Monday, May 29, 2017
Did you know that in the heart of Salt Lake City, there is a beautiful farm that is open to the public? I had known Wheeler Farm existed for years. In fact, when I was in kindergarten, we took a field trip there. However, I had no idea it was free and open to the public for 9 months of the year (they close in winter). You can wander through the farm, see the animals, watch the blacksmith work, wander through the countryside, picnic on the grass, and feed the ducks.
Recently, on my lunch break, I drove over to the farm, wandered around in the warm spring sunshine, and got my fill of nature. I sit at a desk all day for work and have no windows near me. I regularly feel the effects of being without natural sunlight all day, so I try to take myself to pretty places outside at lunch as often as I can. I had so much fun here on my lunch break, that I plan to return often for peaceful nature walks, or picnics on the grass with the ducks.
There's really nothing like leaving city life behind for an hour to rejuvenate the soul. The best part is, it's right in the heart of the city so, it only took a couple minutes to get there.
There's really nothing like leaving city life behind for an hour to rejuvenate the soul. The best part is, it's right in the heart of the city so, it only took a couple minutes to get there.
Another cool fact about the farm, is that they supply food to Meals on Wheels as well as other various organizations.
Wheeler Farm is a great place for adults and kids to connect with animals and beautiful scenery. They even have paths for walking and jogging through the "back country" of the farm. If I lived closer to this place, you can bet I'd be there doing my weekly runs.
Their website has a calendar of farm events, visiting hours, and other great farm information. Click here to visit their site. (This is totally not a sponsored post, by the way, I just love sharing beautiful places with people.)
++ Have you been to Wheeler Farm?
Friday, May 26, 2017
We failed to miss the crazy spring weather that's been happening all over the US, and had to endure some abrupt cold weather. It was 80 and sunny, and then the next day, we had 32 degree freezing going on at night with barely in the 40's weather during the day for most of the week. We even got snow! I tried my best to cover my tomatoes and keep them safe, but, sadly, the bad weather won.
After just two days, all the leaves had turned brown and crispy, and looked way worse than these photos. There was no chance of them coming back. Rather than wait for weeks to see if they'd bounce back and grow new ones, I pulled them out.
Thank goodness I had extra plants from seed, and was able to replace them, but keep your fingers crossed! They were pot bound in my kitchen while I waited for the cold front to pass, and hopefully will do well outside. I'm a little concerned I'll even have a crop of tomatoes this year with having seeded them way too early (I was excited!), and then having to keep them in their nursery pots for way too long. It is my first time growing them from seeds.
You live and learn, I guess.
Next year, I'm waiting until late March or early April to plant my seeds.
++ Have you had weird spring weather?
Wednesday, May 24, 2017
Spring has proven to be abundant so far in my patio garden, and with the regular harvests of chives, lettuce, spinach, mesclun, and radishes, I've been finding good use for my fresh garden food. I've prepared a couple easy and simple recipes that incorporate my recent harvests.
Note: On most recipes like this, I don't list exact amounts to add, because you can't really go wrong with the ingredients, and you can easily downsize or upsize the recipes since they're fresh.
SPRING AVOCADO TOAST
Simple, light, fresh with a kick.
2 slices whole wheat toast
1 small avocado
About 5 red round radishes
A few leaves of arugula, spinach, lettuce or other leafy green
Sprinkling of sea salt
How-to:
- Toast your bread.
- While it's toasting, slice up the radishes thinly and mash up your avocado.
- Once bread is toasted, spread avocado on top, layer your greens and radishes on top, and then sprinkle with salt.
- High-five yourself for eating a salad on toast and being way ahead of the game.
SPRING GARDEN SALAD
This salad is easy, and kind of a no-brainer. Chop the veggies, toss together with dressing, sprinkle with blossoms, and voila! Done. It went really well on the side with a baked potato, and Walmart's Great Value brand popcorn chicken. Seriously, that stuff is amazing and microwaveable, and I can't be totally gourmet at all times. Plus, after my long commute, that's good enough for me.
What you'll need:
Leafy Lettuce (Romaine, green leaf, or red leaf. Avoid iceberg lettuce, it tanks the garden freshness of the recipe.)
Mesclun
Spinach
Radishes
Cucumber
Carrots
Greek Vinaigrette
Chive Blossoms
Optional:
Add chopped chicken, turkey, hard boiled egg slices, feta cheese or switch to any dressing you prefer.
How-to:
- Chop up equal parts lettuce, mesclun and spinach and toss together in bowl.
- Chop up carrots, radishes, and cucumber and toss with greens.
- Rinse chive blossom, and tear blossom head apart into the tiny smaller flowers. You don't want to eat the entire flower head whole. (That's kind of an awkward mouthful.)
- Drizzle with greek vinaigrette, and sprinkle with chive blossoms.
