Lisa's Garden

This Blog Has Moved

2011-03-27T07:55:00.000-07:00

In an effort to simplify my life, I've decided to roll this blog into my personal site at LisaVollrath.com.

If you were following Lisa's Garden for garden things, those posts now appear here.

If you were following it for kitchen/vegan things, those posts now appear here.

See you soon in the new digs...

Waiting For Spring

2011-01-10T07:51:00.000-08:00

We had our annual half-hearted snow yesterday, most of which melted the moment it hit the ground. I think it started up again last night, so there's just a little dusting over the whole backyard this morning.

I spent part of last week building the new 12 foot bed on the right. In a week or so, I'll plant the red onion slips and red and white potatoes I have waiting in the kitchen. In April, I'll add okra, which I've now learned gets so tall, I can't reach the pods to harvest when they're in the taller raised beds. Who knew?

Inside, I'm already starting on the spring garden. When I pulled up the sweet potato vines from the front yard beds, I saved the little potato roots from two of them, and put them into a margarine tub of potting soil. Sure enough, they started to sprout after about a week under a plastic cover. In another week or so, I'll start pinching off bits to root, so by the time the weather gets warm, I'll have plenty of plants for the front yard, and to share with Bad Neighbor, who always asks for cuttings when I start trimming it back.

I'm also rooting cuttings from both the lavender and orange lantana from this year's garden. The lavender is often hard to find, and this year's orange was so beautiful, I really wanted to try to preserve it. Since lantana dies back here in the winter. I decided to try doing soft wood cuttings, and so far, they seem to be doing well.

Last week, I started the first of the seeds. On the kitchen window sill are purple and yellow coneflowers, and zinnias. I'm hoping to start some sunflowers shortly, as well as tomatoes and chiles for the vegetable garden.

Soon. Spring will be here soon.

The State of the Garden, and What I Learned From Vegan MoFo

2010-12-04T18:53:00.000-08:00

I spent yesterday afternoon tearing out the last of the summer vegetable garden. Even though the tomato vines were brown, and I thought the first freeze had killed them, I still came away with two bowls full. If I ripen a few every day, I'll have homegrown tomatoes until January. Even little tomatoes that have been forced to ripen are better than anything I can buy in a grocery store. Delicious little things.

Anyway, while I was out there, tearing things out, I also raked up most of the leaves from Bad Neighbor's nasty hackberry tree, filling the compost bin, and also laying down a good layer in two of the big raised beds. I ended up climbing up into them and turning the dirt over, to make sure the leaves stayed in the beds instead of blowing into Good Neighbor's yard. I ran out of steam when I got to the third bed, so if we have another nice day soon, I'll have to go out and do it again.

So, Vegan MoFo is over, and I sort of ran out of gas about halfway through. Too much food! I couldn't eat as fast as I cooked. I'm not sorry I did it , though---and here's why:

1. I ate way less processed food this month than I have previously. I'm not a big eater of frankenfoods, but seriously, I bought nothing from Boca or Morningstar Farms all month.

2. I cooked a lot more than usual. I think I cook lots of simple things, like baked potatoes or roasted veggies, but I don't really cook from recipes. I did last month, and I liked it.

3. I finally acquired a vegan cookbook. Helpful.

4. I tried new things. Nutritional yeast. Tempeh. Seitan. Bean curd sticks. I have buckwheat noodles, and a chayote waiting to be eaten.

5. I cleaned out my kitchen cupboards, and reorganized. I finally gave in to using more than one little cabinet for food. I'm seriously thinking of turning the pantry, which has been functioning as a broom closet, back into a pantry. I cleaned out my spice cabinet. I threw away stuff that was old, or that I don't use, or that isn't vegan.

I'm sure there's more, but after two glasses of wine, I can't think of them. Mostly, I enjoyed reading about all the possibilities that vegan eating has to offer. It was nice to hear hundreds of vegans talking about what they eat every day, and watching all the lovely photos of food roll by.

Oh, Right

2010-11-27T10:44:00.000-08:00

Somehow, I fell off the Vegan MoFo bandwagon before Thanksgiving. Probably because my fridge runneth over with leftovers from the first part of the month.

Well, I'm back from being a bad MoFo. This morning, I posted Simple Vegan Wraps & Fillings on Squidoo. I also tried my first recipe from Vegan With a Vengeance (Tempeh Bacon), and didn't light the kitchen on fire. So there.

My First Vegan Thanksgiving

2010-11-25T07:13:00.000-08:00

For years now, my anti-Thanksgiving celebration has gone something like this:

1. Sleep late.
2. Wear sweats all day.
3. Stay home with the dog and the DVDs.
4. Cook all the holiday foods I like.
5. Eat, watch DVDs, rub dog's belly, and sleep.

I had high hopes for my first vegan Thanksgiving. I've been accumulating recipes for weeks. Unfortunately, they're mostly new recipes, so I don't know if I like any of them yet. The idea of fixing all those new things became overwhelming.

So, yesterday I decided forget about cooking much. I think I'm going to cook some pumpkin baked oatmeal in a while, with cranberries and nuts in it---but, no tofu turkey, or any of that other stuff. I can't be bothered. Maybe I'll try some of those recipes over the next few weeks, and find a few favorites for Christmas dinner.

Yesterday, I donated the cost of the turkey I'm not eating this year to the North Texas Food Bank.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

Ribs!

2010-11-23T15:09:00.000-08:00

I went to the nearest Asian grocery mega-mart yesterday, to wander the aisles in search of new things. Bean curd sticks and char siu sauce made it into the basket, so I could try making the infamous vegan ribs, Chinese style:

Time consuming, because of the hours of soaking, but pretty easy to make. I want to tweak the recipe a little more before I write it up, but yeah, they were yummy.

Sweet Potato Love

2010-11-20T18:44:00.000-08:00

There have been a lot of sweet potato recipes posted for Vegan MoFo this week. These are the ones I've saved for future meal adventures:

Sweet Potato Pasta uses sweet potatoes as the pasta portion of the dish. Brilliant.

Roasted Sweet Potato Salad with cranberries. Sounds yummy.

Black Eyed Peas Meet a Sweet Potato. I'm not sure what half the things in this recipe are, but the ones I know sound like a tasty combination. Bonus: garnished with avocado, which we all know makes everything taste better.

Sweet Potato Curry, which is all sweet potatoes. And curry powder.

"Beef" and Sweet Potato Tacos. I'll eat pretty much anything that calls itself a taco.

Sweet Potato & Black Bean Quesadillas, without cheese. So simple, there's no recipe---just smash a few things together, and eat.

Ghetto Hummus is not really ghetto at all. Sounds tasty. I always forget to throw anything in hummus beyond the basics. Why not heave a few sweet potatoes in there?

Sweet Potato Tots. That's all. Just tots.

Indian Spiced Sweet Potatoes. I love Indian food, but I don't really cook it at home. This made me think I should.

My Go-To Quick Dinner

2010-11-19T10:50:00.001-08:00

Microwave a medium potato. Chop, and toss with a little vegan margarine and some nutritional yeast. Cover with fresh chopped spinach and tomatoes. Sprinkle with black pepper and bacon salt.

Five minutes from "I'm starving" to "Mmm...".

Lunch at Spiral Diner

2010-11-18T13:30:00.001-08:00

Fort Worth is blessed with its very own vegan eatery, Spiral Diner. It's a rare treat to be able to walk into a restaurant and know that you can have anything on the menu. No asking whether there's something on the plate that contains animal products. No guessing. Every freaking thing on the menu is 100% vegan. In Cow Town, no less. It's bliss.

Livia suggested we lunch at Spiral after our museum morning, and she's not even vegan. The food was so good the first time I took her that she's declared we can eat there any time I want. Today, she had migas, which were half devoured before I got my camera out, and I had this Texas Style Philly---seitan, barbecue sauce, cheez, onions on a roll with potato salad. I've never tried seitan before, but I've tried new things at Spiral in the past, and never been disappointed. This was no exception. The sandwich was so good that I ate the whole damned thing, after first getting Liv to taste it, and getting her thumbs up as well. It's big enough to split with someone if you're also getting dessert.

Yeah. Dessert. I usually don't indulge, because I have a problem with sugar: it puts me right to sleep. Livia got this chocolate bourbon pecan pie thing, and gave me half. I could only eat two bites---it was delicious, sweet, and chocolatey. If I could, I'd grab a fork, and eat the whole pie. Always leave room for dessert at Sprial----here's why:

A whole case of vegan delights, right next to the cash register. Cookies, cakes, brownies, pies---all manner of sinful desserts. Oh, and I've seen pictures of their special event cakes on the Spiral Diner Facebook page. Heavenly.

Go to Spiral Diner, people. There's one in Fort Worth, and also one in Dallas.

Taking a MoFo Break Today

2010-11-16T10:18:00.000-08:00

I'm taking a break from Vegan MoFo today, mostly because my fridge runneth over with leftovers. I think I'll be back with more recipes shortly.

Meanwhile, I've posted the recipe for my Chunky Vegetable Salsa on Squidoo, and also put together a complete listing of My Vegan Recipe Lenses.

Yes, I've been a busy, busy girl...

Garden Bloggers Bloom Day

2010-11-15T09:39:00.000-08:00

I'm interrupting my Vegan MoFo posts today, because it's the 15th of the month, and time for Garden Bloggers Bloom Day. Every month, hundreds of bloggers from around the world take a moment to photograph whatever is blooming in their gardens, and share those photos on their garden blogs. If you're a gardener, please join in.

Here's what's blooming in my North Texas garden today:

In both the front and back yards, pansies. I don't usually plant too many annuals, but this year, I caved in to the pansies. They're the first flower I could identify by name as a child, because my grandmother told me to look for the little faces.

The lantana in the backyard herb garden is giving it one last blast. It's getting pretty cold at night now, so I expect this beauty to go to sleep any day. This was a particularly lovely lantana, and since she's an annual, she won't be waking up again in the spring. I took cuttings yesterday, which I'm going to try to root and nurse through the winter inside. Perhaps her children will appear in the garden next spring.

The full fence line of honeysuckle is blooming right now. I think it's confused. I don't remember it blooming at this time last year. The bees and butterflies love these flowers.

It's not blooming, but the nandina is full of berries. I love that it does this right before the holidays. It's a very festive thing to have right outside the kitchen window.

It was overcast today, so this was the best okra bloom photo I could get. These flowers are so beautiful---like large, creamy hibiscus blooms. I'd grow okra just for the flowers, even if it didn't produce abundant little pods of veggie goodness.

Even though the eggplant vines have all but stopped producing, and are destined to be pulled out soon, they're still flowering like crazy. Lots of big, purple nodding flowers for the bees to enjoy.

In the front yard, the yellow Knockout roses are blooming faster than I can deadhead them. I don't care what Neil Sperry says, I love my yellow Knockouts.

The purple beds are blooming all over the place. One of the lavenders made it through the summer, and has started to bloom again. Autumn sage in purple and rasberry are doing really well. The raspberry in particular has spread out and burst into flower. Lavender lantana is still going strong, though it's just about time for it to go away. I took cuttings of this one, as well.

Even the rosemary is blooming. this year, all the mature rosemarys seem to be covered in purple flowers.

That's it for this month. I put in my first spring seed order this week, so it's time to start plotting and planning for next year!

Crazy Veggie Salsa

2010-11-13T20:12:00.000-08:00

I had way too many projects going today, so I made my favorite I-need-to-eat-vegetables-but-can't-be-bothered-cooking meal: crazy veggie salsa and home baked corn chips.

I'm working on writing up the recipe for this. It's basically corn, onions, tomatoes, peas, fresh spinach, and sometimes grated carrots, tossed with lime juice and spices, and eaten like a salsa with chips instead of a salad. Fresh, light, and easy.

And hey, I grew those tomatoes. Probably the last vine-ripened of the year, since it got cold last night. I'll be paper bag ripening the remaining green tomatoes, which is not nearly the same, but still better than grocery store 'maters.

Tonight's Dinner

2010-11-12T18:46:00.000-08:00

I had some running around to do today, and by the time I was finished, I was hungry. I had one of those conversations with myself, contemplating the relative merits of stopping at any of the bazillion fast food places I pass on the way home to grab, oh, some french fries and a salad, or some other horrible excuse for a meal. I decided I should make the fries at home, to try out my new mandolin slicer---and then I realized I had a turnip, and oh, I wanted to try tofu baked with a Liquid Smokey sauce. I ended up here for dinner:

Oven roasted turnips and baconish tofu on chopped spinach. Because everything tastes better on a bed of raw spinach.

I'm working on my food porn photography...

Vegan Recipe Roundup

2010-11-11T15:22:00.000-08:00

Vegan MoFo has me on overload right now. There are so many vegans blogging about food and posting food photos that I sort of feel faint when I scroll through the feeds. Every time I open Google Reader, there are 100 more posts. It's 24 hour food porn.

There. I plate of veggies from my garden. Just so this post won't be completely naked.

I've bookmarked a bunch of recipes---so many that it will take me a year to work through them all. That's good, right? Here are some I've picked out so far, either from participating blogs, or from links in blogs that have led me to other sites:

Easy Refrigerator Pumpkin Cheesecake
Fat-Free Crispy Vegan Chicken Nuggets
Sesame Maple Ginger Tofu
Esme's Special Sauce
Vegan Sweet Potato Naan
Barbecued Veggie Ribs
Happy Pink Cookies
Black Bean Brownies
Vegan Tofu Turkey

I also purchased a used copy of Vegan With a Vengeance on Amazon, because it was mentioned in so many posts.

I love buying books used on Amazon. It's like having Half Price Books on my computer screen. If only it came with an old book smell room spray...

Another Vegan Survey

2010-11-10T17:27:00.000-08:00

I had leftovers again tonight, so no new food pics or recipes today.

Lots of folks are putting together surveys for Vegan Mofo. This list of questions is from Keri at I Eat Trees.

What is one food you thought you’d miss when you went vegan, but don’t?
Cheese. I never thought I could give up cheese. Every time I look at packaged vegan cheese at the grocery store, I decide against it---it's just not the must have thing any more.

What is a food or dish you wouldn’t touch as a child, but enjoy now?
Probably onions. I couldn't stand them when I was a kid, but now, I really love cooking with them.

What vegan dish or food you feel like you “should” like, but don’t?
Mushrooms. About half the vegan-friendly dishes on any restaurant menu include mushrooms. Sorry, but I just can't do it.

What beverage do you consume the most of on any given day?
Water and tea are my only beverages. Right now, I'm probably drinking peach-flavored black iced tea the most. Smells so good!

What dish are you “famous” for making or bringing to gatherings?
A raw vegetable plate. I almost always bring the carrots and celery and some kind of dip, just so I'll have something to snack on while everyone else eats junk.

Do you have any self-imposed food rules (like no food touching on the plate or no nuts in sweets)?
I don't like vegetables cooked in broth or tomato sauce. No stews.

What’s one food or dish you tend to eat too much of when you have it in your home?
Peanuts in the shell. Open the bag? Eat the bag!

What ingredient or food do you prefer to make yourself despite it being widely available prepackaged?
Guacamole. I like it made chunky, with lime juice. Nobody makes it packaged like that. Although lately, I've been buying some that's vegan and readily available. Mexican food---always available here, but I like cooking it at home. Corn chips.

