Flowers and Herbs

May 19-20.

Time for a visit to one of my front yard flower gardens!  Oh--but not just flowers!  I've got some herbs growing in here, stuff the critters don't eat, and so far it's all doing fantastic!  Here's a picture of the whole garden:

See that light green bush?  That's oregano.  I'm going to have to harvest it really soon!

Here are three new plants for this garden:  next to my cheap $2 garden gloves (lost one of my awesome pair from last year, grr), you'll see English thyme, pincushion flower, and French sorrel, an edible leaf-herb (more on that below!).

I started with the flower portion of my purchase:  pincushion flower.  It has these bright, deep pink blooms that look like pincushions.  But I bet you figured that out.  They're supposed to bloom all summer with new blossoms popping up continually, so that sounded pretty good to me.  We'll see how it does this year.  I tend to love those flowers that require little maintenance, and which are hardy enough to keep coming back year after year, even with my neglect.  I'm much better with vegetables than with flowers!

There was an open spot by that rock, so that's where this flower would be planted.  Just to the right of that area, there is/was a purple coneflower.  Even now (July), it remains dead; it never came back from last year.  This makes me sad, as it was so very pretty.

On to the herbs!  You can see in the picture below that I've already planted the English thyme and French sorrel (extreme front right, and behind that), but I wanted to show you what I had done in order to do that.  I had to move all those other flowers in the picture.  Those are variegated beard tongue, and bloom the prettiest pinks and purples.  They also proliferate in this garden, which I love.  And not so love, since I have to move them to keep them contained.  But I have also given some to neighbors so they can enjoy them as well.  I really do love their color!

Below you can see the English thyme and French sorrel together.  Two European herbs!  I've snipped a few sprigs of the thyme already, and they've dried, hanging in my basement (you'll see that in an upcoming post, too!).  The French sorrel can be eaten like a leaf lettuce or spinach, chopped up in a salad or eaten with fish.  I thought it had a more bitter taste like arugula does, but when I tried it, it was positively lemony!

French sorrel, there in the bright green.

English thyme, with purple and pink beard tongue beyond.

I thought I'd throw one more picture in, of my sage plant.  This has come back faithfully year after year, but sadly, shortly after I took this picture, it mysteriously died.  I'm still upset about it, as I don't know why it happened.  I was really looking forward to fried sage leaves, which I had done once before the plant died.

Anyway, there's my front yard herb garden, with some flowers thrown in!


Back to life,
Christine

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Planting Day!

May 20.

The day had dawned!  It was time to plant.

We had prepared the beds the day before, and now we were ready to work on the actual planting.  Below is my garden plan for this summer:

I labeled the beds A through E, in the order in which we built them.  We started with A and B, then added C one year, then a few years ago added the last two.  Bed E is lengthwise since there's a maple tree (not terribly big) growing exactly where the middle and end sections would have been had we laid it out like the others.  Too bad, because I like things neat and orderly.  But at least I have the planting space!

Another essential purchase is veggie food.  I try to get organic, and the nursery where I bought the veggies has this brand, so that's what I get.  Even with rotating my plants (hence the reason for my yearly planner above), nutrients may go missing and needed in the soil.  So, fertilizing is a must for me.

My first step was to transplant the purple onions that had come up from last year.  I definitely wanted to try to keep them!

Below, with the onions in the foreground, the bed beyond (where the green plant food bag is) is where they'll go, in the center section.

I dug each one up, and planted each in its own hole.  I spaced them evenly apart as I could, and fertilized around them.  Below, they are there in their new bed.

Next, we laid out each tomato plant (and all the other plants) where they were to be planted.  That way, my guys would know where to dig a hole and plant.  I wasn't the only one planting!!

We dug a hole for each plant, and mixed in each hole the appropriate amount of plant food.  Check the label on the plant food you're using so you use the correct amount.  I believe we used 1/3 cup food in each hole; we just mixed it in at the bottom of the hole, then took the plant out of its container, broke up the roots a bit (to prevent it from becoming root-bound), placed the plant in the hole, and covered it back up with dirt.

Danny planted the parsley, below.

Sweet red peppers!

After everything was planted, we water everything.

Thomas watered the garlic.

Squash plants.

Three parsley plants, with two jalapeno plants beyond.