- Toss salad to combine, and serve.
SPRING PASTA SALAD
Pasta salad is an easy dish and goes with about any type of protein, or is great as a standalone dish. As you see in the picture, it went very well with that amazingly gourmet Great Value brand popcorn chicken that showed up in my other recipe photo, too. Seriously, that stuff is good.
What you'll need:
Garden rotini pasta
Black olives
Cucumber
Carrots
Spinach and/or mesclun leaves
Parmesan cheese (shredded, grated, the powdery form, any kind)
Red pepper flakes
Zesty Italian vinaigrette dressing/marinade
How-to:
- Cook pasta as directed on package
- While pasta is boiling, chop up olives, carrots, and cucumbers.
- When pasta is done, drain the water, and pour noodles into serving bowl.
- Add chopped veggies, and spinach and/or mesclun leaves (amount is your preference.)
- Stir in vinaigrette, grated parmesan, and sprinkle red pepper flakes.
- Refrigerate before serving to set the flavors, and chill the pasta. Will last for several days in the fridge if covered tightly.
- (Also, tastes good warm right after making if you don't have time to wait.)
Happy spring harvesting, and eating. Let me know if you try any of these recipes, and what you thought of them!
++ What are you harvesting right now in your garden?
Monday, May 22, 2017
A lot has been happening in the garden now that May is here. The weather in May is still fairly cool, but the patio tends to warm up nicely, and everything usually looks fantastic throughout the month.
The roses have been loading up wth buds, and soon we'll see an abundance of their bright blooms in shades of magenta, red, ivory and pink.
I love the way it looks from all four angles of the garden. Things are looking pretty green around here, and I'm hopeful it will be a productive garden this year!
++ How is your garden growing this year?
Monday, May 15, 2017
For my birthday this year, instead of throwing the usual dinner get together that I like to do, we kept things simple, and just spent the day together. To be honest, I was feeling pretty emotional the whole week leading up to it. I guess I didn't make it through this time of year completely unscathed after all.
Justin stayed up all night to prepare a birthday surprise for me and made sure to tell me I couldn't go downstairs until morning. I was glad I waited, because when I got up, I was definitely surprised! There were balloons covering every inch of the floor of the main level of our house. He had set a pair of Nerf dart guns on the coffee table, as well. I laughed pretty hysterically as I tiptoed through the balloons to the kitchen to get some breakfast.
We grabbed birthday lunch at my favorite little Mexican place in town. After lunch, we shopped for a bit, and he bought me some new sandals. Then we hung out at the house, and had a dart gun duel. It got so intense that we ended up back to back on the sidewalk outside, preparing to take 10 paces, turn and fire. We also had a balloon popping party, which, I have to admit, was way more fun than I expected popping balloons to be. We ended up laughing like little kids while we darted all over the house popping the crazy balloons.
Later, we decided to take a walk along the river, at one of the local parks, and enjoy the warm spring evening. Everything was lush and green, and as the light faded, the air cooled down. We finished the night with a movie on the couch.
Sometimes the best birthdays are the ones that are mellow and fluid. We had no plans, and we spent the day having whatever fun came up. We hadn't had such a fun day in a long time and I really feel like we needed it.
Here's to 33. I hope it is my best year yet!
Friday, May 12, 2017
The weather has finally warmed up enough that I planted my peppers and tomatoes! I love seeing the garden getting fuller every week. I also planted all my bean, squash, zucchini, melon, cucumber and corn seeds. I decided to document the process of my pepper planting since I was planting quite a few.
Peppers are really easy to plant. Just follow these simple steps:
+ Dig a small hole the depth of your seedling's pot.
+ Hold the seedling gently in your hands, and tip the pot upside down. Be careful not to bend the stem of the plant while you hold the pot upside down from the plant side with the stem sitting between your fingers. (You'll see me do this in the video if you watch closely, it's pretty fast!)
+ Gently squeeze the sides of the seedling pot to loosen it up, until it slides out into your hand.
+ Turn it right side up and place it in the hole.
+ Fill in around the pepper seedling, and gently pat down.
+ Water it well to get it started.
Peppers are really easy to plant. Just follow these simple steps:
+ Dig a small hole the depth of your seedling's pot.
+ Hold the seedling gently in your hands, and tip the pot upside down. Be careful not to bend the stem of the plant while you hold the pot upside down from the plant side with the stem sitting between your fingers. (You'll see me do this in the video if you watch closely, it's pretty fast!)
+ Gently squeeze the sides of the seedling pot to loosen it up, until it slides out into your hand.
+ Turn it right side up and place it in the hole.
+ Fill in around the pepper seedling, and gently pat down.
+ Water it well to get it started.
