucchini, tomatoes, and herbs (except cilantro) cook until tomatos just start to wilt. continue to cook until liquid is almost absorbed. remove from heat and cool. stir in cilantro, season to taste with salt, pepper, cayenne. spoon on top of polenta mixture. sprinkle with cheese and pop into oven for 30 minutes. cut into squares and enjoy.

daily garden inspiration

2006-07-09T13:18:00.000-04:00

i was starting to feel left out of the lilliness. so here is a photo of mine. they have exploded along the back border of my yard. i love the red detail.

and i threw in a picture of a nasturtium bud about ready to explode. love nasturtiums.

the evolution of a cherry tomato

2006-07-08T12:17:00.000-04:00

so i was out in my garden today, as usual, and i thought how fun it was to have my cherry tomato plant in all stages and right before my eyes. to be witness to nature.
click on photos to enlarge.

cherry tomato flower buds

cherry tomato flowers

nature doing its thing. pollination.

flower dying, fruit beginning to set.

flower fell off, fruit getting larger

cherry tomato looking perfect. no, no red tomatoes yet. soon.
when am i supposed to pick large cherry tomatoes?

jumping peas

2006-07-07T09:44:00.000-04:00

i bought a bunch of shelling peas at the farmers market last saturday. i've been shelling and eating peas all week as a snack. then i realized that the pea pods were starting to get fuzzy and rot. so i decided to shell all the peas, blanch and freeze them. being my first time doing anything with peas that did not come out of a plastic bag from the freezer...better said than done.

apparently, my fingers, as tiny as my hands are, were not meant for shelling peas as most of the peas landed on the ground. very small sample of my kitchen rug after shelling.

i would employ the 3 second rule, but as people with hairy shedding cats and dogs know, with pets, there is no such thing as a three second rule unless you wish for your food to be hairy. and if you are one of those people, more power to ya, but the thought just grosses me out. so i only got less than 1/2 a bowl of peas, not even enough for a side dish for one, or to validate freezing. so i plunked them in my fridge, and i think i will eat them for breakfast.

usually i don't have to worry much about picking up food, as my portable food vaccuum on paws usually cleans my kitchen floor. but i guess that she does not like everything as she kept spitting out all the peas. my husband says "good for her".

daily garden inspiration

2006-07-04T23:39:00.000-04:00

buds. oh the jokes and puns i could tell you with this word.
but i will spare you.
to heck with spring, now is the time for budding in my garden apparently. i'm too excited.

calendula starting to bud.

aztec sunflower crown. it looks as though it's getting ready to set bud.

my "i can't wait for them" green zebras FINALLY starting to bud

kalanchoe already flowering but still with lots of...you guessed it, buds.

my screaming morning

2006-07-04T12:37:00.000-04:00

so it rained pretty heavily yesterday, but only for a short while. this morning (okay it was more like noon...it's a day off, what do you expect?) i walked outside today, and literally SCREAMED IN DELIGHT as i saw this:
my large cherry tomato plants, which have been growing VERY VERY WELL have finally started to set fruit. and i'm just delighted, they are perfectly round cute and just the daintiest little guys ever. course, i'm biased.

i also broke down and bought an heirloom green zebra tomato this weekend at westborn market. i am growing them, i've got 3 plants. but i never had green zebras before, and wanted to taste as a sneak preview for the fall. it was so good....and now i'm looking forward to my harvest later this summer more than ever. i am just hoping that my tomatoes are this good, i will be so bummed if the plants go to pot.
pun intended.

my first trip to the local farmers market

2006-07-02T23:16:00.000-04:00

royal oak farmers market

so, we've been trying to cut back on spending money and saving (and if anyone has any suggesetions we'd really appreciate it!!). a couple of things on a long list of things we've done so far is:

1. save any and all $5 bills we receive
2. have 3 MEATLESS dinners a week (meat costs soooooooooo much)
3. RIDE MY BIKE TO GET GROCERIES

the first one is a fun game, and now i find myself actually using a larger dollar bill to pay with something just so i can get a $5 bill in return to put away.

the second is getting easier with my vegetable/herb garden getting riper. that and we are now the gourmet GRILLED CHEESE chefs of the neighborhood. oh and PB&J too. any new ideas for NONMEAT dishes that a steak and potato lover would like, let me know.

the third came into play mainly due to trying to a) be healthier and exercise more b) i work about 40 miles away so i try to drive as little as possible on the weekends and c) the local farmers market is about 3 miles down the road.

giddy to check it out, i strapped on a little soccer sack pack, my helmet, took my bike out of storage, washed it and dusted all the cobwebs off, pumped up the tires, and rode in the beautiful weather that shined down this weekend. so i picked up a large perfect zucchini, bunch green onions, a TON of fingerling potatoes, huge bunch fresh dill, a TON of shelling peas, garlic scapes, and a hard necked green garlic stalk, all for about 6$ after haggling (and with a fresh squeezed lemonade for 1.50$ AND getting 2-5$ bills back to save to boot). i was excited to find the green garlic was hard necked (in the fall, i plan on getting a bulb of garlic and planting it after farmgirl's story) and looked pretty darn funny riding my bike with my soccer sack pack on my back with a green garlic stalk protruding out of the top and over my head! yep, i am an asian woman, riding my bike (complete with helmet) with groceries and a large stalk on my back in the middle of a detroit cityburb.

but all joking aside, i was amazed at how little frivolous things i bought knowing that i could only fill my little knapsack up and only buying what i need. it really helped kept the cost down.

