Art Design 4 Garden

Showing posts with label nature. Show all posts

Monday, November 17, 2014

Close to nature

The mountains (0f the Southern Appalachians) are nearby, and thats a good thing. Theyre covered with lovely forests (post early-20th century logging), rich in species, and wonderful to visit. I needed to drive up to Asheville today, in the center of Western North Carolina, and even though I didnt have time to hike anywhere, appreciated the beauty of our weathered mountains.

Monday, November 3, 2014

First Potato Harvest w a few nature shots

I was flipping through a magazine and read about a recipe for new potatoes cooked on the grill. It looked really good so I thought I am going to investigate weather I have any potatoes under the massive potato plants. I crouched down and started digging with my hands, low and behold I found some. I then fired up the new grill and proceed to the kitchen to get these puppies going.

The recipe was for Parmesan New Potatoes and called for tin foil, olive oil, seasoning, new potatoes and parmesan cheese. I started by making a tin foil pouch, then add a few table spoons of olive oil and proceed with the new potatoes, halved/quartered if needed. Once this is done season with what ever you prefer and place them on the grill with an opening left in the foil pouch for the stem to escape. When you have about 10 minutes of grilling time left added the parm to the potatoes leaving just enough time for the cheese to melt and just start to get a little brown and crusty. They tasted great, are easy to make and defiantly worth sneaking a few potatoes from the garden.

Asides from harvesting the first few potatoes, I have also been busy with fall crops. I have started broccoli transplants for the third time, I really dont want to get into it but lets just say it was a combination of mother nature and my laziness. This time they are growing to grow and I have also mail ordered row cover to keep the cabbage butterflies off them once they are in the ground. I also direct seeded turnips yesterday and sprayed the cabbage butterfly larvae that are on my brussel sprouts. Arent bugs fun?

I have also been out with the camera again so here are a few more shots I have taken:

A Native Bee pollinating one of the cucumber flowers

I saw this huge wasp on the Veronicastrum out front of the house. My first instinked was the run into the house. I then found the courage to venture outside on the porch, 1 foot from the door and take this picture with a zoom lens. Im so brave! The picture is a little diseving because this wasp is over 3" long with has a body thickness of 1/2".

Updated: I have done a little research and found out that this wasp is most likely a Sphex pennsylvanicus- Great Black Wasp. It even has a mean name.

This is a Cedar Waxwing that I got a shot of in a Mulberry Tree. It was on the bike trail about 5 blocks from our home.

This is a Fledgling Robin that was eating some berries. This birds was in the treed lot behind our yard.