More Garden

Thought I'd get some more shots of the garden...this time with people :)  There's Trevor with his corn.  Did I already tell you it's ornamental indian corn?  One has purple flowers on its silk, and one has yellow.  It will be fun to see what we get out of it.

And here's Samuel with a Zinnia.  He's my little florist.  He loves to cut them and bring them in the house.  I've got them lining my kitchen window sill, and on the kitchen island.



William's fancy flowers opened up.  They are so pretty!



We've got a honeydew, it looks like.  Came up from the compost pile.  These pictures are less than a week apart...



Then we have these little pumpkins that started white and are now orange...



Here's a pretty cucumber.  I've tried out a new recipe for pickles...one that lets them pickle on the counter by fermentation.  They are tasty!  I've made 4 pints...but I have enough cucs for maybe 8 more pints.



Here's some rosemary that William cultivated.  Before we lost our big plant this winter, he had cut a sprig and put it in a glass of water to grow roots.  Later he transplanted it to dirt, and now here is it ...getting big and healthy!  Yay William!


He also planted these four o'clocks from seed.


In family life:  We went to the midwife yesterday--our third visit.  We took the kids with us so they could see the place we've been talking about.  The midwife is very family friendly...she has tons of toys right in her exam room (and practically none in the waiting room :) so the kids just sat on the floor and played the whole time.  She was totally unfazed by all the noise.  She says I'm on track, except my iron is low.  I've already been taking a supplement, thank goodness, and will add another.  Baby is growing right on schedule...moving and kicking and hiccuping a lot. I've got 10 more weeks...plus or minus, of course.  I've learned that drinking hot milk before bed helps me get to sleep.  And now that I'm done reading the Hunger Games series, I should dream better, too.  I have to be very careful what I read because with my light sleeping I have weird dreams.  Birthing books aren't doing the trick.  I just pulled Utopia off the shelf to see how that does.  I remember I couldn't track with it last time I tried, so maybe it will be benign enough for me. :)

School's in full swing.  And I'm still working on my little project.  Here's another page of it.  I've got 6 done, and probably have 6 more to go for this first set.

Garden

This week was our summer break! I worked on grading papers and reporting our grades and attendance. Getting one school year cleaned up and put away took a lot of time, but feels great! And now we'll be ready for "next year" starting tomorrow! Samuel will be in 4th grade, William in 6th, and Trevor in 7th!!! I can't believe it!!!!! We love taking our one-day-a-week off, so that means going through the summer. Summer in Lower Alamaba is the pits unless you are in the water, so we might as well save our free weeks for the milder months. Plus, we'll earn some time off for when the baby comes!

Last week I also spent a lot of time on my newest hobby: Timeline Figures. I'm working on getting all the little drawings I have made for our history program ready to share. Here's one page...

We use the Mystery of History for school, and it's always the highlight of our school day. I hope to have all the figures from the first book ready for others to use {for FREE!} by the end of summer!

In garden news: Tim's been bringing in tons of squash! It's so great! We eat it at least a couple of times a week. I also made a batch of pickles a couple days ago. Zack thinks it's hilarious that we have pickles growing in our yard! Here's some pictures of the garden now--it is so thick and lush. The pictures are pretty bad...but if you could have seen me sweating and swatting mosquitos and gnats, you wouldn't blame me for being in a hurry. :)

My one good picture:


We have tons of tomatoes out there. Is is just me, or do tomatoes take for-ev-er to ripen??? Once they turn the corner, we are going to have our hands full!! As long as we can dodge the bugs, we'll be making salsa! These are all tomato plants that Tim started from seed. 8 tomato plants on the left and our heirloom cucumbers on the right...


Here's our strawberry patch. Unfortunately, the berries are overgrown with a volunteer gourd from our compost pile...a little white pumpkin that is really cute. Also, Trevor planted corn in the back which has small ears on it now. And William planted lima beans *I think* in the front. They are covered with aphids or something, and I just have been too lazy to go attack the bugs.


Here's the squash on the right, with the yellow zucchini in the back. There's eggplants in the middle of the box, and kale on the far left. Also, do you see William mowing in the background?? Woo Hoo!! The kids are still at it. I think this is the 4th week they have mowed?! It's such a blessing to our family. They don't think it is...but I know it's so good for them.


Here's a closer view of the eggplants (in front) and peppers (in back), though there's not much to see right now.


This is our box of heirloom tomatoes, with basil worked in there. I made a big batch of pesto this last week. Got as much in the first week of June as I did all last summer. Hopefully I'll get a couple more big batches in before the end of summer. The tomatoes looks so shaggy and lame...not sure what to attribute that to? Being heirloom??


Here's another box with watermelon, squash from seed, a patch of tomatoes (that we don't know how they got there--maybe Zack dumped some seeds??) and foxglove (pictured at top). It's almost heartbreaking that I missed getting a good picture of the foxglove when it was at it's peak--it was stunning.


Lastly, the kids' box. William's bulbs are just starting to make some cool flowers (upper left by the red wagon). Trevor and Samuel have harvested several small white radishes and turnips (those are still in the fridge--what in the world am I going to do with them???) Someone planted some of my zinnia seeds on the left of the box, and I'm so glad they did. I love zinnias so much, and mine bit the dust while I was out of town. Zack's got something huge growing in the lower right--no idea if it's a weed?? Shoot.


