February 28th

Not much was happening here during February.

But, since most of the really cold weather

is gone, things are beginning to bud.

Yay!

I love to be in the garden.

Even just sitting on the patio while the menagerie 

tries to get my attention, is relaxing.

Speaking of the menagerie,

the cat, Miss Minew, hasn't been

eating much. I thought she may be sick

so I offered a little warm milk

and some tuna.

Nope!

She's not sick, just really picky.

She doesn't like the dry kibble 

I got from Aldi's.

So,

I tried to hide it with more milk...

Nothin' doing.

She was wise to me.

Then I tried to mix in more of the tuna.

Well, she ate the tuna - left the kibble.

Tried some peanut butter, thinking it'd

stick to the kibble and she'd have to eat it.

Again no dice.

She licked off  the peanut butter!

Well, at least the kitty kibble won't go to waste

because the feathery Hoovers will vacuum it up.

Chickens aren't terribly choosy.

Thank goodness!

🐔🐔🐱

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A small harvest of carrots and broccoli

The carrot patch

When they are almost ready for harvest,

they'll poke their heads out of the soil.

These are "regrows", meaning,

we ate the bottoms and re-planted the tops.

Beets.

We sometimes eat the leaves as salad

when we don't have any other salad greens.

Potatoes.

Root veggies behave the same way as carrots.

When they are ready to harvest, they poke

out from the soil too.

Green cabbage

Purple cabbage

Tomatoes.

They already have yellow flowers!

Broccoli.

We've harvested from these

 plants several times so far.

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Lemon grass and mint.

Aloe Vera.

Most of it died in the freeze,

but we were able to save some,

and it's coming back!

I love succulents.

The CEO got a few pieces, and

now we have quite a few different kinds.

These are Kalanchoes.

My sweet potato vine is coming back too!

We planted a few gladiola bulbs 

and they are sprouting.

Everything that was in these containers

died in the freezing weather.

Many of our amaryllis bulbs died,

but these are a few of the more hardy ones.

Mary's Garden

Potted Kitty

We tried to grow sprouts.

These particular ones are lentils.

The chickens would only eat 

them if we plucked them from the 

pan and hand fed it to them.

The cat actually tried to eat one then 

spat it out and walked away.

She looked at me as though she discovered

a turd in her food bowl and I was

the culprit who placed said turd there!

More lentil sprouts.

The girls are just examining them.

They wouldn't even try to bite them.

Prima donnas!

Oh, well,

 experiment failed! 

This is called a pot marigold.

It's classified as a wildflower.

All parts are edible.

This is a Virginia Stock.

Yes, it's a wildflower that is edible.

I had a few flowers on my salad.

Same with this Cosmos.

The red flower is a snapdragon

and the white ones are Voilas or 

members of the pansy family.

These are edible too.

Red snapdragons

Purple voilas

Red voilas

Yellow snapdragons

Here's a really neat thing to do with these 

colorful flowers, other than eating them in salads.

Take a 1/2 cup of granulated sugar,

and several flowers of the same color,

(I used the purple voilas)

and remove the petals from the stalk,

then, place all of it into a blender.

After it's ground up well,

spread it onto a parchment lined

cookie sheet and allow to dry.

I used my dehydrator, but it can

be air dried in a warm dry place.

Then when it's fully dried,

put it back into the blender to

pulverize. It's now a great addition

to tea. 

(I washed the flower before using)

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Chickens on patrol.

This is Ethel.

That's wood shavings hanging on her butt.

Lucy, looking cute.

Same kitty, different pot.

I have a bunch of dried parsley leaves

I'm gonna try this and freeze

whatever I don't use.

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Getting ready for St Patrick's Day

Not much, 

but it's all green!

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Here are a few lessons I learned from the Beatles...

1) Don't carry the world upon your shoulders.

2) The love you take is equal to the love you make.

3) Living is easy with eyes closed.

4) I get by with a little help from my friends.

5) Here comes the sun, it's alright.

6)Money can't buy me love.

and, my favorite,

7) Life is very short and there's no time for

fussing and fighting my friend.

💙💚