Garden Club Sale

Today I returned for my 2nd year to a nearby small town for their Garden Club’s sale. A room of perennials — first-come, etc!

I got there about 8:20 and I assume over half was already gone. Sadly, one had a whole table of her loot including ALL the bleeding hearts. Now my heart was bleeding!

Large meat tray with at least 15 baby iris.  The whole tray was $1.  They kindly told me to put water in the tray once I got home since it has been raining for 4 days and I couldn’t plant outside.  They really perked up with a drink of water.

 

For $13 total, I brought home:

2 mini ground covers for my hope-to-have fairy garden, $1
15 (at least) mini iris bulbs (above), $1
2 – 6″ pots full of small iris bulbs, $2 each
2 large pots of coral bells, $2 each
3 pots of grape hyacinths, 0.50 each
2 plants of lily of the valley, 0.50 each
2 small pots of columbine, 0.25 each

 

 

 

I visited with Mrs. E, who went to school with my MIL and is the mother to a friend at our church.  I chatted with a lady my age that helped load up my car.  I found a guild friend and we made plans for the end of the week pending the schedules for our men.  Cold, wet, drizzle, but friendly shopping!

It will be awhile until the ground is dry and my hole digger is done with his crops but I have all but the mini iris and ground covers outside, protected by bigger plants.  They got a HUGE gulp of rain yesterday and are eagerly awaiting warm & sunshine — like a few humans around here!!

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Here We Go… spring rush!

P was gone for work on Monday and then Tuesday was to check all the equipment for a good day to run on Wednesday.

He went back to a less expensive fertilizer because of the low market prices and applied that all day Weds, Thursday, and Friday.  Just a bit he is putting in other areas to empty the tank and it is already here for today.

He would like to spray his cover crops but the wind is supposed to get to be too much today so we’ll see.  Yesterday was 70′ bright blue skies!  The dog & I sat outside and I brushed her.  Too bad she’d prefer the shade and I want to sit in the sunshine!  She wins…. she is hard to move and has much more fur than me!

When I got a photo of the tractor back home, I found a sleepy dog on the porch.

Earlier while I was out brushing her, I also checked on the lilac bushes.  We trimmed them after blooms last year, as I learned online to produce more blooms this year, and it looks like it is working!  This area of bushes is packed with little buds of blooms growing!!

We tried winter garlic for the first time with planting in November 2015.  So far … all right.  One of 3 varieties is doing well.  Another has fair population, and the 3rd is all but absent!  Thankfully we marked our rows when we planted.

Friday night supper was homemade pizza.  Not totally healthy but better than take-out!

I make 3 small pizzas when I do this so we have one fresh and now I have 2 in the freezer for that night where all I can imagine doing is heating a frozen pizza!

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Easter 2016

I was thankful that one’s spring break was the traditional week before Easter this year so he was home about 10 days.  🙂   The other one just had Sunday off but got off work a bit earlier on Saturday than normal and was home by 6:45 p.m. so we had time to visit and sit before I turned into a pumpkin and headed to bed!

We all went to the early service at church so dinner would not need to be so late.  By the time we were home, P’s parents were home from their service and came over for dinner.

We had —
— home-grown ham (I never have served this for a holiday before as it is a regular free food for us.  But free was key and the kids don’t get it all the time anymore!)
— smashed potatoes (usual recipe, just unpeeled yellow yukon potoates and smashed not whipped in the mixer)
— gravy  (from homemade chicken broth)
— french style green beans
— Gma brought pickles, olives, and cheese cubes
— Cheesecake with toppings – the yummiest and lightest cheesecake I’ve ever made!  Gluten-free as well for one.  It disappeared and I have a new & 10″ springform pan on my wish list as my pan leaks in the water bath even with 2 layers of foil!  (And 9″ is really very small for this!)
Toppings:
*I made a cooked, dried fruit mix for a topping and apparently I’m the only one interested in such an idea.  Not that I’m supposed to eat dried fruit! (too much sugar)
* I had out a can of cherry pie filling for a topping and that vanished!
*Gingersnap cookie crumbs with vanilla & butter and toasted in a pan a bit for those that were missing crust to the cheesecake.

The grands enjoy it when the kids are home.  They get to have a meal here and have plenty of time to visit.

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