What ingredient or food is worth spending the extra money to get “the good stuff”?
Tea. I like black tea, and while I'll buy generic of just about anything else on the grocery list, I'll pay through the nose for Republic of Tea or some yummy black tea blend sold in bulk at Central Market.

Are you much of a snacker? What are your favorite snacks?
I could pretty much snack my way through the day. I like anything crunchy and salty. I love peanuts. And corn chips.

What are your favorite vegan pizza toppings?
It depends on what's growing in the garden right now. Currently, eggplant, because I have the mother lode in my backyard. Tomatoes all the time. Basil. Onion. NOT green peppers---hate 'em.

What is your favorite vegetable? Fruit?
My favorite vegetable is probably spinach. I eat a lot of it. My favorite fruit is raspberries. I eat them rarely, because they're so expensive.

What is the best salad dressing?
Red wine vinegar and a few spices. I'm not big on dressing.

What is your favorite thing to put on toasted bread?
Peanut butter.

What kind of soup do you most often turn to on a chilly day or when you aren’t feeling your best?
Usually not soup. I like chili when it's cold.

What is your favorite cupcake flavor? Frosting flavor?
I'm not big on sweets, and I can't remember the last time I had a cupcake---but probably chocolate on chocolate, thanks.

What is your favorite kind of cookie?
Peanut butter. Are you sensing a theme here?

What is your most-loved “weeknight meal”?
My quick go-to is usually a veggie burger on a whole wheat tortilla with spinach and carrot shreds. Alternately, a potato, baked in the microwave, tossed with vegan margarine, spinach and tomatoes to make a sort of potato-y salad thing.

How long, in total, do you spend in the kitchen on an average day?
My kitchen is sort of central to the house, so a couple of hours at least.

Tonight's Dinner

2010-11-09T18:26:00.001-08:00

Leftover tamales, home baked cheesy corn chips, and guacamole. I posted the recipes for the tamales over at Squidoo, where I'm building a little nest of vegan goodies in a sea of vegetarian stuff. Instructions for making home baked corn chips, taco shells and tostada shells are coming next week sometime.

Guacamole. I used to make my own. Then I found Wholly Guacamole in the refrigerator case of my local grocery store. The original style is basically avocados and jalapeno juice, with no chemicals I can't pronounce. It's good stuff. Now, I only make my own guac when avocados drop in price in the summer.

Tamales, Baby!

2010-11-08T14:39:00.000-08:00

I spent most of the day making tamales. Four dozen of them---one dozen each of seasoned "meat", bean and green chili, spinach, and pumpkin and rice. The recipe, which is really simple, is posted at Squidoo.

They are delicious...

And Now, It's a Recipe...

2010-11-06T09:58:00.000-07:00

I just posted the instructions for oven-roasting vegetables over at Squidoo. Included are all the instructions for the four things I made for last night's dinner: oven roasted broccoli, oven roasted brussels sprouts, faux fried okra, and eggplant fake-un.

Tonight's Dinner, and a Vegan Survey

2010-11-05T20:37:00.000-07:00

Tonight's dinner: roasted vegetables. Broccoli and brussels sprouts tossed with olive oil, salt and pepper, and roasted in the oven. Eggplant from the garden, slathered in Bacon Salt, and baked until it was relatively crispy. Okra from the garden, rolled in corn meal and black pepper, and baked until crunchy. Yummy.

I made all these for a roasted veggie recipe page at Squidoo, where I've been posting vegan recipes lately. Unfortunately, there seems to be a ghost in the machine today. Everyone is complaining of blank pages when they try to work on their pages.

The folks at Post Punk Kitchen have been posting survey questions for the Vegan MoFo participants to use as a daily post in lieu of a recipe. I decided to answer a few today, while I'm waiting for someone to kick the Squidoo server:

What's your favorite spice or spice blend?
Cinnamon, or pumpkin pie spice. I put it on squash, and on leftover grains. It makes me feel all warm and happy.

You have $20 to spend on fresh groceries and produce for the whole week (with a fairly well stocked pantry of dry goods, legumes, grains, and spices). what do you buy?
I grow a lot of produce, so the things I buy are what I don't grow: spinach, grapes, sweet potatoes, squash, apples. Oh, and raisins, because I don't really use sugar for sweetening---I just throw in a handful of raisins, instead. Tortillas. Peanut butter.

What's your favorite way to make tofu?
Scrambled with vegetables. I like it best crunchy, but I haven't mastered that at home yet.

Vegan guilty pleasure?
Morningstar Farms ribs. I could eat my weight in those things. I try to limit myself to one box a month.

If you could make anyone vegan, who would it be?
Gosh, nobody. I try not to inflict my dietary choices on anyone. I think people have to find their own best way of eating.

If you could only read one other vegan blog, what would it be?
Probably Veg Fort Worth, because it's local, so I'd hear about all the vegan goodness going on around town, plus get recipe ideas for stuff that's available in our area.

Were you always interested in cooking, or did veganism change the way you saw and interacted with food?
I've loved to cook since I was a kid. I lost my way for a while, but when I bought my house, the first thing I did was tear out the kitchen and redo it. It took me two years, but I really do have a great kitchen now, that's both pretty and functional. Being vegan has just given me one more reason to enjoy cooking at home.

Excluding analogues, what new things have you tried that you probably wouldn't have as an omni?
I grew okra for the first time this year, which I never really ate much of previously, and probably wouldn't have bothered adding to the garden. I never had quinoa before, but I eat it regularly now.

What is the one vegan staple that everyone seems to love, but you can't get behind?
Portabello mushrooms. I hate mushrooms. They taste like dirt. Bleh!

First recipe you veganized?
Umm, probably scrambled eggs, swapping for tofu scramble.

What would you like to veganize, but haven't yet?
I'd like to come up with a really good vegan lasagne. Oh, and the whole Thanksgiving adventure looms on the horizon. I haven't decided what I'm going to do with that, yet.

Favorite kitchen utensil/appliance?
Food processor, definitely. I just put the indoor grill away, and put the food processor in its place, because I'm using it so much right now.

Most disastrous kitchen failure?
Not completely disastrous, but jeez, I sure can burn oven roasted veggies. One minute, they look like they just need two more minutes, and the next, they're black.

First vegan cookbook?
It's a teenager's guide to being a vegan that I found at the used bookstore. It has all sorts of really simple, useful information in it, and basic no-stress recipes.

What question about being vegan do you HATE answering?
"What do you eat?" I eat food, dammit!

If you could tell the world one thing about vegans, what would it be?
That not all of us are "meat is murder" people who are going to wave signs in your face. Some of us just like eating vegetables. Also, a good steak will probably not cure any of us. Really.

Funniest vegetable?
Brussels sprouts, because so many people seem to hate them. I can't get enough of them.

Weirdest food combination?
I make a veggie salsa thing with corn, tomatoes, onions, Mexican spices, chopped spinach and peas. Sounds crazy, but it's yummy. Also, I like putting peanut butter and raisins on apple slices.

Is there something you wish you could veganize, but can't/couldn't?
Whatever it is that my neighbor has been grilling all summer, because it smells great, but it's probably cow.

Favorite ways to prepare tofu, seitan, tempeh, any other vegan proteins?
Marinated, grilled, and wrapped in a tortilla with some raw spinach and carrot shreds. I'll eat pretty much anything that way.

A Quick Dinner

2010-11-04T15:07:00.000-07:00

I had a bunch of running around to do today, ending with a stop at Whole Foods. I don't shop there much, even though there's one relatively close, because it's expensive, and honestly, I do too much impulse shopping there. I'm better off using regular grocery stores and my local healthy market, Sunflower Shoppe.

Anyway, I was in no real mood to cook when I got home. Why is it I never want to cook after grocery shopping? So, dinner was a quick one:

Pumpkin, leftover from my most recent pumpkin baked oatmeal, black beans, and spinach in whole wheat tortillas, sprinkled with a little cinnamon. Yummy and easy---but it needed just one more thing. I'll get another chance at it soon, because there's still some pumpkin left.

Not Very Exciting

2010-11-03T19:10:00.001-07:00

I had to do some major grocery shopping this afternoon---and, as usual, when I was done, the last thing I wanted to do was cook. I should learn to bring home something quick and simple, or already ready to go.

Anyway, I took it as a sign that I should stop for an hour or so, make myself some popcorn---something I haven't had all summer---and watch a DVD. My Vegan Mofo contribution for today is Healthy Popcorn From Your Microwave. Not great moments in culinary history, but when I learned how to do this, it made my life easier and saved me money. That will have to do!

Last Night's Dinner

2010-11-02T08:59:00.001-07:00

Even though the temperatures are slowly falling, the summer garden is still producing like crazy. Yesterday, I harvested this plate of loveliness:

So, what to do with eggplant, tomatoes and basil? Make Easy Vegan Pizza, my latest recipe posted at Squidoo.

Mmm, it was so yummy---and, I have leftovers waiting for dinner this evening.

Vegan MoFo

2010-11-01T07:01:00.000-07:00

November is a month of challenges, as groups around the world commit to doing something every day for 30 days. In the past, I've done creative challenges in November, like the now defunct Art by the Inch. One year, I did 10,000 square inches of art in November.

This year, I've signed up for Vegan MoFo, the vegan month of food. Every day, I hope to write something about being a vegan. Maybe it will be a new recipe, which I'll also post over at Squidoo, where vegan content is currently sort of lacking. Maybe it will be something about my vegetable garden, which is still producing tomatoes, okra and eggplant in abundance, and is starting to sprout winter veggies.

So, there ya go. My first Vegan MoFo post. Yay!

It Ain't Pretty...

2010-10-29T08:28:00.000-07:00

...but it kept the garden warm through this morning's frost.

We had our first frost this morning, even though just a few days ago, temps were in the 80s. To keep the veggie garden warm, I wrapped the plants in sheets---and when I ran out of sheets, I raided my fabric stash for big pieces set aside for quilts and duvet covers.

And now, I'm off to unwrap everyone.

Today's Breakfast

2010-10-19T10:07:00.000-07:00

I saw this article at Cooking With My Kid about baking oatmeal in sugar pumpkins, and boy, did that sound good. I did a vegan version for this morning's late breakfast: my usual oatmeal/raisins/spices, baked in a little pumpkin for about an hour and a half at 375 degrees. It could use a little brown sugar---the pumpkin tastes a little squashy---but it's still yummy. I only wish I could get pumpkins here year 'round, so I could have this in the winter.

UPDATE: This recipe is now a Squidoo lens.

I Give You...Okra

2010-10-13T07:09:00.001-07:00

Sometime in late August, Livia and I went to North Haven Gardens, to wander about and look at plants. We ended up around back in their demonstration vegetable garden, where I saw lots of stuff I was already growing---and okra, which I've never grown. I was so pretty! Big, tall canes with huge hibiscus-looking flowers. I decided to throw some seeds in the ground, thinking that even if they didn't produce any okra this late in the season, they'd at least be pretty.

Yesterday, I peeked under the leaves of the tallest plants, and came away with these:

I have achieved fall okra...

This Weekend's Project

2010-10-09T14:59:00.001-07:00

Inspired by the colors I saw last week in Santa Fe, this weekend's project was to paint the garden shed. Here's the before and after:

It only took me 10 months to get around to it---but it sure looks cute sitting in the corner of my yard, with my little talavera sun face smiling over the garden.

North Central Texas Gardening on Squidoo

2010-09-18T20:04:00.000-07:00

I got a wild hair yesterday, and in amongst my arty topics on Squidoo, I started a lens on gardening in North Central Texas. You'll find it here---and if you have anything you think should be added to it, leave me a comment.

Today's Vegetable Garden

2010-09-18T18:04:00.000-07:00

With the weather still hot during the day, the fall veggies are still struggling---but here and there, some good things are happening:

Today's Herb Garden

2010-09-18T18:00:00.000-07:00

I've been slacking on the garden blog lately---mostly because it's still hotter than hell here in North Texas, and there's not a lot going on outside. I've been trying to work outside an hour or two late in the day this week, but it's still pretty miserable. I come in a hot, sweaty mess.

However, even an hour here and there produces results. Here's the newly expanded herb garden, ready to have dirt turned over, soil amendments added, and new fall plants put in:

The Annual Munch of the Monarchs

2010-09-13T16:00:00.000-07:00

Today, as I was walking out to my truck, I checked the butterfly weed. Sure enough, I spotted a little striped caterpillar, munching away. When I got home, I took a moment to check the whole plant over, and discovered two more, parked underneath a leaf.

These little guys are monarch caterpillars. Each September, they visit any garden that has a milkweed planted in it. I, like hundreds of gardeners, have a milkweed in my garden, not because it's pretty, because there really are prettier plants, but because it's the sole food of monarch caterpillars. The butterflies lay their eggs on the milkweeds, and when they hatch, the caterpillars need tons of food to grow. Last year, three of them stripped my full grown butterfly weed completely before they marched off in search of more. I have no doubt this one will be bare by tomorrow.

In years past, milkweeds grew abundantly in Texas, which is the intersection of three of the migratory paths of the monarchs. They generally grew in and around crop lands and pastures, and since they self-seed themselves aggressively, there were plenty for the hungry caterpillars. However, native milkweeds are being killed off by agricultural herbicides, development, and roadside mowing. Without the milkweeds, there are no caterpillars---and eventually, no butterflies.

At some point, I plan to dedicate a section of my backyard garden to monarch habitat. For now, I just have the lone plant, which I'm happy to see is doing exactly what nature intended for it to do.

More information on butterfly gardens and monarch waystations can be found at Monarch Watch.

UPDATE: I've just learned that these are actually queen caterpillars rather than monarchs. They look pretty much identical, except for the little feelers---queens have a set in the middle, and monarchs don't. The butterflies also look very similar.

Tonight's Dinner

2010-08-05T15:13:00.000-07:00

What happens after you grow three perfect eggplants? You eat them!

Coated in corn meal, black pepper, garlic powder and onion powder, grilled on my indoor grill, and covered with just a bit of tomato sauce. Yummy!

The Eggplant Cometh

2010-08-04T18:07:00.001-07:00

After roughly 120 days of growing from seeds to enormous bushes, my eggplant jungle finally bestowed upon me today these three Black Beauties:

They are eggplant perfection. Avert your eyes. They're also tomorrow night's dinner.

I see one more eggplant amongst the four bushes, which are still producing a ridiculous number of flowers. I've tried tickling them, and even rubbed their yellow centers with my finger to get them to pollinate, but I'm not seeing any more little eggplant sprouts yet. Right now, I'm just watering regularly to get them through the heat wave, and hoping that when temperatures drop, they'll start producing again.

I checked last year's blog posts, and my Ichiban eggplants were still producing in October. I'm not sure how that relates to these, since they're so much larger---but a girl can hope...

Bloom Day

2010-07-15T18:28:00.000-07:00

It's the 15th of the month, so it's time for another Bloom Day post. It got blazingly hot here in North Texas, way before it's supposed to happen, so that garden has been in a bit of a shutdown. We did get about a week of slow, drenching rain that helped, but seriously, the plants are already in survival mode. Not pretty! Still, some of the hardiest are giving up a bit of color...

