My Passion for Gardening

My passion for gardening began long ago when I was young.   Memories of planning and planting a garden still ring fresh in my mind – my garden at the back end of the yard I grew up in, the garden in my first home, the HUGE garden in our second home and all my garden adventures since.   The last few years I have been experimenting more with different varieties and different methods not only out of my own curiousity but it seems more and more people are realizing the importance of gardening in our daily lives.   Harvesting food for our table, sharing with others our plentiful bounty and teaching others the knowledge we acquire along the way are real benefits that can motivate us to learn more and do more!   There are also the unspoken benefits of the satisfaction we find in carrying on as our ancestors did by learning basic survival skills such as planting that one seed and harvesting a crop of lettuce throughout the spring season or canning up our tomatoes and relishing in the garden taste during those long winter months.

With the whirlwind of activity and pressures of our society the basics of simple gardening are almost forgotten.   Even at times the gardening world themselves put on the pressure to have the best looking tomato or the best weedfree garden on the block.   It can be intimidating at times especially for those who have never gardened before since seeds don’t always sprout as we hoped and plants don’t always produce as we planned.   There is no competition in growing your own garden – what works for one may not for another, what brings a smile and peace to you may not be the same for your neighbor.

My passion for gardening is an inner drive that brings me contentment and a closer understanding of the works of  Mother Nature and all her wonders.

This past garden season I participated in the GROW project created by MrBrownThumb which connected garden bloggers across the country by comparing their growing progress with the same planted seed – the Nasturtium.   It was very interesting and enabled us to visit different places and meet other gardeners.   As a spinoff, I suggested that gardeners not only grow but also cook what they grow and share that with each other and others across the internet.   With that idea in mind I set up a blog and named it Garden Dish, a Flickr group to share pictures and a group at MixingBowl where we can easily add recipes to share.

Although I set up all this a few months back, I was working on the Garden Dish blog recently trying to find the WordPress theme that would make this an easy interactive project for all of us.   The current theme follows the Twitter pattern and may or may not work (inserting links was confusing).   Feel free to add something to any of the above sites; recipes, pictures, links.

Any and all suggestions on a theme or an easy way to share our recipes created from the garden?

Flaxseed in the Garden

Flaxseed seems so mysterious, right?   I seem to find myself drawn to unusual plants and the discovery of  how they grow;  luffa, ginseng, gourds, cotton, so flaxseed seemed to fit right in.   We have been purchasing flaxseed and adding it here and there to our recipes.   The cost is quite high but we figured our health is well worth it.   It lowers cholesterol and is a healthy addition to most any recipe; it does have a strong flavor though.   The flaxseed flower is small, purple in color and grows into swaying stems adding a beautiful scene for your garden landscape.   The flower then goes to seed at the end of the season and each seed head contains several seeds.   Harvesting the seed when they are dry is rather easy, but cleaning for the flaxseed is very, very time-consuming.

Would I recommend growing flaxseed in your garden?   Only if you are looking for an easy flower to add to your garden or if you have the proper cleaning equipment which is a huge investment then yes – Grow Flaxseed.   The seed can be ground up into powder which can be accomplished with a coffee grinder, but the time to get to this point is like I said … very time-consuming.  

I am always looking for the ultimate healthy (sweet) snack so I decided to create another cookie recipe using flaxseed and they are pretty Good!   I named them Oatmeal Apple Flaxseed Cookies and posted the recipe at Mixing Bowl in the new group Garden Dish I recently created.   As with all recipes, ingredients can be added or eliminated depending on your tastes.   I wanted to use the Sage I had just harvested also (another strong flavor) – surprisingly it’s flavor is somewhat faint….maybe more next time.

The batter was somewhat dry so I ended up adding 1 tablespoon of oil – that’s all it needed!

Oatmeal Apple Flaxseed Cookies

On my way to creating the Ultimate Healthy Sweet Snack!

I decided to start some herb seeds now under my grow lights.   I already miss my gardens and the snow hasn’t even started to fall yet!   I have a nice setup with lights to start seeds so I planted a few trays; mostly herbs with a few flower seeds.  

 

This past summer I ordered and planted Stevia seeds.   When I received the seeds there were very few in the package – about 5.   I thought this must be an expensive, unique plant so I saved seed from my own plants and this is one I just planted under the lights.

Stevia seed – I didn’t really do much with the stevia as far as cooking, but I made sure to taste the leaves and they taste just like sweet sugar!   I hope to create some healthy food this coming season – I already see there are a few cookbooks using Stevia out there!

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Lovely Lavender

My quest to grow lavender started about 3 years ago when we purchased our place down south.   I wanted to fill the acres of land with wonderful smelling lavender and create crafts and sell some great products.   Lavender comes in many varieties and has different purposes and some are better for dried arrangements or making oils or even for cooking.    It takes about 3 years to get a good harvest and I witnessed that this past year.    I planted many tiny seeds way back 3 years ago and after the transplant shock and the drastic heat experienced in the new land … the harvest this past spring  was actually very encouraging.

The majority of lavender I have growing is Lavender Vera while I also grew a few Grosso and Munstead.  

Lavender is very easy to dry and I have noticed the Grosso is more fragrant than the Vera when dried.   The Grosso grows taller and is typically easier to use in making lavender wands.  While the Vera can be started by seeds the Grosso cannot – it has to be started from clippings or bought as a plant already started.

Dried lavender and sweet william above – both can be used to create crafts; wreaths, flower arrangements and little bundles to decorate gifts.

I save many seeds and dry many herbs and usually I am very good about labeling everything I save.   I had some dried (what I thought was lavender) in the cabinet and had plans to add some to the Ricotta Cakes I wanted to try.  

When I opened the baggie, I realized the dried herb was anise hyssop not lavender.   I did use the anise hyssop and reminded myself to always label everything I save! 

Ricotta cakes with anise hyssop and chocolate chips

I created a Group on Mixing Bowl called GardenDish to share recipes that we create from our garden harvest.  If you have some good recipes, please do share!

Time to Start Planning your 2011 Garden

It’s never too early to start planning your garden for next year!   Now is the ideal time since you have fresh in your mind what worked well and what you want to plant more of!   I am a big fan of record keeping so I can remember what worked from year to year.   It’s amazing how easily it is to forget those tiny details from the summer before, so as I write my notes from this past season, I start my new list for next year!   As I plan I also am keeping in mind the newest project which initially I called “GROW to Eat” after the GROW project I participated in this past season and  have decided to rename to “Garden Dish”.   Reason being…there is a Twitter name Grow to Eat and I don’t want to confuse them with this new undertaking I am starting.   So Garden Dish it is!!!   I created a blog and posted a brief explanation so folks can subscribe to the blog and keep updated on the progress of Garden Dish, ask questions (new gardeners and old gardeners), share planting ideas and pass the word around to everyone to come join the fun!

I mentioned the GROW project and last week when I was down south the Nasturtium was still growing in the container on the deck!   Seeds had formed and these can be saved for planting next year.   The first time I grew Nasturtium I had no idea what the seed was – it’s huge actually and there are not too many plants that seed like this (at least ones I have grown)!

I decided to start my Recipe Box at the Mixing Bowl and added the famous “Garlic Cake” recipe!!!   Make sure to check it out and if you love garlic, you will have to bake up a cake …. it will definitely be the talk of your next party!!!

 “I’m growing Nasturtium “Spitfire” for the GROW project. Thanks, to Renee’s Garden for the seeds.”