Embellishments

I cooked with some ingredients from my garden this week! Admittedly, my harvests were only embellishments, but it's a start.

This Butternut Parmesan pasta was so good with my own fresh basil in place of the sage. It was amazingly aromatic as I minced it and so pretty as garnish.

I harvested my first handful of peas and added them to a yummy stir fry last night.

Maybe later in the summer I will try it again with one of these...

And some of these!

(Beans)

Squash Blossoms and Cherry Tomatoes

I have been watching closely... for this! My first zucchini blossom!

Last summer I listened to a podcast about edible flowers and first heard about chefs frying squash and zucchini blossoms. Isn't that funny? I bet with batter and oil they could be pretty tasty.

(Photo credit)

For right now, my blossoms are too precious to pick, but maybe later in the summer I will be ready to cut back production and try it! (Here is the link to the podcast and text at Earth Eats. I might have to do another post sometime about this great public radio show/blog in Indiana. They "bring you the freshest news and recipes inspired by local food and sustainable agriculture.")

In other news, I have cherry tomato plants coming out my ears! They are volunteers from last year and I just haven't had the heart to pull them. Anyone want one? That would save me a lot guilt.

My cucumber plant is also in bloom. Sadly I only have one cucumber plant out of three left... the first died a slow death for unknown reasons, but the second died right after I tried to train it up the trellis. I think I damaged the stem right at the ground. Saddddddd.

My girls have discovered the peas! It is so fun to see them get excited about picking fresh veggies. They think it is so cool to find the little balls inside... it helps that they are super sweet.

Now I just have to fend them off long enough to get enough for a meal.

My strawberry plants are starting to produce. They are so pretty.

Lawn Watering Guide

Did you know you can use less water and have a healthier lawn?

I wish I could tell you I have this all figured out and tell you my secrets about having a beautiful lawn. Alas, I am still struggling. But I have done a lot of research and just wanted to share what I have learned along the way.

Most people over water their lawn. I know this because I see water running down the gutters every morning. The Utah water conservationists say that 65% of water use goes to our lawns, and half of that is waste. That is pretty sad. I know that we have water running down the gutter, but that is because we have a broken sprinkler by the driveway and I don't know how to fix it myself. It's on the "honey do list", but is usually pushed to the bottom.

In good conscience I have attempted to follow this Residential Watering Guide, hoping to have a healthy and pretty lawn and conserve water at the same time. It's all about efficiency, right? Too little means dead grass, and too much means precious wasted water. I collected water in my little cans and found that 10 minutes of application meant only about 1/4" of water, so we are now doing 20 minute applications every 3 days.

Everything was going well... until it got hot. Now I have brown spots. Big ones. In the same places as last year. I tried to get my landlord to fix the sprinklers last summer and she sent her dad over to tinker with them and say, "Yep, they're fine." I guess I might need another opinion.

Here is what the Water Agency says about it:

Coping with Brown Spots

No matter how much maintenance you do on your sprinkler system, no one’s irrigation system is perfect. It is impossible to design a sprinkler system that is 100% efficient. Don’t feel so bad.

After getting the system as uniform as possible, you may still have brown spots.

At this point, you have three choices:

1. Over-water your lawn, thereby wasting a valuable resource,
2. Hand-water the brown spots when needed, increasing your maintenance time, or
3. Plant something else there that doesn't need as much water

Wish I could plant something else. Like a bunch of trees. But it's not my house, and Jimminy Cricket says I can't over-water, so for now I am dragging the hose around the yard.

Soil Texture Test

Soils have four basic components: sand (large particles, little ability to hold water and nutrients), silt (middle size, moderate drainage and nutrients), clay (very small particles, high ability to hold water and nutrients) and organic matter (decomposing plants and microorganisms). The ratios of these parts in a particular soil determines it's capacity to grow plants. I have been thinking a lot about this as I've watched my plants grow this spring.

I planted my pumpkin seeds in a corner of my veggie beds and soon realized they needed a lot more space. Luckily I had six baby seedlings, enough to experiment with other locations and still insure that one or two will do well. I tried to transplant two of them to an empty flower bed but much to my dismay they are struggling and dying, while the four left in the garden beds are already flourishing. The lighting, temperature, and spacing are virtually the same, so the killing culprit is the soil! I decided it was time for a soil experiment. We did this in my soil classes at school, and luckily it's easy enough to do at home.

1. Gather your samples. I wanted to compare the difference between the soils in my garden beds (made up mostly of topsoil and compost) and my flower beds (unamended native soil). I dug about 6 inches deep to get a good representation of the soil at root level and gathered about 1 cup full. Try to avoid rocks and large organic matter.

The sample is best to work with if it has been dried and sifted for large clumps and rocks. My husband laughed at my mud pies drying on a cookie sheet in the kitchen.

2. Dump your cup full of soil into a large mason jar. Add about 1 tablespoon of liquid or powdered dishwashing soap, which acts as a surfactant and keeps the soil particles separate.

Sorry I started my experiment at night so the lighting is bad. You can tell just by looking at it that the garden soil is a lot darker, meaning it has more organic matter.

3. Fill the jar 2/3 full with water, screw the lid on tightly, and shake the mixture thoroughly (I went 2-3 minutes). Set them down and allow the particles to settle. Sand is the heaviest and will settle to the bottom within about a minute. Silt will settle next and could take between one and four hours. Clay will settle last and will take up to a few days to settle out of suspension.