In the front yard, ever faithful four nerve daisies are blooming a little. Two of the three plants have doubled in size. The third has given up the ghost, after lagging for almost a year.

Yellow Knockout roses are blooming off and on. A well-known local gardener who shall remain nameless recently badmouthed the yellow variety of Knockouts on his Facebook page, saying they looked washed out compared to the red and pink. Bite me! I like my yellow roses.

The yellow gazanias have been struggling this year. They've flowered very little, and the blooms have been under sized. I think this is my last year of messing with these.

The butterfly weed is flowering again, after producing a boatload of seed pods. This one has come in tall and leggy. I'm hoping it fills out a bit, and that the seeds I let drop beneath it produce lots of babies. I want to put in a Monarch waystation garden for next spring, and I'll need a few of these.

The lantana in the front bed is a little disappointing. I think I managed to get one of the bush varieties rather than the trailing kind. Last year at this time, the lantana was sprawling. This year, it's still small and clumpy. Pretty when close up, but kinda eh when driving by.

I posted a photo of this same Texas sage earlier in the week, when it was covered with flowers. They've already started to drop, but they sure were pretty while they lasted.

Purple lantana is going crazy, sprawling all over the place, and covered with blooms. This is an annual variety, and well worth replanting next year.

This is a purple gazania, but because the sun is so brutal, all the color has been bleached from the blooms. They're positively ghostly. Unlike their yellow cousins, these have been flowering like crazy. Still, probably my last year with them, since the purple lantana gives a better payoff.

My poor little pink Knockouts! One has survived, and started giving tiny blooms again. They other one bit it hard, and is nothing but twigs. I shouldn't have tried to move them while they were blooming. Ah, well---the one that's alive will be lovely next year.

The purple coneflower is on the last legs of its first bloom. I deadheaded right after I shot this photo, and found the start of the second round of blooms. This plant is so pretty, and also a candidate for the Monarch waystation. It's supposed to self-seed, so maybe I'll have some little coneflowers shortly.

Autumn sage is coming into its second bloom. Right now, I have this purple, raspberry, lipstick, and white in the front yard, all blooming. They're so pretty, and smell great when I brush up against them.

The Mexican petunias have matured enough to start flowering, and judging by the number of buds, they'll be in full flower shortly. I've already started pulling some of these up, because they're multiplying like crazy.

In the backyard, this gorgeous lantana is sprawling, and producing blooms in abundance. I'd like to clone this plant, because this is my idea of the perfect one for the front yard. It's hard to see in the photo, but the flowers are so deeply colored, they look like velvet.

This only happens very briefly, in years where there's plenty of water: my full fence line of ridiculously tall magenta crape myrtles is covered in flowers. These trees are really starting to lean, so I think I have to invest in a pole trimmer this fall, and cut them back a bit. Even the one that broke under the weight of the winter snow is blooming nicely, which makes me think that trimming them won't be so traumatic.

Oh, and that's my new tumble composter, which arrived this week. The neighbors said they saw rats in the honeysuckle along our fence line, so I decided to get the compost pile off the ground, just in case they were using it as a snack station.

Yeah. Eggplant. Dozens and dozens of lovely flowers, on bushes so large and lush, they're starting to look like tree saplings. Nary an eggplant in sight. They're just doing this to torture me...

A little friend in the eggplant trees.

Oh, yay. Hundreds of squash bugs in the fall acorn squash vines. Directly after this photo, I was plucking them off, and dropping them into a jar of alcohol. Bastards! I scraped off dozens of eggs, too, and tonight, I have a board laying out for them to sleep under, so I can kill more in the morning. Tomorrow, I go in search of diatomaceous earth. I am particularly protective of these vines right now, because the first two tiny acorn squash have appeared. I am determined that they will not meet the miserable insect death that killed off the spring squashes before I got a decent harvest from them.

That's it for this month.

This post was written for Garden Bloggers Bloom Day. On the 15th of every month, gardeners from around the world take a moment to photograph whatever is blooming, and share. If you're a gardener, join in!

The Wonders of Nature

2010-07-12T18:35:00.000-07:00

I worked in the garden for a few hours this afternoon, mostly putting together my new tumble composter, which I didn't remember to photograph before the sun went down. It's pretty nifty.

I did snap a few pics of things that are weird and wonderful...

The purple coneflowers are just about spent. I should probably cut these back so they'll flower again, but they're so pretty, I just can't make myself do it. Soon.

My overplanted purple beds are going crazy. I should have done one lantana in each instead of two. With a week of long, soaking rains, the sage looks like it's going to flower again.

This is some variety of Texas sage. Green cloud, maybe? It's whichever one stays the smallest. Anyway, I have two in the ground, and one bald-headed stepchild sitting on the porch that didn't get planted before it got hot, and they're all turning purple with blooms. I passed some of these on the highway yesterday that were completely purple. It's kind of a bright, neon color that's startling. I love it.

My initial reaction to the blue yucca was sort of---meh. I don't love it yet. However, as I was hacking back the overenthusiastic sweet potato vine, I noticed that it's making babies. Lots of them. Perhaps I'll like this plant better when it's a clump, instead of a low, boring starburst of spiny things? I don't know. The babies are pretty cool, though. You've gotta love a plant that starts multiplying all by itself the moment its established.

My wild, scraggly tomatoes got a trim yesterday. It's so hot here that the blossoms aren't turning into fruit any more, so it's a good time to tidy up wayward plants. These were cut back pretty hard, but the vines that remain are pretty strong, look relatively disease free, and are still flowering. They may or may not make it through to September, when the temps will cool enough for them to make tomatoes again. Meanwhile, I've planted a new group of vines in another bed, which will be ready to bear fruit as soon as it cools off.

Have you ever seen a more lovely, more lush group of eggplant vines in your life? They're huge! Number of eggplants harvested: ZERO. They've been flowering like crazy for months, but not a single bloom has turned into an eggplant. I'm bummed out.

Fall acorn squash vines have been producing oodles of male flowers, but until today, I haven't seen any females. Here they are, in all their round, acorn squash goodness. These vines got hammered by squash vine borers early on, and I've been cutting and removing grubs, and trying the multiple rooting sites method, where you encourage the vines to put down roots just above where the grub has hit it, hopefully strengthening the plant and minimizing the damage. We'll see what happens.

Pics of compost central shortly...

Independence Day

2010-07-04T15:37:00.001-07:00

Continuing my independence from inferior supermarket tomatoes, I planted the fall crop today. Three Romas, and two Husky Cherries. Both varieties have done well for me in the past. Getting plants, soaker hoses and cages in place was sort of a comedy act, but none of the neighbors were working in their yards today, because it's ridiculously hot and steamy after a week of afternoon rains. It looks like there's more rain in store this coming week, which will be great for the new plants.

I also put good dirt into the new cucumber bed, but didn't buy any transplants today. I have a couple of lemon cucumber vines that went in late, and are hidden underneath the current wild crop, so I might pull those out and move them to see if they take off, and also put in a few plain old burpless cukes as well.

While I was working, this little guy kept flitting around:

Never Underestimate a Woman Who Owns Power Tools...

2010-06-27T18:12:00.000-07:00

Today was a sort of fix it day in the backyard vegetable garden. One of the things that bugged me about the spring veggies was the way the cucumbers sort of sprawled all over the place, quickly outgrowing the flimsy bamboo stakes I provided for growing upward. I've been wanting to expand the vegetable patch with four small 4x4 beds, because I don't really have room to start fall veggies without tearing out spring. I built this lovely box to hold my fall cucumbers: 4x4, 10 inches high, with six feet of wire mesh trellis on either side, plus wire over the top. It's hard to see here, but the front and back of the bed are open, with no wire. The cukes can grow up either side and over the top, shading themselves a bit, and making kind of a pretty green picture in the process. Perhaps next spring, I'll add a second one of these, so I can grow pole green beans instead of bush, and then do fall cukes when the beans have had it.

The other thing that annoyed me this spring was that the tomatoes sprawled all over the place. I've been following Neil Sperry on Facebook, and he uses this type of wire cage for his tomatoes, but much larger. The two varieties I like best, Roma and Husky Cherry, don't really get too wide, but tall and awfully branchy, so it's been hard to wrangle them using stakes and ties. The leftover wire from the trellis made lovely cages, and I think I might have enough for one or two more. Fall tomato transplants are supposed to go into the ground this week, so I'll be testing these out shortly.

A Few Garden Oddities

2010-06-15T17:23:00.001-07:00

Since I was taking photos for today's Bloom Day post, I decided to shoot a few things that showcase the not so pretty things happening in my garden...

Trellis failure. I don't know what I was thinking when I used tiny little bamboo stakes to make cone trellises for the cucumbers. They're WAY too small, and the cucumber vines have outgrown them, knocked them sideways, and escaped their bed. I've been following Neil Sperry on Facebook, and he gave a good solution for training vine crops, which I will be implementing with the fall plantings. Jeez...

Second verse, same as the first. The tomatoes took over and are way too big for those spindly bamboo stakes. I'll be caging the fall crop. And yeah, these are all but dead from blight and various other issues---but they're covered in fruit that's still ripening, so even though this is ugly, it's staying for another few weeks.

The zucchini and yellow squash are all but destroyed from squash vine borers. They've been really bad this year, and have managed to infest all six plants, gnawing completely through one zucchini stalk. I've only harvested a handful of squash this year, which is disappointing. Bastards!

I even found squash vine borers starting to infest the new acorn squash vines, but I'm being a little more aggressive in my care of these. This morning, I went after the borer grubs with a knife, slitting into the tender stalks, and scraping them out. Then, I put down foil collars around the bases, which is supposed to slow the adults down a bit.

From the What the Hell file, I have these two pics. Last year, the nubby wood portions of the photos were big, healthy, blooming like crazy Mexican petunias---the short ones. I loved them, because they sported mounds of purple flowers all summer. Cut to the winter snow, which froze them, and turned them into black slime. I decided to leave the remaining wood stumps alone, in hopes they'd come back. I waited, and waited, and waited, and finally, about two weeks ago, I noticed what looked like a bad weed infestation. I looked closer, and couldn't decide---weeds, or petunias gone wild? Sure enough, they've leafed up, and the petunias, which grow through underground runners, have multiplied and returned. I'm not sure they'll get big enough to flower this year, but holy cow, there sure are a lot of them. If they haven't grown into flowering bushes by the fall, I think I'll pull some up and bring them inside to winter on the window sill, for next spring's planting.

Plants that I won't ever bother purchasing in larger than four inch pots: these two sweet potato vines. They're annuals, and aggressive growers. Both of these were four inchers about a month ago, and are now outgrowing their beds. I have them sort of growing over other plants that are happy for the shade. Last summer, I only had one of these, and I hacked it back every other week, and it still grew like a tidal wave.

June Bloom Day

2010-06-15T16:28:00.000-07:00

It's the 15th, and time for another Bloom Day. We've had a string of days over 90 degrees in June, so a lot of plants have shed their blooms for the moment. Here are pics of those few hearty souls that are still hanging in there...

In the backyard, the vegetable garden is producing, even when beset by heavy infestations of all sorts of pests, including ants, squash vine borers, and beetles. The cucumber vines are going nuts, and are covered with blossoms, though they're not producing much. Still, they're green and pretty, and occasionally cough up a lone cuke for my summer salads.

The eggplants are also covered in lovely purple flowers, though I've yet to see a single one turn into eggplanty goodness.

Over in the herb garden, the lantana is growing like a weed, and flowering constantly. The sweet potato vine started as a four inch pot about a month ago, and although it doesn't flower, it gives plenty of bright green color to the struggling landscape. All around this planter is grass (really, weeds) that I don't water, so it goes kind of grey in the heat. Soon, there will be three more beds like this one, gravel, stones, and no grass...

On the other side of the lantana and sweet potato vine is this big oregano, rescued from last year's herb garden. It's covered with tiny white flowers right now.

The crape myrtles along the back fence line are just starting to flower. These old trees are very tall, and for a few weeks every summer, are covered in these brilliant magenta blossoms. They're one of the few redeeming features that came with the backyard, and I adore them. I'm happy to say that these photos were taken of the tree that was badly damaged in the winter snow. Even though most of the largest section of the tree went down, and had to be removed, it's still happy as can be.

Moving to the front yard, the new purple bed seems to be happy right now. I planted these purple cone flowers this spring, and boy, are they flowering right now. The plant has more than doubled in size in about a month, and is growing taller every day. If this plant winters well, I'll be getting more next spring.

Below the coneflowers are the small but mighty purple gazanias. Though the yellows seem to have given up for now, the purples are going strong.

Purple lantana is flowering nicely after a short break. This was an impulse buy, to fill the purple bed this year while the autumn sage and oregano grows in. I'll probably replace them next spring with germander, which is growing nicely in the backyard, and is evergreen.

Tall Mexican petunias are flowering steadily. These aren't as spectacular as their smaller cousins, but they grow tall quickly, so there's at least one corner of the purple bed that looks lush rather than under planted.

In the yellow bed, the coreopsis is blooming faster than I can deadhead it. The flowers are coming in waves, and this plant is just at the end of the latest flurry of blooms. At its peak, each wave turns the entire bush bright yellow with cheery flowers.

Four nerve daisies are also blooming steadily, and faster than I can deadhead. I love these little plants.

The red yuccas are just about done with their flowering cycle. These are hard to photograph! The new blue yucca flowered a few weeks ago, and is a big disappointment. I think in the fall, I'll move it to the side yard, and track down some of the hard to find yellow yuccas that flower like this instead.

That's it for this month. I shot a few more things that are garden oddities, and will post those later.

This post was created for Garden Bloggers Bloom Day. On the 15th of every month, gardeners from around the world photograph whatever is blooming in their gardens, post the pics, and then add their link to the Bloom Day list. It's a great way to see what's in bloom right now all over the place. If you're a gardener, join in!

Today in the Backyard

2010-05-25T10:12:00.000-07:00

I finally snapped a few long shots of the backyard garden this morning. Here's what's happening in amongst the weeds...

I replaced last year's single row of cinder blocks surrounding the herb garden with this new wood box planter. My plan is to do the same thing, reversed, to the south, and then some plain long boxes to create a square. Inside the square, under the big tree, will be...something. I glider, or a table and some chairs, or a little fountain. I'm planning on sticking to a mix of herbs and flowers, and am planting each section so there is at least one thing on every level that is evergreen. I'm tired of looking at bleak and dead all winter.

This is the view walking out the back door of the garage. At top, Italian oregano and sweet potato vine, and a lovely little iridescent gazing ball I bought at the farmer's market. The lower section contains some rosemary babies, three kinds of basil, and more oregano.

On the other side, the middle section contains lantana and santolina. The lower section is filled with purple autumn sage, purple culinary sage, germander, lavender, and more rosemary babies. I'm rooting rosemary plants wherever there's space, because they seem to be dying off once they get about three feet around. Eventually, I'll figure out what the heck I'm doing wrong.

On the other side of the yard is the vegetable garden. So far, three 8x4 foot beds that are about two feet high. I may do three 4x4 beds in front of these next year, so I can do some rotating, and some successive plantings. Also, I'd like to add some strawberries.

