Author: suzielinn

Lover of nature and gardening, good food and fresh air.
gardening, herbal fare

If you give a friend some eggs…

suzielinn

…with apologizes to the mouse and the boy who let him in the house…

If you give a friend some eggs,

eggs6

she is going to ask for some milk and cream. When she gets some milk and cream, she will probably ask for some sugar. When she gets the sugar, she will likely need some flour. Then she will want an iPad so she can search for some recipes. When she looks on Pintrest, she might realize that she also needs some strawberries and vanilla. She will probably ask for a whisk. When she is finished baking,

german pancake

she will want a broom to sweep up her mess. She will start sweeping. She might get carried away and sweep every room in the…Oh, who are we kidding? She would never get carried away sweeping. Especially in the spring when she has raking to do yet.

When she is done sweeping, she will probably want a nap. You will need to make up the couch with her favorite blankie and pillow. She will lay down and make herself comfortable and call for her puppy. She will probably ask you to read them a story…

“Diary of a Compost Hotline Operator: Edible essays on city farming” might be the perfect book on such a day.

strawberry cafoutis

While our urban town has allowed chickens for the past few years, I still have not taken the urban chicken plunge. I don’t know why exactly, except that my life already seems overrun with animals. Two indoor cats. One puppy. A large garden that seems to attract every wild animal for miles around.

Recently a dear friend gave me a dozen eggs from her own urban chickens. What to do with them? How best to use a dozen fresh eggs? The first recipe was easy to chose, as I have long wanted to make the French dessert, clafoutis. Alas, I used strawberries instead of the usual cherries, which makes the dish a flaugnarde instead of a clafoutis. I like the word clafoutis best, so I am sticking with that. Either way, it is an egg-rich dish, much like crepe batter but baked in the oven instead of the stovetop one by one. The next dish – mini German pancakes – baked in muffin tins. Topped with strawberries and blood orange segments (above, on red and white plate), these will be good for breakfast or a quick snack.

egg shells

Look at these beautiful eggshells! They are almost too pretty to compost.

Eggshells have many garden applications and can be used directly in the garden. Just crush the shells. Scattered around your tomato plants, eggshells – high in calcium – can help to prevent blossom end rot in the ripening fruit. Scattered around hostas, the rough edges can ward off slugs and snails. Crushed eggshells can also be added to your birdfeeders in the spring, as female birds need extra calcium during nesting season.

bibliophile, herbal fare

Cranberry Easter

suzielinn

I introduced you to our dear friend, Mr. Whiskers, back at Thanksgiving. A lovable fellow, though Grandma says he has too many whiskers and not enough soap.

Cranberry Easter, part of Wende and Harry Devlin’s holiday-themed Cranberry series, features Mr. Whiskers, Maggie and Maggie’s grandma. Mr. Whiskers’ friend Seth, lonely after the death of his wife, wants to sell Cranberryport’s general store and move away. “Suffering codfish,” exclaims Mr. Whiskers, as he tries to come up with a plan to keep Seth in town.

cranberry easter 1

The importance of friendship is at the heart of the Cranberry books. Mr. Whiskers knows “friends always take care of one another. That’s the way it is in Cranberryport – on holidays and the whole year round.” There would always be a place for him at Grandmother’s table. And for Easter, there would be cranberry cobbler for dessert.

The Devlin’s always set the season where you can almost feel like you are in Cranberryport… “The trees began to bud and soon there was a magical green mist all over the land.” What a lovely description of spring! …a magical green mist all over the land…

If you have young children, be sure to check out Wende and Harry Devlin’s Cranberry books. Getting children attached to a series at a young age is a great way to foster a love of reading, as there is security in familiar characters and children will come to look at the characters as friends. What is better to a child than looking forward to Mr. Whiskers making a return visit every Easter or Thanksgiving? Inside family jokes, such as the loveable Mr. Whiskers having too many whiskers and not enough soap, only reinforce the characters and build upon the book and the pleasant memories associated with it. More importantly, getting children active in a book gives them another outlet to experience the book. As much as children love to be read to, they also love to pull up a chair or stepstool and cook with a loved one.  (Other books in the Cranberry series include: Christmas, Birthday and Valentine.)

