There's Always Room for Basil

It's a pond, it's a chair. It's another great place for basil.

This unique Basil Chair Planter quacks me up!

I like it.

Basil is never boring.

Welcome Friends

A garden is a welcome, all in itself - inviting, intriguing and interesting. Please come visit, stay a while - enjoy outdoor hugs, skip, jump, hide and seek, laze around, throw your arms up in the air, can you dig it? What can you discover, see, hear, feel, smell, taste, wonder? I wonder, wonder, wonder....

Welcome to my gardens.



Nothing beats a warm welcome like
BIENVENIDOS with a basket of HOT Chili Peppers - so says Dilly our cat!



A gardening welcome in Seattle.

Herbal Welcome in Round Top Texas Festival Hill's Herbal Forum.

Welcome entry steps in Rockport Master Gardener gardens.

Welcome to my backyard gardens.



Welcome to beautiful Historic Brownsville, Texas!

Thank you. You're welcome!
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Comments 1 - via Email
from long-time friend and gardener extraordinaire:
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These signs are the visual entrance to a multi-sensory journey into the garden...

#1) Gertrude JEKYLL (English garden writer) - "The main purpose of a garden is to give its owner the best and highest kind of earthly pleasure."

#2) Jim HOLLOMAN (American garden writer) - "People often turn to gardening to re-create a bit of paradise within an imperfect world."

These are two things I try to keep in mind when I am watering and weeding. ~Michael Bettler.

Thank you Michael
P.S. to Michael - I'm working to find out why the blog's comment section isn't working and try to make it easier to comment - Debbie

NOT FOR THE BIRDS

It's that time of year again - time to plant tomato plants - for family and my featherless friends. I am all for feeding the birds, only NOT my nice red ripe tomatoes!

Patio tomato plants - ready to go in pots or the garden.

I resorted to bird netting with my last tomato crop. I did learn picking tomatoes when they're pink rather than waiting till they were red helped save many from what I call "THE BIRDS" (from Alfred Hitchcock's famous movie) well, it's not that scary, I'll admit - more frustrating.

Are birds color blind? Well I'm no scientist but apparently they can see red as in tomato red, at least I think they are going by their sight when they fly in to peck the ripe tomatoes the minute before you go out to harvest.

Aluminum pie plates scare birds away for a short time.
Before you know it, they'll be admiring their reflection.

I had a couple caged tomato plants that had a tendency to grow their tomatoes in the inner part of the plant with green foliage covering the outside. This is ideal as the birds didn't seem to get to these when they were covered up by their leaves but went to the easier picking tomatoes.


Yummmmmy!

Planning Ahead
Vegetable Specialist Dr. Sam Cotner listed a couple of interesting tips to prevent birds pecking your tomatoes in "The Vegetable Book" you might want to try this year for an early Christmas present of red ripe tomatoes.

1)  Fruit Stockings - Cut panty hose in 15-20 inch lengths, tye off one end, slip them over a cluster of tomatoes and twist tye the other end. When ripe, just untye the closed end and take out your tomatoes. The panythose will stretch as the fruit does. The trick is doing this WAY before the tomatoes start turning red or it will be too late.

He didn't say but I expect it's best not to use sheer pantyhose but some opaque or solid color that would camouflage the red color.

2)  Christmas in the Fall - If you don't have any nice red Christmas tree ball ornaments - you can probably find some in the stores - after all it's almost Labor Day (he-he). Seven to 10 days before tomatoes start developing any color, hang some bright red Christmas tree ball ornamens in your tomatoe plants. The birds will get frustrated trying to peck these and give up so that when your tomatoes do turn red, the birds will remember the red balls didn't taste good.

Hmmm, my only concern on this one is if we have any visiting migrating birds coming through unexpectantly which brings us to the third tip.

3)  Think Pink - Dr. Cotner suggests picking your tomatoes when they are pink instead of when they are fully red. He explained that a tomato picked at this stage and ripened at room temperature will have the same taste and flavor as one ripened on the vine.

