Gardening 101

In the old old days, Miss Patty Chance and I, along with another friend Tony, used to have huge gardens that we tended every day.  We would have contests to see who could grow the biggest and best onions or the largest tomatoes.  I never won any of those contests, but it was fun to try.

We even tried growing weird things like purple potatoes, brussels sprouts and peanuts.  Who would have thought peanuts would grow in California?  One of my truck driver friends who had family back East, brought me a bunch of seed peanuts from some amazing variety I'd never heard of.  They grew like crazy, although I remember the growing season being something like 9 months long!!

I would hang all my garlic and onions encased in my expensive nylons, from the rafters in the garage.  Many times they became Christmas presents!!

All of that is a thing of the past since I can't have a garden while traipsing around the country in my motorhome.  I do occasionally replace plants in the yard however, like this butterfly bush that is beginning to show purple blooms.

I've never taken a Gardening 101 class, so many times my plantings don't survive.  I'm not sure if my gardening skills rival my cooking skills, or if it's the Roundup overspray from the gardeners.  I DO know the weedeater guy gets carried away!  I'm hoping this beauty survives to block the view of the beautiful sprinkler valves.

Everywhere I go in the yard, Cooper "helps".  Kind of like a spoiled kid, he makes a LOT more work for me.  I'm either slithering under the motorhome to get the ball, or I have to stop what I'm doing ..... like here ..... to retrieve his ball.  Always in an attempt to get me to play, he pushes the ball with his nose in my direction.  I'm supposed to push it back to him ... that's the game.  This was about the tenth time I took it OUT of the hole I was digging for a plant.

I have to admit I'm a BAD mom .... I buried this one.  When he wasn't looking, I put the plant on top and covered it up.  It was about gone anyway, split in half with most of the cover gone.  It was much easier to get the other two plants in the ground after that.

Once back in the house, I was in trouble.  No ball!!  He sat on my shoulder until I scrounged around in the laundry room and found one.  

Another chance to improve my cooking skills ... dinner of Korean BBQ pork.  Believe it or not, I got this idea from eating a Lean Cuisine.  It was pretty tasty!  Since I had leftover pork loin, I figured to try out a new recipe.  It's pretty simple ... brown sugar, soy sauce, sesame oil, ginger and a few other spices poured over beef (preferably)  browned in oil and garlic.

When done, sprinkle with chopped green onions and serve over rice ... I chose brown rice.  Uncle Bens Instant Rice to be exact.  It wasn't exactly a home run, but the flavor was there!!  It needed some thin sliced veggies (maybe carrots and zucchini) and LOTS more sauce, but overall, not bad.  At least nowhere near burial material!!

As you can probably tell from the frying pan, I now have meals for the next four days!!  Maybe I'll whip up a little more sauce and throw in those veggies!  Apparently it freezes well.  If Lean Cuisine can do it, I imagine I can too.

Believe it or not, I still have two more plants to get in the ground today.  I really do love playing in the garden and digging in the dirt.  The results are usually worth the effort and it keeps me busy, or a least out of the refrigerator!  

It's time for my "chill pill" (another piece of cake) so I can gear up for the Kingdom of Bingo tonight.    That may just require TWO pieces!!