Sorry we have been sick..

Sorry for not posting Monday. E was sick and now I am sick. I will give you a little update though.

We have managed to dig up half of the circle garden. We were hoping to get even closer this week, but it isn't looking like it is going to happen. We made our deadline two weeks earlier than it need to be though, so we should be ok.


The early cucumbers are doing well, peas that are in the ground are doing well and so is our cool veggie crops.


Hopefully, we'll be able to post some pics soon.



Hope all is well with everyone else :)

-Mom and E

E's Recipe- Pasta Salad

E loves to eat his own mix of pasta salad. He love sit for snack and lunch. The best thing is that you can put whatever you want in there and make it fairly healthy. He loves putting ranch in there and since that packs a lot of calories, we experimented with making our own the other day.



Pasta Salad:

First you need pasta- we use whatever we feel like at the time- macaroni, bow tie, rotini, etc.This time he wanted bow tie. Cook according to directions and firmness desire then rinse with cold water.

Next you need whatever you want to put in. Usually for us this includes a mix of veggies, fruit, shredded cheese, and meat (sandwich, pepperoni (E's fav), chicken- really whatever pleases you. This time it included broccoli, apples, celery, pepperoni, shredded cheese. 

Then you need to choose what you want to put in as a flavor. As mentioned above E's favorite is Ranch, mom likes to have it with Italian sometimes, but use whatever you want. We made Ranch from a packet. To make it healthier we used plain yogurt (you can also use sour cream). E also put in some herbs (cilantro, chives and some young leaf lettuce that has a peppery taste) to jazz it up. 

Then mix it all up together...

and serve.

Now there is only one thing left to do ...ENJOY!

Wisdom Wednesday and Early cucumber update and pics

Wisdom-

Gardening is learning, learning, learning. That's the fun of them. You're always learning.-Helen Mirren

Cucumber Update-

We have been showing how fast our early cucumber starts have been growing, so thought we would update. The plan is to try and see if we can get any produce out of an early batch. We were going to plant them last weekend, but as there was a  forecast of frost Tuesday we will probably but out later in the week or this weekend. They are still going strong in our pop bottle and milk jug pots, though their roots are getting large.

We have been placing our plants outside during the nice weather to harden them off....

The space for the cucumbers is ready to go though...

Once we get the early cucumbers in the ground we will put seeds for the normal crop in. Hopefully we will have plenty of cucumbers this year. Most of the area has a good bit of sun, but the middle has a little shade. This will allow us to see if the shade helps out during the hot weather later in the seaso

Peas

So, as we mentioned in our update the other day our pea tower is not doing well.....

On the bright side our in ground peas are popping up. We attached gardening twin lines so they could grow up them. We shall see if it works :)

Yesterday mom planted some new seeds in between the pea plants growing so hopefully there will be time for a succession crop. It has been getting warm so we are not sure if they will be able to withstand the Southern heat....

Are you trying any new experiments this year?

-Mom and E

Sorry for the long hiatus...

We are sorry it has been awhile since we have posted. We have been really busy with school ramping up for the end of the year and my work getting very busy preparing for our summer program and trying to get the academic year files ready. On top of that we have a fun weekend trip and have been fighting with digging up a bush (and small tree) and digging out the roots to make room for the circle garden. Perhaps, in that respect we have bite off a huge bite.

Anyway, here is a quick update in words with a future post coming that is more in depth with pics.

Good:
We have peas growing outside.
We have kale and cabbage starting to pop up outside.
Our seed starting has gone well.
Ethan's school cabbage is growing well.


Bad:
Pea tower is all but dead..... :(
We planted our cucumber and zucchini way too early and didn't realize just how quick they grow.. but they may be salvageable. We are starting the hardening off process and going to see if we can get an early set going and then plant seeds when it is a lil warmer. It will either work or not, but it is a fun experiment.

Not Sure Yet:
Wintersow hasn't popped up yet, so we plopped a few more seeds down in there- so it will either turn out that we get the ones we just put in to grow or we'll have A LOT and have to give some away. Time will tell.

 Frustrating:
How long it is taking to get the dadgum bush out. Well, it did turn into one huge bush and a bunch of smaller ones. Also whoever planted there had planted over nails and broken glass.... le sigh so it is taking forever. Dig, dig, dig- sift through dirt to remove copious amount of roots, broken bits of glass, and nails. Then shovel dirt to a pile on the side, to used later. Positive note- once all that stuff is removed the soil looks good.


What projects does everyone else have going on?

-Mom and E