Thank Goodness for the River!

Over the summer we were sent a letter by a local land trust stating that our property was located within the boundaries of the Kinnickinnic River watershed. The land trust is putting together a project that they hope will reduce the pollutants that run off into the river.

That's cool, but what does that mean? That means that if I agree, they will substantially help fund turning my front yard into a garden.

Wait, let me think about this... HELL YEAH!!

They haven't pinned down a specific amount, but they alluded to the upper hundreds and possibly into 4 digit amounts, depending how critical the researchers have found our particular property to be - and how much we want to spend ourselves. We are supposed to meet with them next week to go over the agreement, so I will know more then.

The really lucky thing is that I have been concentrating my gardening on our back yard and have pretty much left the front yard alone. I wasn't sure what I wanted to do with the space. We were actually going to start work up there next year on the tea patio using all those bricks that we got from the chimney. Now someone will actually help us pay for that!

Thank goodness for the river!

Designing Blind

Every fall I am faced with trying to figure out where to plant my new bulbs.

I hate it.

I feel like I'm designing blind. I can't see where the other bulbs are. I can't see what the colors, sizes and textures look like together. I always seem to miss the obvious bare patches even though I do keep maps of my plantings.

I hate it!

This morning as I was waking up, I came up with a brilliant plan. (Right before waking up and right before falling asleep are the most productive times for thinking for me.)

Brilliant Bulb Plan:
Instead of planting the bulbs directly in the ground in the fall, why not plant them in biodegradeable pots. In the spring when everything is coming up, you can just take the blooming pot and plant it, pot and all, where ever you need it!

BRILLIANT!!

Bulbs are at a deep discount right now, and I could probably still get my hands on some potting soil. I might just try this out this year.

Creamy Italian Chicken Soup

This is another of my invented recipes. Despite the name, this has no dairy in it. The creaminess comes from throwing the broth into a blender.

I started with one pound cubed bonless, skinless chicken breast and two jars of tomatoes that I canned from my own garden (not this year, of course *sigh*). I put this into a crock pot on high. Yay! Crock pot!

Then I added some Italian seasoning (~1/16 cup), extra basil (~ 1 tsp), extra oregano (~ 1 tsp), three cloves chopped garlic, sea salt (~ 2 tsp), and some cayenne pepper (I just dusted a layer over the top and mixed in). I chopped a medium sweet onion, fried it until it was well caramelized, then added that to the soup.

I let this cook for about an hour or so. Then I drained the broth from the chicken and threw the broth in a blender. I hit "Liquify" for a minute or so until it was smooth. Then I threw everything back into the crock pot with about 4 chopped carrots.

I let this cook on low for another few hours (until we got home and were hungry cause it smelled SOOO GOOD!!) Although the picture doesn't show it, I did cook up some egg noodles to add shortly before serving. This soup was a big hit with my family. My son ate almost all of it!

I Fell Off the Face of the Earth

I know, I know. you've heard this excuse before; but IT'S TRUE!! I've been really busy!

I pretty much gave up on my garden for the year about a month and a half ago.

It was going so well too. Oh well. It was still a pretty good year, and there is always next year!

Today I planted the bulbs that I got from Brecks. I got a coupon for $25 toward my order, so I figured, "Why not?". The prices in the catalog were expensive, but I was really impressed with the quality of the bulbs that I received. They were probably the best looking bulbs that I have ever bought.

I got Bright Parrot Tulips and Elodie Lilies. (I would have posted pictures, but Blogger is not cooperating - the other reason that blogging has gone to the wayside for so long).

I'm not sure how often I will be posting, but I'm shooting for once a week. Wish me luck.

Pesto Bread

My goodness how the time has gotten away from me! It has been nearly a month since I last posted. I have been working 12hr days at my jobs. Plus I have been laying a wooden floating floor in my dining room and living room. (You will have to go to my main blog to see the progress of that).

I was at a kiln firing party this weekend. Someone brought some wonderful toasted bread topped with pesto. I loved it so much that I decided I had to try to figure out how to make it.

It was actually quite easy.

I sliced some semolina bread into 1/4-1/2 slices. Place them on a cookie sheet in a single layer.

I got my basil from the garden that the kiln was in. It was a huge beautiful garden at a nearly self-sustainable home just outside of town. My dream home. Seriously.
And of course I got permission to pilage!

I used about 3-4 cups chopped basil mixed with 5 cloves of garlic run through a press and enough extra virgin olive oil to coat all the basil. I also sprinkled in some sea salt and pepper.

Once that was all mixed well I added a large handful of pine nuts (a little over an 1/8 cup)and mixed well again.



I piled the pesto mix onto the slices of bread and lightly drizzled a little more olive oil over all.

I baked for about 25 minutes at 350°F.



You can eat this straight up or sprinkle with some Italian cheeses like Romano, Parmesan, and/or Asiago. I had a four cheese mix (with all of the previoulsy mentioned cheeses plus Provolone).

Mmmmm!!