In the first bed are zucchini and yellow squash. These were very slow getting out of the gate this year. The plants seemed to stay small and struggle for several weeks before they finally took off. I swear, that big zucchini at the back left was a spindly little sprout last week.

Now, the same zucchini is covered with blossoms, and there are already a few squash coming along nicely. One of the yellow squash is also starting to produce as well.

In the second bed are cherry and roma tomatoes, green beans and eggplant, plus a couple of chives plants I moved from the old herb bed, which will eventually move into the next wood box section of the new herb garden. This bed is pretty overcrowded right now.

The romas have produced a ridiculous number of fruit already, and this morning was the first time I saw any of them turning red. I can't wait to start eating fresh tomatoes, and it looks like this year's crop will outdo last year's, which was pretty plentiful.

The cherry tomatoes have also produced a ridiculous number of fruits. I've been picking three or four a day.

Last year, I planted a handful of green beans, and they were pitiful. This year, I planted the whole package of seeds, close together to shade the tender plants. They're doing great, and I've already harvested a good sized bowl of beans.

The three eggplant just started to flower this week. I think I really just grow these because they're so pretty, both in flower and fruit, and not because I'm a big fan of eggplant. Perhaps I'll find a better way to prepare them this year.

In the last bed are cucumbers, acorn squash and some pots of mint moved from the herb garden. I'm thinking the mint may go into the trash soon, since the clay pots cracked over the winter, and the soil in them is really too hard for humus loving mint. The plants have been small and spindly ever since I planted them, and since I need new pots and new dirt, I might just as well spent another five dollars to start with big, lush, healthy plants again. I originally planted three hills of burpless cukes. All three struggled for weeks, with two of them finally taking off, and one turning yellow and dying. I pulled the dead one out, and added two hills of lemon cukes, which are holding their own so far. The acorn squash went in late, so they're just seedlings at the moment. Three out of four hills seem to have sprouted several plants, while one is still bare. I forced myself to plant these later, so I wouldn't have ten tons of every kind of squash all at once.

That's it for today. I'm hoping to shoot the front yard progress later in the week.

Spring Harvest

2010-05-23T16:31:00.000-07:00

I keep hoping I'll get a chance to take some pics of the garden to show how pretty all the raised beds look, but I can't seem to get out there when the light is good. However, I have remembered to go out every day and see if anything is ready to pick, and today, I had quite the haul:

I've already eaten about half a dozen cherry tomatoes, so this is really the second bowl of them. Yes, it's May, and I already have ripe tomatoes. Both the cherry tomatoes and the romas are heavy with fruit.

Green bean score! Last year, I planted a few hills of beans, and didn't end up with more than a handful all spring. This year, I planted the whole damned package of bean seeds, really close together, so the plants would shade each other. They're covered with green beans. Next year, I'm building them a bed of their own, so I can plant in waves, and have a nice, long green bean harvest.

Tonight, garlic grean beans for supper!

Two Months

2010-05-22T17:36:00.000-07:00

I haven't been writing much about my vegan adventure in the past few weeks, mostly because I haven't been writing much anywhere. We're having our 15 minutes of decent spring weather, so I've been working in my garden a lot, which you can read about here.

Also, there's not much to report. I did fall off the wagon earlier this week, and eat one of those damned rotisserie chickens, mostly because I was tired and not feeling well, and it was just easy to grab one without thinking. I didn't feel any less tired or any healthier after I ate it, and my stomach wasn't too thrilled with me afterward, which is probably a good thing. Next time, I'll grab a box of Boca burgers instead.

Other than that, I'm pretty happy eating vegan. My garden is just starting to give its annual bounty of fresh vegetables. So far, a handful of cherry tomatoes, which I've eaten, and another handful of green beans, which I haven't. Yummy fresh veggies provide a wonderful incentive not to stray into the grocery store so often, and I just feel so happy eating things I've grown myself.

Garden Bloggers Bloom Day

2010-05-15T15:26:00.000-07:00

It's the 15th again, which means it's time for another bloom day. Here's what's blooming in my front yard today...

Moonbeam coreopsis has burst into a bazillion blooms. This plant was sort of stingy its first year, and died to the ground last summer, so I'd sort of given up on it. It formed a nice little green clump in the fall, so I decided to give it one more year to show me something. Finally, here's the payoff---dozens of bright, golden blooms right by my front door, which attract all sorts of butterflies...

...like this one...

...and this one. Those were just the two I could snap while I was out. There are so many flitting in and out.

My obligatory butterfly weed has finally decided to be happy in this spot. It was turning yellow and dropping leaves for a bit, but now it's blooming and sending up new shoots. I don't really grow this for the flowers or the foliage, but for the butterfly habitat. Last year, the monarchs came by and left behind their babies, who stripped the one I had on my front porch bare. I don't mind---from funky striped caterpillars come new monarchs, so I've planted this where the stripped plant will be hidden a bit by prettier things.

Ever faithful four nerve daisies are still blooming. They just got dead headed and cut back this week, so another round of blooms should appear shortly.

I lost all my gazanias to the winter snow, so I bought a new six pack of assorted colors last week. They're still trying to establish themselves, but this one was ready to bloom.

I added a few purple gazanias to the purple bed.

The new lantana is still blooming, and starting to get a little bigger. I hope it's as spectacular as last year's, which took over one corner of the raised bed and bloomed all summer long.

I have a collection of big blue pots that used to hold water garden plants, but have been empty for about a year. I decided to start using them, so I filled one with a red yucca and some portulacas in assorted colors. They're still getting used to their new home. I love these flowers, which we grew as evergreen succulents in California. Here, they're annuals. Go figure.

Nana coreopsis is still blooming a little.

I caved in and bought an oleander for the white bed in the front yard. Another plant I love from my childhood. All the roadsides were landscaped with them. Here, they sort of struggle, so I'm not getting too invested in this plant. Everything I've planted here has died, partly because it was a low point in the bed. I've raised it up so it's at least level, so maybe the oleander has a fighting chance.

I added a big Mexican petunia to the purple bed. I had the smaller version of these along the front of the shade bed last year, but the cold killed them, and it looks like they're not coming back. This is the tall, bush version, which I noticed my neighbors have coming back this spring.

Purple sage, which someone asked about in an earlier post. This is the purple version of Salvia greggii. I have this in white, lipstick, raspberry, and this lovely purple in various places around the yard. I just hacked back the other three colors this week, removing all the dead flowers and a bit of the foliage, to keep them nice and bushy, and also encourage them to bloom again. I play this game with them all year: bloom, whack, bloom, whack. They seem quite happy with the arrangement, but each color seems to grow at its own pace, and this purple one is a bit behind the others.

It's impossible to photograph the red yucca in flower, but here's my best try at it. Both this new one, and the one I planted last year are flowering right now. The old one has put up three stalks so far. I also have a blue yucca that's about to flower for the first time, in white, which will be equally difficult to photograph, and also quite lovely.

That's it for today. I decided not to shoot the backyard this month, because it's sort of blah right now. The cukes, squashes, green beans and tomatoes are all flowering, and I have a bumper crop of tomatoes on the way already. I'm also reworking the herb bed, to turn it into several beds surrounding an open spot where there will be...something. A fountain, or a place to sit, or some lovely feature to be named at a later date. I have the first layered raised bed built and half full of dirt, but it poured like crazy yesterday, and is too wet to work right now. So, pics of all the backyard mess next month, if not sooner. We're ticking down to the last few decent gardening days before the summer inferno sets in, and I have a list a mile long...

This post was created for Garden Bloggers Bloom Day. On the 15th of every month, gardeners from around the world photograph whatever is blooming in their gardens, post the pics, and then add their link to the Bloom Day list. It's a great way to see what's in bloom right now all over the place. If you're a gardener, join in!

Tonight's Dinner

2010-05-03T17:21:00.000-07:00

Acorn squash stuffed with barley pilaf, and oven-roasted kale. The color is a little wonky due to the overhead florescent lighting---it's grey and rainy here today.

WTF Should I Make

2010-04-30T07:51:00.000-07:00

My buddy Nicole just shared this link on Facebook:

What The Fuck Should I Make For Dinner?

Just the name of the site alone made me click through, but I was happy to discover that they have an I-don't-fucking-eat-meat option, and that each snarky suggestion links to a real recipe. Fun, and also helpful---after a couple of clicks on the I Don't Fucking Like That button, I did find a recipe for which I have all the ingredients, and could make for dinner tonight.

Thanks, Nic!

One Month Later...

2010-04-29T16:19:00.000-07:00

Today, I've been a vegan for one month.

I thought I'd celebrate by doing something like driving through Wendy's for a burger, or picking up a roasted chicken, but I haven't gone out at all today. Instead, I celebrated by fixing one of my favorite I-can't-be-bothered meals: vegetable spring rolls:

I usually fill the spring roll wrappers with whatever is handy and/or needs to be used up. Today, it was shredded cabbage and carrots, spinach, some leftover baked tofu, and hoisin sauce. I put the sauce inside the roll to make it portable, and keep me from making a mess. Also, since it's sugary, it limits my portion to a teaspoon per roll.

I think I'll stick with the vegan thing for another month before I decide whether it's a permanent change. I've been really run down this week, and I'm not sure if it's what I'm eating, my allergies, or that I'm punishing my body by hauling 40lb sacks of compost, sand, and whatever else the garden needs. And then, there's the digging, in the black clay that's hardening into brick as the weather gets warmer. It's brutal. Any one or all of these things could be contributing to my fatigue.

Everyday Dish

2010-04-26T09:12:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, I stumbled upon Everyday Dish TV, a site that's all about plant based cuisine. Bonus: a lot of their recipes are posted both as text and video. Here's one for Edamame Guacamole that sounds good:

Today's Lunch

2010-04-25T11:10:00.000-07:00

I was starving at lunchtime today, so I whipped up a quick stir-fry: snow peas, carrots, cabbage, onions, garlic, ginger and some Morningstar veggie chicken strips stir-fried in sesame oil and low-sodium soy sauce, served over brown rice, sprinkled with sesame seeds.

I think today's hunger is more about the fact that I've stayed up late the last two nights streaming the first season of Prison Break than about what I ate for breakfast. I was up 'til three Friday night, and until two last night, and got up at 7 both days. Recipe for rampant hunger: not enough sleep.

23 Days

2010-04-21T08:04:00.000-07:00

I meant to take pics of breakfast this morning, but I'm so sleepy, I sort of wolfed half of it down before I remembered. Oatmeal with bananas and strawberries (real, not that freeze-dried mystery stuff they pre-package), a little flax meal and a little cinnamon. Very tasty.

Today is day 23 of my vegan experiment. I'm still hanging in there, although I've been eating stuff that is questionable this week, like chips and guac, and peanut butter and jelly, both of which are high in fat, and lacking in anything green and leafy. Mostly, I think I'm just being lazy. I've had a container of brussels sprouts in the fridge, needing to be cooked, for at least a week, and every night, I've found an excuse to scarf down something that doesn't require cooking.

On the plus side, my cherry tomato vines have started setting fruit already, which means it's going to be salad season soon. Once the tomatoes start ripening, it's like a tidal wave, and I just can't let them go to waste. Last summer, I stocked my fridge with salad in a bag, and cukes until the ones I was growing ripened, and occasionally, I'd cook a pizza using fresh tomatoes and basil. I'm not sure how pizza is going to fly this year, given the serious lack of cheesy goodness, but maybe olive oil and garlic will do.

Anyway, I've resisted any thoughts of stopping for a burger, or chicken, or a taco. I seem to mentally go through the menus of all the fast food places in my neighborhood, looking for something vegan I can grab quickly, and never come up with anything other than french fries, which are a waste of calories, since an hour later, I'm hungry again. I could run through Euless Wok, which I'm sure has several things I can eat, but that requires getting out of the car and waiting---and at that point, why not just go home and toss a few veggies in my own wok?

I added the word vegan to my Twitter bio. I guess this is serious...

Red Rose Removal

2010-04-20T16:44:00.000-07:00

So, yesterday I wrote about this mystery rose that appeared in my backyard. It's pretty, but it looked stupid next to my red brick house. I contemplated moving it out to the side of the garden shed, but that would require me to actually think about backyard landscaping, which I'm just not ready to do yet. It's all I can do just to get the stupid vegetable garden going.

Today, I was working in my front yard, and saw Sick Neighbors (formerly known as Bad Neighbors) working in theirs. The two sisters were planting things, so I yelled a hello, and asked what they were up to. Apparently, they were on a tear about planting things because their mother is in the hospital (lung cancer, among other things). Mom requested that they plant roses, and Kathy, the sister who is fighting breast cancer, said they were going to hunt for---you guessed it---a red climbing rose. They hadn't been able to find one anywhere yet, so I volunteered my wayward freak rose to the cause. I dug it out, while they in theory were digging a new hole for it.

Yeah. Apparently, I have some mad hole digging skills, because by the time I'd wrestled red rose out of its place and over to its new home, Sharon, the sister with back problems, was still standing on the shovel, not able to make a dent. I thought maybe the soil was hard, but no. I dug them a new hole, mixed in some peat moss and sand, and put that red rose in the ground in no time.

So there. Red rose problem is no longer mine. The sisters asked what they could do for me, and I told them the universe would take care of it, which they liked very much...

A Few More Photos

2010-04-19T16:56:00.000-07:00

I'm using some of the photos I've taken for this blog in an altered book this week, and I needed a few more of this spring's additions---so, since it's still to wet, cold and grey to garden today, I thought I'd shoot a few things:

From the new purple beds, dianthus (above) and purple autumn sage (below). I'm not sure I'm finished planting in this bed yet. In fact, I'm not sure what I've planted is in the right configuration. I think I have too many autumn sages planted too close together, so I might go in and spread things out a bit.

Oxalis in bloom. I put three of these in the shade bed last year, and halfway through the summer, they died to the ground. They started coming back again when the weather cooled off, looked a little poorly when it snowed, but are now big and happy.

I have three of these firestorm nandinas planted on one side of the front door. They've been all kinds of red since the weather warmed up. I cropped them pretty hard last fall, so they're low, but fat. I think this year, I'll cut them very little, because I'd like them to get taller.

Waiting on the front porch, to be planted in the lantana bed, is this pretty orange rose. It was all buds when I bought it, and looked a little sad, but the watering and rain seem to have done it a world of good. I wasn't sure the blooms would be orange enough to compete with the other flowers in this bed, all of which are quite bright, but I'm pretty happy with the color now. It has just a bit of the evil black fungus, so as soon as it gets sunny again, I'll be misting the roses with a little baking soda.

Umm, yeah. I have a ton of dandelions in the front yard. They seem to be the one thing I can grow consistently. Soon, I will have obliterated the remaining lawn, and they won't have anywhere to grow. Well, except the backyard...

Over in the corner of the backyard, under my studio window, close to the fence I share with Good Neighbor, this appeared. I've never purchased a red rose, because my house is red brick. I did have a yellow rose bush here last year, but I dug it up and moved it to the front yard. After I transplanted, I noticed there was a little stub of a rose bush left behind, and thought I might end up with another long stem yellow rose. This is a totally different type of bush. The canes are long, like a climbing rose. It's freaky. I have no clue how it ended up in my yard.

