Jen Caputo

Harvest Monday

Every Monday, Daphne's Dandelions hosts Harvest Monday. All of the blogging gardeners post their take for the week and I've never played. Because frankly, my harvest is wimpy compared to theirs. But today, I got my first tomato and my first cucumber so I had to join in!

I harvested Swiss Chard, a Boston Pickling Cucumber, a Honey Bunch Tomato, a teeny tiny Black Pearl tomato, 2 sugar snap peas (ha! I'm pretty sure it's my last 2).

Loads of basil and parsley

The basil and parsley got added to the blender with a clove of garlic, salt, pepper, balsamic, and olive oil. Blended up it became a hybrid chimichurri/pesto sauce to top our steaks.

The swiss chard, tomatoes, peas, and cucumbers became a salad dressed with balsamic and topped with homemade croutons.

Dinner consisted of bacon-wrapped filets topped with the chimichurri/pesto, truffle fries (ore-ida fries tossed with truffle oil and sea salt), and my salad.

While dinner was cooking, I made a harvest cocktail too!

 

I started with some mint and a few slices of that cucumber.

 

I added them to a jar with a teaspoon of sugar, a dash of ango bitters, and a squeeze of lime juice. Then I muddled. In went two ounces of gin and some ice, stirred well, topped with club soda. 

Garnished with some spanked mint and a cucumber slice. So refreshing!!!

Salad Box Update

A few weeks ago, I shared how I made a salad box. But I never showed what I did with it. Well, here it is after about 3 weeks planted with various greens and one broccoli plant. It lives in my driveway for now as that seems to be our sunniest spot.

Broccoli is the big guy. That's arugula on the right.

Joining the salad box in the driveway are the super sugar snap peas. I started these guys indoors and didn't plant them out until they were about 6 inches tall. Everyone says you aren't supposed to transplant peas but I'm so glad I did because they are certainly happy!  I believe we will be enjoying peas much earlier this year than last. To compare, I direct sowed lincoln peas in the planter behind this one (visible on the right side of the picture) and they are only a few inches tall. Both pea planters are sharing their pots with more salad greens.

These are the greens I harvested for a dinner salad tonight.

And these are the rest of the ingredients for our salad.

This is my current favorite salad. It hits all of the food groups, is delicious, filling, and so healthy! Clockwise from top left corner (ending in the center)

• 1/3 C. Walnuts chopped
• 10 Asparagus spears, blanched for 3 minutes and then plunged into ice water, cut on the diagonal
• 2 celery spears diced
• 1 apple diced
• 3oz. Aged Gouda diced (the aged gouda goes so well in this salad, I wouldn't dream of replacing it with anything else)
• 2/3 C. Red Quinoa (which is packed with protein) rinsed and cooked to the package instructions, then cooled.

This made enough for 2 large dinner salads and a full size lunch portion for me to eat tomorrow.

I dressed it with a homemade balsamic vinaigrette of garlic, brown sugar, dijon mustard, balsamic, olive oil, salt and pepper.

Building a Salad Box (and checking on the seedlings)

I mentioned the other day that I would be building this salad box (basically a box I can move around to an appropriate location for salad greens depending on the season). I actually followed this tutorial. Since lettuces only need about 3-4" of soil depth to be happy this box will be perfect for them while freeing up the garden bed for deeper rooted crops.

 

Materials:

1x4 board (mine was 8 feet so I cut 2-21" pieces and 2-28" pieces)
Aluminum Screen
Hardware Mesh (1/2" mesh)
Galvanized Screws (mine were 1 5/8")
2 Drawer/Cabinet Pull Handles
Sandpaper
Wire Snips, Drill, Staple Gun, Drill Bits, Staples, Scissors

I started by laying out my boards and figuring out where I would attach them.

Then I screwed my handles to the short boards.

And pre-drilled my holes on the long boards

I used the basement coffee table to help me hold the boards while I screwed them in.

Once everything was screwed in, I stapled the aluminum screening to the back, overlapping by 3 inches on the long sides. (And then I ran out of staples 4 staples in so I took a 24 hour break)

Then I repeated that process with the hardware cloth. The aluminum screening keeps the dirt in, the hardware cloth helps support its weight.

All done!  This weekend I'm going to fill it up with some compost amended organic potting soil and get my greens situated in their new home.

A salad box is a great place to grow lettuces, herbs, and other shallow rooted things.

Now, let's check on those seedlings, some of which will hopefully be moving outside this weekend.

