No April showers yet!

Has it been a while? I have been just using Instagram @picklesandkimchi and I totally forgot about my blog. Lettuce, radicchio, and other salad greens are coming out of the garden. The kale is doing well still. My David Austin roses are just about to bloom. I pulled the snap pea out yesterday and weeded all the false garlic and others. The months are flying. There is so little time but so much to do in the garden. If you have a garden, I am happy to work with you!

My Meyer lemon tree did great on my patio. The wind snapped a branch that was heavily laden with fruit. I used organic fertilizer instead of a synthetic one the nursery man had suggested. The fruit was much bigger and juicer. Time to repot to a bigger pot. I am very proud of my tree. I made lemon bars, lemonade, and used the lemon in my salad dressing.

 

 

I went to a farm in South Korea and made kimchi. It was my first experience with making it from the beginning. Amazing process and labor intensive. Almost all the ingredients were grown at this farm. That is how they do it. The chili pepper, the radish, the green onions, and garlic all get mixed up. Kimchi is so amazing. When it is first made, the taste is unbelievable. Delicious!

Yum, all done. The ladies there crouch for hours stuffing the kimchi with the chili, radish, garlic, and secret ingredients specific to each family mixture. My arms were burning. At the end, all the kimchi was boxed and shipped to Seoul. I remember seeing my grandmother make it with raw oysters in the 1970's. Now they use plum sauce to sweeten things up. More natural I suppose but they still all use shrimp paste.

This is my uncle's kimchi making session. I don't know how many radishes were shredded. My relatives stayed the weekend at his house and started 4am in the morning. My parents were there to help.






The school garden looks good. The butterfly bush is just looking so healthy. The sweetpeas are beginning to bloom. The school trash is driving me nuts. I pruned all the rose bushes at school because the school gardeners told me there are more important things to take care of. What? The fourth cherry tree died. The school gardener nicked the base of the tree with his weedwhacker or whatever it is called. One tree is striving to live. So sad. We planted five cherry trees last year. I pulled the dead trees out and it broke my heart! Kids run around and shake the gingko trees at the base, they squish butterflies, step on ants, and pull off flowers. What are these children doing?I am trying to change all that. Slowly....






It is not easy telling the children all the time what they need to do. Someone has to start somewhere. That is the reason why I teach kinder. They need to start young. By the time they get to 5th grade, it is too late.
We are always talking about the environment. Plants are a big part of our lives. WE NEED TO RECYCLE, REDUCE, and REUSE. Is there another one? I love it when my kids ask me if the trash they are holding can be out into the 3 R's.


Changing the subject, this is the best $10 investment ever. I have flies living in the soil of my potted plants at school. The flies have been so good to my octopus plant. Instead of using chemicals to kill the pests, this plant is doing the job perfectly.