Potatoes Sprouted

When the farmer came to visit us in November to help us with the garage, he gave us a big bag of potatoes. We had the bag in the basement, and yesterday when I went to get some to use for dinner, I saw that many of them had grown sprouts!  Yikes.

I Googled to see if it was safe to eat spuds that have sprouts growing on them.  Many of the websites said, "if the potato is firm, it has most of the nutrients intact and can be eaten after removing the sprouted part. However, if the potato is shrunken and wrinkled, it should not be eaten."  I went through and picked out the ones that couldn't be saved and chucked them into the compost.  The others, I made into hash browns.  I have another half of a 10 pound bag to go through, I guess we'll be eating a lot of potatoes this week!

Your Small Kitchen Garden Seeds Arrived

I received in the mail on Saturday my free seeds from Your Small Kitchen Garden blog.They were giving away free seeds that they collected from the garden.  The packets were so nice, with drawings of the vegetables on each packet.  I'm excited about growing the neck pumpkin, which has a crooked neck.  I've never eaten neck pumpkin before but if it's anything like butternut squash, we'll love it.   The packets also contained blue hubbard squash.  We had hubbard squash for the first time this fall, and the hubs really liked it.  I'll report on the progress of these veggies once they are sowed.

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Congrats PS22!

I'm so proud of Staten Island's PS22 5th grade chorus for performing at tonight's Oscars.  The video of their performance is not available yet, but you can see their story here.  It's so nice to see a local school get recognized.  Congrats to them!

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Uncovering History

In his spare time, my husband has been diligently working up in the attic.  We are pulling out the old wooden floor baseboards, in order to put insulation between the attic floor and the ceiling of the 2nd floor.  This house is 110 years old and has really poor insulation, so we're trying to fix that to save on heating bills.   Some of the old wooden boards have been converted into this potting bench and this tool bench.  Even though some of the boards were over 100 years old, many of the boards were in good shape so we made them into furniture and raised beds in the garden. Nothing goes to waste around here!  The hubs have found some really interesting things that have fallen in between the floor boards.  For example, he found a letter dated from 1926.  He's also found some old beer cans, perhaps former residents were drinking while working on the attic.  :)  Recently, however, he's found some really interesting items underneath the floor.  A silver fork, and what looks like a political button.

The button says Dewey Odbor, Linoleumville, S.I., NY.  Our area of Staten Island used to be called Linoleumville, because Linoleum was invented here.  (Maybe that's why there is so much ugly linoleum floors in our house)  I tried Googling "Dewey Odbor" but could not find any information.  I'll have to check the local library one day.  It'd be neat to find out more information about him.  It looks like from the photo that he is wearing a military uniform.

The other thing the hubs found was an old container of shoe polish.  I love the packaging design, this one was made in Buffalo, NY.  It's so neat!  I love that our house has so much hidden history!

Leaves Are Finally Sprouting!

Last month, I bought some Amaryllis bulbs on sale from White Flower Farm. I planted the bulbs about 3 weeks ago, and one of the bulbs finally started sprouting! I am so excited! I can't wait until it blooms, so that I can try to pollinate them to coax it to produce seeds.  I saw it done on one of Mr. Brown Thumb's blog.  It's so cool, it produces these neat seed pods.  I am looking forward to trying it, and hopefully it will produce enough seeds that I can share. :)

 

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My Love of Peonies

When we were at Home Depot buying orchids, I saw they were already selling bareroot peonies. I already have 3 peonies in the garden.  Last year for our anniversary, Grammie gave us 2 bareroot peonies from White Flower Farm, I can't wait to see these grow!  They have the best quality plants.   I LOVE peonies so, I had to look at the ones they were selling.  It's a sickness, I know!  This package has 4 bareroots for $9.98! I thought it was such a great deal. I bought a bareroot peony last year from Walmart, and it did really well in the garden. However, I think I paid $6 for 1 bareroot, and they were packaged from the same company. Isn't it interesting how different prices are for the same product at different stores?

