The growing that will happen at the end of the tunnel

Today is day 9 in the hospital, and the walls are definitely starting to cave in on me.

The incessant beeping, fluorescent lighting, doctors and nurses at all times, needles, tubes, endless medications... It all wears a person down. Not to mention I have never been away from the Irish Boxer Husband (who visits everyday), Monkey (who has been brought by once) and Lion Cub (who charms all the nurses) for this long. And the garden, too! Thank goodness for my wonderful friends who do all they can to keep me sane and fighting.

So to try and stay positive, I figured I would start planning out my 2014 growing. In a fit of just-because-I-am-stuck-here-doesn't-mean-I-can't-do-some-damage, I ordered a mess load of fruit trees. I also have all the seeds I ordered and also saved from last year's crops. So in a nutshell, here is what I am setting myself up for, existing and new:

Trees/fruit

• Low Chill Apple, 3 on 1 
• Flavor Grenade Zaiger Pluot
• Gold Kist Apricot 
• Burgundy Japanese Plum 
• Saturn Peach Tree 
• Black Beauty Fruiting Mulberry 
• Snow Queen Nectarine 
• Hachiya Persimmon 
• Fuyu persimmon
• Desert Gold Peach
• Babcock Peach
• Garden Prince Almond
• Spice Zee Nectaplum
• Meyer lemon
• Mexican lime
• Nagami kumquat
• Black Mission fig
• Hass avocado (he needs a friend!)
• Raspberries (Heritage, Fall Gold) and Blackberry (Triple Crown)
• Southern low-chill blueberries, I forget the exact types
• Sequoia strawberries

Vegetables

• Tomatillos, green and purple
• Tomato: Amish Paste, rainbow cherry mix
• Green Globe artichoke
• "Summer Melody" squash mix
• Kabocha squash
• "Mixed fingers" eggplant mix
• Bush beans: Contender, Tendergreen
• Pole beans: yard long, Rattlesnake
• Buttercrunch lettuce
• Cucumber: lemon and straight eight
• Peppers: Chinese Giant and Tam's Jalapeño
• Red orach -- very curious about this one!
• Garlic: Music, Russian Red, Elephant, CA Early have all been planted along with shallots

Herbs

• Basil basil basil!
• Cilantro, slow bolt
• Garlic chives
• Chives
• Thyme
• Maybe a few others... IBH got me a pack of seeds and many I am not even familiar with

Flowers

• Sunflowers
• Nasturtium
• Cosmos (no choice here -- they are volunteering all over the place)
• Calendula
• Wild flowers

I don't know where I am actually going to *put* all of these... But it should be an exciting summer!

Yellow and green - Korean side dishes

If you've ever had an authentic Korean meal, you know that any entree you order will be accompanied by a variety of side dishes, or "banchan." Having a tiny bit of this, and a bit of that... you're guaranteed a well-rounded meal. I love the way that the dark green and light yellow of these two dishes look together, so often will plate them side by side.

"Spinach" and soybean sprout side dishes (banchan)

The "green" is typically made with spinach, but I had a messload of tatsoi (a type of mustard green) in the garden that needed to be cut and it worked out just fine. You could probably use swiss chard, collard greens, or just about anything in that family. I picked up organic soybean sprouts at the Korean market but you can also sprout your own.

First, wash your greens. You want them clean. :-)

Bring some salted water to a boil, and drop your greens in; spinach wilts very quickly, but tatsoi took just a minute or two longer... you want it all well-wilted but not completely disintegrated so keep a close eye. It shouldn't take long.

Then you drain the greens and squeeze out the water.

In the spirit of efficiency, I used the same salted boiling water to cook my "yellow" -- the soybean sprouts -- for about 5 minutes.You want them to no longer be crunchy but definitely not mushy.

I then drained the sprouts as well.

The same seasoning was used for both. Sorry this isn't very precise, but I totally took a pinch-of-this-and-dusting-of-that approach.

• Splash of soy sauce
• Just a few drops of sesame oil
• Dusting of red pepper flakes
• Salt and pepper to taste

 Two friends, made to be together!

Taking the time

I've probably mentioned this before, but Irish Boxer Husband and I both work full-time at demanding jobs. We have a very busy five-year-old Monkey who has birthday parties, playdates, swim lessons and school functions. Then we added a five-month-old Baby Bluebird (soon to be renamed Lion Cub, BTW) to the mix. Last year we bought a house on a half acre and proceeded to completely gut and renovate the interior... and when it was about 95% done, we started to move mountains outside to reshape the landscape completely.

All this to say, we don't have a lot of spare time on our hands. I can't remember the last time we went to see a movie -- wait, yes I do... it was more than 6 months ago -- and we've had exactly one date night since Lion Cub was born. I'm naturally an introvert, and crave peace, and quiet, and calm, so it's silly little chores like shelling peas (when's the last time you shelled peas?!?) that help me maintain my sanity.

It's been a challenging few weeks... months... okay years... but something as simple as my Lincoln peas finally gearing up into full production so that I can get more than a handful of peas at a time is what keeps me balanced nowadays.

Dinosaur plants

What a crazy month it's been... on top of all the usual, we had some extra doses of drama and chaos that made this year even more challenging. But the Monkey declaring "This has been the best Christmas ever!" made all the troubles fade into the background, even if only for a day.

One of the running jokes between the Irish Boxer Husband and I is his inability to keep a secret, especially when it comes to gifts. He had no choice but to give me this one early when I declared, a few weeks before Christmas, that all I really wanted was a plant. Well, he had one already in the mail, so out it came (and off he went to go look for something else that could still be a surprise).

This plant is interesting. The "dinosaur" stuff may be a little heavy on the marketing, but it was truly remarkable to see a ball of dried-out grass turn into a lush green plant in just an hour.

The outside of the box:

He actually bought two. Here's what they looked like when I unwrapped them. Not much to look at...

 Set it up in a little dish with some lava rock...

Add a teensy bit of water... and then wait all of TEN MINUTES.

Twenty minutes later, you see green, and unfurling action...

Thirty minutes later, lots of green and a pretty rosette shape...

 After an hour or so, here's how it looks. Quite a dramatic transformation for just an hour.

It actually started to mold a little bit after a week or so, so IBH put them outside and sure enough they turned right back into dried grass balls. If you want your very own, you can find it here:

The Amazing Desktop Dinosaur Plant

A Pre-historic Evergreen That Just Won't Die This one-of-a-kind plant has lived on the Earth for over 290 million years and has the ability to “come back to life” (much like the undead) over and over again for hundreds of years! Simply place this seemingly dead ball of foliage in water and within hours it transforms into a vibrant green blood-sucking evergreen. Ok, we are kidding about the blood-sucking part. It's still amazing though! It's also great for lazy folks since you can forget to water your Dinosaur plant whenever you want! It will simply dry up and hibernate for up to fifty years and will spring to life every time it is given water.

Some Interesting Tidbits about your Dinosaur Plant:

• During the Carboniferous period these plants used to grow over 120 feet tall (bigger than a T-rex)
• When dry it curls up into a tight ball so that the wind can easily roll it to a new location or cubicle, hopefully closer to moisture.
• Retains 3% of its water when it is dehydrated.
• Grows to be about 4"
• Enjoys life so much it survived the Ice Age

Kit includes:

• Live Dinosaur Plant (Selaginella Lepidophylla)
• Bag of genuine Volcanic Lava Rock
• Display Bowl