These tomato seedlings are really taking off

These are the greens that will live in the salad box. Lots of varieties in here including mizuna, arugula, oak leaf, spinach, etc.

Basils (and a little dill on the far right

More tomatoes, peppers, and eggplants

2011 Seed Starting

I built myself a little grow system in the basement and most all of my babies have sprouted (thus the greenhouse lids are all off)! I pretty much followed the instructions on You Grow Girl.

I've got lettuces and other leafy greens.

10 different varieties of tomatoes, 3 peppers, and 3 eggplant.

Herbs, marigolds, and Pak Choi

And various other things.

Even the kitties have their own 'seedlings' to take care of (their favorite nom-noms, cat grass)  

And I've already gotten one harvest of delicious micro greens.

 

They were sown in an empty strawberry carton.

 

Next weekend, my plan is build a garden box and get some lettuces outside.

Double Rainbow Tomato Birthday All the Way!

A little bit of a hodge podge post here.

We're up in Madison for the Great Taste of the Midwest. It's the friday before the fest. It's raining. It stops, just as we show up to Brickhouse, we go outside. What do we find?  A double rainbow all the way! Woah!!! Oh my God! Oh my God!

Do you see it?  I only had my 50mm f1.4 lens with me so I couldn't zoom out enough to get the whole thing. But can you imagine how funny it is to listen to 50 beer filled strangers recite "What does it mean..."

It was starting to look like a triple rainbow, but then it dissipated. We never found out what it meant.

When we got home on Sunday, we went tomato picking in the backyard.  12 lbs later.

 

 

Yesterday was my birthday. To celebrate, we went to dinner at Top Chef winner Stephanie Izard's brand new restaurant, The Girl & the Goat. Here is what we ate.

 

We started off with a loaf of bread, filled with corn. It came with whipped goat cheese and corn relish.  The two cocktails in the background were delicious.

 

We'd actually partially tried a similar dish to this one at one of Stephanie's Wandering Goat dinners. We wanted to try the finished product though.
hiramasa crudo - crisp pork belly - aji aioli - caperberries
one of our faves of the night.

 

A delicious salad.  Perfectly balanced. 
shaved kohlrabi - fennel - blueberries - evalon - toasted almond

 

Since it's normally one of my favorite dishes, I was expecting more from this dish. Probably the biggest let down of the night. Not that it wasn't yummy...
escargot & goatballs - romesco, bagna cauda, almonds

 

This was our other favorite.  Mmmmmm.... can you believe those servers tried to take the plate away from us before we'd sopped up all of the delicious juice?!?
seared scallops - braised veal - caponata - marcona almond butter

 

At this point, we figured we had one more small plate in us.  We asked to see the menu so we could decide between a dessert or another savory dish.  The waiter pretty much insisted that we get a dish that combined them most.  I know I said that two other dishes up there were our favorites, but this last one was beyond a favorite... it was perfection.  And it came with a birthday candle for me!

fried potato dumplings - lemon-poached eggplant - figs - honey yogurt

I know, I know... eggplant in a dessert?  Well believe it or not, this is the second eggplant dessert I've eaten and I loved them both!

 

Stay tuned for my review of the Taste of the Nation event!!!

Mid August Garden/Harvest Update

I'm way behind on my garden updates but it is finally tomato season! I didn't think these things were ever going to ripen.

Here was our very first tomato/pepper harvest. August 1st.

A few days later, we harvested our first Brandywine. 

It was so meaty and delicious.

It became a BLT with basil and beet greens.

Adam wanted me to show you this angle of it... that's all I'm going to say about that.

Less than a week later, we were harvesting tons more tomatoes! Look at everyone I brought in yesterday.

They quickly became my favorite summer meal: Chop up all the fresh veggies you can get your hands on.  Tear up some basil, mix in a little feta or manchengo cheese, and marinate in olive oil and white balsamic.

Scoop it onto a cracker or crusty piece of bread and you have yourself a delicious meal or snack.

Elsewhere in the garden, we have the Centennial Hop Monster.

Which is covered in hop cones.

We harvested a bunch and are experimenting with making some hop infused Tito's Vodka.  It should be done in a few days - we'll let you know how it goes!

I wanted to show you all this one Yellow Pear tomato bush.

I don't think you can tell, but this thing is 10 feet tall and extends roughly 5 feet in each direction (including over the fence into my neighbors backyard).

Maybe this pic of him next to Adam (who is 6 feet tall) will help.

