1st Bonus of my Future Garden

As I was getting the rest of the dirt for my new garden (how CITY is that? I s'pose if I had lots of land a compost pile or 2 then I could make my own - GO Cindy and 2 Percherons!)... anyway. I'm going to grow Nasturtiums since they are so fast and hardy I grew them successfully at 8500 ft in Colorado (only to have them eaten like jelly-beans by deer).

I mentioned this to a gardener at Sky Nursery and she passed this on to me... so I share. And this way, I can come look it up when I have the flowers.

Nasturtium Butter

(or how to look AMAZING at a buffet with just a Baguette, Salami & Butter)

1 stick unsalted butter - room temp or softened

5-8 Nasturtium flowers chiffonade

Parsley

Thyme

both chiffonade and chopped tiny

salt and lemon juice to taste

stir and whip all above together until well mixed

Roll into a cylinder in parchment paper or similar - refrigerate

Slice into thin rounds, spread on small slices of baguette, or simply place, and let them wilt in the heat.

The butter will look lovely, and yet be so tasty, it must be eaten. A thin slice of salami is a wonderful pair.

Start a Garden NOW!

At least, that is what I need to do if I am going to make the jump out of herbs in pots to some real food of my very own.

Step 1. Choose a Spot. In this case it is a nice chunk of land with ideal SW exposure. Since this was part of the housing packag

e we didn't appreciate before. I though I might as well claim it now that it matters.

Step 2. Stake it out and live with it for awhile. Check for walk around space. I had to move my stakes out from the wall a few times, and away from the deck. Changing my mind now was easy.

Step 3. Too late to turn back now. This is when changing my mind got hard. I have a hole in my yard.

Step 4. Now, like I mean it. Did you know that I have good soil only about 1.5 inches down?! I do now. A trunk full of reclaimed cinder blocks, and another of imported soil and organic material is part of changing that. First I dug down, added compost to the sand I found there (the good news is I won't have anything growing under my garden that I have to block out). Now that I have down taken care of, I am working on up.

Step 5. The bare bones. This took me 2 weekends, and only really a few hours on 3 days. I was surprised. It makes the hours of weed pulling seem especially frustrating. Look what I could have built with that time. To that end, weed cloth will soon be joining this dirt, so I can mostly grow what I want, and reduce the interlopers. Stay tuned for the adventures of seeds. My son picked out rainbow carrots.