I temporarily put these 4 bareroots in container pots because the ground is frozen right now and nothing can be planting outdoors.  When it warms up in the spring, I'll have to find a place to plant them in the garden. I'm wondering, has anyone ever grown peonies in container pots?

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An Avocado Experiment

I planted this avocado pit just for fun, I'm so amazed how well it's doing.  I just literally took the pit and put it in soil and starting watering it.  It's holding up pretty well in my "greenhouse" aka cold enclosed porch.  It stays around 38F in there.  I'm surprised how healthy the plant looks!  I hope it survives, however it's been my experience that avocado plants don't last very long.

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Best Biscuits Ever

Last month, I blogged about how we brought home the organic pork from the farm. Among the goodies was some amazing thick cut bacon.  I had a discussion with the farmer, (the hubs dad) and he gave me the idea to keep the bacon fat to cook with.  I don't normally do this, but the farmer pointed out that the pig ate an entirely organic diet and therefore it's fat contains good nutrients.  So everytime I cooked bacon from the farm pig, I saved the bacon fat in the fridge.  I decided to make drop biscuits with the bacon fat, I had this great recipe that called for shortening and I thought, I'll just substitute bacon fat instead of shortening.  To make it extra special, I added a cup of shredded parmesan cheese.  Oh hello goodness!

I'm lazy with rolling out biscuits, so I just did drop biscuits.  So much easier and creates a lot of yummy nooks and crannies.  The recipe says it makes 12 biscuits, but I decided to make the biscuits extra large.  So they are double-sized.

Don't they look fantastic?  You must eat these right out of the oven, which is the best!

I paired the biscuits with some of the farm bacon and some sunny side up eggs.  Delicious!  With the bacon fat, it was the best tasting biscuit I've ever eaten because it tasted like... bacon!  LOL.  It was crunchy on the outside and warm, soft and flaky in the inside.  Yum.

Here's the recipe:

Adapted from Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook
Drop Biscuits
2 cups all purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup bacon fat (bacon fat should be cool, or chilled in the fridge)
3/4 cup of milk
1 cup of shredded cheese of your choice

Turn on oven to 400 degrees.
Mix all the ingredients, drop dough onto greased baking sheet.  Bake for 12 minutes for small biscuits or 15 minutes for large double biscuits or until lightly brown.

Enjoy!

No Wonder Some People Call these Weeds

I grew spearmint in a big plant container last year. I brought the container indoors to the enclosed porch for the winter, and all the leaves turned brown so I pruned it all down.  When all the leaves turned brown, I thought it died, so I stopped watering it.  Then the other day, I saw that it was shooting up new leaves!  Oh wow!  This is a plant that just doesn't die.  It is definitely a "super" plant.  I'm pretty excited that new shoots are coming up.  It's no wonder some people call mint "weeds" and warn not to plant it in the ground!!  They don't die, and just keep coming back just like weeds.  However for me, I love mint, so it's not a weed to me.  I just love, love, love how crazy the plant is!

My New BFF

My new best friend right now is my trusty friend honey bear and my cup of chamomile tea. Ugh #sore_throat

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Comfort Food

I'm extremely under the weather.  Sore throat, stuffy head, headache, runny nose, coughing, the whole nine yards, I am SICK....  When I feel this crappy, the only thing that makes me feel better is a cup of hot tea and comfort food.  Comfort food growing up was ramen noodles soup with boiled eggs, veggies and some kind of protein.  Thank goodness we live near an Asian Market.  This afternoon, I bought ingredients from the market to make soup.  I picked up some packaged udon noodles instead of ramen, shitake mushrooms and roasted peking duck.  I cooked the udon noodles in chicken broth, added the shitake mushrooms, then put on top a boiled egg and the roasted peking duck.  This didn't cure my cold, but made me feel so much better!

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The Germination has Begun!

I sowed some heirloom buttercrunch lettuce seeds last week and yesterday, they finally sprouted! These are the first.veggies of 2011. I'm excited!

