Free To Be...You And Me

new additions - tomatoes

'Black Prince'

the label on this said that it has a short grow period and produces a good number of full-flavored fruit, while the aesthete in me likes that it produced a "black" fruit.

'Early Girl'

this is a reliable, short grow period, great flavored, multi-use tomato, good for sandwiches and for sauces.

'San Marzano'

a very reliable tomato best for sauces or for drying.

fingers crossed that we'll have product this year, cause the last 2 years have sucked for harvest.

new additions - ornamentals

Asiatic Lily 'Pearl Jennifer'

 The image on the card shows this as more chartreuse than yellow, and and image search shows everything between a pale yellow to chartreuse. We are holding our collective breathe until it blooms.

Centaurea cyanus 'Blue Diadem'

Also knows as cornflowers or 'bachelor buttons' but so are Craspedia (that we have in the front yard) and a few other flowers. These Blue Diadem are supposedly the darkest blue.

Crocosmia 'Emberglow'

Another Crocosmia to add to the collection. The ones planted under the smoke tree never surfaced, hopefully these under the lemon trees will fare better.

Dahlia 'Black Beauty'

Dahlias are a favorite, planted under the magnolia tree opposite the bees, and these should pair nicely with the cosmos just down the slope. The tag indicates they are an annual, which I suppose could be true as the plant will die back, but the corm(?) will live on? Or the plant will produce seeds that will germinate?

Papaver hybridum 'Orange chiffon'

Under the magnolia with the new dahlias should play off the purples surrounding it. fingers crossed.

new addition(s) - veggie style

this here pretty picture is asparagus 'purple passion' or something. I like the picture and don't remember the exact name of the stuff that;s now in the ground, except that it's purple. and asparagus. perhaps 'early purple'? is that a variety? pretty, eh?

new additions - veggies

We planted English peas but the snails decimated them over night. They've now been replaced with haricot vert and fava beans.

Haricot vert ‘Beurre de Rocquencourt’
aka yellow wax beans

French heirloom variety w/ slender golgen beans. To 3’, full sun, reg. water, 60 days.

According to Wikipedia, 'Rocquencourt is a commune in the Yvelines department in the Île-de-France in north-central France.

It is mostly known for hosting a research unit of INRIA (National Institute for Research in Computer Science and Control) and having a freeway exchange known as the Rocquencourt Triangle (triangle de Rocquencourt), often heard about in traffic news, as well as the location of Napoleon's Grande Armée last battle in 1815. Don’t you love Wikipedia?

Fava beans 'Early purple'

Italian variety. Long pods, pale green seed turn bright purple if dried. Full sun, reg. water. 

The WWW seems to be a bit confused about these purple beans. Some references indicate that they turn purple only when dried (from label), others say a soft purple when shelled and turn bright purple when cooked, others write... well, we'll just have to see what happens. 

*Haricot vert pic ripped blindly from the web; fava bean pic also ripped blindly, only to find it from the most amazing chef, Brett of Contigo Restaurant fame. Go check out his now-defunct blog.

new additions

We went to Berkeley Hort a couple weeks ago to pick up some veggies for the garden. English peas & herbs plus chard and lettuce were the first to go in the basket. The pretty labels of the ornamentals caught our attention (Annie's Annuals has the best labels), so we picked up some color:

Alcea ficifolia ‘Black’ 

“Black Fig-leaved Hollyhock”

Dream plant alert! We’ve searched high & low for this very coveted & elusive perennial Hollyhock but in the end, we had to make it ourselves. We isolated this one so that we could maintain a pure seed source. Many spires (up to 10) of 4”, jet black/maroon flowers emerge from the base of this almost bushy Hollyhock. Ooh la la! Bloom time lasts from Summer through Fall, after which you should cut the stalks to the base & side dress with some compost. We promise we’ve kept our mother stock at more or less a block away from other less reputable Hollyhocks, but there’s a teeny chance that you could get a stray red or magenta. After all, bees do fly great distances. To 5-6' high. Rust resistant. Sun Low-Avg.Water

Papaver hybridum ‘Crimson Feathers’

How in the world do all these petals fit in those buds? It’s a mystery to me because these blooms are 4-5” across! Super double, dense & shaggy cheerleader pom-poms become instant celebrities in your Spring garden. Combine with Agrostemma ‘Ocean Pearls’ or Orlaya grandiflora for perfect stagecraft. 3-4’ tall. Rich soil. Self-sows! Sun Avg. Water

Papaver ‘Danebrog’

