House Painting

We finally painted another side of the house yesterday. After six straight hours (and two very sore arms) we completed the easy east side. Next, the peak on the front and a small strip near the porch need to be primed (how we missed that I don't know). The west side is primed for paint, but it lies 6 feet higher off the ground. I am NOT excited to start that, but will be so glad to see it completed. This cold, rainy day is giving us a break, but I'm hopeful that next weekend will prove productive again. Keep your fingers crossed!!!

Our winter garden isn't growing as quickly as I hoped. Only a few spinach seeds germinated and the carrots are slow going. The nasturtiums are doing pretty well, but I think I need to pull out the cold frames to warm up the bed. My mother in law gave me some beautiful antique windows a few years ago. I'm going to paint them with the leftover blue porch paint, stack them on some concrete blocks or hay bales, and hope for the best.

Veggies for Dinner

Late Saturday night I decided to rearrange everything in the kitchen and dining rooms, which meant living in a disaster zone for most of Sunday.

Luckily, the garden delivered a delicious bounty for dinner. We pulled a quart of tomatos, another quart of okra and 6-7 green peppers.

We've been rotating between BLT's, fried or poached egg and tomato sandwiches, and bean tostadas these days.

We're enjoying fresh Chicken a la King Shirley, too. It's one of Brent's mom's classic recipes. The peppers are sauteed with leftover rotisserie chicken in a bit of EVOO and butter, then mixed with a can of cream of chicken soup. Served over toast it is a quick and easy comfort food on cool and rainy autumn evenings.

Every sandwich that comes out of the kitchen is accompanied by a pickle these days - either dill okra, sweet cucumber or garlic-dilled mixed veggie.

Dylan's favorite "food group" is fried okra, so we serve that up at least once a week. The okra has been producing like crazy, so we've been chopping and freezing it for gumbo this fall and winter - I can hardly wait for the first batch! Same with the green peppers for winter chili.

We love fresh tomatos, so I haven't canned too many 'maters, but I believe this week I'll need to oven roast a round or two...

Since the weather has cooled a bit and the house can use a bit of heat in the morning, I predict I'll bake up a batch of my cousin Charissa's granola. She serves it up fresh at Headwaters B&B in Gardner, MT, outside the North Gate of Yellowstone Park. For the recipe, check out her website at http://www.headwatersbandb.com/

Now it's off to finish reorganizing the kitchen. I was just so excited to post pics of our weekend veggies. Thank the Lord for providing, since my range was pretty much MIA today!

Happy to feel the rain

The garden and I are enjoying this gentle rain. However, for the kid's sake, I hope it clears up enough for fireworks.

I did a terrible job of staking my tomatoes and they've all toppled in one way or another. Hopefully I can remedy my mistakes with some rebar and fencing tomorrow.

Brent, Preston and Dylan dug up the last of the new potatoes yesterday, so I have an entire bed that can be resown - maybe we'll plant some peppers for pickling or salsa, they like the heat.

Watermelons and squashes are taking over the front garden, but the dog is the only one who's unhappy about it most days. Other days I find her chillin' in the shade of the bean teepee, but I can't quite seem to catch it on camera.

Here's a few cute pics of the kids enjoying the garden on the 3rd of July - Flippin set of fireworks at the park and had a little carnival/BBQ that the kids really enjoyed. The fire department hooks a giant sprinkler up to the fire hose - they loved that, but Margie's baby, Aidan, just was getting too hot, so we headed home for some extra sprinkler time.

Have a great fourth of July everybody!

Why I Love my Veggie Patch

Tonight I opened the fridge and found nothing to eat but leftover mushrooms and noodles, so Brent and I headed out to the garden with a bucket for sides - lo and behold, we had a feast in less than 45 minutes flat!

Tonight's favorite was fried summer squash and okra. I tossed it in a bit of melted butter than into dry Jiffy Cornbread mix and fried it in a pan with 1/8" canola and olive oil for a few minutes on each side. Steamed baby carrots and green beans were excellent with just a bit of kosher salt and black pepper. Add a few glasses of milk and some rolled deli turkey on the side -voila! One random, yummy meal complete!