This is how they looked the next morning. On the left, you can see some organic matter floating near the top. The sample on the right shows clearly the 3 layers of sand, silt, and clay.

My samples up close after about a week of settling. Garden above, native below.

Once the particles are all settled, its time to get out your ruler. Measure the whole depth of the soil, and then the individual parts. Now dust off the calculator. Seriously, I haven't had math since high school but even I could handle these simple calculations.

To find the percentage of each type of particle, divide the part by the whole. For example, in my garden soil the sand measured 1 7/16" (1.4375) and my total soil sample was 1 5/8" (1.625) so you divide 1.4375 by 1.625 which is .885. My soil is 88.5% sand.

Once you have figured all your percentages, it's time to look at the Soil Texture Pyramid. Chart each percentage from its relative side and find where they meet in the middle. That tells you the type of soil you have!

Using the same example, my garden soil is 88.5% sand, 7.7% silt, and 3.8% clay. These three percentages meet in the loamy sand section. Loamy soils with high organic matter are well suited for growing vegetables and fruit. Because my soil is very sandy, I should continue adding lots of organic matter every year since it could leach out easily, and it will continue to improve.

My native soil turns out to be a silty loam. It has poor drainage and very little organic matter. To improve it I should add more sand and organic matter, which will help both drainage and fertility. Poor little pumpkins.

If you have read this far, you may be thinking--why go through all this when the answer seems to always be add organic matter?!? Well, that's a good point. You'll never go wrong by adding compost!

There are many other important factors to of soil fertility which include drainage, nutrients (macronutrients and micronutrients), and pH. That should give me plenty of material for another time!

Bloom

Our landscaping is hardly spectacular, but if it has a shining moment it is now!

My brave bleeding heart survived a hailstorm right after I planted it and bloomed four little fuchsia beauties.

The one and only shrub in the back yard turns out to be a show-stopper! It's a bridal wreath spirea, and boy is it spectacular right now. It reminds me of a firework.

My tomatoes are in full bloom and I even have a few first fruits setting.

My peas are in full bloom too. This morning I found my first pea pod!

Best of all, a few of my iris bloomed. I just planted them last fall and didn't expect much from the first year, but they rewarded me.

It has been fun showing Maddie why they're called bearded iris and how they sparkle in the sunlight. I remember being fascinated by them when I was little, and I think I've succeeded in passing that on to the next generation. They smell heavenly too.

I love flowers. I think they are a supreme gift from a supreme being. Their perfect beauty reminds me that He loves us and cares about every minute detail of our lives.

Spring in the Noni Gardens

I found a new gardening friend and made her go with me to see the "my gardens" last week. We were just talking one day and realized we both love horticulture, and both shyly admitted that we have garden blogs. It has been fun to swap thoughts and ideas. Little does she know, I may drag her on more garden field trips this summer. I have always wanted to see the Red Butte Gardens in SLC and Thanksgiving Point is always worth a gander.

I knew our timing might find the garden crews right in the middle of change-out (removing all the bulbs and pansies and planting summer annuals), but I wanted to catch some late-spring glory. You can see the bed in front of the sign has been replanted, but spring glory we did find!

Check out these late-blooming pink parrot tulips.

And these huge yellow parrots that open so big they look like a dinner plate.

These orange anemones were still gorgeous.

This north facing side of the building was still in full bloom! It is shaded most of the day, so the bulbs elongate to reach for the sun and bloom late in the season.

These double pink tulips are stunning. They don't even look like tulips they are so full. They almost remind me of peonies.

Speaking of peonies, these might be my very favorite flower! They are so gorgeous and vibrant. Someday I am going to have a bed full of peonies.

Just imagine what this will look like when they are all in full bloom.

I also love wisteria. It can be aggressive and needs lots of room to grow, but it is so beautiful in bloom.

I was happy to find these dainty crabapple blossoms (Malus ioensis, Betchel Crabapple) still in bloom.

If you remember from the groundcover post, I didn't have a very good picture of sweet woodruff, so I took another one for you. Just look at how lush and carpet-like it can get. It makes you feel like you are in an enchanted wood.

I am happy to say the kids also enjoyed our outing. (Sorry I get a little carried away... visiting the gardens is like visiting old friends. I know every nook and cranny of that place and love seeing how things are growing and changing!)

We couldn't keep them out of the reflection pool--too tempting! It does feel really good on a hot day... believe me, there were many times we took breaks and dipped in!

Just for fun, I wanted to do a little comparison from when I worked there to now.

Stream Island Fall 2005

(Tricolor beech trees {Fagus sylvatica 'Roseomarginata'} at center)

Stream Island Spring 2010
Look how big and vibrant the beech trees are now!

Promenade Fall 2005
Zelkova serrata trees

Promenade Spring 2010
They are huge now!

Time marches on, and plants don't stop growing just because you're not watching.

Home Depot Garden Club

I just saw this update on a coupon blog I follow and thought it would be appropriate to pass it on to my gardening friends!

I just signed up and this is what they offer:

• Exclusive members only coupons and savings delivered right to your inbox.
• Timely gardening advice and regional tips, delivered biweekly.
• Answers to outdoor questions from and "expert", within 24 hours.
• Plant Library and Plant Care Guides
  

I hear their coupons can be pretty good, including occasional buy-one-get-one-free plants and trees!

So here's the link! I think I'll try the 'ask an expert"... I'm interested to see how expert they are! :)