Poppies in the Garden

A perfect day for a walk in the garden! The day was a bit cloudy and just the right temperature.

A while back I posted about seeds that I put out in the garden and some of them were for poppies. Yesterday I got my first bloom!

Later in the day I was walking around and found it was being visited by a little fly.

Here are some other pictures of my garden:

daisy

yarrow

dianthus and a monarch butterfly.

Have a wonderful day!

Radishes

Radishes.

Up until a year ago or so I never really thought about them. At all. It's a vegetable, you see. I didn't eat them in salads. I certainly didn't eat them whole.

But then the Vege Garden Fairy (my Huny) visited me. (He might not like me calling him a Garden Fairy, but he is.) And my life changed.

Now radishes are everywhere in my garden.

I eat them in my salads now. I've tried them whole with salt- Huny's direct route to Nirvana - but this is not my thing.

There is a curious thing that happens when you start to garden with vegetables. You have to eat them.

And I love it! I love going out and picking my lettuce and green onions for the salad every night. I love to pick some chives for the breakfast eggs. I can hardly wait to harvest the onions. The cherry tomatoes are coming on, the serrano peppers are going strong, the pumpkins are leafing out so beautifully! Cucumbers are starting to reach for the sky. Beans are being shy still, but I'm patient with them. Tomatoes are flowering and jalapenos and bell's are starting to wake as well.

This Spring has been a wonderful revelation to me. It's like a butterfly opening her wings and learning to fly.

The Garden, a Film

Today I visited the website for a new publication to our area called Edible Dallas & Fort Worth. When I joined their Facebook group I came across a reference to a film called 'The Garden'. I looked it up and was amazed at what these people did with the land. They came together and took a patch of land and showed what we can all do with a bit of dirt - no matter if it is a fourteen-acre garden or an abandoned lot in our own backyard. This garden community grew enough food to feed their families, friends and most importantly, they grew a community of people that cared about doing something positive with what they had.

Just to have someone come in and say they are taking it away.

What is unfortunate is that this is not a new story. Across the nation people band together and take an abandoned piece of land that no one wants and give it love and attention, and they take pride in what they have accomplished. They have brought back a piece of land from nothing to a piece of land bringing sustenance to their lives and to the lives of their loved ones.

And then, someone sees what they have done and they say they are taking it away.

The love, attention and pride that they give to this abandoned bit of land most often carries over to their own homes in one way or another. And then someone takes notice that the neighborhood might have some value after all.

Just to have someone come in and say they are taking it away.

This film is about a fourteen-acre community garden at 41st and Alameda in South Central Los Angeles. It is the largest of its kind in the United States. Started as a form of healing after the devastating L.A. riots in 1992, the South Central Farmers have since created a miracle in one of the country’s most blighted neighborhoods. Growing their own food. Feeding their families. Creating a community. But now, bulldozers are poised to level their 14-acre oasis.

The Garden follows the plight of the farmers, from the tilled soil of this urban farm to the polished marble of City Hall. Mostly immigrants from Latin America, from countries where they feared for their lives if they were to speak out, we watch them organize, fight back, and demand answers:

Why was the land sold to a wealthy developer for millions less than fair-market value? Why was the transaction done in a closed-door session of the LA City Council? Why has it never been made public?

And the powers-that-be have the same response: “The garden is wonderful, but there is nothing more we can do.”

If everyone told you nothing more could be done, would you give up?

Happy Easter!

Well, yesterday will have to make up for today because today it is rainy. Yesterday was such a wonderfully, marvelous day!

The day started out at a cool 45 degrees, but the sun was shining in a beautiful blue sky! On the drive to the Coppell Farmers’ Market I had to cross the Lewisville Lake and it was a perfect day for fishing as well – there were quite a few anglers out dipping a hook!

The Coppell Farmers' Market is a small one but it was very pleasant. There was free hot coffee that was perfect for the cool morning! Offered at the market were fresh cut flowers, organic meats, seafood, natural pet foods, baked goods, potted herbs and plants, handmade soaps and candles, homemade pastas and all kinds of canned goods (jams, jalapenos, beets, garlic) and there was some honey. I recognized most of these vendors as being local and the prices were reasonable.