We also found a bunch of green tomatos attached to broken limbs, so we brought those in, sprinkled them with a mix of salt, sugar, and tarragon plus a pinch of cayenne, then added herb vinegar over the top - they taste great now, hours later. They'll be so good on salad tomorrow!

Preston plans on picking the last of the potatoes for grilling tomorrow at our Fireworks BBQ - we found a yummy spinach salad recipe that has roasted potatoes and bacon "to serve on the side". He's such a little foodie!

Dylan is happy Donny and Marg will be bringing Jake for the grill, even though he's sure to only eat hot dog after hot dog after hot dog :)

I may have to transplant some of my perennials into the potato bed just so it doesn't look so bare - or maybe I'll move the few okra that are getting off to a slow start - they are dwarf, so the 2' raised beds won't make harvesting too tough.

I'll have to post a photo of our sunflowers. Each plant has 10-20 blooms sized between 8-24" and LOADED with yummy seeds for the birds. Also, we're up to 2 watermelons and 12-18 (now tiny) butternut squash. Once our cucs get going, they're bound to keep us busy for months.

So exciting! If these mild days continue, it will be much easier to spend time out in the veggie patch. Here's to hoping for continued bountiful harvests well into autumn.

Beginning Memorial Day weekend

Here are a few more pictures of the garden from today.

I love the fuzzy lamb's ears flowers - Preston and I discovered a few years ago that Native Indians used lamb's ears and native mullien as toilet paper cause it's so soft and absorbent.

My purple pansies have become variegated hiding under the brussels sprouts shade. I took a close up of the spots on the plant where I think the veggies will start sprouting soon.

The flower on the rocket (lettuce) is so cute and dainty.

Then there's the first squash flower of the season on a not-so-thriving plant hidden by potatoes.

We have a lot planned in the garden this weekend - the idea is that we'll frame it out with landscape timbers and fill it in with mulch by the end of the week. Time will tell....

Pinks in the veggie garden

Maybe I noticed pinks in the garden this morning because I've been thinking a lot about my neice Ally who had surgery yesterday. Her favorite color is "hot, bright pink". It seemed everywhere I looked shades of this gorgeous color were emerging.

The wild raspberries that crowd out weeds in the front garden are absolutely everywhere lately. The three roses in front of the veggie garden are attracting bees by the dozen. The cilantro, basil and parsley have burned a bit and the leaves have pinked up as well. The radish stalks are striped and the roots themselves are enormous since they've been in the dirt since early March. The phlox-looking plant is actually radishes that are going to seed. Even the rocket and endive have pretty shades of pink in their veins.

Good Day Sunshine!!!

I'm so proud to say I've risen early every morning this week and walked through the veggie and flower gardens. The snowpeas are producing like crazy although the vines that are turning out peas are tiny. This afternoon my neice Ally measured them and I was astonished to find the largest peas were 3" long and growing on vines only 15-18" when stretched. The pole beans will soon tower over the peas and leave them in the dust. I'm a thorough believer that peas should NOT be planted in enriched soil - all the seeds sown in "good dirt" are tall with few flowers and no pods. The ones planted in the clay are flourishing...

The tomatos and eggplants from Burpee are either not doing well or have disintigrated, but that may not be the grower's fault. I was so sick the days after I planted them and I tend to baby my new arrivals - can't say so much about the boys in the family. They water them, eventually....

Cannot wait to see the brussels sprouts start producing. I love the look of the plants - the color is gorgeous! The basil I seeded last week is finally raising it's little leaves. I can almost taste the pesto. I also think my second bed of greens will be large enough to cut soon, though I should spend the weekend transplanting. We'll see if that really happens...

The melons and pumpkins we planted in hills along my neighbor's fence are growing like gangbusters. These will be the kids favorites. I hope I've given them enough room to ramble.

Ally and Dylan enjoyed their teepee play area a lot this afternoon. They lugged pails and pails of water between the barrel and the sandbox, where Preston was "digging to China" AGAIN. They thought adding water would help them dig further. So cute. Honestly I would not be surprised if this was the bunch that figured out how to drill through the center of the earth :)

Aidan was such trouble today in the garden. Teasing, he fell asleep after being pushed in the stroller about ten feet. If every kid could be so difficult.

