Build your own potting Bench

On of the greatest gifts I have ever received was a potting bench John made for me. It was a past life of growing my own seedlings, being a Master Gardener and creating massive perennial beds and vegetable gardens.....



I was upset this Spring to see a rotting leg on my old potting bench despite good care throughout the years, so it had to go. I briefly considered purchasing a new potting bench and then just realized we could copy the old because I loved it so much and it was a fraction of the cost of a cheaply built bench.

I also use my bench for outdoor entertaining with just some cute flour sack towels under the dishes or for a copper bucket with ice and wine bottles.

If you don't have a power saw, you can easily have your boards cut at the local hardware and haul it all home prepped. I used treated lumber because I don't want to bring my bench inside during winter weather, but it's a personal choice as treated lumber does have some environmental downsides.

The bench only took about an hour and a half to build and had I been smart, I would have stained all of the boards first, but (whatchgonnado), sometimes it takes me a little to catch on!

Here is what you need for construction;

Weatherproof screws 2 inches long

8-1X4 boards 48 inches long (top of bench, back support and top shelf)
5-1X4 boards 45 inches long (bottom shelf boards)

4-2X4 boards 24 inches long (bench supports)
2-2X4 boards 36 inches long (front legs)
2-2X4 boards 60 inches (back legs)

2 1X4 boards 10 inches long (top shelf supports)
(You could also replace these boards with some decorative iron brackets, it would look REALLY great)

Weatherproofing stain or paint of choice


This is mainly a 1 person project, however you may need a helping hand when putting the main frame work together as it becomes cumbersome for 1 person.

Put the sides together first, making sure that the leg bottoms are perfectly level to each other. Attach back support board to topmost back leg and level before screwing in. You want this even with top of leg boards. You may always add an additional 1X4 board here as well, for hooks or a decorative piece of wood (this will be your visible "back").



Measuring accurately, lay out bottom shelf boards and screw in with 2 screws on each side of board. You'll want 1 1/2 inches of space between each board. John and I didn't measure the bottom boards the same as my old bench for this step. On my old bench the boards were 45 inches for the bottom shelf and so they lined up perfectly with the 2X4 support and the most outer edge board of the shelf which is cut to fit between the 2X4 supports. While it looks ok with the 48 inch boards, I preferred the other look. (It was starting to rain and I said to hell with it, just put them on :))



Next start on the top shelf boards, measuring accurately and using 2 screws per side of board with 1 1/2 inch space between edges of boards.

Last we added the top most shelf lining up the board to be even with the entire back of the legs and support board across back. (NOTE; this is where we went a little jenky; Your 10 inch support pieces should be cut with 45 degree angles. As you can see, mine are not. RULE OF THUMB WHEN BUILDING Measure twice, cut once.)

Add your support beams on the inside, lining up with the back legs and put in just 1 screw. Line up your second shelf board and adjust to be level, then add additional screws to attach and secure.



After reading this, it's the most unprofessional builder advice ever, but it should be easy to understand and implement. Small imperfections don't bother me on a DIY project and gives things a bit of character. So don't get too bogged down in the small stuff. You should probably sand your boards ends, I didn't. And as I said before, it would have been much easier to stain the boards first....but I never seem to choose prepared or easy :)

Good luck and Happy Gardening for years to come!!

Vegetable Garden...

Last week I started the vegetable garden with the verve and energy that early spring in Michigan brings!  John fired up the rototiller to turn over my small patch of earth. 

Clay soil has ever-so-slowly turned into tillable soil over the last 18 years we have gardened in this area and 3 years ago I cut my garden to 1/3 of its original size to be a lot more manageable!  I plant my necessities...haricot verts, parsnips, radishes, carrots, tomatoes, peppers, lettuces, Rouge vif d'Etampes pumpkins and Long Island Cheese pumpkins.  This year I also added peas JUST to make this:

A beautiful fresh pea puree with homemade gnocci and garnished with grated Sicilian chocolate flavored with black pepper!  We had this memorable dish in Modica, Sicily and I have been wanting to create it at home ever since!  Magnifico!  I am making it with my first harvest of peas!

I marked my rows with branches and copper this year, as those small plastic tags can never be found once the plants start growing!  I like the sparkle they add!  I have a small raised bed just for lettuce as I HATE to weed and I can harvest leaves and let some grow into heads.

I found some other treasures in the yard this Spring day...

Julia's sock that Pierre had stolen and hidden behind a rock!

And then there was lunch...a lovely fresh herb butter with a bit of German mustard from our friends Helmut and Dorothee.  Beautiful and fresh, perfect for a spring day...

Preserving food thoughts....

