Spring Garden

We are not quite out of the wood's yet as far as chance of frost go's, but this is what I have going on in my garden beds for spring gardening.... and my tomato's are doing well.

I planted them on March 15, and now they look like photo to the left. I am hardening them off right now. I purchased some "Wall-O-Water's", wich claim you can use to protect your tomato's, peppers, and eggplant's up to one month before your last date of frost, so I am looking forward to planting nine of them in my beds on Sunday.



This picture is of something I have never tried until going to the nursery a few weeks ago. It is mustard greens.

The nice lady at the nursery had me taste a little piece of it while shopping and it had a nice tang to it that I really enjoyed and thought would be a nice compliment to my salads.


Some lettuce's that I planted in fron't of all three of my beds.

Romaine, bibb, and the mustard. Also I am trying something new this year.

The purple looking plants in the fron't corners are red cabbage.





Here is a closer look. I noticed today that the purple hue of these plants seemed to look deeper in color today.

"Please excuse the weeds!", I have been too lazy, and busy to mow my lawn, or do a whole lot of weeding as of yet.

Here is a photo of the tomato seeds that I planted. A mix of heirlooms.

I planted one heirloom tomato plant last year and decided I wanted to try all of them this year!

So the list of tomato plants are;

Omars Lebanese, Dutchman, Golden Sunburst, Black Russian, Aunt Ruby's German Green, and Djena Lee's Golden Girl.

I also planted two other tomato plants....."Mortgage Lifter", a big beefsteak, and Black Krim, a dark purplish brown tomato with a rich flavor.

Can't wait to plant my tomato's!

I made Lace!

So, I did get my pattern book about a week or so ago.....The cover picture was something I had been wanting to make for some time.

I ordered a cone of blue lace weight yarn from http://www.webs.com/, and then I decided to go to my L.Y.S., and found this lovely alpaca lace yarn in verigaited color of purple, by Misti Alpaca Hand Paints. I am not really a "pink" kind of girl, so I decided to use differnt colors, and I could not afford the Tahki Stacy Charles "Superior" lace weight yarn.

I have learned, that basicly any pattern can be fit to your liking just by making sure you use the correct weight of yarn called for in the pattern, and that you try your best to have the correct gauge.

I have to say I am very proud of me to get this done.

I have struggled with being to lazy to change colors, and frankly I have never acomplished a lace weight pattern other then a scarf.

All those stitches! I must be a very impatient crocheter! So all else said..... once I finished and after all the effort to get this project right, I had my honey buy me a peice of wood board from Home Depot to wet block the garment.

I have never wet blocked before. (yes I have cheated with a damp towel and my iron on the lowest setting over my garments) So of course after all my effort I had to buy some nice "soap" from the L.Y.S., and ran into this yummy stuff called "soak", smells so good I can not wait to put it on.

The funniest thing about the whole blocking process was that I must find something differnt to block my projects on for one, but also I ran out of pins, and found they were not working so well on the wood so I got out my hammer and nails! I was looking for any nail I could get my hands on to be sure to nail every single edge piece down, as called for to do in the pattern.

Not that I should mention but wine and stitches are a beautiful thing!

Also, the number one thing I have learned with crocheting is .... count your stitches! Do not get full of your self just because you got the first row or two correct. Count every stitch on every row! ( I know it is a pain).

Doris Chan's All Shawl

I am a big fan of Doris Chan. I just purchased a pattern book from Filatura Di Crosa Superior Crochet, and I can not wait to get it in the mail.

The book came out last year with stunning designs, and the cover is beautiful. I love lace and am going to be challenging my self to some new patterns.

Back to Doris Chan, I found this pattern on Ravelry for free. She seems to be a really nice lady, and a great designer. I also just started following her blog @ Everday Crochet.

To make the shawl a little more dressy I decided to make a pretty bow, with some nice ribbon, and I added in a pearl (that I had purchased a long time ago @ my local bead shop.) The green "pearls" on the outside I am sure are fake.... but who has to know? I think it gives the shawl a little bit of "vintage" and it is fun to put your own signature "stamp" on crochet patterns.

Happy 9th Birthday Savannah!

My spring baby girl is getting too big!

Treasure every moment, they grow up too fast!

What a sweet girl I was blessed with!

Happy Birthday Savannah!

Kitchen Garden

Yesterday I wen't to the local Nursery and decided to plant a minature hanging garden in my kitchen window.

What a cool thing! I would post a picture but my camera is low on batteries, so it is charging right now.

How cool would it be to pick your self some fresh herbs while you are cooking dinner?

I put an eye hook in the ceiling in fron't of my kitchen window so it would have plenty of light.

Next was a trip to the Nursery to buy some Lavender, Thyme, and Rosemary.

I know it sounds a bit odd to put Lavender in my culinary garden, but after purchasing and using Herbs de Provence (with lavender) in many recipes I decided it would be not only beautiful but useful.

I would like to add Basil, Marjoram, and Savory...., but I think I will wait until it gets warmer as I am out of room in my little "grow light" room in the basement.

Those Tomato's take up a lot of room! I am starting to wonder if maybe I am a bit insane for growing 30 something tomato plants in the first place!

Guess I will have to give some to my friends!

Rack of Lamb with Basil Mint Pesto

This recipe originated with me oohing, and drooling for that matter, with Food Networks Giada De Laurentiis' "Every Day Italian" show.

I have followed her recipe, and have never failed.

I make it about three times a year or more, and find it especially good for Easter.

For an extra special presentation you could garnish with lemon wedges and fresh mint and basil.

My kids love this recipe! I do not know if it is because they have tried it before or that they are used to me making differn't kinds of food and recipe's for them to try..... or maybe they just like the big dollop of pesto on top?

Either way I would encourage any one to go to foodnetwork.com and try this!

Seedling's

I started my tomato's and Hollyhocks, mid March, and this is what I have so far! Little Babies. The orange tray has herbs for the garden. Rosemary, Lavender, Boxwood Basil, and Fennel. The tomato's in the back are doing well. I am really excited to be able to get these started.

Growing indoors how to: I went to the Home Depot, and fortunately ran into a lady from the garden center who helped me pick out the lights. I first grabbed a shop light fixture. Then about 20 feet on chain, and four eye hooks.

The bulbs are one fluorescent, and one warm for each fixture. Find your spot were you would like to hang your fixture, and mount the eye hooks on the ceiling. Next put your lights in the shop light fixture's and hang them from the chain.

You need to keep the light fixture's two to four inches from your seedlings. As your seedling's grow you raise the lights by moving the chain link up on the eye hooks.

Happy Gardening!