Feeds:
Posts
Comments

Archive for the ‘Garden’ Category

Sunflowers and Summer

Posted in Garden, Home and Garden, Musings, tagged , , , on August 7, 2012| 2 Comments »

I don’t know what it is, but there is something about sunflowers, particularly against the backdrop of wheat fields and blue sky that just screams summer to me.

It probably harkens back to the days of my childhood when wheat harvest was an important part of the summer activities I tried to avoid. The edges of the fields often had volunteer sunflowers waving their bright little heads in the breeze. I always thought they were cheery and fun. My dad thought they were just one step above noxious weeds.

Regardless, they are a beacon of summer and simpler times that yank me back to summer days spent outside, covered in itchy wheat chaff, spending time with my dad.

The other day I was out snapping photos of a garden that is absolutely amazing and lovely and they were actually growing sunflowers in the garden.

And the flowers were bright, cheery and…

made me smile.

She Who Gets Nostalgic Over the Strangest Things

 

Read Full Post »

Wine Bottle Garden Markers

Posted in Entertaining at Home, Entertaining Ideas, Garden, Home and Garden, tagged , , , , on May 31, 2012| Leave a Comment »

The other day I had the opportunity to go to a local garden that is a joint project with a restaurant chef and a winery. There were all sorts of wonderful things growing in the garden but the thing that most caught my attention was the way they had marked the rows and plants.

Wine bottles.

They recycled empty wine bottles as garden markers by writing on the sides with permanent ink (wine pens) and turning the bottles neck down into the garden rows.

So much for my dorky little seed packets tacked to a flimsy wooden stake.

These bottles are cool, guaranteed not to blow away in the wind or disintegrate from too much exposure to the sprinkler.

I’m so glad people much more clever than me come up with great ideas like this.

 

And let people like me steal their ideas!

She Who Needs to Get a Garden Planted

Read Full Post »

A Thousand Spiders

Posted in Garden, Home and Garden, Musings, tagged , , , on May 9, 2011| 1 Comment »

Yesterday I was minding my own business, trying my best to perfect my lazy slugness, when Captain Cavedweller came bursting into the house and hauled me outside.

“You’ve got to see this,” he said.

“See what,” I asked, slightly miffed at having my blissful do-nothingness interrupted.

“This,” he said, pointing to some tulip stems in the front flower bed.

There, firmly entwined around the tulip stem, was a nest of freshly hatched spiders.

Ewwwww!

So being the nut-job that I am, I had to get down on all fours so I could investigate them closer. Then I decided I needed to take photos of them.

They started out in a tight little cluster that quickly expanded. They kept coming and coming. I’m pretty sure there must have been a gazillion of them, but for simplicity I decided to call it an even thousand.

Of course, we couldn’t let this fascinating find go unnoticed by others so I hotfooted it over to the neighbor’s and invited their kids over to see the spiders. They quickly stuck both hands into the mess and drug spiders home with them (Sorry, Jennifer!). And yet, the spiders kept coming. Soon the adults were batting them out of our hair and off  our clothes as the spiders went airborne.

Ewwwww!

And still more spiders crawled up the stem of the tulip and ran amuck in my flower bed. I think there is a never ending supply of them. The neighbor finally called an end to the kids spider diving and took them home. I’m sure I’m on her favorite neighbor list now. I’m all about sharing those fun experiences with anyone I can.

She Who Does Not Love Spiders

Read Full Post »

Heirloom Carrots

Posted in Garden, Home and Garden, Musings, tagged , , on September 20, 2010| Leave a Comment »

Word of the Week: Heirloom

heir·loom

{air-loom}

adjective

being an old variety that is being cultivated again

Heirloom Carrots

Way back in the spring when the gardening bug was nipping away at me, I decided to plant carrots. The only problem was that I couldn’t find any carrot seed. Crazy, I know, but true.

So Hubby came home one day with a packet of heirloom carrot seed. I didn’t think anything about the seed being “heirloom” and quickly planted them. It wasn’t until I pulled up a purple carrot and stood looking at it a bit confused that I finally remembered we’d planted heirloom carrot seed.

It has turned into somewhat of an adventure. When you pull up a carrot, you never know what color you are going to get. It could be traditional orange, glowing white, brilliant yellow or purple.

A plate of shredded funky-colored heirloom carrots.

The other day when I decided to make Hubby his favorite carrot cake, I had a plate full of  oddly colored carrot shreds and wondered what they’d look like in the cake batter. Turns out, you can’t even tell. But I will tell you, it was an excellent cake. The carrots were so fresh and soft and rich it made a huge difference in the texture of the cake.

I would encourage you to try planting a few heirloom seeds next spring and see how much fun (and how tasty) it can be!

Read Full Post »

« Newer Posts