I came away with baked goods from Healthy Me Marketplace, some treats for my granddogs from Biscuit Head Baking Co., Pickled Beets and handmade pasta (Basil Garlic Linguine) from Lucido’s Produce and Herbs (214-352-2978). Lucido's can be found at the Frisco and Lewsiville Farmers' Markets as well.

The Coppell Farmers’ Market was small, but it was worth the drive from my home (about 25 minutes). I highly recommend this as a place to do some Saturday morning shopping!

After that lovely start to the day, I came back to Denton to meet a guy from Craigslist that was giving me some canna bulbs. His truck was full and I ended up with three bags! I will keep a few but most of them are going to my DIL in Venus for her home.

Then it was time to head over to the Denton Redbud Festival. This is a free event and is fun for everyone! There are things for the kids and lots, and lots of neat stuff for us big kids. And there is food! The nachos are great. The event takes place at the Denton Civic Center and the grounds are beautifully landscaped for a walk after the nachos and all the shopping.

Keep Denton Beautiful gives out free, bareroot Redbud trees so I got a couple of those, and from Lucido’s I bought some Thai Basil, Italian Sweet Basil, Flat-Leaf Parsley, Epazote, German Thyme, and Valentino Basil. From the Native Plant Society of Texas I got an American Beauty-Berry. This is an under story tree that puts outs purple berries in the fall and the birds love it.

As soon as I got home I planted it all because we were expecting rain and sure enough we have it! Thank goodness. We have been really dry around here so this is nice even though it is on Easter Sunday. Hopefully it will clear up a little for the kids to get a chance to hunt for those elusive Easter eggs.

Have a wonderful day!

Surprise Bloom

Surprise! My unknown bloomed! I still don't know what it is or where it came from, but it is lovely!

Clippy Notes for today

On one of my Freecycle trips last Fall I picked up a hummingbird feeder. I put it up yesterday to see if I can entice some of those flying beauties to my feeder.

While at the DG I also found a smaller one that I put up on one of our tiki torches.

I took a walk around the garden to see what is happening today:

Purple Iris from Audrey in Grand Prairie. These were in a pot and I moved them to the ground last year.

Strawberries going red!

Last spring we bought a hydrangea and this year it is going to bloom! I'm so excited!

This is an unknown that is coming up. We'll see what it does.

I found this trellis being thrown out so I brought it home and started this bed. The plant on the far right side is a zucchini. The tree is bird gift that we moved from the front planter. I have morning glory seeds, lettuce seeds, and marigolds planted in this bed and some jalapenos

Garden Notes

Friday, March 20, 2009

While cleaning the kitchen sink this morning, I realized that we have a lot of dishes in the sink that we leave to soak and I end up throwing the water down the drain. I decided to take my mop bucket and just see how much water I can save throughout the day. With what I had in the sink this morning (I confess, I didn’t do dishes last night because I didn’t want to empty the dishwasher and Huny said he wasn’t going to do it either) I was able to fill the bucket about ¼ of the way up. WOW. I used that to water my Bay tree that I have in a pot by the front door. I emptied the coke and beer cans from yesterday to start the next bit and we’ll see what the rest of the day brings.

Last night I put some old Cypress Vine seeds (unknown trade and date) to soak to plant out this morning by the tree stump in the side planter. These are very old seeds so I hope that they come up.

I have a basket of seeds that I have carted with me everywhere since I started seed trading in 1997. I sorted them all out last night and so now I must get some more beds going to get these flowers planted. I can’t really trade them since they are so old, but hopefully some of them will come up. Quite a bit of them are from my old garden and it will be like seeing old friends again.

I did plant some old poppy seeds that are coming up like crazy. I have no idea what color they will be. It will be a very nice surprise. The first time I planted poppies, my friend Audrey and I got some from then Kings Creek in Cedar Hill. We came home and threw out the entire packet. The next spring we had an explosion of red poppies! It was wonderful! I forgot about that when I threw these out, but then I really didn’t know if they would come up. They did and it reminds me of that first time. There are poppies everywhere.