Well I'll agree it will have a lot better taste than the ones left red on the vine that "The Birds" might have got to first. This is one tip I did learn on my own.

Well worth it!

We had lots of good fresh home grown tomatoes though, even though we shared some with "The Birds" and I plan on having more again this year. Have to plan ahead but it's well worth the results.

Got a handy tip you want to share? Please let me know your experience.

Twelve Oaks Bed and Breakfast Bulverde, Texas

What a great place to relax and unwind. I've been wanting to check out my friend Sally Arroyo's B and B ever since she became an Inkeeper and heard all about her raising and naming her chickens, even subscribing to the "Chicken Keeping Secrets" newsletter since she started on her new adventure in Bulverde, Texas.

When my sister called to say let's get all the girls in the family and meet up for a weekend in San Antonio, I immediately contacted Sally to find out if she had any vacancies. Vacation to me was having some R n' R. R n' R to me was chilling and hanging out. I was concerned what my sisters would consider "vacation." Turns out we all were ready for some of the same R n' R.

We booked our first night at Twelve Oaks and got to enjoy the hospitality of Ana, Sally's sister. I should say "Chef" Ana. Chef Ana bakes wonderful wedding cakes for the wedding parties held at the Inn using their fresh gathered eggs. She fed us a wonderful breakfast that included their home made jellies. We got to look through her album of beautiful wedding cakes she has makes and photos of some of the grand to intimate weddings held at the Inn.


Chef Ana serving up our goodie breakfast with sister Michele!

Tasty Baked Pear and Raisins with a Secret Sauce, Crousant,
and Frittata with Asparagus and Avocado--yummmmy!

Time Flies
I had to ask Sally how long she's been in her enterprise. “Our first guest was October 3, 2009. This October we'll celebrate two (2) full years in the B and B business (http://www.hillcountrybb.com/). March 13th will be one year since the first wedding (http://www.hillcountryvenue.com/). Whew, it's been great and time has blasted by!!" I knew I had been wanting to check it out for some time but didn't realize how fast the time had flown by.

We had so much fun checking out the grounds that included a big garden in the back, complete with scarecrow, that was full of hot peppers and other veggies.

Fresh salsa makings - yumm!

We got to see deer grazing under the trees and all kinds of birds including ducks perched in the trees and in the tree trunks out front.

Early morning drinking our coffee outside, we were able to get up close to deer grazing.



Black Bellied Whistling Ducks



The Inn includes a wonderful gazebo, interesting wildlife,
outdoor amenities, flower beds full of rosemary and lavender.
I love all the wonderful rocks and these wagon wheels.

Tree hugging a centenarian!

Sally wrote "The General" is our oldest stately oak tree. "He" is supposed to be a centenarian—in fact closer to 140 years just based on the trunk diameter...... He is a Southern Live Oak. Also, we had a wedding right under "The General"--it was stunning.

Meet the "Girls"

Even though we weren't formally introduced, I knew the "girls" had names as Sally had told me all about them when she first started raising chickens. I asked her to give me a rundown of all their names and their breeds. I myself am just learning about chickens, so it's all new to me.

Henrietta turned out to be Henry. The "girls" are: Miss Hattie, Buttercup, Molly, Prissy, Honey Dew, Scarlet, Millie and Bluebonnet. The two Guinea's are Henny and Penny.  


This is Miss Hattie !! She is an Americauna and lays big delicious rich green eggs!!! Americauna's don't have much of a red comb on their head.  And, they have horizontal feathers projecting out, next to their ears.

Hattie and Bluebonnet are Americaunas; Buttercup and Honey Dew are Buff Opingtons; Prissy and Millie are Brahman's, Molly is an Australia; Scarlet is a New Hampshire Red; OH!! I forgot about Pepina--she is a Dominique (the little fat black and white checkered chicken).   


This is Henry--note the red 2nd-ary sex characteristics
on top of and around his face!!! And, he crows!!

