A few years after we planted “Papaws” climbing rose I began collecting a few petals from it. I love the smell of roses, and these had a unique smell to them. For a long time, I just used them as a potpourri. Eventually my curiosity convinced me to look up other uses for rose petals. There were so many, and it was a shame not to use them for something.
The first thing I tried was tea. Several articles I read mentioned that rose petals were high in vitamin C and antioxidants. Beginning by adding them to the tea I already made for my sons we decided to try it. I figured it certainly wouldn’t hurt to add a little vitamin C to their diet. Especially when they were under the weather. The rose petals also added a wonderful flavor to the tea, meaning they were more apt to drink all of it. Often, I now make tea with just rose petals, inhaling the steam. I not only like the taste, but I also love the smell of those roses.
To make tea all you need to do is gather the petals and steep them in boiling water just like you would a tea bag. I dry a lot of the petals and then store them in glass jars for use when the roses aren’t blooming. You can use a tea ball, or you can just use loose petals and strain your tea into another cup. If it is not sweet enough just add a little honey.
Eventually I decided to try infusing rose petals in coconut oil. I am allergic to so many store-bought skincare items that I had begun using plain organic coconut oil on my face. It really helped my skin maintain balance, not too dry but also not too oily. I kept reading that rose petals are good for the skin. I have used this ever since. Last year when my husband was so sick, I let go of self-care much more than I should have to spend all my time caring for him. Although I felt it was necessary at the time, I can really tell the difference from letting myself go. So, I am getting back on track now. The jar to the right is ready to warm and strain.
This is how I make my rose petal oil:
Rose petal infused oil
Choose a carrier oil. I used coconut oil, but you can use olive or almond oil. Crunch rose petals into a jar and cover with oil. Add the lid then swirl just enough to coat the petals without shaking. Warming the oil will help release the scent from the rose petals. I use a coffee cup warmer or set in the sun until warm. Let it sit for 4-6 weeks in a dark cupboard. After it has sat long enough, warm the oil and then strain out all but a few of the petals.
Now that cold weather has settled in and outside gardening is done, I am starting on gardening inside. I grow herbs as well as vegetable, fruits and flowers. Mint is my most prolific herb. The largest crop is peppermint, but I also have chocolate mint. The chocolate mint is my nephews favorite as well as a friends grand daughter. I generally dry quite a bit of both to use in winter for tea. My sons always loved the taste and it seemed to settle their stomachs during flu season. This year I am also using mint in my windowsill garden, just because I like to use fresh mint occasionally in a drink or as a garnish.
Peppermint starts with one Chocolate mint start.
I also love to grow creeping rosemary and use it in cooking. It is a great ground cover in between other herbs, except it dies off every winter. I usually dry what is left when it dies out, this year I have decided to try transplanting it for indoors, adding it to another windowsill garden. I have not tried growing it inside before, but if it does not live long I can still dry it and add it to my herb bottles.
Creeping Rosemary with a little Peppermint plant on the side,
Today I managed to transplant several starts in between other things that needed done. I will do a few more over the next week or two. I have a box full of tea or coffee cups that my yongest son and I picked up at secondhand bargain shop a few years ago. I plant starts in them every year. Sometimes I give them as gifts to beginning gardeners. Maybe the peppermint will be Christmas presents this year. It does seem to be the flavor for the season.
Walking onions are another herb I have never tried indoors, so that might be another one of my next experiments. The stems are much like chives and can be used in place of chives until they begin sprouting little onion bulbs on top. They then fall over and plant themselves for the following year. I do have enough to try one inside so I can eat it on a baked potato now and then.
Do any of you have a favorite herb that you grow or might like to start growing? If so please mention it in the comments.
If you end up with more cabbage than you can eat before it goes bad, freezing may be the way to go for you. Sometimes I make sour krout but I did not have enough to be worth doing that this time. We use cabbage in several dishes, such as Vegetable soup, Minestroni and with Mulligan Stew (sausage, potato, cabbage and carrots).
First thing to do wash and cut the cabbage the size you want it. Fill the steamer basket with the chopped cabbage. The bottom pan needs about 5 inches of water. Turn the fire on low so the water can start heating while you are chopping up the cabbage.
Then set the steamer in the bottom pan and turn the heat up medium high just long enough to wilt the cabbage, about 15 minutes should do it.
Next put the steamer in the sink and run cold water over it to stop the cooking process. If you skip this part the cabbage will continue to cook and will end up mushy when you unthaw it for cooking.
After cooling the cabbage put a serving size in freezer bags. How big of bags and how full you fill them depends on the size of your family and how many you are cooking for. I used gallon bags and filled them about 3/4 full. Flatten the bags and lay them flat in the freezer. This makess them easier to store and they will thaw quicker when you are ready to use them.