I started a new bed yesterday against the back fence. When I was out on a Freecycle trip I found a wooden table and an old trellis that were being thrown out. I also found some bamboo that was cut down (these will be used for my tomatoes). I HAD to start a new bed with the trellis, of course, and I planted some of my old morning glory seeds, Spanish Flag seeds I got from Select Seeds in 1998, and I HAD to buy some new plants and got a French marigold, jalapenos, and I found a zucchini (Black Beauty). Huny screwed the trellis to the fence so I don’t think it’s going anywhere. I’m pleased with the way it turned out. When the zucchini grows out it will cover quite a bit of that corner and we also have pumpkin seeds going in that corner as well.

I went around the yard and planted quite a few of the morning glory seeds. Some of the ones I planted are Heavenly Blue seeds from a trade from Overton, KY, date unknown, MG seeds from an unknown trade and date, ‘Blue Star’ Morning Glory seeds that I bought from Select Seeds in 1998!

I also went around and put out a few Sunflower ‘Velvet Queen’ seeds that I bought this year (Livingston Seed Co.)

Put out some Marigold-Harlequin that I got from Seymour’s Selected Seeds, date unknown. First discovered in 1870 and today used for the back of the perennial border. Annual.

Planted lemon basil ‘Sweet Dani’ (2002) and sweet basil (1994) both Ocimum basilicum between my heirloom tomatoes. Two rows of Sweet Dani and one of the sweet basil. I have some seed from my garden from last year, but I want to use these old seeds and see what happens.

Spring Salad and Johhny

This is Johnny (named after Johnny Depp). My friend gave him to me several years ago for my birthday. For a couple of years in the fall, he rode every day in the front seat of my car. When I moved to Maryland, he took a vacation and hung out in my Huny’s attic. After I returned to Texas he was moved to the front yard and became our door greeter. He was quite happy there for a couple of years, but then he got sad (his head was coming apart from his body) so we took him down and up to the attic he went for a rest.

This year we are working on our backyard farm and I thought to bring him down to guard our newly planted garden. I fixed his head to his body (he’s happy again) added some hair, attached him to a long pole and planted him in place of honor in the center of our planter. To give him a ‘spring’ in his step I added a sprig of bluebonnet to his hat.

This is the garden that he is guarding:

Radishes (French Breakfast -- Raphanus sativus)

Strawberries

These are the starts of turnip seeds that I got in a seed trade. I’ve never had a turnip. But I figured I’d plant them. What does one do with a turnip?

Onions, radishes, chives, elephant garlic.

Scallions, lettuce, more strawberries.

To celebrate Johnny's makeover, I harvested some of our lettuce (Red Sails and Black-Seeded Simpson, in the background) and we thinned out some of the radish.

After a thorough wash, we had a very nice salad for our supper.

It was delicious! I have never, ever had fresh lettuce from the garden, and never had radishes that didn’t come out of a bag. It was the best salad I have ever eaten!

Happy Spring!

Advice of the Day

After dinner sit awhile, after supper walk a mile.

Or, at least walk in the morning before you start your day. Every chance I get I walk. It's not for a mile, but the route around my neighborhood works for me. It clears my mind and gets thoughts going for the day.

Signs of Spring

Since I am home right now, I’ve started my morning walks around the neighborhood. I’m enjoying the cool mornings and the time I have to be able to enjoy this simple pleasure.

Yesterday’s walk was started with a sunny, blue sky. Today the sky is gray and the wind is cool enough to give me an earache. I’m hoping that the forecast is true and that we get some badly needed rain for our gardens and lakes.

I keep looking for signs of spring and there are a few starting to peek out. The Bradford Pears are starting to bloom their white frothy flowers and in one yard there is that one daffodil shyly peeking out from its leaves. The Iris is starting to look perky, trees are starting to get plump buds and a few have even sprouted a few leaves. The Mexican Plum is pushing out its white flowers as well.

I haven’t seen a red bud in bloom yet though, and to me, that is my personal sign that spring has sprung. My own red bud tree is still quietly sleeping away.

In my own garden, my daffodils are pushing up from the ground and my pansies are still looking happy. Radishes are radishing away.

Winter is still here but slowly loosening its hold.