Peppers don't need to be planted deeply, but if you want to add a little extra strength to the new seedling, you can plant it a tiny bit deeper. They don't benefit too much from a deeper planting though like tomatoes do, so you don't need to go much deeper than they're already growing.
Check out the pictures and video, and let me know which kind of pepper you love to grow!
Monday, May 8, 2017
Summer gardening is one of my favorite things to do. I plan for it way in advance, and try to research all of the methods possible to give my little patio garden the best outcome I can. Of course, I can never plan for the weather, and last summer was a bit rough. We had a warmer and dryer winter than normal, and things heated up way to early in the year. My plants didn't stand a chance.
This year, with the new boxes, I am hoping they'll fare much better. The boxes are deep, have really great soil in them, and should dry out a lot slower than the pots did. Also, since they're not restricted to pots, the plants will be able to stretch their roots much better in search of water, and also to stabilize themselves.
Keep your fingers crossed for me, I've been anticipating this growing season since I dreamed it all up around Thanksgiving.
Here is what I plan to add to my already growing garden for summer:
| + Black Cherry Tomatoes + Early Girl Tomatoes + Jalapenos + Hot Banana Peppers + Sweet Sublime Peppers + Pole Beans + Bush Beans |
+ Muncher Cucumbers + Honey Nut Squash (a miniature butternut variety) + Charetais Vedrantais Melon (miniature cantaloupe variety) + Zucchini + Silver n' Gold Sweet Corn + Nasturtium + Black-eyed Susan Vine |
I know, that growing corn in a raised bed on cement sounds a little crazy, but I'm totally going to go for it. I also might be adding some summertime herbs like basil, cilantro, and I may even add some sage, parsley and oregano, if I have enough room.
I'm excited for this growing season, and can't wait to see how it all turns out.
++ What's your favorite summer veggie?
Friday, May 5, 2017
So, the first 2.25 years that passed after my mom's death were pretty dang awful. I won't write about them here because I already have a lot and it's in the past. It's gone, and I don't miss the awful feeling I carried with me daily.
But, the past 8 months have been different. A LOT of healing has suddenly taken place, and I am starting to feel like a new me, or the old me, or a healthy me, again.
This year, the anniversary came and went, and I experienced not much disturbance at all. To be able to say that, and write that, and know that I made it through the worst, and am now able to resume life, is something I'm extremely grateful for.
And, now, I can look at myself in the mirror, and say, "You did it. You survived the worst. You went through it. You healed. You never gave up. You did the work, and you're still doing it to ensure you stay strong. You did it. YOU did it."
I faced my tiger, and the tiger lost.
I DID IT!
To be a part of the land of the living again, is such a wonderful feeling. Now, I just have to make the most of my life.
Wednesday, May 3, 2017
Like I mentioned in the last post, a lot changes daily in the garden during the spring and summer growing seasons. Sometimes you can see it change almost hourly. This is especially obvious when you grow vigorous growing plants like squash.
My tomato seedlings have become full grown plants, and are literally bursting out of their nursery pots. If the forecast holds true, we'll be planting these any day now, as it seems to show that our last frost will have passed! Please cross your fingers. These guys are massive. We had some 29-32°F nights the past week, so they have been hanging out indoors to keep them from freezing, but with the warmup coming, I foresee them moving outside permanently very soon!
The kale is gorgeous and continues to grow new leaves rapidly, the lettuce, spinach and mesclun are starting to send out their first true leaves, and my catnip seems to be coming along nicely. It even reseeded itself in no man's land. There isn't any soil there, but it seems to have planted itself in concrete, and dug down far enough. Of course, the mint family would be the only plant to grow in the middle of concrete. Have you ever tried to get rid of that stuff? It's impossible, which is why I grow it in pots!
The ostrich ferns have finally started displaying their fiddle heads, and it appears that they will need to be divided sometime soon. I'm not sure how to do that, so if anyone has any tips, please comment! The clematis finally has its first spring flower on it, and I can't wait for it to open. The onions and thyme are taking off and getting tall or spreading.
The roses have finally started blooming, and I welcome their flowers every year. I have them in shades of blush pink, cream, peach, a deep fuchsia and a vibrant fire engine red. I hope they all have a great year and put on a good show! I also successfully seeded my first Black-eyed Susan Vine (or it's botanical name of Thunbergia Alata), and I am very excited about it's first bloom popping open. Especially since we were having a spring snow storm outside when it popped open in my kitchen. I haven't quite decided where it's going yet, but when I do, I'll show you its new home.
Summer planting countdown is down to just a few days! I'm so excited, and can't wait to update you all later this month with what I've planted, and how it's growing. I also REALLY can't wait to get these overgrown tomatoes in the ground. I currently have the tallest one tied to a stool in my kitchen because it's just too tall now to stand on it's own in the nursery pot!
++ What's new in your garden this week?
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