A little bit of spring

After this spell of zero degree weather, I think everyone is looking toward spring. It’s not even the New Year yet. We still have lots of inclement weather to descend upon us.

For my spring fix I head to my green house. I have a wonderful hoop house covered with 2 layers of plastic. It is 48 feet long by 24 feet wide. There is a fan that keeps the layers inflated like a huge pillow. This forms an insulating layer of air. This is the first year we have tried to raise plants through the winter in the green house.

In September I planted edible podded peas. They grew quite well. The wooden post in the picture is 4 feet high.

For auxiliary heat we have used 4 space heaters. I have no idea if we wasted electric. The only night they did not keep the house above freezing was the two nights where the temps in our valley dipped to -5 degrees (it went to 22 inside the green house). During the day, if the sun is out, even if it is zero outside the green house will get to over 90 degrees. We need to check the house several times a day and provide ventilation. If it is cloudy it will still warm to at least 50 degrees when the out side temps are 15 degrees. Early in the morning we head to the green house to monitor the temps and turn off the heaters.

We found an inexpensive thermometer that registers the high and low temps in a 24 hour period.

Last night for an end of Day feast, we had stir fry loaded with snow peas and some of the last of the Big Daddy peppers from the garden. (I also have chives in the green house that I snipped for the stir fry)

Need some Chocolate Indulgence Today?

Years ago (before Internet) I clipped recipes from magazines, glued and taped them onto notebook paper. With the Internet those notebooks (remember the black bumpy cardboard 3 ring binder notebooks?) have become dust collectors on my book shelves. Every once in a while I refer to them for ideas because the magazine articles were always so beautifully illustrated. The magazines also contained great recipes that were put out by different products. One of these advertisers had gorgeous full page ads featuring recipes using their products. Karo Syrup and Bakers Chocolate collaborated designing mouth watering ads. I wish I could show you the ads. I went to google and did not find the copy of them. But I did find the recipe so I didn't have to retype it. I wish they had had the magazine ad pix so you could see it. It was a gorgeous presentation.

The recipe I am talking about is called, "Double Dark decadent Brownie". The ads had in big flowery script Devine Decadence written across the page.

The recipe has a glaze to go on the brownie. I have only made the glaze once…for me it was way too much…it was gilding the lily. The recipe serves 8…geesh after eating a big meal..I don’t know how you could get an 1/8 of a nine inch brownie down…especially if you had ice cream and caramel sauce too. I have never made it in a square pan before…but I bet the square cut into squares would make a better presentation on the plate.


Double Dark Decadent Brownie
This is a 1987 recipe from General Foods Corporation.

1/2 C. Karo light or dark corn syrup
1/2 C. butter
5 (1 oz.) squares Baker\s Semi-Sweet Chocolate
(I used 6 ounces semi-sweet chocolate chips)
3/4 C. sugar
3 eggs1 tea. vanilla extract
1 C. unsifted flour1 C. chopped walnuts (I used pecans)

Grease and flour 9-in. layer cake pan.

In a large Sauce pan bring corn syrup and butter to a boil, stirring occasionally; remove from heat. Add chocolate; stir until melted. Add sugar; stir in eggs, one at a time (I beat the eggs in a cup before adding them), then vanilla extract, flour and nuts. Pour into pan.
Bake at 350 degrees F for 30 min. or until cake tester inserted in center comes out clean.
Cool in pan 10 min. Remove; cool completely on rack.

Prepare glaze; pour on top and spread on sides. Let stand 1 hour.
Serves 8.

Chocolate Glaze:

In small saucepan melt 3 (1 oz.) squares Baker\s Semi-Sweet Chocolate with 1 Tbsp. butter or margarine over low heat, stirring often. Remove from heat. Stir in 2 Tbsp. Karo Corn Syrup and 1 tea. milk.