so i've been making yummy things with my score at the market and my score in my garden (* denotes from my garden). this is my new vegetable dish (complete with that gourmet grilled cheese i was telling you about):

extra virgin olive oil
2 green onions, chopped
cherry or grape tomatoes (i had to use them up), sliced in half
zucchini, julienned
garlic scapes, chopped
salt and pepper
white wine (i used pinot grigio...just what i had open)
lemon thyme*
basil*
italian parsley*
grated parmesan cheese

preheat olive oil in skillet, throw everything but the fresh herbs in and saute over med heat. when tomatoes and zucchini are ALMOST to desired tenderness, add a splash of white wine and the fresh lemon thyme. simmer until vegetables are to desired tenderness. add parmesan, basil and parsley after vegetables have been removed from heat. enjoy!

oh and i must add that this grilled cheese was made with american cheese (what i had in the fridge), sliced red onions, and sliced roma tomatoes on trader joe's tuscan bread (the best, cheap bread-1.99$-around to make grilled cheese) on my grill pan.

ewwwww...and more ewwww

2006-07-02T23:10:00.000-04:00

so i'm not THAT squeamish when it comes to bugs, in fact many of my friends would tend to agree that since i've started gardening, i have become more BUG friendly. playing with worms, ladybugs, and digging up bugs in the dirt and not squealing like a 2 year old is a large step up from where i was last year.

except for this one:

WHAT IS IT?
you cannot really tell from these pictures, but it is about 2" long by 1" wide. with a pale and gross underbelly. our bet is a locust but we are not so certain. good thing it's on the OUTSIDE of the screen door, because i have to admit, i made a step or two backwards in my liking of bugs progress when i saw it.

so it's been 1 month

2006-07-01T15:54:00.000-04:00

so it's been 1 month, yesterday, that i have been blogging about my garden. and in a sense, 1 month since i have created my garden. everything has pretty much (knock on wood) worked, better than i had imagined. and i have to owe it all to being on the internet. i must have learned a gazillion things over the past month just by perusing all your lovely blogs, and getting great advice, inspiration, and encouragement. and it was a heck of a lot cheaper than buying garden books! THANKS BLOGGERS!

1 month recap:
top 10 lessons learned, inspiration, blah blah blah:

1. tomatos, glorious tomatoes, all forms, all colors, all types, repotted, in ground, etc. i cannot believe the luck with them so far. no fruit, but all plants are now blooming and have gotten extremely large.

2. basil is beautiful, better than i expected

3. "ornamental" lettuce was a tasty lovely addition to the culinary repertoire
4. whirlybird nasturtium flowers are beautiful

5. don't plant candytuft perennial in full sun

6. zinnias most likely need a fertilizing boost as they are not growing

7.
dahlia root clumps CAN be separated into individual tubers instead of freaking out because the root clump was this weird twisted thing and plunking the whole thing in a hole, like i did. but they grew anyway. hopefully i will have at least ONE flower before i dig them up late fall.

8. apparently the animals/birds in my yard love to dig for pumpkin seeds

9. i got advice on green garlic and garlic scapes enough that i found some at the local farmers market and bought some:
10. purslane is incredibly yummy.

daily garden inspiration

2006-06-30T18:32:00.000-04:00

this is a strange flower among the PRINCESS MIX dianthus annuals in the memorial garden. i checked, all the others are single color. i don't know if it happens often...

what lies beneath

2006-06-30T18:31:00.000-04:00

so i was out taking pictures of the MEMORIAL GARDEN at work and we were brushing off the plaque when we spotted this!i think it's a gypsy moth caterpillar, but i looks fatter, longer, and the spots did not seem to be the exact color. but it's the closest i could get to it so if anyone knows, feel free to comment! i am glad it's sleeping under janien's sign (almost like she's keeping it safe) and not in my garden!

go on a vacation and then what....

2006-06-30T10:20:00.000-04:00

so i took the remaining days of vacation i had left before i lost them. i was gone 8 work days. i came back to my ivy house plant just HANGING ON WITH THE BARE SKIN OF THE TEETH. i tell you, leave for a bit, and it all goes to poo. well, at least the plants.

it suffered a great deal of damage from a very large spidermite infestation. look, you can see one of the tiny web (the white specks). which probably would not have been bad if i had been there and got it in the beginning. the mites have taken over all but a few leaves. and it's sorta creepy when you turn the leaf over and you find little black dots crawling around .....

so i have taken it home to try to nurse it back to health. it looks so wiry and spindly now! the leaves were so weak that half of them fell off when i sprayed the plant with a stream of water. then i attacked it with some homemade insecticidal soap, and will plan on spraying it again until they all DIE SPIDER MITES DIE! i just hope that the soap is strong enough to get rid of the population (they have taken over).

so wish me luck (or i guess wish my plant luck) to save this office plant. i do have to say though, that the other office plant (schefflera) is flourishing and continually shoots out new babies daily, and the MEMORIAL GARDEN of dianthus and gerber daisies is doing quite well.

i found my macro button

2006-06-30T00:32:00.000-04:00

so i found my macro button on my digital cannon camera. now if only i can afford a macro lens for my cannon slr. *sigh*

my only lily left after momma's little helper ate the other 4

cut lillies

lemon thyme

things are surprising me in the garden

2006-06-29T23:40:00.000-04:00

lily of the valley's putting out a berry like seed pod. i never noticed them before in the YEARS i have had them. maybe i am starting to become an actual gardener.

have you ever seen pansies growing so high before? i have never. they usually don't grow that high and flop all over the place. not this year!!!! you cannot really tell by this photo, but the tallest pansy is a little over 1 foot above the soil level. they actually look like they are waving!

beauty in basil. and i found the macro button on my digital camera.

