Yes, the beautiful paper whites which adorn our home has finished it non stoping blooming. When they wither and fade we know it is time to dismantle this lovely project. However, this year I had so much help in taking this apart. Oldest was very helpful to take them to the compost, and of course we chooses a warm day to complete this task.
When I was scrubbing the glass hurricane my daughter comes over to watch and I asked her if she would like to help me to scrum the stones so we can let them dry and put them away. She was happy to be around and definitely to play with the rocks.
These wonderful rocks bring back so many memories, because we have collected them from our trips to beaches and and other fun places. Surprisingly I have few from when my oldest collected them when he was wee little. Yes, and the best part is I could remember them. There is something with rocks that gravitate the smoothness, the color, the locations we collect, the experience that is entangled with bring so much.
To my wonderment while scrubbing each one Nicolette was so happy to categorize them according to the size and color, this kid is so much into organizing and I love watching her.
When everything was scrubbed and cleaned I had to snap few pictures so I can remember this moment.
I love capturing our backyard at this time of the year. Although many plants are aout 2 -3 years old in our yard still hold the blooms from the summer. Still working on few chores outside other than the usual chiken coop cleaning. We were glad to get our winter bulbs in this year before it was too late. I am looking forward to see my bulb garden this year.
We might also have a lot of compost to prep the beds before spring that is always a fun project to do. Empty bird nest reminds me of the spring. Many birds from finches to robins scurry our backyards to find a safe place to lay their eggs.
I skipped planting garlic last year for no apparent reason. I knew I was disappointed that the first year when I planted them I did not get any garlic scapes. This is the reason number one I did not plant them last year. Garlic scapes are simply beautiful and elegant. I would arrange them as flower arrangement because for me they are so much full of character. I use to buy them from the farmers market when I was a resident in the state of VA.
So this year, I decided to go to town with panting garlic. I bought few bulbs from the store and ordered few from an online seed company. They came from west coast so I do have my doubts on them. We will see how well they are going to do in this east coast climate.
I am planting five varieties this year including a hard neck which is bound to give to garlic scapes. The varieties include Elephant Garlic, Regular soft neck garlic, Harry’s Italian Late, Rosewoods, Broad Leaf Czech soft neck. I will be panting them soon. We have dedicated a raise bed only for garlic this year. I am very keen on Elephant Garlic, I don't know for what I might use it yet. The store kind wont produce any scapes for sure I know this from practice, but I am eager to see what will happen to the elephant garlic will it produce any scape, or not? The other kinds are from a certified organic farm which gives some informations about its characters. Have to wail till mid June to find the results. I might not have to buy garlic from the grocery store who knows…
Above is a picture of our garden before we decided to pull all our green tomatoes. Yes, with some help before everything freezers we thought it was a good idea to pull our tomato plants and add them to the compost. The result, I ended up with so many green tomatoes. Again I have not make fried green tomatoes. Because I have been making salsas and chutneys.
First I made a batch of green tomato chutney then salsa and then chutney again. That is exactly how I finished all our green tomatoes. One reason not to have fried green tomatoes. I have not yet, open any of my chutneys. Mainly I think it needs some curing time to get all the flavors to blend in.
That being said we had our first snow showers this past weekend, and our chicken did layed eggs on that day. I think we have two ladies on the clock laying eggs for us. Yeah!!! For the Rhode Island Reds they are the best layers.
Back to green tomatoes, This years salsa has some extra heat from habanero chillies and jalapeños. I have been using the left overs to add heat to curries and sambols we make constantly to keep us warm.