He is covered in adorable tear drop shaped tomatoes.  At least 200 on this one vine!  (I have another yellow pear planted and he's only got 15... something crazy must have happened to this guy.)

 

These are cherokee purple... none of them have turned purple yet but we ate a red one yesterday and it was probably the best tomato I've ever eaten.

This branch weighs at least 10 lbs.  I've tied it up multiple times but those tomatoes just keep getting bigger.

Lastly, take a look at my baby eggplant butts.  Aren't they adorable?  These were a total experiment, I'd forgotten to plant my seedlings and in the beginning of july I decided to throw them in a bucket on the side of the house.  They seem pretty happy! I'm guessing I'll have one to eat in the next week or two.

On a sad note... i think my squash is done. I never even got any zucchini, but look at him:

I'm pretty sure it started out as powdery mildew. I thought I'd cured it with the baking soda/water/oil trick but now he looks like this.  What should I do? Pull him?  See if he recovers?

July 6 Garden Harvest

I keep forgetting to take pictures of my harvest but today I remembered!

• I pulled a carrot to see how they were doing.  He was only about 4-5 inches long so they aren't really ready to come up yet.
• A yellow squash - my first!  Isn't it so pretty!!!!
• A handful of green beans (bush snap variety)
• The last few sugar snap peas. Including one mammoth pea that must have escaped my eye for the past few weeks.  Check it out when I split it open.

We ate him but to be honest, at this size, he wasn't that tasty.

Everything got tossed in a salad for dinner except for the yellow squash.  He's going into dinner tomorrow. I'm thinking of some kind of pasta dish.  Anyone have any recipes that require one beautiful homegrown yellow summer squash?

The heat has really caused the garden to come alive.  Here are some brandywines.

and some Cherokee Purple

 

No lady parts on my cucumbers yet but tons of male flowers!  Come on ladies!!!!  We are dying for some fresh cucumbers...

My parents think it's hilarious that I know if my flowers are male or female but it doesn't take long to figure it out when you are counting down the days till your first lemon cucumber!

End of June Garden Update

Starting out with a bit of an overview shot.

Then, we move to my Hop Monster.

He's kind of scary looking at this point, right?  He's budding up all over the place and we'll be loaded in Centennial Hop cones shortly.

All of the tomatoes are blossoming or fruiting up.  Here are some hanging ones.

The overflowing herb pot (mint, oregano, and thyme), and another pot with two types of mint (spearmint and orange mint)

Check out my one and only Meyer Lemon.  A few more months.... nothing like it taking 1.5 years to grow one lemon.

Some basil

A patio tomato in a pot

Baby straightneck yellow squash!  Hoping to be eating one of these in the next week!

Here is the whole squash bed - that's a zucchini on the right, yellow straightneck on the left, the patio tomato in the pot, and there is a lemon cucumber sprouting in between. Those are Calendula in the very front. I have the squash growing in the upside down tomato cages to try to contain their sprawling greens.

The peas got a second wind, I think I have more developing now then I had when they were supposed to be at their prime.

The cabbage are finally heading up.  Can you eat baby cabbage?  I'm sick of the slugs trying to attack them and want to just pull them already.

This is my first baby tomato! It's a Cherokee Purple heirloom variety.

And then today I found this cluster of yellow pear tomatoes.

I LOVE their shape!  Can't wait till they ripen up.

This is the part of the bed that gets the least amount of sun but it's growing like crazy.  Lots of tomatoes, peppers, and cucumbers climbing over everything.

Here's a close up of a burpless cucumber that I'm trying to get to climb on some bamboo poles but it is much more interested in the neighboring tomato cages.

These cucumbers and their growing habits absolutely crack me up.  I have three varieties growing: burpless, boston pickling, and lemon cucumbers.  The lemon cuces are flowering already!!! I expect the rest to be so shortly.

My green beans.  I recently discovered why they weren't growing up the trellis I made them... I bought bush beans, not pole beans.  Whoops.  They are flowering and making all kinds of baby snap beans though, can't wait to try them:

Can you spot the baby beans?  They're in there I swear.

Just as a reminder, this is what that area looked like back in April.  We've come a long way.

 

Lastly - I started a potted garden next to my driveway which is one of few areas that gets a ton of sun.

The big pots are all tomatoes: Jubilee Orange, Cherokee Purple, and Brandywine.  They are sharing their pots with marigolds, purple basils, and lettuces. The small pots in front are for Adam - Cayenne Peppers.

