Tag Archives: herb gardening

What’s blooming in my Garden?

Summer is almost over in our corner of the world. That means School is about to start in a week. This school year will be very interesting in this household as I will have not only one but two people going to school. That’s right! My daughter and my husband is going to school. The husband is going to law school and Bea is going to Kindergarten. The house is in full swing!

Honestly, I’m quite excited about my husband going to law school. I’m the one who enjoys going to school. I am forever the student. But hubby recently declared “I’m going to law school”. How he’s going to manage working full-time and going to law school full-time is beyond me. But I really hope he can juggle it. I want him to live his dream, whether it’s going to be Law or whatever new passion he just discovered, I’m all for it! I should know. I’m forever the student, the self-proclaimed crafter, the self-discovery and living the passion. hahaha :)

We’ve been quite busy with enrollment, buying and preparing stuff for school. I’ve been also busy with some wedding cords, my sewing class and gardening.

That photo above is my sweet/bell pepper! My very first bell pepper in my little garden! If you knew me, you couldn’t imagine or think I’d be one who would even plant grass! Probably because of motherhood or the love of food that has brought me to herb gardening. My little herb garden has now turned into a small vegetable garden too.

My sweet basil has taken over the entire garden. I’ve read that you have to keep pinching off the top leaves or they will grow tall and gangly. I do that but still it’s growing tall. I can’t keep up.

I have a new addition to my garden: dill and rosemary. So far, the rosemary is doing ok. However, the dill isn’t looking so good.

When I do get the time, I will have to buy some more vermicompost in that little organic farming site initiated by the Cebu City Government and a project of baranggay Talamban in Cabancalan. I got it at P15/kilo.

Oh and by the way, while I’m at it, I did a little landscaping. I bought four topiary ball trees @ P40/each and got some ornamental plants. Planted them in a mound and covered it with Bermuda grass. I had some small garden stones/pebbles and fenced that small corner. We’ll see how this looks in a few weeks.

Herb Garden Update

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I wrote a post last October about my little herb garden in pots. After 4 months, I’m proud to say that these are how my sweet basils look like.

I started with one small pot of sweet basil and now I have a lush, green sweet basil garden right in my little backyard. I haven’t bought sweet basil for four months now. Yes! When I cook pasta dishes, I just snip from my little herb garden. I discovered that the taste and aroma of freshly cut basil is different from the dried ones. The best part is not spending at all to buy fresh herbs which can get pricey. And they just really go to waste since you’ll just be needing a few so you just toss the rest into the garbage. What a waste!

I don’t have to worry about snipping them too much since trimming the top leaves actually promotes growth of the sweet basil. The more I cut the leaves the more it grows that’s why my basil is really growing.

My four-year old and I decided that we should give our plants a name. I had thought about putting labels to the herbs but I just keep forgetting. I had store-bought plant labels.

There’s my little one who volunteered to put the labels. It was early in the morning, a beautiful day to be outside and just enjoying it with my daughter and my little herb (turned vegetable garden?)

I’ve grown a few vegetables and herbs like tomatoes, scallions/spring onions, alugbati, red bell pepper, chilis, chives and ginger. I want dill, thyme, rosemary and a few more herbs. I will have to find time and go to Sunday Farmer’s Market at BTC soon.

I noticed though that I have ants in my little garden and they eat the leaves of some of the herbs or vegetables. How do I get rid of them? I will try the cinnamon and sugar mixture and see what happens.

Most of the herbs and vegetables have thrived though. I’m a novice in this herb gardening thing so I will have to keep reading more about how to take care of them. Meantime, I am just proud to finally have my very own herb garden.

If you guys don’t have one yet, I think you should give it a try. You can start with pots like what I did.

Happy herb-gardening!

Baked Penne With Vegetables

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I am feeling so much better today although I still got the sniffles. The weather’s been pretty bad here in Cebu these past couple of days too. It’s been raining nonstop for two days. I wish it’d stop raining. I feel sorry for those victims of the recent typhoon (sob! sob!)

On a more positive note, hubby asked if I felt better and if I had the energy to cook pasta for lunch. He loves pasta and I used to cook pasta for him at least once (or twice) a week. It was my first time to cook pasta with just vegetables, no meat.

So here’s my take on Penne with Vegetables:

Ingredients:

1 medium onion, roughly chopped
1 green bell pepper, cored and roughly chopped
1 medium carrots, roughly chopped
1 zucchini, chopped
black olives
sweet basil
100 grams penne pasta
homemade marinara sauce
mozzarella cheese

Procedure:

In a large skillet, pour in about two tablespoons of olive oil over medium heat. Sauté onions and add just a bit of salt to let it sweat. Add the garlic. Stir in the vegetables and sauté for three to five minutes.

When sauteing vegetables, do not overcook or stir too many times. Stir twice the most. Cook the vegetables for 3-5 minutes until they start sweating like so.

Stir in homemade marinara sauce and white wine.

I used Italian white wine.

Bring to a boil then reduce heat. Season with salt and pepper and simmer for about 6 minutes. Toss in cooked penne. Cook pasta al dente as you will bake it and will continue cooking in the oven.

Remove from heat and transfer into a baking dish. Top with parmesan and grated mozzarella cheese. I added some fresh sweet basil from my small garden (weeee! I’m using fresh herbs from my little herb garden *curtsey, curtsey*).

Bake for 10-15 minutes or until cheese is bubbly. My first attempt at penne with vegetables was supposed to be grilled vegetables but this sautéed vegetables came out well and really quick. What do you think?