Holy Hydrangea

My tomatoes may not care for the crazy weather we've been having, but the hydrangea bush at the front of the house seems to love it.

I usually get a good crop, but the bush is bigger than ever this year. The heat tends to wilt the flowers, but since we haven't had much in the way of heat that hasn't been a problem yet. And it's large enough that I can see it through the window in my office.

I snipped a couple of blooms and brought them into the house. This one is brightening up my desk:

Planter Plans

In case you're interested in how I built the raised planter seen here, it was super easy. (And I can't actually take credit for building it—the husband did most of the dirty work, but I did hold the drill and the pieces of wood.)

We started with a trip to Lowe's, where we bought two 8-foot 2-by-10 redwood boards (a good choice since redwood isn't treated with chemicals) and 10-inch brass deck screws. We had the friendly guys at Lowe's cut the boards in half (free!) and we were set.

After we got home, we started putting it all together. It wasn't difficult, but as with everything home-related we do, there were some minor missteps and a bit of cursing. We basically butted the edges up against each other (no fancy mitering here!), drilled pilot holes for the screws and screwed everything together. As I said, super easy.

Here's how it looked last year (sorry there are no in-progress pics—it was done pre-blog):

We lined it with biodegradable weed barrier, filled it with five or so large bags of organic potting soil, planted some herbs and vegetables (some plants, some seeds), then covered the whole thing with more weed barrier, with holes cut out for the plants.

The herbs lasted over the winter ('cept the basil), and the box itself held up great. This spring it was just a matter of replanting and recovering with weed barrier (to keep the cat out—no, Giles, this isn't a giant litter box!).

I'd like to build another one, but that just might have to wait for next year.

Veggie Patch

Hello! I know it's been some time since I last posted anything, but I've been busy and, honestly, feeling a little silly about starting a blog. I finally got up the courage to show it to someone other than my hubby, and she had such nice things to say that I was inspired to start up again. Whether I'm brave enough to show it to anyone else is another matter...

So, to the matter at hand: Last year we built a small raised garden bed for vegetables. I successfully grew some cherry tomatoes and a few herbs, and not-so-successfully planted green beans and green onions. (I did get some green beans, but not enough to make it worth the effort.)

So this year I decided to try zucchini and yellow squash, along with the tomatoes and herbs.

The tomatoes aren't doing so well, probably because of the unseasonably cool weather we're experiencing. (Is it really almost June? I can't tell by the thermometer!) Just one puny fruit so far.

But the squash seems to be thriving. Perhaps it should be bigger by now (I don't have anything to compare it to), but I went outside today and found a gorgeous blossom! (It was actually open when I first saw it, but by the time I got around to snapping a pic it had closed up.) I got very excited and did a little zucchini dance. No, I won't demonstrate that for you. You can thank me later.

I'm hoping to have enough zucchini that I can eat some of the blossoms. I've never prepared them before (never eaten them either), but I understand they're delicious. Just need to find a recipe—something with cheese. Everything is good with cheese!

When Life Hands You Lemons...

... make lemon bars and lemon curd—and even lemonade!

We have citrus trees in the backyard, one each of lemon, orange and grapefruit. Every year around this time we're overwhelmed with fruit, especially lemons (that tree is prolific!). And since it's just the two of us, we really only use a dozen or so lemons. Really, who wants lemonade in January? So we end up giving a lot away.

This year I've had an itch to bake, so I tried my hand at making lemon bars. I found a really easy recipe in my Bisquick cookbook (what would I do without Bisquick?). They came out really good. I've made two batches so far, and I worked out a few kinks so the second one was better than the first.

I also made lemon curd using this recipe. It was surprisingly simple to make and, although I think it's runnier than it's supposed to be, quite tasty. I had some this morning drizzled over cheese blintzes.

Usually the orange tree is the laggard of the bunch, producing only two or three oranges. But this year we got dozens! They make wonderful juice, and I'm even thinking of trying to make some citrusy muffins (thanks again, Bisquick).