Giant Marconi, a sweet green pepper, longer and thinner than the standard variety,

but producing more fruit.

The garlic bed.

I used green floral tape to secure the plants to stakes.  I use some tomato cages, and some stakes.

See the floral tape below?  You can purchase it in a roll, then cut the length you need to secure your plant to its stake.  It has Velcro on one side, and you just loop it around and press the Velcro.  It works beautifully, and I save as much of it from year to year as I can.  This is the third year (at least) for this tape, and it's still working great!

Here's the overview, at the end of the day!  There is still a little more to be done, but we were tired and ready for a rest.

Back to life,
Christine

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Planting Day Eve

May 19.

It's as much fun as Christmas Eve, New Years Eve--any eve, really.  There's something special about the day before something special.  The day before Planting Day is no different!

It was (relatively) warm, so I decided it couldn't wait any longer.  Plus, it was already May 19 and Lord willing it wouldn't frost again--although some nearby towns had snow flurries just four days earlier!  This is Chicagoland, mind you, not Alaska, so that's pretty incredible for May.

Above is my garden planner, which I drew to scale (you'll see a better picture tomorrow).  I've labeled each raised bed, and what goes in each of the beds.  Hubby scanned the blank form and made a PDF of it, so all I do is print one off each year and I'm ready to plan.  Really, I should plan this out not on Planting Day Eve, but at least a week or two earlier.  Or, if I plan to plant cool weather crops (peas, lettuce, spinach, etc.), I need to plan this out in March.  So don't procrastinate like I did.  :)  Of course, since we're not in the best place financially, I had to wait to see if we could even afford to have a garden this year.

I took a week's worth of grocery money and spent every penny on our garden--and it was the perfect amount!  It was easier to purchase compost in bags than in bulk, so that's what I did.  My sweet Joseph helped rake it into each square of each bed.

One of my guys--can't remember which--thoughtfully raked in what we had saved of the fireplace ash.  This went into the beds where I would be planting my tomatoes, since the ash is high in potassium and helps prevent blossom-end rot (opposite the stem, you'll see a grayish spot that spreads--I still harvest those, cut out the bad spots, and it's good to eat/can).   I can say that so far this year (it's now July), it's working.

I had various spots of garlic sprouting up randomly, so Jacob dug those up and transplanted them for me into the garlic bed.  I ran out of last year's garlic crop already, so I wanted to save as much as I could.

The garlic bed.

Below, you can see the purple onions that unexpectedly popped up from last year's crop.  I thought I had harvested them all, but apparently a few never sprouted, and here they were!  I will transplant those tomorrow, on Planting Day.

Finally, here are the two cardboard trays of veggies and herbs for my garden!

Can't wait for tomorrow!


Back to life,
Christine

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Put Some Italian on Your Salad!

Short and sweet post here, folks, because I made this classic Italian vinaigrette recently, and just had to share with you for your summertime salads!

Don't you just love a salad in summertime?  I picked my first tomatoes of the season this afternoon; they're an heirloom variety called Cherokee Purple.  We sliced one up immediately, of course, and I tell you, a party broke out in my mouth!

A little drizzle of this dressing is all you need for your salad, or for a pasta salad, or just drizzle it on a sliced tomato straight from the garden!  Enjoy!!

Italian Vinaigrette

1/4 cup red wine vinegar
3/4 cup evoo (extra-virgin olive oil)
1 large clove garlic, minced
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper (I use freshly ground, and 3-4 grinder twists is all you need)
1 tablespoon minced parsley (I use fresh, use less if dried, about 1 teaspoon)
1 teaspoon dry ground mustard
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano

Combine ingredients in a jar; shake to blend.  Done!  (Or keep reading for what I do.)

I put everything in a blender cup and blend with my stick blender.  It will emulsify--it gets thick and creamy, like you see in the picture above--as you blend.  It will separate over time, though; just shake it up before you use it the next time.  I actually store this on the counter, since there are no refrigerated ingredients in it.  It has stored well for about two weeks this way.  If you're leery about that, store it in the fridge, but be warned--the olive oil will thicken and you'll need to bring the jar to room temperature so it's pourable.  (Either way, shake it up to re-blend before each use.)


Back to life,
Christine

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New Every Morning, Part Three

The Lord's lovingkindnesses indeed never cease,

For His compassions never fail.

