Tiny Salad Gardens

The weatherman predicted storms for the week, but every day when I awoke I found sunshine and not a cloud to be seen. Yesterday was a different story. Gray clouds billowed against the mountains, and the new petals on some of our fruit trees whirled past me like snowflakes.

A gray day is a perfect time for planting

Too cold for a nightgown and so I wore my best robe, which I had promised NOT to wear in the garden. I always wipe my hands on my "work" clothes. My professional spoon trowel, which was once my Grandmother's, is used for most of my transplanting and working in pots.

Jeff worked hard to get our last Santa Rosa plum into place. It wasn't a matter of simply digging a hole though; it entailed digging out a network of salvia roots that needed some axe work. But finally, after an hour of back breaking sweat-time, he got the tree in and set. It looks like a 6' tall pencil with a couple of nubbins, but I'm already envisioning a fresh plum dripping sweet juice as I bite into it (in a few years).

Looks pitiful now, but it will be magical in a few years. I seeded poppies all around the base of the tree

I hurriedly planted two kumquats in large terra cotta pots and surrounded them with dianthus and mache. I use the flowers in my salads and baking. I planted another two troughs with mini salad gardens filled with edible viola and various lettuces, and another two pots with kale and parsley. Around the bay tree my friends Susie and Ellis Bassetti gave us as a housewarming, I set out more lettuces and violas and the only inedible thing in the kitchen garden, Cambridge blue (that wonderful sky blue) lobelia. I just need to have that trailing down the sides of the pot and spilling like a pool onto the soil. They self sow readily, and I always have dozens of little volunteers surrounding the bay.

A big terra cotta pot holds a salad garden and the bay tree given to us as a housewarming gift

Today is the un-birthday, birthday party for my grandson Asher. His wish was for a big, red (his new favorite color) cake. So I baked great Aunt Audrey's red cake and did my friend Susan Branch's cream cheese frosting (from Heart of the Home), which I tinted red too. Sparkly red sprinkles topped it off. I hope he loves it.

Remember that there will NOT be a get together at Susan Branch's farmstand tomorrow. And a good thing that was cancelled. It rained burros and ponies today and more is forecast for Saturday. Join us all on February 20th for an old fashioned tag sale, book signing, and an offering of GREAT homemade foods presented by Amy O'Kane, Ellis and Susan Bassetti from Cambria, and more.

Until next time I send love out to all of you,

Sharon