Garden Update

Well, folks we have been busy!!! Sorry about the long break, but E and I are only home on the weekends which makes it hard to get stuff done and blog. Honestly, I thought I'd have more time to blog this summer but it just hasn't happened. Soooo... here is a lil update, and we promise it won't be long until we are back to regular updates again.


Today we will update the back garden and once the tomatoes come in a lil better we will do the side, and of course we will update the circle garden soon too!!

Anyway, our lettuce grew and was eaten ;)

The peas grew and grew and grew but are finally about ready to call it quits (but we planted a succession crop so should only have a few weeks break!!)

Cucumbers have been growing and producing a few a week, but looks like they will soon ramp up to more!! (have to get a good pic later) and our zucchini plant is taking over the corner ;), and has a few growing on it!

Our grape plant has grapes on it this year!! We are so excited!! (they have grown larger since I last took a photo)

We have peas!!!!

We are so very excited that we have finally been able to successfully grow peas!!! We have tried several times and failed.... but this year we have been victorious!!!

What is crazy is that we took this picture last week- I know we've been so busy with the end of year hoopla and me getting ready to work away during the summer we hadn't posted much lately. Anyway, they have grown taller and fuller in just one week.

We hope that everyone has been doing well and that your gardens are growing!!!


-Mom and E

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

Forgotten Carrot

As we were pulling the few weeds that were pushing their way through our back garden bed, we noticed there were a few carrots left over. We ended up taking one out just to see how it was looking and if it was still good. We figured that with the polar votex it wouldn't be any good. Boy, were we wrong. Perhaps it stayed alive since it was in the ground and covered by our lasagna gardening stuff.

Here it is in the ground:

Here is what it looked like on the table- pretty good size:

Here are pics of E looking at it and showing it off- he really thought it was neat:

We did eat it-Mom hoped it would be sweet, but it must've been in there too long. It wasn't bad- very rooty tasting (more like the beet and turnip root taste), but since we like that we enjoyed it. PB and Uncle Micheal were not fans though. There is one or two more, but the tops were tore off and it's hard to find them under the leaves and such so we are going to wait and see if the tops comes back and then we can pick them.

Wisdome Wednesday

To one who does not know a small garden is a forest- Proverb

Indoor Herb Garden Update-

February:

We are going to show how the indoor herb garden has grown over time:

Feb. 1st- Some sprouts have came up. Not sure what they are yet, since we neglected to mark where we put each part and the pot has moved around a little. Probably the lettuce though.

In the end the lettuce and cilantro came up, but no parsley :(. E didn't like the sort of blank look it ended up with on half of it so we put in some radish seed (three different types).


Here is what it looks like today:

The cilantro is on the right, towards the back is the lettuce and everywhere else is the various types of radish.

Zucchini

We've started some zucchini indoors, and so far are enjoying the results. We just hope we didn't start too early since we don't plan on putting them out until April... though if we up pot them maybe we'll be ok.

They began in the seedling tray:

Then we up potted or should we say up canned them (they are shown here with cucumbers):

Here is how they look now- definitely growing well:

Garden for Granny

     This Thursday we are deviating slightly from our usual E's recipes, but we think it is for a good cause. We enjoy reading both Two Men and a Little Farm and Annie's Kitchen Garden blogs. Both have been inspirational to us, and in our opinion are kind and wonderful people and fantastic bloggers.

     Granny from Annie's Kitchen Garden has always had an amazing garden with huge yields. Her posts are funny and down to earth. She honestly reminds us of our Grandma Shirley Squirrely. Sadly, Granny has had some health problems lately. It started with her not being able to use her arm. She went to the doctor thinking it was a nerve problem, only to find out it was a recurrence of cancer.

     Well, Two Men and a Little Farm are big fans of Granny's as well (and were well before we dipped our toes into the blogging world). They posted the sweetest post about Granny Gardening for Granny, which we think you should read to fully understand how wonderful she is (and you should check out her site which is linked above). In their post, they suggested we all Garden for Granny. Since she can't get out in her own garden, we should share our harvests and dedicate our gardens to her. We are all in for it and would like to encourage more bloggers to do so and link back to her to give encouragement.

     This really spoke to us as we lost our Grandpa last year to cancer. We know what a fight it is and how much courage it takes to fight it. We also know how much of a toll treatments can take on one's body and frankly their spirit. We wanted to give some encouragement, positive thoughts and love to send her (and her family's way). Just so you know, Mr. Granny we are sending lots of that to you as we know it isn't easy watching someone you love go through such a difficult thing or deal with your own fears and emotions while trying your best to be strong and brave for them.

