Cactus Love

I recently bought a bunch of cacti because they were 75 percent off. I wanted to make a cactus garden in a large pot my mom had given me.

 This cactus looked so sad and lonely, all droopy, I had to buy it.

 After some TLC it perked up.

Now it's fully erect! Hahaha.

Time in the Garden

With 5 inches of rain in the ground and the temperatures dropping it was the perfect time to do some gardening. I managed to get a lot accomplished last week.

 Here is a photo one of our ruellia plants blooming.

 Our twin limes. The third lime is still pretty small.

The blood orange is growing.

A few of the tunas on my large cactus have turned pink. That has never happened before.

The rains brought out lots of mushrooms. These were in the pot with Bo. I transplanted that tiny little bird of paradise plant.  I hope it survives.

Getty Center

Last Sunday we went to the Getty Center in L.A. It was a neat place with museums inside and gardens, fountains, and sculpture outside. We saw some very nice sculptures in the museums and some famous paintings, including Van Gogh's Irises--which was neat to see in person, but wasn't my favorite painting in their collection. The gardens were really awesome--as were the views from the Center.

Springtime at Longwood

Ross and I went up to Longwood Garden on Saturday morning. It was a little misty, but not enough for an umbrella. The conservatory was, as always, impressive. The tulips and other bulbs were blooming. We finally took the plunge and bought a membership. We will definitely go back when my parents come visit, but hopefully we'll make it up there before that. 

Oh, and they were having an orchid sale. Orchids for only 15 or 25 dollars. I resisted! 

Bug on Basil

I'm happy to report that my plants survived our week-long absence. Of course it helped that I brought them inside and Ainsmar watered them. Last night I used some basil and rosemary when I made dinner. I'm thinking that soon I'll have to make some herb-garden mac-n-cheese.

Garden Update

My garden is doing very well so far. This is the first time I've been able to grow sweet basil. I harvested a bunch of it just now and made caprese with the tomatoes and mozzarella I bought today.
I've gotten about a dozen jalapenos from my plants. They are small. I've got to clean them out and slice them up and throw them in the freezer so that they don't go bad.
I noticed these little eggs and bugs on one of the jalapeno plants. They don't seem to be eating my plant up, so I just left them there.

First Fruits

Bailey chewed on my jalapeno plants and one of them didn't survive. I bought another one, and well, she promptly chewed that one up too. I caught her and she acted like she hadn't done anything, but her slobber all over the leaves told a different story. I just picked my first jalapeno and there are about 5 other ones starting to grow and about a dozen flowers. I'm excited. I'll be able to make some yummy guacamole.

Green Thumb of Neglect

I've had the same little crawling cactus plant since 2005. It came in a pot with other cacti or succulents, but they didn't survive my neglectful thumb. Yep, I've killed cacti--usually with some kind of fungus. I pretty much ignore my cactus. When it starts to wrinkle and shrivel up, I water it.

Well, it seems that our rolling kitchen shelves have become a garden of neglect. On the front side I've got an onion and a sweet potato starting to grow. The backside has a sweet potato that's growing even better than the one on the front. I don't want to throw them out. At least not the sweet potatoes. I'd feel bad throwing out a plant that has managed to grow all by itself, against all odds. Maybe I'll plant them behind our condo building. I just think it's funny that I try so hard to grow herbs and flowers (without much success), but I leave food laying on the shelf for a couple months and it turns into plants.

Garden in Pots

My potted garden is all planted now. I have (from the left) three jalapeño plants, rosemary, Greek oregano, sweet mint, Thai basil, sweet basil, and apple mint. I got the jalapeños a while ago, and a certain someone chewed on the leaves. They have survived though, and I even noticed that the flower fell off one of them and there's a little tiny nub of a jalapeño growing. I don't expect the sweet basil to last long (I kill it every year). It was half price at the store because the little basil plants are already starting to die off. I put some in tonight's dinner--along with some rosemary. I'm hoping the Thai basil takes off the way it did last year.

