Last December we had a bumper crop of lemons, easily 5 times what we had harvested the year before. I get asked what we do with all these lemons. First, I use lemon juice on Swiss chard and artichokes from the garden. I freeze juice from our lemons to use throughout the year for this…
I juiced lemons from the garden and froze the juice. I also made lemonade from our lemons. I picked more lemons from one of my trees in the garden. I cut green onions, beet greens, garlic chives, and Swiss chard from the garden. I changed around some pots in the garden, using them in…
I trimmed the hedges in the white garden, which have started to fill out again in all the warm weather we’ve had here. I put the longest pieces in a bucket to bring in, and liked them there so much that I decided to leave them as their own arrangement in the kitchen. I…
It’s been a long time since I shared pictures of the backyard garden. It is so incredibly beautiful right now. The fruit trees are in bloom in the garden, and if you stand still, you can hear the bees and see them work. The birds have been enjoying the garden, too. I’ve…
I don’t feel like I need to buy much this month, but there are some holiday sales this month that are worth noticing. St. Patrick’s Day sales will include corned beef roasts, potatoes, and cabbage. Easter sales at the end of the month will include hams, possibly turkeys, and eggs, as well as Easter…
With most of the major gardening done, I can concentrate on the indoors. I have a few gardening chores still, but they won’t take as much time as they did last month. This month, I plan to focus on organizing, spring cleaning, and decorating. We did a lot of organizing and cleaning last week; we…
This has been a busy week of organizing and rearranging. We organized both girls’ rooms, the pantry, four closets, the bathroom cabinets and drawer where I store our toiletries, another bathroom drawer, and the cabinets under two bathroom sinks. Organizing the toiletries gave me a much better idea of our needs; some things I…
I cut a few plum branches from the garden to add to the branches I had cut the week before, and made an arrangement for our table. I set out tomato plants in the garden this week. I decided to purchase the larger plants this year, with hopes of an earlier harvest (before it gets…
Katy Apricot blossoms We had the most beautiful weather here last week: highs in the 70’s (22-24ºC). It’s been a joy to work outside in this weather! The beautiful spring weather meant I was able to turn off the heat and open the windows. Radish and spinach seedlings If I were to sum up our…
I pruned fruit trees and cut budded apricot branches for a vase for my entry table. I purchased fruit this week: oranges for $0.39 a pound, Gala apples for $0.99 a pound, and bananas for $0.59 a pound. I also bought pasta for $0.49 a pound. After we had eaten the bananas, I put the…
January and February are my busiest months in the garden. February 15th marks our official last frost date here. Our local nursery gets tomato plants in on Valentine’s Day, and will have a large variety of vegetables and herbs by the third week of February. The leaves fall from the trees in December, giving us…
The garden is less productive than it usually is this month, but I’m hoping to have more to harvest towards the end of the month. I’ve cloched several lettuce seedlings to get them to grow faster. I have a few green onions (fewer than previous years, but we’ve also been using them more, so I…