Beautiful pics as always, Silvia!

oh no silvia ... so not fair ... you're making me so hungry! ooh and beet greens and kale oh my. very beautiful salads. thanks for sharing. you most certainly have a green thumb and a culinary flair.

Thank you Writersblock!

Taking pictures and looking at the new blooms in my garden, makes me happy and I anticipate the future harvests.

My container fig is putting out some new leaves, it is early.

This plant is a gift from a gardening friend, it is blooming now.

Azaleas will soon be open
One of my indoor violets

Thank you Sharon, cooking with vegetables is my passion! I love the colors, taste and different textures, makes me want to play in the kitchen. Have a lot of cookbooks for ideas, but I always do my own thing using what is fresh from the garden.

Tomorrow, I will do kale and carrots, stay tuned...

Silvia

As usual your gardens prove you are a wizard and I'm so jealous. As for me, we've been eating a lot of salads using the romaine and some other kind of lettuce that has ruffly leaves, but the heat is getting to the romaine and it's about done, still have some more of the ruffly one left but not for long. I also have the chinese cabbage already bolting, so I'm now feeding it to the chicken. The kale, collards, swiss chard and beets are not thriving - still alive but not growing like usual.

Pattybee, I knew that I was forgetting something.:) I also plant sweet potatoes and pole beans in the warm season and in the cold season peas.

Hi Rita!

Thank you, you are so nice to me...and today more harvests and more blooms around my garden.

A clivia showed up

Carrots are specially tasty when fresh and the same day that I harvest, the same day that I prepare them, all the nutrition and flavor going in the dish.

Parisian style carrot salad using the green onions, parsley and Meyer lemons from the garden with a dressing made of Dijon mustard, olive oil, a little bit of local honey, salt and pepper.

Silvia

another beautiful creation silvia! if you don't already have a website you should ... you are very talented. :)

Thank you Sharon! You are been very kind to me. I don't have a website but is maybe something to think about it...

Another beautiful day to spend in the garden, one of my best buys this season are the onions, I use them daily now and later as they are getting some size.

Growing kale is very rewarding since I can use them in a number of dishes, never get tired of the kale salads, I have one for every taste.:)

Some onions and four different varieties of baby kale

Made a rich and tasty stew with onions, carrots, tomatoes,chickpeas, red lentils, spices and a big pot of kale.

What a difference a day makes! my Q W in full bloom now and it is going to get bigger...

Have a flowering dwarf bougie

A begonia

Silvia

yes you should seriously think about it. people would love it. there's lots of easy wysiwyg, what you see is what you get, website programs out there. you have a great eye for photos too. i bet you'd take to it like a duck to water. thanks for sharing more beautiful pictures. a word of advice ... make, and keep, lots of notes on your recipes so you'll have them when you start to create your site.

i love having green onions too .. i use them everyday when i have them growing. i should have started some way before now ... probably too late ... but i may try some if i see bulbs somewhere.

Thank you Sharon! I am humbled by your words and your great inspiration, I am going to reflect on the idea for the future....I do have a lot of experience gardening, cooking and most of all traveling which is my passion. I have been saving favorite recipes for fruits and vegetables especially what I grow in my garden. My main objective is health and of course taste.

Flowers make the garden happy, here is a hardy one and easy care.

I thought that my holiday cactus were done blooming but the red one is coming up againThis sun hosta I had it for many years, not flowering now but it is also easy care.Indoors a variegated indoor violet

Silvia

YES ... flowers make the garden happy. :) so true. okay maybe not a website, but you could do a blog with wordpress very easily. it's just as easy as loading your photos on the forum. don't be so modest ... you are very talented.

Muy bonita fotografica's !

Sharon, you are so positive! I like that quality in a person.

Around the garden this afternoon, look at the azaleas.

I got this succulent at the Leu Gardens sale and it was very small, it has a lot of blooms and I keep making small plants for friends.

I see a lot of spinach salads this week, it is getting too hot.

Hi Jofus!

You are the man with many talents! Today's lesson, you can say: Muy bonitas fotos or Muy bonita fotografia.:)

I went to the Oriental market to get seaweed for my salads and they had a fresh shipment of the best Oriental pears that I ever had and they were many kinds and inexpensive, I thought to myself that I had to get one tree, and here it is, a cocktail and has already little fruits!

My bananas are showing some improvement

And we are all going to be envious of your future mangos! lol

My little Rosigold, recovering from the frost.

