Backyard dreaming...

Due to a... difficult... neighbor, I haven't done any serious gardening for the past four or five years. Sad state of things, being uncomfortable in my very own back yard.

But Monday, NEW NEIGHBORS moved in next door - I am ecstatic. So, here's my little patch of green (with a light snow cover). I'll be talking about it a LOT more in posts to come. For now, let's just say that I have a lot of weeding to do - and am dreaming of a truckload of mulch.

Back home, back to the yard, back to myself again.

Okra!!!!!

5:12pm


So here's one of the reasons I'm loving Okra...

(veggie soup is a close second)

VINE PATROL!

6:25pm
I was sitting at the computer this morning, starting to work on a plan for a class that I'm going to be giving at Campbell's Gourmet Cottage in August... and after that, I was going to get into some bookkeeping and filling out Finch House's state sales tax for second quarter. Went to get a glass of water, opened the back door, sniffed the breeze, and that was it. So much for "desk day".

What an absolutely terrific day to be outside!! Sunshine, not too hot, low humidity, nice breeze! Nothing even remotely like July - time to fix a lemonade, sit on the porch, and enjoy.

Heh. Yehright. From our back porch, all looked lush and green. But I knew differently. The lushest, greenest, most lovely plant in my garden is called Bindweed. Gardeners know it - it's a vine related to morning glories, has heart-shaped leaves and pretty, trumpet-shaped white blooms. The blooms form long, milkweed-like pods that turn silvery-gray and split, releasing downy little fluffy things that we kids used to call "fairies". Each one carries a little brown seed. Each seed turns into a vine whose roots travel for yards and whose stem will reach out, grab onto, and wrap around anything it can find. Tight. It is without a doubt the nastiest, most pernicious, hardest to get rid of ... (Stop the description there. Mom might be reading this post.) Kudzu has nothing on this nasty little beast - our yard is one big bindweed topiary.

So, there is a tradition in our house that we call "Vine Patrol". Involves a large trash can, clippers, garden gloves, and more patience than I can usually summon up since bindweed needs to be carefully unwound from any plant worth keeping. If you "grip and rip", all the good stuff comes with it. I keep telling myself that if I can just do a little bit, a couple of times a week, it'll stay under control - but I don't. So it doesn't.

Six hours in the garden today. Six. Hours. Two trash cans full. And it was all over the chain link fence (ych) and into every rosebush it could find (can you say "blood donation").

But boy, does it feel great - everything looks so light and spacious now - and what a nice day to do it!

So now, it's a nice evening. Tom, who's been upstairs sanding hardwood floor before the final coat of poly, is out on the front porch - and not with lemonade. He said he'd meet me out there, and oh by the way, there's a frozen margarita waiting on the counter for me. woo hooo. Love love love that man.

(And my sweet Mother, should you be reading this: Don't worry. We really don't drink every night. Just now and then, when we've really earned it!)
;-)

More harvesting...

9:35pm
...and a great big bunch of about two dozen 'Becky' daisies! This has got to be one of the nicest plants ever. I planted three plants last year, and now they've all quadrupled in size and are covered with waist-high (or taller) daisies. I can't even see my bird bath any more! Need to move the front clump back to the fence, or something.

These and the OKRA are my New Favorite Things this year.

And dinner was a little ratatouille - sauteed some mushrooms with garlic & onion, added sliced eggplant & let it go for awhile, then added a can of diced tomatoes. Oh, and thyme/oregano/basil and a couple of splashes of red wine. Let it simmer till the eggplant was soft; put on a pot of spaghetti. Dredged a couple of flattened chicken breasts in plain breadcrumbs, sauteed those in olive oil/margarine till browned on both sides. Added a splash of chicken broth, covered, simmered for about 10 min.

Sketti on plate, ratatouille on sketti, parmesan on top, chicken beside. Cold Franziskaner beer. Simple, pretty quick, reasonably healthy. (And Tom approved!)

Happy Saturday night!

The Harvest Begins!

4:47pm

First of all, the time stamp on this site looks to be waaaay off... It says that I entered yesterday's post at 6:37am or some such - as if night-owl here would even be conscious at such an hour! (It was more like 9:45am.) So, I'm going to start each post with the real time.

Second of all, I had originally typed a huge novel of a post about veggies I'm growing, how they're doing, and what I picked today. I'm thinking twice about posting all that, because what it all really comes down to is this: I love growing things that I can harvest. Whether vegetable or herb or flower, it's so immensely satisfying to walk out the back door, pick something, and either eat it for supper, dry it to use over the winter, throw it in the bath, or enjoy looking at it in a vase.

I picked just a handful of veggies today: one really nice purple eggplant, some sweet frying peppers, jalapenos, a little bit of okra. Oh, and two cherry tomatoes, two strawberries. Not yet a feast, but enough for a little ratatouille stir-fry for supper... and maybe something on the grill.

Farmer Jules is a happy happy girl tonight! Best get cooking.