Here's to hoping Memorial Day weekend holds many quiet hours of weeding, picking and planting for this Flippin gardener.

Rotting in the Rain

My poor greens! Sunday at noon I ventured out to the garden to collect salad fare but found they had been attacked by slugs and rot. Luckily everything else seems to be thriving and joyful.

I spent a few hours enjoying the gentle rain while harvesting, trimming, discarding, protecting, and moving plants in the greenbed. A lot of rocket and endive had to be sacrificed to the alley for the rabbits. Some of the leaf lettuce was too soft to keep, too. Leaving it for three days caused some of it to bolt - I've only had problems with that in the heat, never because I had so much I didn't need to harvest continuously. I was able to collect two large shopping bags full, but when cleaned and trimmed wound up with much less.

I moved around some radishes that had grown too large to harvest. I'll use them for pest prevention around the garden. Leaving them to flower helps deter pests both under and over ground. I need to sow more onions sporadically as well for the same reason, but cannot find my stash of bulbs. The green onions have been excellent this year!

The brussels sprouts are starting to crowd each other, so I began the slow process of moving every other plant to the front garden. We'll have to see how that goes, they may be too large to move already.

I removed the redneck hothouses from the tomatoes. All the rain and rot I found today makes me worry that they will get a disease. I used the lower portion of the gallon jugs I cut off earlier to make a protective cover around the stems (see figure 2). Then I added the old tomato cages around the front row of maters. I'll do a taller rebar fence for the ones in back. My plan is too keep the front row smaller in an attempt at creating bushier plants. I'll let the ones in back ramble a bit more. We'll see which produces more fruit, since they're all the same cultivar.

I planted the last 6-pack of Preston's tomatoes in the front garden. I think they are the cherry tomatoes, but will not know for a few weeks. I left lots of room for Burpee's plants which should arrive any day. Four more tomatoes and that bed will be pretty full, except for basil edging. We have not added our compost pile yet, so I'm using a trench system in the middle of the front garden bed to deposit kitchen scraps, shredded paper, etc.

People keep driving by, slowing down and telling me to go inside. They're saying, "don't you know it's raining?" These are my favorite days to mull around the garden. You can really smell the differences in each plant, you don't get a sunburn, and, if you set out a bowl, God will fill it with rain which creates an instant sink for handwashing. Roses always smell the very best when it's raining, so I make a few trips around the yard to enjoy their different scents, teacup in hand.

I do enjoy life's simple pleasures. I also love watching the worms wriggle in that top layer of dirt. Now, if they'd stop generating so much at the dam, we could head down to the river for a bit of fishing...

I am learning a lot about salad greens this season. The main thing: my husband hates rocket (arugula). He helped me clean the harvest today, and tried each leaf until he found the offender. Arugula will forevermore be planted elsewhere. We're such opposites. It's my favorite. Not only does it remind me of my London trip (everything is served with rocket), but it's peppery zip is perfect for piling fresh on a plate under creamy pastas and risottos. My favorite rainy day dish.

I cannot finish this post without sending a shout out to the San Diego Hat Co. Yesterday I found a true treasure. The greatest garden hat ever to grace my head. It is made of 84 percent paper and actually fits my giant melon loosely and comfortably. It's just wide enough to keep my shoulders dry in the rain, and (I'm assuming) to keep my face shaded in the sunshine. I believe I've found my new gardening companion for all time.

Thursday's Treasures

Today was a crazy day, filled with lots of driving, baking, gardening, and family time. I started off the morning at my sister's house with the two youngest kiddos, Ally and Aidan. They had Dr. appointments around lunchtime and I'd promised fun for Ally, who was nervous about seeing the doctor again. We did a quick trip to PETCO which she loved - "lots of Tuck the Turtles and Parrots, ones that start with F and ones that start with P." aka Parrots and Ferrets :)

We had a great visit with Grandma Great, and though I have no pictures to post, I enjoyed seeing her with baby in her lap and Ally snuggled next to her while she read Clifford. At one point, she was even talking on the phone scheduling Bridge. She says she can't do anything anymore, I don't believe that for a minute. It was an inspiring afternoon - my heart was full of happiness hearing her with the two little ones - if only she could be so filled with joy all the time.