Fantastic traffic stopping 4-5” blooms display a brilliant white Maltese cross against brightest true red fringed petals. Frilly anthers & a lime green ovary make it even better. The day the buds of these babies unfurl your voice will go up 2 octaves & your heart will swell with joy! Early planting & rich soil are best! Self-sows! To 3-4' high. Sun Avg. Water

Papaver 'Single Black'

Oh the gorgeousness! Huge 4-5” single darkest purple-maroon blooms bear stunning white anthers & a contrasting lime green ovary in the center. A masterful creation of the Poppy-gods! To 3’ tall, plant them early & in rich soil for floral fantabulosity! Killer combined with Nicotiana ‘Lime Green’. Self-sows for free plants each Spring. Sun Avg. water

Papaver hybridum 'Swansdown'

And the Frilliest Award goes to ... absolutely stunning pure white 'Swansdown'! You could create an all white garden just to show off its swan-y excellence. This year, I think I'll grow it with 'Black Peony' Poppy, Nemophila menziesii 'Pennie Black' & set them all off with Nicotiana ‘Lime Green.’ How fun! To 4' high & 3' wide. Sun Avg. Water

 *pics and descriptions ripped from Annie's Annuals website.

We alco picked up some Alcea 'Double Burgundy' and Alcea 'Double Pink' from another source nursery. The photos and descriptions sucked, so we'll have to learn how to take a photo ourselfs for when the plants bloom.

We also picked up two catnip, Nepeta cataria. The snails had a go at the ornamentals, but they decimated the peas, half the chard and lettuce, and one of the two catnip. The catnip that was put into the new blue pot has now been replaced with the spare plant, the peas have been replaced with beans (see next post), and the chard and lettuce are heavily dosed with snail bait, as has the entire yard.

March Madness - a bland posting

For so many, March Madness is all about picking you teams or player for basketball or football or baseball or some other sport that has no relevancy in any other country than the good ol' USA. Well for us here, it's all about the blooms, tulips and daylilies and daffodils, thank you very much. The daffodils and daylilies are standing straight and tall, unfortunately the tulips are a bit bedraggled after the hail storm a couple days ago. There's a few that are still about to bloom, but the rest are just ripped apart.
After visiting the chain box store to have our dishwasher replaced and receiving some less than desirable news on the timeline for replacement, I decided it was time for a slight pick-me-up in the form of some flowers. The other option was a trip to the Claremont for a spa visit, $40 vs $400? From Flowerland, I picked up some Ranunculus asiaticus "Bloomindale" in red shades, Pure Yellow, Tangerine, and orange bicolor shades, Pansy "Whiskers Orange" that have black veining at the throat, Viola "Sorbet Black Delight" that match the pansy veining, and Dahlia "Arabian Night" and "Black Touch". I'm looking forward to see how well the Nigella hispanica "African Bride" does. Last week, I brought home via Berkeley Hort: Lilium "Orange Tiger", "Landini", "Scheherazade", and crocosmia in 4 colors including "Emily Mckenzie" and "Lucifer". There's a yellow variety in there as well.
A previous planting got missed. Tulips: "Don Quichotte", "El Nino", "Exotic Emperor", "Hemisphere", "Ivory Floradale", "Jackpot", "Lady Night", "Lemon Swirl", "Little Beauty", and "Princess Irene". The tulips in our yard are hit or miss at best, the soil needs more attention is prolly the primary reason.
While visiting the nursery today, I popped over to K2tog to check on my special order yarn. It's not available yet. Not happy with that.

We got some great food love this weekend. With friends over, we cooked:
The recipes are all surprisingly easy.
The meatloaf was here.
http://www.food52.com/recipes/3557_meatloaf_with_blackberry_barbecue_sauce
Seriously, the blackberry sauce is amazing.

I asked the butcher at the local market (Berkeley Bowl) to separate the baby back pork ribs for me for this recipe.
http://www.shesimmers.com/2011/02/thai-soured-pork-ribs-naem-si-krong-mu.html
I cannot say enough good things about this amazingly easy and delicious recipe.

The most difficult part was the sauce, because of the tamarind paste, altho it's not challenging at all:
http://www.shesimmers.com/2011/03/thai-three-flavored-sauce-newbie.html
This sauce can prolly be found on any supermarket shelf, I just wanted to try it myself.

And the dessert was also very easy.
http://www.shesimmers.com/2010/12/white-chocolate-almond-lime-paves-and.html
I know not everyone keeps almond meal in their pantry, but it's actually used quite often.

We happened to have some extra bananas so I threw the bread together quite easily
http://www.food52.com/recipes/1259_brown_butter_bourbon_banana_bread

All in all a really wonderful meal.