My Garden: April 2014

It's spring! That means time to start working in the garden. Weeding, planting starts, weeding, planting seeds, MORE weeding. Between the weather being unpredictable and a busy schedule I haven't had much time to get out. Here are a few picture of what my garden looks like so far.

My rhubarb is coming up nicely thanks to the leaves and rabbit dropping I covered it with in the fall.

Chives as always growing in the corner of the raised bed. Had a chance to pull weeds around it.

Pansies coming back from last year!

White an yellow primroses also coming back from last year!

The raspberries are starting to grow, and also trying to take over! I've been pulling many raspberry shoots from where I don't want them. Also, don't mind the dandelions trying to take over the raised bed right now which are the same ones as last year. This year I promise to tackle them and actually plant something in the raised bed!

First thing I did in the garden was transplant all of my strawberries into this cool tower that my Dad built last year. Got the idea from Seattle Tilth and original post about it can be found here. I can't wait for my strawberries to grow in here!

See?! I did plant something in the raised bed. Leeks and garlic have been growing here all winter. Can't wait for fresh leek and potato soup!

How are your gardens doing so far this spring? I love to hear from you!

Tastes of Spring: Rhubarb

Wow! It has been a while since I've written a new post. It is definitely spring here in the Pacific Northwest, and I love it! Besides the fact that the weather can't make up it's mind and can (and usually does) go from rainy to sunny several times during the day. It makes getting out into the garden or going for a run a little tricky.

On Easter I went up to Mt. Vernon to visit my grandparents and see some tulips. They're so gorgeous!

While I was up there I stopped by my dad's cousin's house to pick some rhubarb. She has a HUGE plant (wish I took a picture of it); so big that you could not even tell I picked about ten stalks! So now I have lots of rhubarb, and need to figure out what I am going to make with it. Such a hard thing to do since my family and I LOVE rhubarb! I cut up 4 cups for a pie for my dad's birthday and stuck that in the freezer. Of course we had warm rhubarb sauce over vanilla ice cream for dessert that night. Now I still have plenty of rhubarb to try out some new recipes. My aunt gave me the Taste of Home Farm Fresh Favorites cookbook for my birthday a few years ago so I decided to look in there. Low and behold they have a whole section with rhubarb recipes; muffins, pie, jam, ice cream, etc. Which one to try first?! This morning I made the Rhubarb Lemon Muffins (recipe in the link), and the turned out great. They are especially delicious with a little butter and homemade strawberry jam!

I think I may try this recipe again, and use grated fresh ginger to replace the lemon peel. They would become rhubarb ginger muffins.

Next recipe to try is the Rhubarb Popover Pie (again recipe is in the link) for breakfast tomorrow! And of course I'll be making a batch of rhubarb jam! What are your favorite things to eat in spring? Do you have a favorite recipe with rhubarb?

This is How My Garden Grows (May 2013 Update)

I have been so busy lately that I have been horrible at weeding my garden, and planting seeds this spring. Thankfully rhubarb doesn't take much care so I already made a rhubarb pie!

The raspberries are trying to take over the whole garden area. I've been pulling shoots out of every section lately. The bees are busy pollinating, which is what I like to see! There are already too many berries starting to grow that I can't count them all. :) In the picture, don't mind the patch of dandilions that currently occupy the raised bed.

This year I'm trying out those Topsy Turvy tomato growers. I hope that having them in a sunnier spot will produce more red tomatoes instead of being left with a bunch of green tomatoes in the fall. A bonus is that while out for a walk around the neighborhood a couple weeks ago, I found a table with FREE tomato starts! I'm Dutch, so anything free is awesome!

Another new addition to my garden this year is the strawberry tower. I got the idea when I was on a field trip to Seattle Tilth with my pre-k class. I figured it would be easy enough to DIY so I drew a mock up on Google SketchUp first, and then handed the plans over to my Dad. Thanks to Stacy for the strawberry starts to put in it! I'll transplant the rest of my strawberry plants after they finish producing fruit this summer.