Silvia

very nice haul from the oriental market! :) mmmm i love seaweed too. i've never gotten to taste an asian pear. i'll have to keep a look out for a tree to plant ... if they'll grow here. i'll have to read to see if they survive zone 9a. you are up to your armpits in food stuffs ... i'm so jealous! i am terrible at vegetable gardening ... i do edible landscaping, but everything got hit by the freeze so i won't have any leafy greens, from my katuk, moringa, or longevity spinach, for a while.

the azaleas are really sweet popping their pretty, little, faces out of the foliage. very nice hedge. wow i wish you were my neighbor ... we would have soooo much fun. :)

Silvia,...lo siento !! LOL

Sharon, the Asian pears are so tasty! the ones at the Oriental market were better than a fresh picked apple from a farm. they are so fresh, crunchy and sweet. You have more chances than me to get fruit, they are zones 4-9, some varieties you need 2 that is why I got the cocktail one and I already have fruits. A friend from a gardening club gave me the tip that they grow well here, you still on time if you decide to get one, this is where I got it.

https://www.isons.com/shop/fruit-trees/combo-asian-pear-tree/

i will have to try one. the fruit sounds delicious. maybe my lowes will get some in this season. the combo one sounds great, but not sure i want to get bare root. maybe if i can't find one locally. i could spend the $16 shipping on a bigger tree. we'll see what i can find. thanks for the link and info silvia.

Sylvia, I love seeing your garden and all the yummy dishes you make with everything you grow. You are my edible growing inspiration!

Do you still have your sausage tree? Has it ever bloomed yet?

~Sjn

Jofus, muy bien! practica hace perfecto.:)

Sharon, I hope that you find the A pear tree, you will love it! Next time that I go to the Oriental market I am getting few kinds and more than I got the last time. Have you tried the kelp noodles? I bought them and I have a recipe to try....

Thank you Sultry! You are so nice! I love sharing pictures of my garden and the food that I grow and cook with it and you are my inspiration too, you have some incredible plants and I know that you had the sausage tree but I don't. Is it blooming for you ?, how is the taste, I never ate one.

It was a nice and hot day at the park today, pink tabebuias are blooming everywhere, I like them.

Nice colors combinations.

Silvia

Nice Harvest.

Ok Sorry, for some reason I thought you were also growing a Kigelia (sausage tree) lol. They are't edible but make "interesting"long hanging flowers and fruit. I must have been thinking of someone else growing it. I have 3 from seeds I planted several years ago.

~Sjn

jhl

Thank you, today I picked more spinach otherwise it will bolt in the heat like my cilantro is doing. Lunch will be a wonderful spinach salad with local strawberries.

Sultry, I forgot that the sausage tree is ornamental, I guess I have food in my mind,lol. I saw one at the Fairchild gardens...

Do you like begonias? these ones are inexpensive and looked good yesterday when they are packed together and little shade.

Today just now, the sun is making a show through my air plants in the avocado tree. It is kind of telling me, is it hot enough for you? lol

Silvia

Your begonias are lovely! I also love the air plants. I cant wait for my Avocado to get big enough to grow stuff on lol. Its still a baby!

~Sjn

mmmm ... i was wondering what was for lunch. :)

Thank you Sultry. Out of all my fruit trees, the most rewarding, nutritious, productive, never fail a harvest and I can share with a lot of people is the avocado. I am waiting to see avocados in my daily menu. The one that I find the most delicious tasting is the persimmon, especially when I sun dry them like they do in Asia.

Sharon, I had a tale of 2 salads for lunch

The one on the left had an Italian dressing and the one for me had spinach fresh and crispy, local berries, almonds, goat cheese shavings with a mustard vinaigrette. Why they don't sell spinach this fresh at the market?

Budda's belly is coming alive again!

Silvia

This morning at the Asian market shopping for Asian pears, eggplants, Japanese sweet potatoes....

Different A pears, one of them is a Fuji apple

Look at this forest!

https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/guayacan-forest-ecuador

You definitely should start your own website! But, even more important, open a small restaurant for healthy lunches and salads. You could have a vegetarian restaurant using your own fresh produce.

I would stand in line to have one of your salads!

Jane

Thank you Jane! I am very happy to hear your uplifting comments, you are another soldier for good eating, the more of us the better!

I will study about the website and little more...for now is baby steps with me.:)

My priority when I make dishes to eat is to be healthy and at the same time kick my taste buds with fresh ingredient and flavors!

Today's menu is going to be a kale and beet salad, I will make a batch of Moroccan pickled beets and I am still thinking about a carrot recipe....

This morning kale is going to be picked

Watermelon radishes will go for dips with hummus

And the blooms have to make an appearance

Silvia

Today's picture, beautiful and tasty red beets!

lovely! :)

Website, heck. Silvia ought to have her own show.

Thank you Sharon!

Thank you Writersblock! You brighten up my day and make me feel like a million bucks!

I am obsessed with the color red today after harvesting such glorious red beets with a flavor to match. I roasted them and use a light marinade of equal parts avocado oil and sherry vinegar, salt, pepper and nigella seeds, also know as black cumin to give a crunchy and earthy flavor.

A red powderpuff bush flowering now

A bottlebrush tree by the window, always see hummingbirds there

Silvia

Silva, thank you for the link on the Asian pear. I just ordered one for my garden. I'm removing a under performing peach so that will go in it's place.

Glenn, I hope to get some Asian pears in the future, they have an awesome flavor that right now I don't have it in my garden.

I was very pleased with the delivery of the cocktail A pear, good price, well packaged and instructions. After planting it had a lot of flowers and now is getting leaves.