Yesterday I started second sowings of lettuce, swiss chard, and arugula and a first sowing of Chervil.  I'm going to have to keep these guys shaded and cool so they don't bolt in the summer heat.

That's where I'm at right now.  I figure in a month I'll be up to my ears in edibles but for now I'm just counting down the days until I can pick my first tomato, cucumber, or squash.

Early June Garden Update (Meet Ernie!)

It seemed to me that my Turnips were growing like crazy and might be getting ready to pick... so I picked one.

So... not quite ready yet I guess.  I did decide to chop up the greens though and add them to dinner. From what I've read, Turnip Greens are some of the healthiest things on earth!

My peas started flowering the other day and today - I found my first Lincoln Pea!

He's not quite ready to pick yet but I'm hoping by this weekend he'll be plumped up!

This is the first Super Sugar Snap Pea I could find.

Again, hoping I get to try him this weekend!

Here's what the carrots are looking like

And my green beans just sprouted.

Ok, it's time for you to meet Ernie before we continue.

Ernie has joined us the last few evenings in a row.  Apparently our back yard is the perfect place to soak in those last few minutes of sunshine.  If we sit on the hammocks, he sits on the table or on our t-shirts.  If I'm working in the garden, he flits around and follows me as I move from plant to plant.

He went in to investigate the Turnips after I picked the failure up at the top of this post.

 

These Bell Peppers look like they might flower soon.

The beets are so pretty but based on my Turnip experiment I'm pretty sure they aren't going to be ready any time soon.

How are the peas doing Ernie?

One of my spinach varieties is bolting :(

I need a heat tolerant green to plant in it's place - any suggestions?

Here is our one and only Meyer lemon. We had another one on a different lemon tree but a squirrel took off with him :(  Let's hope this guy makes it - I really want to make a cocktail out of him!

Here are the hanging tomatoes (Orange Jubilee, Yellow Pear, and Grape)

The thyme is getting tiny little flowers!

The hops managed to topple their original support so we changed our plan.  Now we are training the majority of the vines to head sideways along the garage and we're letting 2 go up.

They are budding like crazy and I'm anticipating some hop cones very soon!

I've got quite a few tomatoes in the raised beds

But I also decided to try a few in pots.  This one went in about 2 weeks ago with some marigolds. (It's a Brandywine)

And I just planted this Cherokee Purple over the weekend.  He's got a few purple basils in there with him and I also planted some Lettuce seeds.  Apparently they work well together. While the tomato is small, the lettuce gets the sun it needs but when it's hot out, the tomato will shade the lettuce which hates the heat. (And in turn, the lettuce shades the soil and keeps it cooler for the tomato)

I leave you with my view at 11:40PM as I lift my laptop from my lap.

 

how cute is she?

End of May Garden Update

Thanks to a few unseasonable 90 degree days, my Arugula is bolting :(

Meaning it doesn't taste so great anymore and pretty soon will be inedible.  I pinched a bunch off though, cleaned it well and added it to our tomato sauce tonight for a little spice.

This herb pot has about doubled in size since I planted it two weeks ago.

It contains mint, oregano, and thyme (purchased all together in one much smaller pot for $5 at Trader Joes)

I have a few hanging tomato plants that I just potted up this weekend and so far, they seem to be growing pretty well.

This guy is a Jubilee tomato (grape sized orange fruit). The top is planted with a jalapeno plant and a few marigolds.

These are standard Grape (on the left with purple basil and marigold) and Yellow Pear (with marigold and some basil seeds waiting to sprout in top)

I've got a Brandywine growing in this pot. I potted him up about a week ago and he seems to be doing awesome.  I stuck a few marigolds in and a water bottle irrigation system.

He's hanging out on the side of my driveway which actually seems to get decent sun so I'm going to clean this area up and probably add another pot or two.

And now for the garden beds.  Here's a nice overview pic for you.

Front Row (left to right): Cabbage, Carrots, Rosemary, Beets

2nd row: Empty, brocolli (which doesn't seem to be doing fabulously and I might pull soon), chives

In the back row you can see a tomato - I don't remember what kind (I have it written down somewhere though - I think maybe beefsteak)

A little overlap here.

Front Row: Rosemary, Beets, Radishes

Middle Row: Brocolli, chives, empty, Leeks (doubt these are going to work out... started from seed too late)

Back row: Both visible plants are Brussels sprouts.

Back Row: Turnips, Parsley, Super Sugar Snap Peas (sure hope I'm going to actually get some peas soon!)