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A Gift from the Farmer

My husband's dad, the Farmer, sent us a package in the mail earlier this week.  I squealed when I saw it!  I've been totally drooling over seedling heating mats, but have not wanted to actually buy one since they can be a bit pricey.  This one can fit 4 large flats on it.  It also works great, within a few days, I noticed the celery started to germinate.  Woot Woot!

The first day that we plugged it in, the following morning I found this little guy hanging out on top of the heat mat.  Smart kitty!  I bet his belly is nice and toasty.

Valentine's Day Gift

Since I worked at a floral shop during Valentine's day, I normally tell the hubs not to get me any "flowers" for Valentine's day.  In fact, no gifts are really necessary, but knowing my husband, he always gets something.  I came home exhausted, and he surprised me with this!

Hooray!!  A shepherd's hook!  I've been wanting one to hang my bird feeders on!  Here's a closer look. You can't tell in the photo but the suet on the right is almost completely eaten.  I found it on the ground the other day, I think the squirrels got at it.  Dang squirrels! The bird feeder on the left is the one the hubs got me 2 years ago, but I never used because our landlord at the time forbade us to put out birdseed since the birds were pooping all over the deck... Ooops.  This bird feeder is pretty neat.  It's called Squirrel Be Gone. How it works is that if a squirrel jumps on the feeder to get at the seed, the weight of the squirrel is too heavy and closes the door or opening and so the squirrel cannot get to the seed.  Hahahaha! Check it out on my Amazon Store.  Perky Pet 336 Squirrel-Be-Gone Feeder

Two Orchids for the Price of One

I've been wanting an orchid plant for over a year.  However, I haven't purchased one until now.  You see, I'm a little cheap frugal, and couldn't justify spending $18 for a houseplant.  Especially one that is notoriously hard to take care of, I have such a brown thumb when it comes to house plants.  My love of orchid plants stems from my Gooma, she always has lots of blooming orchid plants in her living room. Some time ago, I signed up for the free Home Depot Garden Club.  For signing up, you get e-newsletters from Home Depot with gardening tips and advice.  Everything from landscaping, to lawn care, outdoor living, and growing food.  There are also a whole library of instructional videos, we watched the one about building a fence when we installed ours.  Also, with the e-newsletter, you get coupons!  And this past week, in my email, I got a Buy One houseplant, Get One Free coupon!  Awe-some!  So I immediately knew I wanted to buy my coveted orchid plants. Off to Home Depot I went and picked up these two beauties.

Some people tell me that the plants you get at the big box stores aren't always so great.  However, I think this white phalaenopsis looks pretty healthy to me.  This photo does not do it justice.  The blooms are giant!

I also picked up a mini-phalaenopsis in purple.  So each plant retails at $17.99, but since I had a buy one get one coupon, I got both for the price of one.  Score!  An orchid plant for $9!! 

 

Now, I'm on the lookout for cool ceramic planters that I can re-pot them in.  I love bargain hunting!  If you are looking for a bargain, sign-up now!  Home Depot Garden Club

Disclaimer: This review is not sponsored by Home Depot.  It's my own true opinions!

Dirt Talk

Yesterday, the hubs and I went to a talk about Dirt and Soil sponsored by Prospect Farm and Sustainable Flatbush. They are hosting Monthly Talks on Urban Farming and Gardening, and this was the first talk of the series, held at Sycamore Bar & Flowershop.  The hubs and I thought that was an excellent place for a talk, a bar that sells flowers!  What a cool concept.  You can buy a pint and a bouquet of flowers for $10!  Nice!!

We ordered our drinks and went downstairs to hear Chris Kreussling (AKA Flatbush Gardener) speak, he has a blog that I read, http://flatbushgardener.blogspot.com/ He talked about the makeup of dirt, and showed us some detailed diagrams about soil organisms.  He showed us samples of his soil from his garden, I was so envious, his soil was dark and rich.  He said he's been building up the soil for the last 5 years and it still wasn't where he wants it to be.  He talked about how soil has a mixture of sand, silt, and clay and a mixture of all is considered loam.

