Category: <span>Gardening</span>

Baking

Zucchini: the vegetable of love (in our house, anyway)

I met my husband in the middle of a summer where I had a very prolific zucchini plant in my garden. I was wooing him with home cooked meals and baked treats, many of which contained zucchini. We haven’t had a garden for the past few summers for a variety of reasons (California’s drought, we were in the middle of a move/remodel, had a baby, etc), and I really, really miss the satisfaction that comes with feeding your loved ones with food you have grown. Read more “Zucchini: the vegetable of love (in our house, anyway)” →

Essential Oils

Dining outdoors annoyance-free, naturally!

Summertime means dining outside and dining outside usually means pesky annoyances. Did you know you skin is your body’s largest organ? Most of what you apply topically gets absorbed into your bloodstream. Although I’d like us all to enjoy our backyard as much as possible this summer without being bothered by pests, the idea of putting toxic chemicals on my family’s skin to deter them is even more unappealing than the pests themselves. Read more “Dining outdoors annoyance-free, naturally!” →

lemon blossom buds Family

Citrus Trees: Hardier Than I Expected

Let me start by saying that while I love flower and veggie gardening, I don’t really know much about trees. I produced some amazing tomatoes in large containers on the patio of my condo, I had some awesome raised beds (made by my awesome hubby) for veggies and flowers in the teeny-tiny back yard of our previous house, but I have never had reason or opportunity to select, plant and grow a tree. Last October Frank and I celebrated our fourth wedding anniversary (that’s Fruits and Flowers for you modern gift givers). We had also just bought a house that had a yard roughly three times the size of our previous yard. In an attempt at romantic and clever gift-giving, I bought Frank the gift of three fruit trees—a Bearss Lime, Meyer Lemon and Bacon Avocado. Tiny little tender trees. Right before the Godzilla El Niño winter. Read more “Citrus Trees: Hardier Than I Expected” →