Middle Row: Cabbage, empty, Lincoln Peas

Front Row: empty, empty, mystery Tomato

Front Row: Cabbage, Radishes, Cabbage, Turnips, Empty, Empty

Middle Row: Empty, Red Bell Pepper, Red Bell Pepper, Empty, Empty, Rhubarb

Back Row: Purple Cherokee Tomato (not really visible), Boston Pickling Cucumber (seeds just sprouted, you can't really see them), Yellow Pear Tomato, Sweet Burpless Cucumber (seeds just sprouted, you can't see them yet), empty, spaghetti squash (seeds haven't sprouted yet).

Today, along with the arugula, I also harvested several radishes (After washing, I added the greens to our pasta sauce as well), some spinach, mustard greens, and lettuces - all of which also went in the pasta sauce.

I have TONS of tomato seedlings left to deal with.  I have a feeling I will also probably have about 25 seedlings left over with no home.  I forgot to take pictures of a few squash plants that aren't in the main beds, my hops (which are taller than our roof already!), my blueberry bush (that seems to keep coming back since I abandoned it in the back of the yard a few years ago but it's still much to small to make fruit), and my single thumb-sized adorable Meyer Lemon that I am praying will one day make it into a cocktail :)

Critters in the garden

We were working in the yard on Sunday and let the kitties come out to play with us.

Mr. Meowmers hung on the deck.

And Kitty hung in the tree.

Mr. Meowmers sniffed the mint (ok and took a bite..)

And kitty wondered why she was on the wrong side of the door.

Mr. Meowmers hung close to the herb pot.

But all of a sudden, something caught their attention and they started chirping away.

Uhm...

Hey guys... interesting spot you've chosen to relax... do you not see us standing right here?

well, as you were.

 

Today, I made my first non-herb garden harvest!

I plucked a bunch of fresh arugula

It went on top of our pizza (which also was topped with sun dried tomato, mozzarella, goat cheese, prosciutto, and egg)

and I pulled a radish to see how close to ready they were...

Answer: Not at all!  we still cut him in half and ate him though. ha ha! 

2010 Grub Garden Update #1

Things are slowly but surely growing in the garden.

Out in the beds, my peas are a few inches tall.

I gave them some twigs to climb, spanning the distance between the soil and the trellis I want them to climb on.

I've got Sugar Snap Peas and Lincoln Peas growing.

Here are my turnips:

Beets

Carrots (I swear they're there.... they just finally sprouted this week)

Radishes

And these guys are doing so good that on Monday I decided to sow another square and they are already all up!

A direct-sown golden acre cabbage... I think it's gonna be a long long time until this guy is ready to harvest

My boxes look so pathetic from this angle...

These three window boxes have two different spinaches on the outside and the middle one is Argula (which needs thinning pretty soon)

My lettuce mix is growing in a recycled clementine crate

Remember the hops... last update they were about 2 feet high.  Now, they are taller than the trellis they are climbing on!

I don't know if you can tell but there are about 10 more vines starting to climb down here:

I then turned my attention to the seedlings growing in my bay window.

Those guys looked like they were a bit overdue for a re-potting.

I set out a bag in my cube and asked my coworkers to drop off their plastic bottles when they were done.  I brought them home, cleaned them well, and then cut them in half - free pots!

I buried the tomatoes up to their first set of leaves to allow them to grow lots more roots.

Now my window looks like this:

And everyone is labeled well

I've been disappointed with the growth of my peppers so I decided to experiment with putting them in a "greenhouse" to raise the heat and humidity.  (One of my coworkers suggested trying this).  I only did one of each kind like this in case it's a failure:

To make my "greenhouse", I cut a bottle in half, planted the pepper, then cut a slit in the top half and stuffed it back into its bottom half.

I also tried planting a few tomatoes outside already.  I'm hedging my bets but I have so many seedlings (6 of each variety) that I'll never have room to plant, I figured I could sacrifice a few and maybe get an early start!

Here's my first planted tomato seedling.  I buried a water bottle next to it with it's bottom cut off and a bunch of holes punched in the lid.  Apparently tomatoes like to be watered deep down to their roots but don't like wet leaves.  All I have to do is pour water into this bottle and the water is delivered straight to the roots!

I also have some milk jug "cloches" which I've set around the tomato seedlings to hopefully protect them if it does get cold again. (It also seemed to work well to protect them from being pelted by the rain storms we've been getting). 

Fingers crossed that my early tomato planting will work and I'll be enjoying juicy fruits a little sooner than expected!

