I have just got to share his quick and easy fresh recipe with you. Our spinach is coming up really well right now, and I was looking for a way to eat them that was not really a salad, but wasn’t exactly cooked, either. So a friend suggested that I try “wilting” it. Here’s what you do:

Take a BUNCH of fresh washed and dried spinach. keep it ready to go, because everything happens really quick.

In a large soup pot over medium heat, heat up some butter and olive oil, about 2 Tablespoons of each. Mince up a clove of fresh garlic and toss it in. Stir and immediately take the pan off the heat. Throw in your spinach, add a dash of salt and some fresh ground pepper, and toss your spinach just until everything is coated.

The spinach is wilted, not completely cooked, and it still has the pleasant texture; of fresh, but is warm and loaded with lots of additional flavor! Go ahead and plate it up, and squeeze fesh lemon juice over it at the table. Yum!

This time every year it seems there are at least two or three new garden tools that I simply must own. My collection of tools is outgrowing the space I have set aside for them in our sun porch/laundry room. So this year I decided to invest in a plastic shed for my garden.

Plastic Sheds are easy to set up and they will last for decades. I followed the advice of others and bought a little more shed than I thought I needed, so that I can grow into it over the years. I chose an attractive model with molded plastic, steel reinforced panels which look like the vinyl siding on most of the houses in our neighborhood. I added the optional foundation kit, which will keep the wooden flooring up off the ground, which can get pretty wet at times.

My wife is thrilled, because essentially I just added back another 20 square feet to the porch!

Every once in a while you just have to stop and appreciate beautiful gardens. There are places you can go to see many of these both online and off.  Some of the off line places are at the local library or in magazines at your favorite book store or hardware store. You will see breakfast gardens, Japanese gardens, meditation gardens, water gardens, iris gardens, and English gardens, gardens for parties, relaxing, and reading and just about anything you can imagine. I often wonder who thinks of these things.

I always thought it was landscape architects and have only recently discovered that many are the creations of horticulturists and artists that have turned their talents to a natural canvas.  It is both exciting and wonderful to see the finished work. Since I am stuck in an apartment right now I often find the most beautiful garden I can find and let my imagination go and just dream of being in that majestic place whether it be large or small. I can smell the flowers and feel the wind blow across my skin and know one day I too will have a beautiful garden of my very own.

Just last month I looked all over the area I live in for a type of been seed, and when I say everywhere, I mean everywhere. Even the local co-op didn’t have what I was looking for! I was then on a mission to find the seeds I wanted to plant; not the seeds that the hardware and garden stores thought I should plant.  At that point I went out on the internet and found them on the Burpee.com website.

Next year I will be buying a lot more from Burpee for a couple of reasons; they have a great selection and I plan on having a small greenhouse to start seedlings from scratch so I will be ready to plant as soon as the ground and weather cooperate. By purchasing seeds and planting your own you not only save money since you aren’t buying plants but you actually can plant exactly what you want to plant from tomatoes to beans, corn, squash, etc. I am slowly figuring this growing your own food thing out and think in a couple more seasons I will be a pro!

With the hustle and bustle of today’s busy life it is hard to find a place where you can just sit and meditate, read or just relax away from the noise.  Sometimes the best thing we can do is create a space that is just for us and will allow us to get away for a few minutes each day. I have read where mother’s will lock themselves in a bathroom to get just a few minutes of piece and quite away from the kids.  Wouldn’t it be better if you could sit outside for a couple of minutes while the children play close by where you can relax?

You can create such a space on a porch, patio or deck or in a garden away from the house. Make sure you have a comfortable place to sit whether it is a chair or bench and some soothing smells.  Those can come from plants, scented candles or just breathing in the fresh air.  If you don’t have a view of something wonderful, create one with flowers or garden décor that you love.  Meditate with a statue of some sort and just enjoy the “me” time. However you find those precious moments away from your hectic life; spend them somewhere beautiful and fulfilling.

It’s amazing how much waste we can reduce in our landfills by composting our food scraps (not animal) and yard trimmings.  It is estimated that could reduce our landfills by one third to half!  We can also make our own really good soil to use in our gardens and yard for nothing.  I don’t know about you, but I think this is a win – win scenario.  So why don’t most of us do this?

In my humble opinion it has to do with several things.  I think most of us, left to our own devices, are just plain lazy.  We don’t want to take the time to build a simple compost pile and certainly don’t want to gather our waste.  The other thing I believe most people think is that a compost pile or tumbler stinks and no one wants to live with a smelly mess!  However, I have had an open style compost pile for years and there is no smell; even in the hottest days of summer!  That’s because we only put in natural scraps that are not animal scraps or waste.  If you do a compost pile correctly, it is a wonderful way to go and stay green!

I have always hated using plastics as a weed barrier but for many years we thought it would work best.  One layer would last many years and you thought you might be able to lay it down once and forget about it.  The problem is; it takes years for this material to decompose.  So now I ask if you could get your hands on a 100% Biodegradable paper fiber mulch made from natural cellulose fibers, which is a renewable resource that is easy to use and allows water and air to pass through it would you use it?  For me the answer is yes! What I really like about this product is it decomposes over a single growing season!

Having a material that does not take away from nature and actually gives back to the natural process makes me feel good about using it.  So I am very happy with the WeedGuard material and how easy it is to use and I now feel good about stopping the weeds from growing where I don’t want them too in without hurting the environment with more and more plastic.