Longwood Gardens

On Thursday we went to Longwood Gardens with my parents. My favorite thing was the smell of the grapefruit blossoms. Ross's favorite thing was the view as you walk into the conservatory. My dad's favorite thing was blue daisies. I'm not sure what my mom's favorite thing was. She had trouble deciding. Here's just a few photos. We had a great time.

Garden Progress

My little minigardens are growing very well. Yesterday after work I brought them in the house because the 100+ degree weather had really taken a toll on them. After some water and a few minutes in cooler air they perked right up.

Some of my many jalapenos. I think we'll be having some guac soon.

Here are the cayenne peppers.
One of the Anaheim peppers.
The Thai basil is really taking off. I need to start cooking with it. Ignore the two dead plants in the background...my begonias decided very early on that they didn't like Maryland. My sweet basil is also doing okay. I don't put it outside at all. I don't think it could take the sun or the heat. My success with this year's garden has almost given me the confidence to buy an orchid. Almost.

Leaf Damage

When we came back from vacation we discovered that the leaves of my jalapeno plants had been chewed up. Apparently Bailey has a taste for only the jalapeno leaves. She didn't touch the cayenne or Anaheim pepper leaves. From what I could tell she also didn't eat any of the herbs.

The plants did really well while we were gone (despite Bailey chewing on them.) I brought them inside and Bailey's babysitter watered them for me. Each pepper plant has at least one dozen buds that are going to bloom. The herbs did so well that I made two batches of bread this week. One batch had just rosemary and the other had rosemary, sweet basil, Thai basil, Greek oregano, and mint. I shared with coworkers and everyone seems to think the bread turned out all right.

Well, the photo of the leaf was taken with my new camera! We bought a newer version of the one that we had before. There are some definite improvements. It also came with a photo organizing program. It lets you categorize the photos into events, name the place they were taken, and tag the people in the photos. I'm not sure if I like it yet. I'm going to have to play with it more.

My New Garden

Let me just say: Hooray! My super stressful project/event is over! Whew!

I'm trying to be productive and use the time that I was previously spending doing that, on things other than television. Just about the same time I finished knitting the dish rag today, Ross decided he wanted to go to the hardware store to get something for his project. I decided to tag along and buy some plants for this year's garden. I bought two jalepeno plants, a cayenne pepper plant, and a serrano pepper plant. As far as herbs go I bought Thai basil, Greek oregano, mint, and rosemary. The rosemary is nice and large. It came with its own pot, but I might buy one to match the other herb pot. They also had some smaller matching pots. Maybe I'll buy some sweet basil and try growing that (again.)

Maybe in the morning I'll make some rosemary bread. Mmmmm.

Twins!

I harvested a decent sized eggplant from my little garden. I think I'll cook it up tonight. I also harvested half a dozen jalapenos and there are still more on the plant. Yesterday I checked on my plants and found that I have two eggplants and a set of twins growing! I have two eggplants coming from the same flower! My little garden has brought me so much joy. I'll probably have two next Spring.

Ralph's World at Longwood Gardens

Valerie, the girls, and I headed up to Longwood Gardens yesterday to see Ralph's World perform. I was a little leery about seeing a children's concert, but I really enjoyed it. Evelyn danced her little heart out in the kiddie mosh pit in front of the stage. The sound level was great. I didn't feel deafened. During a couple of numbers they turned on the fountains behind the stage. That looked really awesome. Julia was even dancing, clapping and singing, but after an hour or so she was done so we went for a walk in the gardens. I really want to get a membership to Longwood, it is that awesome!

Hummingbird Garden

We have a hummingbird feeder on our balcony that has been attracting lots of visitors lately. Recently Ross said he saw a bird with his beak open. I looked up and saw it too. The bird was nipping at a wasp that was trying to steal a meal from the feeder. Today I actually saw a hummingbird in my mini garden. I think he was going after the tiny flowers on my basil plants.

