All posts tagged: Gardening

In My Garden

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I wrote about my garden as it started to sprout and grow back in May here, so I thought I would get a few photos of the garden now and see how it has developed. It seems that some of the plants have come and gone, like the rhubarb and the sunflowers but some plants have taken off and created their own little rambling world.  The tomatoes have all grown and tumbled (some literally) and grown into huge plants.  Cherry tiny tomatoes are jostling with beefsteak big guys all trying to survive the squirrels together.  Unfortunately the squirrels prefer the large slower growing tomatoes whether they have ripened or not.  Consequently I have not had the pleasure of more than one or two tomatoes larger than a couple of centimeters. The tomatoes under the Mulberry tree are taking forever and ever to grow and then even consider going red, some have mutated into unusual shapes. I wonder if this one will ripen or will it get stolen for a squirrel’s breakfast. The chilis have been …

Weekly Photos 31/52.

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1. It doesn’t seem like a week ago that I was sweating out my body weight at Vans Warped Tour here in St Louis. 2. The bridge is being painted, but the leaves are ignoring the signs. 3. In garden news, I harvested my first aubergine this week and it is sitting in the fridge waiting for me to figure out how to make it tasty. It is only a small one, so maybe I see ratatouille in our future. Do you like aubergines? What would you do with a small one? 4. In other garden news, the tomatoes are ripening nicely. This branch has a pretty ombre thing going on don’t you think?! I can’t believe the kids go back to school next week! Yikes, better get the supplies all sorted. Erasers, tissues, notebooks which will get three pages written in all year, hand sanitizer and of course endless pencils to sharpen. This year we also need ear buds for more ‘electronic device’ based learning, how long until we don’t need pencils and paper …

How my Garden is Growing.

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I thought I would share my little garden today, everything has just started to grow really well.  It is all green green green with a extra touch of green. The sunflowers are growing fast, followed by the tomatoes and rocket.  The kale and chili plants are coming along nicely, chilies always seem to grow so slowly, I am happy I have any leaves at all! My lavender bed didn’t all survive the freezing St Louis winter, but I have a couple of tough plants and I have put some more in the bed to fill it up again.  Hopefully I will get a bumper harvest again this year and make some lavender bags and maybe some lavender infused oil to use in balms and perfumes.  Then it’s fingers crossed for the winter months. The rhubarb is looking good, but I think I need to leave it this year and wait to harvest next year.  Seems a little too long to wait for rhubarb crumble, maybe I will buy some this year and let my little …

Philomena and Ruth

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Philomena and Ruth is the name of a newly opened shop close to St Louis.  They specialise in hand made and local products, everything from clothes – new and vintage – to soap, accessories and jewelry.   It is in the lovely town of Waterloo in Illinois and about a 30-40 minute drive from St Louis.  I have never been to south Illinois before and I enjoyed seeing the countryside on the way and checking out the old barns and pretty towns we passed. We stopped on route at the fastest drive through McDonalds ever!  Filet o fish ordered and eaten within 10 minutes. We were hungry and on a mini road trip!  This time warp speed set the theme for the rest of the afternoon because we were on a misson, a mission to plant. Elizabeth the gorgeous owner of Philomena and Ruth, needed us to fill and plant the enormous planters she has installed outside the shop on the sidewalk. You can see the empty planters in the above photo.  They were crying …

Weekly Photos 14/52

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Last week really saw the trees starting to bloom and we had our first tornado warning trip to the basement.  Lots of rain, wind and hail and a tornado touched down about three miles from here, yikes! The garden is getting planted and we bought and build a composter which is totally encouraging everyone to eat veggies just so we can compost the peelings!     Here’s to a happy sunny week ahead!  Do you have a weekly photo round-up?  Share in the comments!  I am linking up with Em at The Beetle Shack for her Weekly Stills collection.

Grow it. Eat it.

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I bought a single cucumber plant back in April, popped it in one of the raised beds next to the garlic in our back garden and left it to it’s growing thing. Then the weather got cold and rained and rained and the little cuke was looking a little droopy. I harvested my garlic and left the cucumber plant the run of the bed and now it is growing like a crazy plant. Cucumbers all over the place getting big and green and fat! The garlic is being stored in the basement and is drying nicely. Of course the mint is on a garden take over mission which I really don’t mind, it is contained to one end of the garden so it can grow and grow and I can make tea and tzatziki. Tzatziki is calling the mint and garlic and cucumber tonight. Here is how I make it. A bunch of mint (mine is starting to seed but that just makes the bunch pretty! I only need the leaves) Half a big fat …

July ten on the 10th

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As usual (it seems!), it is raining on the morning of ten on the 10th. At least it is cooler that way, so no complaints here. Following some thunderous storms in the early hours, it was still raining when we planned to set off to see Despicable Me 2 at the cinema.  So, we grabbed the umberellas, stopped on the way for illegal snacks (how much are cinema sweets?  Too much, I tell you!) and off we went. I got a funny poster picture of a minion from the movie theatre which also fitted today’s photo a day challenge theme which was ‘Smooth’.  He he. Space man toy. My button tin, just some of my vintage buttons which I love to use in jewelry but I am often unwilling to part with them! Button bracelets, made with the aforementioned buttons.  I wear these two, but I am planning to make some to sell, if I can stop myself from claiming them as mine! During the summer, we usually end up at the YMCA pool every …

Veggies from the Garden

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We are back in humid St Louis and the garden and flowers are looking great thanks to our neighbours watering skills. I planted garlic way back in October last year and I harvested this weekend.  It is now drying in the basement.  I am fairly sure I will be roasting some sooner rather than later. So far we have dug all of the garlic, some turnips and the snap peas and snow peas are wonderfully ongoing.  I love to have a big mint patch and a healthy parsley plant, so that I can make mint tea and add the herbs to salad.  My basil is doing well, in fact I think I feel home-made pizza in the air!  Even the cucumber plant has itsy bitsy cucumbers growing. We are going to have lots of turnips, but I really don’t know what to do with them!  Mash them with potatoes or add to a stir fry.  I did see a recipe for turnip crisps which I may try.  I will let you know how they turn …

Let’s make jewelry

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When I am having a blergh day, I often pull out my beads and make something, anything to get me out of my fug. Allergies have knocked me sideways this week and I feel like laying down and staying there most of the time. Which is frankly inconvenient. So onwards I must go, via the beads. Here they are. I want to make a necklace with this. And a necklace with these. And a wire hoop or heart with these. Let’s go and make stuff! First, let’s check the peas growing in the garden.  Distracted?  Moi?  Little bit.  The sun was shining yesterday and the peas were popping out all over the place.  We decided to leave them to grow a little bit more before grabbing a few to eat.  Hopefully the bunnies will leave them alone. This first picture is the big fat garlic growing nicely.  Hopefully the bulbs look as good as the leaves and stalks.  Can’t wait to dig them up in June and roast our very own garlic. Here are the …