Accentuate the Positive

My sister does great work with vegetable seeds. She had a wonderful leftover grape tomato plant and gave it to us (thanks!). My assistant and I took the dramatic step of planting this thing.

 And it seems happy where we planted it.

Good night grape tomato!

Across from the tomato, I have this:

And I have these:

I hope they're green beans. Otherwise they're a terrible mistake. They seem to think they're important, punching through the dirt that way. Here I am! Hello, world. Look at me!

Nearby, I have a large rock. I have plans for the future of this rock.

My plans require rain.

And, up by the house, it's another baby lettuce. That's crazy.

Audience, please get plenty of rest tonight. Tomorrow is the July 1 Solar Eclipse of  2011. Generally I hate eclipses. I am hoping that this one makes me rich. If you're traveling, please travel safely.

Susan Miller told me to avoid traveling. I'll follow her advice. Being too busy and low on funds helps with this a great deal! Susan Miller is a tough love astrologer. That's sort of the opposite of me. When I'm being an astrologer.

Accentuate the positive, I say.

Good night, audience!

Time for Tapas

Time for Tapas! Picture a clock that says that.

My husband received this tuna, made famous by Anthony Bourdain and Zingerman's, from his father as a Father's Day gift. We'll have almonds and olives. What else should we have?

We've been having tons of potatoes and eggs lately, so it's easy to imagine a Spanish Tortilla (omelet) as part of this spread.

Spreading the Good News

We have early girl tomatoes! Beautiful early girl tomatoes.

We have deer visitors who didn't destroy much yesterday or today.

We have lettuce!

That's lettuce, right? I'm shell-shocked from the recent lettuce incident. Until this instant, when I googled the definition of the phrase shell-shocked, I thought it referred to shy, Disney-esque shellfish characters. I like my way better.

And we have another lettuce, even smaller than the first.

Someone made a deadly mistake when they put me in charge of lettuce. Baby lettuces are more difficult to care for and keep safe than baby humans are.

Moving on: we have lots of little Cayenne peppers.

I am pleased, excited, and I predict a prolific year for the peppers.

We have more surprise potentilla arenaria wildflowers. These are by our play structure.

My temptation (that I'm resisting) is to mark them with those flags for electrical lines so we don't mow them down.

The best part of having an acre and a half that we can almost basically let go and let grow ("neglect," one might say) is all of the wonderful surprises that randomly grow on their own. I've seen wildflowers, trees, shrubs, and possibly even an occasional fruit or vegetable randomly appear and grow on our property.

The worst part about having a feral acre and a half is the terrible surprises such as poison ivy. I just spent half an hour tracking down and poisoning young poison ivy. I feel like I need a holster to carry my Round Up Poison Ivy Killer.

Coach: this is a business opportunity for you.

Baked Chicken Thighs by Bill Devin

Fine Cooking...I love this magazine and its staff and writers more than I can say. I first prepared this chicken for my husband for his first birthday after our first daughter was born. The birthday, the chicken, the meal, and the daughter were all successes. I've made this a billion times since and I've adapted it a billion different ways. You can take or leave the lemon or any of the herbs or the garlic; you'll still get wonderful, crispy chicken. If you read the actual magazine (Fine Cooking 46, August 1, 2001), I also enjoyed Bill Devin's notes about Spain and about Romesco Sauce.

Chicken Thighs Baked with Lemon, Sage, Rosemary & Thyme by Bill Devin

Wildflowers, Weeds, and Blessings

Today I want to write about the weeds that look like flowers that we've kept. Please bear with my post-in-progress.

First: my husband loves the spiderwort. He insisted that it's an iris. Admittedly, this is a fascinating and attractive plant that opens and closes daily. This is an apparent bird blessing that appeared in our flower bed.

Many thanks to my sister for identifying this for us.

Next: we have Dame's Rocket all over our property. This one, we don't so much love as we've given up fighting. In many states, this is a nuisance plant.

The Michigan Bear forum was a great help to me in identifying this weed.

Finally, we have this new, five-leafed, adorable wildflower. I'm trying to identify it. There are several little patches of this around, and I think it's so cute.

