Friends, Family and Food

Remember the old saying "You can pick your friends but you can't pick your family" Well, I think that is only partially true. I picked my husband or he picked me...I can't remember. But with my husband came his family, a mother, a brother and a sister-in-law. The only problem with this side of the family is they live on the other side of the United States. We couldn't live any further away if we tried, they live in South Florida and we live in the Northwest part of Washington. I guess we could live in Alaska but I am not going there! The thing about my husband and his brother is they are exactly a like. They have the same sense of humor,temper,disposition, they both love their wives more than anything else and they both hate feet! My husband teases me about my blogging and although my brother-in-law enjoys it because he can catch up on what we are doing, he teases me about it too! We don't get to see them enough, the last time I saw my brother-in-law was 4 years ago. We talk on the phone but it is not the same. He did however give me, his favorite sister-in-law, his secret rib rub and barbeque sauce recipe! I had to swear I would not give it to another soul. My husband doesn't even know the recipe...I prepare the ribs and Jeff has been doing the smoking...works great. This is where the friends come in .....last Sunday we had some friends come over for dinner. So, we decided to smoke ribs.....now remember brother-in-law's recipe. I must call him at least 3 times in this process it is a wonder he answers the phone! Each time I ask him the same questions I had asked the previous time we made these ribs and each time he answers them. Well the ribs were delicious on Sunday so I called to tell him......and what did he say to me? Did you take pictures of them so you could blog about it! I was deflated.....how could I have missed such an opportunity for a good blogging story! Then I remembered in a previous blog I had talked about Rhubarb. Again.....opportunity missed. That morning I got his idea that today of all days was a good time to make that rhubarb pie. So out to the garden I went, picked fresh rhubarb and set out to make my pie. It turned out beautiful.....did I take a picture of the whole process...NO! So our dinner and visit with our friends turned out great, our family helped us once again and all I have left to show you of the whole day is this!


Thank you Family, Friends and Food!

Gig Harbor Tour--Garden#4

This is the 4th garden I didn't take pictures of the other 3 we just walked through quickly and out! Our gardens were better than those:) But the 4th garden was quite unique! They used a lot of structures and garden art and design! The vines were beautiful and some of their plants so unusual.
This was their Wedding Chapel area.....they had each area named I can't remember them all but it was a cute idea!

This garden was so cool....it was symetrical and was truly beautiful, all of the flowers were not blooming but I could imagine how beautiful it was going to be. They also had a few vegetables tucked in to make it an eating garden. It gave us a lot of ideas to get rid of some of the grass in the back yard and make it more favorable to the enviroment, birds, butterflies and bees!

From the other end.

Love this!

The outer edge and back portion behind the symetrical garden!

And for our vegetable growers....

Dry river bed with bridge.

I think they called this the French Bistro!

Couldn't resist this picture...Jeff has been looking at yard art like this! He has big plans!

Archway into a secret garden with a bench to rest!

This garden was so beautiful and the gardeners paid such attention to detail. But it was not stuffy or uninviting. It was friendly and you could have stayed there all day and found something new to look at. So, we now have some great ideas for our own garden.....just need the time and of course the money!
I almost forgot....my new favorite plant! Meadow Rue......it is the coolest thing and I have got to find some!

Gig Habor Tour--Garden #3

I think Garden #3 was my favorite....it had everything to perennials, roses,huge vegetable garden, yard art, water features and the coolest potting place you could imagine and a greenhouse!
The waterfall was amazing and there was a hammock at the top with a nice pathway around to the top....peaceful! From this we know we need to get some ferns!

Beginning of Vegetables!

First year trying hanging tomatoes. Look at the onions below. The brick path between both sides of garden!

Corn Patch....made me feel good their corn is no taller than ours! And their peppers look like ours too.

Potatoes......fabulous!

A view from the back.....with blueberries and other berries in the foreground!

The Greenhouse with the nice pig bench out front! They had brick flooring in their greenhouse that matched the pathways. Does anyone know if brick for the floor of a greenhouse is good we were told to put gravel.

This was beautiful....it was circled with Lavender....the unfortunate part was not everything was blooming yet much like our own yards! But I could imagine what it was going to look like....darn weather!

Roses!

The best potting place in the world! Water, electricity and cover....I think we all need one!

And if you are the owner of 1 little Border Terrier this is all the room you need for a dog yard leaving you plenty of room for all of your gardens and buildings! Move over Dobermans we are moving in!

Gig Harbor Tour--Garden #2

This was the second garden we visited. It was in a development that was mostly built on the side of a hill. They overlooked the sound but the hillside lots were difficult to garden. They also had a very bad deer problem so the entire yard was enclosed with deer fence. It was a black plastic netting that was stretched over tall poles.....6-8 feet high.
Very cool grass....can you see the black deer netting in the background?

