A little tour in the garden and a mint syrup recipe

 The garden is growing so much, we had our first eggplants, tomatoes, raspberries, and black currants. The plants grow fast and every week there is a new plant we could use in our cooking or to preserve. 

It's a question of good timing and make time for it. 

I wanted to give you a little tour of the garden. The flowers, it's such a delight to smell the roses, honeysuckle, and lilies. I feel I am becoming more and more of a flower collector. 

I like that we grow vegetables and fruits and have flowers in such a small space. It is a challenge to make space for all of the plants, we need to be creative. 

The hollihocks are doing so good, I brought the seeds from France, they come from my parents yard. 

The honeysuckle. ( See I am really in the city ) 

Lilies.

Some kale, we do eat a lot of it...

First beets are almost ready !

A potted tomato on top of the chicken coop.

Roses

And so much mint !

We dry some of the mint but this year I made some mint syrup !

Here is the recipe.

Mint Syrup Recipe 

- 4 big bowls of mint leaves washed 

- 4 cups of water

- 4 cups of sugar 

In a large bowl add the fresh mint leaves, add the boiling water over the leaves and cover for 24 hours.

Filter the liquid you obtained, add the sugar and cook in a large sauce pan for an hour. ( on high first then on low )

Let the syrup cool and store in a bottle.

Keep it in your fridge. 

Enjoy your syrup in a cocktail, or just with sparkling water ( or not ) and a lot of ice. 

It's very sweet so you really just need a little bit, it's fresh and delicious on a hot summer day! 

Soaking wet

This morning the soil was very wet from the heavy rain we had yesterday and last night. This week we've been cleaning up the garden and planting 

some broccoli, kale, chards, and leeks.  I didn't prepare any seeds inside this year. I also just threw in some seeds for beets, nasturtium, cosmos, and zinnias. I still need to get some seeds to plant arugula.

Today is nice I was able to enjoy my lounge chair with a fresh drink enjoying the black tulips, so elegant.

I am so ready for the summer. 

Anything exciting in your gardens ?

The mint is so prolific! We planted along the neighbors wall and the brick path. It doesn't need much to grow and is very invasive so we manage to contain it and it's still a lot of mint. There is no such thing as too much mint...

I couldn't resist sharing the picture of the dogwood blooming. We planted it on the neighbors sidewalk 

( it's a vacant lot so no one minded ) and this year is the first year it's blooming. We hope it will be big enough when they start to build a house so no one will dig it up. 

The harvest of the day, some greens for my lunch with a little viola and eggs from our beautiful ladies. 

I will shortly present you our 6 chickens.

The taste of pesto in my mouth the basil will be planted very soon.

the mojito

we are up to our ears in mint over here. it's growing along the side walk and on top of the bunny hutch. and there is lots of it! i have plans to dry a bunch of it soon for tea to give away as a christmas gift this year. but for now we are enjoying it fresh on top of fruit and ice cream, in popsicles and with the heat that has just hit us, in ice cold drinks.



we are having a porch party tomorrow night and i think mojitos are in order.
the perfect summertime drink.
i even like them without the rum. you can't go wrong with fresh mint, lime and sugar.
and muddling is so fun.

the mojito

12 mint leaves
1 lime
2 teaspoons sugar
2 ounces white rum
2 ounces club soda or seltzer
crushed ice

put mint leaves in tall glass and squeeze lime juice over them.
add the sugar and muddle the mint, lime juice and sugar together.
add crushed ice.
stir in the rum and top off with club soda or seltzer.
add mint garnish.
sip!

happy summertime friends!

minty

if you are struggling to find that green thumb of yours, start with growing mint and watch it take off. mint is one of those plants that is hard to kill and boy does it grow. because of it’s prolific nature many people like to contain mints in pots and planters.

i also grow it around my chicken coop where i don’t mind if it takes over. it keeps the area smelling a bit more pleasant and the hens like to nibble on it. we joke that our eggs taste minty fresh.

there are many varieties of mint. we grow common spearmint, peppermint, pineapple mint, chocolate mint and orange mint.
this week we are...

drying it for tea.


making syrup to flavor sparkling water, lemonade, and cocktails.


making peppermint oil to try out concocting our own toothpaste.

and blending it with fruit for popsicles. (this one is simply watermelon and mint leaves)

what a tempting little plant. it is hard to walk by it without yearning for a sniff.

and it makes the perfect after dinner mint.

stem cuttings

grow great grub by gayla trail is pulling tightly at my gardening heart strings. i am a full believer in her ideas- food in small spaces! container gardens! reusing & recycling! i am even so inspired as to make her ideas a sort of manifesto for myself as we prepare for our move in a little over three weeks.

one little tidbit from the book that i found incredibly interesting is making more plants from what you already have. on page 31, trail gives easy instructions on how to propagate a variety of plants. by cutting the stem just below an attached leaf & sticking it in water, you will have new roots in a couple of weeks.

so, i tried this method with my mint plant gifted from a gardening friend.

& to my surprise- i had real success! from the stem are healthy roots just waiting to be covered with soil. although this seems like such an easy task, it was satisfying to know that i didn't need to purchase another plant for my garden.

i can only imagine the generations of women before me who shared plants and reaped their bountiful harvests together. i encourage you to pick up trail's book from a local book shop or library & begin propagating!

mint, onions and tools

While most folks I know are trying to rid their gardens of mint, I brought home a chocolate mint plant last week from the farm. I love the addition of mint to a fruit salad and chocolate mint makes a nice tisane. Plus, I love the purple and green foliage.



This weekend we planted our onion sets and the leeks that we grew from seed. The shallots went in about a week ago. Here are the varieties we planted this year:

red onion-Red Baron
yellow onion-Stuttgarter
leek-Lincoln
shallot-Picasso


Having the right tools for the job makes gardening even more rewarding. We've found the stirrup hoe (on the right) to be indispensable. We first learned of this tool while volunteering at the herb gardens. It makes weeding (especially when weeds are small) a cinch. No bending over required! It's also a great cultivator.



For tough weeding jobs, I always reach for my Cobrahead weeder. It's what we use at the farm as well. If you despise weeding and have to deal with dandelions or other long roots in your garden, you should try out a Cobrahead weeder.



Tom's favorite tool is the Hori-Hori knife from Japan. He ordered one this winter and now uses it for everything from digging holes to weeding and cultivating.



What are some of your favorite tools?