An evening walk through the garden

 

Hello there!

It's only been a month since my last garden update, but things have been springing up and growing by leaps and bounds! Maybe it's the heat that brings it out. :) There's so much to see, I thought I'd take you for a little stroll and show you what's new.

 

Preface. I love having it all on the drip system! First of all, it would be way too much to water by hand. But secondly, it is pretty self sustaining at this point. Every morning, I just go out and check on things really quickly. Make sure there's no new bugs or any large catastrophes to take care of. And then I let it alone to work it's magic. My favorite thing lately has been to walk through and find these new surprises that I'm about to share. It's like going for a treasure hunt!

Here is our second bed as it looked in the last update.

 

 

And here it is now!

 

The zucchini plants have completely taken over! They are HUUUUGE. If I knew how big they were going to get, I would've given them a lot more room, but as it is now, they are crowding out the other plants in the bed: cucumbers and beans. Oh well. We'll see how they all produce anyway...

 

The pole beans in the back there are getting a little out of control. At one point a couple weeks ago, I didn't have time to trellis them but they were like 4 feet tall, so in a moment of panic, I pulled some large branches from the brush pile in our yard and stuck them in the ground for them to climb. Now I need to figure out a way to turn the branches into a trellis. I'm thinking I might rig something like this but on a smaller scale.

 

 

Here is a photo of both beds this evening:

Speaking of zucchinis, I was pleasantly surprised to find these blossoms on the plants today:

 

 I snapped that picture earlier this afternoon and when I went back this evening, I realized I didn't even see this big squash that's out there! Woohoo!

 

And many more on the way:

 

 

I was a little worried about my garbanzo. It started yellowing and I thought I might have lost it. But it has new flowers on it, which is a good sign and I found this yesterday: my first pod!

 

 

 

Here is another fun surprise I found yesterday as well.

I think I'll let it get a little bigger before I pick it. :)

 

 

Caleb's pumpkins seem to be doing well:

 

 

These are my POTATO plants! They are kind of an experiment. Usually I reserach a new thing a little bit before try it, but in this case, I'm trying it first. It was all kinda thrown together last minute. My neighbor threw some potato cuts over the fence. First, I let them rot a little by accident before I planted them. Now, I have trouble keeping them as "mounded" as I think they probably should be, but... I dunno. If there's anything edible, it will just be a nice surprise. :)

DON'T EAT GREEN POTATOES.

 

 

It seemed my kale had "plateaued" so to speak. I left it alone a little too long, the outer leaves were getting too old to eat probably and it had kinda stopped producing. So I finally pruned it one night and harvested some of the inner leaves and it thanked me by giving me more! :)

 

 

Even though I'm majorly running out of room at this point, I transplanted my artichoke out of the pot, and it seems to be loving life right now. I was wondering if it would produce anything this year. I had heard it takes two years before they flower. But I kept hoping for something exciting to happen. Well, then I happen to catch a segment of Lidia Bastianich's show where she goes out into an artichoke field and I realized how BIG the plants get before they start to produce.

We have a long way to go, I think!

 

 

 

 

These are the tomatoes last month:

 

 

 

And the tomatoes now:

 

They need some support big time. (But who doesn't? hahaha).

I have some aerial wire I'm thinking of making my own cages with.

Just because I like doing things the hard way, you know.

 

 

Tomatoes are kinda funny. When they're green, they blend right in

and you can hardly see them unless you look very closely

 

I have FIFTEEN tomato plants this year. Who's idea was that??

Over 9 varieties of tomato! I will be excited to see how they all compare.

This one is called simply "Matt's Wild Cherry Tomato" and it is the first one to start ripening!

 

 

This is one of three thornless blackberry plants my neighbor gifted me (maybe you're starting to notice I have a very generous neighbor, don't I?) I haven't transplanted it yet because I know it will get pretty big so I want to make sure I figure out a good place for it. Also, my number one spot choice is occupied by junk that needs to be cleared first.

But who has time for THAT?! So it says in the pot for now...  

 

Blueberry plant. Waiting for me to get some Mycor from the feed store.

Gnome. Tending my garden.

Silhouette. Me and the baby taking pictures.

Oh, you thought I was alone? I'm a breastfeeding mama, I'm never alone. ;)

 

 Papa gnome, watching over the wildflowers, which are just starting to bloom.

 

 Isn't he cute? I got him for mother's day, along with a 6 foot tall apricot tree,

who has also asked very politely if it may be added to the waiting list for transplanting.

 

And here is a lovely Gardenia that I just got a couple days ago. It looks pretty mellow now, but I have high hopes.
And the blooms smell SO NICE!

 

 

 

Well, it's late. And tomorrow is Monday. So I better get to bed.

 

Thanks for visiting! :D

 

 

 

 

 

Wordless Weekend

A fun garden idea:

A Thought to the Future

I am so excited, I have come quickly to share with you.