We headed home a few hours later to meet Dylan after school. He and Ally played so loudly, it's hard to believe Aidan was able to sleep through their chatter. When Preston made it back from his dentist appointment and Brent came home, I headed outside with Preston, Dylan and Ally to count all our new seedlings. (Brent commandeered the baby and they relaxing together in the glider watching Mythbusters, happy as a couple of clams.)

I think every single pumpkin, watermelon, bean and spinach seed sprouted. More lettuce, carrots and sunflowers, too. Our brussels sprouts are out of control - we'll have to move some of them to another bed or they'll crowd each other out. The tomatos are 6-10" tall already, one is popping out of the gallon-jug hothouse. We harvested as much spinach as we could find for dinner. It's a task usually reserved for morning, but we'd had rain and cool weather all day, so it didn't matter a bit. The boys asked if they could stay out and harvest "a few" radishes. Note the picture I'm including.

It was just so nice to see the three kids harvesting and watering in the rain, skipping around from bed to bed like little pixies.

The end of April sees sprouts galore!

I ventured out to the garden this morning with my tea to find hundreds of little seedlings rising from the dirt, so I went out this evening to photograph all our new garden sprouts. Ally will be so happy to see that we have watermelons, pumpkins, beans, lettuce, spinach, and carrots, especially since they were only planted last week.

God has been good to us with lots of gentle - and hard - rain, lots of sun, and a welcome respite from the pests who usually pick them off. There is at least one owl in the vicinity, and both he and our cat are keeping the bunnies out of the yard this spring. The bird netting is doing its job around the okra and new green sprouts - I've never had anything grow at ground level before that the moles, bunnies and birds didn't peck to death.

Preston will be proud of both his potatoes and tomatoes. The tomatos have grown three inches at least this week. New potato sprouts are popping up everywhere, too. I had added squash at the back of the bed that was bare, but I believe I need to move them to make more room for the tubers.

I had to include my new favorite pic of my man - Brent looks so happy in front of the newly painted porch lounging on his red swing with Aidan, our nephew. I also added in a few pics of our pets, and I hope to add a few with me and the kiddos sometime soon. I need to pull an adult out into the garden with us, as I don't trust the boys to keep it dry outside :) Maybe I'll actually get Dylan in the garden for a minute or two and get a good picture of him playing in his teepee. On Saturday mornings, he hides in there and covers the openings with the soccer goals - last week he barracaded Nika inside with him - she looked so tormented - that would've been a classic shot.

Celebrating Earth Day

We have certainly celebrated Earth Day here this week on our little garden plot. Right now I'm "watching" the Live Earth channel on dish network and am enjoying its mellow mix of oldies with a view of earth from their sat dish - kiddos think it's ultra cool.

We started off the week by planting okra, squash, herb and marigold transplants around the garden. I moved a lot of onions around - I guess I accidentally planted some near the peas and just read in my Carrots Love Tomatos book that they inhibit their growth. I am noticing a difference already in less than a week. Wonder if it's soil based? Anyway....

My neice Ally and her baby brother Aidan joined me for two hours on Earth Day, this past Wednesday. Luckily Aidan slept the entire time, so Ally and I were able to water in all the new transplants as well as plant a "boncho lotto seeds" (Ally-speak for a bunch of seeds). We added beans and sunflowers around the pea teepee. They don't typically grow well together, but we're hoping for the best. Our big endeavor was adding hills of watermelon and pumpkin.

Now we just need to add more hills for butternut squash and cucumber. We'll probably add or transplant some radishes and let them go to seed to deter pests. I've actually had a lot of luck so far avoiding pests by using marigolds, radishes, and onions scattered around the garden this season. The lettuce all looks beautiful and I usually see a lot of holes by this time in the season.

Ally spent most of her time filling and refilling her big pink watering can. She kept filling it too full for her to carry, so she watered the lawn as much as the plants. My dog laid down in the kiddie pool and splashed out most of the water, so that signalled time to stop. (I'm trying not to use more water than will fill my barrels, the kiddie pool, and watering cans, but it's a bit tough when the kids enjoy the water more than the dirt.)