They are new every morning;

Great is Your faithfulness.

Lamentations 3:22-23 NASB

Mid-May in our family room.

To catch up on the background to this post, you may want to start with Part One of our story! Or, to read the last segment, read Part Two here.

I think I left off our story during the holiday time, Christmas/New Year, to be exact.  I was weary, as I recall, and now I was cold, oh so cold from this brutal winter we had experienced, and that would seemingly never end.  Because of the extreme cold, I stayed home as much as possible, and this turned out to be a blessing.  I was able to rest, avoid busy-ness, and concentrate on taking care of my homefront.

The new year 2014 brought opportunities for Fernando to work with a satellite truck company, whose owner wanted to train Fernando on his two SAT trucks, both driving and operating.  There was good money to be made, but there was also a training period to go through.  And that's where Fernando was at, at this point.

Work was slow, and money was tight, but we did elect to receive unemployment, and that helped.  Yes, I know you have an opinion about taking taxpayer money when you're unemployed, and I had an opinion as well (I still do).  But we were in the trenches (still are!), and we needed help, temporarily.  And this was the solution presented to us for this season.

Now it was spring, although you'd never know it by the temperatures.  And this brings me to today's story, just a snippet of God's protection and care for His children during a long, hard season.  This story begins on May 15, in which the scene in the photo at the beginning takes place.


This Thursday dawned bright and cold--as in, it would only reach in the 40s today.  Some Chicago suburbs had snow that morning!  I went to and came home from my chiropractic appointment, and when I got home, Fernando had gone in to work (praise the Lord for a work day!).  He had left just five minutes or so before I got home.

When I walked in the door and down the hall, I noted that the thermostat read 63 degrees--seriously?!  I turned the heat to on, set the thermostat for 69, and walked into the kitchen to start my day at home.

Five or ten minutes later, I heard a knock at the door--Fernando was back.  Strange.  I opened the door to let him in, and he explained that Chuck (owner of STS) had called and would not be in right away, so instead of waiting around to start work, Fernando turned around and came home.  That worked out nicely that Fernando was still close to home when Chuck called!  I then commented that although I had turned on the heat, the furnace had yet to kick on, and would he be so kind as to check out why for me?

As soon as Fernando took a few steps down into the basement, he hollered, "I smell gas!!"  I turned off the heat on the thermostat, and Fernando went down to check things out.  Danny and Thomas were down there, but close to the floor so they hadn't smelled anything.  As soon as they stood up, they realized that the basement had filled with the smell of gas (that added sulfur smell, of course).  They quickly worked together to get fans going to clear out the natural gas, and Fernando started checking out the furnace.

I was so thankful to the Lord that Fernando had come home!  How much longer would I have waited before checking things out myself?  Would Danny/Thomas have smelled the smell, or been overcome?  At the worst, our house could have literally exploded.  The safety valve on our furnace had malfunctioned, and gas continued to pour in unabated!

Thank You, Lord, for Your protection.

Fernando decided that rather than spend money to have a repairman come out, we'd ride out the cold (how much longer could it last, anyway??), and use some of the firewood my parents blessed us with when they moved two years earlier.  Our living areas became nice and toasty as we kept a continual fire going, the boys stayed warm under blankets at nighttime, and I thanked the Lord for a family member's Christmas gift, with which we bought a warming layer (pad of sorts) for our bed so I could stay toasty all night long).

On the third day, Saturday, we decided that hotdogs over the fire would be an excellent meal, and Fernando obliged.  I love my Grillmaster!

Danny and Thomas messed around with Jacob on the couch.

Grilled hotdogs are one of our summer favorites, and we were happy to have them on a cold spring day.

Our furnace remains broken (it's July as I write this!), but we survived those three cold days until it warmed up.  Fernando figured we wouldn't need our furnace until October (here's hoping!), so we'd leave it until we get regular income.

That's just one little three-day snippet of how the Lord has taken care of us throughout this trying season of life.  I don't always see the "good" in things, and life doesn't just get fixed--though sometimes it does.  We're still in the trenches, and it's still very hard now.  But in telling this story to you now, I'm reminded that His care of His children is continual, no matter the circumstances.  And I know there are so many others going through incredible trials, and so this burden is lighter to bear.

Thanks for reading.


Back to life,
Christine

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