What did I DO all Winter?

It's no secret that Winter in my gardens can simply last forever. 

I needed a project to keep me busy~busy~busy.   

There's only so much garden planning one can do before you enter the stark raving mad   

CrAzy ZoNe.

So what did I do all Winter?


I built another blog, of course!
My daughters and I are the resident authors and WE are having a BLAST.

Here's the latest post from  Our Sweet Lemons...
or you can just follow the link to see the site. Be sure to visit the About Us tab to get the inside scoop on my daughters... and me!

♦    ♦   ♦

In the south of France is a beautiful region bordering Italy and encompassing the French Riviera. This area, Provence, is well known for the fragrant herbs and flowers that are grown there.  I've had the pleasure of visiting this area and instantly fell in love with the rolling hills of sweet fragrance.

Herbes de Provence is a blend of common herbs  from the Provence region of France. 

These traditional herbs were first combined in the 1970's, and like curries, there is no set formula for blending Herbes de Provence. Traditional Herbes de Provence begins with rosemary, thyme and bay leaf, and then other available herbs are added to taste such as: basil, marjoram, bay, chervil, sage, savory, fennel, oregano, dill, tarragon, and lavender. Lavender flowers are common in the blends of Herbes de Provence that you find in the U.S.. They were added to appease the tourists who identify Provence with the many fields of lavender there.

Our family loves the flavors that Herbes de Provence brings to a dish. Though it is traditionally used as a rub to season meats, vegetables and fish, I use it generously in rice pilafs, soups, sauces and pastas... anywhere you want the taste of Mediterranean.

Herbes de Provence can be rather pricey.  

My local grocer sells it for $4.59 for a  .6 oz jar.
 Yeah, expensive... that would be $62 for 8 ounces.

I've found a great local source, which is also available for your online purchases:  Alison's Pantry.  Their blend includes a mixture of Marjoram, Savory, Thyme, Rosemary, Basil, Fennel, Sage and Lavender. I love the flavor that the Lavender adds to this blend.  I paid $4.69 for an 8 ounce package that I store in my own airtight containers. (These containers can also be purchased at Allison's Pantry.)

For that price, I can afford to use this delicious blend generously... and I do!

Every experienced cook has a different recipe for Herbes de Provence. You will find several on the web.  You may want to make your own blend. Experiment with the proportions and find the flavor blend that suits your palate best. Here's a recipe I found that you may wish to start with:  

Recipe for Herbes de Provence
Recipe by Emeril Lagasse

2 tablespoons dried savory
2 tablespoons dried rosemary
2 tablespoons dried thyme
2 tablespoons dried oregano
2 tablespoons dried basil
2 tablespoons dried marjoram
2 tablespoons dried fennel seed

Directions:
In a small mixing bowl, combine all the ingredients together. Store in an air-tight container.

Up next at Our Sweet Lemons... Provence Lemon Baked Cod... 
                  using Herbes de Provence of course! 

Frosty Morning Revelation

My walk in the frosty morning revealed that Spring is really happening...
and here we rejoice in even the smallest of steps.

Leaf buds on my Flame Maple

Autumn seeds of Flame Maple greeting swelling Spring buds

 
A delicate reminder of the past and a hope for the future.


 

Shhhh... it's a secret.

Mother Nature has a way of teasing us at the change of each season. Beautiful days of sunshine, temps creeping up into the 60's only to be followed by a burst of cold and snow. This is the pattern until Spring finally arrives in full splendor. 

While my gardens are just beginning to wake from their long Winter's slumber, it's the perfect time to prepare the flower beds before summer arrives.

I've learned a great secret in my 30 plus years of gardening.  

STAY AHEAD OF THE WEEDS. 

Seriously. 

It's amazing how fast those weeds grow even when the temperature is so cold.  The perennials and budding leaves need the sunshine to coax them from their sleepy state, but those pesky weeds seem to thrive in extremes of cold or heat.

A friend tells me that their family has mandatory weeding days - "Everyone go out and get 25 weeds out of the yard" - early in the Spring when everything is super wet and they slide out easily.   

  
When I was a child, my Dad paid me a nickle a weed to dig the dandelions from the lawn. Inflation may set the price a bit higher today, but it's a great way to keep your kids and grand-kids involved.
  
Our rule is to NEVER let a weed go to seed on your property, you will be battling that weed's posterity for a million years if you do... so don't!  

Stay ahead of the weeds now before the warmth of the sunshine invites them to multiply and replenish. But shhh...don't tell anyone I said so, because it's a secret.