I have a quick chocolate fix Brownie that I found in a news paper about 20 years ago. The brownie is very good eaten immediately. But like all things baked in a microwave the quality deteriorates when it sets (becomes stale, quickly, upon cooling. So must be eaten fresh topped with all sorts of great decadent toppings, or indulged in, in front of a good movie with a huge glass of milk with your significant other)

Ten-Minute Microwave Brownies
2 eggs
1/4 cup butter, melted and cooled
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1/2 cup flour
1/3 cup semisweet chocolate chips
1/3 cup nuts
(I used 1/2 cup chips, no nuts)
Coat 8" square glass baking dish with nonstick cooking spray.
In bowl whisk eggs, butter, and vanilla until blended.
Add sugar, cocoa, flour, Blend well
Microwave on high power about 5 minutes until toothpick
inserted in center comes out clean.
Cool 5 minutes.
Cut into squares. Serve warm or at room temp.

 New Article on my blog: 

 http://gloriouscreations.blogspot.com/2013/07/a-mystery-in-making.html

"A MYSTERY IN THE MAKING"

A mystery quilt designed with the novice in mind

First Clue to be presented October 16.

 

Other blog sites by me:

 

http://glosgarden.blogspot.com/

Where I have stories of my cats and other pets

a blog about my courtship with my husband,

and a blog about my most embarrassing moment.

A "Soap box" blog where I do air my opinions.

 

http://organicinstlouis.blogspot.com/

blogs about the wildflowers on our farm

Organic methods we use, some cooking and some poetry,

blogs about Seed sprouting, insects, and garden pictures

Blog about an endangered beneficial beetle

New Blog:

http://organicinstlouis.blogspot.com/2013/08/blackberries-kitchen-aid.html

 

All recipes, pictures, and writings are my own.

I give credit for items which belong to other people in my blogs .

Please do not copy without permission

EGGPLANT: A Secret ingredient

I have been busy harvesting and having to find ways to "dispose" of the quantity of things in my garden. I thought I’d share, hope there are eggplant lovers around.

Eggplants need to be used very soon after picking….especially the smaller varieties. Their quality deteriorates quickly. I also have a deluge of basil. (3 lbs yesterday) more today. I have made pesto till I think I am going to turn into garlic! BTW, anyone ever make pesto with sage, wow, I did it yesterday after I heard it suggested on the CBS morning TV program.

I used parsley, sage, 2 large cloves of garlic and sea salt…leave out the cheese.. I didn’t put any nuts in either (I don't put nuts in my basil pesto either. To me it doesn't really effect the taste and it does ad expense and calories to the pesto). I can’t wait till I can try it on a grilled chicken breast..

Anyway back to the secret ingredient. It isn't the Eggplant.

I was making ratatouille. Ratatouille can include anything you have in the fridge. There are a few things that are standard. Mine usually has Summer Squash of some kind, diced in large dice. Eggplant, if it is small egg plant like "purple rain" I slice it in 3/8 inch thick slices (I don't recommend the finger Japanese type eggplants, they melt when they cook). Onions, I use a lot of these diced in 1/4 inch dice. Peppers, all colors, preferably thick fleshed peppers that are ripe. Cut them just like the onions. Some people like string beans in it...not me.

Spices and herbs: I never add salt or pepper, I feel there are shakers on the table if you need it you can use them. I always added several cloves of minced garlic in the sauteing of the vegetables.

Most of the herbs I add when the dish is almost completely prepared. They only need enough time to heat through, dispersing their flavors. Lemon Thyme is a standard in lots of dishes for me. You don't have to chop the leaves just strip them from the stems, adding them about 5 minutes before the end of cooking. Basil is a must. I have found for me the more the better. This can be added ten minutes before finishing, but then right before I take it off the stove I add a handful of basil cheffinod (Sp.? you know where you cut it in tiny skinny little strips).

Fresh tomatoes are a must. If not available then you can used canned store ones.