Before we went inside, I had to let Ally snack a bit from the beds, so I taught her how to harvest the romaine lettuce. However, after she'd enjoyed a few freshly washed leaves she proclaimed "that's nothing without a bit-o ranch". Then she discovered radishes "hiding their pink heads underground" and had to try one. The look on her face after she took a big bite... priceless!

Thursday we returned again, but Aidan was wide awake and not so happy about the wind and Ally's splashing. She convinced me to "open pool season" and was running around at warp speed in her old pink Dora suit. We were only able to transplant a few tomatoes before I had to stop and feed the baby. There was no stopping her enthusiasm though, and she took turns splashing in the pool and watering the garden. Very fun morning!

After naps, we picked up my son Dylan and my nephew Preston from kindergarten and headed back into the garden for more tomato transplanting. After all, Preston grew them from seed and could not wait to put them in the garden. We covered all the tomato transplants with bottomless milk jugs to hothouse them since it's early in the season. Then we added living mulch to the okra bed. Well, it's not living yet, but we seeded more lettuce/spinach/carrot seed in the same method as before. I think it will get enough afternoon shade that it's okay to seed this late. Time will tell.

Preston came for a sleepover Friday - I think it took them two minutes to discover the clean kiddie pool, put on swimsuits and begin the cannonballing...

They ran around grazing on lettuce and radishes for a bit, but then decided to christen the new ice cream parlor area near the teepee. They both ate giant bowls of strawberry frozen yogurt and decided the parlor had officially opened for business :) We set up a mini basketball hoop, made a bunch of stools (upside down pails with towel cushions), and a little dunking booth after they busted holes in the kiddie pool. No surprise! I've never seen a kiddie pool survive an entire season.

Today I should go out and transplant the artichokes, but I want to research site and soil Ph first to insure success. I'm enthusiastically awaiting my Burpee shipment in the next few weeks - a new variety of strong tomatos, eggplants and peppers, hurrah!

Enjoying the first salad harvest of the season

It's been a day full of dirt-hauling, veggie planting, sledgehammer swinging, and thunderstorm dodging, but most of the planting beds are finally in!!!

The potatoes have already been hilled up twice, and today I added sages and basils to the thriving lettuce and potato beds.

The lettuce bed is producing mixed leaf lettuces, romaine, radishes, onions (I'm pulling the 2nd and 3rd in each row to use as green onions now), pansies (so yummy), brussels sprouts, carrots and marigolds (started from seed in glass canister greenhouses). Marigolds are the only item missing from our dinner salad - technically, we could've eaten them too. Even the carrot greens wound up in the mix. I have never enjoyed a salad more. However, the yummy beef and turkey burger with jack cheese was the icing on the cake!

I started the morning adding Columbines and Dianthus to the front garden in shades of plum and berry. Then I moved to the veggie garden and dug in the herbs: basil, pinapple sage (possibly my favorite plant of all time), cilantro, flat-leaf parsley, and dill. We had to finish the ground-level beds before I could plant the okra for Dylan. My son absolutely loves okra - pickled, pan-fried, sauteed, and fresh off the vine. We're going to interplant the okra with butternut squash and peppers. We dried the butternut squash seed from a squash we ate around Thanksgiving - it was so tasty! When he asked if we could plant it, I said, "why not? We can give it a try!" Thankfully those glass canister greenhouses are working like a charm. We have artichokes, delphiniums, more marigolds, dill, purple coneflowers, and a few more I can't remember ready to plant.

I've tried artichokes from seed for five years, and this is the first time I've had any grow to these heights. I've only successfully grown one delphinium from seed, but it was a beauty! Of course, it didn't survive that winter :(

My nephew and his family planted tomato seeds and wound up with a giant harvest, so we're excited to dig those in after a few weeks. I transplanted them with my neice yesterday, and they're doing great in their new pots. We've got a six-pack of cherry and another 6-pack of another species - no clue which!, but that's no matter. I cheated a bit and ordered a few tomatoes, eggplants, and peppers from Burpee.com. They're plants are always in excellent condition, and I'm excited for them to arrive in a few weeks. They're a few varieties I've never grown before, and I'm looking forward to trying a white eggplant.

Around lunchtime, my hubby, son, and I drove over to Camp's Plants in Mtn Home and picked up a second load of Super Dirt to top off all the lasagna garden beds. We made it home just in time to unload the dirt before the sky opened up and dumped on us. It felt nice digging in the warm dirt when it was just a sprinkle, but once the thunder started rolling, I felt a bit safer under cover.