Guess what I'm doing on Saturday?

Spring Dreamin'

Wish I were there...

Drum roll please.... SPRING has arrived.

She arrived just seconds ago...  on March 20 at 11:21 pm.  I'm so excited!  Of course it's too dark to see anything outside. But when the sun does rise...

will there be tulips blooming in my gardens?

Will there be blossoms in my trees?

Silly me... I must be dreaming.  I really shouldn't stay up so late at night to post.

This is what it looked like this morning from my gardens...

The calendar may say it's Spring, 

but Winter is still in my Mountains 

with fresh snow this morning..

I did find a little color to celebrate...

The Tulips may not be blooming 

but they're definitely pushing upwards.

Back to my dreams.

Bloom Day in My Window

No blooms outside today, but in my window there is beauty.

This geranium has been blooming her heart out since January's GBBD in my office window. This week a few snapdragons joined the show with more in bud. Their bright blooms bring joy to my soul.

Doesn't every gardener yearn to have blooms 

somewhere within her sight to feel that all is right in the world? 

I do.

So glad I brought this pot in last Fall... 

perhaps by next GBBD it will be outside in the sunshine 

with all the other Spring blooms.

A girl can dream, can't she?

Be sure to visit Carol at May Dreams Garden for more Garden Bloggers Bloom Day posts.

Spring Forward!

If only it were that simple. 

Yesterday was the perfect day to work in my gardens. My honey and I spent the morning sprucing up the flower beds, clearing out the ravages of Winter to welcome the coming of Spring. TULIPS love popping through the soil into a clean garden. I'm quite certain it has been proven in some scientific study that debris free gardens bestow HAPPIER, BRIGHTER, longer lasting tulips... and more cheerful gardeners! At least that's what I convinced myself to think as I toiled in the garden yesterday. 

The BIRDS were happy to see us, they sang delightful melodies to keep us company. Our aging bones required stops every now and then to recharge and their sweet songs cheered us on. We made our mark, though there is still much to do... another fine day. Today, Sunday, we rest.

Besides the two inch tulips rising from the soil, we were excited to find a few places with emerging green as we pulled the dead branches from the perennial garden, and a few more swelling buds on the trees and shrub.  Now we just need a bajillion rays of SUNSHINE to wake up this sleepy place.

Today is the beginning of Daylight Savings Time in our Utah gardens. We move our clocks forward an hour each Spring, if we don't... we're late for church today and anything else we have scheduled for the next six months. In the the Fall we move the clocks back an hour. Fall Back.

Spring Forward! 

Wouldn't it be nice if it were as easy as changing the clocks?

Fresh Spring Attire

Feeling Blue?  I tend to feel that way when my heart is shouting SPRING!  but my gardens are still dressed in patches of snow. I need something to chase away those Winter blues.

It's no secret that Spring comes rather slowly in my Utah gardens. The coming is actually more of an ebb and flow that elicits much anticipation but also requires a fair amount of patience. I'm really good at anticipation... but the patience requires a bit more effort. 

To celebrate my anticipation AND to help me forget about my lack of patience, I've dressed my blog in Fresh Spring Attire... sort of the "if I build it, she will come" kind of attitude. Besides, I need to give myself a blogiversary gift, 365 days and counting.

So here we go... Spring will officially arrive in my gardens on March 20th at 11:31 pm.

Something tells me I won't notice a whole lot of change here. Seriously, there are more signs of Spring in this blog than there are in my gardens right now.  But that will change... SLOWLY.

Spring comes slowly  here... much patience required.


Be sure to visit Katarina at Roses and Stuff for more Feeling Blue posts.

Thank You Dear Readers...

365 days ago This Grandmother's Garden began. 

The day was much like today...

snow on the ground, cold temps and a longing in my heart 

for Spring to arrive.

Today I re-post my very first post,

posted on March 9, 2010.

Turn your volume up and enjoy the music

from one of my favorite composers. 

Thank you dear readers...

 for your visits,

your sweet comments,

and your friendship. 

Without YOU, 
blogging just wouldn't be as much fun!

Music: "Hymn of Spring"
used with permission
Visit www.jonschmidt.com

Let the Swelling Begin!

The air is crisp and cold, tiny specks of moisture skip across my face as I walk through my gardens. I'm on a hunt... a hunt for something Spring.  I've long since discovered that in my Utah gardens there is always a 'tug of war' between Winter and Spring. Old Man Winter longs to linger but the lovely Maiden Spring is intent to show her sunny face.  So, back and forth they go, sometimes for weeks, until Old Man Winter finally gives in and the lovely Maiden Spring is declared the winner. We are in the midst of that "tug of war' now. More snow will fall in my gardens tonight as another storm approaches, but it will quickly melt as Spring has her way. This 'tug of war' is among our first signs that Spring is coming.