This time I didn't have the tomatoes and needed to use the canned varieties. All I had was tomato sauce. I had already started the dish and there was no turning back or changing it into something else. I had already added the Eggplant. Everything was sauteing and waiting

On the side of the stove is a huge pile of red and gold delicious apples (a neighbor had a windfall and donated them to us). At the time I was cubing up the squash and glanced over and thought…I wonder. I had only made the Dutch oven 1/3 full because My husband hates eggplant. I peeled and cubed a huge golden in the mix. I made the cubes about ½ inch or larger each…the same size as the squash. Cooked until they started to soften. Then I added the sauce and simmered it until the Apples were almost done. I tasted it, the tomato sauce and garlic and other flavors had permeated the apple, wonderful. It looked like the squash so no one would know the difference. It added the slight sweet touch that the canned tomatoes lacked… making it taste like I had used fresh tomatoes (which I hadn’t because I don’t have any in the garden right now.) I had found my secret ingreedient. Of course it isn't a secret anymore I am sharing it with the world.

I proceeded to add the last minute herbs. Added the lemon Thyme and the basil, simmered for 5 minutes, then I added chives and parsley and the skinny sliced basil. I took the dish off the stove and left it covered. Of course I indulged. A delight to the taste buds. BTW, this is also good cold.

 New Article on my blog: 

 http://gloriouscreations.blogspot.com/2013/07/a-mystery-in-making.html

"A MYSTERY IN THE MAKING"

A mystery quilt designed with the novice in mind

First Clue to be presented October 16.

 

Other blog sites by me:

 

http://glosgarden.blogspot.com/

Where I have stories of my cats and other pets

a blog about my courtship with my husband,

and a blog about my most embarrassing moment.

A "Soap box" blog where I do air my opinions.

 

http://organicinstlouis.blogspot.com/

blogs about the wildflowers on our farm

Organic methods we use, some cooking and some poetry,

blogs about Seed sprouting, insects, and garden pictures

Blog about an endangered beneficial beetle

New Blog:

http://organicinstlouis.blogspot.com/2013/08/blackberries-kitchen-aid.html

 

All recipes, pictures, and writings are my own.

I give credit for items which belong to other people in my blogs .

Please do not copy without permission

RECYCLE THOSE BRIDESMAID DRESSES

Have you always been the bridesmaid and never the bride. Do you have a collection of wedding clothes that have been worn once and never used again. Don't throw them away. Don't give them away. Recycle them.



My Daughter had this fabulous dusty pink silk bridesmaid dress. It was very high end but that does not make it wearable...just expensive. It hung in her closet for 5 years along came her Little girl. I asked her if she'd mind if I cut it up to make something to go in the granddaughter's pink bedroom. She said, "will I like it?" I said, "I don't know and am not going to tell you what it will be." She relented, with apprehension, complaining how much she paid. I said, "for goodness sake only the closet has worn it for 5 years."



She was due to be gone on a trip for 3 days (that's why I was there, to sit for the kids). After I got the kids to bed I went to the garage to retrieve a 3 legged round table I had seen out there. One of those you can buy at Wal-Mart for 4 dollars. It already had a piece of glass for the top. I made a puddled on the floor table cover for the night table.



The following is how I did it. Measured the skirt of the dress and it was about 4 inches short the measurement of the height of the table. I had bought already some pink check quilted fabric to make pillows for her bed. It became obvious the fabric would never make it into a pillow. I took the round top and traced around it on the wrong side of the fabric. Then I cut it out adding about 3/4 inch all around (this is the seam allowance.) The rest of the fabric I cut into strips 5 inches wide and joined them so I had a strip the length of the circumference of the top of the table. Allowing an extra 2 inches for seams on each end. Next step was to hem each end folding over 1/2 inch and blind stitch down. (You only fold 1/2 inch because you will want to make an open lap seam in the back.) At this point remove the skirt from the bodice. I did not do it carefully. I cut it off the bodice leaving at least a half inch of bodice on the skirt. BTW. The dress had a large bow on the back. I removed it first.

