« spring cleaning | Main | go, Alice, go »
May 30, 2006
Some last-minute green projects
Saturday's yard sale netted us enough to buy ourselves supper and coffee, lunch the next day and more coffee, and about twenty bucks worth of plants for the garden. So on Sunday, we finally pulled up the tarp that's been making us look like the Sanford and Son of the neighbourhood for almost a year now, and after rejoicing for a moment in the sight of all that dead grass (or "F-U", as a fellow grass-hating friend likes to call it), we dug up about a third of the yard, turned in some peat and manure and got down to the planting. The long-term plan is to move the steps from the side of the porch to the front and replace the porch, but for now we'll plant the garden around the nonexistent new steps, pull the godawful siding off the front of the porch and slap a coat of paint on the original railings that lurk beneath.
We've decided to scrap (for now) our plan of having this front garden all native plants in favour of just getting it filled up with things we know will spread fast. Here's the map of what we've put in so far, which I'm pretty sure I'll need to refer to next spring since I can't ever remember what I've planted from one year to the next:
1. sedum (the little kind that looks like worms), from Owen and Pat
2. blue-eyed grass, from Owen and Pat
3. primrose, bought with yard sale profits
4. ajuga, bought with yard sale profits
5. some kind of lily, came with the house
6. bachelor's button, came with the house
7. spider wort (purple flower), from Owen and Pat
8. mystery plant (that spreads like crazy) from Owen and Pat
9. another mystery plant from Owen and Pat
10. columbine, two kinds: a dark red one and the lighter red one that's native to here; bought with yard sale profits
11. daisies, from Owen and Pat
12. honeysuckle, came with the house
13. forsythia bush rooted from a branch stolen from the bush on Caroline's parents' old property in Kingsville, after someone else had bought it
14. we think this is some of the echinacea, from Mikell's place
15. spider wort (white flowers) from Owen and Pat
16. cardinal flower, bought with yard sale profits
17. hosta from my old place in London; this is its fourth and final home
And the bonus plant, so tiny I missed it when assigning numbers: siberian aster, bought with yard sale profits (I keep wanting to type "winnings" there)
The mystery plant (#8) is pretty, whatever it is.
Because Monday was the hottest and most humid day of the year so far, clearly it was time to do some canning (hey, I'm a rocket surgeon now, remember?). I put up a small batch of kiwi chutney, just in the nick of time since we've just run out. Here's a little photo essay of my afternoon, minus the boiling water and sweat (I also decided to boil up a pile of potatoes for home fries, since I'm some kind of glutton for punishment. Today I'm making salads, and we're eating a gloriously cold supper).
chopping
mixing
boiling that whole mess down
finally, seven lovely half-pints, well worth the suffering
Being rather fond of superlatives I'll quite happily state that this chutney is the best ever; we eat it two ways, either on top of a tomato and chick pea curry, or spooned onto a chunk of 4 year old cheddar on a wheat thin (a staple at our parties). The recipe is from the Bernardin Guide to Home Canning.
Posted by jodi at May 30, 2006 10:51 AM | categories: green thumb? : project spectrum : projects
Comments
I'm. So. Hungry.
Posted by: Sandy at May 30, 2006 11:33 AM
Sounds delish.
Any time someone talks about canning it takes me back to my bartender days when we had wierd grammatical errors on a bulletin board behind the bar. My favorite was from the "alternative" weekly with a lovely image of a woman with a whip advertising someone who specialized in "Spanking and Canning".
Nuff said.
Posted by: liz at May 30, 2006 06:16 PM
Your mystery plant #8 is a euphorbia, common name: spurge. There are about a million varieties, some of which spread so quickly they are considered invasive. The US government is mainly fighting 'leafy' spurge in warmer climates (http://www.invasivespeciesinfo.gov), so maybe Ontario is safe? At any rate, it might be worth finding out which one you've got!
Posted by: Liz at May 30, 2006 09:32 PM
Glad the yard sale went well. Sunday must have been the day for planting we finally went and got some flowers and veggies for our garden. And they haven't died yet so there is hope that maybe we can actually get stuff to grow. Hmmm chutney, now I wanna can, damn you.
Posted by: Krista at May 30, 2006 10:18 PM
Hi Jodi, I've been a longtime reader and just wanted to tell you, I haven't stopped in for a while but I think all of your work, knitting, prints, etc. are beautiful and that you inspired me to take a printmaking class next semester, so thank you!
Posted by: Whitney at May 31, 2006 04:06 AM
I'm really impressed by people who have the forsight to do a smart thing like canning. Especially when it's for something as yummy yummy sounding as kiwi chutney. Is it as hard as it looks?
Posted by: Jenna at May 31, 2006 05:38 PM