The garden grows beneath a layer of summer gone.
I combed dry leaves and branches
from parsley, asparagus, iris and lily leaves, green and crisp
and pulled on roots of grass and peppermint, to restrain them.
parsley in the kitchen box
Winter Green
asparagus
Spring Harvest
Blueberry Bushes, Jasmine, Cucumbers, Blooming Bulbs…
We have been bringing food in from the gardens in the last couple of weeks that has been tasty indeed. I don’t know why but growing food works as eye candy too.
Plans to Plant
Pots waiting to be potted.
Today was a shopping day. I missed my garden. But tomorrow is a planting day. I have plans to put these two couples to bed, and nurture some grapes and blackberries. Two things you could never have enough of for jam and juice or just fresh off the vine. If all goes well they will outgrow their pots in a year or two. Then we’ll find a spot on the grounds somewhere, for them to flourish.
The heavy rain cut a trench through the middle of my asparagus bed.
We had some heavy rain and even hale yesterday, and now the ground is soaked and I have some repair work to do in my garden. If the Big Daddy isn’t too muddy, then Mr. Mims will put in his lettuce, cabbage, broccoli and cauliflower starters. I know he has some corn, but what he really wants is okra. He’s determined to get an early crop of okra this year. Last year there was a weather mishap every time he planted okra and we never did get a good harvest.
Preparing for Spring
Today I worked on a little patch of my garden, clearing it of weeds. I cut the dry asparagus stems that I never did cut back at the start of winter. I left the tomato baskets I keep over them, (mostly to protect them from my cats,) so that I know where my asparagus are. Now two years old, I’m hoping to harvest some asparagus from them this year. Continue reading
Lavender in Winter
There are many flowers and smells and sights to gush about in the spring and summer, but some plants offer pleasures year-round. Lavender is perennial and evergreen. Lavender leaves smell just as strong as the flowers. If you rub the leaves between your fingers the scent will stick with you for awhile. The leaves are a grayish-green in winter. I have both the English and French variety growing. In the winter time you can’t really tell the difference between them. Continue reading
The View from my Kitchen Window
Just sharing a little bit of Spring with everyone.
When we moved here almost six years ago, the field in front of my kitchen window was an empty field. Now we have a baby fruit orchard and all the variety of trees are beginning to bloom. From here on in it will be a competition between the insects, the birds, the squirrels and us for the fruit. Continue reading
Spring Flowers
Tulips bloom along a strawberry lane.
Count me among the millions who can’t resist the sight of a beautiful flower. Food comes from flowers, reason enough to love them. It is no superficial relationship that we have with these beauties. But beauty helps doesn’t it? Food for the eyes is nourishment for the Soul.
Yellow Jasmine Flowers
The speed of spring is overwhelming. One day the trees still look grey and drab. The next day there are hints of red and yellow and green. Then all of a sudden the trees are blocking my view of the neighbors, dogwoods are blooming, and I didn’t, or couldn’t, observe it all happening. Buds and shoots appear all around. Patches of grass go from brown to green. Asparagus and stevia and mint reappear like magic from the ground. It’s almost impossible to keep track of, but the flowers really steel the show, tantalizing us with the hope, (never really a promise,) of cherries and strawberries, blueberries, nectarines and artichokes. Continue reading