2012 - A Month Later!

So much growth since a month ago!  The Butterfly Garden is getting so full!  I am going to have to split these Lilies up to free up some room.  Evan's new flower is looking really pretty with it's red and yellow blooms.

The red is prominent in this picture, while the yellow is on the back side of the plant.  Next time I will get an angle that has the two plants to show the different colors.  Behind it, the Russian Sage is looking very full and beautiful!

The Raised Garden is looking wonderful too!  The Kale chips really helped thin it out as you can see that it was over growing with lots of leaves!  I will have to thin it down to two plants I believe.  As well as the Beets.  They will be thinned to maybe four.

 Here's a nice overlook of the whole garden.  The Parsley has finally popped up as well as the Carrots!

There's those yummy Pea shoots.  I am never going to let them get tall if I keep eating the sprouts.

The Sunflowers are getting tall too!  I may have to thin them as they keep getting tangled into one another in the strong winds.  Their size contrasts so much comparably to the ones in the terracotta pot.  Another surprise is the Kentucky Pole beans, they seem to have taken off a bit since I last documented them.  I have a Soybean sprout in there as well, and thank God, because the deer have eaten the one out by the fence.  I may have to start some more to get them going again.

There is the Parsley next to the beet greens.  Not much out of the ground, but they are a slow grower.  The Cilantro is looking good and there are some new Radish Sprouts popping up next to them on the right.

The Dill is looking so lush with it's feathery foliage. 

The Daffodils are looking like they might just bloom.  I have read that I should cut them off and let the bulb build up energy for next year.  I really don't want to do that.  The sunflowers are looking good, but seem over crowded.

The Mesclun is looking really good in the fenced in garden.  Look a little closer at the top and those pesky Sunchokes are poking their ugly heads up out of the ground.  I do believe there are tubers under the concrete block that are impossible to get to.  Like I said before, EVERY bit of the tuber, root and plant must go.  What an invasive species.

Oh Deer.  Quit eating my stuff.  I know.  It's my fault for not covering these tasty little guys, but it still urks me that they would come into my yard and eat my food.  The nerve.  You foraging monsters.

Whatever.  I am not upset.  Just really glad they didn't eat the Spaghetti Squash.  The Peppers may come back.  I won't hold my breath, especially the Soybean plant that was completely demolished.

 
Here are the same flowers that are featured in the Front Yard right now.  They are packed in with these Pineapple Mint or Orange Mint.  I think they cross pollinated with the Spearmint, so they don't smell as good as they did last year.  They will soon take over the yard and when I mow it will smell so delicious when I chop them down.

The Butterfly Bush is looking good.  I hope the deer doesn't eat it like the peppers and soybeans.

The Crabapple is getting munched on as well.  So frustrating.  Why don't you get tall already mister tree so the deer can't reach your tall branches.  I think a fence to go around it will have to help it get back on the road to recovery so it can reach for the sky.

 The Lilly of the Valley is not doing much, but staying alive.  I'll take that.

The beautiful Mesclun is surrounded by some really pretty flowers that I have yet to plant, a whole month later.

 It's like a salad bowl.  It just needs some dressing.

The Johnny-ups in the top corner are coming along so slowly.  The seeds were from 2009, so I don't know if they are stunted by that fact.

The resilient flowers that need to be planted.  So pretty.  Pink is not my favorite color, but it looks good with yellow and green.

2012 - A Little Front Yard Blooming Action

So much focus has been on the Raised Garden, that the Front Yard has been neglected to be pruned in a more welcoming manner.  Despite this, I have some pretty blooms that have survived last year's heat wave and this winter's drought.  My grocery store Iris bulbs from Reasor's in Tulsa have made survived for a third season.  The Iris on the north side seem to always bloom later than the south side.

I'm completely fine with that.  Now I have an extended bloom time with these flowers since they really don't last very long.  Two weeks tops.

All except for the Tulips and the Yucca, I believe everything is from Tulsa.  My Mom has given me a lot of plants from her garden.

It's very refreshing to see something come up in my Front Yard besides dandelions and clover flowers.  I really don't know what to do with the landscape.  Evan and I have ideas and visions of what it should look like.  However, our pocket book lacks the funds to make this happen.  We really have put the whole of our budget into our Raised Garden.  The fear of heat and drought of the house's western exposure keeps us from investing anything into it.  We keep thinking about putting a evergreen tree and some juniper ground cover to make it interesting.

2012 - Vates Kale with Beet Greens

Wow!  I can't believe it has only been a month since I planted everything in the Raised Garden.  Although the Kale was a transplant from Planters, I am glad to have that early start to get my culinary on. 