I did not grow this chocolate lab. This is Molly, Good Neighbor's pup. The mystery rose bush is growing right next to the space in the fence where she comes to wait for me when I work in the garden, because the rest of the fenceline is covered with honeysuckle. She just lays in the shade of the honeysuckle and waits for me to come and see her before I go inside. She's a sweet dog---and even though she's still a puppy, she's tall enough to stand with her front paws on top of the fence, and hang her head over it for a little ear scratching.

My First Vegan Cookbook

2010-04-18T16:38:00.000-07:00

I was at my local Goodwill yesterday, and found a whole rolling bin of books marked 5 for $2. In the bin was a copy of this book:

The Teen's Vegetarian Cookbook is a simple guide to easy vegetarian eating, put together for high school and college students. There are lots of really simple recipes, and some mix and match charts for things like salads and sandwiches. Although its title suggests it's vegetarian, I found the majority of recipes are vegan, or have the vegan substitutions listed. Very handy!

April Bloom Day

2010-04-15T17:08:00.001-07:00

To make up for the totally lame Bloom Day post last month, I photographed everything in I could reach today. Some of the stuff blooming is in beds that can't be walked into yet, because they're under construction, being watered daily due to new plantings and/or not mulched..

In the backyard, bolting cilantro, which is probably not very interesting, but I think it's lovely and lacy. It's so pretty that when some of it sprouted up outside the bed, in the lawn area (and I use the word lawn here very loosely, because it's really the weed patch), I left it and let it grow. I figure I can always dig it up and transplant it if it gets on my nerves.

In the front yard, both yellow knockout roses are blooming up a storm, and have buds all over them. What a good investment these turned out to be! They're getting big and look great, even when they're not blooming.

The rose bush I inherited from the previous owners that migrated from the shady hole where they'd planted it to the backyard trash hole to the front yard is now happy as a clam in its new home, and is producing big, fragrant blooms. It has a tiny bit of the black fungus happening on it right now, but that doesn't seem to be slowing it down. Spraying will begin shortly.

Three of the yellow roses from the front yard bush have already been clipped, and are perfuming my kitchen. The scent is really quite lovely.

All three of my original four nerve daisy plants have started blooming like they mean it. There are two more that weren't planted deeply enough before it got cold, and looked like they were dead over the winter. They're producing a little bit of greenery now, and I'm watering them and babying them, so maybe they'll get back on track. I love these pretty flowers, and want to plant a bunch more in the soon to be expanded yellow bed.

I think this is Nana coreopsis. I planted two last year, but one was sort of in a depression, and I think it got too much water. It died down to the ground before fall came, and it doesn't look as though it's coming back. This one is just going nuts, and will soon be moved either into the yellow bed, or into the lantana-colored one. I think I might need more of these, as well. They were sort of lame last year, but now that they're established, I like them a lot.

Speaking of lantana, I bought a new one this week, and planted it in the same spot as last year's, but raised up in a big blue ceramic pot. I'll have to shoot the whole bed next month, when both this and the sweet potato vine should be growing in, and starting to do their trailing thing. Much as I don't love planting annuals, I've given in and planted annual lantana and sweet potato vine because they're just so damned pretty, and give plenty of bang for the buck.

On the other side of the red yucca from the lantana, I planted this lovely coral rose bush today. It's filled with little, lacy blooms that are the same coral as the autumn sage.

All three of the coral autumn sage are blooming. These looked pretty feeble over the winter, and I was afraid they wouldn't come back well. Once this first bloom is finished, I'll clip them back to a nice shape, and they'll be just fine.

The white autumn sage are still slow growers, but look much happier than they did last year. They're in a bed that's sort of sparse, and will probaby turn into an all white one, so I'm thinking of throwing in some daisies to balance out the guara behind them, which is coming back slowly, but not quite ready to bloom yet.

Right before it got cold last fall, I bought two pink knockout roses on sale, and threw them into the second raised bed. They were sort of sprawly, which I encouraged, and now they're sort of acting like trailing roses. Both bushes are blooming like they mean it. I'll be moving them and raising them up a bit to encourage the trailing of the canes over the side of the wood bed.

Below the second raised bed, I'm doing an all purple garden, with diantus, creeping phlox, lavender, two colors of purple autumn sage, some purple annual lantana, and oregano (not because it's purple, but because it stays pretty and green year 'round). This bed was just planted at the end of last week, so it's pretty muddy, and things are not really blooming a lot yet.

That's it for this month!

This post was created for Garden Bloggers Bloom Day. On the 15th of every month, gardeners from around the world photograph whatever is blooming in their gardens, post the pics, and then add their link to the Bloom Day list. It's a great way to see what's in bloom right now all over the place. If you're a gardener, join in!

17 Days

2010-04-15T08:53:00.000-07:00

Today is day 17 of my little vegan experiment. A few thoughts:

I'm spending a lot more time in grocery stores. This is in part because there's not just one store that has all the items I want, and in part because I'm buying a lot more fresh produce.
Balancing the produce I'm buying with the amount I'm eating is a challenge. I tossed half a bag of broccoli slaw yesterday, and I'm betting I won't get through the bag of shredded cabbage before it starts to turn. Maybe I should go through the fridge every couple of days, and toss anything everything that isn't fresh anymore into the wok, then freeze it. Also, since I'm shopping so often, I should probably just buy what I need for tonight's dinner, and maybe tomorrow's.
Without getting too graphic, my body seems to be expelling everything I've eaten in the last decade, with a vengeance. Not fun.
I walked right by fresh rotisserie chickens yesterday, and never thought of buying one. They smelled great, but I didn't want to eat one. This never would have happened when I was just eating mostly vegetarian. Those damned chickens jumped into my cart on their own. I have the same feeling when Good Neighbor cranks up the grill every evening. Whatever he's cooking smells great, but I don't want any. I wish I understood the science behind this lack of cravings. It's kinda freaky.

Good things from this week:

I found a pre-mixed guacamole at Kroger with nothing but the veggies and spices in it. Tasty and vegan-friendly.
Barley. Loved it as a kid, and now, it's easy to cook, stores well, and is pretty yummy for breakfast with a little cinnamon and a sliced banana on top.
Quick, easy cold salads that involve dumping a cup of whatever grainy thing I've pre-cooked and have lurking in the fridge, a can of beans or chickpeas, and chopped greens and tomatoes into a big bowl, then tossing with some spices and a little vinegar or citrus juice. I've done this several times, in various combinations, and it's becoming my favorite filling go-to meal.

I need to quit buying peanut butter. It's turning into a trigger for all out binge eating. Also, those all fruit spreads. Bad.

And, on the plus side, I've lost five pounds...

Eating Out

2010-04-11T07:04:00.000-07:00

I went out to lunch yesterday after my art journaling class---my first attempt at eating out as a vegan. I discovered that my favorite Thai restaurant, Sweet Basil, makes most of its entrees with chicken, beef or tofu options. I had broccoli, carrots, baby corn and tofu in a wicked garlic sauce over brown rice. Yummy, and plenty leftover for dinner.

Happily, sitting next to me in class was vegan friend Jane, who also went for Thai food. She brought vegan-friendly snack bars from Costco to class, which were very tasty, and sweetened with agave nectar. It was nice to talk to a like-minded eater.

Jane mentioned a vegan restaurant in Dallas that has a twin in Fort Worth: Spiral Diner. Perhaps next time I'm out at the museums, I'll give them a try. Just flipping through the posted .pdf files of their menus gives me all sorts of ideas for stuff I can make at home, as well.

Tonight's Dinner

2010-04-07T18:30:00.000-07:00

I bought a wok last week, which has made quick cooking a breeze. Tonight, I tossed some onions and garlic into the pan, added a handful of broccoli slaw, some leftover oven-roasted broccoli, a little spinach, and some tofu. When everything was warm, I added a little low-sodium soy sauce and some ginger to make a sauce, and poured everything over leftover brown rice. Sprinkled a few sesame seeds, and dinner was served. Bonus: after eating until I was ready to burst, I still have enough leftover to do some spring rolls for lunch tomorrow.

One Week Down

2010-04-07T07:36:00.000-07:00

I've been eating vegan for a little over a week now. So far, so good.

I've found it pretty easy to eliminate all the foods containing animal products that I can identify. I do sometimes worry that something I'm eating---say, spring roll wrappers---might contain an ingredient I haven't researched enough to know that it's really not vegan. I've done a lot of Googling this week, to find out exactly what's in tapioca (remarkably, just tapioca---it's a root used for thickening) or whatever it is that's causing concern.

I expected more cravings, but so far, very few have appeared. I worked through lunch yesterday, and was on my way back from loading a dozen bags of cypress mulch into the truck when the overwhelming urge to stop for a burger hit me---possibly because it's fast food hell right at the end of my street. It passed quickly, because honestly, just the thought of eating that much crap made me feel a little sick. I went home, ate a couple of carrots while I fixed dinner: brown rice, oven roasted broccoli and sweet potatoes. No burger required.

Sadly, I have not seen any weight loss, which I expected when I ditched the eggs, yogurt and cheese. One of the vegan blogs I read this week turned me on to Daily Burn, which is a much more convenient version of Fit Day, the online nutrition tracker. After a couple of days of tracking what I ate, I discovered some culprits: peanut butter, which is raising my fat levels ridiculously high; raisins, which are really raising my carbs; using too much flax meal, which is also high in fat. I'm working to get these things under control. I've ditched the raisins completely for now, cut my flax meal additions to things like oatmeal in half, and spent this morning looking for yummy things to spread on rye crackers that are not filled with fat. Best candidates so far: pumpkin, refried beans, banana mixed with cocoa powder. For the time being, once the jar of peanut butter in my fridge is finished, I won't be buying more.

All things considered, this has been pretty easy, and I feel great. There's a lightness about eating vegan that I experienced occasionally while vegetarian. Now, I feel it all the time. My body seems pretty happy right now.

That's it for week #1.

Bulgur Bummer

2010-04-04T08:13:00.000-07:00

I like to listen to Saturday morning cooking shows, even though they often aren't particularly veggie friendly. While entrees often focus on meat, side dishes can offer some inspiration for a new dish---and that's exactly what happened yesterday.

I was listening to Everyday Food on PBS, and one of the side dishes they made was a salad of bulgur, chickpeas, spinach and red peppers. It sounded pretty simple and had few ingredients. Ideal for my busy Saturday.

Since I don't eat any variation of bell peppers (bleh!), I decided to substitute tomatoes, which I adore. I soaked the bulgur, and it didn't get soft enough, so I moved it along with the microwave. Yummy and fluffy. I mixed the ingredients together, and ended up with a tasty salad. It was a tad bland, so I added a little black pepper, garlic and wine vinegar dressing. Very good.

Yeah. Bulgur is wheat. Something I know causes me some problems. I figured I'd give it a go and see what happens. Now I know.

This morning, my mouth has that tender feeling, all the way down my throat. There are little sore spots. My face feels puffy and kinda hot. My eyes are dry and itchy, which could be wheat, or it could be that I mowed my front yard yesterday, which also tends to make me feel icky. Anyway, apparently bulgur is a no-no.

Hmm. Maybe brown rice instead? Or quinoa?

Just a Thought

2010-04-03T09:00:00.000-07:00

Saturday morning cooking shows aren't nearly as much fun today. Especially the grilling show...

Perhaps I should hunt for some vegan recipe podcasts. Anybody out there?

Today's Lunch

2010-04-02T11:35:00.000-07:00

My first attempt at a tofu scramble: silken tofu sauteed with onions, garlic and spinach, salt, pepper and a tiny bit of nutmeg. The soft tofu fell apart, and at first I was disappointed, but than I realized it sort of looked like cheese, and went with it. Poured over a pumpernickel sub roll. Delicious.

Bad photo---I put one of the solar screens up in the kitchen yesterday, and now I have to find a better place to shoot.

So Far, So Good

2010-04-01T15:48:00.000-07:00

Even though I wanted to go vegan in April, I started my little experiment early. I actually stopped eating animal products on Monday morning, so I'm on Day Four.

I was driving home from the grocery store yesterday when I had my first really big revelation: I'm not craving meat. When I was eating eggs and cheese, I really struggled with meat cravings. I REALLY wanted to drive through Wendy's and grab a burger, or get just one steak while I was shopping at Kroger. I'm not experiencing that at all. When I thought about grabbing something quick for dinner, burger flitted across my mind and kept right on going---it didn't sound good to me. This is a good thing!

Yesterday, I cleaned out the fridge, and purged most of the remaining items that contained dairy products. I think I forgot to toss the ranch dressing, and I know I left the parmesan and asiago cheese. I'm not sure why it was so hard to toss them, except that they're expensive, and I want to be sure this no dairy thing is going to stick.

Also tossed the last egg, because I ended up not eating it before the switch.

Breakfast

2010-04-01T08:12:00.000-07:00

This morning's breakfast: one cup of oatmeal, two tablespoons of TVP, two tablespoons of flax meal, a teaspoon of cinnamon, and a handful of raisins. It looks much prettier like this than it does after it's all cooked together---but it's yummy and very filling.

Last Night's Dinner

2010-04-01T07:43:00.000-07:00

Here's last night's dinner: spinach sauteed with onions and garlic, leftover roasted cauliflower from dinner the night before, and quinoa. It looks kinda like the white food fairies visited, but seriously, that's a ton of spinach that's been cooked down.

Quinoa is new to me. I bought a box at the Sunflower Shoppe yesterday, just to try it out. First, I cooked a little using the microwave instructions, and ended up with a tough little quinoa cracker---not enough water, I guess. I tried adding water and cooking a little more, and in overflowed and made a big mess. Not to be thwarted, I tried the stove top version, which came out beautifully.

So, quinoa, cooked properly, is soft and fluffy, with a kind of nutty flavor. It tastes vaguely like sesame seeds to me. Yummy. Bonus: because I cooked a full cup of it, I have enough leftover for tonight's dinner, and probably tomorrow's too.

I made a tofu curry dip the night before last, which was yummy, but ugly, so I didn't photograph it. I only ate half, so I stuffed the rest in the fridge for later. I ate the rest for a snack yesterday, and regretted it. It doesn't store well, and my stomach was not happy as a result. Next time, I'll make a half recipe. Luckily, it's so simple, that's not a problem.

Yesterday was also the first day I had difficulty feeling full. I was hungry all day long. I think it was the sugar hoisin sauce I used in the lunchtime spring rolls, combined with the fact that I made them all veggie instead of part veg, part grain or protein. I have to find something to put in them that's easy, good cold, and will not wear off in an hour.

Things I Don't Eat, Already

2010-03-30T11:19:00.000-07:00

Just for the record, here are the things I've already eliminated from my diet:

Sugar. About ten years ago, I was a two-liter of Coke a day kinda girl. I gave up all soft drinks and processed sugars when I started doing Atkins in 2002, and except for the very rare spoonful of someone's dessert when I'm eating out, I haven't wavered. I don't eat sugar, sweets, candy, etc. Ever. Why? First, because it spikes my blood sugar like crazy, and then an hour or so later, I crash hard. In between, I'm bitchy. Also, because the crash brings on binge eating. Sugar is one of my triggers. Giving it up was like giving up a drug. I experienced withdrawl---headaches, nausea, sweating, shaking. I am better off without it.

