Flower and garden weekend

That is Glen looking through his new/old garden gate at the end of a potting marathon yesterday, but our flower and garden weekend really began on Friday afternoon when we attended the Southwest Flower and Garden Show at the Cardinals Stadium in Glendale. I had never been to the new stadium and Glen thought it was a good opportunity for me to see it. We enjoyed the walk and the plant displays. We bought books and food. What's new! We were excited to find these two books which are specific to our locale:

Month-by-Month Gardening in the Deserts of Arizona
by Mary Irish

Extreme Gardening, How to Grown Organic in the Hostile Deserts
by Dave Owens

You are welcome to borrow them if interested. As for the food, we cooked for the missionaries last night and they had Red Lobster type cheesy biscuits with their steaks. We purchased the mixes and seasonings at a booth at the fair and baked them in our new drop biscuit Lodge cast iron pans. Yummy!

This is what Glen was potting yesterday, his dwarf citrus trees. The old basketball court has officially been retired. Now we have more room for container gardening. He was expressing his gratitude that he had been unable to find a basketball standard that fit the mounting holes of the old one years ago.

This was my project, I planted out two of these colorful pots. I had managed to revive the lime green coleus in the green house, my sometimes plant hospital.

After working hard, this was what did not get planted. Glen has big plans. I can't wait to see the finished product.

On the way home from the stadium, we stopped at Tempe Marketplace so I could check out the paper lantern covers at the World Market. Since the Nate & Nichelle fiestas with paper lanterns, I have been smitten. Aren't these lovely with the leaf design. The fiesta was across the back fence this weekend. The neighbors strung lights and had a party, so the missionaries had music and happy voices to accompany their steak dinner.

By the way, mashed potatoes are so fast and easy in the new multicooker (electric pressure cooker.) I peeled and quartered the potatoes ( a dozen), added 3 inches of water and they were done in 10 minutes (with no minding the pot which will still boil over which means you also have to clean the stove.) I mashed them right in the removable cooking pot. I didn't read the directions carefully, so hadn't drained off the water. I added the milk and knew I was in trouble, so I just hit the brown button, brought it to a barely boil again and added a package of instant garlic mashed potatoes. Problem solved. I roasted the garlic cloves wrapped in foil with olive oil in the oven as I baked the biscuits. Please share your ideas, successes, etc., when using your pots so we can use them for more than rice and beans. Check out Emilia's success with corn on the cob on her blog.

Have a great week and keep Glen in your prayers. CT Scan #2 is tomorrow morning.