 The first thing I have been enjoying with the Kale is a substitute for lettuce until my Mesclun is ready.

The Snow Peas and Sugar Snaps Sprouts are also my favorites so far.  They are great to munch on fresh.  Follow the vine down to the second set of leaves and break off just above to make a great snack.  They taste like the peas that they will become with a bit of a twist.  The sprouts that are first emerging are sweetest and less fibrous.

A new found use for the Kale is a recipe that I found on allrecipes.com, Kale Chips.  Yes, they come out crispy.  Of course, I changed the recipe since I did not have olive oil since the bottle we bought at Hy-Vee is impossible to open... I regress, and lacked in Seasoning Salt.  I used Vegetable Oil, Garlic Powder, Sea Salt, and Red Pepper.  Go lightly on the salt and red pepper.  I think I overloaded on the salt and am feeling icky because of it.  Otherwise, this is a really good way to get rid of some Kale if it is overgrowing in your yard.  It's a easy and quick recipe.  I also added Red Beet Greens and did they well.

2012 - The Living Room Garden - Update

With so much focus on the Raised Garden, the Living Room Garden has gone neglected.  The Cilantro and Dill did not survive the lack of attention, while the Basil and Parsley struggles to hang in there.  I may take what I have extras of (what needs to be thinned out) in the Raised Garden to plant in these pots to have easy access to herbs.

This one lone basil survivor is fighting for it's right to live.  I will forget to water and it leans with major wilt and then I hurry to water and it picks right back up.  The only bad thing is that it does not get the proper amount of sunlight and that is why it is so leggy.  It's stem length is not right.  Those leaves should be almost touching the dirt.  It's fight for survival has caused it to grow super long to reach the sun's rays.  The Parsley is fighting too, but the basil is more interesting for some reason.

While the Living Room Garden faces South, the light is limited since it sits on the table several feet away and I dare not open the blinds all the way.  My only neighbor has his window RIGHT across from ours.  Great planning and he leaves his window wide open all day, all night.  Next Spring, I will try to figure a contraption that will have the plants sit on the window sill with some sort of privacy shade to keep the peeping eyes out if they try to look in while the plants get all their beloved sunshine.

2012 - Garden Update

~It has been a VERY busy week for me and this was supposed to post on the 20th. Sorry for the delay.~

Alright!  Here we go!

We've got Radishes looking beautiful in the top left, a newly planted Green Pepper on the right and last year's sprouts of Garlic Chives in the top right.  The bounty of lush Vates Kale, which tastes super yummy with my Tuna Salad sandwich, is surrounded by Beet Greens on both sides.

Here's a little better look at the Beets.  The red veins stand out in the bright green foliage.  These guys will need to be thinned here shortly as they will get too overgrown for this less than a square foot spot.  I am going to wait until they are a bit bigger for mixing with our salad greens.

This square on the left side of the Kale is a transplant spot for the Beets and one Radish.  They were thinned out from the other sections of the garden that I didn't want to get rid of so soon.  They are much smaller than their bigger cousins that did not get transplanted.   This could be an interesting study if I wanted to make one out of it to compare the results from transplant to non transplant.

The back side of the Raised Garden has the Peas and Beans.  Up front are about five plants of Snap Peas.  Behind it is a Kentucky Pole Bean that is struggling and I transplanted a Soybean and put it in that square with the Pole Bean.

An overlook of the four foot square garden:
From Left to Right:
Top Row - Sunflowers, Snow Peas, Kentucky Pole Bean with Soy Bean, Sugar Snap Peas.
Second Row - Sweet Onion with Chives, Dill, Brussel Sprouts, Basil with Second Green Pepper Plant.
Third Row - Carrots (not sprouted yet) with Radish, White Bunching Onion, Garlic Chives, Cilantro.
Forth Row - Beets and Radish, Vates Kale, Beets, Parsley.

Out in the yard, a lone Spaghetti Squash plant is taking off.

With the Squash, I planted the third and forth Pepper plants with the emerging Soybean plant.

Our Powell Garden Member's Butterfly Bush is growing bigger.

I got anxious about the Radishes being at three weeks so far in the garden.  However, I think the Radish needed another week or so to grow larger than a dime.  Evan did a good job of pulling it out of the bed with out damaging the plant.  The root was about seven inches long.  It sure tasted good too.  I washed the little guy off and took a tiny bite out of it and it was full of radish flavor!

I finally got the back side of the garden all settled and hopefully all the Sunchokes will keep from growing back.  I put down a weed barrier to keep the guys at bay.  My hopes is this did not make the bed for the Musclun mix too susceptible for drying out.

