Raking in 90 Degree Weather? Is That Necessary? - Fertilizer Friday

Holy cow!  It was a hot, humid, sticky, yucky weekend last week!  And what did I choose to do?   Work in the yard.  In the beating sun.    The plan was laid out earlier in the week as part of the grander plan to get ready for the annual Memorial Day garden kick off!  I was so not ready for this!  90 degrees and humid!  In May?  Really?

The raking part would have been OK if it didn’t entail picking up tons of acorns.  They are heavy!    The squirrels haven’t even considered digging up any of my flower bulbs.   Why should they?  They have a veritable buffet of about 20,000 sq.ft.  Right there, sitting on the ground, no digging.   The digging was left to me.  The hundreds of acorns that had planted themselves and taken root everywhere.   And let me tell you, they don’t give up easy.

So after a few of hours of that nonsense, I decided to hide from the sun on my deck and get some seeds going.   A little late but it kept me in garden mode.  Boy do I have a lot of seeds!  Some of which were getting old.    Time to experiment.  Throw caution to the wind and let nature take it’s course.  Nothing ventured, nothing gained.

The seeds that were started a mere 4 days ago, looked like this today!

Are you laughing yet Tootsie?

Updates:

The grapevine is coming along.

The hydrangea is growing vigorously.

A large part of my yard is woodland.    I haven't gotten to clearing this area yet but here are a few things that are going on.

The hosta is looking good growing in front of the tin man in a rotted out old tree.

(Obviously, I haven't gotten around to cleaning this area.)

Forget-Me-Nots

Lily of the Valley.  Love the smell!

Volunteer potatoes in the raised bed.  Must be some that I missed last fall.

 

This is leftover brussel sprouts.  It seems to have bolted so I'll let it occupy space until I have something else to put in.

All things considered, it was a productive weekend.   It helped that I had some pleasant company.

Oh, and I hear the hummingbirds are here.  Time to make some sugar water.  You can find the migration map here.

Have a wonderful week and don't forget to visit Tootsie's  Fertilizer Friday for more garden views.

Chicken Goes Dutch

Since the newly purchased dutch oven needs to earn it's keep, it was put into service again.  This go around was chicken. 

The recipe that I chose to experiment with was one that I found on one of my favorite blogs - 66 square feet.  I love this blog.  It chronicles life and times in THE big city - New York of course!  It intrigues me that a city dweller can produce food on a rooftop garden.  I would love to do it.  So that was the initial interest but beyond that it is diverse, informative and well written.  I sense a woman of character.

So, here we go.....no, first let's discuss vermouth.  This recipe called for a bunch of it.  Obviously I have heard of it before but had no idea - zero - of what exactly it is.  So since "Goodsearch" is my friend (Google's cousin but it donates money to worthy causes for your searches and shopping) I found out that it is a quasi-wine with herbs added.  K.

So here is what it looked like.....

The recipe called for whole chicken but I chose split breasts.  Legs will never be eaten in this house.

Chicken with potatoes, grapes, tarragon and other aromatics.

At the last minute I had some patty pan squash that needed to be used so I threw that in too.

 

De.light.ful!  Check out the recipe here.

Look! A Vineyard in Training!

I love the look of grapevines. I don't know anything about growing them but I like 'em. That's why I have one growing out back - it's completely unruly and a vintner would chastise me for such a wild thing but I like it. It's been growing out there for 5 years or so - just living la vida loca. Never saw so much as a single grape on it. "Saw" being the operative word - past tense my friends.

Now I have not quite achieved vintner status yet but hell if things keep going as they are, I believe I will be the proud owner of 4 bunches of grapes! At this rate I might just be pulling a Lucille Ball a few years from now. Likely for a single bottle of wine but that's OK.