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.

2013 Garden Layout_draft1

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!!