Is it too early for garden chat?

I know it's early January but I'm already thinking garden.  after the last 2 summers it's no wonder that I am needing a garden fix. 

2 summers ago Paddy joined us and the garden went crazy...and then I found a black widow in the overgrowth and couldn't bring myself to go back in and thin it out.  So, I ripped it out.

Last summer the garden was overrun completely by cucumber beetles (both spotted and striped) and squash beetles.  Remember these evil beasties?  http://websterupdate.blogspot.com/2010/08/bugs-1-organic-garden-0.html

I have been doing some research because I want to kill off any leftover eggs as soon as the soil thaws out a bit and of course need to be prepared in case they blow in off the breeze next summer.

Looks like the best bets are Neem Oil and Rotenone Dust.  Both are organic solutions, fairly affordable and have the fabulous added benefit of treating against Japanese beetles too.  So, watch out roses, you may catch a break this year too.

I'm planning to order some of this stuff next month.  I'm planning to treat the soil with these first, turn it, and then in 2w give it a healthy dose of compost that I cooked last year.  Repeat.  I think that by early April I will be good to get things rolling with soil in excellent shape and a plan in place for the summer invasion.  Stay tuned!

Herb Seasoned Eggplant!

I was trying to figure out if these eggplant were ready to pick - and google told me the answer - YES!  So, then the question was what to do with them.  Apparently I'm a culinary genius (or just quite good at frying stuff which always makes it taste better.  Here's the recipe so you can make up your mind for yourself :)

***Disclaimer...  Patrick, who does not eat vegetables devoured this.  Granted, eggplant is technically a berry...but since he doesn't actually eat those either I'd say you better watch out because this is obviously really good ;)

Step 1 - pick eggplant (we're growing Ichiban variety) and any other herb you want to season with.  I used Basil (finely chopped), marjoram (dried), salt, pepper, Italian Seasoned bread crumbs and 5 LARGE cloves of garlic (minced).  No measurements taken so you'll have to play it by ear.

Step 2 - slice eggplant, salt and roll into paper towls for 20 minutes.

Step 3 - While eggplant is wrapped up in the towel mix all the herbed ingredients together in a bowl.

Step 4 - Pour 1/2c EVOO into a frying pan or skillet.  While it's heating up toss the eggplant in the herbs until fully coated.

Step 5 - Lay eggplant in 1 layer in pan and cook until lightly browned on 1 side. Turn to cook the other side.

Step 6 - shred cheese over hot eggplant and Serve!  I have a huge chunk of Jarlsberg that I grated and it was delish.  The adults enjoyed this with a Viognier (which is what we had open and it was yum together).  If you have kids at home they may attempt to lick the fried up bits off the plate afterward.  ;)

The waiting game...

Soooooo close, but patience is still required!

Big News From The Garden!

This weekend things just did not go right w/ the kids.  They were not the best versions of themselves and suffice to say I was definitely glad to be gainfully employed this morning....so, lets not dwell on that.  There is big news from the garden!

This homemade composter (tumber if you manhandle it onto its side and bang around and roll it) made some lovely dirt....

See how pretty and dark that nice dirt is....I think the plants are smiling!  Can you see the smiles?  They look happy, I swear it...definitely not my imagination!  I had enough to spread around all of the plants and have refilled the bin to make more.  I could not be more pleased.

Hello Dahlia!  Welcome to the flower bed :)

Messing around w/ a shot of my gorgeous white rose bush...see all those nice buds just waiting to burst out?

And finally...  The Jasmine is having a love affair with the Snap Peas.

Opening Day Excitement! and BRRRRR....

To all my VT friends & family - skip ahead to the next paragraph of this post.  You will not want to read my first section after your late April snowstorm for which I am absolutely feeling grouchy on your behalf.

Okay, now that my VT followers have skipped ahead I'd like to say to the rest of my readers...  WHAT THE HECK?  It was 35* out this morning.  I was freezing on my walk to work. 