Caffeine. Somehow, I missed getting hooked on coffee. I don't drink it at all, beyond the occasional cup of decaf with brunch at Cafe Brazil. I do drink black tea, and some green tea, which is minimally caffeinated.

Bread. I discovered while on Atkins that I have what feels like a mild wheat allergy. My mouth breaks out when I eat some breads. For the most part, I've ditched all white and wheat breads, crackers and tortillas. I do OK with rye crackers made without wheat flour, and also pumpernickel bread made without wheat. I also do OK with low-carb tortillas. Corn tortillas by themselves are another trigger---eat two, then eat the entire house.

Pasta. Again, because of the wheat problem, I've given up most pasta. I did score some golden soy pasta at one point, which is pretty good if you don't expect it to taste like real spaghetti. I had to buy it in a bazillion pound bulk box, which I've stored in the freezer. It's been two years, and I'm only halfway through it.

Processed foods. This is pretty broad, and I do probably eat more things that are somehow processed than I realize. However, I have mastered the fine art of shopping around the outside of the store, where the fresh things are, and avoiding the aisles in the middle, where all the canned/packaged/convenience foods are. I don't buy frozen meals of any kind, except for the occasional Kashi pizza, which I probably won't want now that I've given up dairy. I do buy some canned or bottled items, but only if the ingredients list is a single item---like canned beans, which contain beans, or natural peanut butter, which contains peanuts, and nothing else. I avoid anything that contains any preservative, additive, or long, multi-syllable mystery ingredients that I can't identify.

Junk food. Mostly, because they're processed, but also because I cannot seem to open a bag of chips without eating the whole thing. Even as I'm thinking it's disgusting and I should stop, I eat my way to the bottom.

Yeah, that's a lot of stuff.

Lest you think I'm living like a food nun, my vices:

Peanuts in the shell. Love 'em. I love cracking them open, and peeling away that wispy, bitter wrapping. Also, I feed the shells to the compost pile in the garden.

Popcorn. I learned to make real popcorn in the microwave. Just put 1/4 cup in a brown paper bag, fold the top over several times, and hit the popcorn button. Air popped popcorn without an appliance. In the past, I've ornamented this with fake spray butter, which is nasty and processed, or with parmesan cheese, garlic powder and pepper, which is just nasty breath waiting to happen, but SO good. I'm not sure what the vegan version of this vice will be, but I'm sure there will be one. I'm seeing a mister bottle of garlic vinegar involved in this...

Blueberries. I keep bags of blueberries in the freezer. A bowl full of frozen blueberries is better than ice cream to me, and it's low on the glycemic scale, so I don't binge afterward. They're hideously expensive, but well worth the indulgence. Yesterday, I spied frozen peaches and strawberries. They may creep into my freezer at some point, as well.

This is a Crazy-Free Zone

2010-03-30T08:55:00.000-07:00

I've been using Twitter more often lately, and having fun with it. When I tweeted earlier in the week that I was thinking of going vegan in April, I received a reply from a vegan, offering help and resources if I needed them. This is social media at its best: someone reaching out to a total stranger, offering their help.

Well, it seems I can never say or do anything without attracting a few crazies...

I tweeted the address of this blog this morning, letting folks know that I was documenting my experiences, and moments later, I received a reply from someone telling me to be careful, because "a long term vegan diet can be harmful", along with some links to articles documenting the horrors of a vegan diet. I flipped through her Twitter stream, and noticed that A) she's a low-carb eater, B) her icon includes the slogan I ♥ Beef, and C) she tweets the same links to anyone two anyone who says they're going vegan. This is social media at its worst: someone with an agenda, using the tools to pee on someone else's corn flakes.

Strangely enough, after doing Atkins for a year, I wrote an article about it, and about how listening to my body and losing weight had affected my art. I caught a bunch of crap from vegetarians about it. There are crazies on both sides of this issue.

So, listen, folks: I'm an intelligent woman. It's not like I woke up one morning and decided to chuck all my meat out the window. I've come to this decision after a lot of reading, thinking, and listening to my body. I've been a meat eater, and I'm not against it---it's just not working for me. Eating vegetables makes me feel good, which is why I went from eating meat every day to eating it once or twice a month. Going vegan is my attempt to make what I've already done a little healthier. To chuck the butter and the cheese and the eggs, and see how my body responds to actually eating vegetables and grains.

Right now, I'm a fat ovo-lacto vegetarian. I'm trying this vegan thing. Maybe it will stick. Maybe it won't. Maybe I'll discover that it doesn't work for me. Maybe I'll learn a bunch of useful stuff, just like I did when I was doing Atkins. I'm listening to my body, and watching for things that concern me. I'd say that puts me ahead of most folks, who shovel food-like objects into their mouths, day after day, without really thinking about what they're eating or how their bodies are responding.

I now declare this a crazy-free zone. Do not hammer me with your views on veganism, or any other type of -ism. This is not a political statement or a moral stand for or against anything. This is just me, trying to figure out what works.

For me. Not for you.

Last Night's Dinner

2010-03-30T07:42:00.000-07:00

Since everything in my life is an art project, I've decided to try improving my food photography while I blog here. Perhaps a focus on making food look pretty before I eat it will be a good thing.

So, here's last night's dinner, my sort of go-to easy meal: quickly sauteed veggies (in this case, kale, sauteed in olive oil with a little onion and garlic) over brown rice. A few sesame seeds sprinkled on top for fun. It's not pretty, but it's quick and filling.

I also do this with oven roasted veggies like green beans, brussels sprouts or broccoli. I think I swiped this technique from Rachael Ray: cut up the veggies into bite-sized pieces, toss with olive oil, salt and pepper, place on a baking sheet and cook until crispy (30 minutes or less for beans and brussels sprouts, about 15 minutes for broccoli). I saw someone on one of this week's cooking shows do oven roasted cauliflower, so I bought a head yesterday to give it a try.

Oatmeal

2010-03-29T14:41:00.000-07:00

For a long time, I haven't eaten oatmeal. When I was on Atkins, it was to high in carbs. When I stopped doing Atkins, I just never got around to putting a lot of carbs back into my diet. Oatmeal got left behind.

So, I grabbed a box of instant packets earlier in the week, just to see what not eating something terribly high in protein for breakfast would do to me. Plain oatmeal didn't go well, and oatmeal with cinnamon and raisins was even worse---an hour later, I was hungry again. Today, I tried oatmeal, raisins, cinnamon, a little TVP and a little flax meal. Bingo. It lasted through the morning, and I didn't get that empty feeling before lunch.

Raisins. Definitely something I haven't eaten in ages. I was worried the sugars would trigger my binge eating, but combined with the other stuff, it didn't happen.

Now, I wonder what's for dinner...

Shopping

2010-03-29T14:33:00.000-07:00

Today, I went grocery shopping, to stock the kitchen with veggies and grains. Since I've been eating no sugar and minimal wheat products for quite a while, as well as very few processed foods, I'm used to skipping whole sections of the grocery store---but wow, I can pretty much just skip right over the whole dairy section now, too.

I dawdled in the rice/beans/pasta aisle a bit, since I'll be adding more of these items. I think I bought way too much fresh produce, but the store was poorly stocked with frozen options for some things. I bought both firm and silken tofu, which I've often purchased and let sit in the fridge without eating. I'm anticipating getting those I-need-protein-right-now cravings, and since there are very few quick options, perhaps tofu scrambles will be my go-to solution rather than eggs or quesadillas.

Sometime in the next couple of days, I'll hit Sunflower Shop for things like egg substitute, and to see what vegan products they carry.

Here Goes Nothing...

2010-03-28T09:28:00.000-07:00

So, I've been struggling with my weight and my eating habits for about a decade now.

Back in 2002, weighing close to 200lbs, I started doing Atkins, which worked well for me. I come from a total meat and potatoes background, plus a little salad thrown in as a nod to vegetables. Atkins eliminated the potatoes, bumped up the salad, and encouraged me to learn about things like food allergies, triggers, and the glycemic index. I really did read the books, and try to understand the science. As a result, I lost 60lbs, and kept it off for several years.

Two things concerned me about Atkins. First, it's hard to maintain, because it eliminates so many foods. Finding foods that were crunchy was tough. Finding things that were sweet, but still low-glycemic and natural was also a tough one. Lots of tastes and textures get eliminated when you exclude so many foods.

The second thing that concerned me was the long-term health issue. For me, high-fat, high-protein sounds a lot like a recipe to die sooner. I worried about the effect on my kidneys, and on my heart.

My doctor was NO help about this at all. When I told her I'd lost so much weight doing Atkins, her response was "perhaps you could switch to a low-fat version of Atkins now". This is the same doctor who attempted to put me on drugs when my cholesterol rose into a slightly higher than normal range, rather than suggesting I change my diet. She also waved the oh, so dated 1200 calorie low-fat diet at me at one point.

Anyway, I kept at Atkins until 2005, when I started my own business. Diet went out the window as I worked night and day---and sure enough, once I stopped watching what I ate, I gained all the weight back, and then some. Not good.

Last year, I planted a vegetable garden, and happily spent my spring, summer and fall eating what I grew. I went for days without eating meat, and decided I sort of liked it. I felt lighter---not in weight, but in attitude. Thinking this might be something to pursue, I gradually weaned myself off meat almost completely. I eat meat maybe once or twice a month right now.

Although I'm mostly meat-free, I'm still not eating in a healthy way. I've been eating cheese on pretty much everything, butter on a lot of vegetables, full fat yogurt---well, you get the picture. I've also let my low-glycemic efforts slide. Baked potatoes have become my best friends. Some days, green and leafy things don't make an appearance in any meal. Needless to say, I'm not doing my body any favors.

Now, I'm ready to make another move, and try going vegan. Since I've just planted my spring garden, this seems like a good time to dive in. I'm down to my last egg in the fridge, and the last few cups of cheese. On April 1st, I'm going to give a plant-based diet a try. My first goal is to get through a week without animal products.

Couldn't hurt, right?

Bloom Day Fail

2010-03-16T11:44:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was the 15th of the month. Bloom Day. A day when garden bloggers around the world take photos of what's blooming in their little patches of earth, and post them. Here's this month's post, where you'll find links to dozens of blogs, showcasing an endless number of beautiful photos of blooming things.

*sigh*

Meanwhile, here in North Texas, the only thing that's blooming in my garden is the weeds. There are TONS of them, so they're quite spectacular. They are, however, weeds. My neighbors are not thrilled.

On the plus side, I managed to plant spring tomatoes yesterday, and am hoping to pop outside shortly to start on planting seeds: cukes, zuchs, yellow squash, acorn squash, eggplant, lettuce. If I can get my act together to build another small raised bed, I might do strawberries, too.

I'm starting to clear weeds and poke at the dirt in the front yard, too. I'm about a year behind where I wanted to be on this project. It's a big dirt pit right now, but if I can just get a few nice days in a row, I think I can whip it into shape for planting. A lot of the stuff I planted previously died over the winter, courtesy of our ridiculous amount of snow.

I've also come to realize that although what I've planted in the front yard looks pretty great in the spring, summer and fall, it looks rather bleak in the winter. I'm thinking of moving some things around, and adding a few more evergreen shrubs as backgrounds for all the blooming things.

So. Here we go. The clock is ticking, and the race to beat the summer heat begins...

65 Hours Later...

2010-02-14T17:32:00.000-08:00

We were actually without power for 72 hours total. SO not funny...

What's This White Stuff?

2010-02-11T16:40:00.000-08:00

Eight inches of snow is SO not funny...

Cold December

2009-12-26T11:21:00.000-08:00

The garden is mostly dormant at the moment, except for a few lettuces, which aren't big enough to produce a decent salad yet. I'm not holding my breath...

I have been plotting the overthrow of the garage mess recently. Right now, I have power tools, home repair items, craft crap, trash cans and garden toys all crammed into a one car garage. It's a disaster---but soon, it will be more organized, because this morning, Santa delivered this:

My cute little garden shed, primed and ready to paint as soon as the weather warms up again. And yes, that white stuff is snow, because the night before Christmas, Santa brought this:

Blowing snow, shot through the dining room window. I haven't seen this kind of brutal horizontal blowing snow since I lived in Michigan. It went on all day Christmas Eve, and left behind about three inches of standing snow.

The backyard late on Christmas Eve, shot from the kitchen, because it was beyond freezing outside, and icy.

The front yard under snow, shot from my bedroom window.

Contstruction Zone

2009-11-19T09:05:00.000-08:00

I've been a lazy blogger lately, in part because I didn't garden much in the summer months, and in part because every time I think of taking photos, it's dark outside.

This month, I decided to stop whining and get back to work on the front yard. I'm beating the second third into submission, removing all the grass, and replacing it with native and naturalized plants.

This morning, I found a reference to a post on GardenRant about the whole anti-lawn movement. Obviously, I'm anti-lawn, but not for any of the reasons mentioned in the article. While I know that lawns eat way too much water, and require fertilizers and pest control measures that eventually wash into the storm drains and cause all sorts of problems, the reason I'm killing off my lawn is simple: I hate it.

I hate taking care of a lawn. It's sort of the same thing as cleaning house or doing laundry---no matter how well you do it, it always has to be done again a week later. (For the record, I only clean house when the dirt threatens to evolve into a higher life form, and thanks to the drop-off service around the corner, I haven't done a load of laundry since 1996. Good Housekeeping will not be hanging any awards on my door.)

More than that, I hate what caring for a lawn does to me, both physically and financially. I generally end an hour of mowing with red, watery eyes and a snotty nose, because my allergies get aggrevated. I resent having to purchase weed and feed every year, because I don't really care whether the lawn is green and healthy, or infested with dandelions---in fact, I actually favor the dandelions. I refuse to waste water on grass, because it's just too expensive, and dammit, it makes the stuff grow faster, so I have to mow more often. It's an expensive, sneezy, viscious circle.

So, I'm tearing the lawn out, little by little. My choice to plant with natives is purely a financial one: once I've spent the dollars to put them in, they don't require much. An occasional feeding, and water when it's really hot. I just bought a barrel to start storing rain water, so those few weeks in July and August won't cost me anything. The fact that I also find those plants beautiful, and that I enjoy working in the garden with the bees, butterflies and birds they attract is a big bonus---but I don't feel superior in any way to my neighbor, who mows, waters, feeds, and cares for his beautiful lawn with equal enjoyment.

It's his business. I can only tend to my own garden.

Ichiban

2009-10-04T09:24:00.001-07:00

So far this fall, I've only managed a few ichiban eggplants, and a couple of zucchini---but I have high hopes. The weather is finally out of the 90s, and the lows are getting down into the 50s. We're getting plenty of rain this week.

This morning, I waded through the mushy grass in the backyard, and while I was clipping these eggplants, I also saw the first few green beans, and a whole bunch of tiny green tomatoes. The cukes are struggling along. This is the second try at cucumbers, and I'm disappointed in the lack of progress. I think I need to do more reading to figure out what it is they need that they're not getting.

Sometime next week, I'm hoping to fill the third veggie bed with good dirt, and get the lettuce and cool season vegetables going. After that, it's back to the front yard, where I have another twelve feet of digging to do to make the second raised bed happen.

More photos as soon as the rain breaks.

