Bees!

A couple of months ago, Jake's friend Brian mentioned that his grandpa, a super experienced and successful gardener, could get me some bees for my garden since there seems to have been a recent decline in the local bee population. And as you know, bees are important in a garden. After all, I don't want to have to go around artificially pollinating my squash blossoms with a paint brush. So, you can imagine my delight when I discovered 3 beautiful, fuzzy bumble bees perched on my garage wall, right by my garden this weekend. It was such an amazing and odd discovery. Last year, I probably wouldn't have even noticed them. And if I did, I would have probably run away for fear of being stung (I know...I tend to be a little dramatic when it comes to insects, especially arachnids). But instead, I squealed with delight, "Bees!!!" I just know it's a sign of good things to come.

I got my root vegetables started this weekend - carrots and purple potatoes. I also planted more herbs from my grandma (sage, rosemary, basil, peppermint, and cilantro), dill from Amy, two raspberry plants, yellow onions, nasturtiums (pretty little orange and red flowers with broad green leaves), and peas.




On a foodie note, I made a delicious lentil soup tonight from Deborah Madison's awesome cookbook called Vegetable Soups. It was a recipe for Rustic Lentil Soup with Spinach. In this recipe, before you add the water and lentils, you saute the onion and vegetables (I used Jerusalem Artichoke) and then add a bit of Dijon mustard. Then, you reduce that with a little bit of red wine. The soup ends up with this amazing rich flavor. Definitely a twist on the usual lentil soup I whip up. Then, I made a super simple and delicious dairy-free slaw-like salad. I shredded one rutabaga and one Jerusalem Artichoke. Then, I put the shredded veggies in a bowl, drizzled it with olive oil, and squeezed the juice of a half of a lemon over it all. Then, I threw in some sunflower seeds and pumpkin seeds, added some sea salt, mixed, and enjoyed. I think it's going to be even better tomorrow. Thank you, farmer's market, for inspiring me to try something new!

In other gardening news, I got some great garden birthday presents this year. I have to send a big shout out to all of my amazing friends for being so thoughtful and for contributing to the success of my garden with these super fun accessories. Radhi gave me a subscription to Organic Gardening Magazine and is paying for me to take another Seattle Tilth class! Stay tuned for posts about what I'm learning. My Grandma Inez gave me lots of yummy herbs to plant in my garden. Bette got me this adorable pot that looks like a giant coffee cup and saucer. Jake gave me a super cute pair of garden clogs and the book I've been wanting called The Busy Person's Guide to Preserving Food. Moni gave me a handy garden apron and a new pair of gloves. And last but not least, Rachel and Gabe gave me that crazy, guitar-playing frog in the picture above. His name is Hal.

Finally, I discovered another cool garden blog called Heavy Petal thanks to the fantastic blog I follow, Diggin Food. I added the new blog to my "Links" list on the side bar. You should check it out. Aren't the hand stamped plant markers so cool?