Fun in the sun

In an unusually warm February winter day, my friends and I decided to go to Asara spa to get our tootsies pampered. Ah! well, it was more for the fun of going out with the girls rather than the pedi experience itself.

So, in an effort to prevent my manicured hands from being soiled from the gardening I've been doing for the past 3 days, I started my day very early. I intended to plant several of the plants I had purchased on my recent trip to Regans nursery - dianthus barbatus (Sweet william), eccremocarpus scaber (Chilean glory flower), pansies, and a whole bunch of seeds (beans, tomatoes, cucumber, zucchini, and ofcourse flowers, flowers and more flowers). While I was working on the logistics of planting them in planters, and creating pleasing combination, my friend arrived. She and quickly worked through rest of the work. Working on solitude most of the time, I never thought that having a helping hand, and chatting while gardening would be so much fun!

After 3 hours of hard work we planted trailing hydrangea and chilean glory to climb on our new pergola; pansies and ribbon plant on a beautiful planter, mixed with trailing licorice; rows and rows of seeds - beans, tomatoes, zucchini, cucumber, in the hopes of a summer harvest!

Gardening expeditions

Ever since darling hubby used his super powers to fix the veggie bed to save our veggies from gophers, my hands have been itching to try my luck one more at growing veggies.

I have not really grown anything much apart from rosemary, mint, basil and few of the common herbs. So, on one of my trips to Regans nursery, I bought a 6 pack broccoli and lettuce, and excitedly planted them in the newly laid veggie bed. After a couple of months of steady care, the first shoots of home grown broccoli crowns appeared. My daughter was thrilled at seeing these beauties erupt and evolve, and it was a great science experiment for her. Oh! the joys and pride of home grown veggies, so chock full of vitamins, rich color, and most importantly the deep sense of satisfaction.

While lettuce is super easy to care for, broccoli is prone to spider mites. I had to rice several rinses in warm salty water to get rid of these pests.

Menu of the day - Pasta with broccoli for kiddo's lunch, and stir fry with broccoli and carrots for hubby's lunch!