This past week was oh so busy! We got a visit from Grandma Yoli (who came to visit after a trip to Tennessee) bearing googoo bars and lots of them. The kids and I had never had one. Apparently, it is only made in Tennessee though I am sure it is sold all over. I think Matthew had much more than his share due to so many siblings sharing theirs with him. We all enjoyed her visit so much that we are hoping she will come back very soon. Between shopping, eating out (what a treat) and visiting with her, it encompassed every minute we had.
The day after she left we spent outside (all day) working on so many projects. We have been clearing more land, poison ivy, weeds and brambles. The more time I spend outside, the more impressed I am by the amount of plants out there that I have little knowledge of. Everyday I find myself researching a new plant or just trying to identify the different “weeds” out there. We have encountered thousands of wild strawberry plants. The berries have absolutely no taste and are mostly seeds but it has not stopped the kids from eating many of these raisin sized berries. I think there has to be a use for them. They fill our front 3 acres where there is rarely a spot you can walk on that there is not a wild strawberry plant. They grow so low that the mower does not touch them so they really thrive like little lawn jewels.
Luckily, besides the wild strawberries, the wonderful family who nurtured this land prior to us planted a few strawberry plants which I mulched in the fall and really spread to provide so many tasty strawberries in the past week. I have planned to completely weed that bed this week and spread out some of those plants so they can fill the bed more evenly.
We have gotten much of the garden planted and even though it is a bit late, I am not beating myself up about it. We are just enjoying the process of starting over and that is that. I have a few dozen perennials waiting for the food forest part of our farm to be done where we will plant them in their new homes. So much to do but there is time yes? The mornings here are still cool as well as the evenings and its such a pleasure to work outside without the heat beating us down.
We are also rehabbing the two small garden beds that were already here, close to the house. This is quite the undertaking as the beds are covered by a thick mat of creeping charlie (ground ivy) and more of those wild strawberries. We have been drying the creeping charlie to use as an addition to our teas for the coming year but there is oh so much of it. It roots anywhere that it touches and mulch only seems to deter it for a little while. Luckily, it has a faint mint/oregano smell being from the mint family and has a pretty little purple flower so I will let it be a ground cover where it won’t get in the way. Below is a before and after picture of that small bed, the after is the one with Erica raking the dirt. I am having quite a hard time keeping shoes on the girls. Since there are no prickly plants in the grass here like there are in Florida, I am generally letting them garden in their barefeet and they are loving it.
I have been enjoying tea everyday. First our own tea blends made of blue spiderwort (we have 3 colors of spiderwort here, blue, pink and white) and lemongrass. Lemongrass is the flavor since the blue spiderwort flowers mainly lend color and little flavor but its so much fun to have blue tea again since our favorite blue pea vine would not survive the winters here.
The other teas were a present from Grandma Yoli from Teavana. Have you ever been to this store, I adore it but can’t really afford to shop there too much. I am so grateful to my mother in law for this present as well as the beautiful new tea cup she bought me. If anyone has a good source for delicious bulk loose teas, please do post!!
The front garden is alive with so many flowers and different types of perennials. Everytime one type of flower stops producing, the next kind comes to life to entertain us with its colors and scents. I think the flower garden is Matthews favorite place to be. He loves to walk the little pathways and pick the flowers.
What you have been up to this past week? Tomorrow I will be scouting for more wild edibles. Won’t you come back and join me?
The first of the basil is ready in the garden. I do so love basil, I believe it is one of my favorite herbs after tarragon. During our winter visit home to Florida, I dug up some of my perrenial basils thinking that I would have basil forever here like in Florida. Unfortunately, they did not fare well during the winter, even in the kitchen. The African blue basil is teetering on the edge of death and the columnar basil did not survive at all. Luckily, I had so much basil seed that I started a couple of plants thinking they might be fun to share with friends. While working in the garden last week, I spotted enough basil to make this seasons first pesto. Joy!!
