We are going to have a glut of green zucchini and cukes, savoy, green and red cabbages. I am most looking forward to seeing if we can get some huge pumpkins and full size watermelons. I have yet to get a watermelon full term in my 20 plus years of planting. This could be the year.

I found some great deals on annuals and I brought home several varieties and colors of zinnias and cosmos, rudebika and marigolds. I built two new beds off of the side yards.

I think the coolest thing about gardening has to be the fun of eating raw right off the plants. I did steam up about 2 cups of peas, but we must have eaten most of them fresh from the vine. Break ‘em open, strip the peas and pop ‘em in your mouth. We also snap off pieces of broccoli. Andy has to have every guest try something - mostly his OCD arugula and mostly, they spit it out.

Rain has never been more welcome. The garden is so big and being on a well, we cannot hose it all down. So, we have to fill dozens of watering cans and two by two, carry them to the rows and slowly water - sometimes, morning and night. It takes about 2 hours.

Yes, it would be easier just to go the supermarket and BUY, but why??? I have the best of all worlds - the perfect career for me - one that I love and a place in city and the country. I am happiest when covered in dirt, uncovering worms and that is most of the time.

Rain expected tomorrow, but you can’t count on it. The weather scan station has become invaluable … new plants must be watered in religiously and we have about 50 container gardens between the deck, side yards and front porch.

Off to water, I guess.

mlk

June 19, 2008

The saga of my stones continues …

I am a bad, bad, bad patient. Here is a grown woman who proudly professes to know her own body inside and out so much if one freckle even appears to change, I am at the dermo.

Three months ago, I was told to take 2 /24 hour tests to see why I form kidney stones. Having had one afternoon in hell passing a stone the size of a nanno speck in excrutiating pain, I was determined to get to the bottom of this kidney betrayal immediately. How dare my kidneys form stones!!!

Have NOT done the tests. Just cannot get into carrying around the bottle to the studio, etc … bad, bad, bad patient.

I am now paying for my negligence - in hard, cold, painful STUCK stones.

So, if you’re wondering why I am not on air these days, well, part of it is due to lack of product inventory right now and part of it is chronic illness. Stay tuned.

In the meantime, while the stone is passing, I am spending my time trying to ignore the symptoms by gardening.

The garden looks good! All of my varieties of coneflowers are flowering and they are breathtaking! Yellow, orange, hot pink, ruby, green and white, double decker.

We added 3 more heirloom tomato varieties last night giving us close to 80 plants. Couldn’t believe Lowe’s had 7 heirlooms we had never heard of - Bradley, American Man, Mountain Pride, German Queen, to name a few. I have all 80 staked and tied. They have all overgrown the stakes - thanks, I am certain, to regular Spray and Grow feedings. All have blooms. Many have fruit.

Broccoli, lettuces, spinach, arugula, celery and peas are done. We have had the best time with peas. The pods were all big, fat and crammed with peas. We ate most of them raw right in the garden, tossing the pods as compost. I pulled all of the spent plants and we are reloading with flower seeds.

We have also picked several green zucchini, a japanese eggplant and tons of herbs. Yesterday, Andy added 40 silver queen corn plants, honeydews, watermelon and carrots.

Probably THE most exciting thing for us is the way the garden went from a craggy, dry, stone mess to a flourishing wildlife habitat. Our organic methods of farming have paid off in spades. The chopped leaves we used as compost in between the rows have not only kept down the weeds, but they also stay damp and attract tons of earthworms. When we initially dug out rows, there was not a worm in the house. It was sad. Today, because we amended the soil with homenade compost, composted mushroom soil and other goodies, there are enough worms to satisfy. We retrieved piles and piles of dead leaves that his aunt had collected in piles in her yard down the hill. We could not get to them weeks ago and thankfully so! When I went to spread them in the rows on Tuesday night, they were brimming with the biggest, fattest, squirming worms I have ever seen. The size of small snakes - seriously!!! We make 2 types of compost - one is in a tumbler that gets very hot and cooks. The other is in piles of scraps from the catering business that we turn with a pitchfork. The worms have come to know and love us - and we, them!

We also have tons of toads that never fail to give me a jolt - especially when I dig one up. My head says SNAKE … my eyes say TOAD! We have a ton of ladybugs which eat the aphids, praying mantis, which eat each other I hear … birds in our houses … and the sweetest hummingbirds.

