In My Garden.

My balcony is getting greener every day.

 I finally got some basil, there will be more because I still have two pots empty.

Herbs are growing really nice.

Today I found our first strawberry and there is more to come.

My new window boxes have some marigolds and lettuce and I put in some daisy seed.

Carrots are growing well and some cucumbers are coming out.

Waste free cleaners.

I am slowly starting to make simple cleaners, I really don't like the smell off vinegar so I decided to infuse it with limes to help the smell. I squeezed the juice out and froze it in a ice cube tray for future lemonades and the skins went into a jar and then I filled the jars with vinegar. They will stay like this for about two weeks in a dark place and then the lime will go to compost and hopefully the cleaner won't smell like vinegar ( as much). 

Dandelions.

I love this time of the year, warm weather is here to stay, I spend a lot of time in the garden, I also started my community garden (pictures coming next week), we go out after school to the park and there is so much to do at home. I love being busy but with that comes less time at the computer. I was planning this post for a week now and today I finally found a moment to write it. 

Every year I take my kids to pick dandelions but this year I went with my husband, we went to the park I always go but there was nothing there, not even one flower I was really disappointed. We decided to go home thru different park in hopes that we might find something and did we ever. There was a yellow hill with beautiful big and full flowers. It didn't take long to have a full basket.

The process of making the syrup took overall 4 days. First day we pick them, I wash them and lay them to dry.

Next two days I pulled out all the yellow flowers and composted the green parts, by the end of third day I boiled it, covered and let it steep overnight.

The last day I removed the flowers and gently boil the liquid for few hours with lemon juice, sugar and honey.

It is supposed to be a syrup but to be honest with you only once it became thick like a syrup, most of the time its more like a juice, but its so good and sweet. I would probably make more but it needs to be stored in a fridge.

I use this "syrup" in my tea as a sweetener, I use it on chickpea when I roast them in the oven for a snack and I use it on pancakes but its more off a dip the pancake in a bowl of dandelion goodness.

In my Garden.

On the weekend I worked on my balcony, fixed a fence, planted herbs, strawberries and potatoes. I still have to work on my big containers and get lots of basil but the nights are still too cool for basil.
Yellow potatoes:

Sweet potatoes:

Spinach:

Lettuce:

Mother's Day.

Yesterday was Mother's Day, I spend it with my girls in the park feeding chipmunks and enjoying all the beautiful flowers.

From my older daughter I received a book, lemon natural soap and hand made shaving cream. Both the soap and shaving cream are from a all natural store where all products are hand made and the containers recycled.

From my little one I got beautiful letter and hope stone with a rose.
The best time of that day was spending time together.