Garden Update: Garlic

I have never planted garlic in the ground before, I have only tinkered around with planting scraps for the garlic greens (see how-to post here).  I don’t currently have a lot of vegetable garden space, as my landscape is more formal with flowers, bushes, and trees.  This is one of the reasons why I prefer to garden in containers.  Garlic needs about 10 months (that’s right 10 MONTHS!) in soil in order to grow, and this would just not do in containers.  After much debate, I decided that I would try to find a small place in my landscape that I could plant some garlic! 

I found a small space in my backyard between some Sedum and a Peony that wouldn’t be completely upset by filling it with some garlic and got started!    

The process started in September.  I bought garlic cloves from two grocery stores, one clove was a hard neck variety and one was from a soft neck variety.  I separated the cloves, each of these will be planted like a seed, in total I had about 30.  At this point, I amended my soil with some fresh compost and  made three channels/rows to set the clove.  After each clove was placed a few inches from each other, I covered them with soil and watered them in really well and made sure the soil was kept moist every couple of weeks.

The garlic had sprouted significantly by November due to the warm weather.  I was a bit worried about the 6 to 8 inches of green that had already grown, so I decided to cover the area with some extra straw I had on hand just to cover them a bit during the first frosts.  

As you can see in this picture that I took just a few weeks ago (almost halfway for the garlic’s growing season), they are doing just fine above ground.  I can’t wait to see how they are doing below ground. 

I’m interested to see how they look in my landscape through-out the spring/ early summer months (harvest should be sometime in late June!)  As a trial, if these garlic plants don’t look “weird” in my landscape, I might add more vegetables in and around my formal landscape to test out the soil vs container gardening later in the year.

I’ll keep you all updated on the progress!  Have you ever sacrificed part of your landscape for vegetable plants?  Have you ever grown garlic before?  Please answer in the comments, I’d love to know!

Chocolate Covered Snowflake Oreos

I feel like there is usually a “lull” in creative and fancy treats between Christmas and Valentine’s day.  Since most creative treats surround a holiday, I decided that in order to fill this gap, I'll make something truly unique “just because”!

I really enjoy chocolate covered Oreos, especially my Christmas Tree Oreos because these chocolate covered cookies are super easy to make.  They aren’t completely covered in chocolate, which means that I don’t have to get my entire hand covered in chocolate because a cookie dropped in to the melted chocolate by accident (please say you know what I mean!)  

I thought to myself, why can’t I make a similar treat, just with a different “picture”.  Why not snowflakes?

And thus the idea for Chocolate Covered Snowflake Oreos was created!

In order to make these easy winter treats I used the below items:

- Semi-sweet Chocolate Chips

- White Sprinkles

- White Candy Melts

- Oreo/Off Brand Cookies

I had the white sprinkles on hand, but you can totally do this with just the white candy melts!

First, let’s get prepared.  Melt your semi sweet chocolate in the microwave.  Start with 30 seconds at a time until melted.  Make sure to stir in between each 30 second interval. 

While the chocolate is melting, lay out some wax paper to place your cookies until they set.

When your chocolate is melted, cover one side of the cookie by holding onto one side of the cookie sandwich, and lighting dipping in the other.  You will need to “wipe” off any excess onto the side of the container you used to melt the chocolate.

Then, while the chocolate is still soft, sprinkle a few white sprinkles for “flurries”.

While these cookies set-up, melt the white candy melts.  Tip:  I usually put candy melts straight into a non-reusable piping bag and put that into the microwave to melt the candies so I don’t have to dirty any extra dishes to clean up.

Once the candy melts are melted, start drawing your snowflakes!  I cut my tip a bit fatter than I originally wanted, but the treats were just for myself so it was okay that they weren’t perfect.  No two snowflakes look alike, so it’s okay if they aren’t all the same!   Try out different designs!

Once the cookies set-up, I always store them in the fridge so that the chocolate doesn’t get soft.  But who am I kidding, these treats were gone so fast they wouldn’t have had time to get soft!