And here's my one picture with live people:


Our next-door neighbors moved :( and gave us their swing set. So a week or so ago Tim and I went over and took it apart and brought it home. He's reconfiguring it to incorporate into our "treebridge". The kids have helped a fair amount. You should have seen Zack go down that slide the first time--he caught air at the end and landed hard on his back in the dirt. He got right back up though, and brushed it off. He held my hand the next time :).

Garden

I wish everyone could live in Alabama! It is so lovely here. Remind me of that in 2 months when it's hot and muggy and I say that I can't take it anymore. :)

We have enjoyed watching our new plants get established. The boys' seed are sprouting beautifully, and our seedlings are taking off. I know all these garden pictures may seem a little boring to some, but I'm sure my grandma and grandpa will appreciate them. Plus, it is so fun to look back at them for myself.

Here's the garden at large...you can see that we "upgraded" 2 of our boxes. We just took the old ones apart and moved them to the "compost row" and made new, larger boxes. It more than doubled our garden space.

Here's the boys' box. William said one of his bulbs has sprouted, but it's not in the picture.

This used to be the old compost box. We moved it and put one of the old garden boxes around the compost pile (which works way better), and put transplanted our strawberries to this little box. They seem to be doing great in there.

Here's the middle row. This box has our old kale and strawberries (last year's set, which I'm considering adding to the strawberry box) and now our heirloom seedlings from Gaucho Farms: squash, zucchini, eggplants, and pepper.

Same row, second box, has our old lettuce and onions, plus some heirloom swiss chard and cucumbers, and tomatoes that Tim started from seed.

The third row has a box of heirloom tomatoes and basil, which I read are good to plant together.

Also a box with a random, leftover foxglove from last year. Never had a flower on that yet. Also, some more squash, cantaloupe, and watermelon.

And this last box has some brussels sprouts which have been duds. I had such high hopes of fresh brussels sprouts. But our big beautiful plants didn't make squat. We learned too late that you should snap off the bottom leaves once you see the sprouts starting, but over all they just grew so slow. Maybe a nutrient problem? I'll try again next fall.

We went to an Easter egg hunt at church yesterday. The kids and I had a great time. Too bad I didn't get any great pictures, but that's secondary anyway, right?

Zack has figured out how to do the see-saw all by himself and is so proud.

He can't get up to the bar alone, yet, though ;)

It was also fun for me (though not as much for the kids) to see them helping in the yard yesterday. They don't have regular outdoor chores yet, so it's just up to us to make the time and give the effort to make them go out and work. We discovered that they can use the blower, so everyone took a turn using that yesterday. I got some pics of Tim teaching Sam to use the blower on the patio. Apparently they went up on the roof and blew the pine straw off. Zack came in very excited--he got to go on the roof too. SO glad I didn't know about that when it was going on!!

Samuel was not happy about blowing. But he did it anyway...that's a start.

And now: a lazy day with the Master's on in the background and the doors open to let in the breeze and birdsong. Mom and Dad, Grandma and Grandpa, I wish I could teleport you all down here and rescue you from your April Blizzard!!!

Garden 2014

It's gorgeous down here!!! I can't remember ever seeing the azaleas bloom as brightly! The bushes are so laden with blooms that it looks like something from a Dr. Seuss book. Samuel has brought in armloads of flowers, and brightened almost every room in the house. I can't describe the delight in my heart when I glance out the window and see him dutifully roaming the yard with a vase in his hands.

The weather and stars aligned and we were able to work on our garden this weekend! Tim took off both Friday and Saturday to try to beat the forecasted rain. What a treat that was after all the long hours he's been putting in. Here's the before:

...and I don't have an after yet. Just as we finished yesterday it started raining, and it's been at it ever since. Can't complain about that, though!!

The boys helped work on projects. Here William and Samuel are working on a frame to grow vines on. Trevor is in there sawing away on a log for another project. We got a good laugh at his frog-stance :)

We put together some new raised beds and drove out to the local organic dairy to get poo. You can just see the behinds of the cows on their milking-merry-go-round.

Trevor sat like this in mesmerized silence for a long time.

Zack was so pleased that the cows looked like his little "cowy" that he happened to bring along. "Cowy" goes lots of places with us. What a weird attachment!

Tim and Zack shoveled the poo into the garden. Zack was a very enthusiastic helper!! Those are his poo-shoveling-shoes.

William got in the poo, too. He tilled together cow poo, mushroom compost, vermiculite, and peat moss.

You may remember that I have taken the boys to buy plants in the past. They remembered, too. I'm so glad it's something they are excited about. This year we skipped the nursery and Lowe's, and just headed to Wal-mart. Once again, they cracked me up with their choices.

Trevor chose perennials (makes sense: he really hates to waste things) and vegetable seeds. What kind? Good question. Turnips. Mmm hmmm. He also got some succulent flowers for our cactus castle (which we lost in the cold snap this winter).

William went for bulbs. He likes showy things. He got bleeding heart, something with "firebird" in the name, and "sun kissed something".

Samuel also got two little succulents for the castle. For the garden he got seeds. Here's the best part. He picked radishes and beets, and also did a seed swap with Trevor. What in the world??? What am I going to do with radishes, beets, and turnips?????

I forced Zack to pick out some flowers. He would much rather have bought the hot pink, toddler-sized, plastic adirondack chair which he found and carried all around the garden center. Sorry Zack. He chose pink flowers instead, and also some orange ones.

Can't wait for the skies to brighten so I can get a good picture of our progress!!