My son is "graduating" from preschool this month. :) The idea of a 4 year old graduating from anything is a little silly, yes. But I appreciate that the teachers put thought and energy into making a sense of accomplishment and recognizing milestones in the kids' little lives. They really have learned a lot, not just about the ABCs and 123s, but about life and working together.

Today I bought him this book. It's one of my favorite Dr. Suess books, and almost always makes me cry! I know it's a little cliché to get this book as graduation gift. Everybody does that, right?

But the neat thing, the funnest thing... the most secret surprise and "Christmas-y" thing about this gift is that we're not giving it to him this year.

We're hoping to give it to him in 13 years at his high school graduation, after we've had all his teachers inscribe something to him on the inside. ^_^

 

I must confess, I got the idea from this guy.

Boy, did his story tug at my sentimental little heartstrings.

 

What is the best graduation gift or memory you have?

 

From Mother's Day

www.instagram.com/charitychain

 

It's a #happymothersday when i can enjoy a little extra time #inthegarden
#nofilter #purpletomatillo #blossom #lookingup

Art Card Giveaway by Tracy Elliot Designs

I'd like to introduce you to my aunt-in-love, Tracy Elliot. She lives in Santa Rosa, CA where she draws, paints, does altered art, makes jewelry, and enjoys scrapbooking. "I have always loved various forms of art. I love to draw, and started when I was very young, I have taken every art class available at our local community collage. I started scrapbooking about 30 years ago and still love it." She has recently opened her own Etsy shop and has dedicated it to showcasing her lovely talents as an artist. She is currently working on a series of Art Trading Cards, which are small pieces of art that can be displayed almost anywhere. Each piece is one of a kind.

Tracy works in a spare bedroom-turned-office. "I am semi-organized most of the time. I have many framed original cartoons drawn for me by famous cartoonists that I love and they inspire me. I also have in my craft room vintage cameras, and toys on shelves that I like to look at to start the creative juices flowing." Her inspirations include Tim Holtz, grunge, altered art, Steampunk, and anything distressed.

She works around her physical ailments, but enjoys the process: "I have Fibromyalgia, so I basically craft when I feel well enough to do so. Sometimes it's a little bit each day... It is first and foremost something I love to do, and if I make a little money doing it, that's a really nice bonus."

What is some advice Tracy offers to other crafters?
"Did you know that you can use Michaels and JoAnne's 40% coupons right off of your phone, and that you can use them more than once? You probably did, but I just learned that. Also, my favorite store Beverly's takes their competitors coupons which is really cool."

Keep up with her new art pieces by following her here:
Like her on Etsy
Follow her Blog
Like her on Facebook


To celebrate her opening and to get people familiar with her work, she has agreed to give away one of her pieces! One lucky winner will have YOUR CHOICE of any Art Card in her shop! :)

I will pick a winner on Tuesday May 21st, email them and announce it here. The winner will have 48 hours to respond or an alternate winner will be picked. Good luck!

5/21/13 UPDATE~ the winner is MARY H!! Mary I am on my way to email you, please respond within 48 hours! Thanks! :)


a Rafflecopter giveaway

My First Robot

Since we've been working so much in the yard, we haven't gotten very much done inside the house lately, but here is one of the few updates we did do recently:

From April 17th:

www.instagram.com/charitychain

 

We now have AI in the house. I do not take this lightly.

I was hoping my first household robot would be the kind that vacuums. ;)

But who knows, maybe this one will save us enough money to buy the other one.

 

This is the Nest "smart" thermostat, put out by some of the geeks over at Apple. The coolest AND creepiest thing about this guy is that he *learns our habits* and starts to program himself around our schedules. Also, he has a motion sensor and if he detects you are Away, he lets the temp get lower/higher than usual to conserve energy, then automatically resets himself when he *sees* that we are home. Also, he is connected to wifi, so I can change the settings from my phone no matter where I am, he's able to see weather forecasts, and potentially receive software updates automatically. He shows what the temperature in my home will be in 10 minutes, 1 hour, 2 hours, etc., based on the current settings and the weather outside.

 

Big brother is totally watching. No really. This is his eyeball.

 

But I guess it was inevitable, right?

 

P.S. I just creeped myself out by calling it a "he" for this entire post.

 

Anyway... next time we get a robot, I want a Rosey Jetson or at the very least a Roomba. ;)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Video here ,if you're interested.

 

 

 

 

Springtime update

Dear friends,

So much to catch you up on! I remember reading recently, "when you feel like you have 'too much' remember to be thankful you have SO much." Sometimes I am overwhelmed by all there is to do or be or plan or cook or clean... but, while I am trying to learn to prioritize and let go of the lesser things, I am simultaneously thanking God that I have SO MUCH in my life.

Caleb is wrapping up his year in preschool. Part of me wants to plan fun, creative, educational things for the summer. And a second part of me laughs at the first part and says Give it a rest, woman, and enjoy the break! They only get like 2 months off for summer nowadays anyway. I think I will just appreciate those two months for what they are, and look forward to not having to drive him twice a week, or lug the carseat in and out and in and out, or finding Shares or doing homework or packing snack. I think this summer, more than any, both mommy and Caleb are ready for a break.

