Digging in the Dirt

Not much going on. Stayed in the City this weekend. Made yogurt yesterday. I wanted to dry some sage & oregano as they are going crazy in my whiskey barrel planters but we had errands to run in the afternoon & I just ran out of time. I did try a new Tart recipe ... Beet, Goat Cheese & Onion from the spoonfulblog.com.

It was very tasty but extremely time consuming to make. I had made the pie crust dough earlier in the week & had it in the fridge. Otherwise that would have added even more time. I am not a beet fan. I really really want to like them but just don't. I had received some Chioggia beets in my Veggie Bin last week and decided to make the tart. The linked recipe calls for separate tartlets but I only had a large size. I just increased the amount of goat cheese & used onions instead of leeks.

Other than that, we have an area along our driveway that is bare & we decided to put in daylilies. Found some on Craigs List & we drove to the 'Northside" this morning to pick them up. We decided on a white variety for along the driveway & some red ones for the end. We wound up with 33 plants which took about an hour to get in the ground.

One of the peace  lilies in the front.

My sister had given me three large peace lily plants from Brooke's funeral. One is placed on  my back porch but I really didn't have room in the house for the other two so we planted those in a shady area in the front yard. Hopefully they will make it.

On the other garden front, none of my herbs sprouted when I originally planted them. I chalked it up to my seeds being old. But, I really need basil throughout the summer so I decided to try again. Just in case the seeds were old I put a lot of seeds in each TP roll. Well wouldn't you know it, they came up like gangbusters this time! I gave away one roll & transplanted the rest this afternoon - 60 basil plants. Yes, you read that right ... 60. I had to double up on many because I ran out of small pots. I also transplanted 12 dill, 10 parsley & 8 thyme. Someone had also given me some tomato tree seeds that is supposed to be a perennial. Yeah right. I've never heard of them but of course I have to give it a try. I had 4 seeds, 3 came up so I transplanted those as well. We'll see what they do. All are back under the grow light right now.

Garden update: Just went outside to harvest some more Chinese Cabbage & Broccoli seed & noticed something new.

I rescued this butternut squash from the compost bin a couple of months ago & just stuck in down in one of the whiskey barrels. With the warmth we've been having, it has really taken off the past few weeks. Upon looking closer, look what I spotted.

The original squash was also in one of my Veggie Bin deliveries over the winter. I'm 95% sure it isn't an Heirloom but is probably organic. can't wait to see what it will do from here. There are 2 or 3 smaller blooms on it as well.

Greg bought this Himalayan Salt block from a Groupon that he found. You are supposed to put on a cold grill or oven, heat & then cook on it. We are going to try some cod on it tonight. Will post on how it does.

That's about it. Oh, except we got a call that our Driveway at the Country House is almost finished. We can drive on it but it will need a top cover of some sort. We're thinking maybe the least expensive way to go will be concrete aggregate if we can find some.