Speaking of my garden--that last eggplant didn't make it. The plant has another purple flower on it, so we will see what happens. I have a few jalapenos growing, and lots of flowers on the plants. My basil is doing amazingly well, and the oregano is still growing. I almost wish I had two mini gardens.

Random Things

I'm not ever going to make Lemon Blueberry Cake again. When it turns out right it is awesome. It only turns out right half the time. Usually when it doesn't go quite right the cake is really sticky. Well, I made it this weekend, and it came out rubbery. Frustrating. I love cake. I ate a slice. It is pretty gross. It isn't cake. Now I have to throw it all out! Awful! I'm blaming the oven here. Things don't turn out like they usually do in this oven. Piece of crap electric. Still, I'm not going to make that cake again. I'm a little worried about making any cake in that oven. Will the dessert party be possible? We'll see.

I'm super stressed out and can't blog about it (which annoys me, but is probably for the best).

We have had guac with the jalapenos from my mini garden. Yummy. I have another eggplant growing. And another bloom, so I might eventually have two growing at once. I'm going to try and take a photo every day, or every couple of days and see if I can make a little slide-show movie out of it, like they do in those documentaries.

I didn't go hiking today because I feel like I just need to chill. Maybe I'll do some yoga.

Three Cup Eggplant

I really like Taiwanese 3 cup chicken. I have also had the same dish made with eggplant. Oh, so yummy. The garlic turns into irresistible candy. The first time I tried to make this I threw everything in the pot and cooked it for 30 minutes. It tasted great, but the eggplant turned into total mush. It looked nasty. This time it turned out much better. Also, I got to use the eggplant from my mini-garden!

Three Cup Eggplant

15 garlic cloves, crushed or cut into slivers

10 slices of ginger

1/3 c. sesame oil (I just use enough to coat the bottom of my pot)

1/3 c. soy sauce

1/3 c. rice wine

3 Tbl. sugar

2 lb. Japanese eggplant

one large bunch of Thai basil

1. Heat oil in a large pot.

2. Add garlic and ginger to pot and saute for a few minutes.

3. Add soy sauce, rice wine, and sugar to the pot and stir to dissolve sugar.

4. After bringing mixture to a boil reduce heat and simmer for 20 minutes.

5. While sauce is cooking, cut eggplant into bite size pieces and remove basil leaves from stalks.

6. Add eggplant to pot and cook for 5-7 minutes, until eggplant is softened.

7. Stir basil into pot and cook another two minutes.

Hurray!

Remember those bounced paychecks?  Today I finally got a cashier's check that covers the two bounced checks and the fees that my bank charged me.  Yeah!

I've been having trouble finding the tortillas that I like.  Today I found them.  Now we'll have to have tacos soon.

One more thing I'm happy about: my mini garden.  All my plants seem to be doing well.  The eggplant bloomed and the flower has since fallen off.  I think there might be a tiny little fruit there. I'm making some baked ziti this weekend and I'll be able to use some of the basil and oregano to spice it up.

Longwood Excursion

Ross and I had heard and read about the du Pont gardens and decided to go check one out with Tejal yesterday. I was a little pooped from hiking and sleepy after eating, but I'm so glad that we went.

We left for Longwood gardens after dinner because they have a fountain show at night.  We arrived after only driving an hour.  Wow. The gardens display over 11,000 different kinds of plants. The outdoor gardens cover around 350 acres! The conservatory is expansive.  I've never seen anything quite like that.  It puts every other garden I've ever seen to shame.  

When we arrived there was a brass band playing in the outdoor theater.  It was nice to have music while walking through the gardens.  At 9:15 the fountain show started.  Tejal says the one at the Bellagio is better.  I agree, but the show was 30 minutes and had this misty effect that I liked.  With the changing colors and constant moving of the water the mist looked like the aurora borealis.

The conservatory alone was worth the trip.  One of the most surprising and best things about our visit is that there weren't many people.  I'm sure we will visit again, and we will definitely check out some of the other du Pont gardens.