I carefully removed the zipper. Try not to cut the fabric when you remove the zipper. Stitch the seam allowances down so they don't start fraying. (you could put seam tape of the back of them if you wish and then stitch them down.) Fray check might even work. (that is a name brand sealant for raw edges of fabric.)



Now is the time you attach the skirt to the strip that goes around the circumference of the table. My daughters waist is much smaller than the circumference of the table. so I went around the waist cutting vertical cuts in the waist to release some of the gathers. I did it dividing the skirt in equal sections so the gathering would stay even. I ended up taking the strip, gathering the side that would attach to the skirt. Basted the edge with large stitches taking it down just a little (look at the pic and you will see the skirt hangs a little under the edge of the table). It is sucked in. I then attached the right side of the skirt to the right side of the band on the basted edge. I hand basted them together instead of using pins to pin it to the strip. This made it easier to feed all the bulk under the presser foot of the machine. (I didn't have the pins fighting and sticking me.) You join them with the edges of the strip even with the opening of the zipper. Stitch over the basted stitches joining the skirt to the strip. Now fold the seam towards the strip and top stitch 1/4 inch from the seam. When finished top stitching, go to the wrong side and trim off the excess straggly fabric to within a 1/4 inch of the top stitching.Attach the strip/skirt to the round top....I hand baste this first too. You have one boucou amount of fabric and the pins just don't hold it. When attaching don't forget to overlap the edges of the strip. This is your closure to fit the skirt on the table. When finished you can put a snap on the edge where the strip joins the skirt (so it stays closed, nice and fitted.) If your dress came with a bow or you have sleeve fabric to make one. You can put snaps on it and attach it to cover the opening and now the back will become the front. lol And Voila your little princess has a princess table for just your labor.





I have used bridesmaid dresses to make the costumes you see in my photos. The pink dress also has a lined cape. I was able to find two matching satin dresses at a resell it shop (only 5 dollars each and I had over 14 yd of satin.). If you notice the Dora dress has a pink ruffle. That ruffle was left over from the second dress. Batman is also made from wedding satin recycled.Have fun thinking of what you are going to do with your old clothes. BTW I recycled old flannel shirts and flannel PJ's into the greatest quilt.  The following blog is about those quilts.

http://gloriouscreations.blogspot.com/2011/01/trash-to-treasure.html

The wig was made of yarn.

This was the year after the pink dress. She was still in a size 3 dress. The pink princess was a cut down 3 pattern.



















This is the painting I painted for her room. I used it as a model to make the dress from.














Batman, The shirt was a jersey from wall mart and the pants were pj bottoms from there. The cape mask and Hood (which you can't see) were from a wedding dress. The cape is fully lined.







This is the princess dress from the two bridesmaid dresses. There is a huge bow on the back at the waist. The skirt is permanently secured so the lace petticoats show. They crinolines were so heavy underneath I had to put straps on them to go over the shoulders to keep the slips from sliding off her. BTW..this is only a size 3 dress.

 New Article on my blog: 

 http://gloriouscreations.blogspot.com/2013/07/a-mystery-in-making.html

"A MYSTERY IN THE MAKING"

A mystery quilt designed with the novice in mind

First Clue to be presented October 16.

Other blog sites by me:

http://glosgarden.blogspot.com/

Where I have stories of my cats and other pets

a blog about my courtship with my husband,

and a blog about my most embarrassing moment.

A "Soap box" blog where I do air my opinions.

http://organicinstlouis.blogspot.com/

blogs about the wildflowers on our farm

Organic methods we use, some cooking and some poetry,

blogs about Seed sprouting, insects, and garden pictures

Blog about an endangered beneficial beetle

New Blog:

http://organicinstlouis.blogspot.com/2013/08/blackberries-kitchen-aid.html

All recipes, pictures, and writings are my own.

I give credit for items which belong to other people in my blogs .

Please do not copy without permission

FALL COMES TO MY GARDEN

I am always excited to see the change of seasons in my garden. For me the season I love the most is autumn. I love the flowers, the insects, the harvesting. I even love the clean up to get ready for next year.




