Monday Garden Update

First, I would just like to thank my awesome husband for clearing out the weeds from the asparagus patch yesterday.  This pregnancy has reduced my heat tolerance considerably and it has been so hard to just watch my asparagus patch get covered and smothered by weeds. It took him half a day in the heat and I'm so grateful, you just have no idea.  While he weeded, I opted to complete a less physically demanding but no less menial task of cleaning and purging my daughter's closet.  The asparagus look so much better and so does my daughter's closet!!!  It's a huge mental boost to have these big tasks completed.

With a slight rebound in energy (though still no complete relief from nausea), I've been cooking again.  Today I made 3 batches of basil pesto using this recipe.  The basil plants are continuing to thrive and we have been way overdue in harvesting it.  I had cut this one basil plant back considerably and all of it came back already and then some!!

The basil pesto was delicious but it was a little bit of a pain to make because apparently the basil I chose to grow is a small leaf variety and I had to de-stem a lot to get the two cups required for each batch.... imagine a million itty bitty leaves.  I prepared one batch for tonight's dinner with parm cheese and froze the remaining two without the cheese as I was instructed by Feet. 

I tossed in some cooked chicken breast and tomatoes.

The best part?  There is enough left over for tomorrow night too!

Speaking of cooking, there should be some sort of disclaimer on the Food Network mentioning that is hazardous for women to watch while pregnant.  Comfort foods are the only thing really appealing to me these days and when I saw Bobby Flay prepare a batch of Parker House Rolls (though I've never made anything like this) I decided I just had to have them and the next thing I know I'm making them for dinner (they took over 3 hours to prepare).  These things were delicious but lethal!!!

Back to the garden, I'm still waiting on my eggplant to grow to maturity.  I'm hopeful a few fruits will be ready soon though.  Every plant has quite a few fruits so lets cross our fingers.  Though I will mention that according to my brother-in-law eggplant have little-to-no nutritional value.  Thanks, S.  Way to kill my garden buzz. :)  My own research seems to support this claim.  As I was planning to use it as more of a pasta/carb replacement like this recipe here the lack of nutritional value doesn't bother me too bad but it is a bummer.

I had a few garden surprises this weekend.  Remember those brussel sprouts that never came up?  Well, a few popped up albeit not where I planted them!  They turned up "downstream" amongst the salad greens.  I guess all of the seeds washed away but a couple managed to take hold.

Another surprise is the tomato plant that popped up amongst my wildflower garden at the back of the house.  It has quite a few glorious grape tomatoes that I took advantage of today and hope to continue to enjoy for the rest of the season.  The plant hasn't been staked or watered or anything and it is thriving, all sprawled about amongst the wild flowers.  I'm excited because the early grape tomato I planted in the garden is already starting to die back a bit so it's good to have the backup for a nice late season crop too!

While taking a picture of my grape tomato surprise plants I couldn't help but notice this butterfly on one of the wildflowers.

Though most of the summer squash plants are nearing the end of their life cycle, the winter squash is still thriving which is great considering how gross summer squash seems to me right now.  :)

  Winter squash and some peppers

That's all this week, let's hope I'm as productive in the next installment!