 

Update: I got excited for a moment, thinking this is Yellow Evening Primrose (sounds important). But I think the leaves of this are wrong. Things it's not: Maryland Golden Aster; Sundrops (would have been cool); Lance-Leaved Tickseed.

Update: I believe this is a buttercup. It may be a prairie buttercup or a swamp buttercup, or it may be celandine (which is a type of buttercup). Or is it a Yellow Gem Potentilla?

Final update: Potentilla Arenaria.

Twenty two or however many years later, I'm wondering if my mom's poppies are still thriving at my dad's house. I love poppies, and I love California poppies best, but they don't thrive in Michigan. Mom planted huge, impressive, fuzzy orange perennial poppies by the house. When I last checked, they were still thriving. I would love to take a cutting from them. Mom is the best at perennials. All of my best perennials - the huge irises everyone's jealous of; the awesome hosta assortment; the lilies that started my gardens - were planted by mom.

Destruction

Why is there so much destruction? Are the stars not aligned for me (please don't get me started, but thank you to Susan Miller, astrologer)? Is God angry? Is the universe punishing me for using so many plastic sauce cups from Gordon Food Service?

There was destruction all over. I'll start big.

I live outside the Detroit Metro Area. My town is sort of notorious for the amount of deery visitors. We've been fortunate in that they've generally left us alone, until now. I do not welcome them. I do not feel that I can live in harmony with them. I'm feeling emotionally upset about this. The mother and baby deer ate most of a roma tomato plant, and several branches off several other tomato plants.

 Next: I'll admit, I sort of asked for this one. I love the bunnies. They're adorable. If something is cute in nature, I have a hard time being mad at it. Unfortunately, I treasure my giant sunflowers. I wanted four or five of them this year, and I got three of them in an asymmetrical arrangement. And now...today...a cute, adorable rabbit has eaten a young, giant sunflower, and one from the border.

At least the punk should clean up its plate. Right?

What puzzles me about this is, we've had a moist and fertile year. My goods have never been attacked by pests this much. The debatable amount of common sense that I do possess says that these guests should have plenty of dining choices (including some that are elsewhere, like in the neighbors' huge garden).

While this violation (to us; feast to them) was happening, my assistant and I naively admired the cute, snacking rabbits. I enjoy having rabbits as guests. But please. Not my giant sunflowers.

Finally...this one was completely my fault. I pulled this. The root came out so cleanly, and the plant was so attractive, that I took a second look. Then I asked my husband, who stared at this and then took a bite. "Delicious," he declared it.

I pulled out my own lettuce.

I frantically replanted it and I'm drowning it in water as a type.

I'd better check with you, my reading public. Is this lettuce? Or is it a weed? We went so crazy with seeds that I really don't know, but my husband said it was tasty.

We felt sad about the destruction, but we planted a few things too.

My helper and I planted more peas to round out garden 2, and some beets. And in the spirit of "What the heck - it's 2011," we put in a bunch of green beans on the west edge. Now I sort of want to add some spinach.

We put more basil along the west side of garden 3, since the carrots didn't do anything, and we put some more green beans along the south side. This was at my helper's insistence.

We threw some seeds for California poppy, other poppy, and coreopsis (butterfly food) all over the land, wondering if they'll come up. Hope so! That'd be fun.

Did I mention all of the marigolds that my assistant has planted?

And I have this to look forward to. I hope it's what I think it is.

Now I'm going to go eat a pan of Nestle Tollhouse cookie bars. What is a toll house, anyway? And please enjoy this history of the chocolate chip cookie.

Coach Handbags and Accessories

Coach has some designs that are ridiculously appealing to me. They have a great shoe sale going on, and the outlet often has great sales (but no real internet presence). I just saw the cutest Coach Outlet denim handbag (item number 17182). Folks - readers - internetmen - it's time to get into the outlet and see the matching accessories.

I found this by accident. I really wish Coach Outlet had a presence online.

I'm pretty sure this adorable bottle opener is at the outlet also (item number 60435):

The Strawberry Garden Has Gone Gangbusters

Well, for me, an incompetent gardener, this is gangbusters.

