From the garden

My wonderful little boy has been so good--he falls asleep on his morning walk and gives me a good hour, hour and a half to get some work done in the garden. Today, I planted the cone flowers in between the lavender and purple roman candles. There are a few more around the back, but I love this angle because you can see the jumping frog we love from a craft store in Berea, KY. All of the flowers you see in this frame are from a local grower. I've found that I really save money in the long run because the flowers are hardier since they don't have to travel.

I wanted to show you this idea for a little pedestal planter. The pedestal is actually the base of a lantern that the former owners of this house installed. We considered resurrecting the broken lamp, but really didn't want to spent the money on the initial investment we didn't really like the aesthetics of in the first place. We also didn't want to use up the electricity when our street is well lit anyway. After checking with an electrician about safety, we decided to just leave the post and reinvent it into something else. First, I spray painted the base with green outdoor paint. Then, I added the planter and coconut liner. I usually try to plant something tall, like a spike plant, to add more depth and interest to this front garden.
Of course, you're lucky if you don't have an eyesore to try to get rid of! You can achieve the same results with the base of a birdbath, overturned planter, or just about anything else that is more narrow at the top--start looking around at garage sales and maybe even your own pile of discards (we all have them:)

Finally, ideas from the vegetable garden! In this case, the organic farm that offers CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) shares. I've had broccoli in my own garden and the onions are coming up, but nothing compared to the bounty I picked up last Thursday. Keep in mind that my husband is out of town, so it's up to me to make sure none of this gorgeous food goes to waste. Two fun items this week were garlic scape and kohlrabi.
You can make a great, inexpensive pesto with the scape (the tops of the garlic plant--I'll never use basil in pesto again).

Here's what I did:
Cut the bulbs off of a handful of scape
Chop them up and throw them into the food processor
Add 1/2- 1 cup of toasted walnuts (I threw in all that I had, which was a cup)
Pulse until pretty ground up
Add a cup of grated Parmesan or Romano cheese
Pour in about a cup of olive oil while pulsing until a good paste forms. I've frozen the pesto in baby food trays to enjoy spread on french bread with my tomatoes when they're in.

My husband and I discovered kohlrabi last year when we pick about a ton up in our CSA. We love it shredded and made into hash browns. So good. Also, since my recovery from breast cancer, I am trying not to eat potatoes because of the high glycemic index, but I can't deprive myself of the weekend morning eggs and hashbrowns. To make it easier to prep the kohlrabi for later use, I simply shredded it, oiled a large muffin tin, packed it into the tin and froze it. This way, we can pop out a portion to fry up without having to wrestle with a big frozen clump. If I'd had an onion on hand, I would have gone ahead and shredded it with the kohlrabi. Oh well, I'm sure there will be more before the season's up. I love that I'm eating such fresh food right now, and stocking up my freezer with organic, local food as well. In the long run, this really does save money. Happy gardening and eating!