     We do have some good news to share straight from Granny (and it was so great to see her post again!). Her family is pitching right in (we imagine that they have a spirit and determination similar to hers). The kids and gran kids are going to pitch right in with the garden, keeping the house clean, and with meals. 

     So please join us and grow a little something for her as well!!! Granny, to put you up to date with our garden, we have already planted a few things. We have put out some onions, lettuce, carrots, kale and Chinese cabbage. We shall also be putting out a few other things in the days to come. We have several things started and will be sure to keep you updated!!

Wisdom Wednesday- Proverb

Scottish Proverb

A man o' words, and no o' deeds, is like a garden fu' o' weeds

Happy St. Patty's Day!

E wanted to say:

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Don't forget to wear green!

Tips to keep your garden green:

• Start with nice rich soil- if it isn't then add some compost
• Water smart- not too much or too little
• Make sure plants get the right amount of light
• Fertilize when needed (use your method of preference)
• Harvest regularly and dead head flowers to keep plant growing and blooming
• Keep the weeds under control- we don't need them stealing nutrients
• Practice companion planting to get the good insects coming and the bad ones far away
• Check for garden pests and diseases regularly and get rid of them ASAP
• Plant a bee friendly area so they can pollinate your plants

 

Also- today is the day to plant cilantro!!!

Stay green and stay healthy! Get out and plant something... anything and we promise not only will it start you on a path of eating fresh, but also make you feel great when you are able to go out and harvest it!

-Mom and E

Pea Tower Fun Land

     I bought this planter dirt cheap at the dollar store at the end of the gardening season last year. We had yet to come up with a plan to use it that we both agreed on. Our pea seedlings needed replanted and Viola! a fantastic idea was born!

     We thought this would be a great place to put them and give them some room to spread their roots and a little support to grow upwards. If they start to outgrow it we can always place it outside and surround it with a teepee of sticks (and plant a succession crop). Here is what we did in photos.

1. Put dirt in:

2. Remove seedlings from tray (we cut ours out since our roots were so tangled up, but you can just remove them)

3. Plant leaving space between:

     E wanted to make it even cooler and made "levels" of scenes that would be hidden.

The top has Indians, the middle has ninjas and the bottom has Pokemon.


It was fun and is too cute for words.

What fun gardening projects have you done with kids?

-Mom and E

Wisdom Wednesday - Giving Seeds as Gifts

For our Wisdom Wednesday this week we are going to post E's gift to his Mamma Bear (PB's mom).

Some background:

We were out planting our onion sets and realized I had purchased far more than we could plant in the little area we had set aside. "Hmmm, Ethan what could we do?". He said "I know! Mama Bear has a birthday coming up- let's give her some!". Well, that quickly morphed into more seeds as a gift since we figured she would want more than just onions.

Then we decided to make origami envelops (one of E's favorite things is origami) to put them in. We consulted our companion planting guide to see what grew well with it and Voila! found that broccoli, lettuce, parsley, tomatoes and cucumbers do well. We have cucumbers already started, but as we wintersowed our tomato seeds and they haven't sprouted yet (which is good b/c there is some snow still forecast in the next week or two) we thought we'd make a lil gift up for her. E also included basil, cilantro in the mix. I'm not sure she will have enough room to stick it all in her flower beds, but she just may.

We used regular (very cute by the way) stationary to make the envelopes. E wanted to provide you with a picture step by step guide so here it is:

If you have origami paper you can skip the first couple of steps:

Step One: Make the paper the right size....

 Step Two: Fold, crease and open

 Step Three: Fold corner and fold again

Step 4 fold the left then the right corners (it looks opposite since I was taking pics):

Step Five: Make Diamond Shape

Step Six: Glue

Step Seven: Fold down Flap

After E made the envelopes we added the names of what seeds he was giving:

We made the onion set bag by using a small paper bag and name tag:

We decorated our cucumber start:

We made planting instructions- which should be planted now as they are cool weather crops and which should be planted when it gets warm and put them in an envelope. We also got an envelope together to put our seed envelopes in (we may or may not do this in the end- depends if we find a basket to put them in or not). Once the glue dries we will put the seeds in and assemble, but it already looks super cute!

Hopefully this gave you some inspiration for future gift giving. We are thinking of making these into Mother's Day gifts (with a few more starts). :)

-Mom -N- E