this weed also has surprised me. i have noticed, especially since i blogged about not having bugs yesterday, that i'm starting to have bugs. however, the bugs (i think they are flea beetles) seem to be attracted to this weed, and live in the crook of this plants branches. they seem to be drawing the bugs away from the vegetable plants like nasturtiums tend to do with aphids, as there is NO sign of pests in ANY of my herbs/vegetables. maybe this is a beneficial weed (the oxymoron of all garden oxymorons), or it could just mean that in a week my plants will be covered in pests. so i'm leaving a few "weeds" in, and picking those dang bugs and sadly drowning them in soapy water. at least it gives me a chance to be rid of the bugs from a plant i don't really care about hurting.

good night bugs

2006-06-29T00:17:00.000-04:00

so i think (knock on wood) i have been pretty lucky in regards to my garden. i read about japanese beetles, cucumber beetles and what not, and i (again, knock on wood) have yet to wage battle with pests. but never the less, i've found some interesting creatures sharing my garden, and if they are not hurting plants, i generally try to leave nature to nature (hence keeping my windblownin mint garden):

this little guy was afraid of nothing. i actually thought he was dead, and only after poking him a couple times was i fully aware of how alive he was.

i was excited about this little one. i found him crawling around my lettuce. which means my garden has graduated to attracting beneficial insects and i feel i have graduated to being a true gardener. or it could just mean that i have aphids.

what type of critter is this? he was hanging on my mint stalks (but after close inspection, none of my plants anywhere showed signs of pest damage) and i was mesmorized by his color. reminded me of a clownfish like aphid really. he too was not afraid of anything until i tried to hand pick him. that's when he jumped super high.

garden update

2006-06-27T13:29:00.000-04:00

basil is the most glossy, beautiful ever. the leaves are very large and fragrant, and the flavor is scrumptious. i have been encouraging branching and bushiness by pinching the tops.

the basil seedlings are doing well too, and i might have to thin them soon. i think i am going to have to cut back the bushy basil over hanging the babies.

my first casualty. i fear something got to the pumpkin sprouts buried in this mound. i tried to salvage the rest, replant them, and mounded the dirt over. we shall see.

my second casualty. i don't think the candytuft likes this soil. all of them pretty much look like this. the stems are still hardy and tender, just the leaves seems to be getting some sunburn.

so the birds did not get to the lemon cucumber seeds like i had feared, and are looking great. click here to see the seeds 4 days ago.

large cherry tomato update

2006-06-27T13:06:00.000-04:00

6/16/2006

6/26/2006

cherry tomatos 6/17/2006 (closest to stone)

6/26/2006

cherry tomato plants have started to flower!

now, is there anything that i should do (like pinching, etc) to have the best harvest?

a watched plant never...not grows?

2006-06-26T23:22:00.000-04:00

so, i'm back from my minibreak (click here to see pics), and i'm delighted to find that my garden exploded with new growth, flowers, new critters, and, of course, weeds. i should go on minibreak more often.
garden image 6/21/06

west side of the garden 6/26/06 (click to enlarge photo)

east side of the garden 6/26/06, and the extraneous herb pots i had to plant due to lack of space

so much has occurred in the garden, i think i may need a couple posts to cover it so bear with me for a couple of days. the lettuce i cut back to 1.5 " on 6/22 regrew to the same size pre-harvest. thankfully, nothing bolted but the mint, which i spent the better half of the afternoon cutting back. i love mint, but the thought of this nature-born bush "seeding" more of my yard was too much to bear.
bolting mint

but i was too excited to step out of the car this afternoon to find this:
potted nasturtium blooming

and there is so much more! but for now, i will leave you with this. i am stumped by this ???? no particular scent or taste, and it's branching, and growing fast and tall. can anyone tell me what this is? click to enlarge photos.
???? bunch

close up of ????

???? roots

pre-vacation gardening

2006-06-23T14:39:00.000-04:00

so, i've left for minnesota to visit family and friends, and to attend a wedding. last minute touches to the garden include:

1. weeding, weeding, forever weeding (ah but it's oh so calming to YANK the little devil spawn out)

2. harvesting lettuce to try to save them from the bolt (sounds like a disease...)

3. planting sugar pumpkin seeds which have already sprouted (i know, a little late, but if the weather holds out in autumn, and i just get 1 pumpkin, it will be worth it)

4. planted lemon cucumber seeds already sprouted hoping the birds don't eat them (ditto)
5. found new plants/weeds in the garden borders. i'm leaving them for now to see if i can identify them later. this one actually looks like some sort of sedum type plant while this one looks like some sort of scary pepper...
6. caught a glimpse of a rabbit similar to this one (i wasn't quick enough for the photo) hopping along in my neighbor's yard right as i was leaving for the airport.
oh darn cute rabbit, i beg your pardon
just wait to see what will happen
should you chance eating my garden

lettuce saga continued...

2006-06-23T14:12:00.000-04:00

so with the warm weather, the downpour of rain for an entire day, the lettuce starting to crowd each other, a minibreak coming where i would be absent from the garden for the better part of the weekend, my tendency to poorly plan vacations around flowering time (or my flowers tend to wait until i've long left to flower in some evil facist scheme of "hide and seek"), and reading billy's and steven's blog about their bolting lettuce and vegetables after a minibreak, i thought it best to cut back all the lettuce, for fear that it would bolt while i was gone. by cutting back to 1-1.5", i might have a chance, if the weather doesn't get too dog gone hot, to have one more "cut and come again" crop. good thing i started another pot with lettuce seed.

harvested lettuce

lettuce patch post cutting back

lookes like i've about 3 gallon sized bags of fresh lettuce. they are off to my mother-in-law's for eating, as both my husband and i will be gone for 3.5 days.

good thing i got around to planting some more lettuce seed.

oh, and one more thing, but i noticed with my smaller harvest a few weeks ago that this home grown lettuce, has lasted me quite a LONG time--much longer than storebought. i washed/rinsed it very well, let 99% dry on some papertowels, then kept it in the fridge.

daily garden inspiration

2006-06-23T02:59:00.000-04:00

first of the millions.

rain rain go away...

