Recycling- tealight tins

This weekend, I claimed my backyard. We moved out an old table and chairs from a yard sale ($10 for the set), added some solar lights, citronella candles and a few other goodies to claim this previously unused space for living. I had wired some old-fashioned green glass canning jars to my vegetable garden fence to use candles for extra outdoor lighting without electricity (plus they are beautiful and ambient when lit). I had been planting a lot of seeds lately and had been struggling to scrape up enough tiny "found" containers to replace all of the 1" clay flower pots I had been buying from the craft store to plant seeds. I was putting tealights in the green glass jars when it hit me. I can use the little left over tins from the tealights to plant seeds. We are living in domestic bliss in our found space at least until the Southern heat moves in. Roxie the psuedo sheepdog is loving the company in her usual solitary haunt and I now have another excuse to plant more seeds. Can it get any better?

Blackberry Jam Cake the simple way

Blackberry Jam Cake the simple way

Recently I saw an old-fashioned recipe for a Blackberry Jam Cake which just sounded fresh and delightfully rich. Being a slap-n-dash cook who loves cooking but never has energy for more than four ingredients and a ten minute preparation, I was daunted by the prospect of making a cake from scratch. Blackberry Jam Cake still haunted my thoughts until I finally decided to get creative and came up with the following recipe:

One vanilla, butter recipe, spice, or even chocolate cake mix
Required ingredients for mix prep according to box instructions,
omit 1/3 cup of water. 2 T. pumpkin pie spice, or throw in some of your favorites to equal- cinnamon,
nutmeg,
ground cloves,
allspice
½ jar of blackberry jam/preserves (small jar)
1 t. vanilla extract (or maple)
Chopped nuts if desired
Mix and pour into 13x9, tube, or bundt pan. Bake according to mix instructions. Cake is done when toothpick inserted in middle comes out cleanly without crumbs. Let cake cool.

Blackberry Glaze/Icing: Whisk together 3 T. blackberry preserves, ½ t. vanilla, and enough powdered sugar to match desired consistency (thinner for a moist glaze or thicker to drizzle as an icing, or even thicker to frost.)

You could of course use other flavors of preserves. I think a chocolate cake with apricot preserves is on the menu for this weekend at our house. If you live alone and only want to eat a small amount, separate a “safe” allotment of slices and take the rest to your employer’s break room, your church, and even take it to your neighbor. You will become popular. Life can be sweet!

Recycling ideas- ice cream cup lids

In cleaning up the kitchen, I discovered my son and his friend had left ice cream cups in the kitchen, the kind that the fast food restaurants use for ice cream with mixins and shakes. I was looking at the plastic lids (Domes with a hole in the top) and realized they were perfect for using to protect seedlings in the garden. They were ready to use and did not need cutting. They will stack up compactly to store unlike the mutilated water/soda bottles I was using. My son is now encouraged to buy ice cream and shakes- just bring me the lids!

What is growing now....

In the kitchen garden:
Beefsteak tomatoes, grape tomatoes,
California Wonder green bell peppers,
banana peppers, Lima beans,
cowpeas (black-eyed peas),
black beans, carrots, strawberries,
squash, zucchini, cucumbers,
basil, lemon basil, marigolds, chives
Queen Anne pocket melons,
One doubtful cantaloupe vine

A bay leaf plant with issues

In the garden beds:
lavender, zinnias (bright pink and orange),
mexican heather, scarlet salvia, valerian (red),
teddy bear sunflowers, Autumn Beauty sunflowers,
dwarf sunflowers, Knockout rose (red), dusty miller
& very tired daylily

Tiny shrubs in the making:
boxwood, forsythia, liburnium, sedum

In containers:
Begonias, double impatiens, rosemary,
english ivy, moss roses,
mini gardenias, scarlet salvia,
coleus

In the window sill (seedlings):
carnations, miniature roses
Jupiter's Beard, coleus,
chamomile, lemon balm
agastache (purple),
English Tasso daisies

Rain has returned

The drought is finally breaking; the garden is flourishing- with critters that is. I discovered hornworms this week. They look kind of cute in pictures especially when you think that they are a caterpillar that will cocoon into a big beautiful moth. There will be two less moths this year. My banana pepper and tomato plants are safe for now. The experience of oozing green hornworm carcasses still haunts me.

I have discovered vole trails around the garden and am watching to see what the impact will be.

I have learned that bush beans do send out vines and metal containers do not do well for planting here in Mississippi.

I harvested two tomatoes, a handful of green beans, a few banana peppers and a small bell pepper.

The Queen Anne pocket melons are resting nicely in their new bed, but are still slow to show progress. I am contemplating replacing the metal bottom and topless cans I put around them with a wire cage. They may not be getting enough sunlight.

I harvested a couple hundred zinnia seeds from my two plants just this week with a promise of much more to be had and have decided to winter sow a large bed with a mass planting of zinnias as I will have plenty of free seed to do so.

After months of trying to get marigolds growing from seed, I found four big thriving ones hiding under the lima beans. I guess they really do grow anywhere- Just not where I planned to put them.

The sunflowers have finally grown taller than their little twig fence, but the middle of the bed still has not sprouted its seeds. There may have been some plant sabotage there.

Lessons Learned: Metal containers do not work in places with high heat. Bush beans send out vines that need to be staked/trellised. Zinnia seeds are located just at the bottom of the petals and can be harvested when the bloom is spent. Hornworms can eat a banana pepper plant in an afternoon. Exterminate them by cutting them in half with a sharp cutting tool (Scissors, pruners). They make really good food for the birds.