Welcome back VT readers :)  Today is the opening day of the 17th Street Farmer's Market here in Richmond.  My favorite thing about this is that it is a 10 minute walk from my office.  So, I get some sun, some 'fresh' air, and some excercise in addition to supporting local farmers and picking up some goodies for my family.  I am really looking forward to my first visit today.

On the list:
Good, fresh baked, bread!
Goat cheese!
Unusual variety tomato plant for the garden!
Fresh, organic spinach!

YAY!

Backyard Revamp - Phase II - COMPLETE! and other stuff...

Waaaaaaaay back in the day I decided that our backyard looked terrible and that I was going to redo it in 3 parts.  Phase I has been complete for 2 weeks and Phase II was finished yesterday :)  Here's the evidence.

BEFORE:

Ack!

Double Ack!

Adirondack Ack!

AFTER:

Ohhhh hammock how I love thee! (lefto of hammock you see a teensy flowering crabapple that is too small to flower, a heat tolerant lilac that was transplanted and my fingers are still x'd that it will be okay, and a peony).  Yes, I realize the new mulch does not match the old mulch but the new mulch was on sale and that is going to be the determining factor.

Love.Love.Love the chairs in all their fresh painted glory.  Used English Ivy paint from Lowes.

Vinca & Hosta!

The view...so much better!

Another view...seriously...so much better!

I think the peony is sticking its tongue out at me.  I'm so impatient for it's lovely flowers and it's mocking me.  You can see it, can't you?

Miss Nat is an excellent waterer (new word!)

Look at her focus (and that gorgeous, enviable hair).  Those new plants will not go thirsty!

And (can you see her?) we've got a new resident in the backyard.  I'm not sure what type of bird this is but we were rocking in the hammock and noticed that we had company.  Welcome bird and eggs!

And from Phase I and the front yard...

Coming right along.  Everything is planted and growing well.

The $2.00 azalea did not disappoint.  I desperately wish I'd bought 4 or 5 of these!

Some future snacking!

And my shrub rose mentioned in a prior post.  Isn't she pretty?!

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It's Wednesday...already!?

This week has made my head spin so far.  Everyone is adjusting from being back to life and the kids have been a bit out of sorts, especially Patrick who continues to lose his mind shortly after we get home in the evening.  I've been vying for time on the computer but can't exactly bump The Hubs off when he's doing classwork.  Consequently I've only just gotten to editing all the pictures from vacation.  I did get them narrowed to about 100 and now just need to crop random people out and make everyone look as pretty as possible.  I am positively thrilled w/ the zoom lens and the fact that I was sitting in a lawn chair, miles (okay many many feet) from the beach when I took most of the pictures :)

2 things of interest last night...

Natalie slammed her hand in the car door for the 1st time.  She was in so much pain and I felt horrible.  Luckily the Director of the Infant Center was just passing us and she ran back into the school to get ice packs so things calmed down more quickly then they might otherwise have done.  Just bruised, nothing broken...and Miss Drama appears to have forgotten about it.  Probably because she did it to herself.  If I'd done it to her I'd hear about it til the day I died!

I've got a rose!  I got home last night and found one of my roses had bloomed.  It's a miniature shrub rose (well, it's supposed to be miniature, it's pretty darn big!) called "Survivor" and there it was - my first bloom!  Yay!

Of course, I have no pictures....  This weekend, I promise, there will be pictures!

News from the garden

I can honestly say I was not ready to come home but did enjoy a full day of working outside yesterday (Sunday).  I was so pleased to see that all the plants in my front flower bed were up and looking very nice in their "fresh" spring green colors.  My roses (which had been treated mid-winter w/ some of my homecooked compost) were going gangbusters and have several buds already and show no signs of the disease that had been bothering the leaves w/ brown spots for the last 2 years.

In the backyard the carrots, spinach, radish & peas were all sprouted and looking very nice.  All of my new flower plantings had survived the week of neglect.  I am thrilled w/ the auto-timer and drip hose that I set up.

