A Test of Will

It's almost Memorial Day.  At this time last year, there was absolutely nothing in the garden.  Our last frost was on Memorial Day, and so I put all the seedlings outside that following week.  They did great from there, but we weren't harvesting tomatoes until mid-August I think, and then the first fall frost came as quickly as the third week of September and killed everything.

This year I've been determined to have food earlier and do something of a three-season garden.  I suppose it's moderately successful so far -- the perennial herbs from last year came back fuller and lusher than I imagined: oregano, chives, sage, lavender, and thyme.  The cilantro went to seed last year and managed to reseed itself all over the place, so that will be plenty.  I also started some cool-weather vegetables which are coming along slowly but surely: beets, carrots, peas, leeks, swiss chard, spinach, lettuces and a solitary broccoli plant.  We've been harvesting spinach for about a week for salads and pizza and quiche, so that's nice.

Now the summer crops, on the other hand, are testing my will again and again.  I started seeds way back at the beginning of March.  We were really brave but determined, and put the seedlings outside in April, because we built covers to go over the gardens to protect the plants and figured they'd be safe enough.  The problem has been, however, that it gets really cold at night and really warm in the daytime, so we can't just leave them on all the time.  They're fairly heavy, and there's four of them, so it's no little thing to go put them on or take them off the garden, and contrary to our original design, we didn't build in a way to just prop them open.  So I had put the seedlings out in the garden during a beautiful week in April -- sunny, warm, etc -- and then we had to leave town for a family wedding.  A day and a half later we came back and pretty much all the seedlings had fried.  I believe it was too much sun exposure; Scott thinks lack of water.  Granted, I didn't temper them for very long, just a few days (what good does putting them outside do when it's cloudy and rainy for three-four days at a time?) and it came back to bite me.

So I started over.  I put in rows of all the same peppers (jalapeno, pablano, mixed sweet and green peppers), tomatoes (roma & brandywine) and flowers (snapdragons, delphinium, columbine, nasturtium, pansies, and marigolds) with plenty of time to start over.  At least if they get started outside they don't need to be tempered for the adjustment, right?  Forget about the brussels sprouts, it's too late already.  I'll try those again for fall.  Everything's been coming up a little at a time, and I was breathing a sigh of relief that we would have vegetables after all.  Now suddenly this week, the week before Memorial Day, the weather's been up and down and rainy and sunny and generally unpredictable.  We've had the covers off for weeks, but put it on two nights ago because it was gonna be really cold and there was a chance of frost -- good save.  But I took them off again yesterday because it was in the 70's.  Last night I worked late and didn't think about it.  This morning I went out and it looks like most, if not all, the seedlings are shriveled again, and the tomato plant we bought a few weeks ago on a whim is barely hanging on.  I checked the weather from last night and -- WHAT?!  28 DEGREES?!?!

I'm feeling defeated, but gotta be realistic and admit that I was gutsy (or just stubborn) this year.  If I never tried it, I'd always wonder.  Some of it's paid off.  At least we've got herbs and spinach already.  Beets and carrots and lettuce will probably be next, hopefully followed by peas and broccoli and leeks.  We may just have to go buy some tomato and pepper plants this year, though, because at this rate I wouldn't be harvesting until September, just in time for the frost again.

Cilantro is growing back in abundance here and several other places in the garden.  That's ok, ladybugs like it and supposedly it deters some bugs.

Perennial herbs that grew back bigger and fuller than last year: (L to R) oregano, chives & sage

Thyme that grew back from last year much fuller -- I can never have enough of that!

Frost damage to my tomato seedlings.  Notice how the weed just next to them (bottom right) seems just fine!

Peas in front and spinach behind

I think the bean plants got too much frost too -- maybe I'll try them again for fall.

Cakes In All Shapes and Sizes

I got to do a really fun cake for a big fundraiser this week with a St. Patrick's Day theme.  It was also the BIGGEST cake I've ever made in one tier.  It has 6 16" layers of cake, all split and filled with Bailey's buttercream, so the cake itself is about 13-14" tall.  The feet and hat on top were carved out of rice krispie treats (leg, anyone?) and covered in fondant.  Overall, I'm guessing the thing weighed around 100 lbs -- enough that I could barely slide it on the table but wouldn't even try to lift it!

This is another wedding cake I did that was getting lots of attention for its odd -- almost gothic -- color combo.  It also has sugar diamonds all around the bottom of each tier.

The Seeds Are In!

Yes, all the seeds for my garden that could be planted ahead went in last Wednesday, and by Saturday the brussels sprouts and tarragon were already sprouted.  Now I just have to get outside and clean up the garden and get some row covers.  I'm aiming to get things outside a month earlier than last year, which would be about the first week of May.  The way the weather's been, we may actually see an early spring this year.  Guess we'll just have to see how it goes...

My Best Cake Yet

I'm really excited about how this cake turned out.  It wasn't completely original -- mainly tweaking colors and rearranging from another cake design, but added a few finishing touches on my own that I think really made it pop.  It's a display cake we used for a wedding show a couple weeks ago and now sits in our display room.  Lots of customers have been excited about it.