2006-06-23T02:30:00.000-04:00

okay, not really. as a new gardener, i find myself enjoying rainy days. the sights and sounds, and SMELLS are amazing. although we had an entire day of hard downpour (complete with lightning and thunder so loud my dog and cat bolted to the back of the house)(and before i get too many crazy comments, no, the pets did not flower). but a quick check on my garden and things seemed to be okay. the mounds and ditches still seemed intact, and for the most part, my plants seem to be happy.my veg/herb garden 6/22 (click to view larger image)
(click here to view garden only 4 days ago...i cannot believe the growth)

the bordering calendula, nasturtium, and something (ie. probably a weed) have exploded in the front borders nicely after the rain. (back row, from r to l) the cherry tomatos are taking off (still no signs of flowers yet), while the keeping the italian parsley partially shaded so now the leaves don't turn yellow. the brandywine tomatoes have started to grow larger as well now that i've thinned them, and the basil is branching lovely, and gives a nice aroma every time i bump it while weeding. next to that are my green zebra tomatoes, which are still quite slow to grow (is this normal?) but seems to be filling out now. at least you can see them in this picture as opposed to before. i have 2 small cilantro plants growing next, and previously dumped a handful of chive seeds next to that, which have been starting to sprout. to the right of the cherry tomato plants, i also sprinkled some scallion seeds recently, hoping to get a little something before summers end. middle row: lemon thyme, english thyme, thriving happy lettuce, and hot pepper plants. all doing quite well.

i also have rosemary, garlic chives, extra hot pepper, extra cilantro, extra nasturtium, extra cherry tomatoes, extra green zebra, and that mystery plant growing in pots surrounding that is growing quite nicely.

daily garden inspiration

2006-06-21T15:03:00.000-04:00

things are starting to bloom around here. like this hosta.

daily garden inspiration

2006-06-21T00:04:00.000-04:00

primrose (earliest spring flower bloom) that they said would not flower again this year, flowering again.

japanese maple update #2

2006-06-20T18:01:00.000-04:00

my japanese maple has really defied the odds. it's placed in hot dry sunny spot, with average soil, and a venegeful dog....but it's thriving to say the least. i think the dog had really given it the pruning it needed last fall....but anyhow, this is for ngrish, who asked me about the maple.

japanese maples tend to do best in well drained, and fairly rich soil. if the ground does not drain well, i might amend the soil with peat moss and/or sand, and add some compost or other NATURAL fertilizer like manure (you may risk chemical burn with chemical fertilizer and i just dont like chemicals period). i have heard they prefer acidic soils so if you do go the chemical fertilizer route you can get plant food for azaleas and rhododendrons.

i would clear the area around the maple and mulch thickly to keep the roots cool and retain moisture. we mulch the entire area around the maple every year (the mulch turns into soil and is great compost the next year), and do not have any plants around the tree.

i don't know where your parents live, but here in michigan, the summer does tend to get a bit toasty during the day so i usually water in a hot dry spell 2x per week, putting the hose on a bit more than a trickle and leaving it at the base of the tree for 15 minutes to saturate the surrounding ground.

i do know that japanese maples love dappled shade, although mine is in full hot sun and still does well but mine is older and well established. the leaves tend to get fried during the full hot sun of summer and this year i am playing around with putting up a shade cloth on those really toasty days during mid day. i would suggest this to your parents if the tree is in full sun and young.

the last thing i would do is prune it in the fall to get rid of any dead branches, and any small branches coming out of the trunk of the tree that is unneeded, etc. my dog this this for me, and overpruned a little.

hope this helps, as i am just a mere gardener and trying to nurse this poor thing back to health. japense maples are sooo expensive that i would do anything to save mine! so, ngrish, hopefully your parent's tree will be okay!

weekend gardening 6/18/06

2006-06-19T23:21:00.000-04:00

so this is what i did this past weekend...

found some new weed like crops (or crop like weeds) in the garden.

mulched around the plants in the garden to prepare for the upcoming summer heat

transplanted the mystery plant i originally thought was basil to a pot (below) and transplanted new basil seedlings in (above)
thinned my tomato plants in the garden and transplanted them into pots

which are looking good after 2 days. this little guy suffered MAJOR transplant shock and i thought it was a goner. we shall see if the shock was little enough to avoid disease...

checked on my green zebra tomatos, which are slow to grow but seem to be picking up the pace...

and watched as my cherry tomato plants keep on growing before my eyes. they have completely taken over the bamboo stake, which is at least 1.5 feet.

my first garden fresh salad

2006-06-18T00:18:00.000-04:00

this mesclun i planted for ornamental purposes was getting so big, i had to start to harvest it.

following steven and farmgirl's advice, i started to clip off the leaves for my first home grown mini salad and cheeseburger, complete with a little flat leaf parsley from the garden as well.

dressed it up with a little homemade lowfat lemon dill creamy vinagrette made with stuff i had on hand...it was the yummiest salad i have ever eaten. i was so proud of my first salad that my husband just laughed as i made everyone wait until i got pictures.

CREAMY LEMON DILL VINAGRETTE

1 garlic clove**
juice of 1 lemon
2 T rice wine vinegar
2-3 T lowfat plain yogurt
1 tsp dried dill
salt and fresh ground pepper to taste
extra virgin olive oil, enough to emulsify...

place all ingredients but the olive oil in a food processor or blender. pulse to chop garlic and combine ingredients. with processor running, drizzle enough olive oil through shoot to emulsify. it's that easy.

the recipe does not make much (i only like to make enough to last me a couple of meals) but it has an amazingly intense flavor that you don't need much to dress your salad. this was perfect for the garden salad, as i feel that home grown lettuce and parsley has superior flavor (my mesclun is really sweet right now) that balanced to perfection with only a little dressing. amazing.

