Bloom where you are planted, dang it!

It is planting season at my house. I started some plants in the basement bathroom under the grow lights. It must be done in the bathroom because Merlin thinks the grow light set-up is either a well lit litter box or a little kitty tanning bed. Either way, it is bad for the plants. So, I keep the door to the bathroom closed and check for sprouts every day. This year I grew a nice crop of mold! GRR, that's also bad for the plants. They are outside now, Nick had a sleepover and we didn't want the guys to have to crawl over the grow lights all night. Speaking of growing, those skinny kids can sure eat! Five friends plus Nick and Nate ate a whole cake and a half gallon of ice cream. In the morning they ate 3 pounds of bacon, a box of pancake mix, 2 quarts of juice and half a gallon of milk! I'm pretty glad we stopped at two boys, how do big families do it?
Last weekend I went plant shopping! It was freezing Saturday morning, but I was at my friend Deb's house at 7:30 sharp! (That is Deb in the blue.) We started at the Anoka area gardener's sale which is held in the St. Stephens parking lot. This is a great sale, it is all plants dug out of local gardens, so you know they should be able to survive the winter here. I bought a water lily for my (upcoming) water garden, and some nice shade perennials for the woods. Deb has a graduation party coming up so she was looking for plants to dress up her (already fabulous) yard. After that sale we went to the 4H sale at the fairgrounds, the Lord of Life sale (beautiful plants, great prices) and Gorden's Greenhouse. This is a nice greenhouse with very good prices. Even so, I spent too much, I am so weak! We are going to be playing "what's in my freezer" for dinner until payday.
Remember Bear? The dog who came for dinner? I was telling Deb and her neighbor, April, about how we took a stray dog to the Humane Society and still worried about him, and they asked, (in one voice) "Was his name Bear?" He is April's neighbor! He lives with a very nice family and is something of an escape artist. This photo is Bear's back yard. He is in his doghouse (behind the slide). The doghouse is in a chain link kennel. This is all in a fenced back yard, and still he gets out! He poked his head out when I called him, but then pretended he didn't know me. That's gratitude, eh?


So after buying all these plants, I had to plant them all. I was also happy to have been given many nice annuals for Mother's Day, so I got busy! This is the flower box/bench on our lower deck. That is going to look really nice in a few weeks.









Some of my plants needed friends so I spent a gift certificate at Green Valley Greenhouse. There are a lot of good (but not cheap) plants there. I bought a cherry tomato to live on the deck. Tomatoes always taste better when you grow them yourself.

"If you're gardening for the economics of it, you're missing the whole point." Wendell Berry










Cherry Tomatoes with Feta and Parsley

1/2 pound Feta Cheese
1 Tbls chopped fresh parsley (fresh oregano would also be good, and more greek)
1-2 Tbls milk
1 pint cherry tomatoes

Combine cheese, herb and 1 Tbls milk in food processor. Process until smooth, adding more milk of needed. Cut off and discard top quarter of each tomato. Scoop out seeds. Put cheese into tomatoes, using spoon or pastry bag. Eat at room temperature. If you chop up the rest of the parsley (not too fine) and set the tomatoes on it, they will not roll around as much. (And what else would you do with that parsley anyway?)