Babes in Toy land

OK-I can't exactly call my sister and I "babes". but we were definitely in toy land at my friend Ellen's house this week. Ellen is a master gardener and probably a master at most things. She's been my friend for 30 years and together we have shared a love of food, gardening, shopping, clothes, shoes and all things girly.

She lives in Greensboro close enough to my mom that one of us visits the other when I am there. This time it was my turn to do the drive. And happily so.

We arrived just in time for lunch (of course we planned that!) Ellen has an amazing vegetable garden and the lettuce was just up enough to make a fabulous salad. We also had a delicious mix of sausage and potatoes and peppers. But the real treat was dessert!

Ellen made us these delicious macaroons. Knowing I am allergic to coconut-she kindly made two types: almond and coconut. The almond ones were scrumptious. I hear the coconut ones were better. alas I will never know...:(.

We then went out in to the garden and looked at all her fruit trees laden with fruit which will ripen through the summer, gorgeous flowers everywhere (she has a 10 acre property so a lot of planting and naturalization), and unusual garden elements that catch the eye.

I photographed our treats as well as a beautiful weeping conifer along the drive that she is training around a metal railing she found. The conifer is spectacular. The other shot is a view looking down the driveway. the first picture is her cutting garden just before it goes into full spectacular bloom.

Big girls playground.

The Real McCoy

Frequently when people visit my house they are stunned to find out I do 90% of my own gardening. I must admit I do have help with some of the more mundane tasks of replanting or mulching or clean up. Although even then I am right there helping.

I have heard people claim to be their own gardener-however they are never working in the garden and they know nothing about there plants. So I am always suspicious.

For those of us who do slave for hours every week (happily of course) we take great pride in our ability to do everything ourselves.

SO how do you tell if you are dealing with a real gardener or an impostor? If you have had your doubts about your catty friends comments about her yard versus yours and her gardening ability-here's a sure fire way to know if she or he are the real gardeners.

Check the kitchen sink. It has recently come t0 my attention that every true gardening Friend that I know has a nail brush by the kitchen sink. The absence of the nail brush signals-AN IMPOSTOR! you can rat them out if you want because in my book this is proof positive!

Oh the tell tail signs....:).

Premature Florigation

This is when all the flowers in your garden bloom at once and then turn green-leaving you feeling empty and used.

The cause: Over exuberance at seeing pretty blooming beauties.

The fix: Restraint.

Common Scenario:
First week of spring you look out into the yard and think "THIS is the year I am going to have a gorgeous garden!" SO you race to the local nursery (or closest big Box store) and come back with a car full of plants. You plant them all, fertilize them and are in awe at your handiwork. For about a month. then slowly you are left feeling empty and sad as the whole garden devolves into green leaves or worse yet, brown sticks.

STOP THE INSANITY! Do not-I repeat DO NOT go buy everything you can get your hands on the first week of spring. Perennials bloom but once a year for a short period of time (2-3 weeks). They come back every year - but they only bloom once a year. The only way to have flowers all year with a perennial garden is to plan.

This is called Succession Gardening. Of course most of you are not going to spend hours researching which plant blooms when. I suspect you have your hands full just tyring to figure out when to fertilize and when to deadhead.

SO what's an aspiring gardener to do? It's very simple. Go to the nursery every three weeks. Their stock will change as the growing season changes because the only things that sell are things with blooms on them. So if you go and buy a few plants every three weeks- you will have a lovely garden next year that blooms all season!

How simple was that? And all it took was a little restraint.

Hammered

Today was one of my usual obsessive compulsive days in the garden. Nothing new. Today's obsession was the greenhouse for the fig tree.

Since the fig tree already has fig buds (see previous post) I was quite concerned to get it under wraps in preparation for what I am sure will be at least one more frost before summer is ushered in.

So there I was, standing on a ladder, pounding the heck out of the frame of this portable green house, when all of a sudden the hammer flew out of my hand and hit me square between the eyes. BAM!

I saw stars and momentarily started to fall off the ladder. But I managed to keep it together and utter a few curse words as I walked around the garden trying to act like nothing had happened. I made the mistake of touching the area. OUCH! Wow did that hurt.