Another Mystery

A few years ago I got these bulbs from someone. It was either my mother or a neighbor's mother. I was told at the time that the bulb would send up foliage in the spring that would die back by summer; then in the fall, the bulb would send up stalks that would bear some pink lily-like flowers. I planted these about two or three years ago. Each year I did get the foliage just as they had said that I would, but there was never a stalk to be seen in the fall.

Well earlier this week as I was going to work, I see this:


I knew I was finally getting flowers. Oooo! What would they look like? I was giddy with anticipation!

This morning one of the buds finally opened up.


Interesting. Delicately beautiful. A little exotic - I like that.

But what are they?

Grilled Salmon

I usually don't buy fish that doesn't come prebattered or breaded (except tilapia - BEST FISH EVER!) but I saw this salmon fillet at our grocery store and it just looked so lovely. And it was on sale, so I bought it.



I was planning on cooking it similarly to the pike that I had done a while back. I ended up grilling it instead.

For seasoning I used sea salt, pepper, red wine (cabernet shiraz), and a sprinkling of cayenne pepper.

I have never grilled fish before, and I thought that the fish would get flaky and fall through the grill. So initially I had covered the grill in tinfoil. That didn't seem to work well for flipping the fish, so I tore it off. And you know what? The fish never stuck or started to fall apart - it was beautiful.



I grilled them on both sides until the fish was opaque all the way through. I think it was less than twenty, maybe less than fifteen, minutes total grilling time.



They were delicious! I had a small piece and my husband had a piece, and my son ate this whole plateful that you see here in the picture. He said it was the best fish that he had ever eaten. I would make this again.

I also made a caper sauce for this fish (my husband and son don't like it, but I do). I chopped up three roma tomatoes, added a couple tablespoons of capers, and a teaspoon each of lemon basil and pineapple mint (both from my garden). I heated this in a small sauce pan until the tomatoes were wilted. I thought that this went well with the fish even if I was the only one who would eat it!

The Obsessive Goodness Is Spreading

I was recently added to a collective blog called GardenOfEden. It's so nice to be noticed, but now I am really going to have to step up my writing!

OR I could just show more pictures!


This is lychnis. It has beautiful fuzzy silvery leaves, and the flowers aren't half bad either!


Another silvery beauty in my garden is "Looking Glass" brunnera. It is a great brightener for shady areas. It has flowers similar to forget-me-nots, but it is the foliage that I love.


This morning even MORE of the hibiscus were blooming. I loved this shot since it includes the full bloom with the funky pistil and stamen, a fully closed bud, a not yet ready to open bud all sweetly curled up in the calyx, the underside of a flower which gives a view of how the calyx hugs and supports the huge corolla, a just blooming flower, a waning flower, and the leaves. A great botanical study.


And last, but not least, my Tiffany tea rose finally bloomed. It is as beautiful as I had hoped it would be and it smells nice too. I am sad to say that this is the only Menards tea rose that made it, but I am still happy because this is the one that I really wanted anyway!

Good Morning!

When I woke up this morning and looked out of the second floor hall window (which I do every morning before going downstairs to start my day), I was greeted by a wonderful sight. I have been waiting all summer for my Plum Crazy hibiscus to bloom and brighten up my garden. I immediately grabbed the camera and headed outside.




When they say that the hardy hibiscus flower is as big as a dinner plate, they aren't kidding!

And when I was going through the pictures on my camera to get these pictures off it this morning, I found that I had finally taken a beautiful close up of my Gentle Shepard daylily.
It has a wonderful creamy color like moonlight. It is not a fast spreader, which can be good and bad. Good because it won't take over my garden; bad because I want more!!

Also on the camera was a good picture of the work that I am doing on the path.

I am setting the bricks in about 3" of sand for good drainage. I want these bricks to last a long time. So far I have used about twenty 50# bags of sand. I think I might need to call around for a truckful of sand instead! This is going to take a LOT of sand!!

Here's What's Blooming, Jac

Jac mentioned that I haven't posted any pictures of flowers in my garden for awhile. Although it is true that we have been suffering with a drought which has in turn been keeping things reserving their energy, I have had a few lovely things blooming which I thought that I would share.


This is Shavakski's ligularia (Ligularia prezwalskii). I love ligularia and highly recommend it for fantastic foliage and interesting flowers.


Here is my ever multiplying echinacea lining a brick path that I had put in earlier this year with bricks found at the compost site. The city was digging up a huge pile of fill that had been dumped there by rude construction crews, but I managed to pull out all the brick I could find first.


I only have one Stargazer lily. I have tried to grow more but haven't had any luck so far. These are beautiful lilies, but the scent is a HUGE selling point too! This one lily gives off such a heady scent, you'd swear there was a whole bed of them!


These are my mutant echinacea. They have much bigger centers and petals than the others, and the petals stay horizontal like daisies. And the plant itself is HUGE! I didn't buy this plant either; It just showed up. I love volunteers!


This is one of my newer delphinium. I forgot to get the name for this one before I posted. Oops! I grow mostly Pacific Giants and Magic Fountain delphinium. They do the best for me.
I always thought that delphinium look like fairies fluttering around. Aren't they lovely?