Spring is my favorite season of the year, because Mother Nature is waking up from winter’s deep sleep, bringing out the beauty of every living thing.

I enjoy spending my free time outdoor, working in my vegetable garden, my flower patches, and capturing the beauty of nature in my photos.

The weather was very cooperative for the past few days, so my garden was ready for some TLC (all the gardeners out there know that weeds are the first thing that grows), so today was gardening time for me, and of course a picture session to share with you.

Hardy Viola -  these colorful flowers keep on reseeding themselves from year to year.  They bloom throughout May and into June.  Later on these plants become to leggy, and begin to dry out, thus need to be removed, and replaced with some pretty summer annuals.

Creeping Phlox in full bloom.  This is a perennial plant, which blooms in late April and early May.  The foliage stays green whole summer, and turns brownish during the winter season.

Sweetly fragrant Lilly of the Valley, is my favorite flower from childhood.  It reminds me of the walks through the woods with my mom, and the excitement of creating a nice bouquet for my grandma.

Lilly of the Valley grows nicely in partial shade, or full sun.  Their very dainty paper white bells-like flowers tend to hide between the very full foliage, but you can smell their sweetness from a distance.

Last fall I replanted my strawberry plants out of my main garden patch (due to overcrowding), to an outside area next to the garden, and to my surprise they will be producing fruits this year, as you can see from the abundant flowers they are covered with.  My granddaughter loved picking off her own strawberries last year, and will be delighted to do the same this year.

Pictured above is Flat Leaf Italian Parsley, which remained in ground over  winter.  It really had grown considerably in the past few days, due to the favorable weather conditions we had lately.

I prefer the Flat Leaf Italian Parsley over the Curly Leaf Parsley, due to it’s much stronger flavor enhancer properties.  How about you?

The Sorrel plants also survived the winter, and are ready to be picked off and used in soup, or salad.  The leaves resemble spinach, but have a quite tart flavor.

This  is my Yukon Gold potato plant, which I planted 3 weeks ago.   If you wanted to plant some potatoes in your garden, and did not have a chance yet, no worries, you still can to it now. Check out my previous post to find out how.

Here you see my FREE plants, once again.  To the left are self seeded tomatoes from last year’s crop, and to the right are  potatoes sprouting from my kitchen scrap potato peels.   Since potato plants can not replanted, and these are growing too closely together, I will just have to pull some of them out, to provide adequate room for the remaining ones.

Tomato plants, on the other hand, can be replanted, as soon as they get to be about 4-5 inches tall.  I will select the strongest ones, and plant them into their permanent location.

Please share your gardening stories with all of us.

If you read my previous post about my organic gardening, you know that this year I was finally able to locate sorrel seeds, and added this herb to my garden.  Sorrel in a hardy perennial plant, so I have a very good start to have my own supply for a while.  Also if I let it bloom, it will produce seeds for future planting.

Fresh sorrel could be a little challenging to find in a local grocery store, so the best place to look for it is in a specialty food stores, or to grow your own.  I had a difficult time to even find seeds, until I inquired about it in our local gardening/farming store.  They did not have it in stock, but were familiar with this herb, so I was very pleased to be able to order it.

Let me introduce you to this vegetable/herb, if you never had a chance to experience its taste or appearance.

Sorrel is a green leaf vegetable/herb native to Europe.  In appearance sorrel greatly resembles spinach (but has lighter green color, and longer leaves), but in taste sorrel can range from comparable to the kiwifruit in young leaves, to a more acidic tasting older leaf, due to the presence of oxalic acid.

Young sorrel leaves may be used in salads, soups or stews.  One should use the small tender leaves for salads, since they have the fruitier and less acidic taste, but for soups or stews the older leaves are more suitable, because they add more tang and flavor to the dish.

Sorrel has high levels of vitamin A and C, and moderate levels of potassium, calcium, and magnesium.  From a nutritional standpoint, sorrel can be an excellent food for many, but a problem for others, since the oxalic acid may aggravate the conditions of people with rheumatism, and kidney or bladder stones.

If you love sorrel when you first try it, learn to love it in small doses in the beginning, because sorrel has natural laxative properties, and might be a trial for the tummy.

Sorrel is easy to cultivate in any type of soil, however there might a slight problem is protecting it from rabbits and deer, because they will make sure the supply diminishes quicker than it is able to replenish.  Also, if you want to keep it organic, as I do, you have to watch out for other pesky insects, like moths, or slugs.

Sorrel is used in Easter European cooking (Ukrainian, Polish, Russian, Romanian), and the French also are using it in soups, salads, and for making a green sauce to serve with fish.

I like to snack on a few fresh, tender sorrel leaves, on a hot summer day, but I mostly use the fresh leaves to make a Sorrel Shchav (type of borsch/soup).

My future post will include the Sorrel Borsch-Shchav recipe, and a picture of the finished product.