Ok, 30 seconds have gone by. I can now ignore it and get back on the ladder and finish.

Hours later I am incredibly sleepy but not allowing myself to rest. I had to give that little 15 minute speech on garden design at the garden club tonight so I couldn't go to sleep. What if I didn't wake up in time?? No, had to tough it out. Just keep moving, everything will be fine.

As the time approached to head over to the garden club meeting I was really feeling tired, but i got in the car and proceeded to go to the meeting. Well at least I proceeded somewhere-but it wasn't the garden club meeting. After going the wrong way for about 10 minutes I realized something was amiss. Oh dear-not a good sign.

Got there, unpacked my things, sat down and just wanted to fall asleep. Thank goodness the speakers were interesting-it really kept me alert.

Time for the presentation. Turned on the lap top and the projector. OK-how do I move my cursor? Honestly-I could not remember how to move the cursor on my laptop. My lap top was staring back at me like a tablet with Hieroglyphics. Nothing looked familiar.

Somehow I managed to get through the technical panic and did the presentation. The flowers I can talk about in my sleep-so at least I was able to sound coherent even though my mind was mostly absent.

Currently I am trying to stay awake till 10:30. The nurses in the Garden Club are all worried I have a concussion. I know what that means-don't sleep for more than 3 hours at a time. So I will set my alarm for 2:30 and then Liz has promised to wake me at 5:30 as this is the hideous hour she gets up for work.

Yes, gardening is a dangerous sport. I skied all winter with nary a bump or a scratch-but set me loose in the garden and I manage to get a concussion. this leads me to believe that perhaps I should be wearing the helmet to garden instead of to ski. This would be particularly attractive when I am gardening in my PJ's. You Tube anyone?

I'll sign in tomorrow so everyone knows I made it through the night. I know you will be on pins and needles...
Bon soir.

Hey Bud! Grow UP!

Yes, it's spring. In the beginning I promised cooking, gardening, and design. We did cooking all winter (and that will continue-do not dispair) and now we are moving into the gardening and design portion of this program. :).

I cannot tell you how excited I am. Four years ago I planted a Moscow Pink Lilac. For four years it grew profusely (five feet!) but never bloomed :(. I was giving it one more year in it's current location. Well actually I was giving it one more year-because it was sited perfectly so moving it would not have made a difference.

Yesterday-as I was perusing my newborns (that is how it feels every spring watching everything come out of the ground and grow)-I saw them. BUDS!! and lots of them too!!! Oh how exciting. I had to share this with you. If you look closely at the picture you will see lots of buds. The Moscow Pink Lilac is a particularly beautiful specimen with lovely very soft pink buds. Not that the traditional Lilac isn't pretty-but this one is a real knock out. I can't wait to see it in bloom.

I also spotted my first Fig bud today. Amazingly early! usually it is mid May before any show up. I didn't take a picture of that-but I will. I was too busy doing my fig bud dance around the tree to take a picture. No pictures of that unless the neighbors have a webcam on their crazy neighbor that gardens in her robe.

The primroses are coming up as well-they are so cute and -their colors so cheery and vibrant--almost fluorescent actually. Hard to believe these plants prefer almost full shade. Very similar to Tuberous Begonias that are also extremely colorful but like shade. The Primrose is a hardy perennial though-unlike the Begonia that is a bulb which must be lifted each fall. and stored inside.

I will be speaking at the garden club this week on garden design. this is a topic I could speak on for hours. But I only have 15 minutes. Guess I will have to talk fast.

The pictures of the path are an example of how much more inviting a winding path is than a straight one. Hard scape can be used to allow the eye to wander or to force the eye to a location. In this instance, the path draws the visitor to the front door-but also allows them to "visit" along the way by creating a sense of whimsy with a drunken path. (please excuse the grass-it has not awakened to spring yet).

This week the Dahlia and Blazing Star bulbs and Hostas and Hydrangeas went in the ground along with lots of seeds: Beets, snap peas, Sweet pea flowers, larkspur, cleome, cosmos and who knows what else.