The other speaker was Jay Smith, an environmentalist and horticulturist.  He talked a lot about phytoremediation, which is using plants to remove pollutants from the environment.  He spoke about how some plants like sunflowers, ornamental cabbage and mustard greens can extract lead, arsenic and heavy metals out of the soil.  He recommended to get your garden soil tested and if your levels of toxins are higher than 500 parts per million to try to grow these plants to remove the toxic metals.  They are doing phytoremediation at Propect Farms, which in some areas of the soil had really high levels of lead.  He spoke about how there could be several factors that have caused the levels to be so high.  In an urban environment, you might have older buildings with lead paint getting into the soil, there is also run off of water from other areas of the city perhaps a construction site down the road etc., use of harmful pesticides or pest control, illegal dumping of chemicals or garbage, there are just so many factors.  Jay also spoke about the importance of building up your soil, he talked about composting and trench composting, which is digging a trench in your garden and adding organic material to compost into the dirt to attract organisms like worms, fungi and nematodes.  The hubs and I did trench composting in our garden in the fall.  We dug trenches and put lots of leaves in the trench and shoveled soil over it.  After the organic material composts, you rototill it so that the compost is mixed into the soil.

We were so surprised how many people showed up for a talk about... dirt!  The room was packed, and many people had to stand in the back.  It was dark in the room, so I couldn't get a good photo.  There were at least 40 people at the talk.  We thought it was pretty cool that there a good amount of urban gardeners out there to talk about soil.

After Chris and Jay spoke, there was a Q&A with the members of Propect Farm and Sustainable Flatbush.  It was a good discussion.  The hubs and I are excited to look for other discussions around the city, the hubs wants to go to one on beekeeping and we both want to find one on raising chickens.   Excited!

Smells Like Spring, Such a Tease!

When I was working at the floral shop, I was in love with the spring flowers they had, especially these blue hyacinths.  I bought 3 of them to bring home.  I love the scent of hyacinths, it's so floral and fresh, it totally makes me think of spring.  If only the internet had a scratch and sniff!  I planted 5 hyacinth bulbs in the garden, I can't wait until they sprout.

Speaking of gorgeous flowers, I bought these hot pink roses for my sister's birthday.  The rose scent was amazing!  Oooh, I can't wait until spring is really here!

Being Surrounded by Flowers

For the last 4 days, I've been working at the Flower Station to help my friends get ready for one of the biggest flower giving holidays of the year.  It's a lot of work, but it really is enjoyable to be surrounded by flowers.

They had in so many amazing flowers. Birds of Paradises, Anemones, Callas, Sumatra Lilies, everything was gorgeous.

I really loved the antique hydrangea.  They were giant.  The one on the right was bigger than my head!

There were also a lot of beautiful vase arrangements.  Who wouldn't love one of these?

Hope everyone had a great Valentine's Day!

Had to stop myself from buying it

After our visit to Barnes and Noble, I talked the hubs into going to Pier 1 Imports. Hahaha, poor guy, he didn't know what he got himself into. That place is like a candy store for me. I had to look at everything, "oh look at this!"  "Check this out, do we need this?"  He just rolled his eyes.  So many cute things. I saw this adorable salt and pepper shaker and had to stop myself from buying it. It was itty bitty tiny, so not much salt and pepper would fit in it. It is cute though isn't it?

Meet a Writer? LOL

Yesterday after our sushi lunch, the hubs said, "hey, do you want to go to Barnes and Noble and check out some new books?"  My answer was a big, "hell yeah".  So on our way home we stopped by the B&N near our house.  When we walked in, I saw this big sign that made me chuckle.  Looks like tomorrow there will be a "writer" speaking.