I discovered a few other signs on my morning walk...

Let the Bud Swelling Begin!

 Burkwood Viburnum

Their pinkish-white flowers are among the first blooms of Spring.

Their gardenia like fragrance will fill the air.

This upright shrub is semi-evergreen most years in my gardens.  

This year our viburnums have been a bit challenged due to the prolonged below freezing temps.

We need a little sunshine here.

Oklahoma Redbud

This is the hardiest redbud in my Utah garden.

We do grow Eastern and Forest Pansy, 

but Oklahoma endures the cold Winters and hot Summers so much better.

Those little buds are the flower buds. 

Enticed by the warmth of the sun, they will pop into a stunning display of tiny purple blossoms.

But first, we will need a little sunshine.

Crimson Sentry Maple

The tip of this bud shows the emergence of a new leaf. 

I've been watching these trees for several weeks and am thrilled to see this change. 

Keep in mind, my gardens have been covered in Winter Whites for months now, 

so we tend to celebrate tiny steps toward Spring.

More sunshine... please?

Tulip bulbs planted last Fall are just beginning to awake. 

I planted 200 of them. 

These are among the first to peek out from the beneath the soil.

Yes, we could use a little more sunshine here as well.

We'll have to wait a few more days...

Old Man Winter is such a tease.

The Sleeping Giant... Time to Go to Work

We've known for some time this was going to happen, just didn't know it would be here so soon.

The sleeping giant awoke.

Part one of this story was posted here..

Now he's awake, he's got a job to do.

I watched as he ate the bridge.

Nothing but rubble left within 10 minutes.

This is how it all looked when I left my office window perch. 

Imagine me with the screen off the window, hanging out with my camera and pink pj's.

Today the dirt piles extend well beyond my view. I must admit feeling a bit melancholy as I watched that bridge come down. We've been looking at that bridge for almost eight years. But the project is finally becoming reality.

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Adjacent to our property is the Provo Reservoir Canal. While the water isn't within our view unless we walk the trail adjacent to it, we've delighted in the wildlife the water has beckoned. We have known since we first moved here that someday that canal would be covered. Someday has finally come. 

"The Provo Reservoir Canal, also known as the Murdock Canal, is 21 miles long and carries water from the mouth of Provo Canyon to the Point of the Mountain. It is one of the main water delivery arteries to the Wasatch Front and is the largest canal in Utah County.

Enclosing the canal:

               • Provides greater public safety

               • Improves water quality

               • Conserves approximately 8,000 acre-feet water per year

               • Provides instream flows to help with the recovery of the endangered June sucker

               • Allows for the development of a recreational trail along the enclosed canal

The canal will be enclosed with 126-inch steel pipe. Just one ring of this pipe weighs almost 1,000 pounds. Imagine trenching and connecting 21 miles of giant pipe and snaking it through a heavily populated area and you start to get an idea of the enormity of this project, which will have the capacity to carry over 400 million gallons of water every day. Wow, now that’s a lot of water!"

This project, while talked about for years, will be completed in the Spring of 2012, all 21 miles of it. The completion will bring wonderful improvements. It's actually quite nice to have a front row seat to all of the excitement.

♦  ♦  ♦

Yesterday late afternoon I was looking out the window at the site, no workers or machines in sight, they all had moved well down the road from my view. Quite suddenly I saw our two ducks, the same ducks in my mind that we've have enjoyed watching since we first moved here. They always fly together and land in the canal just past my thinking spot each Summer's night at dusk. This was my first sighting of them since last Fall. I watched as they flew east along where the canal once was for as long as I could see them. I wondered what they were thinking as they searched for their nesting place but only saw miles of covered pipline. Their nesting place has been destroyed. I felt gratitude that it wasn't quite Spring yet when their lives would be a flurry with nest building and laying eggs.

Last Spring I took pictures of the ducks and their babies in that canal. Did I know that would be the last time they would ever nest there? I'm sure they will find other places to nest, nearby there are several, but I will miss them. I wonder about the other little creatures along this 21 mile stretch that once called this area home. Where will they live? Did they have time to leave before the sleeping giant arrived? 

Next Spring we will have a new nature trail to enjoy. 

That will be nice... but I'll still miss my ducks.