The Daffodils and the sunflowers are getting taller and taller in the Terracotta Pot.

Here's what's left of the Sunchokes... maybe.  They are in a pot waiting to get to Tulsa to give to my Mom.

The Honeysuckle is in full bloom and making Evan miserable allergy wise.  It's been really windy around here and we had to take the hammock down so that it did not turn into a giant sail.
The rest of the vegetable garden will have to wait until next year.  I still want to put the garden under the clothes line.  Maybe I will just put out some flowers to keep from having to mow under the line.

2012 - Hooray!

This is so cool!  I have found Boiled Peanuts at the store in a large can that you can eat straight out of the can or heat up in the pan or microwave.  Margaret Holmes, you are my hero!  I have been craving Boiled Peanuts ever since I left Georgia on my visit to see my brother during his college graduation at SCAD.

Though they are not as good as fresh Boiled Peanuts cooked on the side of the road, but they hit the spot.  Microwaving them to warm them up makes them so delicious.  It made my day.

2012 - A Spaghetti Western

We had some mushrooms in our fridge that needed to be cooked and were saved for Spaghetti, yet neither one of us were in the mood for the traditional meal.  As I worked in the garden, Evan put together this great Tex-Mex alternative to Spaghetti.

This delicious dish was made with Penne and Bow Tie Noodles, Turkey Meat, Onion, Mushrooms, Cumin, Basil, Oregano, Chili Powder, Salt and Pepper, Garlic, Tomato Sauce, Diced Tomatoes, and Black Beans.  Garnished with Cilantro, Fresh Squeezed Lime, and Parmesan.  Yum, Yum!

2012 - Garden Updates

It's been almost three weeks since I planted the all the seeds in the raised garden.  I also planted the Musclun Seeds a little bit later and are sprouting about in the pot and heading up towards the sun! 

Evan's Primrose plant is recovering well from being beat up in the $1 clearance section at Lowe's.  It's leaves are growing back and flowers keep coming up.

The Primrose was planted right next to this really neat Lily plant my mom gave me last year.  Fingers crossed it will bloom this year.  It is getting much bigger than it did last year.

Everything sprouted in the Raised Garden except the Carrots.  Evan and I headed up to The Grass Pad to get some new Carrot Seeds and check the place out.  I have never been there and the place is pretty neat.  Just hate that it is so far away.  Their prices were decent.  We looked at all their beautiful flowers and plants, landing us with a four pack of Green Pepper plants and a really pretty flower called Celosia that I will have to come back with pictures once it is put in the Butterfly Garden.

Even though the Butterfly Garden is getting full, the new flower will have a nice spot right in the back against the wall.  It will stand about twenty inches tall and stand out with red flowers.

The Daffodils are finally taking off along with the Sunflower Seeds in the Terracotta Pot.  I don't think they will bloom, but the fact that they are still alive is amazing.  We had an impending frost that would possibly kill the Sunflower Sprouts and I picked up that heavy terracotta pot to carry inside.  I ended up pulling a few muscles in my back and made it sore all week leaving me out of the garden on my day off.  I am getting behind on chores!

I was going to work on getting the rest of the Sunchokes out of the back of the raised garden.  They keep popping up after I pull a bunch out.  Invasive species, I'd say.  Remember, ALL parts of the tuber has to be removed.  If a bit breaks off, they will regrow from that.  The Spearmint and Lemon Balm wait to be planted, although, they seem to have planted themselves right there where I left them.  I believe the Oregano died from the heat.  Also I still have not figured out what to do with the pretty red and pink flower potted plants.

Evan and I have also purchased the Edging Brick and Mulch needed for the walkway around the Raised Garden from Lowe's.  We also got some Dirt to fill the back side of the Raised Garden after I put down some Weed Barrier in hopes to stop the Sunchokes from sprouting up.  Fingers crossed.  We got a new 20" Homelite blade from Home Depot for the mower and installed it, a Soaker Hose to hook up to the Timer for the summer when it's too freaking hot to water, and four 12" Concrete Stepping stones to put at the end of the patio to get the walkway started on the East side of the Raised Garden.  All in hopes that I can work on it tomorrow as weather permits and errands come before it.

We did have a really cool visitor today and hope it stays that way.  This Pileated Woodpecker flew in like a hawk and landed on our Front Yard Maple tree.  Beautiful Red Crested head.  He's kinda rare in these parts, but should not be uncommon as we are on the edge of their habitat area.  I wish I had a better picture as this one was taken from inside through our UV coated window on an overcast day.  These guys can dig really big holes in your tree for a family to grow inside.  Quite neat, but my trees are NOT in need of crazy holes in them.  I think the black ants have done a good job of that already.