GBBD - June

Ah yes it's that time again when Carol over at May Dreams Gardens host this lovely event called Garden Bloggers Bloom Day.  A day where we all post about what is blooming in our gardens.  A day we get to see what is blooming in other gardens all around the world at all times of the year.  I would like to take you on a blooming tour of Irish Gardens now.....see what we have blooming today:

 The lilies have started to make their beauty and presence known in the front yard.  Pretty in pint these guys are big and bold.

 In the butterfly garden the first of 8 different Butterfly Bushes has begun to bloom as well.

 More lilies showing off.

 And add to that the day lilies have begun to open up.

 Still in the front yard but in the Rose garden we find but of course the Roses.

The morning sun shining on a newly opened rose makes for a lovely start to the day

 Right next to the Rose bush the 4 O'Clocks are still doing their blooming thing and showing off their yellow flowers.

On to the side of the house or also known as the driveway garden the Hosta's have decided to come out and play the blooming game too.

 A few mixed zinnia that still need to be planted have decided that even though they are becoming root bound and are craving some water they will bloom for me too.

 And into the heart of Irish Gardens we go.  Starting in this years bean and pea garden.

This Marigold decided to grow from a seed that some how was missed in the fall clean up....so the seed lasted the winter outside.....weird.

 Continuing our tour we head into the Greenhouse and see whats going on.
Anyone want to take a guess as to what this flower is of?  Many don't see it....it's lettuce.  Yup in case you didn't know if you leave the tops of lettuce alone long enough they will flower and produce seeds....

 Behind the lettuce is Echinacea showing off their pretty flowers now too.

 Here is another one that not many folks know about.. Marshmallow.  Pretty delicate flowers with purple pollen.

Leave the onions in the ground too long and this is what you get....I am wondering what happens now.

And finally we stay in the greenhouse for our last flower for bloom day....Dill


Hope you enjoyed the tour and come back again.  Leave a comment....let me know how many of my flowers you knew what they were before reading.  Be sure to stop by May Dreams Gardens and see what others have blooming this fine bloom day.

Quiche from the garden

So I wasn't going to post any recipes on here as my sister does that and I don't want to encroach on her thing but then I talked to my Mom and we realized that when it includes herbs from my garden that it should be ok as she is more about her veggies.  Then we thought well hey we don't share the same readers so it should be ok.  Well just in case she reads this or you all want to check out what she has cooking....cause she has a lot cooking here is her blog - My Side of Life, please don't feel bad if you follow her she has some good stuff.

Anyways on to this evenings dinner.

I picked these  lovely greens this evening then chopped them up.  Here is a list of what herbs I used:
Sage
Basil
Garlic Chives
Oregano
Green Onions
Strawberry Spinach Leaves

Not all of the cut herbs were added but I forgot to really measure so I will have to guess.  All the herbs and onions fit into a regular size dinner bowl....filled it about 3/4 full.  So lets see about 6 basil leaves, 3 stems of oregano leaves (each was about 6"), 5 strawberry spinach leaves, about 1/4 medium size onion, 3 sage leaves, and a handful of chopped chives.  For the rest of the filling it was 3 eggs, 1cup milk, pie crust, 1/4cup cheese.

 Cook the crust till lightly brown (about 10 min) at 450.  Cook the herbs and onion in a tsp of oil to keep it moist.  Beat onion herb mixture in with the eggs and milk and pour into crust and bake at 350 for  45-60 min or until toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.  This is how it looked when it was done and it tasted wonderful.

This was the other pie that I made with herb one for my kids as they don't always like the looks of green stuff in their food.  This one was made with cheese, eggs, milk, minced onion, and minced garlic. The cheese, eggs, and milk were the same amounts.  The garlic was about 1tbsp and onion 2tbsp.

So there it is.  Give it a try or add your own spin to it.  If you do try it let me know.  Oh and as I do a lot of by sight measuring please don't quote me on the amounts of everything.

Progress everywhere.

The Jiffy Greenhouse:

After just shy of 24 hours in the Green house these little gems have taken off. The growth is just amazing. Granted this is the time for them to be growing but hey.

Sweet Corn..

..Green Beans

Cauliflower..

..Broccoli

Green Pepper..

..Peas

The Outside Garden:

The Garden off the kitchen has also shown a lot of progress over night. I am sure that the rain storm last night helped. The Rhubarb is starting to get it's trademark color. And the Onions are popping up all over. The onions that were already showing are just getting taller....off to a good start.

Outside Garden

Because I didn't want to wait till the Greenhouse was up and cause some things I wanted to plant are better outside I started this smaller garden just off my kitchen porch.

This one has:

Rhubarb

Onions

Lettuce

Carrots

These plants are mostly direct sow. Meaning they don't have to be started in small pots but can be directly planted in their growing site. They do how ever still need proper spacing. Most are really too close to each other and will be thinned as the seedlings come up. The Lettuce and Carrots were planted using the burpee seed tape. It was really cool.

Interesting information about these plants. Upon researching or knowledge gained from experiance I have learned many different things about the plants I am going to grow. For one Rhubarb leaves are not safe to eat but the stalks are of course. Carrots though are technically a annual plant can become a biannual plant. Everything starts with a seed of some sort but when you harvest carrots you are pulling out the roots. Upon researching carrots I found that if you leave a few in the ground....as in don't harvest a few, that the following year they will actually flower and thus produce seeds. Depending on how my carrots come out this year I plan on trying this....saves me money buying more seeds.

Here is a few pictures of the onions as they are starting to come up:

And the Rhubarb:
Rhubarb comes as a root. I bought these as a 3 pack. They were all growing in a separate pot I had on my deck but when I transplanted them one lost it's leaves. I found out after I planted them in the pot that this is one of those plants that once planted other than harvesting you don't want to mess with them. All the packageing says that these are supposed to be annuals but I know from growing up that they infact usually do grow back each year...and tend to be bigger. Upon reading other sources I found that the first year harvest but don't consume. The second year harvest can be consumed but the biggest harvests are year 3 and beyond.