Fall Harvest & Caterpillars

2009-09-19T10:25:00.000-07:00

Earlier in the week, I posted this pic of my little ichiban eggplants, flowering like crazy. Well, one of the plants has started to set fruit with a vengance. I harvested two this morning, and can see two more that will be ready tomorrow or Monday, and another two that are just starting to emerge. These little eggplants are only supposed to get about 9" long, so they only take a few days to go from flower to full sized fruit.

In other news, the monarch caterpillars have now completely stripped the butterfly week, leaving nothing but bare canes. They've moved on---I caught the last one walking off the edge of the front porch yesterday, headed I don't know where.

Small Sacrifice

2009-09-17T11:40:00.000-07:00

That butterfly weed that's been sitting in the holding pen next to the front door all summer is still doing its assigned job. Here are two of the half dozen monarch caterpillars that have taken up residence in the last couple of days, stripping the plant bare of all its leaves, and growing fatter by the minute. I've moved the plant to a more protected area, so they won't get brushed off as I walk in and out the front door. I also rescued all the little guys who got left behind on the other plants in the holding pen, and put them back onto this one. The butterfly weed looks nekkid, but it's supposed to get eaten. I've heard stories of these plants being eaten all the way to the ground, but they supposedly bounce back again after the caterpillars change. We'll see what happens...

Bloom Day

2009-09-15T11:00:00.000-07:00

It's the 15th, and time for another Bloom Day post. This week, we've had nothing but rain, and lots of it. About eight inches, which is just crazy for this part of Texas. The garden has had a good, long, deep watering, courtesy of Mother Nature, who doesn't often help out with the water bill. On the minus side, it rained so hard that a lot of the blooms have been knocked off the plants---but that's OK, because in a few weeks, the whole garden will explode in appreciation.

Anyway, here's what's blooming in the garden today:

My three little four nerve daisies are valiantly blooming away, come rain or shine. I just bought another gallon-sized plant to put in behind them, so there will be a nice little cluster of yellow daisies right by the front door. Sweet!

The roses seem to be holding their own. The yellow rose at left is the one with all the fragrance, and despite its checkered past, it seems to be steadily blooming, and farily disease free, which is a small miracle. The yellow Knockout roses, below, are still sort of under-sized, but one is blooming abundantly, while the other is not blooming at all. I think Miss Not Blooming At All will be moving to the yellow bed with her sister soon. I'm thinking she's just not getting enough sun.

In the shade bed, the iris is blooming here and there. In the Dallas planting guide, it says to divide iris now, which makes me nervous. I think I'll wait a little longer.

While I'm dividing, the Mexican petunias below are prime candidates. My three small plants all look like this one now---huge, with obvious multiples, and covered with blooms. I need to do some reading, and find out when prime time for dividing these might be, because I really want to spread them out to cover more of the bed, almost as edging.

Moving back out into the blazing sun, the gaura is so tall that the rain made it bend forward. It's covered with white blooms, which look so pretty when they're whirling in a breeze. I love this plant, but I'm not convinced I should have planted it in such an open area. I wish the white cherry sage in front of them would grow faster, and provide a little support.

Across the walkway, the coral cherry sage is blooming. I lost the center portion of two of the three bushes this summer, so they're both sort of fan shaped right now, but this plant is so forgiving, I have a feeling that when I cut them back, they'll fluff right out into shape again.

The lantana is going through this interesting cycle where it blooms like crazy, then all the flowers fall off, and black seed pods appear, which I knock off---and then, it bursts into bloom again. I have visions of thousands of little lantana sprouts...

Moving to the backyard, I have some of the tallest, craziest marigolds blooming in the veggie beds. They're HUGE! I've had to pull some out, because while I wanted them to shade the tender bush bean plants, they're now blocking out all the sun.

Fall tomatoes are blooming, but so far, no fruit has set. I have high hopes for this latest group of flowers, since the weather has been cooler, and we're now dipping into the 60s at night. I've harvested three fat, squishy green tomato hornworms this week. Am I the only one who says "you little bastard" whenever I find one of these chowing down on my tomato vines?

The fall zucchini are blossoming, but mostly male flowers so far. Only one squash has set, and I whisper encouraging words every time I weed---which is daily, because the nut grass seems determined to take over this part of the yard. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for some decent zucchini this fall, because the spring crop was sparse.

My sweet little ichiban eggplants are blooming, and I've already harvested one decent fruit. These grow long and slender, like cucumbers.

That's it for this month. Here's hoping for a brilliant fall!

This post is for Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day. On the 15th of every month, gardeners from around the world snap pics of what's blooming in their gardens. If you blog about your garden, join in!

Garden Bloggers Bloom Day

2009-08-15T07:21:00.000-07:00

It's the 15th, and time for another Bloom Day post. This month, I have much more to show off than I did in July. We've had about a week of long, soaking rains since then, so the garden recovered from the spell of over 100 degree days, and burst into bloom again. Here's what's blooming this morning, in the already blazing sun:

Crape myrtle trees in the backyard, above, and the front, at left. The whole back fence line is 30' magenta crape myrtle trees---one of the few redeeming landscaping features I inherited from the previous owners. While they insisted on mutilating the trees by cropping the tops every year, and stripping away the sprouts at the sides, I've let the back fence go wild. The sun hits these full on in the morning, so it's hard to see just how beautiful the brilliant magenta flowers are. The only down side: the flowers shed all over the place, creating a mess. I notice Bad Neighbor has been parking his truck in front of his own house since they started blooming...

Marigolds are still blooming in the vegetable bed. Since this is the one place that gets watered regularly, they're happy as clams. I've been dropping the dried seed heads into the soil around the fall tomatoes, hoping they'll sprout up and create a natural defense against pests---and also, crowd out the nut grass, which I seem to pull up daily.
Speaking of tomatoes, the fall vines are growing steadily, and already in flower. It's been really hot here, so I don't expect any fruit to set from these flowers---but it's a good sign that they're blooming, anyway.
In the herb bed, both the basil and the arugula have bolted, and are in flower. The arugula flowers are really lovely and delicate, so even though they indicate the end of tasty salad greens, I don't mind. Soon, this whole bed will be disassembled, and the surviving perennials will move to a permanent wood bed.
Moving to the front yard, the Mexican petunias are still blooming a bit. These have really flowered for a long time, and all three plants have grown so much, they're ready to be divided in the fall.

The rose bush I moved from the backyard trash pile is thriving in its new home. The blooms have been a little small, but still just as fragrant. I feel a little victory every time I walk past, because after years of fighting lack of sun in the shade bed, and then black mold in the backyard, it's now green and healthy.

By this time last year, the coreopsis had already died down to the ground, and I didn't think they'd come back. I moved them to the new yellow bed this spring, and they've been filling out very slowly, and giving a flower here and there. They're not as tall as they should be, but seem happy, so I'm just waiting and watching to see what they decide to do.

Three little four nerve daisies have started to bloom, after suffering through late planting and intense heat. They still look a little pale, but they're supposed to be pretty drough tolerant. They're awfully sweet little flowers, so I hope they spread out when the temps cool a bit.

The Knockout roses have been blooming so much, I can't keep up with the dead heading. They're truly happy in the wretched heat. Right now, one is down by the sidewalk, and one is in the yellow bed. I think they should both be in the yellow bed, and I definitely have room, so maybe in the fall, I'll do a little moving around.

The gauras are hard to photograph, but both grew like crazy, and sent up dozens of flowers after the rain.

The cherry sage is also blooming like crazy. Sadly, two of the three seem to be sick, and whole sections of them are dying. I've been trimming away the dead stuff, and hoping the plants will survive. This one has not fallen to whatever plague the other two have met, and is still round and lovely.

This lantana was a one gallon, spindly little plant a year ago. Now, it's The Lantana That Ate Euless. It's huge, and after the rain, it went from no flowers to covered with flowers. It's amazing what a deep watering will do.

I'm not sure what the three giant liriope are doing. They're half green, half brown, and sending up dozens of little purple flower stalks. I think I'll dig these up in the fall, divide them, pull out the brown stuff if I can, and make sure they go back into bigger holes with more good dirt in them. I think I skimped on the digging when I planted them, and the roots are now hitting black clay.

Back for another month, the butterfly weed is still sitting in the holding pen on the front porch, waiting to be planted. I don't know why I haven't done anything with it. It seems like every time I head out to plant it, something else catches my attention, and I don't get around to it. Still, as long as I remember to water the poor thing, it continues to bloom.

That's it for this month!

This post is for Garden Bloggers Bloom Day. On the 15th of every month, gardeners from around the world show off what's flowering in their gardens. If you have a garden, join in the fun!

In the Works

2009-08-06T05:52:00.001-07:00

On the window ledge of my under-construction dining room are some seedlings ready to be planted. On the left, three out of six zucchini seeds sprouted. in the center, four out of six bush green beans are growing like weeds. And left, my second attempt at eggplant has yet to produce a single seedling. I'm beginning to think I should just surrender.

No News is...No News

2009-08-05T19:46:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since I've posted, because the gardening situation has been bleak.

First, we were hit with a ridiculous string of over 100 degree days, which usually doesn't happen until August.

Then, we had rain. Lots and lots of rain. Daily rain.

Now, we're back to hot again. Today's heat advisory number was 105 degrees. The weather heads keep giving warnings about staying out of the sun, staying hydrated, and not overdoing it.

Unfortunately, since we had so much rain, the backyard was looking scary this morning. The grass was so tall, I was in danger of losing Weevil in it. So, I got up early, and got out there at 8AM to mow, weed whack, spray Roundup, and generally tidy things up. The yard looks bearable now.

I even started taking down the cinderblock beds this morning, and moving the dirt over to the new wood ones. I'm hoping to have another one filled this week---and I have the 500 pounds of assorted bagged dirt items in my truck to make it happen.

Pics shortly of the seedlings growing on the dining room window sill.

Garden Bloggers Bloom Day Bust

2009-07-15T07:44:00.000-07:00

Today's the 15th, so I would normally be flaunting the lovliness that's blooming in my garden---but it's July in Texas, and we've now had 15 days of over 100 degree temps. It's bleak in the garden today...

This butterfly weed is still sitting in the holding pen on the front porch, where I can dump water in it regularly, which is probably why it's blooming. I keep trying to find a cool time to get it into the ground, but it just hasn't happened yet.

All three Mexican petunias are blooming, and spreading nicely. Their blooms don't seem to last very long, so deadheading has been a challenge, but there are tons of them, so the pretty purple overpowers the faded brown. I just planted these in May, and I think two of the three already big enough to consider dividing in the fall.

The two surviving Knockour roses, plus the rose bush I transplanted from the backyard are all blooming, and seem to be doing well. The other two Knockouts withered and died. I think I kept them too wet while I was waiting to plant them, and their roots never recovered. Note to self: stop buying plants unless you definitely have the time and place to put them in the ground right away.

Naturally, the red yucca is still blooming, and happy as a clam. The lantana at the base of it has stopped blooming completely, and I'm not sure why. I noticed this morning it now has lots of seed pods on it. The last time it stopped blooming, I knocked all the pods off, and deep watered it, and it burst back into flower. Note to self: lantana needs to be deadheaded.

Moving to the backyard, the basil is in bloom. I've surrendered, and let it go ahead and bolt, because I was pinching off the tops daily to prevent it. Go on and bolt, sweetie.

Marigolds are blooming. The big ones above were planted around the squash bed. The squash is pretty much spent, and now the marigolds are blooming. Nice timing. The little ones at left are new, in the fall tomato bed. I went ahead and bought plants, since clearly my seed/seedling timing isn't the best, but I also transplanted some of the big ones to this bed, and am deadheading the seeds right into the soil. Perhaps I'll have a decent fall marigold crop...

Just as I was turning to go insided, I caught a flutter of wings over the honeysuckle, which is just barely still blooming.

This post is for Garden Bloggers Bloom Day. If you have a garden, join in the fun!

Note To Self...

2009-07-11T15:28:00.001-07:00

...find a place in the backyard to grow sunflowers!

I bought these at Central Market today, after spending part of our monthly mixed-media group meeting staring at them from above. They're as big as salad plates, with stalks as thick as my index finger. Amazing. I want to grow some.

I tried putting these in one large vase, and they looked stupid. My solution was to plop them each into a glass bottle with a long neck. They look so pretty lined up against the kitchen backsplash, but I may have to cave in and bring one in here by the computer.

The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

2009-07-07T08:05:00.000-07:00

Summer in Texas. It's a beating. It's so hot and humid outside, it's hard to breathe.

Clearly, the tomatoes love the heat. We had a few days of under 100 degree weather this week, and the cooler temps triggered a tidal wave of ripening. This was what I had yesterday. Today, all the ripe romas and cherries are in the convection oven, drying. Romas make awesome sundried tomatoes.

While it was bearable, I built the first new fall vegetable coffins. July 1st through the 15th is prime time to plant fall tomatoes, so I'm right on time. I put in two romas, another Husky Cherry, which did well, and two Heatwaves. I mixed in some marigolds, to keep the pests down. I also did four little hills of eggplant seeds in the same bed. I saw my first eggplant vine yesterday at Marshall Feed, and it looked just like a tomato---I figured they could live in the same bed together. We'll see what happens.

The old beds are looking scraggly. The romas are dying off, which is fine. The Early Girls are still green, but there are so many of them, they're just a jungle. I read somewhere recently that three tomato vines will produce enough for a family. I planted eleven. I always think half will die, and they don't. Five should be plenty for fall.
I planted marigold seed around the small bed when the zucchini went in, and they're just now flowering. These are the tallest, silliest looking marigolds I've ever seen. I transplanted a bunch of these that weren't in flower yet to the fall bed.

Dallas Planting Manual

2009-07-03T09:59:00.000-07:00

Anyone who lives in this area knows how freaky our gardening conditions are. Between the weather and the soil conditions, it's hard to know what to plant when, and how to take care of it.

I've seen the Dallas Plantin Manual mentioned on several local garden blogs, and finally got around to ordering a used copy from Amazon. It's great! Lots of information specific to this area, lists of gardening tasks to do month by month, how to deal with various types of soil.

My favorite line so far: "The Texas gardener counts September as a summer month." Yes!

It's All About Tomatoes

2009-07-01T05:35:00.000-07:00

After weeks of a ripe tomato here and there, the romas and cherry tomatoes have started ripening with a vengance. I've discovered that if I pick them when they just start to blush, and toss them in a bowl with some that are already ripe, they red right up. I now have so many red, ripe beauties that I've started giving them away, because I can only eat them so fast. I gave a basket of half a dozen, plus fresh oregano and basil from the herb garden, to the Bad Neighbors this weekend.

The Early Girls have yet to produce a single ripe tomaoto, though they'r laden with big green fruits. I saw one that looked like it was starting to blush yesterday, so I'll sneak out back in a few, and see if I have achieved an actual ripe, round tomato yet.

Two of the garden blogs I follow have posted informative tomato articles in the last 24 hours, and I learned a lot by reading them:

Here's one with general information at May Dreams Gardens. And this one at GrowLively is from a local DFW gardener, and helped me to understand the long period of green tomatoes with no red, and why picking them and tossing them in a bowl with ripe fruit moves things along.

My plan for the week is to try to get at least two new wood beds built, filled, and ready to plant. It's time to put in tomatoes for the fall harvest.

