Adventures in Gardening Part 30 ~ Bounty & Babysitting

At the end of my last gardening post I mentioned that I was getting ready to make some of my delicious refrigerator pickles from the bounty of cucumbers I am having.  Thought I’d share a photo that I took of them.  I don’t know about you, but not only is an ice cold drink refreshing on a hot summer day, but so are some tangy refrigerator pickles as well!The recipe I have used for years to make these is from the Kerr Kitchen Cookbook Home Canning and Freezing Guide because it’s quick, simple, and delicious!

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I’m also looking forward to rustling up something yummy with my jalapeno peppers that are ready.  Take a look at these little beauties!I don’t have enough to make my jalapeno poppers with, but I have a couple other new recipes up my sleeve that I’m itching to try.  🙂

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My tomatoes are finally starting to ripen.  It’s about freaking time!  Just starting to see a hint of orange on this one…Sadly, my tomatoes don’t seem to be doing all that well and I’m not sure why.  I knew I probably wasn’t going to get enough from only 2 plants to make my salsa with, but I had hoped I’d end up with more than what I’ve got so far.    😦

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My one lone strawberry plant is really living up its name as “ever bearing” ~ it just keeps on going with its lovely little blossoms and sweet-tart berries.If I ever have enough room to plant more strawberry plants, this will definitely be the variety I will choose.

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And speaking of “lovely little blossoms” here are some delicate lavender colored blossoms that are flowering on my mint plant.My mint had a rough start because the bugs were nibbling on it quite a bit, but it sure is looking happy now.  🙂

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My sis is on vacation for 2 weeks and brought some of her outdoor plants over to my mom’s house for me to babysit while she’s gone.  She brought them over there because she figured it would be easier for me to take care of them while I’m outside at my mom’s tending to my garden, rather than for me to have to make an additional, separate stop at her place each day.  I say “the more, the merrier” and she can just keep them all there permanently for me to enjoy!  😉

She brought over a hanging flower basket that her husband got for her that has such a bright, pretty assortment of colors.~

And some weird looking plant called Horehound that she says she’s going to make her own cough remedy with.  My sis likes to imagine herself as a mad scientist sometimes.  😉~

This is some mystery plant she got from a neighbor who brought it from Brazil.~

Hmm… these 2 mints of hers very well might be all snipped naked by the time she gets home because they want to become tea for me.  😉~

And I’m totally loving these gorgeous Gazanias of hers too…~

See what I mean?  Can’t blame me for wanting to keep all of these!  There are a few other randoms that she brought over as well, along with a couple of things that I even re-potted for her because I’m such a wonderful little sister.  I haven’t even stolen anything out of her closet when I’ve stopped over there to bring in her mail.  😉

~Gardening is my therapy~

Adventures in Gardening Part 19 ~ Of Bugs & Blooms

Well… it was nice while it lasted…

but the bugs have found their way to my new cucumbers.  😦~

They’re also doing quite a bit of munching on my mint. I’m not really wanting to spray my mint with my garlic pepper spray since I plan to make tea with it.  As much as I love garlic… garlic flavored tea = yuck!

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We had fun picking some strawberries over at my sis’s today, but then imagine my heartbreak when I discovered this hole in my own newly ripening little strawberry.  😦I’m trying to decide if I should just leave this guy on the vine for the bugs to continue to chomp on so they don’t go after the others that are starting to ripen or not.  But heck if I’m not gonna be able to eat it then the stupid bugs shouldn’t be able to either!  Also I’d rather the plant focus its energy on the developing of the still healthy fruits.

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But hey my gardening news isn’t all bad…

Look!  I have little shoots forming at the base of my zucchini!  Pretty soon there will be lovely bright orange blossoms on the ends of those shoots and then… yummy zucchinis for me to eat!I know it’s a bit premature, but I have already been busy getting lots of new zucchini recipes to try out.  🙂  I freaking love zucchini!

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And here is a flower starting to develop on one of my tomato plants.~

There are also quite a few flowers blooming on my peas.  I just love their cute little blooms! They’re so darling!~

My Bee Balm is blooming more each day.  Hopefully it’ll soon be helping to attract the bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds to my new garden!~

My mom’s bright beautiful Stella De Oro Lilies are blooming.~

And just take a look at her pretty Asiatic Lilies…These are just so lovely and fragrant.  I had a wonderful time photographing them.   🙂

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~Gardening is my therapy~

Adventures in Gardening Part 14 ~ Planting Pleasures

After purchasing all of my goodies at the garden centers in Part 13, and then buying even more again on Mother’s Day, it’s needless to say that I ended up with quite a bit of planting to do…

And I loved every minute of it!  Up until now it has been only seed planting for me, and don’t get me wrong, it has been very exciting to watch all of those little green lifes poking up through the dirt, but planting actual plants definitely has pleasures of its own.