This week I started a new series of monthly cooking classes as The Boulevard Market called "PRESERVE IT!".  It's a concept I've been thinking about for a long time and now with the Creamery kitchen enlarged, it's a reality!
 

I think preserving food is an interesting lesson of life.  To capture peak produce and other foods at the height of their growing season and keeping them that way for a length of time, requires forethought, time/space planning as well as creativity and a bit of science!  Like many people these days, I am feeling the need to purchase foods locally produced, however Michigan has a LONG winter and I don't have a problem supporting other USA grown produce/products!  I am enjoying beautiful, sweet Florida strawberries as we speak!

I've plotted and planned our vegetable garden for this year, so I will have plenty of homegrown vegetables to eat fresh and preserve.  Now if it would just STOP raining and warm up!

I am not up for canning 100's of quarts of traditional tomatoes when it's 90 degrees outside.  I am up for canning 20 pints of heirloom tomatoes from my garden to use as soup or sauce all next winter!  I also like to make liquers and sauces from whatever fruit is in season, bruschettas, marmalades, herb rubs, candied citrus peels and more! 

This year's newest challenges for me will be wine vinegar from a "mother", my own pie fillings and bamboo skewers stacked with onions, cornichons and olives for martinis!  Fun stuff, stuff I like to have on hand, (that's the beauty of doing your own preserving) goodies I like to eat and give as gifts!

Join us at The Market if you are in the area, or watch for recipes and postings here!  Our first class is Wednesday and we are preserving citrus fruits in all sorts of fabulous ways!  Feel free to comment or email for details.  

 

Perennial pursuits

The first daffodil of the year

Michigan is finally feeling a bit of Spring weather!  I changed plans, grabbed the old gardening shoes and left house cleaning for a rainy day!

I decided to tackle the front cottage garden as it was still full of leaves and old stalks.  The cottage garden was put in about 12 years ago and I have a variety of perennials, so it doesn't usually get cut back heavy in the fall because I still have blooming mums, asters and hydrangea.

Rhubarb is rearing it's ugly, but tasty head

I liken perennials to people while gardening, some have spread out a bit, some are getting thin on top.  A few are still as vital as the day I met them and others didn't return after a hard winter.  I always remember who shared which plants and send them a celestial "hello" or "miss you" and continue to dig.  I always remember someone's pleasure when given the promise of a blooming perennial.  It's the beginning of a long relationship.

There is still much work to do this Spring, but I will be amongst old friends, my flowers.

Toad has seen better days...guarding the garden pond

I am looking forward to adding some new rose bushes this year...http://www.teapotsandpolkadots.net/2011/04/riotous-roses.html  was such an inspiration and I have a couple roses that over winter reverted back to standard rootstock.  Maybe fuschia? Oh, the possibilities!!

The vegetable garden is being planned and plotted too.  It has scaled back in size over the last years, as my brother farms vegetables.   However, he refused to plant my favorite green beans and shallots.  Plus, I like to pick my own stuff...my lettuce tastes better than his!  My sweat, blood and tears give it a little "sumpin sumpin" extra.

The only chicks & hens I'll be raising this year!

I hope you are enjoying your gardening as well and give me a call if there's a perennial you're looking for....        

   

Another season ends...

For years, my passion, 2nd only to food, has been gardening. I think I was born with a love of soil from my farming ancestors. Crops, flowers, trees, it doesn't matter to me. When John and I purchased our house and 2 1/2 acres of property, there were only a couple trees, peonies and lots of grass. We have worked together to create a lovely property with so many memories. John gave me a Magnolia tree for our 10th wedding anniversary and I gave him a pear and cherry tree for his birthday and fathers day, the list goes on. Even our girls have given, or been given trees and flowers as gifts. It truly lasts a lifetime and are memories that resurface each season.

It is always a bit bittersweet to clip the last roses of the season. This is my David Austin Rose by the name of Abraham Darby. It is an absolute treasure of a rose, fragrant, beautiful and blooms all summer right up to frost. The blooms are quite apricot with yellow as buds and new blossoms, as the bloom ages it turns into a lovely pink. Abraham Darby is a climber and mine regularly reaches 7 feet with modest pruning. If you are in the market for a more carefree rose, you should consider a David Austin. I do spray for pests and disease, but fairly little compared to a tea rose. I also give a couple scoops of compost and bone meal, as well as a good mulching in the fall. I have planted lambs ear and clematis nearby for a wonderfully romantic garden spot.

All winter I will plot and plan new garden places, a bare spot near the shed (hollyhocks?) a new type of grape, a better system for weed control...

bountiful...Cherry Tomato Tart

It was a day! 80 degrees without a hint of humidity, nothing but blue sky and nothing on the to-do list! Rare day indeed! I so enjoyed working in the gardens and washing the car, taking a short siesta at 3pm and watching the curtains blowing in the breeze.

