Think Green Not Grey...
Hello my Leap Year friends! Are you finished with February like I am? All the grey skies that turn the trees grey and did you ever notice how the air is even grey? And to add salt to our open wounds of cabin fever, the calendar gives us all an EXTRA day of grey this month. So...
Happy Leap Day! I'm leaping from Grey to Green!
And this is how! The one (okay maybe two) good things about February for me is this⤵️
Oh yea! I had lots of time to browse seed catalogs and online seed catalogs and plan for this year's cutting flower garden. Every year I fantasize about having an english cottage garden to match my "suburbia cottage" home. Last year was our first shot at growing a cutting garden and much to our surprise it was a huge success. I didn't buy ONE vegetable seed packet this year, just all flowers or herbs. We're leaving the vegetables to the successful local farmers and shopping the farmer's market this summer.
After looking online at different seed suppliers, hands down, one of my favorite has to be Floret. You may have heard of them, but if you haven't, you HAVE to check out Erin and her 2 acre farm. They have recently purchased some neighboring acreage and I cannot wait to see all the beautiful flowers they'll be growing. I just purchased her Cut Flower book at Half Price Books for a steal and am really wanting to purchase her new book that just came out and has already hit the Best Sellers List! You really need to visit her site here, or follow along on Instagram or facebook just for the pure inspiration and beauty!! The seeds pictured above in the brown packaging came from their farm and it came in a cute little brown paper package (just like the song 🎶) And look at the cute little sticker! ☺️ For me, the real inspiration is in all her dahlias. I LOVE dahlias and they were my favorite to grow last year. Unfortunately she isn't selling any this year, but I did find a supplier that I'm pretty excited to purchase from tomorrow morning! Unless you grow flowers for a living, you probably don't realize the competitive market for healthy dahlia tubers lol. I am slowly finding out all this "stuff". Tomorrow, with a password emailed to me, I will be able to shop for these tubers from this online store, but it's first come first serve, so you better know what you want...and I have my list! I've learned that although I like shopping at Lowes for annuals and local nurseries for some hard to find flowers, you really need to get online to find the specialty dahlias. So I'll be ready!!!
Now that all my seeds came in, I took out my handy dandy seed journal of notes and went through all the 'pre-seeding' instructions some have. Some seeds need to be refrigerated before planting, some need to be put in the freezer, and some need to be soaked for 24 hours or more. So yes, don't be surprised when you reach for a bottle of ketchup there'll be a packet of Larkspur or Bells of Ireland seeds. And don't mind the soaking paper towel full of Globe Amaranths, Four O'clocks, or Sweet Peas sitting on the window sill for a day or two. It's normal come February!
This year I ordered three different mediums on Amazon to start my own seed starting mixture. I felt it was cheaper to do it this way plus it made 6 gallons worth. Just so you know, after starting most of the seeds, I'm almost out of this mixture and still have about 10 more packets of seeds to start later in March🤦🏻♀️ And right now, my house has little trays spread out in front of picture windows, windowsills, and tables!!
This little 3 shelved greenhouse I picked up at a garage sale last year! I had the same one with four shelves, but had to throw it out after last year's planting season. It gave me a few good years, so it's now time to get a new one. I've been trying to convince Bill to buy 6 of them so we can hook them together on the deck in a horseshoe shape (2 on the side, 2 in the back, and 2 on the other side) so I get a feeling of "walking" in a greenhouse 😂. Unfortunately we live with an HOA and one of the bi-laws states no outbuildings or greenhouses. This problem could easily be solved if we built a CONSERVATORY onto our house😍😍😍
Isn't that just beautiful? Life goals right there! 🤞🏼
And February wouldn't be complete without Valentine's Day 💘 Did you do anything special? I refused to go out, being that it was a Friday and who wants to spend $10 on an individual salad since that's basically all we seem to be able to eat on this low carb no sugar diet. Yes, we (Bill and I) are still doing it. The guilt of cheating is so strong! We've been really really good and have only had ONE cheat meal. For Valentines we had our own little daylight (still to light for candles lol) meal that cost us less than any restaurant and we didn't have to wait in line.
Steak, stuffed mushrooms, vegetables, and a salad with homemade Japanese ginger salad dressing you'd get at Bennihana. Oh, and my favorite Bai water served in champagne glasses!😋 I even made a sugar free cheesecake that looked amazing on the outside but didn't set for some reason on the inside. Being that I refuse to give up, I found a new recipe a few days later and it is now our favorite!
Is that a blueberry topping? It sure is! And a hazelnut crust! NO SUGAR MY FRIENDS! And this past Tuesday was National Pancake Day so I made these wonderful very low carb pancakes and they are DELICIOUS!
Don't worry! We get lots of protein! These are just little treats we like to have because there literally is only so much protein you can eat! Thank God for the internet! And it looks like I'll be making another one of those cheesecakes this weekend...someone has a birthday Sunday and HE'S pretty much the love of my life so....
HAPPY BIRTHDAY BILL!
HOPE YOU GET LOTS OF CUPCAKES!😉
