Ishsy Squishy Gushy Worms!

Remember my compost corral....
Warm...living...lucious....wiggling compost!

All of the organic household scraps I have been faithfully saving and toting ...

all of the leaves and clippings I dutifully hauled across the yard...

every shovel full of chicken droppings I tossed into the compost corral have finally settled, decayed and been converted into nutritious compost teeming with earth worms for my garden. Truly gardening requires and teaches patience, but the joys experienced are well worth the wait. Yes, I even love the feel of squishy worms in my hand.

Recent Harvest and Oldham Bamboo

The best time for gardening in my zone is right now! I've been spending as much time as possible outside in the garden. Everything is so beautiful when it's not being stressed by heat. I'll have to ask Byron if I'm more beautiful lately ;-) Here is my recent harvest....
Curly mustard, Asian greens, arugula, pok choy several types of eggplant, several types of peppers, oregano, and green beans....yum yum. Recently I planted lettuce, beets, carrots (yellow, purple and orange), cabbage and Brussels sprouts.

Look how tall my Oldham bamboo is getting! It's supposed to grow to a height of 75 feet and have canes 5 inches in diameter. This cane is probably about 20 feet. Can't wait to see how tall it will get next year.

Here is a close up of the tall cane. As the plant matures it is supposed to take on a golden hue. This is a clumping variety and should make a clump about 15 feet in diameter. If you can grow bamboo it makes great stakes for the garden. I pick bamboo stakes almost every year from a wild clump growing near the levee. I'm hoping that I will eventually be able to harvest large canes from this clump to fashion garden features from it.

Here's a link on this variety of bamboo OLDHAM BAMBOO

Oh yes, My husband is planning to start my pergola soon! Maybe it'll be done by Christmas. Fingers crossed. Its going to have two bench swings and a fire pit that serves as a coffee table in spring. One more reason why I love Byron!

Pumpkin Patch

Ms. Sandy's pumpkin patch has so much to do.

You can pick out a perfect or not pumpkin to decorate no matter how old you are!
Then decorate it right there.
If you happen to get hungry from all the exertion there are barrels of satsumas to taste. Satsumas are sorta like oranges. Except they are sorta flattened, much easier to peel and break off into nice bite size wedges, but the whole thing will fit in your mouth if you have a big enough mouth!

O.K. what kinda decorations are in this little baggie?

Tera's chubby cheeked pumpkin.

Gluing takes lots of concentration.

Are those whiskers straight?

That is one cute little apple gourd devil.

Hmmm....I love those parents that allow their bunchkins to decide how the pumpkin should look!

Talia's pirate with glitter gold teeth.

Is that a pumpkin with legs? Yep!

Now for a hayride through the orchards and to the levee for a romp and a view of the river.

Forget the wagon! I'll race you back! I'm winning!

Whoops!

Oh well, that gives me more time to check out the orchards. Look at this huge grapefruit.

Here comes all the babies and old people in the wagon.

Babies like satsumas too!

Some of these pumpkins greatly resemble their designer!

Around The House And Gardens

A huge blossom from my Musquee De Provence pumpkin vine.
Finally, after languishing for months in the field garden, the pumpkins have taken off and are covered with beautiful squat green pumpkins. If all goes well we'll have more Musquee De Provence pumpkins than we can give away. Fingers Crossed! Musquee De Provence pumpkins are a French Heirloom vegetable.

There are still quite a few fall pears clinging to the tree. Thankfully there were no storms this year!!!

Green beans in the dew.

Another view of the green beans dripping with a heavy dew. The humidity has been so high this past week that just a few moments in the garden leaves me wringing wet and needing a shower. Happily we have had a recent two day reprieve with cooler temps and lower moisture.

The citrus is just about ready to harvest. My neighbor Sandy is picking Satsumas for her stand already!

These are purple hull peas grown from seed saved last year. I'm very pleased with the results.

One of it's beautiful large blossoms.....

.....and some baby peas forming! My husband thinks purple hull peas beat black eye peas hands down in the taste department.

Little winged creatures have been prolific in the garden lately. I love watching them.