A Photo Free Update

2009-06-21T15:24:00.000-07:00

I have no pics today. It's hot, and I've been keeping my garden time down to a minimum. Usually, I'm outside just before the sun goes down, which is not prime photo time.

Anyway, here's the garden news for the week:

1. In keepimg with the general tone of this year's garden experience, I moved a landscape timber a few days ago, and came up with my right hand COVERED in fire ants. Even though I got them off me pretty quickly, I still ended up with about a dozen bites. My hand hurts, and I'm cranky about it.

2. I managed two hours in the front yard earlier in the week. I mowed, edged, swept, unloaded a bunch of broken concrete pieces from the back of my truck that had been there for a month, sprayed Roundup in all the appropriate places, and fed both the front and back yards with Garrett juice. I also clipped and cut back to try to keep everything healthy and blooming.

3. I'm getting about two or three ripe cherry tomatoes every day now, and a roma every two or three days. There are still oodles of green ones on all the bushes. The Early Girls are late, and not nearly ready to ripen. It's agonizing waiting for all that tomatoey goodness.

4. The zucchini are not producing well at all. Maybe one squash every week or so, from three plants. The cukes have pretty much given up, and seem to be dying off the trellis, although the part that's down low with the squash seems green and happy. There just aren't any cukes. It's disappointing.

5. I am plotting the late summer and fall garden now. I'm waffling about bed construction. I don't care for the cement block beds I've put in, but I think I'd like them better if they were two blocks tall, capped, and mulched in between. The alternative is cedar, which is painfully expensive. I have a feeling I'll be buying more cement blocks this week, to put in vegetable beds along the Good Neighbor fenceline. I want to get another round of tomatoes, cukes, squash and eggplant in next month, and I don't see that I'll be able to afford the cedar to build that many beds.

6. I think two of the Knockout roses I planted in the front yard are dead. I just didn't get them into the ground soon enough to take hold before the heat set in. I noticed some five gallon yellow Knockouts at Lowe's this week, and much as I hate to give them any more of my gardening dollars, I might get one, and replace one of the dead ones. The other can be replaced with four nerve daisies, which I still haven't planted.

June Bloom Day

2009-06-15T07:11:00.001-07:00

On the 15th of every month, May Dreams Gardens hosts Garden Bloggers Bloom Day---and here's what's blooming in my North Texas garden today for my Bloom Day post:

Stepping out the front door, there's this very sad butterfly weed that's been sitting on the porch for over a month. I bought it just before the poison ivy incident, and haven't had time to plant it since I've recovered. Still, it continues to bloom. Good plant!

Same song, different verse. I bought these four nerve daisies in the same shopping trip, and here they sit, waiting for me to stop scratching, and start digging. Still they bloom.

All three Mexican petunias have a few blooms on them, and are filling out nicely.

My transplanted and divided coreopsis is still hanging in. This one has just a few blooms today. The other one is all buds.

Yellow Knockout Roses. Three of them have taken, and are blooming here and there. The fourth is brown and dead. It just never greened up after I planted it. I'm plotting the transplant of the one on the far side of the front bed to replace it.

Ever faithful lantana is in full bloom, and growing huge. This was a one gallon plant two months ago.

A longer shot of lantana, sweet potato vine, and red yucca, which is also in bloom. The sweet potato vine has taken over the whole front corner of the raised bed, and is spilling down over the side. It was two six inch pots two months ago. I've started pinching off pieces and sticking them in the dirt, where they promptly root themselves and start spreading out.

Backing up a few more feet, lantana, red yucca, cherry sage, and gazanias. I have hundreds of gazania blooms, but since I shot early in the morning, they hadn't opened their eyes yet.

Gallardia cannot bloom fast enough. It's fat and happy, and constantly in flower. Once a month, I deadhead the heck out of it, and a week later, it's covered again.

Now, moving to the backyard...

Bolt! My first cilantro plant has bolted, and is in flower.

Cucumbers are flowering, but for every dozen or so flowers, I might get one cuke. It's not happy, it has some sort of wilting thing going on, and it got blown around and knocked off the trellis during last week's storm.

Zucchini is blooming like crazy, but again, for every dozen or so flowers, I get one squash. They've just been really heavy on male flowers.

Tomato flowers are not very exciting on their own. However...

I have three romas, six Early Girls, and one cherry tomato, all loaded down with fruit just like this one---and this is just the bottom section of one plant!

Last but not least, the whole fenceline of honeysuckle is in bloom. It smells heavenly when you get close to it, or when there's a breeze across it.

Too Much Rain

2009-06-11T16:32:00.001-07:00

Last night's storm dumped about 6 inches of rain in a very short time. Here's what the backyard looked like today, as it was still pouring down:

No power for 23 hours. It truly sucked. The Oncor trucks passed through twice in the wee hours, but didn't fix anything. By the time they rolled up our block this evening, all the neighbors were in their yards cheering. It was a hot, sticky, boring day!

Marshall Grain is in Grapevine!

2009-06-10T17:25:00.000-07:00

On my way elsewhere earlier this week, I discovered that the old Calloway's building on 121 in Grapevine, empty since last summer, is now inhabited by Marshall Grain. I stopped in today, and it looks like they have all the same stuff inside that the one in Fort Worth does---plus, they've taken over the greenhouse portion of the building, and filled it with even more plants and outdoor supplies than their other location.

No more driving to Fort Worth for seeds and seedlings!

Today's Harvest

2009-06-09T06:19:00.000-07:00

More greens, another zucchini, and a tiny cherry tomato. Salad for dinner!

I think the tomatoes are taunting me. There are SO MANY cherry and roma tomatoes that are the right size, but completely green. They just refuse to blush. I think they're coordinating their schedules to ripen all on the same day!

Zucchini: WIN!

2009-06-08T10:05:00.000-07:00

At long last, after dozens of male blossoms, my enormous zucchini bushes have started to produce females. I've learned from experience that once this happens, the zucchini come faster and faster, so I should cut them while they're small, and not waste time waiting for them to get much larger than this. Little zucchini are sweet and tender. Big ones get progressively bitter, and more full of seeds.

Here's today's harvest: two sweet little zucchini, and a big handful of greens. I'll have these for dinner tonight.

Now, if all the dozens of green tomatoes would start ripening, I'd be in serious salad heaven...

Notes to Myself

2009-06-07T17:26:00.000-07:00

Things I've bookmarked this week that I want to read more about, look for, or think about:

Santolina, because it's yellow and drought tolerant, and smells good. Add this to the plants to look for locally list. Could be a nice addition to the yellow bed in the front yard, or the herb garden.
Ajania, because I love anything that's evergreen, and I'd like to see some in person.
Spiderwort, because I know I've seen this name in my travels, and I'm planning a round blue and purple bed in the front yard.
Germander, because I love anything that's described as easy to root. I so enjoy growing new plants from old ones.

Regina, I swear I'm not stalking you!

A Few Front Yard Pics

2009-06-05T08:18:00.001-07:00

I followed the instructions for May grooming posted on the big chalk board at Green Mama's, and cut back the cherry sage by 1/3. A few weeks later, they're bursting into bloom again. I guess the key to keep these fat, happy, and full of flowers is to cut them back just at the point when the flower spikes are starting to fade. I love, love, LOVE these plants, because they need nothing from me but the occasional whacking. They stay green all year, flower from the moment it gets warm until it freezes again, and need no water other than rain, and a splash or two in August. I've planted them in white in another bed, but the jury is still out on those. I have plans to use some of the new purple ones in the side yard, where Good Neighbor can share their beauty. I owe him for putting up with my, umm, relaxed approach to mowing and weeding.

The fabulous front yard bed is looking a tad lopsided. The sweet potato vine and lantana on the left of the red yucca are full and lush. The blue mound juniper to the right of it is BOOORRRINNNNGGG! Since both lantana and sweet potato will die off in the winter, I really want to come up with something for this bed that will stay green year 'round. Hmm...

The new yellow bed, looking greener. Three of the four roses have greened up, and the coreopsis is coming along. I'm not sure the fourth rose is going to make it. I also have three four nerve daisies to plant here, if I ever get back to gardening. I'm so behind from this stupid poision ivy epic that I just can't seem to carve out two minutes to think about working in the front yard.

Today in the Backyard

2009-06-05T07:52:00.000-07:00

Two zucchini in the front, two cukes in the back. This little bed is lush and leafy and green, but sadly, is producing very little at the moment. The squash has had lots of male flowers, but until this week, no female. The cukes have had TONS of female flowers, but very few male. I took a painbrush and alternated tickling male and female flowers this week, because I'm determined to get some more cukes! The one I harvested and ate earlier this week was sweet and delicious, and I want more.

Finally, a few zucchinis are appearing on each plant. I know once they get going, I'll be up to my ears in squash, because zucchini is very prolific in our summer sun. The waiting has been torture.

One lone roma tomato is starting to blush this morning. There's nothing better than picking these ripe from the vine, and eating them while they're still warm.

I planted three romas, and all of them are heavy with fruit right now. I fed all the veggies last night, to keep them producing. When these start ripening, I'm thinking of getting a dehydrator. Romas make great sun-dried tomatoes!

The Early Girls started to set fruit this week. I think they're late---in fact, I was just about to the point where I was going to pull them out. Next year, just romas. Maybe I'll start my own seedlings, a few weeks apart, so they'll fruit at different times.

Something is eating my basil. I moved a jar of ant bait closer this week, to see if they'll go for it instead.

After a Week Away...

2009-06-01T10:02:00.000-07:00

While I was inside, nursing my poison ivy blight last week, the backyard garden continued on without me. Here's what I discovered this morning:

I was looking out the back window when I noticed this lone cucumber hanging from the enormous vines. It's the one and only fruit the two cuke vines have produced so far. I have lots of female flowers, but I think they're not getting fertilized, because the tiny cukes behind them turn brown and fall away rather than grow. Sometime this week, I'll get out there with a paintbrush, and paint pollen from male flowers onto the female.

After dozens of male zucchini flowers, I'm finally seeing one or two females, which, oddly enough, look like little green penises when the flower is closed. As these open, I'll definitely help them polinate, because I just can't stand the idea of growing these enormous, lush squash plants, and having no zucchinis to show for it!

In a sea of tiny green cherry tomatoes, here's the very first red, ripe one.

I've never grown cherry tomatoes before, but I'm really enjoying watching the clusters of fruits emerge. They're supposed to ripen faster than the full sized fruits, so I'm hoping a few more will red up this week.

I have three roma tomato vines growing, and they all have about the same amout of fruit on them. Lots! Nice, healthy clusters of three or four scattered all over them. I can't wait for these to ripen.

Two very sad looking brussels sprouts plants. They've been eaten by something, so the leaves are a mess. These plants probably won't produce anything, because I planted them at the wrong time of year, so I'm not too stressed about finding out what's eating them.

The cilantro seedling I purchased has already bolted, and is producing flowers. In theory, it will reseed itself---but just in case, I tossed a few purchased seeds around it, which have already started producing seedlings.

The arugula patch is still overgrown. I've pulled up plants twice, and there are still too many of them! Perhaps next time I sow arugula seed, I'll follow the directions for spacing. In any case, the leaves are nice and tender when I pick them, and very spicy.

Today's harvest: my first cucumber, one tiny cherry tomato, and a handful of arugula and other mystery greens. Not too bad for the first of June!

Why I'm Not Gardening This Week

2009-05-29T08:28:00.000-07:00

This is what my arms looked like day before yesterday. They're slightly better today, but infinitely uglier, because each blister scabs as it heals. I look like I've wrapped my arms with bubble wrap. Bubble wrap that's been used with burgundy paint. It's nasty.

My right arm had lots of blisters right in the bend of my elbow, and is so swollen that I can't straighten it out, or bend it enough to put something in my mouth. Eating and brushing my teeth are real challenges right now---my right arm doesn't bend far enough, and I'm kind of useless with my left!

The good news is that I went and flashed my nasty, oozing arms at the Bad Neighbors, and their daughter came over the next day to let me know that they'd sprayed Roundup along the fence line, and were going to try to have some of the scrub cleared. She's interested in gardening on a budget, so I mentioned a few plants that would choke out a lot of the scrub. She's starting an herb garden in her backyard. When I'm better, I'm going to bring her some chocolate mint, which she'd never heard of before, some rosemary babies, which I have in abundance, and a list of shade-loving ground covers.

Meanwhile, the front yard needs mowing badly, and I'm just not up to it yet. I'm contemplating putting on long sleeves and jeans, even though it's in the 80s today, and venturing out to the store for supplies.

Zippy Ranch Dressing

2009-05-24T19:12:00.000-07:00

1 cup plain, unflavored yogurt
1/2 teaspoon dried parsley
1/2 teaspoon dried chives
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon onion powder
1/4 teaspoon fresh-ground black pepper
1 dash cayenne pepper

Mix together and refrigerate for an hour or so.

Eat guilt-free, because 1 cup of plain yogurt has just 137 calories, and less than 1 gram of fat. A cup makes enough dressing to drown several salads!

Other things that can go in this dressing:

Salt to taste, although I always make mine salt-free

1/2 teaspoon dill weed, which is in most ranch recipes

1/4 cup ripe avocado, for avocado ranch

1 tablespoon chopped fresh cilantro, and a bit more cayenne or hot sauce, for spicy ranch

The Plague Continues

2009-05-24T18:35:00.000-07:00

Well, the poison ivy rash has now covered my entire right arm, from wrist almost to armpit. There's a patch right in the bend of my elbow that is really nasty, and hurts like hell. It's a weepy, oozy mess. I also have patches on my left arm from wrist to elbow, and both legs from ankle to the bottom of my shorts. I'm pretty digusting right now. I had to go out to buy more antibiotic ointment yesterday, and kids were running away from me even more than they usually do.

Needless to say, there's no gardening happening right now. I did waddle out to the herb bed this afternoon to pick this:

My first little bowl of arugula, which I promptly tossed with some red leaf lettuce, drizzled with my new ranch dressing recipe, and scarfed down for dinner. I'll be picking a handful or so every day for a while, to weed down the arugula patch a bit. I pretty much just dumped a pack into the dirt, and all the seeds sprouted up in a nice little square patch, very close together. I'm hoping to eat my way down to a managable number of plants, and let them bolt and reseed themselves. I noticed while I was out there that the first cilantro is already bolting, and has flowers on it. I tossed a few seeds in there, as well, so there are little seedlings beneath it. We'll see if it reseeds itself to keep me in cilantro.

The Wonders of Nature

2009-05-22T09:38:00.001-07:00

Remember those bites I whined about earlier in the week? Well, they're getting worse, and multiplying! After doing some research, I've decided that this plant is the culprit:

I'm pretty sure it's poison ivy, which got all over my arms and legs when I was clearing the fence line last week, and then again when I bound up the stuff I cut for the trash this week.

Here's just one arm---it's on both arms and legs now:

I am an itchy, oozing blob! As soon as this clears up a bit, I'm going to buy an industrial sized drum of Roundup, and kill everything along the fence. I think I also have to go have a talk with my neighbors, because it's on their side, and will just reinfest my side if they don't do something about it. I'm not looking forward to this, because these are my bad neighbors, who do nothing with their yard other than pay the lawn service to chop it down once a month.