organic garden of my dreams

I stayed at the Azalea Inn while in Savannah a few weekends ago, and they had the most amazing organic garden I've ever seen. It was raining most of my time there and the mosquitoes were hungry, but I really could have stayed in that garden all weekend!

My next house will have an amazing garden like this one. Definitely.

i built a garden this saturday past

The veggie garden is finished. It currently has yellow peppers and two types of tomatoes, but that will change soon.

While I wanted to build it in the backyard near the kitchen, there just wasn't enough sun. So I took a cue from many of our neighbors and built it in the front yard next to the driveway. tw wasn't too thrilled with this, but you can't argue with a neighborhood full of old-growth trees. It's also gotten us into new conversations with other front-yard gardeners on the street. There have been numerous discussions about planting techniques and plans to swap some plants soon to increase everyone's variety. I love gardeners -- such a friendly bunch. I built this bed closer to the house than the street so if the time comes to expand, there'll be room (foreshadowing, anyone?) I can probably fit another one and a half beds in, if I *had* to.

But that's not all that's going on in the yard. Spring is showing itself everywhere.

The mini roses are blooming and my grandmother's night-blooming orchid has tons of new growth. I added a trellis and pink mandevilla in the planter bed attached to the house. And the real sign that summer is coming soon: the banana plants have shown signs of life! We have grand plans to move these to the fence line this summer and build a deck by the kitchen.

Hopefully, our next front-yard task will involve ripping out the overgrown azalea bushes and planting something smaller and more manageable -- tea olive bushes, maybe? That, and trying to control the dollarweed that's taken over the front lawn. A true gardener's work is never really finished, is it?

garden spoils

This is all from the garden (well, the red onions were from the blueberry farmer.) There were 50 ripe tomatoes the last time we harvested, and more on the vines ready to go. We made 2 types of salsa for the party last week and are planning pizza sauce for tonight. I am also kicking around the idea of tomato jam. Tim says it sounds unappetizing, but I think it could be yummy -- for use on bruschetta maybe? We've already done the annual blueberry jam canning, but I'd love another excuse to pull out the canner. Maybe we'll put up some fresh tomato sauce too.

picture post

Some of the hibiscus flowers currently in bloom in our yard.




You probably wouldn't believe me if I told you we currently have a fourth round of blossoms starting on the Meyer lemon tree, but it's true! The baby lemons are currently starring in the banner of this blog and will be our first citrus harvest at this house.

excuse the dust...

I haven't been here in a while. Well, that's not true. I visit occasionally; usually close to 11pm on a school night exhausted and feeling guilty about not writing. Hmm... let's not think about that since now it's summer and I have plenty of time to do, well, whatever.

While I haven't been busy here, Tim and I have found time for lots of home improvement projects. We've been hard at work on the yard planting veggies, tending citrus, weeding flower beds. We pretty much have things down to a relatively quick daily maintenance. Two sets of hands have made things so much easier. While there are many things we want to do outside, a new grill popped to the top of the list after Tim accidentally shattered the window in our ancient grill while putting out the Great Grill Fire of 2009.


The grill sat lonely and unused for over a month while we went searching for a new one. After 6-7 trips to various stores and countless hours comparing grills online, we finally bought one this past weekend. It took the entire Rays v. Mets game to put together (rain delay included.) It's really quite pretty.


We had my parents over for Father's Day and grilled pork roast, asparagus, and fresh garden tomatoes. The grill performed flawlessly, and Tim is now back to planning dinners outside -- thank goodness. With this horrible heat wave, it seems hot enough to cook outside without the benefit of a grill!


Anyhow, I have lots more projects to share and several ideas in the works for summer sewing. But first up is a refresh of the blog -- if I can figure out how to put up a new banner. Here's to free time!

pickles!

I apologize for being MIA lately, but I've been working like crazy -- even at home -- and then Tim was in town for a week and, well, we were so busy I don't think we even really had a chance to relax. We saw UF's amazing series sweep of perennial SEC-dominating Vanderbilt (oh, and UF's win against Tim's eventual PhD alma mater USF), traveled down the Ichetucknee River with friends, celebrated my Dad's 60th birthday, and did a lot of canning. Yes, canning.

I found a great refrigerator pickle recipe several years ago that I used as my entry into the world of preserving veggies and fruits. But since I crave these pickles long after their refrigerator life is over, I decided to try canning them properly this time. If you've ever thought about making your own pickles, I highly recommend trying this recipe -- it's really worth it!