I am so fortunate to have a Hunny who loves to take pictures and is so good at it. He has the patience to wait for the insects to lite on the plants. Here we have a wasp resting on Golden Rod. Seconds later he was treated to a honey bee. We have had hardly any honey bees year, this was quite a treat.




We also noticed we have not had the bumble bees we have had in previous years.






This is a good place to insert my favorite hint:


If you get stung by any stinging insect, pull out the bottle of ammonia. Non-sudsing ammonia is recommended but any ammonia works. Also products containing ammonia work, although I can't recommend them because of health problems. But when you are stung you'll do anything to stop the pain. You'll need cotton balls too. Saturate a cotton ball with ammonia till it is very wet but not dripping. Place on the area of the sting and hold there for at least 5 minutes (if the ball needs re wetting with ammonia, do it). If the sting is on a place near the eyes or nose cover them with water soaked cotton balls to prevent the fumes from the ammonia irritating them. In all the years I have used this hint I have never had any irritation at the sting site from the ammonia.





This treatment should be done immediately but I have had it be effective when applied 20 minutes after the sting. I believe it neutralizes the venom. I have also had a sting flare up the next day and redoing the ammonia treatment worked. We raised bees and learned about this from an aged Bee keeper 40 years ago. I used it on my children all their formative years.





My Waiver: I am not a doctor, or even a nurse, I do not have any degree except from the school of hard knocks . I recommend you consult people in the know before trying this.




This year we did not have the influx of the spotted cucumber beetles. We did have a deluge for 2/3 of the summer of the Japanese beetles. We can't treat the surrounding area with milky spore disease because we have 15 acres in pasture. It would be financially impossible. Not to mention i would have to get all the neighbors on all sides to do it too. It is heaven for the grubs of the Japanese beetles.


We garden organically, we only use biological controls that do not harm more insects than what we are targeting.



Another insect we abhor, and had an overdose of, is Squash bugs. If any one has a good control that works we'd appreciate the hint. All the accept safe sprays do not seem to work for us (we do use spun bond row cover while it is growing but have to reove it when they start blooming.).



This year I had great success in taking cutting from my mums and starting them. Last year we planted 20 different colored mums. None of the red , white or pink mums went through the winter. Yellow, bronze, and lavenders did fine. I only lost one of my purple varieties.





This is what you will see as you leave the center gate in the garden. The grass is purple majesty penstemon. It is very slow to germinate and grows very slowly in the pots. It is not freeze tolerant so must be started indoors and not set out till all danger of freeze is gone. It takes off when set in the garden. I was very pleased with my first year of growing it. It does not come back each year.





The purple in front of the mums is Purple ruffles basil. I use it for accent everywhere in the garden. It's deep purple frilly leaves are outstanding. The only problem is you have to bite the bullet and if you see it setting blooms cut them off. (they are attractive but you will set the scene for your plant to go dormant.) Mine will continue to look good till the temps start holding below 40 degrees and not going above 50 during the day.







These are the mums as you enter the center gate of the garden. The yellow one was perfect till the man unloading our mower after repairing it fell off the truck into it.

Thank you for visiting with me today.

DOUBLE TROUBLE

The continuation of the Clucking Saga,
Episode 1:  http://gloriouscreations.blogspot.com/2008/09/fowl-story.html
Episode  2:  http://gloriouscreations.blogspot.com/2008/09/leghorns-mass-exodus.html

We talked about how spoiled we have been with having fresh eggs. What will we do when the girls decide they are going to molt? We will be 6 weeks with out a single egg.

We began reading books on the subject of raising chickens. One was a small paper back called, “Starting Right with Chickens”. There is a whole farm series of “Starting right” books. We contacted Missouri extension service. They had a great floor plan for a chicken house. It was 12 ft by 12 ft. We decided we would make two of them connected with a 10 foot wide room for storing feed, implements used with chickens and an old refrigerator for storing the eggs.