The recipe at the end of Cranberry Easter is for cranberry cobbler. I have yet to make it, but I did want to share my favorite cranberry dessert recipe – cranberry apple crisp. Thanks to the Devlin’s, I have come to think of cranberries as a year-round ingredient, instead of just a seasonal treat.

cranberry easter 2

Cranberry-Apple Crisp

1/2 cup rolled oats

1/3 cup packed brown sugar

1/4 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 cup butter

1/2 cup walnuts (optional)

3 medium apples – peeled, cored and sliced

1 16-ounce can whole cranberry sauce

For the topping, in a medium mixing bowl, stir together the rolled oats, brown sugar, flour and cinnamon. Using a pastry blender, cut in butter until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Stir in the walnuts. Set aside.

For filling, in a large mixing bowl, stir together the apples and the cranberry sauce. Transfer the filling to an ungreased 8×8 baking pan.

Sprinkle the topping on the filling. Bake at 375 degree oven for 30 to 40 minutes or until the apples are tender and the topping is golden brown. Serve warm.

If desired, top with whipped cream or ice cream. Makes 6 servings.

*** This recipe can easily be made gluten-free.

pink flowers

bibliophile, gardening

If ever there was a spring day so perfect…

suzielinn

If ever there were a spring day so perfect,
so uplifted by a warm intermittent breeze

… … … part of Billy Collins’ poem Today

 

First day of spring blooms, North Texas, zone 8a

Dutch iris, below

dutch iris

I feel a bit like Bubba in Forrest Gump… You got your bearded iris, your reticulata iris, Dutch iris, Louisiana iris, Japanese iris, Siberian iris… some are bulbous irises, some are rhizome irises… some are bearded, some are beardless… Someday I will blog about the different irises that grow well in this area.
For now: Dutch irises are perennial, grown from a bulb planted in the fall.

And now… daffodils, the harbinger of spring…
I love the shadow cast by these daffodils, below.

daffodils 2

“When the winds of March are wakening the crocuses and crickets,
Did you ever find a fairy near some budding little thickets,…
And when she sees you creeping up to get a closer peek
She tumbles through the daffodils, a playing hide and seek.”
~Marjorie Barrows

A happy little clump of daffodils, below.

daffodils 1

Leucojum, pictured below. If you ever need proof that fairies dance in the garden, this is it. Just look at that little green dot, along the scalloped blossom.

“And as the seasons come and go, here’s something you might like to know. There are fairies everywhere: under bushes, in the air, playing games just like you play, singing through their busy day. So listen, touch, and look around — in the air and on the ground. And if you watch all nature’s things, you might just see a fairy’s wing.” ~Author Unknown

lecojium

I know. We aren’t suppose to believe in fairies past a certain age…

“Every time a child says, ‘I don’t believe in fairies,’ there is a fairy somewhere that falls down dead.” ~James Matthew Barrie, Peter Pan

Hyacinth, below.

hyacinth

The above bulbs are all planted in the fall for spring blooms. Make a note now of any bulbs you see and like. Mail order catalogs will start taking orders in late summer for fall shipment. Garden centers will receive bulbs in early fall, but hold off on planting until Thanksgiving.

Now, for some spring blooming shrubs…

Shrubs can be planted year-round in North Texas, just know that all new plantings (even many Texas natives) require frequent watering until they get established. Garden centers generally have their best selection of shrubs in the spring, though some also receive fall shipments.

Bridal wreath spirea, below.

bridal wreath spirea

And loropetalum, aka fringe flower. Please, please don’t prune these into round balls or square cubes. They look best when allowed to grow naturally. Loropetalum are evergreen.

fringe flower

Cherry laurel. While I didn’t capture any honeybees in this photo, the shrub was buzzing with life. It is also evergreen.

cherry laurel

Sigh… My bright orange tulips are done blooming, but I had to include a photo anyway. Because. Pollen! Just look at all that pollen!

tulip
“If we opened our minds to enjoyment, we might find tranquil pleasures spread about us on every side. We might live with the angels that visit us on every sunbeam, and sit with the fairies who wait on every flower.” ~Samuel Smiles

gardening

the melodious garden’s garden mascot

suzielinn

It has been brought to my attention that I have been negligent in introducing the melodious garden’s new garden mascot.

THE Garden Mascot.

The Great Ravioli Thief.