**all ingredient amounts are approximate as i am a "mash and toss" type of cook and haven't measured this out yet. i used rice wine vinegar only because it was the only vinegar i had on hand, and it was literally about 4 dashes. i bet this would be great with another light colored vinegar, such as champagne vinegar. my friend was a little freaked out about the yogurt when i suggested it, but i wanted something that was a TAD bit creamy, but not thick and fatty as ranch dressing. i also used california extra virgin olive oil from trader joes (has the best fruity flavor) and it was literally about a 5 count pour through the shoot.

daily garden inspiration

2006-06-14T21:57:00.000-04:00

allium growing in the back corner of the lot

there was a bunch of long grass lining the fence between my neighbors lot and mine. then out popped out these lovely purple flowers! and i thought, hmmmm.... i know these flowers somewhere. so i broke off the top and ate it. yup, chives. i love chives!
there is not that many, so good thing i am growing chives in my garden.

but it was still good to see a tinge of purple before my garden gets in bloom.

okay so this is kinda hokey but super fun anyway...

2006-06-13T01:00:00.000-04:00

hokey? yes. fun? without a doubt.

when you need a pick me up...

i found this on THIS GARDEN IS ILLEGAL, which i must say is my new fun blog to read. the writer is holistic enough to garden, with a pinch of twisted edgy-ness (and i mean this in the best way) to liken my taste and make me laugh. you should read her blog. it will make you laugh and cry, and maybe even throw up a little.

I am a
Canna

What Flower
Are You?

"You stand up for what you believe in, even if it gets in the way of what other people think. You are proud of yourself and your accomplishments and you enjoy letting people know that."

yup, i believe this describes me to a T. just take a look at this garden blog. and hey really, why else would we blog anyway?

click on what flower are you and you can find your out about your innards too....

lesson learned # 3: strawberry runners

2006-06-12T23:06:00.000-04:00

so the strawberry runner experiment did not work as well as i thought.
lesson learned: strawberry runners don't do well transplanted in a pot when they have not rooted.
next time, i might try to wait until they runners root, then dig them up and transplant them. i will try this with the runners that have already started new plants (that i did not get to right away) but will clip all the new runners to divert the energy into producing strawberries. afterall, that's why i bought them.

garden happenings #3

2006-06-11T21:22:00.000-04:00

what i did this weekend in the gardens (and in the absence of TV):
finally found a place for those crazy zinnias (okay, actually 2 places and i still have a whole tray of seedlings left over).
these are in the same plot as the healing japanese maple. however it is in the front corner and far enough away from the healing tree that i don't think it will hurt it. and they are annuals anyway...

found yet another plant and flower that i have no clue what they are but they are sure pretty aren't they? i think i chopped half of this back this spring because i thought they were little tree suckers shooting out from the base of the tree. i must stop hacking away at my gardens....

finally got around to planting the leftover dianthus (princess mix) from my late friend's memorial. this is around the baby tree in our front yard. this spot gets more shade that i had thought but my friend erin and i planted them here anyway. and i think they look beautiful, just like she was.

other notables this weekend:
1. had brother in law and his girlfriend over for dinner and to "shop" in our basement (a new homeowner, needed kitchen equipment, and i must say i have about 3 kitchens worth of appliances, plates, silverware...well you get the picture)
2. created new recipes and finally started to use the herbs in my garden, which i will post soon...
3. revelling in the fact that i am ALMOST finished with the actual planting of stuff and can concentrate on the maintenance of the garden. although, what on earth am i going to do with my time???

lesson learned # 2: mesclun

2006-06-11T13:54:00.000-04:00

i had planted tomato plants, cilantro, parsley, and what not, but that tends to be a bit boring if you take in the landscape of the yard. and the tomato plants can be really an ugly sight (not so beautiful leaves, hairy stems...ucky). so i bought this mesclun mix really only to pretty up the garden. but it's taken a liking to my garden and is flourishing (to see it from at the beginning click here). so, now what do i do? i don't really know anything about growing lettuce. do i dig the entire head up to harvest? trim back leaves? pick here and there? i do like salad (i just made up a killer lemon dill salad dressing last night), but i don't want to remove the entire heads, i like them for ornamental purposes. hmmmmm.....
lesson learned: next year...plant mesclun to eat, and stick to edible flowers to pretty up the herb/vegetable garden....

prize winning....????

2006-06-11T01:39:00.000-04:00

i bet i must have the world's record for the tallest, largest, most gigantus, best looking.....

weed?

so i have this thing growing in my side yard by a very mature cedar tree.

LAST YEAR'S VITALS:
1. it was definitely a single weed, complete with prickers and all, and that ugly little tiny yellow "weed flowers"
2. got up to about half this year's height and size
3. we couldn't pull it up so my husband had to cut it down with a lopper
4. tried to dig the root out
5. no shooter from the base
6. was not there the year prior

THIS YEAR'S VITALS:
1. no prickers
2. the stalk is approximately 3 inches in diameter
3. the leaves are glossy oval shaped
4. is standing about 5'5" tall (my friend erin standing next to it is 5'6") and is taller than me
5. grew 2 shoots from the base so far (see the baby one left of erin's feet)
6. erin so kindly tried to weed one of the baby shoots (i say baby but it was still over 2 feet long) but ended up only breaking its stalk. the insides looked like a dandelion's insides without the weeping milky stuff....

Rachelle's guess on 6/10/2006: magic beanstalk

so, any guesses of what this is?
please leave a comment, or point anyone you know that might know my way...
i will keep you updated as it grows. i am planning on leaving it be (unless it starts to hurt other foliage/trees/house around it) just to see if a) it will flower and b) i could enter it in some sort of weird plant contest and win a prize

some company in the garden...

