A Trip to the Lilac Gardens

 Once upon a time I took the oldest kids here. It's only 15 miles from our house but it's the first time we've been there in about 10 years.

I am a fan of the traditinal lilac. I like the color and the scent, but these white ones were just gorgouws. They were so startling against the green foilage.

The boys had a great time playing games in between the rows. Preston wants to move out there. I can imagine how fun it would be to play there all summer long.

 This bush was a very delicate pink color. Beautiful!

 Had to throw in the windmill. They are the skyscrapers of the planes. When I was a kid we had one right by the garden. I would climb up to the platform and sit and enjoy the breeze. Now I'm scared to death to climb up there.

 Look at how big those blossoms are!

It was just such a pleasant morning, walking among the rows and rows of lilacs. This is a family farm that has been raising lilacs just for beauty for several generations. It was a real treat for us.

It's That Time of Year Again!

Time to get the garden ready, that is. Hubby has been hard at work, adding a new raised bed and getting the soil all ready to plant. A local church was selling compost as a fundraiser and we bought a pickup load or two to fill everything in. We have some rich, dark soil now so I am hoping for bumper crops this year. (As a side note: what a great idea for a fundraiser, little cost and little work! Those guys were thinking!)
This year hubby has done most of the planning and I have to admit that it has been really nice to not have to worry about it. He has a much more analytical mind and planning, drawing graphs, making it all work is right up his alley. As of today he has most of our early seeds growing in the garage under a light. The tomatoes are really taking off. The seed potatoes are starting to pop up too. We did lose many of our strawberry plants over the winter. But we had such a moderate, dry winter that I think they may have just dried up and died. The dog lying in the strawberry bed sure didn't help either. We finally had to build a fence to keep him off the berries.

We do still need to order some of these tomato towers:

We have used them for a couple of years and they work really well for us.

 

 This is what the tomato tower looks like.

My poor strawberries....

That's pretty much the garden except for a couple of small beds in the alley.

Sticky Orange Chicken

Recipe Name: Sticky Orange Chicken -
Categories: Main Dish, Meat, Poultry
Serves:
Ingredients:
1 tsp black pepper, ground
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp thyme
1 tsp onion powder
2 tsp paprika
1 1/3 tbsp salt
1  large roasting chicken
1  orange
Instructions:
Place rinsed and prepared chicken in ziploc bag and sprinkle spice  mix over the chicken. Rub bag to make it even..Put chicken in fridge over night.
Next day 12-24 hours later, remove chicken from fridge and fill cavity with whole orange cut into chunks, put in large roaster with deep sides. Roast chicken at 250 for 5 hours, after juices have formed, approx after 1.5 hours, begin basting every 30 minutes or so.
Kris's note: I have used a whole onion instead of the orange and it's good too. But we prefer the orange. I roast this in my pampered chef stoneware bowl. It's really juicy and very good!!

This recipe exported by PDACookbook Plus - www.wakefieldsoft.com