They had a waterfall feature that started at the top of the property and came down two levels to a pool with fish. In that area they had a Japenese style garden...not really my cup of tea! But very well done.

They also had a very cool bird feeder!

Garden #3 next!

Gig Harbor Tour-- Garden #1

This is the first garden we visited. It was beautiful, lots of hydrangeas, lillies and climbing vines! Beautiful setting...pathways around and in front view of the water! I took this picture to show how tall the lillies were. Unfortunately with the weather we have had not too much was blooming but I could imagine how fabulous they were going to be.
Climbing vines!

Climbing Hydrangea...one of my favorites!

Hostas, Hydrangeas and Art!

Huge Hostas!

Beautiful pathways throughout the garden. I don't know why I did not take a picture of the view of the water....I guess because I was so excited with all the plants I didn't think to take a picture of it. You are going to have to believe me without seeing...the view was gorgeous!

Second garden to come....I need to go out and water my own garden!

Garden Tour

Tomorrow Jeff and I are going on the Gig Harbor Garden Tour. I have always wanted to go but something always came up that we couldn't go. This year I was determined to get my tickets. I watched the weather reports and at the last minute decided to get tickets for Saturday. (if you purchased the tickets early you saved $10) I am keeping my fingers crossed that the weathermen have not steered me wrong and Saturday is going to be nicer than Sunday. I hope I am not dissappointed like last year when we went on the Pond Tour! I am hoping we will get some wonderful ideas to add to our gardens. I will take lots of pictures if they allow it! But for today I will put some pictures in of our gardens new and old.

Daffodils and Tulips in the early Spring. Can you spot the Doberman?


This Azaela is our favorite it is so beautiful in the Spring and smells fabulous!

Rhodies a common sight in our area in the Spring.



We planted this bush years ago to hide the water company boxes....As you can see it has grown quite large. You can't really tell how beautiful the color of this bush is because the sun (yes the sun) was so bright that day I couldn't get a good picture of it. But you will have to believe me it has the darkest blue flowers all over it and the bees love it! When you walk by it, the bush actually hums!

Lillies and Some Sunshine

I love Lillies! They are an amazing flower. They come back every year, they pop up just like magic and some of the varieties smell so good! They have had a tough year this year with the cold and the wet and I don't think all of them came up! But the ones that did are trying so hard to open. I am hoping that after this week of warmer weather they will all be in bloom. I have taken some picture this morning and when they are all open I will take another round!

Seeing is Believing

At some point in our lives, whether we were children or even as adults we have been told "seeing is believing". I am going to tell you now that seeing is possibly not always believing. I sat out on a rock this morning at 6:30 trying to get a picture of something that is in our pond. In May we put in a beatiful pond/waterfall feature in our backyard. Then we had the raccoon invasion but also during that week our pond was visited by the loudest frog I have ever heard. It was so loud you couldn't even hear the water! Sleep was pretty nonexistent that week. Jeff and I tried to locate it but as soon as we would go out he would be quiet. Well, the other day Jeff was out walking after work and I see him waving to me to come outside........I was trying to make dinner so I was annoyed that I had to go outside! But what a surprise our pond is full of tadpoles! Our loud little frog obviously was very busy in her brief visit to the Helsdonia Pond! If you can't see the tadpole in the picture this is where the just having to believe me comes in! Has anyone ever tried to take a picture of a tadpole? Trust me not easy!
Does anyone know how long it takes a tadpole to become a frog? They have grown a bunch since the first day we spotted them. It is like being a kid again!

The 3 P's

This morning at 6 am I was out investigating the garden. Much to my surprise I found evidence that we will be harvesting crops! I don't expect it to hold us through the Winter but crops just the same. And with the weather we have been having I will take anything we can get! I found that we indeed have pea pods, the potatoes are growing and we have 1 pear that I could find. Now Jeff told me we have a couple of apples also but at 6 am my eyes must not have been quite awake because I didn't see any!

This is one of those Asian Pears that you find in the grocery store with the little white plastic wrapper! Wonder where I can find one of those?


We have always had trouble with potatoes. Where to plant, getting around to planting and so on. This year Jeff decided he was just going to dig out some dirt back by the berries and put the damn things in the ground. Behold Potatoe plants....we have to get out there and mound them up!

Peas.....they have never let us down. It is not hard to grow peas here. They must like the cold wet weather. I hate cooked peas! I will eat them right out of the garden but just don't make me eat them cooked.

I couldn't let this picture get by.....this past weekend when it was pouring down rain this rose tried so hard to open. As you can tell from the water on the leaves it should have been trying to learn how to swim instead!