Can't see who the writer is in the above photo?  Here's a closeup.  If you don't know who "Jwoww" is, she is one of the cast members of the MTV show Jersey Shore.  Okay, I have a little confession... I'm a closeted reality show watcher.  LOL.  I don't tell people this normally, because I'm too embarrassed to let people know that I watch this nonsense.  Don't get me wrong, I love watching serious documentaries too, such as recently on my Netflix was Food Inc. and The Future of Food.  But every now and again, I like to watch silly shows because life shouldn't be all serious all the time.

I had to wonder though was who would buy this book?  I mean, really, did we need a book written by someone who became "famous" for taking her clothes off on national tv, drinking too much, getting into brawls with other people and cheating on all her boyfriends?  I love how the book cover says, "shore-tested secrets on landing a mint guy." If you watch the show, you would know how ridiculous that is.  Or even if you didn't watch the show, you'd still know how ridiculous it is.  With that said, I bet this book is somehow on some kind of Best Seller list, which is so silly.  I just wish Barnes and Noble in Staten Island could get us some writers to speak that I would actually want to see.  Come on B&N, how about you get Rosalind Creasy, Mel Bartholomew, Gayla Trail to speak?  (sigh)

Drumroll please!

I used Random.org to select the winner of the Urban Farmer Herb Kit Giveaway.  The lucky winner is #14, Jenna Z over at http://corgipants.blogspot.com/ Congrats!  If you didn't win this prize, I still have seeds of Foxglove and Hollyhock for the Save the Bees project.  Leave me a comment to let me know you want some seeds!

Today, I had a taxing day.   Literally!  The hubs and I met our accountant to do our taxes.  Taxes always gives me a headache, it drains the energy right out of me.  After our meeting, we were famished so we decided to get some sushi.  We went to Genki Sushi.  I don't know what it is, but sushi always puts me in a better mood.  When we sat down, our waitress came by with some hot towels to wipe our hands.  A nice touch, don't you think?

I ordered the Maki roll special.  Spicy tuna roll, eel avocado roll, and shrimp tempura roll.  This was sublime!  I could totally eat this everyday.  Yum.

This one is for Alison @ Bonney Lassie

After we finished a bottle of juice today, I knew exactly what I was going to do with the plastic jug.  Instead of tossing it into my recycling bin, I decided to sow some seeds... outdoors!!  It was 20F outside today, but that didn't stop me.  Alison @Bonney Lassie told me about winter sowing and so I had to try it for myself!  At first, I was a bit confused about the whole process, sow seeds outdoors, with snow and the frigid temperatures, really?  However, when I read the article she sent me, it all made sense.  The best part, it's so simple!  I looked at Wintersown.org's list to see which vegetable seeds were most suited for the cold weather.  I decided to go with broccoli seeds.

I followed the instructions on how to prep my container for winter sowing on The Home Garden's website.  Dave has a great explanation and demonstration, definitely check it out. 

This is definitely cool, I can't wait to see it sprouting!

Followup to this morning's pancakes

This morning, I wrote about how my husband surprised me with pancakes. I just went into my kitchen. Guess what's still on the stove? Check out the time on the oven clock.  That's P.M. At least he did not leave the burner on this time!  He's lucky he's cute and can get away with this.

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Is it My Birthday?

Remember this post, where I talked about how my husband doesn't cook?  Well, today he surprised me with making blueberry pancakes for breakfast!  I did a double take when I saw it and I looked at him and said, "Is it my birthday?"  (It's not, my birthday is in May)  LOL.  I'll have to add pancakes to the list of items he cooks really well.  These were delicious!  He's too cute.  He's a keeper.

PS, today is the last day to enter for a chance to win the Urban Farmer Herb kit giveaway.