2006-06-11T01:04:00.000-04:00

meet oscar. he was a stray kitten we took in that exemplified the definition of scaredy cat. he follows me around EVERYWHERE, and often he wishes that he could come outside to help me garden (he is an indoor cat only). most often he sits in the open sill of anyone of my 3 windows overlooking the gardens. and just WHINES incessantly. but it is nice to have the company (sort of) while i weed or tidy the gardens.

and sometimes, i admit, i do talk back.

he does like to stare at the robins that live here, eating the berries off this tree, eating grass seed we throw down to patch the lawn, eating my strawberries...this robin likes to fly into the window every 30 seconds for 5 minutes straight at least once a day. still doesn't quite get that he cannot get in. oscar tries to get him to cease any further brain damage by jumping up onto the table near this window.

oscar also likes to help me blog about the garden....

portulaca grandiflora

2006-06-09T15:15:00.000-04:00

portulaca grandiflora, or moss rose. it's a plant that thrives in arid, dry, poor soil, and hard to grow areas. i believe it can be grown in almost all zones, 1-11 at least, and i'm trying to grow it here. i put it in a container because i hear it's also a flourishing weed.

what i have done so far:

1. found neat shallow planter

2. filled neat shallow planter with a mix of potting soil and sand for drainage and to help reproduce the
"arid" conditions

3. finely spread the very fine seeds on surface of soil, covered with a VERY light dusting of sand so they would grow

4. placed in a spot that gets FULL SUN and loads of heat

5. momma's little helper decided that there was gold at the bottom of the planter and dug until her heart's content

6. husband found dog's doing and tried to put back in pot what she took out before momma came home, not seeing the very fine seeds hidden in soil, and most likely putting seeds at the bottom, middle and all through all layers of soil, where they won't get sun and most likely won't grow.

7. now i've got portulaca growing in one corner of the pot so far

8. hoping and praying that the "moss" part of it will creep over the rest of the container.

this is what they will look like hopefully:

what on earth...

2006-06-09T13:45:00.000-04:00

okay. a little help. in the massive amounts of seedlings thriving from seed this year, i have misplaced the tags for these and i don't know what this is anymore. it's either sweet basil, or stevia. i doesn't smell like basil, but they were sitting in the sweet basil tagged trays, which i swear i did not move anything there but sweet basil....i could also swear that half of these seedlings look like the sweet basil sprouts here when younger...

if it is stevia, then i might have to transplant the little seedlings that i planted in the the basil area as nothing will keep me from having a good basil harvest this year. good thing i have leftover plants as i may have to transplant some...

garden happenings #2

2006-06-09T11:10:00.001-04:00

mesclun thriving..... (5/29 left; 6/9 right)

two more berries ready for harvest (i ate that last one...it was so tasty)...

calendula finally taking shape....

trying to sprout some bunching scallion seeds to plant.....

awww... my first "harvest" of all the gardens. ain't it cute?
really it was more like a "clean up". the italian parsley was getting a bit top heavy and shooting runner like things everywhere.

growing pains

2006-06-08T22:40:00.000-04:00

no pain no gain i guess....look at the progress in just 10

days (no kidding! most of the growth came after i enriched the soil on sunday 6/5):

cherry tomato 5/29

cherry tomato 6/8

aztec sunflower (center), teddybear sunflower (so small unable to view) 5/29

aztec sunflower, teddy bear sunflower (smaller seedlings) 6/8

zinnias 5/29

zinnias 6/8 (still haven't found a place for them yet)

nasturtium 5/29

nasturtium 6/8

so i guess i must be doing something right, right?

garden reflection #2

2006-06-08T09:16:00.000-04:00

5 ways my life has changed by having a garden:

marigolds on window sill

1. i now get excited when it rains. especially downpours. i'm finding i actually WISH for rainy days. i got really excited when i saw this picture
2. i now LOVE earthworms, and get excited when i accidentally chop one in half with my spade to form 2 worms (i seem to have an overabundance of them....yeah for me)
3. weeding is my new therapy...so relaxing
4. my dog is getting many more walks (instead of being let out in the yard)
5. i'm becoming much more computer savvy (aka nerdy) and can edit blogs in a flash with language i still don't comprehend (possibly C++?). and what the heck is the extra + anyway.

finally

2006-06-07T22:20:00.000-04:00

look! i actually got to harvest my first strawberry! it's sooooo pretty. and it was the first time that the dog or something did not get to it first. unfortunately, the something ate this one up.

oh so that's what they mean

2006-06-07T00:17:00.000-04:00

so when i was researching growing strawberries, everyone kept saying, "strawberries will create runners everywhere", and "cut back the runners so the energy can be put back into the fruit". but no one was telling me exactly what a runner actually is. well..

i think i figured out what a runner is (click the pics to enlarge). i clipped these tonight from the strawberry plant. they are long shoots that touch the soil and take root. yup. creating another plant. 2 did take root and started to grow leaves, and 1 has not grown full leaves yet. so i did as every good little gardener should, and cut those suckers (no pun intended) out. but...
you know me and i always hate to waste anything, so....

in a pot they went. i'm trying to experiment. i planted 2 of the rooting runners in a pot (right next to some homemade bread in my kitchen and that's sorta odd now that i look at it), and i cut the third in half and placed them between wet papertowels to see if it would start to root. if it does work, i have new strawberry plants to pot and keep or give to friends. and if it doesn't, then hey why not right? i was just going to throw them away anyway.