I do have a vegetable garden even though my brother, Mike, is the owner of Prochaska Farms vegetables. MY tomatoes, basil, fennel, peppers and haricot verts taste better than his. I think it's the "sweat and blood" factor as well as the plucking from the vines. It just doesn't seem as sweet if you haven't invested yourself.

So on the menu is a Cherry Tomato Tart! I have made several tomato tarts in the past and they all seemed a bit too "wet", so we are taking the best from the rest and creating our own! Simple, simple and simple is the word of this recipe. You can use large, heirloom tomatoes as well, but choosing a less juicy tomato is the trick to making these tarts.

Crust:
1 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
7 1/2 Tablespoons butter, cut into pieces
2 1/2 Tablespoons ice water

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

In a large mixing bowl combine flour and salt, add butter and combine with a pastry blender until mixture resembles fine crumbs. Add ice water and using a fork, stir until dough just begins to come together. Do not over process...this leads to tough dough and applies to all pastry dough. Form dough into a ball and put in fridge for about 30 minutes.

On a floured surface roll out dough until about 2 inches larger than pan. Place dough in pan and press into bottom and edges. Cut excess dough from edge of pan and bake 10-12 minutes until golden brown.

REDUCE OVEN TO 350 DEGREES after baking shell!


Filling:
1 lb. or so of different colored cherry tomatoes cut in half
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 Tablespoons good quality Olive Oil
1 Tablespoon whole-grain Dijon mustard (I used Maille)
6 ounces Fresh Chevre (goat cheese...of course I used Four Corners Creamery!)
1 egg
1 Tablespoon Fresh Basil, chopped
1 Tablespoon Fresh Sage, chopped
1 Tablespoon Fresh Parsley, chopped
1 teaspoon sugar
Optional: a few chopped black olives and a Tablespoon of Pine Nuts (toasted)

In a saute pan over medium heat, heat olive oil and cook cherry tomatoes about 2 minutes. Add garlic and sugar, stir to coat evenly and cook an additional 2 minutes. Remove from heat and set aside.

Mix together egg and goat cheese until smooth and add fresh herbs, season with salt and freshly ground pepper.
Spread mustard on bottom of tart crust and top with cheese mixture. Arrange tomatoes on top and bake for 30 minutes. Garnish with olives and pine nuts before serving. Serve hot or room temperature.

We went all European and served with an incredible pork pate made in Detroit (I'm going to have this at The Boulevard Market before long, as I am officially addicted!) and barely scrambled eggs fresh from the Main Street Farmers Market and ate fresh peaches with juice running down our chins! A beautiful summer meal with the family.

Gardening in the south bed

Doesn't it sound like I have an estate in England when I say that? That is not the case! (Today commenced the first day of "Graduation Party in 2 months, countdown nightmare".) My south bed is about 30 feet long and 15 feet deep and used to be a really sunny spot in my yard with many perennials. Time has passed and trees have shaded this bed, perennials have disappeared and some shrubs have been added. It was time to do an overhaul with what I had on hand.

I dug and hauled, replanted and moved, sat back and looked...not too shabby! The Clematis, roses, hydrangea, butterfly bush, red bud and wiegela are my anchors and everything else is filling in. I moved an immense amount of hollyhocks (cross your fingers they are happy) and dug out tons of lemon verbena.

I think I can add a few pots of creeping annuals around the rock border and viola! I do need new lavender plants, mine did not make it this winter, and I love them to bake and cook with it.

It was such fun to play in the dirt surrounded by blooming tulips and phlox, listening to the bees in the blooming redbud tree. I made fresh lemonade, put up the patio umbrella and listened to John swear at the rototiller! The sweet life!

Thought you might like our favorite lemon verbena recipe:

Raspberries in Lemon Verbena Gel

2 1/2 c water
1/2 c sugar
1 cup lemon verbena sprigs, lightly packed
2 tsp unflavored gelatin (that’s 1 packed minus 1/2 tsp)
1/4 c fresh lemon juice
1 pint fresh raspberries

1. Heat 2 1/4 c water with the sugar in a small saucepan.
2. As soon as it comes to a boil, remove from the heat, stir in the lemon verbena and cover and steep for 10 minutes.
3. Meanwhile, sprinkle the gelatin over the remaining 1/4 c water and let it swell.
4. Strain the verbena syrup.
5. Stir the gelatin into the hot liquid until it dissolves.
6. Cool to room temperature.
7. Stir in the lemon juice.
8. Arrange the berries in dessert glasses.
9. Pour the gelatin over them and chill until firm.

These look beautiful in martini glasses, tall shot glasses or small, clear ramekins. Sliced fruit didn't make as nice of a presentation, but still tasted great!