After getting back from a weekend of goat showing and not eating as well as we should, it felt so good to grab a basketfull of veggies from the garden and chow on a huge raw veggie salad topped with a balsamic vinaigrette.  Totally makes all the hardwork worth it when you see your kids happily crunching away on a completely organic meal rolling their eyes as if it were an ice cream cone. No lie!

I planted, what I thought was a  "ton" of peas, but I have found we are all munching on them raw for snacks and using them on our salads.  I don't think we will have that many to freeze, which is what our goal was in the first place!  Next year, they will get double the space.  They deserve it! Totally yummy! 

Happy May Day!  A welcomed return of mild weather from last week's horror.  The Amaryllis are in full swing.  I hear from the kids a few times a day, "The Armadillo's look  so beautiful!"  Being from New England, this wonderful flower was never a perennial option.  What I love about these lovelies is that even after they are done showing their blooms, they fill the flower bed with their deep, green folage for the rest of the year.  They flourish when they are divided in the fall.  I started with a few plants, and now have them spread throughout the beds surrounding the house.  

Picking a favorite plant is like picking a favorite child, impossible.  I always admire the shade plants.  I love the different textures and cool shades.  Ferns and Hostas always a must.  My favorite fern is the Japanese Silver Leafed.  A wonderful, sturdy, low growing, dwarf-like fern with incredible grey, blue, purple hues.  I have them mixed with the White Astilbe's and petite Blue Hostas.  I put the larger leafed Hostas around the Hydrangeas.  I'm a huge fan of the Oak Leaf Hydrangea.  I love adding Coleus' in pots around with their multiple varieties of colors.  My motto is always to mass plant.  Plant many of one kind.  It may take me years to fill a flower bed, but I am patient, divide and buy a couple more every year to add.  It just takes a few years for the beds to "beef-up".  This is all such easy care.  Just clean dead folage away in the fall and wait until spring for the show to begin again.