The Beauty Around Us

This is "Pea Patch", English Peas, actually. Also at each corner is Cabbage. In the background is our Blackberry patch...blooming like mad!

And here is a close up of the Potato crop. This is one of two bins we've planted. These are Yukon Gold, the other bin is Idaho Baking potato
Now, how is this for lettuce? And it's only one side of the bed. Romaine and Butter Crunch are my favorites. I regret not planting spinach, but in the fall we'll remedy that mistake! Nothing as tasty as a mixed green salad with baby spinach!

This is my Day Lily Bed. Last year I cleaned out the old bed and took up all the little "nuts" that clung to the roots. This is the result! Lots of new plants that cost me nothing.

And this is the Iris Bed. There are still many to bloom, and I am looking forward to their arrival. Note the "Southern Charm" headboard and footboard...I did tell you it was an Iris Bed!
The Plum trees are proving to be quite abundantly loaded with fruit...

This head of broccoli will be in my freezer tonight! It's one of about 8 heads that we grew.


Mac is an amazing gardener who grows all his own plants. These he started back in February, they're ready for the garden!


Here is our square foot garden filled with lettuce, broccoli , onions, cabbage and cucumber plants. At the head of it is our potato crop in a large bin. This is one of the three square foot garden beds we have in the garden.

Last year in September, Lowe's had these Clematis Plants (you may say CLEMatis or CleMATIS, either is correct). They looked dead, were only fifty cents each and I brought home these...they're lovely, aren't they?

View of the other "dead" plant!


This is a closeup of one of my many Iris in the Iris bed that is blooming...remember to click on the photo to enlarge it if you want.


You know it is absolutely amazing how our gardens can get along without us for a bit, but our neglect will tell, in the end. So this week, every morning, Mac and I have been out weeding and watering, planting and thinning...and harvesting. The lettuce is at the "pull me now" stage and we've been enjoying wonderful salads every night this week. The broccoli will be pulled today and go into to the freezer after blanching. Except for one head which will go in the steamer for supper tomorrow. I could really live on fruits and vegetables these days, the fresher the better.
I'm still not quite 100 percent, I find that even though I've just spent two weeks in bed, I tire quite easily, so I just do a bit more each day. I'm getting there. I have plans for the flower beds and Mac has plans for the vegetable garden. I am still reeling from all the bounty of lettuce and onions, the potato bins will be full this summer...and we grew it all ourselves. I'm including pictures!
Thanks so much for keeping an eye on me and holding my feet to the healing fire of rest!! I love you all.

What's in a Name?

When we first bought this place we call our home, it was so overgrown that we had to hire a young man with a bush hog attachment on his tractor to come out and cut the field. The house sat at the head of four+acres of grass weeds and forest. The drive and postage stamp size front and back yards were all that was cleared. There were young scrub oaks and sweet gum trees mixed throughout the grassy/weedy sections that would have destroyed a mower. The young man came out with his tractor and his rat terrier. He told us the dog was a working dog and invited us to stand back and watch him do his thing. The fact that only one mouse was captured and dispatched to his maker should have been a clue that there was a large cat population. After he was finished it looked better. Not good. Just better. What we needed was a hay rake, While the contractor was renovating the house, we spent our days raking by hand. We had never had the need for a riding mower before and we had purchased a small used Sears tractor to begin doing some actual lawn cutting. I was excited to be able to ride the mower and cut the grass (I'll drive anything...it's a passion). So, we had finished the raking and I climbed on the mower and started to work. That ride was so rough I accused someone of throwing rocks in the yard. My back ached from the torturous yard trip I'd made. Now, we had also purchased a brand spanking new 48 inch cut Husqvarna tractor that Mac wasn't quite ready to use yet. I remember when it was delivered how he petted and polished it, read the book about it's operation and studied the manual as though it was a latest best seller.

The next time it came time for mowing, Mac grabbed his hat and went out to the shed. He got on the tractor and turned over the engine...smooth sound said he. Loud sound said I. But it did a great job. After finishing up the yard, he got a damp rag and went over the tractor and cleaned all the dust from her orange paint job. He cleaned the headlights and rinsed off the mower deck. I clucked in disgust and went back inside. The next day he wanted to go to Lowe's. It seemed his new tractor needed a trailer attachment to help him gather up grass and limbs in the garden. So he got his trailer. We took it off the truck and hooked it up to the tractor so he could admire it. He promised that I would be able to drive this one soon. As soon as he was through driving it, I assumed.

This week Mac began to worry about his precious baby...his tractor. He said the engine was surging and he didn't like the sound of it. Now, he has tuned up that tractor, changed blades, spark plugs and just taken wonderful care of her since she first became a member of his Motor pool...the one thing he had not been able to do was learn to pronounce its name.
"Hasputin", he would ask?
"No, Husqvarna, " I replied.
"Huspatin?"
"Husqvarna!" I repeated. He thought it over, looked at the name as it was written on the front of the hood.
"Husvention!" he said proudly.
I took a deep breath and wrote down on a piece of paper...husk-VAR-na...He looked at what I had written and repeated "husqvarna...why didn't you say so?"
So, I called the tractor repair place in Hartsville and told them we had a problem with the mower and needed to bring it in. I explained that the trailer was large enough to fit the tractor, but that it wouldn't fit with the mower deck attached.
"Oh, that's easy enough. It's just held on with five clips. Look at the top of the deck and you'll see them. Most people drop the deck to change their mower blades." He swore it was a simple task.
I repeated his instructions to Mac, who nodded and agreed that it sounded a simple thing.