Bathtub Remodel
While I was working in the kitchen, Charles was working on the master bathroom. He is hooking up a tub with a whirpool. We both have disabilities, but we refuse to give up on our activities. The whirlpool should help with the arthritus and his leg that was broken in several places back in 1975. I can’t wait until I get to try it out. When it is finished I will post a follow up.
I am determined to find a way to keep on doing what I do no matter how old, or what obsticles I have to overcome.
At the end of the year it is time time to prepare the garden for winter. The last couple days I have gone out in between the rain and storms and cooler weather, to prepare my raised beds for winter. First thing is to clear out the dying vines, plants and weeds. Then I swept up leaves off the pavers and threw them on top of the dirt. As you can see in the picture below, the dirt is dark and rich great for growing anything. I will continue sweeping up the leaves and piling them up thick enough to completley cover all of the dirt. By next spring the leaves will have decomposed to the point of looking pretty much like the soil under them. We will add compost from the bottom door of our bin and the soil will be ready to start all over again.
I leave the tomato cages in the raised beds all winter to keep our dog from digging in them. She seems to think they are a great place to bury her toys. She watches me and tries to help when I plant in the spring and then watches how everything grows, so maybe she is trying to grow some new toys. You never know with that silly thing.
I had a visiter over the summer who told me I should write about how I do everything for my gardens. She grew up helping out on a farm so I thought she probably new all about gardening. So yes they had an acre garden and farm equipment and several people doing the work, so nothing like I am doing. She said she was fascinated with some of the ways I did things. She also said that she bet a lot of people would love to know the little things I do to care for my gardens and how I use what I grow. So I am sharing what I do and you can try some of the different things I do if you want, or you can share some of your tips with me for next years gardens. Just write them in the comments below.
I love to try new things and there is always more to learn. I started hearing about and reading anything I could find on organic gardening when I was 21. I had my first home that spring and so I got to have my first garden on my own. I did Circle Style organic garden and had so much food from a very small area.
The woman who lived behind me had a huge garden all in rows like you would typically see back then and she thought I was crazy. Kept telling me that she had been gardening all her life and her way was the best way. So me being me as always, being the different one in th bunch, (my sixth grade teacher told me that I was unique and I should embrace that) I ignored her and did it my way. So using a method I had read about in an old Mother Earth Magazine my first sister-in-law had given me a few years earlier, I made my circle garden.
First I used a tomato cage in the center, like the one in the picture. The cage was for compost and we threw all of our food scraps, as well as adding raked up grass and leaves all summer long. I then planted tomatoes all the way around the outside so they could climb up the cage and much closer than a normal garden. I then used three long branches and tied them together at the top. Then pushed the bottom of each branch into the ground teepee style around the cage. At the bottom of the branches I planted viny things like green beans.
Outside of the cage area I divided the circle into four sections and planted something different in each section. I had cucumbers, radishes, carrots, and all the things you normally see in a garden, but in much less space. Every time it rained, it washed the nutrients from the compost in the center down into the ground all around it and fed my little garden. I had an abundance of vegetables and canned tomatoes by myself for the first time.
My neighbor came to the fence one day to brag about all the tomatoes she had canned from her huge garden and I politely told her that I had canned slightly more from my tiny garden, which by the way was still producing more. She never had anything to say to me after that. The reason I am writing about my neighbor is not to make myself out to be so great. It is to show that you can always learn more and continue growing as you get older if you are willing. I still research and try new things all these years later.
So about seven years ago I finally decided to try the raised beds. I started having problems with my knees and legs, not being able to bend and stoop as I had always done. Long story short, it took several years to get diagnosed and spiralling downhill with my mobility I thought it would be a good idea to go with raised beds so I could continue gardening until the day I can no longer move.
That year the boys helped me put down the first row of cinder blocks and each year we added a little more until they were three blocks high. Now I can tend to them without stooping. Two years ago I was falling a lot and having to use a walker, so my husband put down pavers so I could use the walker and still do my gardening. Since then working with my doctor and a rhuematologist, I am finally able to get around with just my cane handy in case I lose my balance. I am determined to find a way to keep on doing what I do no matter how old, or what obsticles I have to overcome.
Three little squrrels sleeping in our walnut tree.
This is the same tree that I wrote about previously when I said it felt like the squirrels were throwing walnuts at me. I looked up at the tree when I first went outside today and I thought I saw a couple of nests. Squirrels nest look much like a birds only larger. I went back in to get my phone so I could zoom in on the nests and to my surprise all three were squirrels sleeping on the branches. Not one nest in the tree.
All three squirrels sleeping soundly in the tree. The ornery things that throw walnuts at me every fall and tease my dogs all year long. We have a tornado warning siren that goes off every Friday to test that it is working properly. It went off as I was trying to get some photos and I thought I had missed my opportunity, but no. They slept right through it. I went back in to let the dogs out and get somethings to do a little yard work and they still slept.
