I’m keeping things simple in the garden this year. I’m sticking to what has been working for me well the last few years, and that’s herbs and tomatoes in containers. I find them so much easier to maintain as far as weeds and watering go, my kids really help in the watering department so it’s fun for them too. I added a few new herbs to the collection this year, ones I always find myself in need of and I added two more pots of tomatoes.

We cooked with our first “harvest” just last night…

Take a look at what else is growing out back this year:

Thyme and Mexican Tarragon (new this year!)

(more…)

The post Garden Tour: Spring 2013 appeared first on Aggie's Kitchen.

During the summer, I try to visit with my grandparents at least every couple of weeks. They don’t live too far from me – just about an hour drive – so it’s not uncommon for the kids and I to wake up in the morning and jump in the car for a spontaneous trip over to surprise them and spend the day. Our visit usually includes lunch, some wine, a dance session with my grandma and a little garden tour with my grandpa. Good times.

(more…)

The post Summer Eats – Sweet and Sour Garden Peppers appeared first on Aggie's Kitchen.

I have a little “get to know me better” tidbit to share with you today. I have an intense fear of creepy crawlies. I’m talking of any kind. Ones that fly too. Gosh especially ones that fly. I’m just not a fan of any insect of any kind honestly.

(more…)

The post Caterpillar Hunting appeared first on Aggie's Kitchen.

(From top left clockwise: mint, Mexican tarragon, baby basil, baby grape tomato)

This past week has been a complete blur I tell you. Busy is in the air. Whether I like it or not.

When I start to feel  a little (a lot) overwhelmed, I tend to initially go backwards instead of forwards – and what I mean by that is initially I complain, I kick and I scream and I pout about what’s making me busy. But eventually an “aha” moment knocks me in the head and I realize it’s time to get ‘er done. (And to be clear, I’m not referring to anything major here, just the everyday kind of busy, the kind that piles up if you start to ignore it, the not so fun kind.)

Sometimes all it takes is a little fluttering around the house picking up things here and there and accomplishing completely random and unrelated tasks (writing them on a sheet of paper with a line crossed through them after the fact feels incredibly therapeutic too by the way).

What does being busy have to do with my garden you may be thinking? A lot. Being busy has meant that I haven’t been really hanging out with my garden a whole lot lately. And I don’t recommend it one bit.

(more…)

The post Garden Update: Grow Baby Grow appeared first on Aggie's Kitchen.

It has officially hit me. I have Spring Fever. I’ve been waiting for it, and was starting to get concerned that it wasn’t coming actually. I usually get it in February, but February was a bit of a blur and our weather never really settled into normal (high 90 degrees one day, high 65 the next). I really try not to complain about our weather…EVER…because I know some of you are buried in snow right now. Hope you enjoy all the green in this post today.

My herb garden revival started at Lowe’s this morning after I dropped off the kids. This was not the plan today…but something told me that I needed some time out in the fresh air playing in the dirt. Here’s what I went home with:

(more…)

The post Herb Garden Revival appeared first on Aggie's Kitchen.

As I’ve mentioned, I have had some pretty awesome zucchini plants growing this year. I can’t tell you how excited I was when I saw all these pretty golden flowers popping up in a sea of green leaves last month.

I grew up eating zucchini flowers. My grandfather was, and still is, a big time gardener. He was a farmer, as a boy and young man, along with his father living in Sicily. It’s in his roots. I feel extremely lucky to have inherited that same passion for growing things from him, even though I’m still learning and not so good at it at times. But passion is definitely a gift, and I’ll take it any way I get it.

My grandparents cooked up their zucchini flowers very simply, usually quickly sauteed with eggs or into little fritters of some sort (usually ricotta). It was usually very simple and always delicious. And since you can only get the flowers from plants that are blooming, it was always extremely fresh and sort of a special treat.

