Hey my Sweet Lifers! About ten years ago a neighbor asked me if I would like some aloe vera for my garden. I was barely wet under the ears with my gardening skills and I planted the tiny little things under a tree out in what is now the Sweet Life Garden. Over the...
Hey my Sweet Lifers! Recently, I saw a post from a dear friend regarding a perished bee having fallen prey to the hand of an unscrupulous person who thought it swell to put pesticides on their dandelions. Dandelions are not weeds! In the spring, they are some of the first flowers to feed the...
Hey my Sweet Lifers! I don’t think there’s anyone except my great Aunt Melda Lee that doesn’t like garlic. I shared a recipe with her years ago for my collards and I had barely gotten garlic out of my mouth as one of the ingredients when she twisted up her face and grimaced! I...
Hey my Sweet Lifers! There are many things I love about having a garden. One is the ability to walk outside and pick fresh daily items to use for my recipes. I suppose if I did not love to cook this would not be as pleasurable. What I love perhaps the most is when...
Hey my Sweet Lifers! Hope ya’ll had a marvelous and merry holiday! There are many flowers that serve as both a beauty and as a handy helper to plant in your garden. One of these is calendula, also known as Pot -Marigold and Poor Man’s Saffron. It is, in my opinion one of the...
Hey my Sweet Lifers! If you’re feeling like you want to up your game in home cooking then might I suggest growing some tarragon. This herb has the ability to “elevate” dishes to the next level. Considered one of the four fine herbs in French cooking, it plays well with fish, chicken and pork. ...
Hey my Sweet Lifers! Of all the herbs I grow parsley is the one that I can never get enough of. I grow it everywhere and as soon as the root forms I move it to the main garden so it can flower and spread it’s seeds for even more! Parsely is a member...
Hey my Sweet Lifers! This summer has really poured a lot of hurting on the garden. We have set records by having the hottest one since 1913. As you can imagine some herbs survive and even thrive in that kind of temperatures; while others said “adios!” Because I do so much cooking, preserving and...
Hey my Sweet Lifers! Peppermint is one of the oldest herbs we have. It has been found in the pyramids in Egypt and apparently deemed useful not only for the living but for the dead as well. Mint was also used as a trading commodity. The word “mint” traces back to the actual minting...
Hey my Sweet Lifers! I just got clocked by a hornet in my armpit in the sweet life garden! I know, what a way to intro my column this month, but keep reading and it will make sense and perhaps even make you smile. I am constantly being reminded of the fact that at...
Het my Sweet Lifers! One of the most versatile herbs to have in your garden is thyme. There are more than 400 different species used from culinary to medicinal to just fabulously decorative. The tiny petite flowers are a pretty addition to plates and the scent is lovely when making floral arrangements from your...
The Sweet Life Gardener Basil June 2022 Hey my Sweet Lifers! Of all the herbs for...
Hey my Sweet Lifers! By now all of you should have gotten beds prepped and made some decisions about what you’d like to grow in your own gardens. I have been busy as well getting seedlings hardened off and ready to go into the main beds they were planned for. I have in the...
Hey my Sweet Lifers! I hope by now you have taken a few moments to think about what you and your family loves to eat and jotted down a few vegetables and fruits that you would like to walk outside and just pick fresh from your yard. There’s really nothing more fabulous that eating...
Hey my Sweet Lifers! There are so many challenges to think about when planning a garden, like understanding the way the sun lands throughout the day, the quality of the soil, and rotation and location annually. Unless it lives in the Sweet Life Garden year round, each year every bed is delicately and thoughtfully...
Gardening in Texas February 2022 Hey my Sweet Lifers! I love to plant...
In the garden it’s time to plant carrots, beets, turnips, mustard, onion, radishes, collards and spinach. Keep the plants and seedlings moist and away from critters as they are doing their best to forage as we go into the cooler days. This year I am collecting items for The Little House of Tiny Tots...
In the garden… you can start planting strawberries and start seedlings for tomatoes. I like to start these in ice cream cones in the porch and then when it gets a little warmer just pop the whole thing into the garden. The cone’s make a small perfect pot and they are biodegradable. 2. For...
In the Garden it’s time to start growing indoors from seedlings your tomatoes. You should start harvesting the kale and lettuces planted in late fall. If you missed that marker it is still perfectly fine to plant seeds for lettuce, radishes, carrots and beets now. It’s a good time to establish berry bushes too;...
There’s lots of reasons we send flowers, usually for a celebration of a holiday or season and in all cases when someone dies. Flowers signify a gesture of caring and thoughtfulness but did you know each flower has historical heritage tracing back specific meanings for both the sender and the receiver? During the reign...