Good luck with your new tree!

Silvia

Thanks Silvia, I've been on the fence about putting 1 in. My youngest thinks they are strange apples and loves them. anytime she sees them at the store I have to get her 1. Little Rorie is 2 and is so cute eating them. That will be her tree I think she will eat them all. Just like her sister Rhona will eat all my mulberries.

she will be over the moon to have her own strange apple tree. :) when i was a kid mulberries were my favorite too. actually ... they're still one of my faves ... rorie has good taste.

i want to order one too ... or at least get an asian pear. can you tell me why you were on the fence about putting one in glenn? is there something we should know about asian pear trees? i don't know anything about them so any pointers would be helpful.

Sharon I was on the fence because I have 32 fruit trees on 1\4 acre and space is a problem

Nice problem to have. How wonderful to have so many fruit trees. good to know it's not the asian pear.

HI Silvia! As always, your garden is gorgeous! So inspirational :-)

Glenn, your little girls sound adorable! and at that age they are so cute and they say the funniest things for us adults. I still remember my own little girl many years ago, she had me running all over the place but from early on her meals were from the garden and she helped picking up her favorites. When I was a little girl, I thought the garden was a magical place where you can eat, smell and breathe nature at its best. I always looked for the elders in my family and learn from them, better than any book. As a child I asked for fruit better than any other sweet....

Sharon, I had different A pears from the Oriental store, they are very different depending on the country that they come from, they are not Publix material, I really don't care for those. It is always a good idea to try to sample the fruit before we buy the tree, otherwise we can end up with something we don't really like.

Thank you Elizabeth, it is always fun to work in the garden, make my meals out the season veggies and take the pictures....

March 10-11 is going to be another Leu Gardens sell and I hope to be there, I always find something interesting and get to walk the grounds....

Time for the baby pinks from the garden, I got this maple one time at the sale, it is getting some buds now.

Another violet indoors

Silvia

Asian pear tree arrived today

it came in full bloom. I've never had a tree arrive in bloom so cool. I already had a hole dug so it went right to the ground. Thanks so much Silva!

Glenn, congrats! your new tree looks so good. Let's hope for the best for our trees in the future, may they produce good Asian pears for us!.

After this morning at the Leu Gardens sale, we will be working tomorrow in the garden transplanting some new purchases.

It was a nice day, it was busy first thing in the morning for the people that are members and just before we were leaving everyone got in and it was very busy!

I got a nice dwarf bottlebrush bush for the front yard, succulents for my planter and some new and beautiful begonias for the pots...

Some pictures at the Leu, the legos displays were nice!

Silvia

Silvia, sounds like a great day, nice pics. 1 of these days I'm going to have to go over to leu gardens it's been a long while since I've been. Use to go all the time when I lived in Dr Phillips.

Glenn, you and your kids would enjoy a visit to the Leu gardens again, it is always fun and relaxing to stroll around nature...

Thank you Sharon, it is good to have a variety of fruit trees and like you said you had pears already, a nectarine and a pomegranate will provide some different flavors for you.

Yesterday between looking at the vendors plants and the garden plants, I noticed that even there that is so carefully arranged had damage from the freeze.

More photos at the Leu

Silvia

Silvia, I second and third everyones comments that you have your own website/blog. With your photos, your gardening know-how and your recipes, not to mention your pictures from all your travels, I think it would be pretty popular.

Do you ever give garden tours of your property? If yes, sign me up!

Hi vml68, thanks a lot! With all the friendly gardeners advice, yes! I am letting that idea of the blog/website simmering in my mind...

I use to do garden parties for many years and they were a lot of fun! and we got to meet a lot of gardening friends. But now I have three senior dogs and have to worry about them.

Today I made a really tasty crunchy grain salad with quinoa, millet, meyer lemons, different kales and the never ending onions, I think they are magical, the more that I use them, the more that I have in the raised bed.

Gardening and cooking with fresh ingredients is a labor of love for me, and I get to try different flavors every day.

Today was a work day too, planted the dwarf bottlebrush, one of my favorite for hummers. I already have a bottlebrush tree in a different spot of the yard.

The succulents and begonias will be next.
I was tempted to get more violets but I stopped, I already have too many and they are all flowering now.

Outside the party morning glory is starting to flower next to the peppers, cucumbers and kale.

Silvia

HI Silvia, I totally understand about the pups. I have 2 dogs that are also entering their senior years.

Did you build the boxes for your raised bed vegetable garden yourself?

Good morning everyone!

vml68, we as a dog lovers understand many things, they are our most faithful companions while they are on this earth.

And yes about the raised garden beds, they are easy to build but they don't last forever, about 10 years and they need some work.

Sometimes they have good deals on cedar pre made beds, we just got one on sale in Ace to replace another one that we had.

I have different beds and sizes, some are lower, some are longer, some are higher, the most important thing is that I can reach from any side to work around the veggies. I try to always rotate the crops also to avoid any problems.

If you have any other questions, I will be happy to answer them.

Silvia