In The Meanwhile: Let's Have Some Lemonade

There isn't much happening in the ole garden.  I mean, the basic stuff is going on; like growing.  There seems to be a lot of tomatoes getting ready and the cucumbers are finally looking like they want to vine and the greens on the potato plants are getting brown around the edges...but I haven't done anything worth mentioning.  The garden is doing all the work right now.

I thought I'd back track a little and tell you that we also garden in some containers on our deck to maximize your growing.  


We started our cherry tomato varieties in containers that we placed in raised, rolling stands (great for the back!).  These are wonderful because they don't need to be watered as much but I do make sure we put new soil in these every year or we add a lot of leaf grow to the existing dirt.  The nutrients, it seems, really get sucked up.




This year we felt like brainiacs and we grew lettuce, a spring variety, and spinach around the perimeter of each container.  We then put the tomatoes in the center.  Two plants per container seem to do the trick.  This was fantastic and we got some super tasty lettuce.  We have continued to replant lettuce but a summer variety.  The shade of the tomato plants make for a nice, symbiotic relationship and keeps us in some lovely lettuce.

Having little tomatoes, lettuce and herbs right on hand and an easy walk right out our sliding glass door to our deck is lovely for the lazy gardener.  Currently we have chives in one of those wooden barrels.  I'm not a big fan.  It is ok the first year but they seem to be a magnet for ants and after five years the metal rings holding the barrel together are falling off, leaving my chives in a precarious situation. Chives are wonderful and should be the first thing you attempt growing.  You can't kill them and they will make you feel super successful.  I'm not sure how they are going to like being transplanted once again.  This will be their third transplant and look at them... wild and wonderful.

  We also plant our herbs in these fantastic containers (have I mentioned that Gardener's Supply Company has been the best thing since sliced bread, or in this case beets).  These pictures are of when we first planted this year and what was left over from last year.  We had a mild winter and almost all my herbs made it through the cold.

One of my favorite herbs to grow is our basil.  We did Sweet Basil and Thai Basil (which has a stunning purple flower that attracts the ever helpful bees).  Basil is another herb for the first timer to start with.  I just made some Basil Lemonade for some friends and it seemed to be a big hit.  I thought is was refreshing and that the basil added a wonderful flavor to it that was unique.  I've added the recipe below.

Basil Lemonade

Ingredients:

1 cup white sugar
5 cups of water
4-6 lemons
Basil

1.  First, make a simple syrup.  Pour a cup of water and a cup of sugar into a sauce pan and heat until sugar dissolves and the liquid is clear.  Place to the side.

2.  Juice about 4 lemons to get 1 cup of lemon juice.  Depending on the lemons you might need more.  Our lemons were fairly big.

3.  In a container pour the simple syrup, the cup of lemon juice and four cups of cold water.  Mix or shake.

4.  Right before serving put in basil (chiffonade) and sliced lemons.  This is definitely better served over ice.

*If you'd like a more basil taste, put additional basil in the simple syrup and bring to a boil.