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Tuesday, June 7, 2011

How Does Your Garden Grow?

Summer is my absolute favorite time of the year. Bring on the heat, the sun, the longer days, and the festivals and fun!  One of my favorite things about our apartment is the awesome balcony we have created. It's our first balcony and boy are we making use of it! 


We bought the side table and chairs the moment we signed our lease because we were that excited for our balcony! We eat dinner out here most evenings and love watching the neighborhood kids practice their skateboarding tricks every afternoon.


It's also a great retreat from our warm apartment (we haven't turned on our air conditioner yet) once the temperatures cool at night and the perfect spot to watch summer thunderstorms.


Our vegetables are growing like crazy and the cayenne peppers have little white flowers.  John keeps checking the carrots sure that they are ready to eat but they still have about a month left of incubation.  On the left are our bell peppers that I can hardly wait for.


As you can see, I got a little zealous with my basil seed planting and now our basil has taken over our entire garden....we have 25 individual basil plants. If anyone has any delicious basil recipes, please share. We've been eating lots of basil and mushroom pizza and will be making some pesto in the next week or so.


There are also some flowers dispersed here and there - marigolds and alyssum.  They haven't started blooming yet but I can't wait until there is some color mixed in with the sea of green.



Don't forget to pass along those basil recipes! I'm off to enjoy the sunrise while sipping on my coffee out on the balcony.
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6 comments:

  1. michelle@decorandthedogJune 7, 2011 at 8:47 AM

    I'm in love with your balcony. It looks so cozy!!

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  2. Lindsay @ Delighted MommaJune 7, 2011 at 10:04 AM

    Your balcony IS awesome! I absolutely love that you have a little garden out there...and eating dinner outside in this beautiful summer weather is best!

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  3. RebbieJune 7, 2011 at 10:41 AM

    It's nice to relive the memories of your lovely balcony. I hope the kids are getting better with their skateboard tricks. Leslie made a basil chicken stir-fry that was really good. It might be this one (minus the fish sauce of course) http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/thai-chicken-with-basil-stir-fry/Detail.aspx

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  4. the cape on the cornerJune 7, 2011 at 11:50 AM

    aww, your balcony is so sweet. you've got some major planting going on up in there, that's awesome! altho, i still can't get past where you said "bring on the heat.." oh boy, that is NOT for me!

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  5. www.thewhitefarmhouse2.blogspot.comJune 7, 2011 at 2:21 PM

    Your balcony looks wonderful. My first apartment long, long, long, long ago had a balcony and I loved sitting on it. This brought back wonderful memories. I didn't know you could have too much basil! Love the stuff! I'll post some recipes for you! Thanks for visiting and your sweet comments!

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  6. SJune 8, 2011 at 6:44 PM

    Great garden!!! Here's an easy recipe for Basil Pesto: 3c loosely packed basil leaves, 4tsp extra virgin olive oil, 2tsp pine nuts, 1 clove garlic, 1/2 c parmesan, salt to taste. First combine garlic, nuts & parmesan in the bowl of food processor. Whirl until mixture resembles fine pebbles. Add basil in batches, chopping in processor, then drizzle oil in until sauce reaches desired consistency. Add salt. This is YUMMY with fresh-baked bread, on pizza, or mixed in with pasta al dente. ENJOY!

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