The Ferocious Rabbit Chaser. (Thankfully, so far Unsuccessful Ferocious Rabbit Chaser! Though she seems to have driven our resident wild rabbits on to another garden, which is successful enough for me!)

Catcher of Crane Flies.

The Official Hole Digger.

So, without further ado…

leia 2

Leia… Princess Leia. (Er… ignore that spot of dirt hanging from her mouth. See above mentioned title Official Hole Digger. She was, um, digging right before I snapped her picture…)

Leia was adopted from Humane Tomorrow just a few days before Christmas. We were told she is a PBGV/dachshund mix. (PBGV is short for… Petite Brussels Griffon Verdeen. Yeah. We weren’t familiar with that, either.)

I call her my little platypus… Her tricolor coat looks beagle-ish. Her coat texture looks wire hair fox terrier-ish. She stands like a Welsh corgi. Her ears? No clue, aside from adorable!

leia 3

One ear goes up.

One ear goes down.

Both ears are fringed.

Now comes the part where I admit…

I had no idea it would be so hard to garden with a garden mascot! (See above mentioned comment about hole digging…) I just thought it was difficult to garden when my son was a toddler… (He was also a hole digger…)

But Leia is too adorable for words. Which makes the hole digging a bit more tolerable.

Oh. And she loves books almost as much as I do.

arnosky book2

 

bibliophile

Welcome, Spring!

suzielinn

Magdalen Walks

by Oscar Wilde

quince1

The little white clouds are racing over the sky,
And the fields are strewn with the gold of the flower of March,
The daffodil breaks under foot, and the tasselled larch
Sways and swings as the thrust goes hurrying by.

A delicate odour is borne on the wings of the morning breeze,
The odour of leaves, and of grass, and of newly upturned earth,
The birds are singing for joy of the Spring’s glad birth,
Hopping from branch to branch on the rocking trees.

And all the woods are alive with the murmur and sound of Spring,
And the rose-bud breaks into pink on the climbing briar,
And the crocus-bed is a quivering moon of fire
Girdled round with the belt of an amethyst ring.

And the plane to the pine-tree is whispering some tale of love
Till it rustles with laughter and tosses its mantle of green,
And the gloom of the wych-elm’s hollow is lit with the iris sheen
Of the burnished rainbow throat and the silver breast of a dove.

See! the lark starts up from his bed in the meadow there,
Breaking the gossamer threads and the nets of dew,
And flashing adown the river, a flame of blue!
The kingfisher flies like an arrow, and wounds the air.

dutchiris

gardening

Hellebores, aka Lenten Rose

suzielinn

Shade is precious in my North Texas garden. Though we have plenty of large trees, our property is situated at an odd corner of a cul-de-sac, with the house situated at an even odder angle. Both the front and back gardens receive sun from early morning to late evening year round. I have just a few shady spots, the perfect convergence of house, fence and tree.

helleboreNHG4

That is why, instead of purchasing garden plants in my normal “laissez le bon temps rouler” fashion, I carefully select my shade loving perennials. Hellebores are one of the plants I have deemed well worth every sacred bit of shade.

helleboreNHG3

Hellebores, or Lenten Rose, are evergreen perennials which bloom for several months on end. Their common name comes from the fact that the blooms look slightly like a rose blossom and they start blooming during the season of Lent. It is not unusual for this perennial to hold its blooms up to four months straight. The hellebores’ thick leathery foliage holds up well to our Texas summers and our winter cold.

helleborecloseupNHGflower

Hellebores come in a range of colors from near white to green to hot pink and dark purple, and may feature single, semi-double or double blooms. Be sure to shop your local specialty nurseries for hellebores in late winter, when you can see the colors available. Because hellebores are slow to propagate and grow to market size, they are seldom found for sale in box-garden centers.

helleboreNHG1

They are quite at home anywhere from quaint cottage gardens to shady tropical enclaves. The variegated foliage on the hellebore below is just screaming out to be featured in a tropical garden!

helleboreNGH2leaf

Hellelbores need moist, well drained soil, and are extremely hardy once established.

Their leaves are toxic, therefore the wild rabbits that inhabit (curse!) my garden leave them well enough alone.

Be sure to soak hellebores in diluted seaweed water and tease out their root system before planting.

