Little garden

My “garden” isn’t much of a garden, but 4 containers. Next year I’m going to try to do some more container planting. I’m thrilled that everything is doing great. I had a scare with my mint. I thought something was eating it, but I believe it was just all the heavy rain we had for 2 weekends straight that was making it look ratty. It’s looking a lot better now! This mint is a little flimsy compared to what I have had in the past. I cannot wait till it grows a little more and I will have my own mint.

Here is the mint plant now. It has really started to fill up the pot.

My herb pot has really taken off. The cilantro is doing the best! I would like a little most basil and rosemary, but given time I know they will take off as well.

The plant I’m most proud of is my cherry tomato plant. I honestly did not think it would do well at all given I don’t have much light, but it is getting big!

What makes me most happy is this….

I have about 10 tomatoes growing!!!! I’m praying that little critters do not snack on them once they start to turn. I cannot wait to taste them!! Next year I’m definitely doing more tomatoes. They are doing so well right now, better than I had ever dreamed.

My jalapeno plant is still growing, but slowly. I think I need to move it to a sunnier spot on the patio. I thought I had it in a pretty good spot, but I guess the trees have spouted more leaves.

My bottle tree is almost full. Now just to replace all the green bottles as we find other colors we like.

I LOVE this bottle tree! This is what I had imagine when I sent the request in to the maker of mine, but I didn’t have a great picture to illustrate it. I wouldn’t mind having one like this one as well.

Mint

What do you do with a pound of mint?

Before our trip to the beach I asked Brian to order us a pound of mint to take with us to make mojitos. When we were in Pickwick I would make up a batch or two and use jugs to take out on the water; for the beach I did the same. I honestly did not realize how much a pound of mint would be. Needless to say I have TONS left over. We are still enjoying a mojitos in the afternoon, but we don’t drink them quick enough to use up all the mint. If we had decided to go the the Derby party, we had planned to share the wealth of mint. The weather was just too yucky for us to venture out Saturday.

If you are in town this week and would like some mint, let me know and I’ll share the wealth.

So, I decided to experiment some.

Fresh Mint Chocolate Chip Cookies

3/4 C butter, soften
1/4 C shortening
1 C brown sugar, packed
1/2 C sugar
3/4 t baking soda
1/2 t salt
2 eggs
1 t vanilla (I always use almond)
2 1/2 C flour (all purpose)
2 C chocolate chips
1 C fresh mint, finely chopped

Preheat oven to 375. Beat butter and shortening with electric mixer until creamy. Add brown sugar, sugar, baking soda, and salt; mix well. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Add flour a little at a time until mixed. Stir in chocolate chips and mint in by hand. Drop onto a cookie sheet and bake for 8-9 minutes.

I was afraid the mint might be a little overpowering due to I was just guessing how much mint to use, but it wasn’t at all. Just gave them the right amount of hint of mint.

I really liked this cookie recipe (minus the mint). It was the best tasting and baking recipe for cookies I have tried in a while. I tend to have an issue with cookies flattening on me as they bake, but these did not. Not sure if it’s due to I’m using real butter and it’s not almost melted or what. (I used to only use margarine and always seemed to melt it too much.)

Oxford and Gardening

Saturday morning, Brian and I headed to Oxford for the day. We have been wanting to do this for awhile but just never found the time. We started out by having break at BBB. We got there around 9:15 so we couldn’t take advantage of the SnackBar being open to order a mimosas or blood Mary. I’m not a big fan of eggs unless they are in an omelet for breakfast, I was trying to decide between just ordering sides or getting the French toast. I’m a sucker for the traditional breakfast; sausage, grits, biscuits & gravy, and hash browns. One of these days I’m going to try their French toast. I have heard it’s delicious.

After breakfast we went in the Depot just to look around. I came across this little jewel. It’s perfect for us! We haven’t decide where to put it yet, but I love it.

