A little bit of this and a little bit of that...and summer is starting!

First of all, my Hungarian fold art A is finally done and framed.  I love they way is looks. 

I'm hoping I can start on B soon.  See my process here 

My garden is growing so well!  I am harvesting zucchini, pattypan squash, kale, Hungarian wax peppers, green beans and herbs.  Soon I should have tons of tomatoes, radish and carrots to add to the list.  I've also found a volunteer vine of some sort, I think it's a melon...we will see.

Pattypan

Zucchini

Hungarian Wax Pepper and you can also see the big vine next to it which I think will be some kind of melon...or pumpkin?

I also planted a new rose bed.  This is a neglected area that gets strong afternoon sun, not a lot of water and has poor soil.  Unfortunately it's become our cats toilet more than anything else!  In an attempt to reclaim the area I though thorny rose bushes would do the trick.

  I have mostly hybrid tea roses in my garden so I was excited to plant 3 David Austin roses. They are so much nicer than that stinky patch of dirt.  I amended well with compost and so far the roses (and I) are pretty happy.  The cat is sort of bewildered...

As summer approaches I am gearing up my healthy eating and exercising.  One of my favorite new smoothies is based on a recipe from Harley Pasternak.

1/2 apple, cored

1/2 banana

5 almonds or cashews

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/3 cup greek yogurt

Enough milk to fill my blender cup - about 1/2 cup.  Can be any milk or milk substitute.

Blend and enjoy.  It tastes just like apple pie to me. 

Sometimes I also add a handful of spinach.  Just enough to add some greens but not enough to change the flavor.  Usually I can't even taste the spinach.

I've been really into mason jars.  Overnight oatmeal in a mason jar has become my staple breakfast, I don't have a picture but here is my go to recipe:

1/3 cup oats (not quick oats)

1 T chia seeds

1 T maple syrup

1/3 cup greek yogurt

1/2 cup milk

Mix well and seal in a mason jar overnight.  In the morning I add some or all:

1/2 sliced banana

1 teaspoon raw cacao nibs

1 teaspoon chopped pecans

This is just my recipe but you can have fun creating your own.  There are hundreds of variations at your finger tips via Google.

I also chop salads up into large mason jars up to three days ahead and refrigerate.  I add protein like deli ham, hard boiled egg and the dressing when I am ready to eat.  I find it easier to make healthy choices for lunch when these are in the fridge ready to go.

 And last but not least, after months of neglecting my art, it's time to get the creative juices flowing because ICAD's and Summer of Color are starting! 

I loved the ICAD challenge last year.  See the roundup of what I did here.

And this year I am determined to keep up with Summer of Color, too.

Join me! 

Click below for more information:

Happenings Today

Last year I had a banner vegetable garden year, I had more tomatoes than I could handle.  I made Homemade Marinara Sauce.  I peeled, seeded and froze the extra tomatoes before I found a much easier way to preserve by pureeing them in my blender.  I am still using up my pureed tomatoes that have been in my freezer!

My vegetable garden is off to a slower start this year but I still have plenty going on in other parts of the garden.

 

 

 I'm growing better strawberries this year thanks to a tip I learned in Sunset magazine - spend the first month of growing season pinching off all the pretty white flowers from your strawberry plants.  The berries that grow later will be bigger and sweeter.  It worked!

Hoping for a lot of blueberries, I have 6 bushes but they are still young.

These are baby Golden Dorsett apples which grow nicely here because they have a a very low chill requirement.  I have had this little tree for a few years and it's amazing how many apples I get.  Given my success pinching strawberries I thinned some apples hoping for better fruit but it was really hard to cut off the baby apples...I want them ALL to grow!  I also have a Fuji apple tree which is still young, it only gave me 2 apples last year.

Pole beans

Chives.  I love to put the purple blossom petals in mashed potatoes, they look so pretty.

Pomegranates.  I have two small trees in pots, I thought this one was non-fruit bearing because years went by with no fruit so I got another and then this one woke up!  I only got one fruit last year and it was tiny.  It's covered in blossoms, so I hope at least a few of them turn into fruit.

I also have Fuyu persimmon, Santa Rose Plum, a dwarf avocado, blood orange, Meyer Lemon, Pixie tangerine and a dwarf navel orange.  Nothing much going on there...I have a strangely hard time with all my citrus...but I keep tyring.

And today is Oberon's birthday!  He is one.  This is his serious look.

Composting in the veggie garden

I love to garden and used to spend evenings after work and hours on the weekends. My time is limited now but I've made an effort to get out there for the last few months preparing the vegetable garden.

I've had great veggie years when I am giving lettuce away and make bumper crop zucchini pancakes every day and I've had years when I feel lucky to get one tomato.

This year I've decided to invest extra effort into getting the soil ready and planting a bit earlier than usual to give my crop a chance to grow nice root systems while the weather is cooler.

First I dug out the entire bed - this is the lower of my two vegetable beds.  Next I prepared my compost. I've been an avid composter for about 15 years.   My current system seen below left were built by my husband.  These are stackable sections so that the bin size can be adjusted and moved around.  There was a third in the middle but the compost actually ate the wood and now we make do with two.  One is for new scraps straight from the kitchen and yard and the other is for compost that is getting ready to be used.

I hope the picture of the worms doesn't gross you out.  I love them!  When I see worms I know things are good in the garden. 

I emptied one whole compost pin into the bed, it wasn't fully composted but I knew I was going to cover it in a weed barrier and let it sit for awhile, composting further in the bed.  I cover the whole bed in a compostable layer of thick brown paper which I bought at a gardening center.  You can easily do the same with newspaper, layering overlapping pages.  Finally I covered the whole thing with organic wood chips.

I let the bed sit like this for a few weeks and have slowly been planting...some tomatoes, lettuces, parsley, kale, sage and onions so far.  I've mixed in some marigolds to attract beneficial insects. 

Today I will work on the upper bed which my husband dug out for me.  I will do seeds in the upper bed; varieties of pole beans, radish and carrots.

If all goes well I will have pictures of a lush thriving vegetable garden soon!