While we were building the “coop” we ordered baby chicks. We ordered one hundred straight run. Straight run means you get whatever hatches. It is usually fifty/fifty, pullets and roosters. Pullets grow up to be hens. You can order all pullets and it usually cost over double. We knew we wanted to try our hands at butchering our own chickens. We didn’t know what kind of chickens we liked so we ordered the heavy breed assortment because we wanted layers that would be productive in the cold Missouri winters. We also wanted to be able to butcher the roosters. You only need a couple of roosters to keep 50 hens happy. A couple of roosters are ecstatic with 50 hens to share.

The chicks came. They were in two boxes with a sisal type straw in with them. There were instructions to dip their beaks in water to teach them to drink and to peck at the food to get them to eat. You have never seen anything like a box full of one hundred walking cotton balls. They are all colors. We had no idea who was who. They didn’t give us a pamphlet showing us what our five breeds of chicks looked like.

We housed them in the carport which had been closed in for a nice little barn. We made this area that was 8 ft by 8 ft. We enclosed it with 4 ft high walls (we figured the little cotton balls wouldn’t be flying that high very soon).

The area was outfitted with a hooded heat light in the center, just outside of the area the heat reached we had the feed and water. We had regular lights around the rest of the pen.

We were on our way to supplying our neighbors with eggs…only five months to go.

A month goes by and we have growing chicks. Now that they are feathering out we figure we could identify who was who. Boy, were we surprised. Several were pink with white top hats (beige crested polish); black checkered with white top knots (silver laced polish). And the list went on. None of them looked like they could be light brahmas or dark brahmas, buff Orppingtons, Rhode Island Reds or Barred rocks. I called the hatchery and they said they’d send us out a new assortment. We said we just wanted our money back. They said no. We asked them what should we do with the others and they told us they didn’t care, drown them. So here we are stuck with weird chickens. They were all on the skinny side so we wondered how much there was to eat on them, and wondered what we would do with them. Mind you we were new at this, it never occurred to us these funny looking skinny chicks would lay eggs too.

The new chicks arrived and we had to make another area to raise them. We had been warned the larger chicks would pick on the younger chicks, that chickens were cannibalistic. We decided to put the rush on the chicken house and finish it.

The new Chicken house was finished and the older chicks moved in. They were happy as can be with their new larger quarters. Next step was to make them a yard to run around in. With the older laying hens we had discovered the delight of chickens when they are free to “flock” around.

One of the biggest thrills a chicken gets out of doors is to dust bathe in the sun. They scratch out a place till it is raw dirt and then start in scratching and turning and scratching more till the have a bowl shaped depression filled with powdered dirt. They begin with fluffing their feathers, sifting the dirt under their feathers. We have witnessed a hen being possessive of her dust hole and another hen trying to get in her hole with her. You have heard of an ostrich sticking her head in the sand. That is literally what we saw this hen doing. She went behind the hen in the hole and pushed her head down under her body and kept squeezing under her till she had lifted her out of the hole. And voila, “Ha ha it’s my hole now!”

Caring for the chickens, feeding and watering, was our 5 year old's job. She was fascinated with chickies. As they grew older she became a little disillusioned with them. She called them “persons”. One day she came running in the door, hollering, “Mommy, mommy you’ll never guess what the persons did. They gave us a present.” What kind of present I asked her and she proceeded to describe the egg in minute detail.

I was shocked, we were told they were an exotic assortment. Now this is one of those moments when you say, why, did I have such an obviously dumb moment? Of course exotic birds lay eggs, even those who aren’t chickens. They just lay either smaller ones or not as many.

Oh NO, we were going to butcher those babies as soon as they got big enough. We now have 58 hens that will be laying in the next couple of weeks. They have just been presented a stay of execution. That will be 58 more eggs than we were counting on each day. What will we do? Now chickens don’t lay everyday but almost. From reading I had been doing, we should expect more than 300 eggs from each of the exotic ladies.