We picked strawberries, pulled some quackgrass, and enjoyed the sunshine between all of the rainstorms. Yes, the rainstorms Cantore predicted have arrived, and we put in some marigold seeds and basil seeds before they started.

Something else that's on my mind at the moment is: is this roma tomato the little tomato that could? Or is it toast? I purchased this from Meijer and probably shouldn't have, but I'm a sucker for the underdog. It looks dry, but it has been receiving plenty of water. What do you think? I actually have two roma plants like this; they're about a third of the size of the rest of the (clearly healthy) tomato plants.

Corn Muffins

Why tamper with perfection? I've added sweet corn kernels, cheddar, jalapenos, onions, and who knows what else to my corn muffins and cornbread, but I always return to this recipe, which makes this recipe as close to perfect as a recipe can get. We start the summer by enjoying these alongside the fresh gulf fish that my husband brings home from Key West. This is from the side of the Quaker Yellow Corn Meal package, and I cannot believe that Quaker doesn't have this great recipe on their website.

Corn Muffins

    1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
    3/4 cup Quaker Enriched Corn Meal
    1/4 cup sugar
    2 teaspoons baking powder
    1 cup skim mil
   1/4 cup vegetable oil
    1 egg

Preheat over to 400 degrees (if you're in my house, it's 405). Mix together all ingredients. Line muffin tin with muffin cups. Bake 15 to 20 minutes or until golden brown.

Sad Sand Cherry

I love purple. And at its peak, I thought that this sand cherry was beautiful and added a lot to my landscape. This was the first shrub that I picked out for my home after the builder/previous owner took most of the landscaping with her to her new home.

But now, the sand cherry is sick with some sort of illness, and I don't know how to help it. And it makes me sad that the typical Michigan lifespan for a sand cherry is 10-15 years.

 The landscape at my friends' home features a beautiful, full sand cherry that clearly is mature. I'd love to know the secret. Or is it just luck?

The sand cherry may be sad, but one thing that thrives all over my property is daisies. I have at least six different plots of these. The first two flowers have opened, and my daisies are soon to be featured at a relative's rehearsal dinner.

Catching some rays

Happy summer solstice!

Broccoli Shoots!

The broccoli shoots are up. I have about ten of them. I'm so excited! I've never grown broccoli before and these seeds are probably 7-10 years old.

 

I'm watering these and hoping for rain. Hope, hope. 

Little tiny daughter and I also planted some marigold seeds (by the sunflowers; under the play structure; on the east side of the deck) and some basil seeds (on the east side of garden 3) tonight. I realized that I desperately need basil and should've planted it much earlier.

First Zucchini Blossoms

These are the first zucchini blossoms of the year. They're so beautiful, so golden yellow, and would taste so delicious fried and stuffed with ricotta. Every year when I see the first zucchini blossoms it's a fight with myself not to prepare them the way Mario Batali sometimes does when he prepares Fiori di Zucca Fritte con Ricotta di Bufala e Pomodori (Fried Zucchini Flowers with Buffalo Ricotta). Note to self: some year, plant many many zucchini plants so I can guiltlessly make this dream come true.

Why can't Garden be Home and Garden?

I wanted to mention a couple of new things that I love.

My husband and I are coffee fiends. Not snobs. Fiends. We aren't particularly picky. Until now, I've enjoyed my coffee hot, dark-roasted, and strong. He prefers hot, medium roast, medium strength, with half and half. We haven't been iced coffee or frappuccino-type drink fans until now.

I find myself reaching for the Vietnamese Iced Coffee - that Pioneer Woman Ree Drummond loves - about five times a day. Fiend indeed. My husband loves this recipe too. It goes down easily! It was first mentioned here, at Imbibe.

On a similar note, my kids have become waffle fiends this summer, and I've been wanting to use up some leftover buttermilk. So I've been preparing Grandma's Buttermilk Waffles. I add a teaspoon of vanilla extract to the batter. These waffles don't have the added sugar that most waffles do, hence the vanilla. I think that if you top waffles with syrup, they don't need to be full of sugar. And a sugar-free waffle leaves open the possibility of someday making a savory waffle like the triple b (bacon, brie, and basil) waffle that places like The Ridgeback Cafe and others in the Pacific Northwest serve. Yum.