Next we headed to the Square to do some window shopping and see where the day lead us. We weren’t hungry for lunch yet, but we didn’t want to pass up lunch in Oxford if we did get hungry. So we headed to Larry’s to see if we could grab a seat on the patio for a few drinks. I found my new spring love; Abita Strawberry. If you have not tried this yet, drop what you are doing and head to the store to see if you can find some. Tupelo is now sold out of it. :(

Sunday afternoon I decided I couldn’t wait any longer for my herb seeds to really spout. I headed to Lowes to see what I could find in department of herb plants. Here is the first herb garden.

Clockwise: rosemary, tarragon, oregano, cilantro, parsley, basil.

I decided to put mint in is own container since it tends to take over. Mojitos!

I also have a cherry tomato plant.

Which I forgot to take a picture of, but it’s doing really well.

And a couple of jalapenos. (Please do not look at all the little weeds growing on the patio. We need to pull them up.)

At times I wish I had a sunny spot in the backyard for a true garden. I love my shady yard, but it would be nice not to have to do container gardening. Although I have gotten pretty good at it over the years since I have been doing it.

I hope they do ok while we are gone for the week. I’m going to see if Alicia will water them if they look like they need them while she is feeding Sunni. I’m hoping it rains some while we are gone, my poor yard needs it. I’m still waiting to see which seeds took and are spouting up. I have another whiskey barrel that I will use for those that make it. I still have a lavender plant that needs a home, but I had to put it alone and nor do I want to put it in the whiskey barrel alone. Depending on which seeds do not grow I’m going to be hunting for a few more herbs that I wanted to grow this year.

Happy gardening!

Azaleas and one lonely iris

Ever get that feeling where you are always on the go and feel like you never accomplish anything? I have been feeling that lately. It seems like I need a week to just sit down and get organized again.

I wish I had awesome photos of my garden and flowers to share like Casey and Lisa. Y’all are making me jealous! :) The only thing I have blooming right now is azaleas and one lonely iris. I manage to grab a few pictures yesterday afternoon. I took a few in hopes you can see how shady my backyard gets during the summer. I noticed yesterday (around 5ish) that it was getting shadier each day.

My one lonely iris (which I still have to plant in the bed) that is blooming. The other one has buds on it, but has not bloomed out yet.

One of the HUGE white azaleas lining the yard. I was so excited when we bought the house to see lots of azaleas hoping they would be different colors, but EVERY one of them is white. I did plant 2 pink ones in the bed next to the patio (picture below) and I have 2 orange ones and 2 purple ones to plant as well. I will have color!

Another HUGE azalea.

A small one that I did not noticed last year but saw it in the back of the yard yesterday. I think I’m going to plant a few more back there (different colors :)) to add to it.

I know these look pitiful, but I also realize how big the azalea and forsythia bush will get. My dad dug up a small forsythia bush for me one weekend when we were there. This year they have been so pretty! I hope mine continues to grow (it’s doing well after being transplanted, i.e. new growth!). There is another pink azalea on the the other side of the azalea. Please pardon the bed, the trees have been shedding seeds and I haven’t had time to clean them out again.

This is the big bed behind the carport. It took me awhile to clean it out. I have lots of small antique climbing roses if anyone wants any. I bought a trellis to thread the vines through to help make it a little neater in there. I do believe I will need one more, on each side of the window since there are 2 main bushes.

I thought I had a picture of the bed before I cleaned it out, but I can’t find it. Imagine LOTS of leaves, weeds, ground cover, and pine straw.

After I cleaned it out. I still need to remove some plants, clean it up some more and decide what to put in there.

Not sure if you can tell by the pictures below how shady the yard is, but it really is. It’s like a little haven (really be if I could get grass to grow well and clean everything up to how I really want it) in the summer time.

The bottletree, still need a few more bottles.

I’ll leave you with a picture of one of our “strays”. This is Crispado. As I can get good shots of them I’ll post them of Bubbles, Mr. Bojangles (who is really a she), and Barbra.