Little baby Ben is 6 months old now and quite a handful. I won't even attempt to fill you in on him right now. But you'll be seeing him here more often, for sure. :)

Right now, I am very excited about the garden! I have lots and lots of things to share so I plan to post quite a bit the next few days just trying to catch up with myself. HaHA! Be prepared! ;)

So, about two months ago, I took this photo of my seed babies in the sun and thought about sharing it with you.

 

But before I had a chance to do that, a week later I took this photo of my pea plants shooting up and thought I might post it also:

 

A couple weeks later, I still hadn't blogged yet and didn't have time to because my peas were begging to be transplanted and I needed to have a trellis built to support them. Keep in mind, I have to do all these projects in about 15 minute increments, since that's about how long the baby will afford me at a time. He *really* prefers to be held all day. :P

 

 

 

And so it went on and on. There are so many photos I was gonna share of our progress, but now here we are at pretty much the end of the winter garden and I'm just getting here... oh well!!

 

Maybe you remember when I began this garden a couple of months ago, I had a very scientific mindset. I was going to take meticulous notes for my future reference. I was going to practice crop rotation and moon gardening and learn how to start my seeds indoors and do fun experiments to see which plants grew better and...and...and... how often things do not go as planned!

At this point, I've lost track of when I transplanted this or that. I have carrots in three different places, including intermingled with my lettuces (a mistake, I know!), I started some seeds much too early and I'm thinking some of them are going to be very late,  the irrigation system I was hoping would be set in place for less than $40 ended up costing about twice that and took me nearly two weeks to complete in itself (post on that in the future, I'm sure!). I'm starting to think my neighbors view on gardening might be much more healthy. She says Why can't we just throw seeds on the ground and see what grows? She has been an inspiration to me not to STRESS too much about it, not to over analyze, like a can do sometimes. But work with the earth and just see what happens.

So at this point, I think I will just give you a little tour of the garden as it is now. Maybe with a few older pics mixed in just for fun. Hang in there! ;)
_____

This is the same bed you just saw, but a few days later, with some more seed babies transplanted into it: lettuces, broccoli and onions. Also, carrots, onions and garlic were directly sowed.

 

 

This is actually a photo of the brush pile we made when we cut a couple trees down. But to the side there, you can see the thrifty way I covered my babies to help protect them from bugs. Not a 100% seal, of course, but it seemed to be effective against most things that fly. I kept it on for a good month or so - only taking it off when the plants started outgrowing it. It let in sunlight and the irrigation was underneath it, so it worked out well.

Do you know what I used? It's wedding tulle! It was like $2 a yard on sale, so it was much cheaper than agribon and seemed to work fine for my purposes.

 

 

 

 Happy broccoli under tulle:

 

 

Same bed two weeks later!  

 

 

 

And this is that same bed just this morning! 

Notice the pea plants in the background, climbing the trellis.

The Big Thing in front is my broccoli. Right now it is all leaves and no fruit, so I think I must've accidentally bought some kind of "flamboyant" species.
 

 This is the other side of the same bed today - Carrots, onions, spinach (which is going to seed) and one kale plant to the left there that I received as a gift. :-) More on that later.

 

 

Here is a picture I took of my son's "Giant Pumpkin" he got at the seed swap.

I took this about a week ago - it's already twice this size.

 

We decided to put strawberries in the tops of the cinder block bed walls. We'll see how it goes. They were neglected for a little while and I lost a couple of them, but I'm trying to nurse them back to health.  

And here is my SECOND veggie bed! We just started planting in this one so I'm very excited (again)
Left to right: zucchini, market cucumbers, and "green fingers" (small cucumbers) These were all just planted last week, so I'm surprised to see how big they are.

 

This is my lone garbanzo bush (another gift) and I am stoked about that little white flower bud you might be able to see in there.

 

We have planted three types of beans. This is a purple pole bean.

 

 

Somehow I ended up with FIFTEEN tomato plants and almost all of them are of a different variety! It will be so neat to see their various fruits (assuming they live that long. haha)

Here are five of them, along with some marigold buddies. The mari's aren't too happy, I might need to get replacements. :(

 

 

 

and these are some of the other tomatoes, begging me to get them in the ground.

 

 

My neighbor had some surplus, so she brought these over for me today:

two watermelon plants and two LUFFA plants!

"Like the kind of luffa you use in the shower?!" you ask. Apparently! She got the seeds here.

 

This is my boogin...

bouga...

bog...

This is my pink plant:  

 

 

I didn't plant these but they are pretty nonetheless, aren't they? :) 

 

 

And I will end this LOOOOOOOONG post on a hopeful note. This is my first sort-of-decent harvest that I just brought in this morning from those pea plants you saw.

There are sugar snap (which were SO good with lunch) and a few regular peas. :)

 

 

 

 

Believe it or not, there is much more to share! Back soon!