Planting A Little Green on St. Patrick's Day

My mother-in-law sent a plum tree, crepe myrtle, and some lilies from Kentucky by my husband. Dalton and I  dug a huge hole and planted the plum tree this afternoon. I also tilled the raised beds - I won't be able to move tomorrow.  Darren helped us plant the crepe myrtle and lilies when he got home from work. The hardest thing to do was deciding on a spot for each thing. I do not like things planted just anywhere.   Dalton and I also planted some petite marigold seeds in the whiskey barrel.  PS: Parsley is still alive and doing well in my kitchen window!

Spring Forward....Please

It's almost here!! I am so ready to spring forward. Tennessee weather being as unpredictable as it is we have not planted anything as of yet. My husband tilled in the turnip greens we planted last year to put the nutrients back into the raised beds. We bought red seed potatoes, Texas sweet "wax white" onion sets, Texas red onion sets, one scoop of Bibb lettuce, and I bought one pot of parsley (which I will try to keep alive indoors). Our beds are not quite ready for planting and it has rained so we will have to wait a few days before we plant.
 I did find a few strawberry blooms hidden beneath some of the more dried leaves.

Strawberry Bloom

I am excited about having strawberries this year. I hope they make well.
My raspberry vines are not looking well. If they do not produce this year we may have to replace them.

We drew up our plan for rotating the beds and what seeds/plants we will buy. We created cold frames last year on two of our beds and I will start the lettuce from seed.  We normally buy a lot of our seeds and plants through the Gurney catalog (Gurney.com). I think we will buy some that way and some through our local hardware store this year.

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Deer Gyros with Cucumber Raita

Another passion of mine is cooking - this I also got from my Grandmother. All my life she worked as a cook and she enjoyed it. She just turned 88 and is almost blind. She still tries to cook, and my mom has to help her.

My husband hunts so we eat a lot of wild game.  Its sometimes challenging to come up with a new recipe, but I have found that it can be done.  I made deer gyros with cucumber raita, sweet potato fries and steamed asparagus. It was so good!!

Squash Bugs have arrived...

The dreaded squash bugs have arrived! I hate them and I killed 5 of them today. Nothing kills them.

Hopefully the squash will survive!

Fresh Raspberry Pie

I made a raspberry pie! It was rather tart though - I have never used lemon zest and I didn't measure so it was more of a lemon-berry pie. I think next time a little more sugar and a lot less lemon!

before

after

Fresh Raspberry Pie Recipe

2/3 to 3/4 cup granulated sugar

2 tbsp all purpose flour or quick cooking tapioca pudding

1/2 tsp grated lemon rind (optional in my opinion - made the pie too sour)

1 tsp lemon juice

1/4 tsp nutmeg

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/8 tsp salt

4 cups berries

1 tbsp butter

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Bake in uncooked crust and add stripes to top of pie. Bake @ 450 for 15 minutes then reduce heat to 350 degrees and bake for an additional 30 minutes.

Raspberries

My step-son Dalton and I picked at least a gallon of raspberries today! They are very sweet. I imagine I will have half as many tomorrow. I plan on making a raspberry pie.

Dalton and I visited the hardware store and bought pretty Lantana, Vincas, Marigold seed, Asylum seed,  and Jalapeno peppers. I decided to plant the peppers in place of my cabbage and broccoli.  Dalton found a beautiful pot filled with different kinds of flowers. We decided to get it and put it on the front porch. We enjoyed planting all of it this afternoon and finishing the day off picking the berries.

Worms

Worms devoured my cabbage, broccoli and cauliflower.  We went to Las Vegas for a week and my mother-in-law harvested the broccoli; it was full of worms. I am just sick over it! Darren pulled all the plants up today. I am not sure if i will replant them or not. 

Darren hoed the strawberries and replanted the green beans for a third time.  I'm not too crazy about the green beans since I will be canning them and I have plenty left from last year.

I picked about a cup of raspberries today. They were pretty sweet! I think they are going to do really well this year. I'm not as confident in the blackberries; they have been picked over by either bugs or birds. I am already dreading the Japanese beetles and June bugs.