I tweeted and facebooked asking friends how they liked to enjoy their zucchini flowers. I got this idea of stuffing them with cheese from many…and could not resist. I cooked up them up one afternoon with my kiddos and was instantly hooked. These are Oh my Goodness so good. I made them two more times, each time with a different cheese – for my husband and for my family (grandparents, mom and brother)…sadly, I’m all out of flowers (well, very few), or else I’m sure these would be making an appearance a lot more often.

(look at that cheesy filing!)

Hopefully I’m sharing this in time where most of you are starting to see these pretty flowers popping up in your gardens. When looking for the edible flowers, make sure you are picking ones that are on a stem, and not attached to a growing zucchini. Don’t be turned off by any little buggies that you find, just make sure you clean them well. May take a few rinsings and soaking in cool water to get them clean. It’s all worth it, I promise.

(My daughter…a little unsure at first. Her brother on the other hand was instantly hooked.)

5 Stars 4 Stars 3 Stars 2 Stars 1 Star No reviews

Print

Pin

---

Ingredients

Cook Mode Prevent your screen from going dark

---

I just submitted this as an appetizer for “Get Grillin’ with Family Fresh Cooking and Cookin’ Canuck, sponsored by Ile de France Cheese, Rösle, Emile Henry, Rouxbe and ManPans.”

The post Cheese Stuffed Zucchini Flowers appeared first on Aggie's Kitchen.

It’s not all bad right now, please don’t get me wrong, there’s actually a lot of good going on. For instance check out my container tomato plants…I’ve got one grape and one cherry plant going strong…

But wait. Who is this guy and is it okay that he’s here? I know there is a scary looking caterpillar out there called the Tomato Hornworm (I met him last year, I’m not kidding, he’s scary looking, more like a monster than a bug and he eats your tomatoes!) But this guy looks quiet and innocent…

(bug #1)

Can he stay? Does anyone know??

Let’s move on to the main garden bed…

uh…whoever said my zucchini plants were going to take over was not kidding! It’s hard to see but I put in some thin wire fencing to kind of control them and keep them from smothering my pepper plants. They are quite plush.

Now I don’t know if you remember or not, but this is how it all started…kind of looked like this:

Crazy huh? Definitely proud.

In here we’ve got some good stuff growing…

jalapenos

Japanese eggplant

mixed lettuces

more tomatoes

the pom poms are doing well

and look, I spy a green bell pepper

and a friend.

(bug #2)

I actually did not see this guy until I was focusing in on the pepper. Kinda cute. But tell me, is he a friend or do I need to relocate him?? I need bug help people.

In addition to bug help, need to figure out two other things.

What’s happening to my basil? This is a first for me.

and why so many flowers on my cilantro? I keep cutting the flowers down, but more come up! I need cilantro not flowers.

So like I said, gardening is making me smarter. I’m asking questions, I’m doing research, and I’m learning. And I’m constantly making mental notes on what to do and not do “next time”. A lot of it may not be rocket science but it keeps me entertained.

It’s a pretty cool thing.

If you have any advice or can tell me more about my “issues” please help! Thanks! 🙂

* Need to identify bug #1 and find out if he’s a friend

* Need to identify bug #2 and find out if he’s a friend

* Need to find out what is causing holes in my basil

*Need to find out how to control the cilantro flower situation

The post Garden Tour and Gardening Questions appeared first on Aggie's Kitchen.

(last year’s garden started nice…then became very very sad…)

(my container herb & tomato garden…it’s the happier part of my gardening)

This year, I got a little bit more serious. Obviously after 2 years of breaking my back trying to grow veggies in the dirt I had in my backyard, something had to change. I was inspired by my friend Betsy who built a nice garden plot in her backyard (we both live in average subdivision sized lots) and had great results last year. The slightly raised garden idea appealed to me for a couple of reasons…being able to enhance the soil and hopefully control some of the weeds and grass that I had problems with in the past. With Betsy’s guidance I headed to Lowes and got to work.