 

herbal fare

Endive salad with basil and tomatoes

suzielinn

The garden centers are filling up with lush spring inventory, including tomatoes and basil. The perfect pairing. In North Texas, our last average freeze date is March 17th, which means Mother Nature can still throw us a curve ball. We have been known to have a freeze in the middle of April and snow on Easter. This does not mean you have to wait to plant frost-tender plants. It just means that you have to watch the forecast and be ready with frost cloth or old sheets. (I personally favor a five gallon bucket turned upside down over the plant and removed as soon as the air warms up.)

endive salad with basil

Endive salad with basil and tomatoes

2-3 endives, leaves separated
1 large naval orange, peeled and sliced into circles
1 large tomato, sliced (or a dozen cherry tomatoes, cut in half)
1/4 red onion, finely sliced (I prefer shallots, personally)
5-6 basil leaves, thinly sliced – extra for garnish, if desired

Dressing:
1/2 teaspoon orange zest
3 tablespoons olive oil
juice of 1/2 lemon
1 teaspoon honey
1/2 teaspoon sea salt

Wash and prepare endive leaves and arrange on a large platter. Zest about half of the orange and set zest aside for dressing.

Cut off the peel of the orange, along with the outer white membrane. Slice into thin circles and arrange over the endive leaves. Slice the tomato and onion and arrange on platter. Top with sliced basil leaves.

To make the dressing, add the olive oil, lemon juice and honey to the bowl with the orange zest and whisk together. Pour the dressing over the salad and sprinkle with the sea salt. Serve right away.

If making ahead, add the dressing just before serving so the endive leaves do not wilt.

Hint for slicing basil: Wash and pat dry basil leaves. Stack basil leaves and tightly roll from one end to the other. Thinly slice the rolled leaves. Separate basil slivers and use as desired.

gardening

Daylilies, part deux

suzielinn

A few days after I was lamenting the fact that I didn’t have any daylilies with a beautiful edge along its petals, I had a realization… My Facebook avatar is a daylily with a stunning edge! Sometimes those things we see every day go unseen. (Note to self: stop and look at the flowers…)

So off I went. To search all ten thousand, nine hundred and ninety-nine photos on my iPhone to find that photo! So here it is – a daylily with an edge and Part Deux on Daylilies!

daylily with edge

A daylily is said to have an edge when it has a distinctly different color along the outer petal edges, as in the photograph above. (Please excuse me when I don’t identify a specific variety. I do not always update my garden records.)

daylily with edge2

The edge of a daylily may have both a distinctly different color and… Fringe, as in the above photograph. Notice that bit of concrete? This daylilly grows – thrives – along my driveway in full, all day sun!

daylilyphone1

Lord Jeff, in the above photograph, is a great example of a spider daylily, where the length of the petals are longer than their width. This daylily also has distinct coloring on the midribs of its petals.

Another spider daylily, below.

orangedaylily

Even though daylily blooms last only a day, each flower stalk puts out an amazing number of blooms!

daylily with birdbath

Now… I would like to share my recent daylily order from Oakes Daylilies. While I have never mail ordered daylilies from another source, I feel confident in saying – Oakes has the best daylilies. Ever. When you see these babies, I am sure you will agree. It just can’t get any better than this.

This box…

daylily box

contains…

daylily box2

Now isn’t that a beautiful box of bareroot daylilies?!

daylily chicago star

Daylilies grow from rhizomes, and each daylily is bundled together and labeled.

daylily route 66

I soak each bundle in seaweed water for 15-30 minutes before planting and mulching.

Daylilies are an excellent addition to any perennial garden, as their colors and form compliment so many other flowers.

Lavender Blush daylily planted with bright pink winecups (callirhoe involucrata) and rose Comte de Chambord. (Photo is many years old, taken well before I lost this rose to RRD.)

dayllilyandcomte2

A peach colored daylily with pink rainlilies and (again) our native winecups. (Rainlilies and daylilies are not related.)

daylily with rainlily

A daylily with echinacea, aka coneflower.

daylily with coneflower

A garden bed, after the rain… daylily, coneflower and crepe myrtle. (The crepe myrtle is from the new Black Diamond series and was newly planted when this photo was taken.)

daylily coneflower crepe

bibliophile

…of golden daffodils

suzielinn
I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o’er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,

Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the milky way,
They stretched in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,

Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

The waves beside them danced; but they
Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:
A poet could not but be gay,
In such a jocund company:
I gazed—and gazed—but little thought

What wealth the show to me had brought:

For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,

And dances with the daffodils.

~~~ William Wordsworth
daf
The first daffodil of the season, hearkening in spring in the melodious garden.

 

bibliophile

The Barefoot Boy

suzielinn

A number of years ago, a group of school children and their mothers visited my garden. One of the mothers sent me a Thank You note after and wrote that my son reminded her of this poem, The Barefoot Boy. I have cherished the poem ever since…

To my own Barefoot Boy:
Always stay little, my little man. Though you now tower over me, please never forget the knowledge learned outside of school. Remember your childhood rich in flowers and trees, humming-birds and honey-bees. Live and laugh, my little man.

el in garden

Blessings on thee, little man,
Barefoot boy, with cheek of tan!
With thy turned-up pantaloons,
And thy merry whistled tunes;
With thy red lip, redder still
Kissed by strawberries on the hill;
With the sunshine on thy face,
Through thy torn brim’s jaunty grace;
From my heart I give thee joy,—
I was once a barefoot boy!
Prince thou art,—the grown-up man
Only is republican.
Let the million-dollared ride!
Barefoot, trudging at his side,
Thou hast more than he can buy
In the reach of ear and eye,—
Outward sunshine, inward joy:
Blessings on thee, barefoot boy!

 

barefoot at beach
Oh for boyhood’s painless play,
Sleep that wakes in laughing day,
Health that mocks the doctor’s rules,
Knowledge never learned of schools,
Of the wild bee’s morning chase,
Of the wild-flower’s time and place,
Flight of fowl and habitude
Of the tenants of the wood;
How the tortoise bears his shell,
How the woodchuck digs his cell,
And the ground-mole sinks his well;
How the robin feeds her young,
How the oriole’s nest is hung;
Where the whitest lilies blow,
Where the freshest berries grow,
Where the ground-nut trails its vine,
Where the wood-grape’s clusters shine;
Of the black wasp’s cunning way,
Mason of his walls of clay,
And the architectural plans
Of gray hornet artisans!
For, eschewing books and tasks,
Nature answers all he asks;
Hand in hand with her he walks,
Face to face with her he talks,
Part and parcel of her joy,—
Blessings on the barefoot boy!

 

el outside
Oh for boyhood’s time of June,
Crowding years in one brief moon,
When all things I heard or saw,
Me, their master, waited for.
I was rich in flowers and trees,
Humming-birds and honey-bees;
For my sport the squirrel played,
Plied the snouted mole his spade;
For my taste the blackberry cone
Purpled over hedge and stone;
Laughed the brook for my delight
Through the day and through the night,
Whispering at the garden wall,
Talked with me from fall to fall;
Mine the sand-rimmed pickerel pond,
Mine the walnut slopes beyond,
Mine, on bending orchard trees,
Apples of Hesperides!
Still as my horizon grew,
Larger grew my riches too;
All the world I saw or knew
Seemed a complex Chinese toy,
Fashioned for a barefoot boy!

 

Oh for festal dainties spread,
Like my bowl of milk and bread;
Pewter spoon and bowl of wood,
On the door-stone, gray and rude!
O’er me, like a regal tent,
Cloudy-ribbed, the sunset bent,
Purple-curtained, fringed with gold,
Looped in many a wind-swung fold;
While for music came the play
Of the pied frogs’ orchestra;
And, to light the noisy choir,
Lit the fly his lamp of fire.
I was monarch: pomp and joy
Waited on the barefoot boy!

 

Cheerily, then, my little man,
Live and laugh, as boyhood can!
Though the flinty slopes be hard,
Stubble-speared the new-mown sward,
Every morn shall lead thee through
Fresh baptisms of the dew;
Every evening from thy feet
Shall the cool wind kiss the heat:
All too soon these feet must hide
In the prison cells of pride,
Lose the freedom of the sod,
Like a colt’s for work be shod,
Made to tread the mills of toil,
Up and down in ceaseless moil:
Happy if their track be found
Never on forbidden ground;
Happy if they sink not in
Quick and treacherous sands of sin.
Ah! that thou couldst know thy joy,
Ere it passes, barefoot boy!
~~~ By John Greenleaf Whittier