It starts with the cucumbers. You need to use pickling cucumbers that don't have wax on them (that goes for any fruit or veggie you preserve.) We made the annual pilgrimage to Roger's Farm (off of SR 121 on the way to Raiford) to get cucumbers. I use about 2-3 per jar, so I bought 24 cucumbers at 70 cents a pound! (If you're local, you can always get them at Ward's but not nearly as cheap.) I am growing cucumbers in the garden this year, but with the drought and all, they are far from ready. We also picked some strawberries for jam, but more on that in a later post.


I buy about two heads of garlic, since I like to use 3-4 cloves per jar, and a medium dill plant so I can keep making these all summer. You have to cut off the ends of the cucumbers so they'll fit in the jars, and I like to cut them into wedges so they're easier to eat right away.


This recipe makes about 7 pint-sized jars of pickles. The jars are reusable, as are the rings, but the lids must be replaced with every batch. For refrigerator pickles, you can sterilize the jars in hot water in the sink. If you plan on canning them, sterilize them in boiling water in the canner for 10 minutes before laying them on a towel to cool briefly before filling them.

pen loves paper's Garlic Dill Pickles

2 heads of garlic, about 3-4 cloves per jar, broken into cloves and peeled
1 bunch fresh dill, about 4-5 sprigs per jar
21 pickling cucumbers, washed with the ends cut off and sliced lengthwise into spears
2 1/3 cup water
3 2/3 cup white-wine vinegar (look for large bottles at specialty food stores like Fresh Market)
1/3 cup sea salt
2 teasp pickling spices
1 teasp dill seeds
1 teasp whole black peppercorns

Combine the water, vinegar, salt, and other spices in a saucepan. Bring to a boil and boil on high for 3 minutes. Leave to cool. Begin to sterilize the jars.

Pack the cucumbers 2/3 full in each jar. Add the fresh dill sprigs and garlic throughout each jar, then wedge in as many cucumbers as possible until it's full. Don't let the spears go above the lower lip of the jar.

Pour the cooled mixture over the cucumbers to cover by 1/2 inch. Seal the jars and label. Store in the refrigerator for 3 weeks before eating. Use in 2-3 months. Alternatively, seal the jars and process in the canner for 10 minutes. Rest the jars on a towel to cool to room temperature. Label and store in a cool place from 3 weeks to up to one year.

garden update

We have green beans!! Madeleine is one happy beagle. I'm sort of concerned she'll figure out they're within easy reach, but I honestly don't know if she's that aware.


I planted one Big Boy tomato plant along with the plum tomatoes, and it already has small fruit growing.


Outside the vegetable garden, the flowers are blooming rapidly.


My gardenia bush has exploded with blooms. They smell so wonderful -- not quite as yummy as orange blossoms, but good none the less.


Almost all the hibiscus have finally started to pop up. If you remember, I fretted for months about whether or not my favorite plants would come back after that winter freeze. I lost two of the six oleander for sure, and one hibiscus that I transplanted toward the end of last summer still has yet to show any new growth. On the positive side however, there's one hibiscus with a bloom almost ready to pop open. It's the first official sign of summer, and I can't wait to see it!

garden explosion

The veggies were planted about a month ago and have settled in their new home rather comfortably. I expanded the width of the garden somewhat but got lazy on the lengthwise expansion, so the plants are probably closer together than they ought to be. Usually that's not a problem since a few of them tend to die at some point in the season. I've decided to try a new fertilization method this year, and as a result everything is healthy, green, and growing. Space might be at a premium after all.


These are the tomato plants. I usually grow plum tomatoes since they're small and run up the bamboo stakes nicely. Next to them are the onions, strawberries, cucumbers, and broccoli. I've never grown cucumbers or broccoli before, so I'm interested to see how they turn out.


Green beans are another new addition to the garden. They are Madeleine's favorite treats, so it would be great to be able to grow them myself instead of constantly replenishing our supply at the grocery. All nine plants have small bean pods forming already!


If you look carefully, you can see three small buds on the red pepper plant. I'm growing only red and yellow peppers, deciding to give the Cubanelles a rest for this year. Every pepper plant has several buds -- hopefully they'll all bloom.


The mint has made a big comeback after looking sickly over the winter. Mint grows like a weed and can easily overtake a garden, so I grow it in a pot. The only other herb I grow year-round in a pot is cilantro since it doesn't seem to do well in the extreme heat or cold (it tends to live inside on a windowsill most of the summer.) All the rest of the herbs -- parsley, tarragon, thyme, basil, oregano, sage, bay leaves, rosemary, and chives -- look happy and healthy, with the lone exception of the basil. We had a last cold snap just recently, and the basil I grew all winter did fine while the new stuff I just planted has wilted somewhat. Last year I had so much basil I ate pesto for weeks. Look for recipes using my homegrown veggies and herbs to pop up more often as the summer nears.

my neighbors must love me

This is what I did with my Saturday.