It was such a perfect rain. I love the smell of wet dirt and grass! It stopped right at dinnertime, so I could put the burgers on the grill and still stay dry. The break in the rain also gave me some time to take photos this evening. (I'll be sure to post them tomorrow when the battery is recharged. I went a bit crazy with the camera.)

I have a feeling I will sleep very well tonight, as should my son who's exhausted himself out in the yard running back and forth between his teepee, swingset, the garden and sandbox. I hope it's a sign of things to come...

Cold Snap Peas

The kids and I constructed a mini-greenhouse this week for snap peas. (Figure 3/13/09) They wanted to see some results soon, and with this recent cold snap, I needed to improvise. I wet two or three paper towels with warm water and placed the snap pea seeds between them and them sealed them inside a glass canister and placed it in the kitchen window. To help add heat and moisture, I add my green tea bags each morning and evening to the canister and reseal. In three days we had growth which pleased the kiddos immensely. There's not much room in the garden, but we may add a second row of peas along the fence, since the peas outside haven't sprouted in this chilly weather. Guess I could just stick them into window boxes and let them trail also. We'll see what the little sprouts decide to do with their little sprouts (:

We have radishes, spinach, carrots, pansies, early onions and peas growing in the veggie beds already - in fact, we've been covering the rows with biodegradable tarps at night. They will double later as landscape fabric to block out weeds in the new garden beds - since they biodegrade within one year, we'll be able to till what is left into the soil next season. The onions are a bit of an experiment this year - I've always had alliums scattered throughout my flower garden to help with pests, so I'm doing the same in the veggie garden this year. I'm using them as perimeter plants and sowing them pretty closely. Friends of mine have pulled the 2nd and 3rd for green onions, leaving the 1st and 4th and so on, giving them room to grow later in the season. We shall see...

Oh, what a night!

There could not be a more beautiful evening. I stepped out my back door, looked up to see a light blanket of lavender clouds behind the bark of the elm and dark shadows of delicate new growth emerging from its limbs. Farther to the west I became immersed watching the moon as it seemed to part the clouds in front of it, like a beautiful woman when she saunters through a room. I have no idea how long I just stood there, enjoying the breeze, the light scent of pear blossoms and new grass on the air. I remembered fianlly that I'd gone out to do some yoga poses to help calm my tired legs for the night. What scenery to enjoy, what peace and beauty.

I took a quick turn in the yard, dreaming of all the scents and sounds of the impending spring season. The soft hum of the hummingbirds buzzing in the sweet lilacs at midnight, the smell of dew as it drips off the limbs in the morning and the joy in the first harvest. Oh, what a night...

Potatos are Planted

I brought in ten bags of topsoil to cover the seed potatoes this afternoon. Dylan and Ally and I had a blast filling in the bed and watering. It was a beautiful day - upper 70's - and we all got soaked in the spray. It was great to hear Dylan laughing and see him playing so happily outdoors.

We dug in the Brussels Sprouts in the rear corner bed and planted Blue Flax with the potatoes. There was a specific reason listed in my book on companion planting, but can't remember it now.

Gorgeous day to be outdoors! We spent most of it playing, not working, and enjoyed every minute. Guess we'll get to the rest of the onions, radishes and peas tomorrow.

Potato Planting

This afternoon we walked the five blocks from school, whizzed through snacks, and began planting onions and potatos. I forgot one major item, however. The straw to cover the seed potatoes. Oops! Good thing it will be dark soon. I'll run and get the bales tomorrow.

Preston happily planted onions and potatos, then proceeded to chalk a sign for the garden. Dylan and Ally each laid out one potato each, but were totally disgusted by the site of the eyes. Too funny!

We had a bit of a water fight. Preston "accidentally" sprayed me, so I sprayed him back, then the other kids wanted in on it, so everyone got a bit wet. Mostly we just played limbo under the spray while we wet the beds after planting.

