herbiehancock

Just before dinner, it's so much fun to grab a knife and head to the garden for lettuce! I found a packet of seeds that had 5 different varieties of leaf lettuce, so it looks as pretty on a plate as it does in the garden! I bought a salad spinner , which does a great job of getting spinach and lettuce leaves dry after they've been washed. My gardener's been doing a good job this year... just look at this! We have tomatoes (roma, cherry, yellow pear and big reds), zucchini, acorn squash, garlic, spinach, bell peppers, jalapenos, radishes, and sweet onions. Sometimes I sit out there and watch the zucchini grow-- I swear, it grows that fast! My gardener (who doubles as my grill-master) cooked up some salmon on a cedar plank the other night. The salmon was cooked to perfection and the honey mustard dressing I made was just the thing to go with this salad. Honey-Mustard Salad Dressing 3/4 cups mayonnaise 2 T Dijon mustard 1/4 cup honey Mix all ingredients well and refrigerate fo...

The peonies bloomed this week! I love these things. They're so delicate and fragrant. The flowers are about 5 inches across! We had rain the day they bloomed and all those petals collected the water. Under the weight, the stems fell to the ground. When it stopped raining, I went out to rescue them... ... and now I'm enjoying them inside. This is the peony plant with more buds. When they bloom I'll bring them inside too. Here's my jalapeno plant with a flower! I was worried about the spinach at first. I didn't think it was going to come up, but look at all these leaves! I've been picking spinach every day to add to lunch sandwiches. This is one of the zucchini plants. These things grow so fast you can almost see them grow! And here's the entire garden. The tomatoes have plenty of flowers. Onions, radishes and bell peppers are doing great. I hope you enjoyed the garden tour today!

I can't believe it's been seven weeks since we started thinking about our garden and planting seeds to later be transferred to the ground! I'm lovin' this jalapeno plant! The spinach I thought wasn't doing so well really took off and I harvested several leaves today that went into my sandwich at lunch! We'll take a look at some of the flowers... Here's the peony plant with great big buds on it. Won't be long now! There are a couple of lily plants that have buds... And here's the vegetable garden. We put cages around the tomatoes this week. We originally planted four zucchini plants and only two made it -- which may be a good thing since one of our neighbors told us last night that they're not big on "green things". I hope the other neighbors like green things because I'm sure we'll have plenty to give away! Here's a few other gardens: Mary's Mississippi Garden and Debbie's Nevada Garden

Let's tour the garden today and I then have a hot and spicy recipe for you afterwards. This is the raised garden where we have radishes, green onions, purple onions, spinach (which isn't doing so well), jalapeno, tomatoes and zucchini. Here's the jalapeno plant. If this does well and we get some peppers, I'd like to put them in the smoker to make our own chipotle peppers. Gorgeous peonies that are on their way to blooming. Sadly, the blooms don't last long which only make them that much more special. I don't know what this plant is called, but it puts out pretty blue flowers that last all summer long. Pansies are always a happy flower to have in the garden and I love yellow and purple anything side by side. Here's the lily barrel. I forget what type of geranium this is... peppermint, candy cane... something like that. That's our garden for this week. Things are coming along nicely but I'm anxious for some return! Now, let's make some chile c...

Before we tour the garden this week, let's make some Sangria. Gather your fruits of choice and slice them up. Pretty much anything goes... you could make it easy with just apples and oranges, or go all out! After I took this picture, I also added big chunks of watermelon to the mix. Mix some red wine, Grand Marnier, a little sugar and the fruit. Refrigerate until cold, then add some Club Soda. Pour into glasses (or Mason jars!) with plenty of ice. Be sure to get some fruit into each glass and when you've finished the Sangria, eat the fruit! Now, let's tour the garden. Chives have the prettiest purple flowers! The peonies are getting bigger and have developed the flower buds... won't be long now! Gerbera Daisy. Tomato plants went in this week. We have red grape tomatoes, yellow grape tomatoes, cherry tomatoes and a couple of good old big, slicing tomatoes. This week we also put in a jalapeno plant and some green bell pepper plants. The irises have bloomed and gon...