This is a Gulf Fritillary Butterfly. Their host plant is Passion Flower vine or May Pops. Every year I have clouds of them emerge from the vines covering the back fence.

Eggplants are loving this weather and I picked 25 to 30 of them recently.

Zinnia buds.

Humming Bird Moth

A glimpse of the wasp nest I disturbed a few weeks ago and had 6 stings and an emergency room bill to show for it. It's dead now.

Inviting A Closer Look

This wonderful 1950's tablecloth came from an antique store in Lucket, Virginia. I can't resist the bright happy prints from that era. Evidently 50's housewives were every thing they were touted to be because this baby didn't have a blemish on it's heavy surface. Mine aren't so fortunate! I'll protect this one a little better.
It seemed the 50's borrowed forms from the Earth or the sky always glow with an unearthly color. Nope I've never seen daisies with aqua button centers except in some 80's wedding photos or poppies (I think) either for that matter. Maybe the atomic fascinations of the era influenced designers to veer in this direction. Regardless...I love the whimsy it evokes in me now.

It was a perfect backdrop to show off a centerpiece of pretty eggs in a nest of fabric scraps! The little aqua flower confetti embellishments invites you to look....

a little closer and notice all the different hues and textures of the eggs.

This front door urn that had been deprived of it's spring plantings became a perch for a small pot of succulents, a broken garden ornament and a dried sunflower head from the veggie garden. I like it so much I might forgo planting the fall flowers a little longer.

The potato vines, even though cut back severely, are making a vigorous comeback.

Using Veggies From The Garden

Never ever plant veggies your family will not eat. Gardening time is too precious to waste on things that you simply do not enjoy. Some things I'll never plant again are kolrabi, rutabagas, parsnips and radishes....and...that leaves time for all those other really great veggies that we just love!

I've been experimenting with different recipes that use the veggies from my garden. Sometimes that requires learning a whole new cuisine. This modified Asian beef stir fry contained pok choy, chives, cayenne peppers and green beans all freshly picked from the garden.
I'm always looking for new ingredients that I can grow. I bought the ginger root I used in this recipe, but there's some really healthy culinary ginger doing just fine in my garden right now. Next spring I should be able to harvest some

Other ingredients I bought were, ginger, beef, sesame seed, oyster sauce, garlic, soy sauce and sesame seed oil. I'm going to grow garlic this year and hopefully I won't need to buy that ingredient.

I cooked the beef and green beans first. Then I threw in the pok choy to just wilt it. Very yummy and worth the effort!

Now almost all of the vegetables, seasonings, and herbs I use for cooking I grow in my zone 9 garden. It's so easy and much more fun to go out and pick my own. Best of all it tastes worlds better than the well traveled grocery store fare.

Here is a list of herbs and seasonings I am currently growing:

Sage

Oregano

Thyme

Chives

Green Onions

Mint

Bay Leaf

Ginger

Cayenne Peppers

Bell Peppers

Rosemary

Stevia
Celery

purple jalapenos

Veggies I am currently picking:

Melons

green beans

eggplant

Mustard

Arugula

bell pepper

Cayenne pepper

purple jalapenos

Soon to be picking:

Wax beans

Purple Hull peas

pumpkins

Where Have I Been?

This past week I traveled to Maryland to redo the flowers at CLC East Church. I'm really happy with the results and am hoping to learn that Bro. Libby the Pastor, who was out of town, is as pleased as I was. The colors and style really updated the building. They are in the process of building a new facility that is going to be spectacular.

While up there, in the few moments between work, I got to visit with my Sister, Niece and Nephew. Unfortunately my brother in law was out of town. Monique took us to a few wonderful antique stores in Luckett, Virginia. I bought a vintage 50's table cloth in pristine condition. Love it can't wait to show you. We also picked the best apples I have ever tasted right off the tree in Butler's Orchards. If children could eat fruit and veggies straight from the vine, plant or tree, I do not think it would be difficult in the least to get them to consume their daily requirements!

Here's just a few pics of the flowers.

Contemplate

Every garden should have a quiet place to sit, listen to the birds, enjoy the breeze, watch the clouds gather....and contemplate.