Mourning Dove Family

 

Singing, looking adorable, enjoying their mourning dove familyhood, eating thistle seeds, making big messes for me.

Seeds are alive!

And it always, always seems like magic when it happens. After my sister-in-law gave us all those seeds, I planted them with abandon, thinking it's been a wet year so far so maybe I'll get some nice, low-maintenance veggies.

These little cuties were first. I have three and I'm hoping for more.

They're sweet peas. I love eating new peas, and I can't wait for my four-year old to be able to enjoy this treat for the first time.

I also have three little green bean plants of varying heights. Three plants out of the approximately forty, six-year old seeds I planted.

There aren't any above-ground signs yet from the billion carrot seeds or the few broccoli seeds that I planted.

My meteorologist crush Jim Cantore (no! not J. Walter Weatherman) calls for rain all week, but it hasn't arrived (grrr), so I'm watering these as I type.

Begonias

I buy most of my gardening stuff at Meijer, who in turn get most of their plants from Elzinga and Hoeksema Greenhouses. I'm proud to shop locally from Michigan-made and grown products! I purchased 50 beautiful Elzinga and Hoeksema begonias from Meijer on May 22, and today, I finally planted these poor, dry, neglected begonias in the flower beds by the street. The begonias are the Bronze Leaf White and Bronze Leaf Pink varieties. I'll water them a lot and see how they do.

This was before watering. I know...this garden still needs a lot of work. But it's better. Don't get me started on how the tulips that normally reside in this garden fared this year. The flowering shrub is a weigela, and I love weigelas. But they look so much cuter when they're pruned perfectly round. Sigh...so here it is. My work for an afternoon:

The Man of the House used the B&L weed trimmer to trim veggie garden 3, which is desperately in need of weeding and tomato cages. Why do birds love eating thistle seed so much? Weeding all of this thistle is a big, nasty job. Why can't birds enjoy the seeds of cute things?

Green bean and carrot seeds

Today we planted a few more seeds in garden 3: I planted green bean seeds along the south perimeter and carrots along the west perimeter. It's like Janette, who gave these seeds to us, says: they're free, so if they grow, free veggies. These guys are way packed in, though. I'm out of garden room. So it'll be interesting to see how it all turns out. It's 90 degrees and dry here today and I'm irrigating seeds everywhere.

Mission Statement

I started writing here because of an article at AnnArbor.com:
3 tips for making progress in the garden when there are 'a thousand things to do'

"A formal record like a gardening journal (or a blog) can help a gardener stay organized and encouraged as well as providing reference information that will assist with planning in subsequent gardening seasons."

Planting and Growing Garlic

This How to Plant and Grow Garlic video , featured on the Garlic Facebook page, has me really wanting to plant and grow garlic. No one consumes more garlic than I do; it fights cancer (not medical advice), repels insects when camping, and tastes amazing.

I planted a bunch of seeds today in garden 2: sweet peas along south perimeter; carrots along west perimeter; broccoli along north perimeter. It's going to be interesting in there. My daughter also sprinkled California poppy seeds all over the yard. Michigan's climate is clearly and significantly different from California's, but I'd be thrilled if poppies grew.

Gardening with sibs

We spent the day socializing, swimming, grilling (baby back ribs), weeding, and planting with my brother, sister-in-law, and nephew. We planted a ton of seeds, and they also gave me a bunch to bring home and plant. I can't wait to see what grows there, and I'm especially excited to see if their pumpkins are successful. I don't know how they built their vegetable garden, but it's huge and very nice-looking.

I pulled a few weeds from the adorable lakeside garden while I worked on my tan:

My brother uses many of the same techniques that my farmer parents used. I've really gone off in my own dorky, unprofessional direction (my friends would charitably call me a naturalist wannabe), so it was so strange to see that stuff (very straight rows, planters) again.