On Sunday Nat & I finished direct sowing the seeds (cukes, lettuce and beans) and bought our basil, tomatoes & peppers.  I was bored silly with the selection available so will probably need to venture to a snazzier greenhouse for some heirloom varieties and definitely want a few eggplant seedlings as well. 

On the downside I found 2 black widow spiders setting up house in the boards along the veggie bed.  I squashed them both.  On the upside I have already seen several butterflies in the yard so I think our plantings are an instant success. 

With regard to Backyard Revamp Stage II - we're in progress!  I cannot bother to deal with photo's right now with the looming vacation photo pile to sift thru but will get to it soon (I think).  Yesterday I also bought 4 hosta and 4 vinca and planted them around the swingset.  I got the adirondack chairs all cleaned up and bought some green paint.  They should be dry enough to paint today but I doubt I'll get to it until next weekend.  I also transplanted a tree (forgotten variety but perhaps a heat tolerant lilac) from a spot near the porch to near the swingset and a crabapple.  It looked droopy yesterday but I watered the heck out of it and am hoping it survives.

PHASE 1 IS COMPLETE!

This weekend was CRAZY!  I'm not even going to try to explain all that I had going on and just focus on a couple of highlights.  I also will not dwell on what my body feels like right now and will assume that the old description of "finding muscles you didn't know you had" will lead everyone to the correct conclusion.  The rehab of the veggie garden is complete :)  I cannot stress enough how happy I am with the result and can honestly and truly say that my pictures do not do it justice. 

Here's the process...

Supplies!

This doesn't look terribly exciting but it was an hineyload of work.  I basically rototilled these sections with good old elbow grease and a large (heavy) shovel.  This wouldn't have been the most terrible thing ever except we have (IMO) the densest clay soil in the universt (yes, seriously) and the $%!!%$* landscaping we've got in our yard involves this green, plastic mesh crap that is impossible to get out of the ground.

Yes, that's more of my "rototilling" skills on display :)

I then spent the requisite amount of time needed for my type A self moving the pots around so things looked just so. 

Definitely do not forget about these fabulous little things.  You can't see them but they're in there :)

And here is the finished product w/ the exception of needing to bury the drip hose.  I think it looks absolutely fantastic!

More fantasticness!

and a special thank you goes out to my helpers!  I couldn't have done it without my kids being excellent nappers and supremely well behaved and great at playing together.  No, I'm not being sarcastic anymore.  With absolute earnestness I thank my kids for their fabulous selves this weekend!

***Notes - I would love to say which plants I used but Hubby tossed the plant tags before I had written it all down.  I recall jasmine, peony, blueberry, catmint, and Yarrow.  I did my best to stick w/ mounding or spreading perennials.  Several of the plants that I did pop in there for this year are annuals to take up space while the perennials establish.  I also made a very concerted effort to use plants that attract beneficial bugs, butterflies and birds.  We'll see how it goes.  And finally, you might notice the black trash bin in the background.  We've filled it w/ compost and are waiting for it to cook.  1x a week I'll lay it on its side and roll it a bit.  I estimate we'll have some awesome dirt in about 4 weeks.  There is a huge pile of other organic matter by its side just waiting for our first batch to 'mature' and then we'll see what we see.

For before's and other random tips on this project see here :)

http://websterupdate.blogspot.com/2010/03/veggie-garden-plan-complete.html

http://websterupdate.blogspot.com/2010/03/garden-phase-i-part-i-complete.html

http://websterupdate.blogspot.com/2010/03/lovehate-relationship.html

http://thepleasuresofhomemaking.blogspot.com/2009/04/how-to-make-compost-tumbler-for-cheap.html

finally - I realize you can't see any veggies yet.  but there are some seeds in there.  and soon enough its going to be my giant food producing fabulously yummy place to get dinner, super fresh!

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