DIY Fence Idea

I was in Williamsburg this past weekend and saw this fantastic little decorative DIY fence.



It's just made from twigs and small branches. It's very cute, and I bet if you made it a little taller, it would keep out rabbits (and Pugs) too.

Here's a little closer view for your inspiration ... The twigs are pressure set - no glue or nails required!



I don't know how many tomato plants they have piled up on each other in this section of the garden, but I would NOT want to be the one going in there to harvest!



Maybe I'll build a scaled-down version of this fence next year to keep the squirrels out of my seed beds!



Innovative method of creating tee-pee trellises from sticks and string.



Their gardens were very tidy. I was surprised that they have so many crops still growing. Mine have all died back for the Winter!



At least their perennials were unruly, just like mine!

"Sun-Dried" Tomatoes

If you visit the farmer's market in October, you can get a big box of tomatoes for just $8! The box WAS full when we bought it.



We decided to dry these romas up for use throughout the Winter. So, we hauled the ronco dryer out of the garage and put it to use. We bought our "ronco" for just $15 at a yard sale about 10 years ago. It can dehydrate just about anything.



It took three days to dehydrate 5 racks of tomatoes. We then packed them up using our vacuum sealer. It looks a lot like beef jerky!



We're not sure what all we will use these for, so if you have some recipe suggestions, let me hear them!

Perennial Trumpet Vine

Ian and I were amazed at the size and apparent age of this lovely trumpet vine at the Biltmore conservatory. It must be very old since its stem has become woody. It's taller than me!



We had a little debate about how they kept this plant alive over the winter. Assuming it is an annual, I figured it is in a big pot in the ground and that they take it into the conservatory when temperatures dip too low, but Ian couldn't believe something that size could be moved that easily and decided it must be winter hardy.

I have always thought Trumpet Vine is an annual, but apparently there are perennial varieties available that are hardy up to -30F. Ian was right. They must leave this plant right where it is all year long!

Flower Carpet at Biltmore

A few weeks ago we visited the beautiful flower carpet at Biltmore. We made it on the last day of exhibition, as it was being taken down the next day for a wedding the following weekend.



The carpet was inspired by a fleur de lis pattern carved into original columns inside the Biltmore house. It took the garden designers over 100 hours to incorporate 100,000 flowers into the design that covers the 1/4 acre esplanade next to the Biltmore house.



Iresine and dusty miller were used to compose the border.



Marigold and salvia formed the swirling spiral patterns.



Begonia, scaevola and zinnia added bursts of geometric color to the design.



Maybe I'll turn my front yard into a flower carpet next year. Just kidding! I don't want to dig that much!

We were glad to catch sight of the flower carpet before it was gone forever. (Even though that tacky white tent in the upper left corner tried to ruin all my pictures.)



Did you know they just throw all those plants away? I suggested to a friend who works at Biltmore that they have a "free plants" day to invite passholders to take the plants. I bet we would haul those plants out of there faster than their work crew could! I know I would bring my wheel barrow and both cars to get as many as I could carry!

The Biggest Pickle I've Ever Seen!

A couple weekends ago we were dog sitting our friend's Lab, Buddy. Buddy is a good boy and loves to hang out wherever we are. We happened to be cleaning up the garden that day - pulling out the spent squash and cucumber plants and harvesting the soybeans. We realized there were a couple cucumbers on the vine that we had missed during our harvest and sat them to the side to take into the house when we were finished. About 10 minutes later we heard a loud crunching noise. We looked over and saw that Buddy had found the cucumbers and was munching away on one! He looked at me quite innocently and said, "Wow, that's the biggest pickle I've ever seen!" I never knew Labs could talk. I guess they are deeply inspired by big pickles.



We let Buddy finish the "pickle," because hey, we weren't going to eat the rest of it, and it was humorous to see a dog munching on a cucumber. He didn't even ask for a little bit of salt. What a good boy!

Eggplant and Chorizo Pasta

Ian whipped up a yummy little dish the other day with some eggplant and left over chorizo.



He just sauteed the eggplant in some butter, cooked up the chorizo in a pan, boiled some noodles and added some fresh sauce from this year's tomato haul. It's seriously one of the yummiest things I've ever eaten. Don't forget a sprinkle of parmesan at the end!

Roasted Tomato Soup

For the past two years we have juiced up our tomatoes and transformed them into rich pasta sauce, which we canned up for later use. This has worked out well, providing us with pasta sauce all year long. In fact, I still have two cans left from last year. I thought about doing something different this year, like maybe canning up a tomato soup, but I didn't really feel like peeling and de-seeding tomatoes, so I went in search of a tomato soup recipe that doesn't mind all those peels and seeds.

I found a tasty looking recipe for Roasted Tomato Soup at 101cookbooks.com, an amazing recipe blog.

It turned out ok, but I don't think I'm going to invest the rest of my tomatoes in this recipe for canning. The smoked paprika gave me a bit of a stomach ache the next day, and "roasting" the tomatoes created a mess in the oven. Who knew tomatoes gave off so much juice when roasted?

If you have an excess of tomatoes, give this recipe a shot. I recommend adding some white beans for a more hearty texture and a little cheese on top for extra flavor.