Where's the Garden?

I must say that I do like the cable channel HGTV. It's fun to see people transform their homes from dumpy to divine. I also love the voyeuristic shows on house-hunting...these are fun shows...however...you know what's coming...where's the gardening on Home and GARDEN TV? There's several shows where they do some expensive landscaping, or paint the front of someone's house and add a new mailbox. Is this gardening? No. In fact, HGTV has only one gardening show, as far as I can tell. It's Gardening By the Yard. This is a fun and informative show on the act of gardening...it comes on once a week at 6:30 in the morning...so what's a gardener to do?

Enter Create TV. This is a PBS channel that has programming on cooking, travel, home improvement, and GARDENING. I haven't seen all of the shows yet, but Create TV's website boasts such shows as Cultivating Life, GardenSMART, Gardenstory: Inspiring Spaces Healing Places, P. Allen Smith's Garden Home, Smart Gardening, and The Victory Garden. It appears they show one gardening show each day, repeating four or five times over a 24 hour period. So, if you are looking for some REAL gardening shows, not landscaping shows, flip the channel over to Create TV. And when your friends ask if you watched last night's episode of the Bachelorette, you can hold your head up high and proudly announce that no, in fact you were watching something really good on PBS...

UPDATE: Two days after I posted this, Cox Cable elected to stop carrying Create TV. Crap...

Pesto...it's what's for dinner

My basil is already bursting out of it's pot! Well, okay, not literally. But, it is ready to be used. So, tonight we are having the first pesto dinner of the season.

Here's my recipe:

2 cups fresh basil
1/4 cup pine nuts (walnuts work well if you can't find pine nuts)
1 clove garlic
1/2 tsp sea salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
1/2 cup olive oil
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese

In a food processor pulse the basil, pine nuts, garlic, salt, and pepper until finely chopped. With the food processor running, drizzle the oil into the mixture until smooth and thick. Stir in the cheese by hand.

2 cups of basil might seem a lot, and it is if you purchase basil at your local grocery store. This is the reason why I grow my own basil and why we only have pesto in the summer.

Fun fact: Cutting back your basil just stimulates more growth. So, the more you use it, the more you will have.

Buon Appetito!

On Your Mark...

Get set...GARDEN!

Memorial Day is almost here, and you know what that means...gardening season is here! Actually, here in the Tidewater area, I've been digging in the garden since early April. I've planted trees, shrubs, and flowers of all kinds...I've even repurposed an unsuccessful flowerbed with some grass seed...This is going to be a great summer for gardening!

On a related note, I've decided to make my passion into my career...I'll be studying Horticulture at the local college this Fall! I realize those of you that heard me talk about Interior Design as a career will be surprised by this revelation, and all I can say is that I'd rather wear jeans and no makeup to work than heels and lipstick...it's who I am.

Raspberries

Before we left Maryland, a friend gave us a small raspberry plant. It wasn't more than a twig with a couple of leaves on it sticking out of a pot. I transplanted it into one of my old terracotta pots, packed it into the back of the Rav4, and moved to Chesapeake. I didn't think much of it, and certainly didn't expect it grow at all this year. Well, it has grown quite a bit. It even started flowering several weeks ago, but I didn't think much would come of the blossoms.

The pot flipped over during one of the many, many storms we've had this summer. The only damage it received was on the one branch that had flowers on it (swell...). I thought the branch would die, and that would be it for the summer.

Then, yesterday, I saw delicate little berries hanging on the end of the drooping branch. Two of the berries were ripe! Gently I picked them. One for Steve and one for me. Perfect berries.

This photo is from this morning. More perfect berries.

I guess the moral is: if you don't expect too much from your garden, it will bring you nothing but joy.

Caprese Salad

1 1/2 lbs various tomatoes
8 oz fresh mozzarella, drained and sliced
fresh basil leaves

slice the larger tomatoes in 1/4 inch slices. Cut small tomatoes in half. Layer the large tomato slices with the mozzarella on a small platter. Sprinkle small tomato halves liberally. Place basil leaves evenly throughout salad. Drizzle dressing over whole platter.

Dressing:
3 Tablespoons lemon juice
3 Tablespoons olive oil
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp black pepper

whisk until smooth.

I added a little extra salt and pepper over the salad before serving.

Garden Spider

I have noticed this spider "hanging" around my tomatoes lately. I hadn't seen one like this before and didn't know if it was poisonous or not. Today I finally got around to researching the spider and found that she is a Black and Yellow Garden Spider, also known as Argiope aurantia. She's not dangerous to humans (a bite sounds about as bad as a wasp sting), and she's very beneficial to gardens.

Hopefully, I can can get a photo of the dragonfly that has made a home in my garden as well.

Where I've Been

Okay, okay...I know. I've been AWOL for these last couple of months. That's because I bought a house. I've spent most of the summer unpacking and organizing. Oh yeah, and gardening!We built a 4 by 8 raised bed before the furniture even arrived and planted tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, onions, eggplant, basil, and cilantro. The tomatoes and basil have gone positively viral! Everything else has been so-so. Above is a photo of the yellow pear tomatoes and some onions from my garden. The other tomatoes are coming soon!

This weekend we are building more raised beds to begin the Fall garden. Now that the boxes are all unpacked and everything is mostly put away, I should have more time for my blog. Stay tuned!