Last but certainly not least, is my flower bed. Which has actually been getting more attention lately than the garden. I noticed dahlia shoots coming up so I weeded around them. I had to cut/pull out some of the vinca ground cover to give the dahlias and iris more space to grow! I aslo took out the sticks that were supposedly supporting them as they grew, and replaced them with tomato cages since I won't be needing those this summer. A nice addition of rabbit poop fertilizer, and they're growing wonderfully. Now if only the slugs would stay away from them. :(

I'm hoping that blogging about my garden gives me more motivation to finish weeding so I can plant more. What have you planted in your garden this spring? What would you like to grow in your garden?

Delicious Rhubarb (and a garden update)

This post is slightly past due since it was actually two weeks ago, but it's still worth writing about. It's rhubarb for goodness sake, and who doesn't like a good rhubarb pie? I know I certainly will choose rhubarb pie over cake any day!


Any ways, two weeks ago I went back to water the garden and everything had seemed to sort of explode growing-wise (weeds included to my displeasure). The best part is that both rhubarb plants were ready to harvest for the first time this spring!

Here are my freshly picked and cut rhubarb stalks. :) Eight isn't so bad for the first harvest! And what do we make with rhubarb...

  

...a rhubarb crisp of course!! Since rhubarb is quite tart I like to add extra sugar to sweeten it up a little. Also, since rhubarb is watery when cooked down I stick it under the broiler at the end of cooking time to crisp up the topping. :) I'll try to take pics while I'm making it next time for a post about rhubarb crisp.

Since I  haven't posted much lately I also have a general garden update for you.

I planted my starts in my little greenhouse a few weeks ago. Much to my frustration a windstorm a week ago knocked it over, and I had to replant ALL of them! I was not happy about that. :/

This little beauty was a surprise daffodil in the front flower beds. Still need to weed those...

These are the gorgeous daffodils that come up year after year in the front corner flower bed.

So that's it for my brief garden update. Hopefully I'll post soon about whatever gardening and/or crafting I do this weekend with the wonderful warm weather we're supposed to get here in Seattle.

She's a Digger!

After leaving Teacup in the grass for a few hours she decides it's a good idea to DIG! She started with little holes, but her last one will need extra dirt to fill in.

My hand in the hole so give an idea of how big it is. As you can see it's about half way to my elbow!

She looks so innocent, but she's not! Look at all that dirt she's dug up & "bulldozed" away. I must say that she's very cute as a little bulldozer. :)

As Teacup's mom I think this is the cutest picture with her butt sticking out while she's digging. Shows how deep it is if she fits half way inside!

Update: this hole was started last weekend so we tried an experiment. We moved the fence so the old hole was in the middle (since she it started on the side) wondering if she'd keep digging the old one or start a new one. Guess what she did? Both! I had tried to fill in the old hole a little & she dug it out again. She also started a new hole next to the fence. What a little stinker! Funny thing is that Pumpkin was out this afternoon, and I noticed she was trying to put dirt back in both of the holes!

In other news, since it was Earth Day that means I've been a semi-vegetarian (no red meat including beef, pork, etc. but still eat poultry & seafood) for 2 years now. Funny how it's gone by so quickly.

Garden--April Edition

I've been talking about my garden lately so I figured I should dedicate a post to it. These pictures are as far as I've gotten so far.

This is a wide shot of the whole back garden. You can see the red rain barrel on the left, and the homemade compost bin on the right (behind the grassy mound).

Left side of the garden contains (front to back & left to right): snap peas, lavender (behind the pallets in this pic), oregano, mint, rhubarb, potatoes (these came back from last years that I thought I dug up all of), lettuce, spinach, more rhubarb, and strawberries. The leaf pile on the right is what I use as mulch in the winter to cut down on weeds; it hasn't made it's way to the yard waste bin yet. Update: I'm excited that a few stalks of rhubarb are ready to pick! Mmm...rhubarb crisp :)

In front of the raised bed is garlic in the black pots, lemon balm (digging this up this year since it spreads like a weed), carnation, and blueberry (this poor little bush is getting a partner after reading that you NEED 2 in order to produce fruit). The raised bed currently has chives and asparagus. To the right is raspberries, and in the pot are strawberries. The dirt strip on the left has kale, swiss chard, and carrots.  You can see the raised bed needs A LOT of weeding before starts go in later. Also, I'm working on getting a fence to tie in the raspberries or else they fall over when fruit gets too heavy; the plan is to have the raspberries go along the raised bed and about a foot wide. We got quite a bit of fruit last year just from the small patch you see here.