Starting my 2010 Grub Garden

Last year I planted a few tomatoes, peppers, and herbs.  This year, I decided I kinda wanted to grow a whole produce aisle. 

Pioneer Woman wrote this post about building your own raised garden beds and I thought, "hey, I can do that".  So right that instant, I drove off to Home Depot and loaded my car with wood and outdoor screws.

It was still pretty cold outside when I decided to do this so I built them in my garage.

Here they are stacked on top of each other.  The PVC brackets/hoops are to support  some plastic to create a greenhouse like environment in order to extend the season.

I don't need them right now but I thought it best to put the brackets in place before I filled the boxes with dirt. I just attached them like this:

And then bent some 5 feet flexible PVC between them. (My boxes are 3'x8' in case you were curious).

Then it came time to find a place to put them.  This area along the fence looked promising... especially since I cannot stand the hostas that will wind up growing there.

So I got to work pulling out the wood and Adam helped me dig up all of the hostas and roots inhabiting that area. Pretty soon it looked like this.

Which meant it was time to install the garden beds.

Adam worked on staking them out and then leveling them.

While I worked on constructing some trellis like contraptions for my climby things (peas, tomatoes, etc.) to play on.  I used electrical conduit and Trellis Netting at the recommendation of a book I was reading (All New Square Foot Gardening: Grow More in Less Space)

I made the frame and then just tied the netting on.

Then it was time to fill them.  I used a combination of high quality top soil, peat moss, and composts.  (The potting mix in the foreground is for my pots, not the beds)

Trellis in place and beds starting to get filled (FYI, we put down SEVERAL layers of wet newspaper first to suppress  any weeds/grass/plants that might want to come up in my veggie garden)

So, here they are a few weeks later.

I started some spring veggies in the one on the left so it's the only one I put a grid on so far.  Planted in that bed so far are: Sugar Snap Peas, Lincoln Peas, Turnips, Carrots, Chives, Beets, Cabbage, Radishes, .... I think that's it in here for now.

Today, my first pea sprouted!!! 

My radishes have been sprouting for a few days

 

And the turnips just started coming out.  They dont' seem to be in as pretty neat rows as the radishes but I think it's because I planted 2-3 seeds per hole and they just need thinning now.

I've also got several window boxes and fruit crates planted with different lettuce and spinach mixtures. Here's a few peeking out.

 

And here's our 2-year old Centennial Hops racing to the sky.  Last year they were so wispy and puny but this year they have probably quadrupled in girth.

There seems to still be danger of frost here in Chicago so the rest of my babies are hanging out inside still.

The kitchen garden window is filled with my herbs (some started from seeds, some bought as transplants)

I didn't think this Rosemary was ever going to turn in to anything, I planted it probably 12 weeks ago but as you can see, it's finally starting to resemble my favorite herb ever!

And in the bay window I've got a good 100 other seedlings. Most planted about 3 weeks ago, some just a few days ago:

There's about 8 different kinds of tomatoes in here (I wanted to make sure I had every color covered so there's yellow, orange, purple, red, etc.  I'll tell you the specific varieties later).  3 different kinds of peppers, 3 different basil's (including 2 purple ones!), Okra, Brussels sprouts, broccoli, onions, leeks, marigolds, dill, lettuces, cabbage, etc. 

Mr. Meowmers is not happy that they get to sit in his favorite spot in the house but sometimes I'll let him squeeze in next to them.  But only under my supervision since a few weeks ago he massacred a few of them while we were sleeping. (If I'm not around I keep the blinds down which prevents him from getting up there. 

So, that's my garden so far.  Did you guys start one?  Leave me a link! I want to follow more garden blogs too so if you have a recommendation or favorite garden blog, let me know!  I'm currently loving You Grow Girl!

More of My Garden

This morning I noticed that all three of my different color Lilies were blooming!  They are soooo gorgeous! I just love the colors together. I can't believe how many there are either. Last year I planted 2 of each color and this year there are at least 4 or more of each color. They propagated like crazy! These are all of the Asiatic variety.

I also think it's crazy the way they figured out how to vary their height. The orange ones in the back are super tall while the red ones in front are really short. The yellow ones are right in the middle.  Perfect!

More of my garden favorites.  My Jack in the Pulplit!  Last year he didn't grow a comb but this year he has this beautiful one!

And check out my Calamondin and Lemon Tree blooms - they've blossomed! And they smell delightful!

 

My hanging and window baskets are doing great too.

The creeping Jenny's are definitely creeping!

And mom - look how the impatiens filled in!