I am heading out to the nursery today to see if I can get new seedlings of broccoli and spinach. Next to harvest will be cauliflower. We have about 6 huge white heads of it.

Summer begins tomorrow. Hope it is a lovely day for you.

mlk

June 12, 2008

First of all, a huge shout out to my former spouse who seems to find time in his day, every day, to stop by and read what is going on in my life … this one’s for you - thank you for gifting me with three of the universe’s most amazing and precious children … for 18 plus years of giving me the gift of being in the presence of a truly exemplary dad … for my freedom, dignity and wings when it was time to go. We are ever connected. We are ever a team. I am a better person today because of you … and I hope you feel the same about me.

Now, onto life …

I get a lot of questions directed my way and I am torn between whether I should keep my private life PRIVATE or divulge some its challenges and sweetnesses.

How about a happy mix?

Q: Tell me about your family. You are always mentioning that you are a mom on air at QVC …

A: I have 3 teenagers! Ryan will be 19 in July. Stephanie just turned 16 and Nicholas is 14. They are my world, my inspiration, as all three of them were blessed with unique challenges. Ryan was born with some serious cardiac and internal issues which required open heart and other major surgeries. He is an angel on earth. He never complains, even when his heart is acting up and we are in for another painful ER visit. He is kind, loving and so compassionate. His learning disabilities, while a setback, have never precluded him from life. One day at a time.

Stephanie is my autistic angel. She was diagnosed around the age of 2 and it has been a fast forward of intervention since then. For her own safety and because Ryan was so ill, we had to place her in a wonderful residential school not far from QVC when she was 7. This has been the best thing for her and for her brothers. She is doing very well. Although she does not speak and she requires constant care, she is so full of joy. I mean, she knows no other way. She is oblivious to war, the economy, hatred, crime … as of now, there is no cure for her. She visits us on weekends and loves Hannah Montana and raiding my snack basket.

Nicholas is a mini me only wth a dash of autism. He is creative, verbal, artistic and a complete rebel! If he had his way, he’d surpass high school and head straight for Disney Pixar studios where he can create. His future is going to be full and fun. He is driven, like me. Right now, he is growing his hair into this MOP … arg … one day he will ask me WHY I did not force him to cut it. Unless he ends up being bald like my brother.

I have three doggies that live with the aforementioned spouse - Sophie, an eskipoo, Sweetie Pie and Lucie Loo … both petite minature schnauzer diva dogs. I miss them, but I live in a second floor condo and the lady downstairs would call the cops on me more than she does if there were yappy little dogs here. (She has a problem with me walking around up here, running my shower too much, watering my plants and dripping down on her deck … I am waiting for the house to fall on her so I can steal the ruby slippers!)

I currently share my life with Andy. He owns a gourmet catering business, so it is nice to have a food link. He was actually an old boss from my restaurant days, though a year younger than me. We reconnected at a reunion last summer and the rest is history. He loves to garden, cook, the beach … and he can tolerate all of my quirky habits like cramming all of my produce in the fridge, overbuying snacks for the kids, hating to hang up my clothes when I get home from work and the Bare Esentuals make-up residue infilterating his sink. A small sampling of ME.

ml

The Joys and aches and pains of gardening!

Well, the peas are in. So is the mesclun, spinach, asparagus and varietal lettuces. Our greenhouse shelves are filled and the overnight lights are on and everything is growing! And, as each year promises and never fails to deliver — in go the seeds - OUT goes my back!!!

We have a HUGE garden. And I am brand new to this garden. You see, I am kind of a perfectionist in the garden industry. I like perfect rows. I like to take every nanno second necessary in prep work to keep the weeding to a minimum as the summer ensues. Black tarps down … everything staked. The farmer of this garden, however, enjoyed scattering the seeds hither and yon and letting nature take its course. So, the remaining bed is a mess o’ weeds and sticks and dead stuff. ARGGGG. It has been a never ending job of pull, yank, turn over, toss, recommit, move leaves, and I am unstoppable. I mean, I will keep shoveling until I drop. And I dropped several times over the weekend because we painted a kitchen in between plantings.

We have transplanted well over a thousand plants from my former yard into the Green Hills Farm. We are also moving all of the great soil from the old yard ~ memories of two years ago when I had 20 yards of composted mushroom soil dumped in a mountain in the side yard thinking to myself “how much can 20 yards be???” I think I still have traces of the steaming manure in my gardening gloves!!!