When I bought my house, the only thing that separated my yard from the busy street I live next to was a line of ligustrum bushes. I hate ligustrum because it smells bad and constantly needs to be pruned, but it does provide a nice buffer from the street noise. My father would come over faithfully twice a year to help trim back the bushes. Then we put up a fence (conveniently exiling the ligustrum to the street side) and I have proceeded to ignore it ever since.

Unfortunately, the ligustrum does not like to be forgotten and has been reminding me of its presence this spring by growing over my fence. It has also decided to share the seemingly immortal Virginia creeper vines that live within its branches by allowing them to grow between the cracks of the fence. If there is one thing I hate more than ligustrum, it's Virginia creeper vines. All summer long I am constantly pulling them off of everything -- the house, the fence, other plants. Those suckers are quick.

So this year I decided to kill two birds with one stone: severely trim back the ligustrum to stop it from growing over the fence and pull out the Virginia creeper vines tied up in its branches. I figured if I took care of it now, it'll save me lots of time and energy this summer. I recruited my father to help by promising to haul away anything he cut. The ligustrum was the easy part. Then we hit the palm tree that hadn't been trimmed since I bought the house and a huge mess of various tangled vines, including some with really sharp thorns. We got through the big stuff before we called it a day. I still need to go back and trim the little branches we missed and pull out the Virginia creeper vines -- yuck.

It took another hour after cutting to haul all the branches to the curb and cut them to legal pick-up size. My neighbors must shake their heads every time they pass these giant piles I leave by the curb. I already know the yard trash guys hate me.

More garden pictures and a craft update to come. Maybe I'll even get around to that spring training post...

happy spring

It's officially spring -- hurray! To celebrate I went on a little shopping trip to Lowe's (to replace some dead plants) and the feed & seed store where I got veggies for the garden. Tip: the feed & seed store had better prices, larger quantity, and more variety than either Lowe's or Ward's when it came to veggies and herbs.

New crops for this year's garden include cucumbers, broccoli, yellow peppers and green beans. They will join the usual inhabitants Roma tomatoes, strawberries, onions, red peppers and Cubanelle peppers. I also bought extra basil and some thyme to add to the herb garden. Everything else survived the winter just fine.

Of course the garden is not big enough for all of these yummy plants so I plan to double its size, just like I did last year and the year before that. I am excited for more garden space (and less mowing!), but not that excited about removing the top grass/weed layer to get to the good stuff. That job is similar to raking, only worse. Looks like my Easter weekend will be busy.

In other news, look for baseball and crafting updates to come soon.

garden picture post

I spent most of this week in the garden before heading out of town. I raked the whole backyard and had enough leaves to create plant beds to edge the entire yard. I've got the blisters to prove it!


Spring's first dogwood blossoms.


On Sunday Lowe's had an exceptionally good selection in their half-dead plant department. I got enough flowers to fill up the containers along the back fence -- all for half price!


I like to use unusual containers to dress up the garden. This moss rose will last throughout the hot summer months without a ton of water.


Blueberry blooms are bursting out on all three bushes!


Last but not least is my favorite harbinger of spring -- orange blossoms. Their smell is absolutely intoxicating! Happy spring planting everyone.

neighborhood beautification

Every morning I run through my neighborhood. I used to like the track at the nearby middle school but I find that I like checking out my neighbors' yards more than counting laps. This morning my nosey-ness paid off. Halfway down the first street on my normal route I saw some small, wavy elephant ears peeking out of a yard waste bag. Being a gardener with no shame, I opened the bag and pulled out a good-sized cluster. I decided they would be kind of hard to hold while running, so I doubled back to drop them off at the house. While walking down the sidewalk I noticed the sad state of the drainage ditch located on the side of my house. I live on the corner of a relatively busy Gainesville street, and the drainage ditch was full of garbage and fallen tree limbs. Knowing the city was unlikely to clean it up anytime soon I decided to make it my project for the day (after my run, of course.)