At the back of the fenced yard is a climbing rose. When I went out with the dogs I saw this and had to share it. It is so rare to see a rose on any of my rose vines this late in the year. If you look at the bottom right of this photo youwill see a tree stump and what is left of the hulls of several walnuts. Those same ornery squirrels sit here and chew the hulls off of the walnuts before they carry them off to store for winter. They make sure the dogs see them chattering to get their attention.
When we first moved here we had a very freindly squrrel that would get almost close enough to touch. He would chatter at us and we would put stuff out for him to eat. He lived here long enough that his fur started turning gray. That last time we saw him he looked silver from head to toe. The following year he was no long here. I suppose he didn’t make it through winter that year, but he lived longer than I think most squirrels do. I miss him, but these three newer squrrels are quite amusing and maybe they will be more friendly in time.
I spent a little time clearing out some of the tomato stems out of the raised beds. It was about to storm so I had to quit and go back in the house. I will do a little bit every day it’s not raining and have it cleared by the end of this month. If the weather doesn’t turn too cold I will rake up some of the leaves to cover the raised beds and to finish filling our compost bin. That is how we keep the soil in good shape for for planting each year.
While I was working I checked the red lettuce that I had left in the garden, to go to seed. It is finally getting close but still not quite there. I am hoping to have enough seed to plant more than usual next year. I have collected seeds from the bell peppers already. Tomorrow is another day, so weather permitting I will get a little more done then.
When I was a child my Dad often called me Daisy Mae. I cannot tell you how many times I heard him say “Put your shoes on Daisy Mae”. I hated wearing shoes (still do) and every time he turned his back; I would kick them off. For those of you too young to remember, Daisy Mae was a cartoon character in the Sunday Newspaper who was always barefoot.
My Dad also sang all the time when I was young. His song for me was “Daisy Bell (Bicycle Built for Two). For that reason, daisies have always had a special meaning for me. The field of flowers where I got stung by a bee when I was around three years old (in my Yellow House stories) had wild daisies. Many of the places I lived growing up had wild daisies or at least something that resembled daisies. I often picked them and braided them together to make a crown to wear on my head, which only made Dad call me Daisy even more.
Throughout the years I have collected a variety of things with Daisies on them. If you walk through my house, you will see a variety of daisy reminders. Outside is another matter. I have tried planting them but for some reason the only last a few years. Several times it was due to having repairs done on the house and they got trampled on and supplies laid on them when we had new siding put on. Other times one of the dogs dug them up.
I gave up trying to plant Daisies after a while. I thought about planting them again this spring, but we got sidetracked with rebuilding our back porch. One day this spring while out helping with the porch and working in the raised beds I noticed some blooms growing among the weeds where we stack our firewood. They looked like little miniature Daisies. I picked some for a vase in my kitchen every so often until I stopped seeing them.
Yesterday when I was outside just enjoying the wind blowing through the trees in what I think of as perfect weather, I noticed they were back. This time they came up between our fence and our neighbors. I took pictures this time but did not pick any. I left them because I liked the way they looked along the fence. Daisies will always remind me of my Dad. I like seeing them when I walk out back each day and I will probably plant some in the front next spring along with the cone flowers that look so much like pink Daisies to me.
As I started writing this, I thought I should use my app PlantNet, and find out what exactly they are. It turns out they are Michaelmass Daisies. So, I have my daisies outside after all.
We are just having an extended growing season with beautiful weather.
Today when I went outside it was with the intention of clearing out my vegetable garden beds. I usually do that this time of year, but they were not ready for it this time. The bell peppers are still growing as shown in the first picture top left. The next picture shows that these pepper plants are still getting blooms. I had picked every pepper on them when we had our frost warning. Now besides this pepper that is about ready to pick there are several babies of various sizes on these plants.
Next, I checked on the tomatoes and, as you can see, there are more tomatoes since I picked them last. The one in the picture is the largest that I could see, but there were several of them. We are just having an extended growing season with beautiful weather. Same thing with my red lettuce. I left just one to go to seed for next year. Today it finally bloomed, which means it will go to seed soon. Usually I would have had my seeds and cleared this bed.
Last but not least, my peppermint garden. I started pulling up all the old stems a couple weeks ago, finishing the end of last week. I have Irises growing in the back, which bloom before the mint gets very tall in the spring. The blooms are lavender and have beautiful large blooms. One of my cousins donated them when we first moved here. They have spread all down the side of the house and I have thinned and shared bulbs with several people since then. This time of year, after the mint is thinned out, new growth starts and is perfect for harvesting and drying for tea in the winter. Since I don’t have to clear my garden beds yet, I may start on that this week.
