With the Melting Snow Comes Surprises

The east side of my home has had the benefit of tons of sun the last two weeks, and of course is no longer covered with snow. I checked things out a day ago to see what kind of clean up I was going to need to do, as I left some of my coneflowers up during the winter so the birds could have some seeds. You can only imagine how surprised I was to find some tulips coming up already.

And of course I was shocked to see this Pansy, just a few feet away, with green leaves and a yellow flower still shining like it just bloomed. All of this had been under three feet of snow for the last four months!

Winter Rabbits

It appears that all the snow is making the poor little rabbits who savaged my garden last spring quite hungry. There is so much snow on the ground that the three foot high chicken wire fence around my beloved perennial bed is completely covered over. The rabbits have finally figured out they can walk right over the top of the bed and found the tops of my sedums barely sticking out of the three feet of snow.

This morning I woke up to find the rabbits had dug a foot down into the snow and eaten all the sedums up to that point. I feel bad for them, but hate to think that food like this will keep them around. There is also a growing number of rabbit droppings under my deck.

Don't get to comfy critters...war will be declared in the Spring if you don't leave my perennials alone!

Thinking About Spring

I just started receiving seed catalogs in the mail for next years plantings. Seeing as there is over a foot of snow on the ground right now, digging in the dirt is very far off. But "window" shopping is ok and makes me start thinking of what I will try next year. So far I think I will try a different tomato as last years Brandywines were HUGE. I will also plant beets as I have a fantastic pickled beets recipe. Also toying with the idea of planting wax beans...the kids love them and so do I. Both of these will be a new experience so it should prove to me an interesting summer.

What are you thinking of planting next year?

The Little Things in Our Gardens

It is easy to miss the little creatures that fill our gardens. I recently purchased a macro lens which gets me in closer to smaller things. I was out today in the garden and happened upon this spider resting in the sun on one of my coneflowers, and the ladybug below was sipping on my sedums.

My Favorite Way to Eat Fresh Tomatoes

My favorite way to eat tomatoes is to toast bread, smear them with some whipped cream cheese, top with tomato slices, and then sprinkle salt and pepper over it all. Yummm!

How to Ripen Green Tomatoes

A week ago my husband accidentally knocked some of my tomatoes off the vine as he was mowing the lawn. Needless to say I was not too happy with him, as two of them were huge...and all of them green. I wasn't sure if they were a loss or not, as this is my first time ever growing tomatoes.

So I did some research on line and many people talked about placing them in a south facing window. Well, these were pretty green and I felt the sun would do more harm than good. So I decided to try one suggestion and sit them next to ripened bananas.

There were four really green tomatoes when I started this experiment, so, I sat them next to my old bananas (to make banana bread with later), and waited. Well, a few days ago, I took this photo. One of the large tomatoes is amazingly turning to an orange color, with another one not too far behind it.

Four days later, the large orange one is now red, and the other large green one is now orange. The smaller two are still green but showing signs of fading. Wow, ripe bananas really work...you'll just have to put up with the gnats though!

Wild Cardinal Flower

I see this flower every summer along the Mississippi River, but have never been able to get close enough to photograph it and see what type of wildflower it is. So finally I stumbled on the other weekend and figured out it is a wild Cardinal Flower. The red stands out boldly in the backwaters of the Mississippi.