Sally wrote "I have Texas Pioneers for eating squabs......now I have a pair of White Homer's (homing/racers) Bride and Groom release them at weddings after the ceremony and they fly back to the coop!!! They are great photo op's and everybody attending the wedding loves seeing them released."

Trees shade the chicken coop. The coop has alot of character
not to mention all the chicken characters inside.

Goldie and Loxie
Since we were there Sally sent me an update on their chicks - “I've bought two silkies (Goldie and Loxie) which are soft, fluffy and tame and also a blue "Show-Girl" named, Show-girl--she's also a silkie but has a long naked neck. There is also a new Polish Chicken--a real beauty: She's all black with a big black and white pom-pom on top of her head!! named Coco as in Coco Chanel--it fits her very well!! ;-) That's my flock......as of today!!!!” Sally - I personally want to go back and see Coco.

Taste Testers

These are just some of the interesting highlights we encountered at the Twelve Oaks Inn. I highly recommend it for a nice getaway vacation. It's real close to San Antonio but there are alot of neat shops, very close by, I wish we'd had time to explore. If you are looking for a place to get married, this place is fantastic. I don't think we could get away with wedding crashing here as Ana would put us to work in no time! Yep, I don't think you could put much over on Ana - we all volunteered to be wedding cake taste testers  - maybe on our next visit!

Peas Please and Mixed Herb Pesto

Some of the black eye peas\snaps fresh from the Farmers Market

Hmm . . . what to make with all the garden and fresh farmer market goodies? Checking recipes I found two I thought you might enjoy. Fresh black eye peas from the Farmers Market will work nicely in this tasty dish.

There were many recipes online about cooking and flavoring them. Since this recipe called for cooked fresh and I was going to add lots of goodies with this recipe, I put them in a saucepan, covered them in water, brought them to a boil then reduced them to a low heat. I covered them and let them simmer till peas were soft when pierced with a fork, 15 to 20 minutes than drained them.
  
OZARK CAVIER

• 4 cups cooked fresh, frozen, dried or canned black-eyed peas (Fresh the best)
• 1/2 cup chopped green onions 
• 1/2 cup diced purple onion 
• 1 large, dead ripe, home grown tomato
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 jalapeno, seeded and diced 
• 3/4 cup olive oil or hemp seed oil
• 1/4 cup Braggs® Organic Red Cider Vinegar
• 1 teaspoon fresh oregano
• 1 teaspoon fresh sweet basil
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground pepper

Combine ingredients and marinate for at least six hours in the refrigerator, stirring occasionally. Drain the peas and serve chilled. Recipe Developed by The Ozark Unit of the Herb Society of America.
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Notes and recipe from Master Gardener, Dorothy Ann Earley - Here is a recipe for mixed herb pesto. I particularly like this rendition of the time honored condiment because I can harvest a variety of herbs from my garden and it gives me an excuse to cut back my mint.

MIXED HERB PESTO

• 1 cup basil
• ½ cup oregano
• ½ cup mint
• ½ cup pine nuts
• ½ cup olive oil
• 2 cloves garlic, crushed
• 2 teaspoons lemon juice
• ½ cup parmesan cheese, finely grated
• 1 teaspoon salt

Place basil, oregano, mint, pine nuts, olive oil, garlic and lemon juice in a blender or food processor and run it on high until all ingredients are finely pureed. Remove from blender or food processor and add parmesan cheese and salt. Mix well. Serve with pasta.

I believe the real secret to great pesto, is not just fresh sweet basil, but a really fine parmesan cheese. Grate it yourself just before you need it. And it doesn’t hurt if you use the best olive oil you can find either.

PS to Grilled Lamb Sausages on Rosemary Skewers

Did I forget to mention that Buckeye Farms carries lamb sausage and other meats at the local Farmers Markets' in Brownsville, Harlingen and McAllen?

Grilling with Rosemary Skewers

Yummmmmmm.

Dinner - grilled lamb sausages on rosemary skewers w/fresh chopped mint in greek yogurt, stir fry veggies w/cashews.