This one was for a lady's 90th birthday, so they wanted it frilly and flowery using pastel colors.  I didn't want it too gaudy so I piped some lace and used some fondant buttercups.  They loved it.

Is it Spring Yet?

FINALLY, more cake pics!  I got so busy in August and September with the tomatoes I was harvesting that blogging fell off the radar.  Then I took a short vacation (sadly, when we returned the tomatoes were clearly finished because of the first frost in mid-end September!), then wedding season was pretty much over for the season, then it was Thanksgiving and Christmas, and now it's the middle of winter and here we are covered in snow.  Weddings don't stop, of coarse, but they definitely slow down until about May -- rather parallel to gardening season, as a matter of fact.  

I've already started getting seeds and planning, but debating whether to expand the garden space.  At the least, I'm gonna try a lot of flowers from seed to plant around the perimeter of the house, which means we'll have to get a lot of compost to amend our sandy soil -- that's why I opted for raised beds for the vegetables.  I'm glad, too, because it wasn't long and we had grubs move into the lawn but so far none in the garden boxes.  I'm not sure how they'll affect the landscaping or new flowers yet -- I'm sure time will tell.  I'd also like to incorporate some kind of row covers to extend our tiny growing season, but haven't found the perfect ones yet (size is the issue so far), so we may have to fabricate some ourselves.  If we had those, I'd start planting seeds in the next week or so.  Oh, to be springtime!

Here's some pictures from the end of last season I never got around to posting:

This was a cool effect of ivory over chocolate brown using brush embroidery technique.

This has a 3D cherry tree growing up the side.

This cake was another milestone in the evolution of my piping skills -- Loose swirls of vines with tiny leaves and flowers.

This turned out really nice -- big, but still elegant and clean.

Cakes & Red Tomatoes

Yes, I finally picked three red roma tomatoes on Tuesday! They're still ripening on my window sill, but I'll probably have them for dinner. There's plenty more on the way, so I've got my canning jars ready for the Sauce Boss. =)


Ok, I'm finally catching up on my cake photos, so I'm posting a few more from this summer:

Look, it's a croquembouche! aka, a tower of cream puffs decorated with fondant flowers and spun sugar. Have you ever dreamt of something so fantastic?

Oh no, it's falling over! just kidding, not this time.

Simple, elegant buttercream swiss dots with gumpaste gardenias.

More simple buttercream but modern with twigs and orchids.

Still Waiting...

So here it is, August 20th, and I'm still waiting for the tomatoes to turn red! Just as of yesterday, the one I posted a picture of a month ago started to turn orange, but there's still a gazillion that are starkly green. Anyone have any thoughts? I've read a hundred different theories -- some say they need warm nights, others that they need to be left a little dry, etc, etc. I can't do much about the night temperatures. We're already having nights in the 40's and 50's (I don't want to think about what that means for winter!). But I did hold off on watering for 4 days while the temperatures were in the mid-upper 80's, and then the one started to turn; but what about the rest? Even the pepper leaves were starting to curl. Guess I'll just have to keep waiting and dreaming of roasted heirloom tomato sauce and soup... or learn to like green tomatoes. By the time my tomatoes turn red, all the other complimentary ingredients will be done! (basil, cilantro, green onions are all peaking, spinach is already gone)

Enormous green onions! The ones on the right were just planted in July.

Cilantro in bloom -- the ladybugs love it!

Peppers are growing in full force. There's one sweet pepper I'm holding my breath on to see if it gets any bigger, but it might just be ready. Poblano's aren't far behind. (mmm... are you thinking chiles rellenos?)



I've got marigold plants scattered around the garden (you've probably seen them peaking through on a bunch of the pictures) and they're ginormous!! This is one of the first ones I planted outside in the spring -- for size comparison, the wooden plank beneath it is 10" tall. Anyone need some shrubs? I'm gradually taking them out because they're crowding some of the herbs and vegetables. However, the Japanese beetles apparently love them, so I'm glad they're distracting the beetles from attacking other plants. It's sad to see the marigolds get devoured, but they seem to just keep growing bigger despite.

Japanese beetles are feasting

This was my first attempt at Brussels sprouts, and apparently I picked the worst time to plant them... Instead of sprouting little heads, they're just shooting out leaves because it's too hot outside. =( I'll be pretty disappointed if we don't get any sprouts this year, because the plants have been taking up a lot of space in the garden.


Wedding season is still in full force. It seems that fall is becoming as popular as spring to get married now, so there won't be any relief until about November, when we'll start gearing up for Christmas Yule Logs (imagine a Santa's workshop setup with cakes, buttercreams and fondant decorations, and that's what it's like =) ). I'm still working on backtracking to get pictures of my cakes between June and July, but here's some most recent ones:

A birthday cake for some friends.

This was a 60th anniversary cake with black-eyed susan flowers.

A fancy wedding cake -- it's supposed to look like ribbons wrapped tightly around it, but it's kinda hard to distinguish from the picture.