160 pounds of poo.... and some mulch

2006-06-05T23:42:00.000-04:00

sunday was a good and busy garden day. my husband and i spent 9 hours on the garden. but i have never tended a garden before, so it was my first time amending the soil. unfortunately, i only came across good gardening advice (thanks fellow bloggers) after i had already planted my gardens this year!

so anyway, i had gotten much advice from my sister-in-law to enrich the soil with peat and manure so i went out and bought 160 pounds of...well...poo. and the thought of it sitting in the trunk of my car.... on a hot summer day.... well, it was a funny car ride.

so, things we did:
1. poked a bunch of holes in the soil and around the plants of the herb garden and started to work the manure and peat in. all i can say is thank god for lots of earthworms

2. dug up ugly ground cover (see the ground cover here) around delicate japanese maple so we could mulch
3. topsoiled and mulched around the delicate recovering japanese maple
4. cleared groundcover around peonies and hydrangea, amended soil, then mulched
5. weeded all gardens, cut back mint (sigh...yet again), then mulched
6. planted candytuft around the entrance of our "secret garden" (see picture below, its the small bush to the right of the lamp), through the mulch
7. planted baby sweet pea vines to wind up our chain link fence
8. planted dahlia bulbs--however, the ever so elusive "eye" they keep talking about (to plant pointing up) i couldn't find so phooey...they just went in a hole

hmmm... my backyard is looking quite nice now....

Garden Pests #2

2006-06-05T00:04:00.000-04:00

so, i have a new pest in the garden. those dang propellar seeds that where so pretty and wondrous when i was a kid. we'd throw them up and watch them trickle down like a fun new toy. well, i've just spent the entire day weeding these baby trees out, all over my yard, garden, pots, strawberry pot, and even in my seedling trays! this is a picture of one that took in my seedling trays on my potting bench. i think they are poplars, and the particular kind i just weeded were red. yes, it was sad to have to pluck out so many baby trees, but i don't want to have what would be a very large tree in the middle of my herb and vegetable garden.

lesson learned # 1: mint

2006-06-04T10:58:00.000-04:00

thanks to mother nature, i now have a mint garden.
last year this was not here. in fact, the almost 3 years i have been here it was not here.
this year, out of nowhere (i like mint, but i know how invasive it gets so i do not plant it), it exploded near my air conditioner and now is infiltrating my plot of hostas and lily of the valleys. it's so abundant that i have to take to harvesting it by at least a third every couple of days or so before it overtakes my lawn, house, universe. i even had dreams that a mint monster (picture swamp thing but covered in mint) grew in through my window and started to chase me through the house. well, i wasn't going to have an obituary reading "wonderful gardener, death by invasive mint." it was war i tell you.

my war bound strategy:
1. i tried to cut it back. but it grew back.
2. i tried to dig it up and plant in a container, but the mint immediately died in the pot and grew back almost imediately in the garden.
3. i tried to dig it up, plant it in a pot, sunk it into the ground. results? see #2.
so, therefore, i have risen the white flag, and surrendered. i now harvest mint every couple of days or so, and we cohabitate the garden happily now. i have better things to do in my garden anyhow.

it's not all bad, as i really do love mint, and i always hate to ruin something that is obviously "meant to be". lesson learned: i guess i'm a lover, not a fighter. and anyway, do you think mother nature is telling us that this is the summer of unlimited mojitos?

daily garden inspiration

2006-06-03T13:35:00.000-04:00

look what's growing!

so i've discovered i have columbine in my garden bed. since the leaves look like clover, i believe i have weeded this poor thing year after year. it is a white double flower sitting on a pale pink petals. i apologize for the picture quality...i took this picture during dusk excited about the discovery (and tried to adjust as best i could), thinking i would take a picture when it was lighter out. however, the next morning, momma's little helper dragged her stick over it and the bloom fell to the ground. i did buy her a new toy though.....

reflection on the garden reflection #1

2006-06-03T13:11:00.000-04:00

funny...as soon as i stopped blogging and stepped foot outside to weed, it started to down pour! out of nowhere i tell you. i guess the powers that be is telling me to wait until tomorrow when my husband is home.

and the amazing thing is... the sky is blue on one side of my garden, downpouring, started to hail, and sun shining through all at once! crazy michigan weather....

garden reflections #1

2006-06-03T12:12:00.000-04:00

do you ever find yourself blogging about your garden more than tending to your garden? ugh.

my goal for the weekend: to find a garden spot for my zinnias and WEED. then blog. which is not going so well as i'm blogging right now....

strawberry update

2006-06-03T11:31:00.000-04:00

i found the most wonderful planter on sale at joann's etc one day and wondered what to plant in it. a friend suggested strawberries, and i loved the idea. so, strawberries were planted in mid april. i actually think that the planter is helping the strawberries not develop too many runners, but hey, what do i know about gardening?

April 2006

the strawberries had it rough in the beginning. after a bout (okay, 2 bouts) with the dog believing that the strawberries should really be in the ground and thus dug out half the planter, and then something getting to the first 2 ripe strawberries i was waiting to pick, they are healing quite well.
june 1, 2006

of course, we had to "puppy and something proof" it with a chain fence remnant my neighbor gave us.

june 1, 2006

but look! it's an uneaten strawberry. it's growing a little lopsided, but if that is what a strawberry has to do around here to grow, then who am i to be picky? it's all about survival here, folks!

june 1, 2006

daily garden inspiration

2006-06-02T20:50:00.000-04:00

look what is pushing up through the ground!
i planted rows of mounding nasturtiums (alaska and jewel) in the front of the herb garden. i hope it fairs well and i hear it's a great companion plant especially for tomatoes.
i just think the leaves are fun.

japanese maple update

2006-06-02T20:41:00.000-04:00

the japanese maple is a hardy little sucker. he is doing just fine, even though momma's little helper did a number on him last winter. emmie chewed off all but 1 branch, but luckily that remaining 1 branch jutted out and curls back over the tree. the leaves are filing in nicely, and the tree is starting to grow new branches out of the limbs and trunks. i think it's doing very well, but i am still going to clear out the ground cover that i hate anyway around the tree.