Enjoy these with a nice cup of hot cocoa or homemade latte as you sit down to enjoy some family time! 

Planting Onion Sets in Containers

While perusing my local garden and pet store I found some onion sets and decided that I needed to give them a try!  I haven’t tried to grow onions before so I had to do a little research first.  Since I grow most (all) of my veggies in pots, I had to find out the correct size container for onions.

In order to grow onions in containers, they need enough space to root and grow.  The container should be around 6 inches deep and about 4 inches between onions to give them enough space to grow large enough to make a decent size onion.  I pulled out a few pots and found some rectangle containers that are just a bit under 6 inches deep, as well as long and wide enough to fit about 6 onion sets in one pot. 

During my research, I found that onion sets can be planted once the soil is able to be worked and when the temperature won’t go below 20 degrees F.  The rule of thumb for containers is that they can take temperatures about 10 degrees warmer than the average low end of a temperature.  So my onion sets in containers can take cooler temperatures to about 30 degrees.  If the forecast says the temp will go below that temp, I’ll pull them into the house for an evening. 

Onion sets should be planted about 1 inch below the surface of the soil.  I filled each container with potting mix and then placed my onion sets so I could make sure they had enough room.

To plant onion sets, put the root end down and the pointy end up.  This will let the roots grow down and the greens to grow up through the soil. 

Then cover the onion set with soil and water them in!  Onions need a lot of water, so make sure to keep soil moist, especially if keeping them in containers.  

Below is a picture of my current set-up!  Have you ever planted onion sets?  Do you garden in containers?  Share in the comments! 

Pull - Apart Pesto Bread

I want to share a fun new recipe that is made from scratch, but super easy!  I made pull-apart bread with pesto as a side dish to our Italian Night dinner, and it was so easy, I'm going to add it as a regular side dish!  If you aren't a huge fan of pesto, try this recipe with marinara! 

If you don't know, pull-apart bread is a type of bread that is made in a way that bakes together in a “loaf”, but able to be pulled apart to eat in serving size portions.   

In order to make this recipe you will need:

Bread Dough

Pesto (try my basic recipe)

Mozzarella Cheese

Parmesan Cheese

To start, make bread according to the recipe.  I use Betty Crocker’s pizza dough because it is quick and easy, as well as tasty!

Once the dough has risen, take the dough and make 1 in to 1.5 in dough balls.  The separate dough balls is what causes the bread to be able to "pull" apart, so the size determines the "serving" size of one pulled apart piece.

Once the balls are made, roll them in pesto and place them in pan, I used an 8 inch cake pan, but you can use a loaf pan or even a casserole dish!

Once all the balls are made, spread some pesto on top of the balls to make sure each crease is covered.  Next, cover the top with enough mozzarella cheese to completely cover the bread and then sprinkle the parmesan cheese for taste.

Last, bake the dough according to the bread dough recipe.        

Now all you have to do is pull it apart!

Have you ever made pull apart bread before?

Let me know if you try this recipe in the comments!

Spring Time Round-Up

It is finally Spring!  Spring is a wonderful time of year, birds are chirping, flowers are starting to loom, and days are getting longer and warmer.  It's almost like a new beginning.  In fact, in some cultures, the Spring Equinox is considered the New Year!  This post is a round up of all the spring related posts to offer them in all one place!

The first holiday we celebrate in Springtime is Easter! Use one of these unique treats to make your Easter dessert extra special! 

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Flowers are starting to bloom, indoor and outdoor.  Take a peek at these posts for tips on how to help African Violets to re-bloom and start your seeds indoors before summer arrives.

Want to create a fun cupcake for any spring related activity?  Garden Party anyone?  Check out these Flower Pot Cupcakes!

April showers bring May flowers, but they also cancel outdoor events.  Check out my thoughts on rain dates!

Do you have any Springtime topics you’d like me to review?  Would you like more Springtime treats to make?  What’s your favorite thing about Spring?