And because it was Mother’s Day, I also had the pleasure of having company while planting ~ my mom, my sis, and my daughter all took part in making it fun and memorable. ♥

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In all my years of gardening I’ve never happened to grow celery before, but I thought I’d give it a try and see what happens.  I love celery and I’m always up for trying something new!  🙂~

I love jalapeno peppers ~ gotta keep life spicy!  😉  Over the years I’ve developed a delicious recipe for jalapeno poppers that I came up with by combining bits and pieces from 4 or 5 different recipes.  With limited space in my tiny garden I only planted one, so I don’t know if I’ll end up with enough to make many poppers with.  Hopefully I’ll have enough to make at least a small batch.  They are sort of a pain in the butt to make anyway, so maybe it’ll better this way.  😉  I’ll just have to wait and see.~

I also planted a yellow bell pepper called “Golden California Wonder.”  I hope it grows happily here in Minnesota. 🙂  In the past I have always had red, green, orange, and yellow bell peppers in the garden (for making salsa), but again… with limited space, I had to pick and choose.  So I chose yellow because they are my favorite out the bunch.~

I didn’t know this, but apparently my mom absolutely hates the smell of Rosemary.  Oops sorry mom, you’ll be smelling it all summer in your yard.  It’s a wonderful garden companion to vegetables, not to mention its many culinary and medicinal uses.  I placed it near my carrots and beans because it is a great carrot fly and bean beetle deterrent.  And by the way, I happen to love the smell of it!~

Oregano is another great vegetable garden companion and provides excellent general pest protection, including being a delicious seasoning!~

I hadn’t planned on planting basil, but when we were in the herb section of the garden center and caught a whiff, it just smelled too good to resist.  You can see my one lone broccoli in the background.  It’s such a spindly looking thing, I sure hope it grows.~

The Apple-Mint I got is so pretty and yummy smelling!  I can’t wait to start snipping some of it off and using it to make tea!~

That first pretty strawberry blossom that hooked me into buying my strawberry plant is fading, but now comes the yummy part… the fruit!  You can see the strawberry just starting to develop.  Nature is so amazing! This is an everbearing variety so hopefully we’ll be enjoying fresh strawberries all summer.   Aside from this new beautiful bloom, I see 3 other buds starting too!~

I planted 2 Roma Tomatoes in an old double bench planter that I handed down to my mom when I moved ~ not knowing I’d eventually be the one using it to plant in again.  They’ll have a lot of growing room as they get taller inside the fun blue colored tomato cages I got.  😀

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Like the tomatoes, I planted these Yellow Sweet Spanish Onions in a separate container.  I love them and there just wasn’t room to plant them in the garden.  I’ve never grown onions in a pot before so I hope they work out.  Poor things look so pathetic in this photo, all flopped over.  Hopefully they’ll perk up a bit after getting used to their new home. ~

While we were at one of the garden centers, my sis surprised me by buying me some Bee Balm!  I absolutely love it and have always grown it in my gardens.  It’s a butterfly, bee, and hummingbird magnet!  This big guy will be living in a pot though because there is no room for him in the garden or anywhere else in my mom’s yard.  I am not used to growing perennials in pots, so I hope I can get it to overwinter all right.~

My Spinach is continuing to come along nicely…~

My cucumbers are now sprouting up!~

And even though that evil diabolical squirrel came back and all but destroyed 3 out of 5 mounds of my beloved zucchini, I am happy to announce that the ones I managed to salvage are looking great!~

My lettuce are coming right along as well…~

Gardening isn’t just all about planting food ~ it’s about flowers too…

I know Marigolds are common and not all that exciting, but they are bright and cheerful and last well into fall.  They also deter many garden pests.~

I rescued these Impatiens from one of the garden centers.  They looked so sad, all root bound, and scraggly, but I knew all they needed was a little TLC, so I bought them and put them in a mini Terracotta planter ~ another rescue, from a thrift store.~

When I moved, I couldn’t bear to part with a pair of urns that I had, so I brought them over to my parent’s and set them in front of their garage.  It’s a perfect spot for them and with a few growing things in them make for a lovely entrance when pulling up into the driveway.  🙂~

As soon and my mom saw this Hydrangea bush at the garden center she fell completely in love with it, and it just so happens that she has a bare spot along the side of her house to plant it!  ~

As we were leaving to go out for breakfast on Mother’s Day morning we noticed a bunny visitor over on the side of my mom’s yard.  She says it’s been making itself comfortable there for quite a while now.  It’s cute, but I have to say that I’m really glad that I built my raised garden up so high now because rabbits can reek havoc on a garden.  My peas and onions are pretty near to the ground in their separate pots though, so I hope this cute little critter doesn’t decide to team up with the evil squirrel and become a problem…~