Still come the flakes of white,Like blossoms pure and light.–J. Hazard Hartzell (1830–90)

A weekend read: Moon Women

I just finished reading Moon Women by Pamela Duncan. The setting is the North Carolina foothills and the story is set around women that are just like us. There is Marvelle the granny who says it is just old age and that is why she is so forgetful. Ruth Ann, who has to be in control of everything in order to feel safe. Cassandra, finally taking the courage to take a step out of her comfort zone. And, Ashley, a young woman full of life and not knowing how to deal with it. The book takes us through the lives of all these women and how they each finally come to terms with who they are and how they learn to accept each other.

This book was on my shelf for a long time and I never read it for whatever reason there was, but I’m glad that I finally did. We all have mothers and daughters, and they all drive us crazy, but we are mothers and daughters and we love each other very much. We all turn to each other when we need to and we always know that we will always be there.

This is a wonderful book that I highly recommend for weekend read.

Sandy's garden in Solon, Ohio

For the Repas-Pacsuta Family Reunion we stayed with my in-laws at their home in Solon, Ohio. My DH said that it would be warm there and so I was expecting something close to Texas weather. We got there and it was a high 90's day, but it was NOTHING like Texas. We were able to sit outside and, yes it was warm, but it was quite pleasant. I very much enjoyed the weather while we were there.

The weather there seemed like Spring in Texas. There were flowers blooming everywhere. Their property extends into the woods. The trees are mostly maples and are full of birds. Sandy said that they had a deer with a fawn, but that it had been weeks since she had seen them. We saw them twice while we were there. Beautiful to look at, but not so good for the garden. Sandy has to usually fence everything off to keep them out of the hostas.

This bed has the Liatris blooming. They were just covered with bumblebees.

You can't really tell, I hoped that the picture would turn out better, but these flowers were just covered with bees. You can make a few of them out. I have yet to see a bumblebee in Texas. In fact, I haven't seen very many bees at all.

A close up the Asters in the garden. Sandy said these come back every year.

Finches at the birdfeeder.

John gong after the Japanese Beetles. He would shake them off the tree into a can filled with soapy water.

Szalonna in Ohio

The Repas-Pacsuta Family Reunion was held in Aurora, Ohio on July 19, 2008. We gathered around my SIL's condo pavilion and sat around the grill cooking Szalonna, which is Hungarian for bacon. A day for artery hardening, but it was well worth it!

Here is a pic of my FIL, John, cutting up the Szalonna for preparation for cooking for the next day. The Szalonna is a smoked slab of bacon on the rind, that is cut into small chunks and off of the rind.

Below is a picture of the fire getting started on the grill and then everyone sitting around the grill cooking it up. Before you knew it everyone was standing around the grill waiting for the next piece of rye bread to be done!

The secret to a really good Szalonna sandwich is to make sure that the bread is a good rye bread and saturated with the bacon fat and then placing the cooked bacon on top. Top with your favorites, in this case, we had onions, bell pepper, and tomatoes, and it is wonderful! This was my first Szalonna tasting. I can hardly wait for the next time.

I told my DH that we need to have our own Szalonna party here in Texas. So, I'm on the lookout for a good Hungarian meat market.

What kind of flower are you?

"You are a health conscious person, both your health and the health of others. You know all about the health benefits and dangers of the world around you."

Well, I don't know about knowing all about this, but I do tend to think of others before myself. Sometimes this is not a good thing. I do believe that it is important to think about what is best for me. Not so easy to do, but I try.

I am an Echinacea What Flower Are You?

This plant is usually found in sunny locations, but they will do fine in dappled shade especially here in the hot Texas sun. There are several species but they each have that unmistakable form. The flowers are arranged individually on sturdy, 2-6 ft. stems and long-lasting soft lavender or purple petals surrounding an iridescent red-orange, coned center. The leaves are rough, scattered that become small toward the top of the stem. Because of the prickly center of the flower one of its common names is hedge hog.

Echinacea is one of the most cultivated flowers for use for medicinal purposes and has been used as a folk remedy by Indians and the early settlers. Today it is most commonly used as a boost to stimulate the immune system to help us ward off the common cold.

An excellent variety for your garden and for cut flower arrangements with a vase life of 5 to 7 days.

