Herb Garden and Galettes

On this dreary, rainy Tuesday lets take it back to a sunnier day in the backyard with my herb gardens. I'm so enjoying the herb garden. I'm learning all I can about the herbs, how to grow them, dry them, store them and recipes that use fresh herbs. I'm learning that cilantro doesn't like a lot of water and I may need to plant it in it's own pot. I love rosemary and seems to be pretty easy to grow. Rosemary was actually the first herb I used from my garden in a pear, goat cheese and rosemary galette.

When I tell you that galette was some deliciousness! Hubby would disagree, but he didn't even taste it, so his opinion on this one doesn't count.  He couldn't get past the goat cheese. His loss and more for me! For the galette I used my favorite crust recipe found here. This was my first time baking with pears and won't be my last. I'm kind of loving the pears. I kept eating the slices as I put them in galette. I had to stop myself before I ate them all. Once I assembled the galette, I sprinkled with sugar in the raw, then baked. Once out the oven, I drizzled with honey. YUMMY!

Since Fonzy didn't like the pear galette I made one with strawberries (with 2 strawberries from my garden) and fresh basil from my herb garden. It wasn't as good as my pear one though. I have another crust in the refrigerator right now waiting for another galette. I'm thinking apple with salted caramel sauce. That might be on the agenda for dessert tonight. Need a little goodness to brighten this dreary day!

Herb Garden, Roses and Wildflowers! Oh My!

This past Saturday it finally warmed up and was a perfect day to work in the yard. I've been longing to get out to plant flowers and my herb garden, but the weather hadn't been cooperating. Until now.

I was up bright and early, coffee in hand and new garden boots on! I was too excited about my bright yellow boots with chickens on them! I've been wearing them every time I go out to work in the yard. They are my new favorite.

So on the agenda for the day was to plant an herb garden, wildflowers and 2 rose bushes. There's already 3 rose bushes when we moved here, but one of them is really struggling. I'm hoping to bring it back to life. I was most excited about my herb garden. I have them planted in window box planters I got off Amazon and hung on our back fence. I couldn't risk anything on the ground for fear of Titus peeing on it! I have rosemary, thyme, sage, basil, cilantro (which isn't doing so well) and chocolate mint. I have more, but drawing a blank at the moment. The smell of the fresh herbs was so heady!  I'm excited to watch them grow and cook with them. I've already used rosemary in a pear, goat cheese, homey and rosemary galette I'll be sharing here on the blog. It was delish! While buying my herbs to plant I saw a strawberry plant I couldn't pass it up. We already have berries ready to be picked. I never had an herb garden or strawberries, so I'll be learning along the way, but excited about it all.

Next are the wildflowers. I'm so hoping they actually grow. We have a tree line along our property that I'd like to brighten up with wildflowers. There's not a whole lot we can do with space, but if I can get beautiful, colorful flowers to grow amongst the tress I'd be too happy. Fonzy and I cleared a few areas that get some sun and I planted away. Let's hope we'll see flowers in the next few weeks. And of course I couldn't resist getting sunflowers! I have a couple packets I haven't planted yet, just need to find a nice sunny spot.

And last but not least, I have a grapevine. Yep, you read that right. A grapevine. While searching for a burn barrel to burn leaves and brush from our yard, we found a man less than 5 minutes from us who had barrels. We went to pick it up and ended up spending over 30 minutes talking to him about gardening and family. He had a greenhouse and gave me a little grape plant he had from his own vine. I repot into a bigger container and hope it grows. While reading up on growing grapevines it says it may take a couple years to bear fruit, so I'll just be growing the plant for now. The vine is in the clay pot, with yellow boots, so very small right now. But since I've gotten it, it has grown more leaves on it.

Saturday was definitely a good day, even though I got sunburned. Now to stalk the wildflower patch and watch my herbs grow.

So have you done any planting? Any ideas to help my cilantro? I'm thinking it needs it's own pot and less water, but not sure. I'm learning as I go along.

The Making of a Rainbow Sweater

Ta-Dah! My Rainbow Flax Sweater is done!

This was such a fun project and my first pullover sweater! I wasn't sure how it would turn out, but I'm pretty proud of myself and looking forward to knitting more sweaters, even another Flax. It was a great beginner sweater. Of course the weather is warming up, so other than taking these pictures I haven't had a chance to wear my sweater. I guess I'll save it for the Fall. Then it will be in heavy rotation.

Flax pattern here.