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Name The Bloom

Here follows some of the lovely blossoms and blooms that have made an appearance lately in our garden. Some are cultivated, some are volunteers, and some are serendipitous. Can you guess which are which? How many can you name? Scroll down slowly; the answers follow each picture.


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By 20 Minute Jan – May 11, 2010

Patio Herb Garden

Our neighbor had a new blue stone patio laid in her backyard two years back to replace an old, improperly-constructed flagstone patio that wobbled when walked upon. I’m not sure whose idea it was to include the circular herb bed in the middle of the patio, but I love it.

The herb garden is approximately 3 feet in diameter, and it’s generally planted with thyme, sage, chives, oregano, parsley, and rosemary. The sun-warmed patio seems to help the herb garden to off to a solid, early start each spring. It’s central location gives easy access to the herbs and makes weeding a breeze. The herb garden is one of those things that I wouldn’t have previously thought of including in a patio design, but now that it’s here, I think it’s great.

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By 20 Minute Jan – May 10, 2010

Spirea Tour 2010

To me, nothing says “spring” on the Old West Side like bounteous spirea shrubs in full bloom dotting the front yards.

This year, I am feeling rather triumphant in my foresight in making my Spirea Tour yesterday, with camera in hand. That means I have documented evidence of how gorgeous these shrubs are at their peak.

Tonight we are having thunderstorms in our area, and a tornado watch has just come to an end. There’s a wind advisory in place for tomorrow. All of that doesn’t bode well for the spirea blossoms staying attached to the bushes. I’m glad I photographed them when I did; last year, I wasn’t so lucky. 2010, however, proved glorious.

Here’s a little walking tour slide show of the spirea in the immediate area. I walked around the block, pointing and clicking… and smiling and sniffing. Spirea has a lovely scent.

Don’t look at the uncut lawns or the un-weeded flower beds, by the way. Or dandelions– specifically my dandelions. No one had time to stage the scenes.

And don’t notice that some of our houses need some paint or whatever. Houses are a challenge to keep up with, aren’t they? And 100 year old plus houses, even more so. Just concentrate on the spirea.

The blossoms given even the humblest home a touch of class.

I love the huge, hanging branches, drooping under the weight of all those flowers.

Even bushes that have been trimmed or shaped are beautiful. Spirea is very forgiving.

From the sidewalk…

Or up close…

Spirea welcomes spring in style.

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By 20 Minute Jan – May 7, 2010

Busy as a Bee

A couple of Saturdays ago, Jim and I attended a workshop on Beekeeping hosted by one of our favorite local garden haunts, Downtown Home and Garden. The two beekeepers who presented did a fantastic job of explaining an awful lot of information about getting started and maintaining bee hives. We are convinced that beekeeping would be fun and very worthwhile. It’s late in the season to begin a project from scratch and we have enough to keep us busy for the moment, so we are putting “Start keeping bees” on the top of the list of plans for next year. We’ll write more about what we learned in another post.

I had bees on the brain when we came home. While I was taking pictures of the garden, I caught sight of this good-sized bumble bee getting well-acquainted with the flowers on the ground cover in our neighbor’s yard. I know she’s not a honey bee, but she was fascinating nonetheless.

Not a Honey Bee


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By 20 Minute Jan – May 5, 2010

First Asparagus

I didn’t learn to like asparagus until I was an adult.
I didn’t fall in love with asparagus until we started to grow it in our garden.

Enjoying the first asparagus of the season is like falling in love all over again.

Although we can assert that homegrown vegetables served right out of the garden are superior to anything purchased elsewhere, eating fresh homegrown asparagus is a very different experience than store-bought asparagus. The taste is far sweeter. The stalks are so tender– not a hint of fibrousness. We had a hard time not making yummy noises with every bite.

Shortly after we put in our asparagus bed, we purchased an asparagus steam pot. I’m not sure where we bought it (I’ll check with Jim), but since we tend to buy things on sale, we probably did that. Ours isn’t a major brand pot but it looks exactly like this:

There’s a side to me that thinks, oh, we could have lived without this pot. The smarter, more experienced side of me values the pot for what it is: the perfect tool for the job. The stalks come out tender without drying out the tips. To prepare asparagus, I put about an inch of water in the bottom of the pot, remove the steamer basket, and set to boil.

A quick dash to the garden with a sharp knife in hand yields a good handful of a couple dozen stalks. I prefer to cut off the stalks near ground level.

My next preparation step comes via my friend Amy, probably from a conversation 20 years ago. We learned to cook together, sharing our wisdom and puzzling over cookbooks to discover how to make the best blueberry jam and finding out that homemade croissants were an awful lot of work for very little bang. She told me that you bend along the stalk from the tip end and snap off the asparagus stalk at the spot where you meet resistance; that way you get the tender part of the stalk, not the more fibrous, less delicious part. It always works for me.

The snapped stalks go into the steamer basket, and then I run them under cold water to clean them off. Our plants have no spray or chemicals, so I’m just getting off any dirt or debris. Then into the pot. I cook them for 4 or 5 minutes tops, and then we enjoy every bite.

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By 20 Minute Jan – April 21, 2010