March 19. 2023- It is time for the finals

Welcome to the finals

This week will  bring to a close the seventeenth year for Mears Garden Picture contest. We started in 2005, missing one winter 8-9 years ago. This contest has been our little way to get through the sometimes long Iowa winter. 

But wait. Winter is not quite over. When the contest ends it is suppose to be spring.

After another glorious Wednesday, with lots of warm sunshine and blooming crocuses, the cold came back. Early on Saturday morning, in the dark, when I started to write this, the front porch temperature temperature reading  was 7 degrees. I am not talking wind chill either. That is 07 degrees. Fahrenheit. Moreover the front porch reading is usually a few degrees warmer than those proverbial low lying areas. There was wind too.

We knew the the cold was coming all week. But what was anticipated was lows in the low teens, not single digits. I guess we will see just how hardy are the early spring bulbs.

Being positive, which is ever the goal, I can report that the predicted temperatures are suppose to get to 40 today (Sunday) and 50 tomorrow. That is only appropriate since 50 is the average high for this time of year, in Iowa. 

First, let me give you a few pictures from that glorious Wednesday, before I get to the contest. You might just see some of these pictures this coming winter.

Thank you deer for leaving these lovies alone. 

Last Week in the Contest

Last Week was the third and final week in the playoffs. The winner, by the smallest margin was....

Stop the presses. Late on Saturday, one last vote was cast.  It brought the Fall crocus into a tie with the African Violet. 

We have cowinners.  They will both advance. 

I had hoped this would happen. The crocus was down 17-16, after being tied at 16 for several days. Actually 17 votes was how many the Iris got last week to advance to the finals. Somehow it seemed fair to have both pictures advance.

Here are your two cowinners:

Here was the final vote total.

The contest really was the closest of the season, (other than the tie in Week #3.) The margin stayed at about a single vote for most of the week. I kept waiting to see if that 50th vote would be cast. It wasn't. But then, it was.

 

This Week the finals

#1 Purple Crocuses 

April 10, 2022

#2 Little Iris 

May 10, 2022

#3 African Violet 

December 26, 2022

#4 Fall crocuse 

November 10, 2022

There you have the four pictures you have picked to get to the finals. Can anyone stop the purple crocuses? Will the crocus vote be split, allowing one of the other pictures to get to be the winner?

Vote away.

And thanks for that fiftieth vote. That was the most votes all season.

By the way if you only have one computer more than one person can vote. All you have to do is refresh your page and it will allow a second vote.

And remember, every vote counts. 

Right Now

The dance of the early spring bulbs was completed when the crocuses joined in the festivaties. They added color to the aconite and snowdrops to form a wonderful trio.

Here is a  video I took on Wednesday. This is about the longest video I have posted. I keep waiting to see what is the memory limit to this technology.

Here are more pictures from that glorious Wednesday, just 4 days ago.

I realize how these all go so well together. It makes me want to get a few hundred purple crocuses. I would sprinkle them in with the aconite, where the aconite currently play by themselves. A few more snowdrops wouldn't hurt either.

More winter farmer's markets have allowed me to add more African violets.

This first picture was of a plant I obtained last Sunday.

Here is how the violets are displayed at the moment.

The tiles tell the story of Don Quixote. My parents got the tiles in Spain about 50 years ago.

I cannot say enough about how lovely these violets are. They are also so inexpensive. These plants are sold for $5/each. Where else can you get that kind of value?

I have saved perhaps the best for the last part of the "right now" section.

These pictures were all taken yesterday morning, after the temperatures got down to single digits. It never did get much above 20 all day.  I wandered around in the morning and looked to see if there was much damage. The path positively crunched as I walked around, as the moisure in the paths was frozen.

Sometimes you just have to look carefully to see what is there. How true.

The snowdrops were bent over. I expect they will return to an upright position maybe on Monday when it warms up.

Actually if you look at the above picture, at about 10 o'clock from the center snowdrops, there is something yellow that is not the shape of an aconite.

Nearby there was another one. It was a little yellow riticulata iris, called danfordiae. I had forgotten I had planted some of these. I guess I did. 

It does not seem to care that there was a hard freeze going on at the moment.

The aconite are all closed up, looking like tiny light bulbs. There were a few sun breaks during the day yesterday. I wondered if the aconite would open. They didn't.

I spotted the first daffodil buds. Sometimes you just have to keep looking, to spot something new.

I think these will bloom by next weekend.

Then, I found the first squill.

The squill will take the place of the aconite as a dominant color in the garden. While blue and yellow would make a nice combination, (think Ukranian flag) squill and aconite do not really overlap in time.

Julia's recipe

Avocado sauce

This recipe is from the Milk Street cooking magazine. It's a green sauce. The magazine suggested serving it with baked chicken, which we did. Hoever, we think the sauce would work with fish or hamburgers or even added (in a dollop or two) to vinaigrette dressing. Versatile. Easy to make. No weird ingredients. A real find. 

The ingredients:

1 ripe avocado;

most of a bunch of flatleaf parsley;

1 tablespoon olive oil;

1 cup chopped onion;

1-1/2 tablespoons white vinegar;

1/2 teaspoon (or less) red pepper flakes; and

1/4 teaspoon each salt and pepper (not shown). 

I peeled the avocado (by cutting it into quarters, and then peeling the skin off each piece). Then I cut the parsley leaves off the stems, chopped the onion and put all of that stuff into a food processor. 

I added the vinegar and oil and red pepper flakes and salt and pepper and buzzed it up until it was pretty smooth. 

I had started the chicken earlier, seasoning it only with salt and pepper. I baked it at 375 degrees for about 40 minutes, flipping the pieces over after about 30 minutes. 

After 40 minutes, I flipped the pieces back to skin side up and then jacked up the heat to 400 degrees for about 20 more minutes.

We like chicken to be done through and through so I bake it longer than others might. 

On the table. We had some orzo left over, so reheated that as a side. And some green beans and strawberries with yogurt. 

But then I thought about pita. We had only one so cut it into 1/3s (Maggie had joined us for dinner).

The best use of the chicken and the sauce was to shred some of the chicken and make a little pita, chicken and avocado sauce sandwich. Delicious. 

Next time, I will make sure we have pitas. 

If you want to make a bigger bowl of sauce, just double everything. If you like cilantro, use it instead of parsley. Or use some of each. If you have a jalapeno, use it instead of red pepper flakes. Stemmed and seeded. 

As I said, this sauce would be good anywhere you might use ketchup or mayo. French fries, hamburgers, white fish, salmon, steak. 
 

Odds and Ends

According to the TV weather we had the coldest St. Patrick Day in 30 years.

The Iowa state government is really awful. They are getting around to passing bills. They seem to want to find people to hate. Florida is the model and that means more bad stuff is to come.  In addition to the legislature being in session we have begun to have a parade of Republican presidential candidates come through the state. It could be a long next 9 months. 

On a more positive note our backyard sale to feed people has begun. This will be the fourth year. We passed the $100 mark. I have been selling aconite ( I have a few extra) and some amaryllis. Some amaryllis just break dormancy with no prompting. I received about 50 last October when someone learned I grew them and knew how to care for them.

I was between books to read at the end of the day. I resorted to looking at old garden magazines. There was one article about hellebores. They really have some lovely plants these days. So I bought a few. It was one of those purchases where I figure I will find the space for them when the time is right. (That could be in about two weeks.) Unfortunately I have a list of plants and other garden items that waiting to determine location.

I still need to see about some caladium.

Pray for peace. Pray for Iowa. Pray for all of us to figure out how to get along.

Philip