This is the small patch of garden in front of the grassy mound that was originally dug out for corn, but works well for other things like acorn squash, too. Right now I have cabbage on the right, and radishes on the left. Update: I have to admit this picture is a few days old, and as of yesterday the radishes have started to sprout! This makes me happy because I planted extra radishes to eat the sprouts, like bean sprouts you buy at the store, in salads and on sandwiches. :)

This is my backyard flower garden next to my rabbit cages. It hasn't been weeded yet, but needs it badly as you can tell. Besides dandelions I have vinca (the purple flowers that makes pretty ground cover), lavender, an iris, and assorted dahlias (my favorite!). I'm not sure what it's called that the fencing is around, but if it gets too tall it falls on top of my dahlias so I fence it in to prevent that.


So there you have it...my garden. I'll take more pics to update y'all once things start growing, starts get planted, weeding is done, etc. I hope this year's garden does better than last year. :/

Happy Easter!

This is Teacup. She's 9 months, and my little baby. (Although she's pretty much full grown & not as fluffy as she used to be.) Isn't she just adorable?!

"Christ the Lord is risen today, Alleluia!" This is one of my favorite holidays because it reminds us of Jesus' sacrifice for us. I was never raised on Easter being about bunnies, candy, egg hunts, etc. My parents always taught me the true meaning of Easter, and for that I am grateful. Singing the "Hallelujah Chorus" in church this morning really gives you a rush (and maybe a sore throat if you're a soprano like me) of thankfulness for God's love & mercy.

On another note, I planted things in my garden today! The weather was a perfect spring day in Seattle so I took advantage. I planted cabbage starts I got for free along with radish, snap pea, carrots, kale, and swiss chard seeds. I was hoping to get lettuce mix and spinach seeds planted as well, but I ran out of daylight. The rhubarb, chives, lemon balm, raspberries, and strawberries are growing nicely. I can't wait for that first rhubarb crisp or pie! Hopefully the rain holds off for a few more days so I can finish planting lettuce and spinach, and also plant some seeds in starts to put in my greenhouse. I take pictures along the way for y'all to see. :)

Here she is sniffing/nibbling on my pants. Just too cute!

Almost Earth Day and Easter

Wow! Since tomorrow is Earth Day, also Good Friday, I've been mostly vegetarian for a year now. I made a promise to myself last year on Earth Day that I wouldn't eat red meat or anything with 4 legs (this includes but isn't limited to: beef, pork, lamb, venison, etc). I also try to limit my intake of chicken and turkey to once a day. I made this decision for my health and I feel so much better because of it. I would go full vegetarian, but I'm afraid I wouldn't get enough protein. Earth Day also means FREE coffee at Starbucks tomorrow if you bring in your own travel mug. :)

Easter is this Sunday, and it's one of my favorite holidays. As a Christian, I love how this holiday reminds me every year what I believe in and why. I also love how in my church we sing the "Hallelujah Chorus" every year. Such a blessing and moment of awe and praise to our Father!

My project and goal is to finish a dress that I started two summers ago while in Utah, with my cousin, so I can wear it on Easter. I found the cute fabric at a yard sale, and took it along so we could make matching dresses. We started it but got busy going hiking and other stuff, and never finished it while we were together. She showed me her finished dress last summer at our family reunion. Mine has been thrown haphazardly in my closet since I came home two summers ago. Last week I pulled it out, and I'm determined to finish it. The bodice needs to be taken in (YAY!), the skirt shortened (typical since I'm only 5'1"), and put the zipper in. I'm alos thinking of top stitching some ribbon on the bodice, but that can wait if I don't have time before Sunday. So here I go!