WinterSown.org

I owe a big THANK YOU to Granny for pointing me to this great tomato seed source, WinterSown.org.  All summer long I followed her tomato growing adventures (here and here) on her blog Annie's Kitchen Garden and was so amazed by the different types of tomatoes she was growing.  Granny was growing a whopping 41 tomato plants!  So inspiring!  I had to ask her where she got seeds for all these different types of tomatoes, I'm a gardening newbie and only grew 3 tomato varieties last year.  She let me in our her secret, she told me about WinterSown Educational a non-profit organization, right in my area in East Meadow, Long Island, NY.  I never even heard about this organization and it's less  than an hour away!  How funny that a gardener in Washington State, 2700 miles from us, introduced me to something that is "in our neck of the woods", a mere 44 miles away.   How could I not know about such a cool gardener's resource that is literally our neighbors?  Another true testament of how wonderful this garden blogging community is.  Always ready to pass on the knowledge!  WinterSown's website educates gardeners about sowing hardy seedlings in the winter.  From their website, "Winter Sowing is done outdoors during Winter using mini-greenhouses made from recyclables; there are no heating devices, no energy wasting light set-ups or expensive seed starting devices."  Alison over at Bonney Lassie has been encouraging me to Winter Sow plants all winter.   Alison sent me an article on Wintersowing written by Trudi Davidoff, the President of WinterSown.org.  I think I'm going to take the plunge and try it with some hardy seeds I've recently obtained.  I'm going to use Dave's Method on The Home Garden.  He uses juice bottles as a mini-greenhouse.

WinterSown.org also is a seedbank of sorts, in that they accept donations of seeds (veggies, fruits, flowers, trees) and provides 6 free small-count seed packs of their choice to gardeners, or 12 seed packs for a small donation through their SASE program.  They also distributes the seeds in bulk to worthy organizations (school, youth group, senior center, garden club etc.)  I just love an organization that promotes gardening for pennies, and encourages you to do so with low costs such as recycled containers and free seeds.  It just re-emphasizes that anyone can start a garden, it doesn't have to be an expensive hobby.  If you have extra viable seeds you want to donate, you can see their donating instructions here.

They also have a SASE program for different types of tomatoes.  How the SASE program for tomatoes work is that you fill out their seed selection form and send them a Self Address Stamped Envelope with two stamps on the envelope.  They will send you 6 varieties of tomato seed packs free.  All packs are small count seed packs that contain a minimum of six seeds each pack.  Many of my packs had more than 6 seeds.  If you are like us and are tomato growing newbies, this is a great way to grow different kinds of tomato varieties and taste them without committing to spending a lot of money buying seed packets of something you might not like.  If you want to try more than 6 varieties, you can send them a monetary donation that starts at $5.  $5 donation for a gift of 10 Varieties (6 choices & 4 defaults). A $10 donation for  a gift of 20 Varieties  (12 choices & 8 defaults) and so on and so forth.  All donations are tax-deductible.  I really encourage you to donate to this non-profit.  What they are doing is wonderful and the money will keep them going.  Here's more info about WinterSown.org.

I sent them my $5.00 and requested these tomato varieties.  I was so giddy when I received my SASE from WinterSown in the mail today.

1. Black Mystery ~ Beautiful brick-tone fruits, nice for slice or salad, most weigh a half-pound, delicious, IND, 72+ DTM
2. Beefsteak ~ Classic heirloom, meaty fruits usually weigh over a pound, IND, 80 DTM
3. German Johnson ~ Virginia heirloom makes large deep pink beefsteaks, yum and pretty, IND, about 80 DTM 
4. Giant Belgium ~ Deep pink beefsteaks can weigh up to two pounds, meaty fruits have excellent flavor, 80+ DTM, IND 
5. Tiny Tim ~ Abundant, yum red cherries on dwarf plants, nice for containers and planters, DET, 58+ DTM 
6. Rutgers ~ Red fruits weigh about 6 ounces, well known reliable cropper, DET, 75 DTM 
7. Chocolate Cherry ~ Clusters of maroon-brown fruits, 1" each, delicious, IND, 70 DTM 
8. Manitoba ~ Favorite for short seasons, produces loads of good tasting red fruits, 4 - 6 ounces each, DET,  about 70 DTM 
9. Isis Candy ~ Warm yellow cherries are uniquely marbled with a red blush to full streaks, lovely and delicious, IND, 80 DTM 
10. Jaune Flamme ~ French heirloom has golden-orange fruits, about three ounces each, delicious and pretty, IND, 70+ DTM 

WinterSown was out of Beefsteak, so instead they send me the following alternates.

