Pretty Day Pictures and a Meme

It was a beautiful day today. I spent the afternoon in the garden. Here are a few pictures of what is going on.

Cabbages and a crystal ball.

 

Broccoli and a Calico

 

The first head of cabbage which will be kraut in a week.

 

Parsley, I have about four large parsley plants. Anyone want to come help me bale it?

 

James and Shala posted a meme yesterday and I thought I would play along.

Describe your gardening style.

Well does what a mess count as a style?

What was the last plant you bought?

Curly Whirly Juncus.

What were the last seeds you bought?

Heirloom tomatoes, but I have to add that I received some really cool heirloom seeds from Monica including Avivvi and Ladino di Panacchio. Thanks Monica.

When was the last time you picked dirt out from under your nail?

Well I need to do that right now.

Any plans for the garden this year?

Convert the whole thing over to raised beds. I am about a third done with this project.

What was your biggest mistake in gardening ever?

Giant rose bush in tiny space, using a broken thermometer in the compost pile, trying to grow a Brandy wine tomato plant year after year and never succeeding here because we get too hot (I never learn). I am sure there will be more.

Biggest success.

Raising three boys who love veggies.

If you could do anything right now regarding gardening what would it be.

Control the weather. Wait that is the gardening super power I want.

Thanks Double Danger for hosting this meme.

And if that were not enough. James asked me a few questions a little bit ago and tonight he posted my response with a few other garden bloggers. I feel so Auntly. Anyway, go check out the responses of "What Does Gardening Mean to You" over at Double Danger.

Test

Okay, I played with my feed again. This is a test to see if it will show up anywhere. If it works on our family blog, I will change blotanical again. Wish me luck. I am horrible at this. Thanks to everyone who drops and checks for my missing posts.

Hey, Who Ate That Last Hunk of Bread

I made wheat bread yesterday. There was a little bit of it left tonight after dinner. Everyone went to bed, and that bread heal was mine. All I heard was a door squeak. I thought a monkey needed a drink. NOOOOOO....that monkey crept out of bed and stole my bread. GRRRRRR.

Well, here is what they don't know. A few weeks ago I read a snippet of something that said you could make fresh bread every day in just five minutes. To tell the truth, I just read the snippet and didn't actually go find the book or anything. I think, I can do this, just refrigerate some left over bread dough and bake it tomorrow. Well, I saved the bread dough and it morphed into something very large and prickly in the fridge. I pulled off a hunk of it, shaped it into a loaf, and baked it. MMMMMMM...it smells wonderful.

I am going to start leaving notes tomorrow. The following will be my first note.

To whoever (whom, can't remember the rule) ate the last piece of bread,

You cannot have any of this loaf.

With Love and Irritation,

Mom


Do you think it will work?

Beef Noodle Soup

 

It was cold and drizzly here today. It was a perfect day for soup and crusty bread. I busted out my brand new, bright shiny crock pot and made a batch of beef noodle soup. The crock pot was a Christmas present from Mamala. Thanks Mamala. To go with the soup, I made sour dough wheat bread. Mmmmm...comfort food.

 

Here is a picture of Tisha watching me sew on my hand cranked sewing machine. This was taken just before she attacked the thread feed.

Beef Noodle Soup
1 pound beef tips
1/2 medium onion chopped
1 stalk celery chopped
1/4 cup chopped parsley
1/4 cup chopped thyme
1/4 cup chopped rosemary
6 cups of water
3 Beef bouillon cubes (The good stuff is in the Mexican food section)
Ground black pepper to taste
6 ounces wide egg noodles

This is an all day recipe so start early. The house is going to smell wonderful. Set the crock pot on low. Place the beef tips in the crock pot with water simmer day. About two hours before dinner time, put all the other ingredients but the noodles in with the beef tips. Add more water if needed. Twenty minutes before serving, raise the temperature of the crock pot to high. Ten minutes before serving add the noodles.

The bread was made with whole wheat, essential wheat glutton, one egg, a pinch of salt, 1 tablespoon melted butter and enough natural sour dough starter to make a soft dough. I only kneaded this batch one time. The top split, but it looked like I did it on purpose. Sorry, I don't measure anymore.

Which one is this?

 

I tried really hard to take an in focus picture, but failed again. This is a little bitty tiny daffodil. I tried to find something on the internet about it, but just come up with other little daffodils slightly larger than this one. Anyone know what it it?

Weed-Feed-Mulch-Water

 

 

 

I started the late winter/early spring weeding and clean up last week. I weeded, fed, mulched, and watered the beds where the the lettuce, carrots, broccoli rhaab, Swiss chard, spinach, leeks, collard greens, and onions are growing. Four beds total. In one bed there is spinach, broccoli rhaab, and one pitiful little Swiss chard. That little chard has been just sitting there looking like a seedling for weeks and weeks. The clean up feeding and mulching was eight days ago. The little Swiss chard is about four times as big as it was last week. Amazing. The collards are also looking much better.

Today, I did the same thing to the garlic bed. The pictures above show the oak leaf lettuce, green leaf lettuce, and endive that volunteered in between the garlic. There are also little grape hyacinths growing in there as well. The weeds are gone, but these volunteers get to stay.

It will only be six weeks before I start planting tomato plants. Doesn't seem possible.

Now I am going back out to weed the cabbages.

GBBD Febuary 2009

 

Today is garden bloggers bloom day over at May Dreams Garden hosted by Carol. I imagined that many post will be about daffodils and other spring blooming bulbs. Mine will be more of the same. The collage shows the daffodils I have blooming right now. They include, jonquil, Earlicher, Minnow, and another large daffodil, which I cannot remember the name of. This year I am keeping a notebook where I will keep track of what is going on in my garden. Hopefully, I will not have large gaps in my garden memory in the future. If anyone can identify the large daffodil in the top center photo of the collage, please let me know what it is. Also in the collage is a picture of my Valentine's bouquet from Manly Man as well as the seed head from my cardoon plant.

Hop on over to Carol's Blog and check out what other bloggers have blooming now.