~What's Growing on in your garden~

There are moments in one's life where you take small breaks from the extra's you add in to your life.

I took a few months off from blogging to catch my bearings on how busy my life had become! 

I am glad to say I am back!!!

New beginnings deserve new blog headers. Change is good. Enjoy! 

I have lots growing in the greenhouse. In about a week most things will find sweet spots through out the backyard and front yard gardens.

Here is whats growing!

~Tomato's~

Black Krim

Hillbilly

Yellow Pear

Rutgers

Mama Mia

Pineapple

Black Plum

Mr.Stripey

Black Zebra

Cherokee Purple

Pink Brandywine

Prudens Purple

Green Zebra

Black Cherry

Orange Banana

~Peppers~

Jalapeno

Serrano

Gypsy

Thai

Hot Banana

Red Cherry Bomb

Scotch Bonnet

Bell Peppers

~Eggplant~

Long Purple

Rosa Bianca

~Basil~

Purple Opal

Thai

Sweet

Lemon

Cinnamon

~Beans~

Ramano Pole

Black Valentine Bush

Rattlesnake

Black Eyed Peas

~Corn~

Lucious

Jewel Sweet

Strawberry Corn (ornamental)

~Herbs~

Tarragon

Oregano

Dill

Chives

Savory

Borage

Rosemary

Sage

Pineapple Sage

Thyme

~Cucumbers~

Boston Pickling

Bush Cucumbers

Diva

~Onions~

Walla Walla

Torpedo

Sweet Onions

Italian Red

Scallions

~Squash~

Yellow Crookneck

Romanesco Zuchinni

Butternut

~Melons~

Jenny Lind

Moons & Stars

Delicate

Honeydew

Cantaloupe

This is what I can remember off the top of my head.

What are you growing this year?

What are you most excited to grow?

I'm so excited for fresh homegrown Tomato's. 

Happy Gardening Friends, I have missed you all!

Welcome to my garden!

I have not posted much about my garden. I thought I would share a few pictures of how things are growing!

The above picture is the welcome sign made on a piece of old barn wood. I used old springs to spell Welcome. A fun recycling project.

These are my Costalvo heirloom tomato's! My four plants are loaded. Cant wait to try them.

These Tomato's are Black Krim! My favorite! My plants are pretty loaded with these babies too. I make marinara and pizza sauce with these. Soon they will turn almost a burgundy color.

This here is what I call my Tomato jungle! I have 12 plants in here. Giant Smooth, Costalvo and German Green with a pepper plant in the right hand corner.

In this garden bed I have Green beans in the back growing on a trellis. Peppers on the sides and Cucumbers in the middle. My Cucumbers are just getting started.

These are the beans in the garden bed with the Peppers and Cucumbers. I made this trellis from the wire mesh of a bed frame.

Basil, yum! One of my favorite herbs. Lots of Basil throughout my garden.

This is my Squash area. Some Tomato's to the right and Tomitillo's on the left. The walking steps are made by my kids.

A better view of the Tomitillo's. My bean trellis's. I just planted Christmas Lima beans. Can't wait to see how the trellis works out. Also made from recycled bed frames.

My Strawberry bed. Not many Strawberry's yet! I did start these plants from seed. Mixed in I have Garlic and Chard. The Chard is starting to look old. I will probably pull it soon and toss it in the compost.

This is my experimental flower bed. I planted Love Lies Bleeding, Sunflowers, Sweet William and a bunch of other flowers. Just tossed in the seeds. Exciting to see what will pop up!

Last but not least, this was my edible/flower garden. Tomato's, Chard, Fennyl, Nasturtiums, Oriental Poppy's, and Zinnias should be popping out soon.

Well there it is, most of my garden. I will post pictures of my edible front yard soon!

Whats growing in your garden?

Happy Gardening!!!

~Friendship Garden~

Friendships mean so much to all of us! What does friendship mean to you? The best part of friendship for me is meeting and learning about someone for the first time and then nurturing that friendship. I love making new friends! Which leads me to my latest adventure.

Each new year, My children and I work on a project that helps to benifit others. Since most of my family participates in the gardening season, we though to do a project that involves gardening.

This year we are planning a Friendship Garden! Our Friendship Garden will connect us with seniors in our community. Our thought is this: We will grow a seperate garden in our yard named The Friendship Garden!

We will try to grow as much as we can and donate all the veggies from that garden to seniors in our area! Doesnt that sound Fabulous! We have 17 seniors on board so far to recieve 3 to 4 harvest of fresh veggies throught the summer growing season. Hopefully more if all goes well. The seniors we have chosen are on limited incomes and may not have the extra money to purchase nutritional veggies on their own.

As our Friendship Garden starts to take off and grow, I will post pictures and updates here on my blog. I will be updating you on the progress we are making and show you pictures of the food we will be giving to the seniors. As time goes on, my kids will be talking and meeting with the seniors. Also, we are going to feature the seniors we meet and introduce them to you. As we get to know them we will share our experiences with you. Hopefully we will change their lives by providing healthy foods and our friendship. As I know, they will change our lives by allowing us into theres .

Most of you know how expensive it is to start a garden. We are seeking a little help. Do you have extra seed you would like to donate to our Friendship Garden. We would greatly appreciate any help you can give!  Part of why we decided to name it a Friendship Garden, was all the support from my friends in real life, Twitter, Facebook and the Blogging world. Many of you that I talked to, thought this is a super idea and a great way to get kids involved in gardening and giving!