1. Hovarth ~ Red fruit, IND, 80+ DTM
2. Druzba ~ Bulgarian heirloom has pretty red globes, can weigh over a half-pound, great flavor, IND, 80+ DTM 
3. Palmira's Northern Italian ~ 75-85 days, IND, regular leaf, 6'+ plants, up to 2+ lb red fruit, good tomato taste, slightly more acid than sweet, few splits, very vigorous, productive, 40 lbs/plant.

Along with some bonus seed packs.

1. Romanian Sweet Pepper  ~ Pretty pepper, ripes from ivory, to orange and then red.
2. Dill

When I received the seeds, it also came with this Pamphlet with step-by-step instructions and images on how to save your own tomato seeds.  So very cool!  I'll be using this technique this summer with the tomatoes I grow, and then I can give back by donating the tomato seeds back to WinterSown.org.  If you're still looking for tomato seeds, I definitely recommend checking them out.

Feeding the Birds

It's funny, during the growing season I curse the birds.  We're not friends.  They eat my sowed seeds, steal my seedlings, poop everywhere and wreak havoc on the berries.  But this winter it has been especially harsh, with unprecedented amounts of snow in our area.  We had the snowiest January ever!  And so I feel bad for them, and almost compelled to feed them.  So I put out a suet for them to eat.  I have no tree branches low enough to hang this on, and I don't own any shepherd's hooks, so I hung it on our chain link fence.  It's been hanging there for a week.  I haven't seen any birds by it yet.  I think they haven't found it.  LOL.  Maybe I'll pick up a shepherd's hook soon so the birds can actually see there is food available to them.  You see birds, how nice I'm being to you? You better repay the favor come spring and leave my plants alone. ;)  And yes I know, there are some beneficial birds out there that eat bugs and the like, but mine seem to like eating my plants.  Those can find a new home.

Don't forget, Tomorrow is the last day for the Urban Farmer Herb Kit Seed Giveaway.  Don't forget to leave a comment here to be entered to win!  The herb kit contains organic seeds of Italian Basil, Italian Parsley, Chives, Oregano, Dill and Cilantro.  Good luck!

Project: Save the Bees (Giveaway)

Holly over at Tasty Travels, started this idea to save the bees.  Her idea is simple. Buy a packet of seeds of bee friendly flowers and offer the flower seeds to fellow gardeners to plant in their gardens to encourage the bees in their community.

It's a neat idea isn't it?  Kinda reminds me of that movie Field of Dreams.  "Grow it and they will come."   Our little part can help save the bees!

Here are the rules:

To Participate in PROJECT: Save the Bees:

If you'd like to participate in your own bee friendly flower giveaway, post an announcement on your blog about the project and what you are giving away and/or your rules. Commit to the following:

1) Purchase a seed packet of bee friendly flowers and figure out how many people you'd like to share with

2) Announce the project on your blog/website and offer the seeds to others (starting Sunday, Feb 6th)

3) Link your post back to this post on Tasty Travels

4) Mail your seeds to your people

5) Update your original post with a list of places you mailed your seeds

I decided to offer the following seeds Foxglove and Hollyhocks to anyone living in the United States.

Foxgloves because I saw it last spring at the Brooklyn Botanical Garden and I fell in love with how gorgeous and tall these flowers bloom.  (see photo below) They were easily 4 feet tall!  I also noticed a lot of bees attracted to the gorgeous blooms.  I don't have a photo of Hollyhocks but you can see what they look like here.  All you need to do is send me an email with your mailing information by using the form here.  There should be a lot of seeds, so I'll give these out until I run out.

I hope you'll participate!  Every little bit helps!