How To Make A Fabric Flower

The Ladies group in my church are making 300 of these fabric pins to give away at our annual Ladies Conference in Natchez Mississippi. I thought maybe you'd like to learn how to make these adorable flowers to.

Isn't it ironic that I didn't realize I took a picture of the pin in front a a picture of Low Dog an Ogalala Souix Native American. The conference is in Natchez. Natchez is named after the Natchez native Americans who were totally massacred and annihilated by the French during colonial times. I'm fascinated by Native Americans and tend to collect pictures and books about them. Oh well...

Here is a pic of the finished flower and here's how to make it...
Cut out five circles about five to six inches in diameter. You can make them all the same color or vary up the colors and fabric. Iron the circles then fold in half. Iron again. Then fold in half again to make a quarter of a circle. Iron again. Thread a needle with a fairly long piece of heavy duty thread. Tie a knot at the end.

Holding the point gather the outer edge of the quarter circle petal and sew several gathers from one end to the other about 1/8 th an inch from the edge. Then pull the petal to the bottom of the thread by the knot. Do the same to the rest of the petals.

When all of the petals are on the thread. Cinch them as tight as possible then begin sewing through all the petals again to make a complete circle of petals. Next sew several stitches across the center to tighten it up.

Pass the needle through the center and sew several stitches across to tighten up the back. It's important to stay close to the center. This allows the button center to completely cover the stitches.

Here's what it looks like. Next sew the button center on to the front and a bar pin if you so desire to the back. Excuse my not so professional stitches!

Then pin onto a sweater, jacket, purse, curtains, pillows,....I have also made these for my little girls to wear in their hair. I plan to make a garland of them in aqua blue and green for Christmas decor this year. It's a perfect way to use up all those little scraps you may have left from projects. I think the unmatched ones are charming.

If you decide to make one I'd love for you to send me a pic. If I get enough maybe I can post them all with a link to your blog. kbrivero at bellsouth dot net.

Here is another tutorial on how to make this flower Pink Paper Peppermints.

O.K. FPC Ladies only 250 more to go!

On a side. Here is my inadvertent fruit fly trap. Fruit flies are epidemic here and I hate spraying poisons. I noticed they loved the peach peelings in my compost bucket. So I put a bunch in the bottom of a tall coffee can. Every so often I throw a dish towel over the can, go outside, and release all the trapped flies. Most are gone now! A few more times and I think I'll be rid them. I like to save these cans and their lids for when someone gets sick around the house. They can loose their cookies in it, then I just top it and toss it. It saves a lot of cleaning.

Color

A view of the garden from the pecan tree bench.

Color has fascinated me since the time at a young age I resisted the urge to squish all my big sister's acrylics from their tube prisons. Oh what a joy it would have been to watch all that luscious color squirm to freedom and smash and smear itself over every surface in the way. I had to content myself with perching as close as I could and watching my sister paint.
Colorful zinnias find their way to my garden every year. Either I plant them or they reseed. Fresh cut bundles of them allow me to enjoy their vibrant colors all the long summer long! Their color and other aspects of my garden provide the inspiration for most of my decor.

I love the way my house feels like an extension or just another part of my garden. I painted my coffee table myself several years ago and haven't tired of it yet. Nor do I ever expect to. Simply because it is inspired by those things I love.
Here's another view. As you can see, I am not afraid of, but embrace color. Love it!

This is my next project. My chair has little holes on the corners and is quite dingy. I've kept it covered with the green blanket draped across the back. So....I'm going to try my hand at something....(oh yeah, the painting behind the chair is by my sister Teri Borison, it's one of her senior thesis paintings, but still one of my favs. Glad I got it when I did. I can't afford her stuff anymore!)...I'm going to try...upholstry...yep upholstery. It doesn't look that difficult...we'll see!

I found this sturdy fabric in all the colors I love at the back of this wonderful fabric store called Fabrix. They sell a huge variety of home fabrics. It's just a delight to walk through the store and bask in all the textures and colors. It was only $5.00 a yard. Originally it was much more...I just don't remember exactly how much more, but a lot. So if everything works out I will have a "new" chair for under $30.00! Exciting....I'll let you know success or failure.