You do remember we ordered 100 chicks and got the wrong chicks and they replaced them telling us to drown the others. In one month the heavy breed laying assortment will start laying too. I have 53 hens in that bunch. What will we do with 100 eggs everyday? That is just a little under 9 dozen eggs a day. Worse than that, it is approximately 56 dozen a week. I only have one month to plan what to do with them. We had homes for the eggs from the 58 ladies. Now twice that amount. Guess what the grocery stores can’t buy them from me. Why, we aren’t inspected (we haven’t paid our dues).

We had to think of another solution. Our son came up with the bright idea to advertise the hens for sale. So that is what we did. We advertised fancy breeds for sale at the feed store. BTW, there were some we just couldn’t part with because they were so cute. We still ended with 65 hens we couldn’t part with. Needless to say we ate lots of eggs (glad we were physically active). It was before cholesterol was known to be a major health factor.

Other blogs by me:

http://glosgarden.blogspot.com/

Where I have stories of my cats and other pets

a blog about my courtship with my husband,

and a blog about my most embarrassing moment.

A "Soap box" blog where I do air my opinions.

http://organicinstlouis.blogspot.com/

blogs about the wildflowers on our farm

Organic methods we use, some cooking and some poetry,

blogs about Seed sprouting, insects, and garden pictures

Blog about an endangered beneficial beetle

http://pitbulladog.blogspot.com/

Blogs about our pair of pitbulls.

All recipes, pictures, and writings are my own.

I give credit for items which belong to other people in my blogs .

Please do not copy without permission 

Today's garden

Last night in the garden the cockscomb was in full bloom, undaunted by the torrential rains brought by "IKE".

Although gorgeous in the garden and as a cut flower I do not cut them to dry them. The dried color is a really unsightly dirty brown.

We garden organically. Only using controls which do not harm species that are beneficial. Needless to say we are constantly battling the masses. So we look to our insect friends to help us.

Seconds after the above picture was taken we snapped the following one. The picture was not staged. The Praying Mantis flew in.

These "Green Envy " Zinnias are interspersed among the cockscomb. Actually it is the other way around.

I start zinnias in pots and then set them out. The cockscomb showed up a week after I planted the zinnias. Disturbing the ground to plant the zinnias exposed the cockscomb seed to the sun light and started the growing process. With all the rain we've had moisture was not a problem for germination. I decided to let them be where they are and was very happy with the end results.

In my garden there are lots of "Glorious Creations". One is a Marigold that came to us via two hybrids I planted 17 years ago. That was the name I gave to the offspring.

One was a three foot tall, large golden flowered, marigold. The other was a tiny eight inch tall marigold. With Burgundy/bronze blooms.

It was the first year at our new farm. We were busy taking care of moving in so I wasn't into raising my own plants. I went and bought plants where ever they were the cheapest. At that moment least expensive was the code word.

The following year we started the garden season with gusto. Vegetables for putting by were a prime importance. The ground was till and made ready.

A couple of weeks went by and of course the weeding became important. As I was weeding I noticed there were marigolds sprouting up all over. I dug them up and replanted them all around the fence. Hunny says, "They are from hybrids, you have no idea what you'll get." I replied I didn't care, they would at least keep the bugs at bay and the weeds out of the fence line.

When they started blooming it was glorious. They were all different heights but they all had the same bloom. The bloom you see in the picture. That year I saved seed from the plants that were the nicest shapes and the most prolific bloomers. The following year I planted only plants from the saved seed. I pulled up all the volunteers. The plants were even nicer and hardly an itinerant one in the bunch. I saved new seed that year. The fourth year I planted, you see the resulting plants in the above picture. The plants are full. The one above was a 6 inch tall plant July 16. They are too full...they require a support like you would use for a peony. The branches get so full of blooms and foliage. Lack of dead heading doesn't seem to affect them much. But for looks it improves them. This one would be fuller in flowers if it had been planted a month earlier. If a branch does break, you can plant it if you notice roots around the stem. The broken place fills in and is blooming in three weeks.

Now you can see why I gave it the name "Glorious Creation"