The first day he walked around the tractor and after having found the clips, told me that two of them had been put in upside down and it was going to be a job getting them out. He checked that the mower had gas in the tank and cleaned it again, and thought about those upside down clips.
The second day we went out and I had a container (that I hope to be able to locate when needed) for the pins he was going to remove. It was nine a.m. He got the first three clips off with no problem. Those upside down ones proved to be a bit more complicated. When he finally got them off, we tried to disengage the deck. No way. No how. Mac went and got the manual and discovered that in addition there were two pins that had to be removed. He located them and began that little chore. After a bit and a search for penetrating oil was completed, the pins were removed and the deck dropped down easily. Mac put the tail gate to the trailer down and drove it onto it. It was now 12 noon. "So, that mechanic told you that it was an easy job?" he asked. I nodded yes..."I want to see him when we get there, " he said, his voice a bit sullen. "Why?" I asked. Shaking his head and putting his hat on he said, "because I want to punch him right in the mouth!"

Zucchini Days (Daze)

The garden is going great guns. Last year in May we had very little rain, and of course the rest of the summer was pretty dry. This May we've had rain every week and the tomato plants are already putting on fruit. The watermelon and cantaloupe plants are up and zinging...the cucumbers and beans are grabbing the fence and the okra is popping up in neat little rows. Everyone has a method for preparing okra seed, which is very hard shelled. Some soak them in bleach overnight (yes, really) some soak them in water overnight. The method I have had the most success with is so simple...I simply fill several ice trays with water and drop at least two seeds in each little cubby hole in the tray and freeze them for a day or so. When we get the row prepared, I take out the ice trays (one tray at a time) and plant the ice cube. The cube melts and waters the planting spot thoroughly and in about ten days up pops the plant(s). If I thin the plants to one plant per drill after they have four leaves and transplant the "thinned" ones to their own separate drill (hole). So anyway, this looks like it's going to be a humdinger of a season since most of the plants are up and bounding away. The other day I bought four little zucchini plants (that's courgettes to my British friends) and that's probably three plants too many. The first year we actually planted a garden Mac opted for three different kinds of squash...Patty Pan which is white and has a scalloped shape...it's very good battered and fried...as good as fried green tomatoes in my opinion. Then we grew yellow straight neck squash...some prefer crookneck but I can't tell any difference in taste. The straight neck is easier to prepare for canning...more uniform. Then I chose the zucchini. I love zucchini bread and always had to buy the zucchini in the grocery store, but I was determined that this particular year we would have our own plants. I seem to remember that we planted six plants and they grew quickly and flowered before the other squash. Every day when I came in from work I'd walk out to the garden to check the progress. My first zucchini was a marvel to behold. That lovely deep green color, the rather delicate veggie lay nestled in its bed of straw. I wondered if more would come on to accompany the first one because what in the world could you do with one zucchini? Place it on a pedestal and admire it till it was reduced to mush and compost? I had no recipes for one zucchini. In fact I only had one recipe for zucchini period...zucchini bread, which is rather a lot like banana bread but with a distinctly not banana flavor, and a green tinge to it if you leave on the skin...which I do. So I started going through my cookbooks (and let me tell you I have shelves upon shelves of cookbooks) looking up zucchini recipes so that in the off chance we had a successful crop of them I'd know what to do. Did you know you can make zucchini pizza? Yes, and zucchini casserole, fried zucchini, stewed zucchini (yuck) and zucchini stuffing. I kid you not. So everyday, here I come to the garden and wow, there are three zucchini .Then there are nine zucchini and suddenly I can't pick them fast enough and everyone is sick to death of my zucchini bread and zucchini pizza...no one wants a bite of zucchini cassarole and I have been threatened by Mac that he will set fire to the garden if I bring in one more mess (I'm not quite sure how this term came about, but a mess is enough to feed everyone at your table) of zucchini. So now my six little plants are producing enough to feed the county and I'm giving it away to anyone who stops by, I'm taking it to work to share with the entire Sheriff's Department and still they come. People are warned not to drive by my house with their car windows open (and I deny ever chasing anyone down and throwing zucchini through their open car windows, it's a lie and I'll swear to it with my last breath). The last of the season came and hiding under one of the plants was the biggest zucchini I had ever seen. It weighed every bit of three pounds and measured about fourteen inches long. Enough time had passed that I had forgotten how overrun with the green squash we had been. I stood up holding that giant progeny of the zucchini vine and watched as Mac approached me. Grinning from ear to ear, I held it out to him proudly. "Look honey, we can use this for seed next year!" He took it from me and walked over to the blazing burn barrel where he unceremoniously dropped it into the flames. "Over my dead body," he calmly replied.

Due to popular demand...here is the recipe for Zucchini Bread...it's the best one I tried...hope you enjoy it Mary!
INGREDIENTS
3 eggs
1 cup vegetable oil
2 cups white sugar
2 cups grated zucchini
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3 cups all-purpose flour
3 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup chopped walnuts

DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 325 degrees F ( 165 degrees C). Grease and flour two 8x4 inch loaf pans.
In a large bowl, beat eggs until light and frothy. Mix in oil and sugar. Stir in zucchini and vanilla. Combine flour, cinnamon, soda, baking powder, salt and nuts; stir into the egg mixture. Divide batter into prepared pans.
Bake for 60 to 70 minutes, or until done.