The Gardener Chef

Mother Earth’s Abundance Continues To Be With Us

Karen — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 20:48:30 +0000

This “Wild Divine” meditation, offered by Deepak Chopra, is about the abundance, lushness and extravagance of nature. Deepak’s meditation can transport us into the images of our garden.

Here in Minnesota, within winter’s stillness of nature, we are given time to ponder the wonders that lie beneath the blanket of snow. We wait! And soon, the mysteries that will have our attention as the warmer weather arrives will be revealed again. They will appear as green grass, flowered bushes, early bulb flowers and small leaves pushing their way from their stationed place on various branches.

Take time to relax in this guided imagery and relax with your memory of the garden. Enjoy!

Click here to view the embedded video.

In the middle of January, it’s hard to believe the garden ever happened. We do get to remember through pictures:

The Garden in January

Karen — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 21:09:00 +0000

September Strawberry & Melon

Karen — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 18:39:16 +0000

The Garden at it’s Peak

Karen — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 17:39:49 +0000

The garden at it’s peak, an early August morning:

Nurturing Hardy Strawberry Plants

Karen — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 21:19:27 +0000

The strawberry raised bed pyramid has been regularly watered and fertilized. In mid July, I began to snip blossoms and “sucker trailers” off from the plants so as to have them give them energy into creating healthy and substantial plants. I believe that they made this hardy start. The soil in the pyramid structure has settled and I’ m adding a mixture of manure compost, peat moss mulch and top soil to each row and working it around the plants with ample watering with an alfalfa fertilizer and soil builder. The plant stems are thick and the leaves are deep green and plants are ‘shooting out” runners prolifically. I can only surmise that my patience for this first summer season of our strawberry pyramid will be realized in succeeding seasons with bountiful harvest from these sturdy and seasoned plants.

Ruby Red Cabbage

Karen — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 21:18:35 +0000

I harvested a ruby red cabbage and made cole slaw. The beautiful shades of puple and deep magenta with white vains of leave outlines created a magnificent mosiac of natures craft without challenge.

BLTs and Sharing Tomatoes

Karen — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 21:14:55 +0000

From mid July until the present date, we have been picking, eating and sharing tomatoes with friends, family and neighbors. Recently, one evening we seemed to have synchronized our evening meal planning with a neighboring family. They called to rave about their BLT’s just as we were finishing up our BLT meal and enjoying the luscious vine ripened Big Boy Tomatoes.

Sweet Melons

Karen — Sat, 15 Aug 2009 21:12:00 +0000

These sweet juicy tasting melons can mature to the size of 1 lb. Each of the fruits and vines have been supported by the wood trellis structure. There is a tendency of the melon’s vines to trail toward the ground. Whenever, a vine was found to be heading towards the ground, I would wrap the vine to a part of the trellis form and would give extra attention by supporting and stablizing the fruit with gardening twine or soft fabric strips.

Trellis Support for the Beans

Karen — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 21:09:14 +0000

The wigwam, or as some have called it the pyramid trellis, has created a safe and secure structure for the 5 bean plants. They formed a tent of bean stalks. Actually offering ease of finding and picking the mature bounty of Kentucky Wonder and Blue Lake beans.

Lots of Cucumbers

Karen — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 22:24:09 +0000

Three cucumber plants found plenty of space for their vines to spread. The trellis netting supported plants and the cucumbers to their optimum harvesting size. Deb’s sister enjoys a snack of spreading soft swiss cheese on a generous slice of cucumber. Yum!