First sunny day in over a week

After a week or more (it sure felt like more) of rain and gray skies, I was super excited to get back into the garden today. I started off by heading to the nursery to pick up some plants.

I picked up this cute little succulent for my office, and I love the kitschy pot I got for it too. They also had bigger ones that resembled tea kettles.

I got most of the herbs all situated.  Pic on the left is Dill, Rosemary and Sage. There's either Parsley or Cilantro in there too (I forget). I am always disappointed with how strawberries do in the strawberry planter, so this year I decided it would be a fun to try herbs in it instead. Thyme, Tarragon, Vietnamese Cilantro and Curry Plant are in the middle pic. And on the right is my Oregano (which I repotted today) along with some Parsley, Chives and Cilantro which I started from seed.

Below are the beds. Left pic: Lettuce, Beets, Beans. Middle pic : Tomatoes (Early Girl, Brandywine & 2 Roma), Basil, Cubenelle peppers. Right pic: Cucumbers, Fairytale Eggplant, Ancho peppers, Jalapeno peppers, Parsley, some baby herbs.

                            

The hubs started to clear out an area as well. On the right you can see what he has done and on the left you can see the type of progress that he made. Stupid rocks are everywhere. I'm going to put the pumpkin, zucchini and leeks (I think) here.

The Shallot and Garlic seem to be doing well. I think they all got a good growth spurt with all that rain.

 

Below is the flower garden area. I picked up a butterfly bush to plant...we'll see how it does. I also found licorice plant--YAY! It's great cover and once it gets going, it's awesome. Low care, etc makes it even better. I also got these funky purple and white splattered flower...I think it's a type of verbena. I have to look again at the name of it. The salvia and delphiniums are coming back strong. I'm amazed how HUGE the lupine is again this year. I thought it was a biannual, so I wasn't expecting too much from it. Damn rabbits keep nibbling on it though. Grr. As you can see in the last pic, it's starting to get read to bloom. Woot. That's always a good sign. :)

 

Semi-Volunteer Cukes

At the end of last season, the sea of cucumber plants were dying back and there was one that had gotten kind of nasty as it was starting to rot. I left it because I kept meaning to go back and pick it up with something that wouldn't get the liquified cuke all over me. But, that never happened. In March, when the snow all melted, I finally picked up what remained--a papery shell filled with seeds.

This year, the cucumbers are going in a different bed so I thought, "What the heck, let's see if these seeds do anything." I roughly planted them in the new location, just tossing them into the bed, and covered them with soil. This past weekend, to my surprise, there are about 13 of these little cuke plants! I think they are Armenian Yard Long variety. At least I think that was what the cuke was that had been left behind. If it ever stops raining, I will need to divide them up a little. Whatever was digging around in the beds has spread the seeds around too much, and a few are coming up on top of each other.

There are also a couple cuke-looking plants coming up in the bed they were in last summer. I'm keeping an eye on those to see what they turn out to be...they might just be weeds, but they look a lot like cuke seedlings. If they are, I'm hoping they one of the other varieties. But, we shall see.

Mother's Day Puffed Cauliflower Cheese

For Mother's Day I made Puffed Cauliflower Cheese to go along with some BBQ Chicken and grilled asparagus. I love cauliflower and feel it's underused. So I went looking for an interesting recipe to try. I was really tempted to try a souflee, but I got a bit chicken. I still haven't attempted one yet.

I made a few changes to the recipe. I sauted some onions and garlic in the butter. And when I steamed the cauliflower I threw in a smashed garlic clove. During the cheesy roux making process I threw in a few red pepper flakes. Everyone was happy with the result. I think this is a recipe I might play with a bit.

Give it a try.

Homemade Cheez-Its

This recipe for Homemade Cheez-Its looks pretty good. Might need to try it out in the near future. :)