After breakfast I spent an hour or so filling a kitchen garbage bag and my recycle bin with garbage and glass bottles. Then came the hard work. It took five wheelbarrow loads to get all the limbs out of the ditch. This is what I ended up with:
I had some neighbor's children offer to help me with the last few loads, which made it feel more like a neighborhood project. Many neighbors who walked or drove by made positive comments about our work. That certainly made me feel good. I hope our work encourages nearby streets to follow suit!

garden recovery

I posted a while back about the hard freezes that killed a large part of the plants in my yard. I say killed, but most plants will just need a trim this spring. I'm finally beginning to see growth on many of those plants, and my pruning shears are eager to get to work. I've vowed to leave everything until March though, since we always seem to get one last freeze that undoes all the work I put into the yard up until that point. But spring is beginning to peek its head out, most noticeably the azaleas. The pink, purple, and white flowers are providing a burst of color everywhere around town right now. I happen to really not like azaleas because they only bloom once and then sit there, green and dormant, for the rest of the year. They are lazy plants that constantly need trimming. But the native azaleas are completely different. Those beautiful, delicate flowers are actually worth the year-long wait. I'm sad that I can't enjoy their beauty for longer than a few weeks.

There are other signs of life in the garden as well: the Gerber daisies have popped up for a nice splash of color, the lantana is sprouting new growth, and a couple of hibiscus are starting to show new leaves. There are buds on the gardenia bushes and new growth on both bleeding heart vines too! Unfortunately the oleander are showing no signs of life, even though their branches are solid. My favorite hibiscus plants look like they'll have to be pruned heavily, as will the once-gorgeous orchid tree. And I'm pretty sure the angel trumpet is dead. Two more weeks and the gardening will begin in earnest. I can't wait.

garden goodies

Just picked these from the garden today. They look tasty, albeit tiny. There's another on the way as well. I'd say fall/winter tomato planting worked out okay this year -- I've just had to lug the pot in every time it gets below 50 degrees.

heartbroken

We had a freeze come through most of Florida in the first few days of the new year. It reached temperatures Gainesville hadn't seen in several years. For three nights in a row we had weather below freezing (29, 22, and 31 degrees.) I figured most of my plants were hearty enough to withstand the temperatures, although I did cover the citrus, birds of paradise, strawberry plants, and a few other young and/or cold-fearing plants.

I didn't expect what happened next. Everything froze. Hard.


The Blood Red Honeysuckle lost most of its leaves. What's strange is the hibiscus in front of it that survived with leaves still green. All the rest of the hibiscus lost at least their leaves.


This La France Hibiscus is my favorite plant. Its leaves died on all but one stem. How strange is that? Not to mention the mandevilla vine growing on the trellis behind it, which survived with blooming flowers and buds intact even though it faced the brunt of the southern winds.

I am so heartbroken. I spend many, many hours in my yard. I put every plant in the ground myself. And the worst part is that I have to wait until spring to see what actually survived. March just can't come quick enough this year.

december 20th, wouldn't you know

That's a picture of my living room this afternoon. Yup, those are open windows. It's 73 degrees outside and beautiful. This weather has given me plenty of time to work in the garden.

These are some of my veggies and herbs (the ones I bring inside when it gets super cold.) I decided to try growing late-season tomatoes, so I planted the plum variety in late September. It's worked out better than I could have ever expected. There are lots of flowers, and you can see the almost ripe tomatoes on the smallish plant. The weather has been so nice that they've been able to stay outside for all but a few nights recently. I'm looking forward to some fresh tomato sauce in January, complete with basil (see plant on the right.)

It's been so beautiful that there's even a bloom on my favorite hibiscus plant. The warm weather has been a great early Christmas gift for me and most of my garden, but the rye grass I've been trying to grow -- it's not been nearly as lucky. Too warm!

the wonders of a florida fall

For the last few weeks I've been reading on other craft blogs about the beginning of fall: the chill in the air, the desire to stay inside and nest, and the death of the summer garden. I've often wondered what it would be like to live somewhere where the seasons actually change when the equinox hits. This time of year is one of the few times I'm slightly jealous of the rest of the country. Until today made me come to my senses.

I was watching Madeleine play while looking out over my large overgrown backyard (overgrown only because it's just too hot to work in the yard in August & September around here) when something bright red caught my eye. Really? Could it be? A blood-red passion flower! I'd been waiting and waiting for these flowers to bloom, but hadn't seen any all summer. Upon closer inspection, I found blooms throughout the extensive vines climbing all over my back fence. Finally!



Then I looked around some more. Bougainvillea clusters, hibiscus yawning open, and Gerber daisies popping up. Even the bleeding heart vine is ready to bloom! So I grabbed my camera and took a tour through the yard. While snapping pictures I realized that although I still have a while to feel a real chill in the air (which we call winter around here), a Florida fall is special in its own right.

I'll post more yard pictures after I spend this weekend taming the lawn and flower beds. I am giddy with anticipation.