herb garden post #1

2006-06-02T19:14:00.000-04:00

okay so this is the first entry in the chronicles of our new herb garden.
it looks pretty good in its new state, however when i was turning the dirt, i found lots of little critters (potato bugs, something that looks like earwig babies, ants) besides the massive amounts of worms (yeah!) playing around in the dirt. so we shall see how plants fair. the perenniels that were planted there seemed to do fine. that is until momma's little helper decided to do some tilling on her own.

oh and don't mind the tinyness of the garden. i have a small postage stamp yard in a neighborhood city of outlying detroit. i'm trying to make the most of the garden space! i was preparing to build a large raised bed behind the detatched garage, but it was so far away that i believe i would not get back there much to tend, weed, harvest... this garden, even though small, is right outside the kitchen door, has better drainage, and is a good starter garden not having too much to try to tend to.

it's not to say that i don't have a little garden envy....

Garden Pests

2006-06-01T22:54:00.000-04:00

i'd love for someone to help me out with some of my garden mysteries (and how to solve them).

mystery #1: unknown plant (or weed) this reminds me of some sort of beetle eating the leaves, although i have never seen any foliage eating insects in my life. if you look closely, there is a small speck of an insect in the middle of the plant (which may or may not be the culprit). this plant is located in the front flower and perennial gardens of my house, and the other plants and myrtle around it appear to be unaffected.

mystery #2: peony

i purchased 2 small white peony plants and dug a hole in the ground and plunked them in. i have no idea how rich or ordinary the soil is. but as soon as i planted them, the leaves turned dark red, and this one's leaves started to curl. there is no other signs of rotting or disease so far as i can tell. they seemed to have survived the transplant though, and now the leaves are turning back to green. sadly, they were very young and i planted them late. so i don't think they will flower this year.

mystery #3: hydrangea

my hydrangea is starting to bloom! again, a purchase of a smaller perennial (they are cheaper and take transplant better) transplanted into a hole dug in the ground with no working or enrichment of the soil. apparently i have alkaline soil per the pink blooms, but the tips of the leaves are starting to darken. i wonder if the hydrangea and the peonies are suffering from the same problem as they are planted in the same plot.

ideas?

momma's little helper #1

2006-06-01T11:38:00.000-04:00

emmie. she's a 74 pound beast but a cute one. in the almost 2 years we have had her, she really did a number on the gardens.

number #1

last fall she completely decimated our very mature japanese maple, chewing off all but one branch. it was quite sad, especially since we priced out similar mature trees and we found that emmie had a $1500 snack. we sawed off the chewed pieces to make clean breaks to help the tree heal, and bought some treetone organic fertilizer, but we haven't had to use it yet. and i'm proud to say it is doing quite well now.

in the beginning...

2006-05-31T00:10:00.000-04:00

this is a picture of my plants started by seed around my birthday, april 5th. this was taken in the beginning of may. we had a funny month of weather, and early may had some beautiful days but really cold nights. so they were kept on an old small table in our office (much to my husbands dismay) in front of a south facing window. the tall ones are mammoth sweetpeas with moonflower in the front, and stevia nearest the window. cherry tomato plants on the right, and basil on the left.

this is a picture of my cherry tomato plants newly transplanted into 3" pots on may 19th. too many plants and too little pots so they had to go 2-3 seedlings per pot. they are actually doing quite well even though it seems a bit crowded. and they have transplanted into the garden nicely.

i was having so much fun with gardening (i always take on a project in FULL) that i decided to start the following from seed using uncle toms method (these are basil sprouts done by the method) for zinnias, sunflowers (teddybear, aztec gold, chianti, kidstuff, italian white), nasturtium, calendula. i also had a ton of seeds left over from the seed trays so i ended up germinating the remainder of the basil, and hot pepper, cilantro, green zebra tomatoes (which did not take at all in the seed trays).

so again, my husband just had to laugh when our house was speckled with a million little dixie cups with seedlings growing happily in them. this is one of two flats of zinnias-"burpeana" and "cut and come again"

what i have growing in my michigan yard

2006-05-30T00:45:00.000-04:00

FROM SEED:
cherry tomatoes; green zebra tomatoes; brandywine tomatoes; hot pepper mix; sweet basil; cilantro; stevia; aztec sunflowers; dwarf teddy bear sunflowers; chianti; sunflowers; italian white sunflowers; kid stuff sunflowers; zinnias; calendula; nasturtium; portulaca (yes i know its a desert plant but i'm determined to grow it here)

SEEDLINGS I BOUGHT:
italian parsley; lemon thyme; english thyme; rosemary; white peony (not doing so well); hydrangea (small, thought it was a goner, but getting pink blooms)

pics to come soon...as soon as i find my camera...
hopefully then someone can help me figure what is wrong with my poor peonies

so far so good....

2006-05-30T00:38:00.000-04:00

not to jinx myself, but i've grown some darn beautiful seedlings from seed. a funny thought since usually when i do this....NOTHING survives. or they get totally small fruits.
i tried a new method i found on uncle toms garden taking me back to grade school, where you germinate seeds between wet paper towels until they sprout, then planting. true to form and blog, i had HUNDREDS of plants growing out of my ears. i am actually giving them away since i do not have room enough to plant all of them in my little city garden.

so this year...

2006-05-30T00:35:00.000-04:00

so this year i have made some resolutions for my garden.

1. experimenting. i'm going to experiment with new methods, new plants, and new beds.
2. i like to plant where i like plants, not necessarily where they will do the best....so we will see if black thumb comes a runnin'
3. go as organic and i can muster, not knowing anything about orgnanic gardening. or gardening for that matter.