The First Day of Spring & the Small Details of Progress

New Retail Area Under Construction

I have come to realize that writing the Garden Blog is a lot like gardening: It has to be done every week. My son Travis gives me the nudge on the blog while weeds and bare spaces in my garden move me along there. We have so much to do this year that getting into the garden is a rare treat. Everyday I think I will get to dig up those wild onions in the peony border, grub out the running grass. A day later, the onions are taller the grass runs farther.Taking time to garden is a luxury. How can people think of it as work? I will admit, in the heat of summer when the weeds are having sway in the garden, it is a tiny bit difficult to muster up the energy to engage the enemy...but in the cool of a spring morning I still have delight in my gardening. The big garden has matured to the point where all kinds of birds and small creatures call it home. It affords them great cover from my cats, who garden with me but seem uninterested in the wildlife at that time of the morning. We're all happy just to be out in the garden in the cool morning air...but this is jumping ahead. This is spring and if I write really fast I may just get some of the dreaded onions out (my own pet peeve).

Peony

We have been having friends over for Sunday suppers the last few weeks. It is our social swan song for the season. Everyone wants to see the new pond and retail area. I get to see it with fresh eyes again. We were such innocents in regard to how we were going to set the whole thing up. Our way is to get it generally the way we want it and spend more time and energy fixing it later.  Right now, the new garden looks like a runway to me: too long and wide. We are going to change it, make it smaller with a curve around our new rain garden, (OK the rain garden we will develop as soon as we get our new main garden squared away and after we put up the next greenhouse to house the annuals for this year...are we really opening on April 7th?).

I thought I would pass along this recipe I found this week. It sounds really good and I get to use some of our fresh herbs (lucky me to have greenhouses full of them).

Strata with Goat Cheese, Tomatoes, and Herbs

• 1-tablespoon olive oil
• ½ pound stale country bread, sliced about ½-inch thick
• 2 large cloves garlic, 1 sliced in half, the other minced
• 1-pound fresh tomatoes (about 3 medium) sliced 1/3-inches thick
• 1/3 cup Gruyere cheese, grated
• 1/2 cup goat cheese, crumbled
• 1 tablespoon fresh rosemary, chopped
• 2 teaspoons fresh thyme
• 1-teaspoon kosher salt
• ½ teaspoon black pepper
• 4 large eggs
• 2 cups milk

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Oil a 2-quart baking or gratin dish, Rub the bread slices with garlic halves. Mix the minced garlic with the tomatoes, season with a pinch of salt and pepper, and set aside. Layer half the bread slices in the baking dish. Top with half the reserved tomatoes, half the cheeses, half the herbs and half the salt and pepper. Repeat the layers. Beat together the eggs and milk. Pour over the bread-tomato mixture. Place the dish on a baking sheet and bake for 40 or 50 minutes until puffed and browned. Serve hot or at room temperature.

That's all for this week! Time to get out in the garden and meet the first day of Spring!