Enough

Over the weekend we finally reached the point that was Enough. I thought that we had already reached Enough when we finished off the back yard garden. But when we put up the bird feeder that my dad made for me, it looked awfully bare. So I decided that we would put in one last big effort and do a bed around the base of it. I had a couple of plants left that were sitting on the concrete patio in the back, and on thinking of it decided that they would make great plants for birds, butterflies etc. So we made up a list before we headed to Lowe's of everything that we could possibly think of that we could possibly need. Because I know me and I know my husband I also added '1 plant' to the list. That way when I picked up an impulse buy and he made a snide comment on whether it was on the list I could say "Well yes, as a matter of fact it is on the list, right here, 1 plant". It didn't come down to that though, because look as I may I just wasn't interested in buying plants. Okay, I'll pause long enough for you to pick yourself off of the floor. :) I may still pick up a few plants here and there throughout the summer, but when you transplant after it starts getting warm outside the plants are really need and require a lot of attention through the season. Watering all the time, protection from some of the sun etc. So I think that I'm probably finished until this fall when I start up again. :)

Succulent Feeder

When I found out that my Dad was going to come for a visit I asked him to make a project for me. I had seen it in a gardening magazine, and it's a bird feeder that has a living roof that is covered with succulents. When I saw it I knew that I had to have one, and here is the one that he made for me. I got it planted with some plants and it's sitting under the back yard until the threat of rain passes. I'm going to try to keep it on the dry side until the plants get established and grow more roots that will hold the soil in place. Isn't she a beaut?

There isn't a lot of gardening news this week. We have the beds in place that we had planned for this year so now everything just needs to get settled. We might do one more under the bird feeder, because it looks kind of bare. I have some blackberry, blueberry and a couple of flowers that are still waiting for homes so they may go there. Here are some pictures of what's blooming today. The Butterscotch Jasmine pictured above was planted at the end of last year after the Peppermint Clematis looked like it keeled over. This seems to be doing very well and enjoying its new home.

The Angel Face rose is the first one out of the gate this year. Being moved a few weeks ago doesn't seem to have set it back much. Hopefully they will all get settled in and be happy.

The Pink Chintz thyme that is planted in the scree garden (the gravel around the paver stepping stones) seems to be right at home. Some of the scree transplants aren't too happy right now and I'm hoping that they'll recover. We'll see. :)

It's Like Peas & Carrots

Today I finally got around to trying to make a new dish. Quickbeam got baptized on the same day as another little girl in our church. This girl's family is from Tanzania, and after the ceremony they had a potluck featuring foods from their homeland. One of the dishes featured peas & carrots and had a haunting fruity taste. I spent the meal trying to figure out what was in it. This is my attempt at making it.

Tanzanian Peas & Carrots
2 Tbs. butter
2 carrots, peeled and chopped into small thin pieces
½ onion, finely diced
2 c. chicken broth
½ c. dried apricots, very finely diced
2 tsp. cumin
½ tsp. ground coriander
½ tsp turmeric
Salt & pepper to taste
2 c. frozen sweet peas

Melt the butter in a medium sized saucepan over medium heat. Add the carrot and onion and sauté until they begin to soften. Add the stock, apricots and spices and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium and simmer for about five minutes. Add the peas and continue to simmer for approximately 10 minutes or until peas are very done and the carrots are soft.

Froggy Bottoms

Before we left from North Carolina my best friend Mel gave me some stepping stones for our garden. She is very well aware of my frog obsession, and the stepping stones are pictured above. One of the best things about them is that they feature some..bottoms on the frogs. I didn't want to put them out just anywhere, it was important to me to wait until we had our backyard fenced in and a good place to put them. I know that there probably aren't people lurking around ready to steal stepping stones, but I'm clingy with my possessions. ;) So after we got our garden area finally finished I wanted to set them out, so here they are, finally at home. :) Thanks Mel!

Gardening

We were able to get out this weekend and work on finishing up our gardening efforts for the spring. It might seem that it's a bit early to be finishing up since it's only mid-April, but today's 80 degree weather is an indicator of what we'll be getting soon. We want to get the heavy lifting and work done now while it's still pleasant outside. Through the summer I'm sure I'll still be picking up plants here and there, but no major landscaping efforts.

We started out the day by going to Across the Pond and getting some fish for the little pond that we're putting in. We picked out two Sarassa Comets and two Calico Fantails. I picked up a couple more plants at the nursery by our house - some purple Sweet Alyssum and two more varities of thyme. One of the thyme is a light variegated one and the other is Elfin Thyme which has tiny little leaves. I also got the bigger plants that I got for around the pond put in. We have an Umbrella Palm, Dwarf Papyrus and some Horsetail Rushes. So the pond is basically finished for now, we just have to let it grow in.

Mawavi spent his time working on cleaning up the beds in front of the house. I had planted a lot of perennials there last year, but they just didn't look right. A lot of them tend to look a bit weedy, and it makes it look like we haven't been taking care of our yard. So we moved most of the perennials into the back yard flower beds and put down some new mulch in the front yard. Coincidentally while I was planting the perennials in the back flower bed I almost stepped on our backyard visitor pictured at the top and almost gave myself a heart attack. He didn't seem to be too concerned about me though. We also got a new trellis and moved my Betty Corning clematis back to grow on it. It had started totally dwarfing the little trellis that it was on and growing all in the rose bush. So now it has plenty of room to grow in. So overall the front of the house is looking much better now.

