The Monastery

So, this post has nothing to do with my little patch of backyard dirt, but it does involve lovely gardens...

We took a little field trip last Friday to visit St. Anthony's Greek Orthodox Monastery in Florence AZ. This place is truly an oasis in the desert.

We had to wear long skirts and cover our heads with scarves. As we had just watched a stage production of Fiddler on the Roof last week, Rekha was inspired to sing Matchmaker Matchmaker repeatedly.

Beautiful woodwork and brickwork was everywhere.

Jean, our very Catholic friend who inspired this trip, was surprised to learn that both Rekha and I have been baptized in the Mar Thoma orthodox church, which meant that we could participate in the services offered at the monastery as well as partake of the luncheon in the presence of the monks...non-Orthodox folk have to wait in the Narthex and can only eat after the monks have left. What can I say, it's Tradition!



Rekha's Jacobite Ammachi in Malaysia would have been so proud to see this!

All in all, 'twas a lovely day trip to a lovely place....

Trees

We had four trees planted a few weeks ago, to join our blessed orange and lemon beauties that came with our home. My dear observant spousal unit was kept in the dark, to see if he would notice the 6-ft or so additions.

He did not.

In his defense, I will say that he's mostly in the backyard to pull out the trashcan, which he does after sundown usually...

Nevertheless, we are now proud parents of a plum tree with lovely white flowers, a pink-flowering peach, an Arizona Sweet orange and a Mexican lime ( for all those caipirinhas and Coronas).

Now all we have to do is wait patiently a few years for fruit to come forth...

Footnote: The source of the Swiss chard in my flower bed has been revealed to be none other than Farmer Bobby, who confessed to prank-planting them when he was putting in the veggie garden. Can't complain.

Harvest!

March 2010
We have been enjoying spinach, cilantro, parsley, collard greens, Swiss chard and strawberries for a few weeks now. A little disappointed in the strawberries, I must admit - I was expecting sugary sweet morsels, but they're just kinda okay. And one of the early ones had the weirdest looking pointy worms in it...ick!

However, with all the rains we've had (yes, it has rained in Arizona!) everything is blooming, and there are honey bees everywhere! I think they like the lavender the best.

If someone had told me last fall that I would fall in love with Swiss chard, I doubt I would have even known what it was. However, I am now a devotee of this luscious, obscenely vibrant leafy green that mysteriously started growing in my flower bed last fall.

I've put it in soups, replaced it with lettuce in sandwiches, and stir fried it naked. Yummy and good for you. Who knew!

March 14 2010
We had our first carrot today, sweet and strangely spicy. I think they're related to radishes, therefore just a few degrees separated from wasabi (and Kevin Bacon?). Might need to wait longer to pull the others out. Our 8-year old, now wants to have "wascally wabbits" (she's a recent Bugs Bunny fan) in our yard...

Apparently collards get bitter once they bolt, so I decided to harvest them all. Here's what we got from 3 plants, plus some lemons, parsley and a handful of strawberries:

That same 8-year old then proceeded to help with the tedious task of de-spining the collards for cooking. We found two caterpillars as we were cleaning the leaves, and we put them back on the remaining plants. There's enough to share...and who knows what those caterpillars may turn into.

Collards ready to be julienned and cooked. Thank goodness for our dear friend Jean who suggested adding a splash of sugar to cut the bitterness (worked like magic) and freezing some of them fresh in baggies (nothing like good cooking tips from the South) ...or I'd still be cooking collard greens, hours later.

Instead of finally posting SOMETHING on this blog.

Better late than never

So it has been 6 months since our garden was put in and this blog was a crazy idea for which I would have no time.....and I'm playing catch-up today.

October 2009
The Wijesuriya team pitched in to set up the garden after Farmer Bobby stirred up the soil with a monster tiller and brought in magic dirt and seeds.




A couple of weekends and the structure was ready!






Adios brown splotchy lawn, hello home grown veggies and herbs.






In three days the squash seeds sprouted...







They were an inch tall in a week...







February 2010
We now have a bed of strawberries, collard greens up the wazoo, and all sorts of things sprouting willy nilly in the veggie bed.

The chili pepper seeds did not make it - perhaps it was too cold in January. So I decided to plant some indoors first, along with green beans....I now understand why gardeners go the seed route....one little packet and we had about 20 seedlings in a week!!

I'm not patient enough to be a die-hard seeder, though.