We edged the outer raised bed of greens with red onions to fight pests and a few pansies to attract pollinators. We filled the flower boxes attached to the raised potato bed with 9 pansies each. We couldn't find enough Spanish moss to fill behind the wire, so we used red cardboard pizza boxes - we thought it looked cool and Preston is sure bugs will flock to the garden "cause bugs, butterflies, and hummingbirds love red." My hubbie isn't sold on the look, but we hope in time he'll come around.

After we finished garden chores, we ran around in the yard like lunatics - as usual - until Margie picked up her kiddos. We played soccer, ran obstacle courses, did some swinging, played in the sandbox. Nothing like a beautiful day to knock kids (and ourselves) out at nighttime.

Ally and I had a wild time this morning. It was such a bright and beautiful sunny day! We flung open the front door (and barricaded it with the Headwater's Stool, so Nika, my old golden retriever, wouldn't barrel through into the soil). We brought out paints and our clean terra cotta pots and set up a giant potting station on the front porch.

We cut open the potting mix bags, so it was easy for Ally to reach in with her little pink panda trowel and shovel dirt into containers. We used a mix of terra cotta, wood and metal planters this year in a mixture of sizes and shapes. Then we massed them together in a few spots around the front flowerbeds. Some of the larger terra cotta planters became stacked to add some height to what is mostly just bare dirt at the moment. The yellow eyes of the deep violet pansies seemed to brighten things up and pulled the cool grays and blues of the iris and lamb's ears together with the deep greens of bulbs and perennials attempting to peek through the earth. The yellow crocus and daffodills really make the purple pop!

We buried some of the daffodill bulbs that we excavated last week underneath the pansies - they may or may not bloom, but we had to put them all somewhere. We've run out of flowerbeds to layer them into. I really don't feel like taking my bulb planter to the grass near the trees to naturalize them, but it may come to that. Yuck! I'm a lazy gardener and hate back-breaking work!

Ally added some great color to the terra cotta pots and placed them all in very fun locations around the garden. She hid a few surprises for me inside as well - a tiny Smurf, little ceramic turtle, and our love bug. I had an area that sunk drastically, so I dumped some soil inside the hole and added rocks and some accents to create a bit of a cascade effect. It looks great from my art/sewing station inside.

Off to do a bit of planning for this afternoon's escapades in the veggie garden with all three munchkins. We have a big agenda, and I imagine there will be pretty short attention spans - at least where Dylan and Ally are concerned. I have a hard time getting Preston to leave the garden at all. He is such a tremendous helper, and, thankfully, loves doing all the muscle work.

Keep you posted....

Spring Fever

I went a bit stir crazy at the HIC's today. I had an hour before a dental appointment and the crews were moving in tons of stock, so......

Four flats of purple pansies, two bags each of potatoes and onion sets, plus too many packets of larkspur, globe artichoke, sunflower and marigolds later, I was out the door. The clouds had rolled in and it was colder than ever, but I pressed forward with a smile, hopeful that the newsman's predictions would hold true and the temp would reach a mild 60.

After my appointment, I picked up my neice Ally - the seed charmer - and we rolled on to my mother's house. We swiped my old Barbie Dreamhouse and the boxes of clothes and accessories to keep Ally busy once she eventually lost interest in the seeds and planting. Anyway, after we had some lunch, we cleaned up the ancient toys, and then pulled the booty out of the caravan and got to work.

First we sprinkled Larkspur at the back of the front flowerbeds - my hope is that they will bloom alongside the Orange California Poppies we seeded a few weeks ago. The first year in the house they bloomed together for just one day, and it was breathtaking while it lasted. The red and blue anemones were open then, along with the few late red tulips, the first yellow Happy Returns daylilies, that year's oddly early purple alliums, baby blue pansies and our sea of purple iris - so striking! I keep hoping for a repeat performance one season.

We didn't have time to start the delphiniums, marigolds or artichokes in egg cartons, but we did start planting some sprouting blue hyacinth and today's purchased pansies into pots.

Most of my time was spent bleaching dirty pots/seed flats, but Ally didn't mind at all. She dressed and redressed her Barbies while the cats watched her from inside the Dreamhouse. All the sudden my fifteen minute warning bell was blaring, so we walked to school to pick up my kindergartener. He wasn't as interested in the planting as all the new Ken doll clothes I'd acquired, so I decided to put off pansy potting for tomorrow.

