I cut flowers from the garden to bring indoors. I picked a couple of handfuls of white strawberries and 19 blackberries from the garden. For the strawberries, this is a large amount to have ripe at once; it’s usually just a few here and there. Since the weather has been 10 degrees cooler than normal,…
This last week was the coolest first week of May that I have ever experienced here in Las Vegas. A snowstorm blew over us to the Rocky Mountains, bringing to us a week of clouds and cooler temperatures. Friday was the coolest day at 63ºF, more then 30º below what it was just recently. Consequently,…
I harvested artichokes from the garden. I made a couple of large pots of soup the first two days of the week. We had soup and salad (with lettuce picked from the garden) every day for lunch last week. I cut Swiss chard from the garden. I collected green onion seeds from the garden. The…
It was another windy week, though there were some still hours in which I managed to get outside to do some work in the garden. I picked mulberries from my neighbor’s tree. The wind and birds had aleady claimed quite a few. It was too windy to risk picking on the extension ladder, so I…
Iceberg roses, snapdragons, dusty miller, lavender, larkspur, and parsley flowers in the crystal pestal vase I bought the week before last at the garage sales for $2 I picked lettuce from the garden almost every day this week. We had many salads. I gave lettuce to a friend of mine, who trades eggs with…
I cut nasturiums from the garden and brought them in to arrange in a vase. All of these nasturiums grew from self-seeding. I bought strawberries for $0.97 a pound, made strawberry shortcake, and canned strawberry jam. I bought 90 pounds of potatoes at $0.10 a pound. I made herb roasted chicken. By cooking the chicken…
Winter made these baskets from cardstock for our table. They are lined with a muffin liner. I put candy in the bottom of each one and a homemade chocolate rabbit on top. These were the children’s Easter baskets this year. I liked that they were small and fit on their plates, and that no filler…
I picked snow peas from the garden. I cut parsley, green onions, lettuce, and Swiss chard from the garden. A local reader offered me some hand-me-downs for my children. Winter now has 2 new pairs of jeans and a blouse, and Cyrus has a new pair of jeans as well. I bought several pairs…
I cut daffodils from the garden to enjoy inside. I cut flowering kale, broccoli flowers, and sage flowers to make an arrangement. I made homemade insecticidal soap and sprayed it on the aphids and thrips on my rose buds. I made a triple batch of laundry soap. I zested the oranges that we ate and…
I cut beet greens, Swiss chard, green onions, parsley, asparagus, dill and thyme from the garden. I tip layered some blackberry vines. This is super simple–it just involves burying part of the vine to allow it to root in another spot. After it roots, I will cut it from the original vine, and I’ll have…
I picked lettuce, a few snow peas, radishes, green onions, chives, spinach, and beet greens from the garden. I made balasmic vinaigrette and a simle mustard vinaigrette (I added red wine vinegar to the last remaining bits of spicy mustard in the container and shook it for a simple dressing) for our salads. I found…
We had rain on Sunday night and Monday morning. Monday is my assigned day to water, so I am grateful that it keeps raining on Monday! It is actually raining again this morning as I write. The last time I have seen this much rain in spring was ten years ago. I remember it…