I look forward to my vegetable garden all winter. This will be my fourth year of gardening. It was hard to wait until April 15! But now everything is in the ground and I’m excited to see what happens. Here’s several cubic feet of gardening information.

2011 is a year of change!

1. Overplanting (sort of). I don’t typically get this many plants, but after studying different garden plans, I decided to crowd them in. I’m taking the pioneer family approach and getting plenty because they probably won’t all make it. Also, I bought my plants over a period of several days, and didn’t pay the best attention to how much I was accumulating. I ended up with:

SIX tomato plants (grape, Roma, Better Boy, Jet Star, Mortgage Lifter, and Arkansas Traveler)
Three bell peppers
Pack of four jalapenos (salsa time!)
One eggplant
Two yellow squash
Two zucchini
Two cucumbers
Arugula (which I usually grow in a pot, but I wanted to see how it did with more space)

2. Arrangement. I usually plant cukes and zukes in the back and tomatoes in the middle, but this year I put the tomatoes in the back and created a more open-air area for the climbing plants. It’s good to move crops around. The trellis is more vulnerable to wind, but I think it’ll be okay. I wanted to protect the tomatoes (having lost several to summer storms in past years), and my dad pointed out that they’ll absorb the heat bouncing off the house. It also makes more sense to put the tallest plants in the back.

3. Weed prevention. I’m trying biodegradable weed-stop paper. The instructions said to cover the garden bed with the paper, stake it, and then cut a hole for each seedling as you plant it. I did, and it was very annoying. I couldn’t really see what I was doing, and the paper shifted constantly. In the past I’ve planted normally, then put a layer of wet newspaper around the plants and over all the blank spaces. If this stuff doesn’t make a noticeable difference, I’m going back to newspaper next year. In any case, once I get mulch, you won’t be able to see it.

4. Watering. For the past two years I’ve used a drip irrigation system (Drip Irrigation for Dummies – seriously), but it’s overwatered some plants and underwatered others. So I’m going back to a plain oscillating sprinkler. I have a Vigoro watering timer, which I HIGHLY recommend, but the plastic “neck” part broke over the winter. I’m hoping I can just replace that instead of the whole thing.

One planned change that didn’t happen is herbs. By May I’ve usually amassed a huge collection of potted herbs. This year I wanted to plant at least basil and oregano in the ground, but I ran out of room. I did put them in a large pot together, though. I’m liking the idea of grouping different things in pots. Let the plants commune!

I’ll talk about flowers another time. :)

1 Comment + Posted in: gardening

I got this recipe from an online friend, Serena, several years ago and somehow never got around to trying it. This weekend, my church’s choir performed Mendelssohn’s Elijah, and an e-mail was sent requesting desserts for the reception afterward. So I decided it was lemon cake time! This cake smells and tastes delicious, and would be perfect for a cookout or Easter potluck. I forgot to take a picture of the finished cake, so here’s a picture of the lemon being zested. :)

Triple Lemon Cake

Ingredients:
For the cake:
1 package yellow cake mix
1 3 oz package lemon gelatin
¾ cup vegetable or canola oil
4 eggs, beaten
½ cup water
¼ cup fresh lemon juice

For the glaze:
1 cup powdered sugar
3 Tbsp fresh lemon juice
1 Tbsp lemon zest

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 F. Grease and flour a 6-cup Bundt pan.

2. Beat the cake ingredients in or with an electric mixer until smooth, about 4 minutes.

3. Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake until tester inserted in center comes out clean, about 45 minutes. Cool cake in the pan 25 minutes, then invert onto a wire rack and cool completely. (This sounds potentially disastrous to me – I just put the whole pan on the cooling rack and invert it onto the serving plate later.)

4. Combine the glaze ingredients in a medium bowl until sugar dissolves. Pierce cake with a fork and spoon the glaze over.

For this cake, I inaugurated my new Microplane zester! I’ve wanted a plane zester ever since I saw Ina Garten using one, and Williams-Sonoma had a big sale over the weekend. This style is SO much easier and less hazardous to use than the knobbier kind. I’m looking forward to using it a lot this summer!

I was trying to go all Eowyn-with-a-zester here, but I don’t think I succeeded:

2 Comments + Posted in: baking

I’m starting a new feature here at the blog called My Favorite Movies, in which I will… well… talk about my favorite movies. :) I plan to post these on Fridays. Let’s start with a movie which never fails to make me smile:

That Thing You Do! was Tom Hanks’ directorial debut and was released in 1996. I loved it from the first time I saw it in the theater. It’s the fictional account of the evolution of a one-hit-wonder band, aptly named The Wonders, in the 60’s. The Wonders are pushed onto the road to fame by Guy Patterson, who works in his dad’s appliance shop by day and drums along to jazz records at night. When he substitutes for the band’s regular drummer at a talent show, he instinctively changes a ballad to a dance song, and a hit is born. Within a short time, the four guys are discovered by a famous record producer (Tom Hanks), go on tour along with the lead singer’s girlfriend Faye (Liv Tyler), and play on the equivalent of the Ed Sullivan Show… at which point everything falls apart.

I find the plot surprisingly believable, probably because the characters are so natural. Guy remains my all-time #1 movie crush, and Lenny (Steve Zahn) is hilarious in every scene. I also like the fact that the bass player is never given a name and is referred to only as The Bass Player.

Having musician friends who are trying to make it big has given me a new level of appreciation for this movie. I hope to participate in a re-enactment of this scene at some point:

Some of my favorite quotes:

“As in, I WONDER what happened to the Oh-needers?”

“Gentlemen. I forgot what you fellows looked like.”

While fact-checking at the IMBD page, I discovered for the first time that TTYD is rated PG! I don’t know of any other PG movie for adults that’s this entertaining. If you need something to watch this weekend, I highly recommend it. :)

2 Comments + Posted in: movies

♥ My Knock Out rose is blooming! :D Isn’t it beautiful? I love hot pink.

♥ I grew sprouts in a jar using these simple instructions – thanks, Jamie! I used a Mason jar that I already had, and bought a strainer jar lid and sprout seeds for a total of $6 at Whole Foods. One week later: sprouts! Seriously, you can almost watch them growing. I had some last night on a sandwich. Delicious and cheap.

♥ I think my gardenia might be dead or dying. Can someone diagnose it? Is there any hope?

5 Comments + Posted in: gardening, spring

Last weekend, after a lot of thought and research (and encouragement from my Mac-loving family), I bought a Macbook Pro! The standard Macbook would have been fine for my non-fancy use, but the advantages of the Pro seemed worth the extra money. I plan to have it for many years, and this allows me room to “grow” and has a more current processor. Plus, it’s sturdier and prettier. :) I’ve only used PCs in the modern computer era, so I’m still at the beginning of the learning curve. But I know I’ll love it eventually. I already appreciate the simplicity and “cleanliness.”

In other news, some friends and I conspired to “kidnap” Caroline last Friday for a surprise early-birthday celebration! I was nervous about pulling it off, but everything went smoothly, and she was totally surprised. :) We picnicked by the river in Harbor Town (it’s so pretty there – I want to go more often):

Then we went to wine and cheese night at Seize the Clay!

We painted mugs, goblets, and birthday plates, and I painted a sign for my house. More on that at a later date.

Finally, I know you want some solar-powered meerkats for your yard:

I was dumbfounded by this ad in Sunday’s paper. I mean… wow.

5 Comments + Posted in: friends, memphis