Oregano Harvest

The oregano has been slowly overtaking my garden, so I hacked it today then dried it. First, I washed it with that produce spray stuff, then I submerged it in a large bowl like you would spinach. Once it was very clean, I it among two baking trays, and put it into the oven. I let the oven heat up to 150, then turned it off and let it sit in there for a good 4 hours. The oven door was open.

Basil and Jalapeno Side by Side

Here's another good side by side. In the forefront is basil and in the background is jalapeno pepper. These pictures were taken 11 days apart. I'll do another one in another 11 days.

Star Fruit Seeds Germinated

I bought a star fruit from Publix a few weeks ago. These are the seeds from the fruit after being stored in a damp paper towl for about 3 weeks. I put the paper towel in a plastic bag and then on top of the refridgerator (for warmth). There were about a dozen seeds in total and I just planted them a few hours ago. I hope they grow into healthy, true to seed trees. We'll see.

The Manic Organic Recipe

I really like the Canadian show The Manic Organic. I saw an episode lastnight called The Has Beans. It was all about beans, obviously. Anyway, he (Antony) prepared a room temperature salad that I think would be great for a buffet or pot luck dish. I'm always looking for foods that stay out on the bar for hours and not have to be reheated or chilled. I looked online for the recipe but could not find it. I found the decription of the episode online, so between my that and my recollection of how he put it together, I'll give it a try. Here is what I think the recipe is...

Green Bean and New Potato Salad with Pesto and Goat's Cheese

based on a recipe from: The Manic Organic

episode: The Has Beans

1.5 lbs beans (string, green, bush, etc.) blanched and spread lightly with butter

1 lb new potatoes (cooked and halved)

3 whopping tablespoons fresh basil pesto

3 whopping tablespoons fresh goat cheese or feta cheese

salt & pepper

Follow up to Bramble Planting

I have never grown brambles before, so I've learned a lot by . Before planting, the nursery recommends soaking the roots for a couple hours. They also recommend dipping the roots into a slurry of Agri-gel just prior to planting. Agri-gel is a powder that's added to water and allowed to sit for 15 minutes. It turns to the consistency of hot fudge and clings to the roots. I guess the more moisture you can keep on the roots, the more likely the roots are NOT to go into transplant shock. Pretty cool.

Bramble Before and After

I planted the brambles I got from Nourse Farms today! I have a 14 ft trellis that hides my pool pump and A/C unit; this trellis happens to be one of the few full sun pieces of real estate I still have (had). I figure down the road a bit, I can install some brackets and 12-16 gauge wire to make a proper raspberry trellis.

Green Thumb Sunday

Here's a photo of a new little tomato I planted on March 8th.
It's growing very fast. Anyone remember when John pinched off the whole top half of a tomato plant thinking it was oregano?? Well, this poor little plant was his victim. You can still see what's left of the little stem. The plant is doing just fine...maybe even better than it would have done. Some people are fans of pinching tomato plants. I never have, but this could change me...we'll see.

Green Thumb Sunday

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Raspberry and Blackberry

I just received my order from Nourse Farms! I got 5 Anne (bare root) reaspberry plants and 5 Triple Crown (nursery matured) blackberry plants. I have done of research online about planting and care of these brambles and will list some of the more interesting facts here.

Triple Crown: ripens July-August and is named for its three crowning attributes—flavor, productivity and vigor. It is semi-erect and thornless.

Anne: ripens August-October and is named for its creator's wife; a thirty-year old promise that came to fruition in 1998. It's an everbearing bramble


Hints:
- summer-bearing brambles: train the flowering canes along the wires and encourage diagonal growth. Then the primal canes should have plenty of room and sunlight to grow vertically between the two wires.

- Blackberries grow taller than raspberries and need to be trained upwards

Jalapeno Poppers

I just found a recipe for jalapeno poppers that sounds great! I found it on Kerry's Garden which is a cute garden blog. Thanks for the recipe Kerry.

Kerry's Hot Poppers
12 oz. cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup grated cheddar or jack cheese
25 jalapeno peppers, seeded, cut in half
1 cup milk
1 cup flour
1-1/2 cups dried packaged breadcrumbs
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tps onion powder

Mix up the cheeses and spoon into jalapenos. Mix garlic and onion powder with bread crumbs. Drop in milk and coat with bread crumbs. Freeze on cookie sheets. Package. To eat, bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes until hot all the way through, golden brown, and crisp.

Here's a quick shot of my little peppers.