I hope to get all the potatoes and half the onions in the ground. We'll see rabbit, we'll see...

Oh, that reminds me, we forgot to check the garden for emerging seedlings. Maybe I'll head out with the flashlight when it's time to take my loyal old retriever out for the night - it may dip into frost levels and I'd hate to see the little babies blasted before they gain any momentum.

March 1, 2009 - Lasagna Garden basics

With a bit of help from my 6 year old, Dylan, I planted mesculin, spinach, carrots, radishes, mint and wild onions in the rear triangle of the veggie garden. We used compost to fill the top 8-12" of the 24" raised bed. The dirt had settled that much since we filled it last spring in the lasagna garden style. I didn't need to water because yesterday's snow made the dirt perfectly moist. This is a great project for Dylan since radishes, lettuce and the like sprout so quickly.

Last year we constructed the rear triangle bed that measures 26' x 26' and we're pushing back the rear fence 3' this year so we can access the back of the 4'x12' raised beds. We're also adding another triangle of similar size toward the front. In between the two triangles, along the fenceline, we'll have a pathway and three compost bins. We built the raised beds with scrap from our fencing. It had sat for years - much to my man's chagrin - so it had to be put to use, and quickly. We only purchased a few extras - otherwise totally free!

A few years ago I read Patricia Lanza's book Lasagna Gardening, and it totally transformed the way that I garden. When you garden this way, you don't dig - you layer up. I'm an avid recycler and being both a mom and nanny to four kids under six, we have lots and lots of cardboard to lay at the bottom of flowerbeds, so that's our first layer. My mom and grandma's newpapers are piled on top of that to make layer two. I usually add compost, dirt or peat moss for layer three - there always seems to be some spot I'm digging around with extra to spare. Layer four is leaves, small sticks, paper towels, kitchen scraps, vacuum refuse, pet hair, grass clippings, and anything else that will compost. My mom's horses supply a layer of barn litter next. I usually purchase a few bags of peat moss to top off the litter, maybe some wood ashes (lots are available this year after the January Ice Storm) and top it all off with at least 6" compost.

I do know that it will all fully disintigrate in one year because today my husband Brent and I moved one of the beds we constructed last year toward the front of the yard. Yesterday we dug it out completely (to top off the rear bed) and it was all composted (except the few plastic bits that had stuck on the cardboard toy boxes at the bottom of the pile.) I wish I had pictures of what happenned next. The two of us used a tiny little dolly to move this very heavy 12x4x2 bed about fifty feet uphill - not a big hill, but still, uphill. We filled it with boxes, newspaper, garden refuse, grass clippings, etc. It's now completely full. Of course, it will compress when we add peat, barn litter and more compost, but it felt like a huge accomplishment.

I had tons of garden refuse because over the past few days I've completely dug out the dogwood's front circle. That's what I call the area inside our circle driveway that holds the mailbox. It became completely overrun last year, much to my dismay, because I was still learning how to balance the life of a new mommy. Dylan came to live with us as a foster child last October and that was my first garden season juggling his needs, my needs, and the garden's needs. That front bed is a time-sucker because it demands constant weeding since it is by the road. Anyone who thinks they can swap perennials and some mulch for the grass patch between the sidewalk and road and walk away maintainance-free is sadly mistaken. Between the wind, heat and the runoff it's nearly impossible to keep that area clean.

I'm going to comprimise with Mother Nature this year and give her a few feet of grass and TRY to claim the rest for daffodills, iris and daylilies. They're all natives to the yard, along with the pink dogwood. It's my homage to the families who've shared our yard for the past half-century. They're the anchor plants in our garden, so the circle sets the tone for the rest of the yard.

Tomorrow I'm hoping to finish removing the grass in the circle so my three-year-old neice, Ally, can help me plant the daffodills we dug out of a dirt-pile in the backyard last week. She and her six-year-old brother Preston have been gardening with me for years since I get to "play" nanny to them for my youngest sister. Right now she's home with her three-week-old son Aidan, so I have a pretty cushy schedule until she goes back to work. Ally asked to buy Brussels Sprouts seeds (of all things), so we'll plant those tomorrow as well. I can't wait to see the look on her face when she tries those for the first time.