7.14.09 Tuesday

"goodness from the garden, Garden in the Valley--Ho ho ho' remember that commercial from our younger days???

anyway on my way home tonight Mr S called me and told me to stop by Amy's house (Amy is my wonderful dear friend) because she had some fresh veggies she meant to leave at our house earlier.... so there i went. The woman is extraordinary!!my picture of the day today is the bounty of the good earth that God blessed us with... and a helping of good old fashioned work by Amy and company. i brought the goodies right home and Mr S and i got busy-- i gave him some "on the job training" on cole slaw making and cooked up some of the corn and squash and onion.. here is a picture of my plate!

it was a blessing to get the good veggies and we surely did enjoy it a ton. now i have to go cook the green beans and fresh potato's--- more yumminess in store!

thanks Amy!!

6.7.09 Sunday

Today look at our garden--the Rabbit didn't eat everything after all! a baby cucumber

6.6.09 Saturday

we have fruit in our garden... granted it is tiny and small but it is something.....and it tasted great

5.5.09 Tuesday

Celebrating spring with a new garden--- tomatoes, cucumbers and squash

three different kinds of tomatoes and more cucumber's than we will ever eat (OK I thought there were only 9 plants in the pack so three hills of cucumbers--didn't know there were three or four plants in each part of the pack) I just wanted to make some bread and butter pickles. If you live around here in a couple of months from now i can hopefully fix you up for cucs. Had trouble finding Squash plants (the little yellow crook necks) so Gary's dad gave me some seeds. I also can not find zucchini and I guess I missed the onion sets too because I cant find any of them either....Looking forward to fresh tomatoes----

Pansy

one of my favorite flowers is the sweet little pansy. i love the large flowery ones, the tiny viola and the sweet tiny johnny-jump-up. The little things always look so happy with their smiling little flowery faces. They are also known in folk medicine as Heartsease....used for things like whooping cough and arthritis

my work complex gardeners always (well for the last 10 years anyway) plant the flower beds with pansy's in the late fall. They sorta sit there waiting until sometime after Christmas and suddenly the flowers are all open and beautiful. This week is the week they are gorgeous! I have enjoyed seeing them as i come and go. The sad thing is that as soon as it gets a little warmer, about in early April, when they are looking extra beautiful the same gardeners will come along and yank them out.

It never fails to amaze me that they just yank them from the ground and toss them in a truck and they disappear--usually within an hour or so of the arrival of the grounds crew. We are talking at least several thousand plants in the entire complex. my heart breaks to see them so mistreated and man-handled (even though some of the workers are female)and tossed to the side..... only to be replaced by some sad looking wax begonias who struggle mightily to survive the long hot humid summer.

then in September---just when the begonias are beginning to look like they may live--- the process begins again and the begonias go the way of of the pansy's that proceeded them

snort-- if you look at the picture closely you will see somethingi never noticed before---the letters are falling off the wall