Sunflowers

A few weeks ago I received an email from an associate at Keep Denton Beautiful about The Great Sunflower Project. This is a project designed for research into learning more about bees and where and when they are at work pollinating our gardens. To help with this research, this project sent out sunflower seeds.

Whether your garden contains vegetables, fuit trees, flowers, or even herbs, many of these plants must be pollinated before a fruit forms. And as the headlines for the last year have made clear, bees are under threat.

Very little is known about bee activity in home and community gardens and their surrounding environments, but they are a crucial link in the survival of native habitats and local produce, not to mention our beautiful urban gardens. Our local pollinator populations require our understanding & protection, and to answer that call this project was created to learn more about our local pollinators.

The seeds are for Helianthus annus. The flower grows to about 3-4 inches across on 3-foot tall plants.

I didn't really have a place set up for these seeds so I took the cinder blocks that I had in the corner of the house and set up a small garden against the back wall of the house. I've been getting prepared for an organic backyard farm and this is a perfect first step.

I planted the seeds and while I was at it, I also planted a tomato, jalapeno, and a bell pepper. Then in the holes of the cinder blocks I planted some alyssum, basil that was growing from seeds from last year's plant, and marigold.

I'm quite pleased with it. I'm looking forward to that first seedling coming up and am hoping for a bumper crop of bees to visit my little farm.

A walk around the block.

My exercise these days comes in the form of walking around my block a couple of times a few mornings a week. I leave my cell phone at home and just walk. I think about the day and mostly I think about my neighbor's yards. Most look like every other yard , but some have their own personality. There's the house that has a couple of wicker chairs and a table set right between to hold that morning cup of coffee. Everyone now and then the owner forgets to take the cup inside and I wonder if she got so caught up in the beautiful morning that she's running late for work!

I always look for treasures on the side of the road as I walk. One morning I came home with three pinecones that are now in my front planter. Another day I found a pillow?! I brought it home and washed it right away and it now graces my bed. I've picked up flower seeds and pecans. I found a dead dragonfly and brought it home to pin into a picture frame.

Another walk took me by the abandoned house that has wild honeysuckle growing through bushes and trees at the fence line. As I walked by, the scent of it lightened my step and my spirit.

Destiny - a matter of chance?

Destiny is not a matter of chance, it is a matter of choice; it is not a thing to be waited for; it is a thing to be achieved. ~ William Jennings Bryan

These words have always touched me. Since I first read them I have looked for the way to reach my destiny. I turn down different roads each time I go looking. Some turns are good and some are not so good.

The most wonderful turn I took was saying yes to the man that asked me to marry him. This turn in the road has been the most wonderful one in my journey to my destiny. It is a risk taking turns in the road especially when we can't see around that next corner. But I am so glad I decided not to care what was around the bend because I would be with a good man.

The turn that I took that wasn't so good - well, it changed a lot of things in my life. I took a chance on making some serious changes in where I was going to live, how I was going to make my living and I found out that it was the wrong turn for me. I ended up losing site of my own goals and dreams and found out that what I was trying to do really wasn't for me. I ended up very lost and feeling very alone. And then I ended up getting very sick. Trying to get back up and walking on that road again has been a challenge.

But this is the thing about destiny, if we don't go down those roads, whether they are the right ones or not, we are not going to know which way to go. That last turn could have ended up being the right one, but there was no way for me to know that unless I took the chance and took that step at the fork of that road in my life. This is another thing about destiny, sometimes we just know that a certain road is not the right one. I knew before I ever started on that road that it wasn't the one for me to take. I still left but it was for all the wrong reasons.

When we set out to achieve our destiny, we have to look close at what it is we want for just us and no one else. If we take a left instead of a right and find out that we should have taken the right, then there is no reason why we can't turn around and go right. There isn't anything wrong with that. If it's right for you, then that is what matters.

Here it is a year later. I told myself I would give myself a year to heal. I took my time and just let myself be for awhile. Stopping and taking a break from walking down the road of destiny is something we have to do sometimes. I'm glad I did.

The road of destiny beckons to me again and slowly but surely, I'm starting to take those steps and am ready to go around the next bend in the road.