Spring Fever Already??

Source: tumblr.com via Lauren on Pinterest

Maybe it's because I spent five days in sunny California, or maybe it's because Kansas has yet to have any sort of snow storm, but I already have spring fever.  (How was that for an extra long sentence??)
I can't help but think about landscaping ideas, and gardening ideas even though it's usually around 30 degrees F here.  Total wishful thinking.

Anyway, here's my gardening wish list:

Hard-scape 
(is that how you spell that??)
New lighting in the front yard
Fix the edging around the raised beds in the front yard
Rip out the remaining ground cover in the front yard


Plants
Herb garden with tarragon, basil, sage, rosemary, oregano, mint and whatever else I can find
Tomatoes (3 varieties)
Peppers
Greens of all sorts
Grape vines near the coop
 Gourds possibly
Sunflowers


I really want mostly herbs and greens.  We really don't have a large garden area and I'd love to change that, but we'll see what time and life permits.

Anyone else have spring fever yet?

Adventures in the Great Outdoors

We've been spending a ton of time outside lately.

First, we fixed the decaying, slanting timbers around the garden.

Next, Jeff and Joe built an awesome landing for our patio. It's so much safer now!

Today I spent some time planting veggies. I added four strawberry plants, two pepper plants, a ton of vidalia onions, basil, cucumber and three tomato plants. I hope to add more herbs maybe an additional pepper plant (we like our spice!) and possibly other veggies for some container gardening. Considering I've only spent around $32 dollars for all of these plants, they'll pay for themselves when they save me trips to the grocery store.

Have you started your garden yet?

Watching the Garden Grow

So I have a little garden that's not so small any longer. Last night I decided to use some veggies for our dinner! I wish I had taken a photo because it was pretty tasty. I used some of our tomatoes and a few of our serrano peppers to make a spicy pasta dish. Honestly, there is nothing like a home grown tomato.

I'm also growing some tomatillos. This plant has been incredibly invasive and I have a feeling I'll soon have more tomatillos than recipes for them. It's a really neat plant to look at though. I love the little lanterns.

Anyone want some veggies?

Spicy Tomato Pasta

2 Large tomatoes cut into large pieces

2-4 servings of Spaghetti

4 Serrano Peppers sliced thinly

2 garlic cloves minced

Olive Oil

Salt

Pepper

1 lb of Turkey Sausage

Sautee peppers in 1 tbl of olive oil for about 2 minutes. Add tomatoes and let cook until slightly soft. Crush tomatoes with the back of a spoon. Add garlic and salt and pepper to taste. In another pan cook sausage until it's almost browned. Add the tomato mixture and let stew together until meat is completely browned. Boil spaghetti according to package instructions. Mix together and add more salt and pepper if desired, also mix in a little more olive oil to taste.

I found that this wasn't quite as spicy as I wanted it. If that's the case for you, add some chili flake until it has just the right amount of heat! Enjoy