Also, the official plant moving season has begun. In the house nothing has been changed for nine years. Outside the house? I move my plants like most people change their underwear. Honestly-I am never happy. today I moved the Rio Samba rose, a hydrangea, and three daylillies. If you are a plant in my garden you better travel light cause you will be moving a lot!

Of course it is not entirely my fault. These plants have a mind of their own coming back a foot or so from their original location. When you are a perfectionist in the garden this is not practical. It sets up a whole series of moves.

I am already eyeing this weekend's moves. I will post before and afters on these--and I am sure you will agree--the move was all for the best. :).

Now go get dirty!

"leaf" the stems? sometimes.

This topic came up in one of my classes recently and I wanted to pass on scientific information on the topic.

I was using cilantro for the Veloute and used the chopped stems in the broth (which would later be strained out). One of the students was aghast that I would use the stems-thinking that all herbs had unpleasant stems.

My advice was that cilantro is an herb that you can use the entire leaf and stem for flavor. But I did not think that any other heb shared this distinction. I did say the fine stems of parsley were ok.

Today, Cook's illustrated had this to say about thier test of Cilantro and parsley stems:

"Recently, we heard a wild rumor that the stems of flat-leaf parsley hold more flavor than the leaves. We decided to put this notion to the test, and, because most of us had also heard of using cilantro stems (a.k.a.Chinese parsley) in cooking, we included it in the test as well. After cleaning and drying several bunches of parsley and cilantro, we asked tasters to eat the herbs by the sprig, from the tender leaf to the fat tip of the stem. What did we find? Well, the stems do have more flavor, but that's not always good news. While the parsley leaves were fresh and herbal, we were surprised by how intense the flavor became as we traveled down the stems. By the time we reached the stem ends, tasters were complaining (loudly) about bitterness. Cilantro, however, was another story. Sure the leaves were tasty, but the great flavor found in the stems caught us all off guard. Sweet, fresh, and potent the flavor intensified as we traveled down the stem but never became bitter. The moral? If a recipe calls for cilantro and a crunchy texture isn't an issue, use the stems as well as the leaves. But when it comes to parsley—unless you'll be using the herb in a soup or stew where its strong flavor won't be out of place—be picky and use just the leaves"

I love being right :).

Hamming it up on Easter

It's Easter and many of you will be preparing meals for your family. Hopefully they will be Yummy. However my experience has been that people spend a lot of time on the sides and leave the ham to some third party.

Now this may seem like a good idea since-how much can you screw up ham-but I have tasted some pretty bad hams in my day (and I am not talking former BF's here). So many things can go wrong with the wrong ham (in this case I am talking former BF's-haha)

Ham's can be turned into some pretty ethereal things -think Prosciutto. Or they can be very lackluster-think packaged deli ham. Same meat-different process. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't (again back to the ex BF's-but I digress)

So in honor of the "hammiest time of year" (yes, that was a play on holiest), I will let you in on some ham testing (again with the old BF's-I have to stop this!). Seriously:

My favorite food publication is Cook's Illustrated. Their guidance is invaluable. So for Easter I am going to share their taste test results for Ham. IF you haven't bought your ham yet-I would suggest listening to them as they are very scientific about their taste tests and product comparisons. They have never let me down.

They have a great website called America's Test Kitchen that you can subscribe to for $29.95/yr. May sound pricey-but they have incredible hot to video's on just about any topic and they do these great product comparisons that you can trust since they take NO advertising dollars!


Recommended

Cook's Spiral Sliced Hickory Smoked Bone-In Honey Ham
Nearly every taster praised the "nice balance of smoke and salt" and "genuine ham flavor."
$3.29 per pound

Not Recommended

Carando Honey-Cured Spiral Sliced Ham
The thickly-sliced ham earned high marks for its "deep, smoky flavor," but tasters criticized the meat as "too wet" and "too sweet."
$2.99 per pound

Not Recommended

Hillshire Farm Bone-In Brown Sugar Cured Ham (Spiral-Sliced Ham)
This ham lost points on two accounts: Tasters described the meat as "utterly devoid of smoke flavor" and "spongy and cottony," and no one liked the "sweet, gummy" glaze applied at the factory.

Wishing you and your families the tastiest of Easter's.