I have had a few Friends donate to my project so far:

My good friend Miss Nessa whom I met through Twitter & talk alot to on Facebook, Donated  a $25 gift card from  Johnny's Selected Seeds http://www.johnnyseeds.com/ Which I used to buy French Fingerling Potatos (which will be here in March) Fino Verde Basil and Black Cherry Tomato's.(The Potatos took a good bulk of that gift card!) She is Launching a wonderful new blog for gardeners and you can find her here: http://horticulturemadness.blogspot.com/ She has many other blogs too! But lets help her kick off her latest!

I also recieved seeds from another Twitter Pal @Cityslipper who recently was giving away seeds on his wonderful blog that you can find here: http://www.smallkitchengarden.net/

He donated, Blue Hubbard Squash & Neck Pumpkins!

Thanks Miss Nessa and @Cityslipper for your help in getting The Friendship Garden started!

My family and I have donated:

Yellow Pear Tomatos

Scallions

Black Beauty Egg Plant

Zucchini

Okra

The Sheltons, Friends of the family have donated the Harvest from there Plum tree in the late summer months!

If you are intrested in donating seeds, please send me an email to 4bratz2luv@gmail.com

I will then give you the information you need to send us your seeds!

If you have any thoughts or ideas that may help us out, let us know!

We hope you will join us on our journey!

 The Friendship Garden is going to be Awesome and great fun!

Im also looking for somone who is computer savy, to make me a small header that says Friendship Garden! That way I can post that header everytime I blog about the friendship garden. In advance, Thanks for your help in kicking of this project!

Happy Gardening!

Just call me the Blog Slacker!!!

Lately I have been so busy canning, freezing & dehydrating everything coming out of my garden. I havent had much time for blogging! So, until I can get my brain to function normally again, here are some of the things I have been up too! I promise I will have a few new posts this week!

Built a compost bin!

Built a new Chicken coop!

Canning everything in sight!

Making a Hosta Garden!

Harvesting Veggies and picking Plums!

More Veggie Harvesting for canning!

Harvesting Basil for Pesto!

And the kiddos went back to school! So theres been homework! What did you do this summer!

Happy Gardening!

A new Header for my Blog!

Last night I decided to create my own Header! I took a basket, some of my veggies and grabbed the scrabble letters and built away! Oh and yeah it took me about an hour to find the one I really liked! Tell me what you think, do you love it or hate it? Here are some other pics I took. I took a total of 22 in all before deciding! And yes, my Hubby thought I was nuts!

It just seemed to be missing something, so I ran to the Herb Garden and got a sprig of Rosemary. Which I thought added to the picture. The one with the Rosemary is the Header on my blog. After I was finally done and loaded it on to blogger, hubby says why didnt you take a picture of veggies and just photoshop the words! My response, My way is ARTSY!

A walk in the Garden

My Squash, Zuchini, Green Beans

Cayenne Peppers

An afternnon Harvest

Hungarian Hot Wax Peppers

Bell Peppers

Romas and Cherry Tomatos from the Garden

A day or two of Cannig

My Rooster Pepper

Okra, Taller then me, im 5'2

My first pumpkin, so far, more to come

My first Morning Glorys to bloom



Hope you enjoyed a little of what makes me so happy! I love to garden and take pictures of it. Take a little time to enjoy your Garden!

Chilli Garlic Chicken & Garden Veggie Stir Fry

Im always looking for something new to cook! Tonight I wanted SPICY! I got Spicy. I had some chicken legs, so i salt and peppered them and sprinkled flower on them. Cooked them up on my Cast Iron skillet (Love my cast iron). Once they were cooked I coated the chicken with the Chilli Garlic Sauce. Sauteed up my veggies. I used Yellow Squash, Zuchinni, Green Beans, 2 Cyan Peppers, Roasted Red Bell Pepper and some Scallions.

Boiled up some Angel Hair Pasta, then added the veggies. Ta Da! Dinner is served! It was a lil spicy! But

was Delicous! I love coming up with new recipes and ideas! Summer Veggies go a long way!

Gardening Weekend

It was fun times in the Garden this weekend! We had corn from the garden and it was so sweet! We got some fresh Pears straight from the tree from some friends! Now im trying to come up with ideas with all these pears I have! Tarts, chutney, Drying them and maybe canning some! So many options. I also got a jar of Raspberry freezer jam, so yummy! Its fun to swap and share.

Veggie Stir Fry!

My Garden has been phenominal! Tons of veggies, and more Zuchinni then my family can eat! Tonights dinner was a Pork and Veggie Stir Fry, Fried Rice and Homemade Spring Rolls! Its so Awesome incorperating fresh veggies into home cooked meals! It amazes me all the wonderful recipes that are out there for veggies! My Pork and Veggie Stir Fry Had sliced Pork, Yellow Squash, Zuchinni, Baby Bella Mushrooms, Carrot slivers, Bell Pepper & Scallions! The only thing not from the Garden were the mushrooms, pork and scallions! My fried Rice had Brocoli, chopped Carrots, Scallions, Mushroom stems and Fresh Shelled Peas, oh yeah and rice and some soy sauce! It was a great dinner and the Family loved it!

Harvesting My Veggies!

Ive been getting so much wonderful Yummy stuff from the Garden! I just wanted to share some of this pics of what I have Harvested! Enjoy! I know I am~