Sunday, March 4, 2012

How About A Gardening Post?

First of all I wanted to thank everyone for being so damn sweet with your comments on my last post and for giving me so many things to smile about :) I should do more posts where I just ask people to tell me what's making them happy :) It really did cheer me up SO much to hear the good stuff going on in my friends' lives :) So I did some cooking today for my brother's birthday. I made some amazing cilantro lime rice and some delicious queso, went and saw my dad who seems to be a little better today though he's having surgery tomorrow, and then I wound down by playing in the gardening and just looking at everything that's growing out there :) It's amazing how happy one can be just by looking at the beauty in things growing around you. Here's some pics of what's growing in my garden:


First up is some type of mystery bug that is walking all over my lemon tree. I'm hesitant to squash it because I don't know if it's beneficial or not. It's a pretty little creature....I suppose I'll just let it be for now :p

I pulled up a couple of little baby radishes today and julienned them and just snacked on them. They were delicious and spicy and fresh and raw! A wonderful little treat :)

My first bell pepper is growing! Isn't it cute?

The lemon tree is in full bloom. I love when the tree blooms. It's just so gorgeous and the smell is just intoxicating. And there's been a happy little bee stuffing it's face in the flowers and hopefully pollinating it so that we get lots of lemons!

My first tomato is growing too!!! I actually have quite a few growing. SO excited about all of the tomato goodness to come!! I'm dying to make some more homemade salsa and can it. I canned six pints of it last summer and we've eaten it all.

My herb garden is out of control! I can't even keep up with it. I've dried so much, used it fresh whenever I can and it's still producing like crazy. Even the parsley! We usually never have enough parsley but this year, as soon as I cut it, it's back in multitudes again!

The strawberries are coming out like crazy too!!! Looks like I'll get a nice little batch from my little planter this year :)

Garlic is popping up too :) I'm experimenting with growing garlic in a pot this year. I usually grow it in the ground, but I decided to get a big pot and try that. Reason being, I'll be moving soon (hopefully) and want to take it with me :p

And finally, my pomegranate tree is putting out tons of it's beautiful flowers which will soon be followed by tons of beautiful pomegranates :)

Anyone else doing any gardening??? How's it going if you are?

8 comments:

Cath said...

A pomegranate tree??? Is that the pic with the orange flowers? Not sure why I'm so surprised because *of course* it's warm enough there for one to grow, but am still amazed that anyone could have those actually growing in their garden. Wow.

Here it's still chilly and the only thing we have in common is that our garlic is popping up too.

My husband and our grandson (he's 5 and starting to get really hooked on working in the garden with 'Grandpa') planted pea seeds at the weekend but it'll be a while before those can go in the garden. Our first radish, from the greenhouse, usually come in April.

I hope your dad's surgery goes well.

DesLily said...

I really hope your dads surgery goes well .

I love how you love your gardening :o) and how excited you are now that it's not the first year for one!

lol you couldn't use all those herbs if you cooked 24/7 !!! lol so nice to have "too much" for a change..we rarely have that.

I hope the headache is better.

Debi said...

It just never fails to boggle my mind to see all the lovely yummies growing in your garden at this time of year! Ummm, it won't be long until we can finally start our seeds indoors...that's something, right? :P

Btw, I totally love the way you did your pictures for this post!

Will be thinking about you and family all day...so hope everything goes smoothly! Love you, sweetie!

Daphne said...

I love this post! And I agree -- it's totally amazing that you have all this growing so early. I really hadn't realized before how different the growing season was down there! Love all this. My lemon tree is about to bloom and I'm so excited. Grow, little tree, grow!

Jeane said...

Is that lemon balm in the front of your herb garden? I don't have much growing yet- my garlics are lovely green (planted in the fall) and my strawberries are coming back, and I've sown a few beds with turnips (thanx to you!!) beets and chard. I've got LOTS of seedlings in pots under lamps, on windowsills and in my coldframe waiting for warmer weather!

Can I have your cilantro rice recipe??

Trish @ Love, Laughter, Insanity said...

Chris--PLEASE tell me I'm not too late to start my garden. :( We've had such warm weather this winter that I fear I've missed my window. Our boxes are built and we were planning on filling them this weekend but Scott had the flu and literally was in bed all weekend.

Love the picture design, by the way!

chrisa511 said...

Cath, it IS the pic of the orange flowers :) The air here in new orleans is actually quite tropical so we can grow those and citrus and bananas and all that stuff :p It's apples and cherries we can't grow :( Wish we could!! So cute that y'all have peas started :D

Mama, I know!!!! I have so many herbs that I don't know what to do with them!!

Debs, it boggles my mind that y'all can't even plant stuff yet :p But I can't wait until y'all CAN in the new house :D It'll be fantastic!!

Daphne, Oh yeah...we can pretty much grow year round here!! Don't you just love lemon tree blossoms? :D

Jeane, It sure is lemon balm!!! I have SO much of it dried already and it grows like a monster!! I absolutely LOVE the smell of it though..it's my favorite smelling herb. I might try to make some tea with some of the dried stuff but don't know what else to do with it! We accidentally put some in spaghetti sauce once and it came out quite good! LOL. I'll send you the rice recipe :) SUPER easy!

Trish, Oh don't fret dear!!!! It's DEFINITELY not too late to plant!!!! You can plant all the way through summer :) And then a fall crop too if you want! Probably too late for seeds though...I'd go to your nearest nursery or home depot or lowes and just buy some transplants if I were you!! Not good weather for seeds like turnips or carrots...they like cold weather. But you CAN plant beans right in the ground right now!! They like warm weahter...just give them something to climb up if you do that :) You can plant cucumber and okra and zucchini seeds right in the ground too if you want! But tomatoes and bell pepper and jalapenos and eggplant I'd just buy transplants at the store!

Trish @ Love, Laughter, Insanity said...

Thanks for the tips, Chris. Sad not to be able to start from scratch but hope to be able to at least start... Hopefully by this weekend Scott will be over the flu and the house will run normally again. ;)