Bougainvillea Planters

I planted two of these oversized pots on either side of my garage yesterday. Here's the breakdown...
$50 pots
$6 pebbles
$14 trellises
$9 coleus & dusty miller
$24 bougainvillea
$20 potting soil

$123 total

(not bad for the impact it made to the front yard)

Bruschetta (danielle's way)

Here's the bruschetta from dinner the other night. I added more basil and garlic than I normally do, and it paid off. I had garlic breath for a full day after, but it was worth it.


Speaking of garlic breath...Smart Mouth is a new mouth wash that I'm obsessed with.

Old mouthwashes
1) have a taste/burn is not worth it...I'd rather chew a piece of gum
2) kills both bad and good bacteria, and if you kill the good bacteria, your breath will stink more

This new mouthwash rocks. It doesn't burn, it cures morning breath, and it doesn't taste bad. Check out this article.

Dr. Seuss Planter Progress

Sometimes you don't realize how fast your plants grow.

Lastnights garden dinner

This meal was so yummy! The base is wine, shallot, garlic, cayenne pepper, and herbs. Then I add tomatoes, zucchini and sea bass. No butter, no oil.

Gnome in the Garden

Weed-pulling gnome in my garden

So, this little helper apparently got tired lastnight after pulling the weeds.

This guy is like the lazy co-worker at the office who does the very least amount of work humanly possible to keep his job. I need a good name for him...

So, while he is sleeping, the other guys scurry all over moving plants, hiding tools, and teasing bugs. Those pictures are coming soon.

Rubber Plant

I planted a rubber plant next to the porch today.

Wikipedia, says, "It can yield a milky white latex which has been used in some cases to make rubber, but it should not be confused with the Para rubber tree, the main commercial source of latex for rubber making."

Cilantro Seeds are Planted!

Today I planted the Cilantro seeds I harvested. I hope they grow! Check out my harvesting post.

Cuttings

I have never really been successful with cutting, but I'm trying it again. I took 4 different bougainvillea cuttings that are each at different stages of growth. Two were woody and two were green. I took all the leaves off some, but kept the leaves on others. I also pinches off three different sizes of basil bush that just began to bolt. I dipped all the cuttings in rooting hormone, put clear bags over them and put them under the hurricane shutters on my work bench. They shouldn't get any direct sunlight here, but should get light. We'll see.

Egg White Omlet with Garden Herbs

I decided to try this egg white + herb omlet today for breakfast. I mixed three egg whites with a bunch of parsley and greek oregano from the garden. It wasn't great, but it wasn't horrible. I could stand to have it a couple times a month.

Green Thumb Sunday

It's growing fast! It's beginning to get flowers too. I think it's very healthy, and appears not to have any abnormalities to its growth other than the obvious. Green Thumb Sunday

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Roses From John

John brings home roses from the office rose delivery girl a couple times a month. This was one rose from a dozen that he brought home the other day.

Harvested The Cilantro Seeds

I just got back from a long weekend in Orlando. It's amazing how much happens in the garden in 4 days. Most of the cilantro seeds have turned brown. I just took the first branches off the bush and stripped the seeds. I'll plant them tomorrow. I've read that each little ball contains two seeds. We'll see in a couple weeks.

Aphids on the Angel Trumpets

I found aphids all over my young brugmansia trees. I sprayed them with soapy water that was mixed with hydrogen peroxide (because I was out of rubbing alcohol), but that didn't work too well. So, I dusted them with sevin this morning. We'll see how this works.

Patchouli

I bought patchouli (Pogostemon cablin) seed from Trade winds Fruit a few months ago and this is the only one that is healthy and grew more than 2 leaves. Don't know if they were bad seeds or if I was a brown thumb. Anyway, it should look like this is a few months.

English Ivy and Tomato leaves in the Garlic Bread

So, my husband came in from the garden this afternoon with a bunch of herbs he was going to put on the homemade garlic bread we were making. He came in with a handful of English Ivy, the entire top half of baby tomato plant, and some mint he thought was oregano.

Citrus Blossoms

Took these today from my new citrus trees. The sweet scent almost makes your throat tickle. I need to research citrus care. I don't know if there's anything I should be doing other than watering. Do I prune? Pinch? Fertilize? I just bought them from Lowes last week. Does that mean Lowes' supplier fertilized them already? I asked them guys at Lowes these questions, but they didn't know. I'm off to find citrus blogs.

green thumb sunday

The first flower on my first tomato plant of the summer. Green Thumb Sunday

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Gardeners, Plant and Nature lovers can join in every Sunday, visit As the Garden Grows for more information.