I started by deciding how big of a garden I wanted. I decided on 8′ x 6′ and went looking for wood. I was told I needed to get wood that was “treated” since it would have to withstand outdoor conditions. Okay. But then I found out that pre-treated wood is not a good choice for gardens due to the chemicals they use to treat the wood. Okay. So what were my options? I could have painted untreated wood, or for a few dollars more purchase naturally treated wood like cedar. I figured the extra dollars were worth the cost of the paint, the labor of painting and the time involved in the whole treating process. I purchased 2 planks of 2 x 8s, and one 2 x 12 that the Lowes employee cut in half for me. The Lowes lumber employee was very helpful to me once I explained to him what I was doing. After talking to him for a few minutes I learned that he actually helped his grandmother put her garden together so he was able to offer me some tips and information that I had no clue about.

Once I finished with lumber (and finding nails…jeesh, there are a million kind of nails, had to shamelessly ask for help there too), I headed out to get my dirt. I’m sure that part of the reason that my in ground garden has been unsuccessful in the past is because of poor soil. After talking it up with the garden department employee (my new friend Mike – who after several visits and even more questions later, probably hides when he sees me), I decided to go with 16 bags of soil, half a vegetable mix and half organic cow compost, to fill up my garden plot.

(This was the Jillian Michaels workout part of my day…lugging 16-36lb bags of dirt from the car to the backyard. Had no time to wait for hubby assistance…I wanted to get this project moving.)

(A little hammering later…)

(Ta da! We have a garden plot!)

I enlisted some little helpers to combine the compost and soil mixtures. I had to laugh because my son had absolutely no interest in helping until I told him the dirt was made of “cow poop”. Gross huh? He got all excited and started digging in. My daughter on the other hand has been a diligent helper from the very beginning.

This is the part where a random conversation about gardening earlier the same morning with a school mom comes in. She was telling me about her garden and how she’s following the square foot gardening method. As she explained it to me, I became really interested in learning more. I found this site called My Square Foot Garden and used it as a reference in figuring out how to organize my garden. I didn’t follow it step-by-step but instead used it as a way to learn how to space my plants, how many seeds/plants can grow within each square foot etc. I basically measured out the square feet by making lines with my stick or shovel and seeded/planted within each box according to this plant spacing chart.  I found myself starting to forget where I was putting my seeds so I did something totally out of character and actually drew up a chart:

Since the chart was originally drawn up, I’ve added spinach, mesclun (mixed greens), and eggplant to occupy the open squares.

(Backyard Garden Day 1)

(Backyard Garden Week 1)

These are my zucchini plants that sprouted from seeds in less than a week! These plants pictured above are two weeks old.

My latest task in the garden has been to figure out how to prevent insects from eating the leaves. I’m noticing a few holes already and I’m not okay with that. I have heard about companion gardening in the past and read up on it to learn that certain plants that are planted near each other thrive from the natural chemicals that are given off by them. For example, I planted basil seeds around some of my tomatoes because it is supposed to enhance the flavor of tomatoes and repel mosquitoes and flies. Marigolds are also considered to discourage many different insects throughout the garden (source: Seeds of Change). My grandfather has been a farmer/gardener his whole life and has never mentioned any of this to me. His thumb is just naturally green I guess. I need all the help I can get.

So in went the marigolds…

In addition to my garden you see here, I have 21 pots growing an array of herbs such as basil, mint, oregano, thyme, flat leaf parsley, cilantro, culantro, chives, sage as well as a few pots of cherry and grape tomatoes. My herb garden did not happen overnight, it has been a work in progress for many years.

I know a lot of you are still having winter weather…so hopefully the sight of all this green makes you smile.

For those of you in the southern states and have spring fever…are you or have you already started your garden? Do you have a green thumb or are you learning along the way like I am?

I hope to be able to keep you updated with nice results…and lots of recipes from the fresh veggies I grow. But what I am really hoping is that this garden doesn’t make a fool of me this year.

The post The Backyard Garden…a work in progress appeared first on Aggie's Kitchen.