Last weekend was a long one and I do love a long weekend. Most people think of sleeping later, having their coffee in a leisurely way and reading the paper. I think of getting up early, tinkering outside before the heat gets too bad, enjoying my coffee with a little garden dirt on it and shredding up the paper to go into the compost pile. Sort of the same...just a little different!
I had the wonderful pleasure of Vanna's company this weekend and a natural gardener and forager she is. It just warms the cockles of my chilly heart to see her just seem to know what to do and how much she really likes the plants and what they give her to eat.
Part of my list of things I want to do on my own is pretty basic, making all my own baked goods from scratch. While there is probably nothing wrong with the bread I buy, per se, I do like to get the more tasty breads and they run from $2 to $4.50 a piece. Occassionally more.
When I completely break down costs to include not just ingredients like yeast and flour, but also energy and time, making my own bread doesn't actually give me any gain economically. But if I learn to make the starters and yeasts at some point, make big batches at a time and continue to grow and harvest my own additions like rosemary, then it begins to make sense and will save more in gas since that is the most perishable of all grocery items for me.
Here is a nice picture of 2 of the loaves. They were a bit dense, but that was by design since I wanted them for tomato sandwiches and didn't want too much disintegration.
The mulberries are slowing dying down in production. While my tree is easy for me to reach and to bend the whippy branches down for collection, there is a really big tree on the lots behind my house where they'll be building several houses called Rivers Edge. I'll post another time about that but this tree has been completely uncollected from and the fruit simply going to waste. The machinery and activity has driven the geese, ducks and birds away as of late. With Vanna there, I was able to hold the branches while she collected and we got a bonanza from the lower branches of that tree.
Speaking of Mulberries, I was carefully exploring through the poison ivy around the back edge of my property and those two "Halloween Trees" that look mostly dead are, in fact, a couple of really, really old mulberry trees. Half of each of them is dead, most probably from Hurricane Isabel several years ago to look at them. Half of each of them is quite alive and productive. Both are under attack by greenbrier, english ivy and surrounded by the remaining honeysuckle I haven't culled, but they are now a priority for this fall. They should be revered and shown to their full glory.
And on to a major milestone in my quest to live more sustainably. I have grown dinner. Yes, a full dinner. Only the olive oil, balsamic vinegar and pasta was bought. (Now the pasta could have been made by me but I don't have the correct gadget yet.) While that may not sound like a whole dinner since I have 3 ingredients purchased there, the sum total was about 60 cents, I'm figuring. For that we had a wonderful fresh Pesto Pasta (one of Vanna's favorites), a big delicious salad with a home-made Mulberry vinegarette dressing. Yummmm.
To make the dressing, just press some mulberries through a wire mesh strainer into a bowl and add a dash of good balsamic and olive oil. Mix and serve. Delicious. Very zesty and at the same time sweet and fresh. Hard to describe but I think many would like it.
Here is the Boss Man, stalking the wind blown straw this weekend behind the house. He is shedding like crazy and isn't a big fan of the heat so it was nice to see him happy and carefree
The second one is a bit more weed like. It has these berries on it now.
The third one is much more weed like. It suckers like crazy and looks a lot like the first one in some ways, but no blooms.
In the herb arena, the Stevia seems to be doing well. There are no more indications of the gray mold or powdery mildew or whatever it was that killed one and part of another. My biggest worry with the Stevia now is the size it may get to and the containers they are presently in. If it is true that they can get 4 and 1/2 feet tall and very wide, then clearly the window box containers they are in aren't going to be sufficient. Their roots are probably well entwined by now so that is going to be hazardous. Anyone got any ideas? They do look good though, don't they? 
The Tarragon has major issues. The one on the left has swooped down and is growing over one of the Oregano such that you can't even really see it in the photo. It is growing well, it is just swooped down and then back up again. I'm thinking I might need to move it to one of the tomato tubs and bring the other Oregano and Thyme in those up to the boxes. How do I get it bushier? The Lemon Balm and Oregano are doing well and I'm enjoying using them quite a bit. 
My Rosemary, all 10 of them, are doing exceptionally well and smelling great. My favorite hands down. I planted the Mint with one of them because that is my combination of choice for almost all scents.
The real stars of the show are the veggies right now and I can hardly believe how much they are growing! Here are two sets of pictures, 48 hours apart. While they are slightly different zooms, you can see by the height compared with the various frames. Its almost eerie. But I like it. This is Bed One, the one with the best sunlight.
And these are of Bed Two, which gives me much concern as it is in partial shade. I really don't think I'm going to get tomato production from it unless the light changes soon. Grave miscalculation on my part.
Some of the real stand-outs are the Super Fantastic Tomato plant; yes, that is the name of it. It is a hybrid so probably not as tasty as my beloved Brandywine, but I thought I would give it a shot. It has not one, not two, but 4 little tomato-lets swelling the base where the flower bud was. Now, that isn't a guarantee that they will grow. It is still early for the plant to start with production, but I'm getting hopeful. The Beets are doing fantabulastic and some of them have significant bumps on the ground.
The Peas, oh...the Peas. I don't just have good growth here, I have blooms! All I need to say about that is said by the picture below.
The first batch of Carrots, from 23 March, have gone crazy with green growth also. Just look at the bushy beauty of that foliage. I like to just run my hands across it because it feels like feathers. 
The Bush Bean experiment seems to be a draw. The ones that were soaked may have sprouted a day earlier than the non-soaked ones, but in terms of growth, they are pretty much the same. This photo taken a couple of days ago shows the problem of the nibbled leaves. In the lower left you can see that there is one leaf quite nibbled. It turns out, it was ants so only leaves touching the wood they used as a pathway got nibbled. They still look beautiful, don't they?
The Unknown Plant, (Brussell Sprout?), is growing very well. After this picture was taken, I heaped up a bit more garden mix around the base so that the stem was more covered.
The Nasturtiums are doing fantastically. They look like little round plates. I understand they are good to eat, but I've never eaten them so I'll just hold off on that until they grow quite a bit more. I had to cheat on the Marigolds some. My seeds were growing so slow and I had a fear of aphids so I went and bought some nice nursery ones. You can see the difference! 
The Pole Beans haven't quite started pole-ing yet, but soon they will. Yes, that is bird poop on the leaf.
All the Lettuce starts from the third starting cycle finally did well. I planted them everywhere there was room. Here I planted some around a Roma tomato in a very big, 24 inch planter because they will be done hopefully before the Tomato shades it out.
And joy of joys! I finally saw a sprout in the Squash area. One each of the Yellow, Butternut and Fordhook Zucchini are showing up. Still nothing from the Saucer or Gourds. I went over to examine it and it turns out that the heaps of garden mix became a bit concrete-ish and I think that may have been too much for the seeds. We'll see.
But, as always, not everything is herbs and veggies. We are branching out into the realm of gorgeousness too! The Dogwood bloom is coming to an end. You can see the marks of age on the flowers but the slight dots of pink show up too and that is just breathtaking to me.
Our bulbs, which are still primarily big green spears, have some stand-outs too. The first Iris has bloomed and bloomed like there is no tomorrow. It looks like another 2 will be joining this one in the next couple of days.
The crazy Hosta bed is still going crazy. Just look at that! I really, really, am going to have to figure out how to divide those this fall and spread the wealth.
And just to liven things up...here I am going to do my favorite thing: Mess with the Garden. See, even the side yard Bed 3, planted so much later than the other two, are coming along.