So that takes care of our major gardening efforts this spring. Now we get to have fun with the challenge of keeping them all alive this summer. :)

May Night

I was walking out the front door a few days ago and noticed a flower blooming, which is pictured above. I hate to say it but I had no idea what it was. I went in a frenzy of buying at the end of last summer and got the things planted out. I kept the plant tags out in the garage so I would be able to find them later. So I faced digging through the pile of plant tags to try and figure out what it was. Fortunately for me, when I was in Lowe's this afternoon I saw some of them. They are May Night salvia, and are really beautiful. Mystery solved. :)

We did some work on the back yard garden today, made a visit to the pond store and got the rest of what we needed to set it up. I got the water lily and iris potted and put in the water. Tomorrow I will add some salt to the water and get the quality settled down. We're supposed to have a couple of nights this week that dip down in the 30's, so I want to wait until it settles a bit before I put the fish in. As soon as we finish with the planting I'll get some new pictures up.

Flashback

Before I start on my flashback, here is my Mt. Ash a.k.a. Quickbeam tree. We planted them last week and the buds on it are already starting to open up. I can't wait until it gets leafed out. :)

One of my favorite shows to watch on TV is ‘Til Debt Do Us Part. For those who may be unfamiliar with it, it is a TV show that comes on here on ALN channel on cable. It features Gail Vaz-Oxlade the host who visits and helps a family a month and helps them to tackle their debt problems. I am constantly amazed by the situations that people get themselves in to. Mostly amazed I guess because Maw and I started out our marriage in that sort of problem, had a wake-up call and are mostly back on course.

I will freely admit that most of the problem in the financial arena came from me. I had no concept of saving or budgeting when I got out on my own and freely embraced credit. We had almost reached the breaking point in our relationship and our finances when we got our reality check. It took us a good part of ten years to get debt free, and aside from my student loans and a bit of credit we ran up during our move we’ve maintained it. Watching the show reminds me of where we don’t want to go back to, and is a reminder of how far we have come.

Tauren Chili

Today we invited the Gunny and his wife over to our house to celebrate Mawavi's birthday that was Thursday. We got up early this morning and went to the grocery store to go shopping and get the things that we needed. Maw and I love to eat and we love to cook so whenever we have these two over we always tend to go overboard cooking. I had a recipe that I wanted to try from the Food Network and Downhome with the Neely's. It is for Frozen Lemonade Pie and it turned out just amazing. I also found some ground buffalo meat at the grocery store and wanted to try it out in chili. I'm happy to report that it was really good, very lean meat and this was organic so no chemicals. I made coleslaw, mashed potatoes and black eyed peas at Maw's request because they are his favorites. He rolled some lumpia and grilled some pork on the BBQ.

After we ate the boys went in the back yard and christened the new fire pit with its first official fire. Apparently cardboard boxes, newspapers and the leaf blower were involved but I didn't want to ask. I stayed in the house to take care of our very attention needy baby girl. I'm hoping that it dries out some tomorrow, because I still have some irises that need to get planted tomorrow. The rowan trees are also starting to open up, and my jasmine vine has flowers on it now. So I'm ready to get outside and see some things, hopefully we'll get some sunshine!

Here's the chili that I made. It's pretty warm even though I cut the hot ingredients by half from the original. Tailor to your own taste. :)

Lythrum's Tauren Chili Verde (adapted from James Villas Stews, Bogs & Burgoos)

1 Tbs. olive oil
1 lb. ground buffalo meat
1 onion, finely chopped
1 garlic clove, minced
1 tomato, diced
2 Tbs. ground dried hot peppers
1 fresh jalapeno, finely chopped
1 tsp. ground cumin
1/2 tsp. dried oregano, crumbled
1 Tbs. chili powder
3 c. stock
2 medium sized potatoes, peeled and chopped in small pieces

Heat the oil in a heavy skillet over medium heat. Add the buffalo meat, onions and garlic and brown. You shouldn't need to drain it because the buffalo is very lean. Season the meat with salt and pepper as you cook it. Add the remaining ingredients into the pan and cook over low heat for 1/2 to 1 hour.

New Garden Update

Here's the latest update for the backyard garden. We got the gravel spread and some creepy crawly plants tucked into various corners around the pathway. This weekend we're hoping to get the fountain running on the pond and get the plants put in. The fish at Across the Pond are still in quarantine for a while so we're going to have to wait a bit for that. But that's okay because the pond probably needs to settle for a week or two before we add them.

We got the rest of the rose bushes planted out - so that brings up my total count to 8 now. We have Angel Face (lavender), Lady Bank's (pale yellow thornless climber) and Joseph's Coat (multi-colored climber that I've lusted after for years) in the back yard. In the front yard we now have Veteran's Honor (Thanks Mel!! Dark red), Welcome Home (yellow with gold centers), Gingersnap (coppery colored for Quickbeam), Neptune (lavender) and Elle (pink with yellowish centers). I got a strawberry pot that I planted some succulents in, and have a container to plant my strawberries (Tennessee Beauty) in.

So that takes care of most of our gardening for the spring. We have two clumps of decorative grass that got displaced for the roses that I need to find a home for in the back yard. I got in the box of irises that I ordered earlier this year that I need to get put out. I originally planned to put them along the dry streambed that we are going to do in the back, but we aren't going to get to that until next year. So I think I'll just plant them in the new flower beds above and divide them next year. After that I think I'm done for a while, I'll let things grow in and stop spending for a bit. :)

Lotus, Take II

Despite it's unassuming appearance, the picture above is my second attempt at lotus growing. If you recall, the very first post that I made on this blog included a picture of the lotus in my garden in North Carolina. Getting it to bloom was my biggest gardening achievement. So in my new back yard I wanted to grow another one. So I ordered a Chawan Basu bowl lotus this spring and have had it rooting out in the bathtub. The roots finally grew on it and now I've transplanted it into a container outside to grow in. I'm really hoping that it will make it. I bought this one from Bonnie's Plants, and it came in with three growing tips on it so it's a really good one. Time will tell. :)