Since before my youngest son could talk, he has insisted on flowers for Mom every Mother’s Day. The first time he had gone to the grocery store with Dad and he saw all the flowers on display. I am not sure if he realized what they were for, but he kept pointing and insisting “for Mommy”. He picked a beautiful plant that had little purple flowers. When he was a little older, he picked a miniature rose. He had watched me take care of the different variety of roses that we had planted around the property. We planted the miniature rose beside the front door so we could see it every time we came in or out of the house.
Miniature rose on the left was early summer, on the right is today.
After that he would get me either cut roses or daisies most of the time. Once he got me bright yellow tulips. We tried planting them outside, but they never came up. One year we had a blizzard and ice storm kind of winter. My rose did not come back up that year. I was a little sad but didn’t say anything about it. Then came Mother’s Day and I had a new miniature rose. It blooms every summer, but this year it just bloomed a second time. It’s been such a gloomy year with the pandemic and everything that followed. I went out to do yard work with my husband getting things ready for winter and saw this bright red beauty soaking up the sun. Made my day a little more joyful.
We got a frost warning for tonight or tomorrow so today I went out and picked the last of the tomatoes and bell peppers. That is all we had left this this week. No sign of the pests we sprayed, so if it decides not to frost, we may get a few more. The red lettuce is almost gone to seed so hopefully a few more days and I will be able to collect the seeds for next year. After bringing everything in, it was time to start working on using more of our fresh veggies.
Cole slaw, sweet and sour style was as far as I got. If you ever need to chop cabbage for anything this handy little chopper is the best. I had never seen or used one until I met my mother-in-law. She made and canned or froze everything you can imagine. I don’t use her recipe because my family likes this one better, but her methods worked better than any I had tried. I learned a lot from her.
For sweet and sour Cole slaw I just use cabbage and carrots. Some people like to add other veggies like radishes, so if you like other veggies add them and shred everything. For a large bowl like this one cabbage and two large carrots. After shredding add 3/4 cup of sugar (I use organic) and one cup of white vinegar. Let it sit over night. For my dad this was it, the way he liked it. Most of the rest of my family add a couple large tablespoons of Miracle whip. As are almost all of my recipes, this is adaptable to your taste. Add more veggies or use red cabbage more or less sugar and the same with Miracle whip or Mayonnaise if you like that better. I am big on adjusting recipes to suit my family’s taste, so try different ways until you find your favorite combination.
Several years ago, we decided to start building raised beds for our gardens. We are both getting older and bending over to plant weed and take care of a garden was starting to get harder. I researched and learned one of the reasons people opt for a raised bed other than it’s more convenient as you get older, is that you can grow more in a smaller space. Also, you can decide how good the soil will be by what you use to fill them and by composting and adding it to the beds each year.
First, we needed to build them. As we are big on recycling and reusing as much as possible, we started checking around for used materials. We ended up using concrete blocks. I checked out Craigs list and the local buy sell rummage sights. We got most of them for free and the rest for half or less than the price of new. We also let friends and family know what we were doing. We ended up building three raised beds that first year one block high.
We already had a compost bin. It has hinged lids at the top to add compost items and a garage style door at the bottom each year we can lift the garage door and shovel out the oldest compost that is turned to very rich soil. We added that evenly between the three beds. We then started adding Organic compost, topsoil and cow manure to each bed, mixing as we went. We then planted our first try at growing in raised beds. I planted a little further apart than necessary the first year because I had a hard time believing how close it was recommended to plant.
We had a pretty successful year with what we planted and something I noticed was the flash floods that we sometimes get in the spring hurt some of our neighbor gardens and they had to replant part of their crops. Even though they had a bigger garden, we did not have to replant, and we had enough to share with them.
The next year we raised the gardens up another row. Our sons helped us with that as it was getting harder for me to lift the blocks. I have arthritis in my hands and tend to drop things a lot. The boys did not want to see me drop a concrete block on my foot, so they pitched in. We added compost both from our bin and a few bags from a local greenhouse. We did the same the following year and added a fourth bed behind the fenced in area.
Then came the year we had bad flooding all spring and half the summer. Farmers were having a hard time getting their crops out and several of my fellow gardeners had their gardens wiped out, replanted once and then gave up for the year. That is the year that people started asking about our gardens. We had a bumper crop, especially cucumbers. With our beds two high the plants were watered, but the excess drained out the bottom, so nothing got drowned out.
We shared a lot that year because no one else had cucumbers. Even the local fruit stand asked us about it. They had very few that survived and couldn’t find any one to buy them from. Charles took him a boxful the next day, but the rest we shared with the neighbors. We have three of us that garden and we all share what any extra with each other. Now there are four gardeners on our block. It’s nice having neighbors to share back and forth. We all end up with what we need.
