Spring Garden

We have been busy as ever around here but I am finally making time to post something besides my monthly picture pot. And that something is my always exciting annual garden post! Lol! Eric put in three new herb beds (top right photo) for me this year at the edge of the yard where they will get the most sun, cooking with fresh herbs is such a pleasure don't you think?

Echo's garden (top left photo) is growing pole beans, squash and sunflowers this year.

We planted two small plum trees this year and they have two tiny plums on them. Hopefully we won't manage to kill them as we have ever other fruit tree we've tried so far :-(

Our blueberries are finally starting to be more productive this year and it's giving me great hopes for future blueberry crops.

 This isn't a great picture but you can kind of see the bean tepees we put in for the kids (which have sugar snap peas growing on them). I'm also growing tomatillos, ground cherries, cabbage, cilantro and tomatoes in my raised beds.

My trellis garden has sugar snap peas as well and we have been enjoying them in stir fries and eating them frsh.

The magnolia tree has been particularly lovely this year so I had to get a shot of that in here :-).

And of course no post is complete without some shots of the kids ;-P I love this because it is so indicative of their personalities, Echo in her bare feet and Clover in her boots (that girl loves boots!).

Absence Makes the Garden Grow Larger

The garden area looking lush.

Last week I went on a little five day mini vacation to visit my brother in DC and while I was gone my garden shot up like crazy! Ok, so I realize posts about my garden are not interesting to anyone but me. However it's my blog so I'll do what I want ;-P Seriously though, I like to be able to look back and compare things year to year so I find it helpful to record this kind of thing here.

Let me tell you, my garden is a great big hot mess this year! That being said it's also shaping up to be my most successful gardening year to date. There is a lot going on here that I am excited about and a lot that could be done waayyy better in the future but it's all pretty fun and exciting to watch.

My first problem is that I totally mixed up all my seeds when I was starting them inside and now I have no idea what things are (blame my pregnancy brain). For example the photo on the above left could be of zucchini or of acorn squash, I really don't know which. If it is zucchini it could be one of several varieties. The above right photo could be ground cherries or tomatillos, apparently the plants look similar and I can't figure out what it is by looking online (at least not in a the amount of time I'm willing to spend on it which is not much).

My other biggest problem is that I have things planted much too closely together. I know not to do this but I always end up doing it every year. I get way too excited and try to squeeze in as much as possible without allowing enough room for plants to spread. *Sigh* maybe someday I'll learn :-)

Bush beans flowering

 One the plus side things are growing splendidly out in the gardens and everything is just beginning to bloom which is very exciting. I've also been able to grow some things that I have never had success with in the past such as carrots (seriously, these are supposed to be so easy!) and cilantro (I was about to give up on this but gave it one more try) and they are turning out great this time around!

Cilantro

Moving the gardens to a sunnier location has really paid off and we have been lucky enough to have a nice rainy spring which has made taking care of the garden really easy.

Lettuce and carrots

Now if I can only figure out what everything I've planted actually is then I will be in business! I have high hopes for successful crops of some kind or another as the Summer progresses though!

Sandbox for Echo

One of the things on Eric's to do list for a while now has been to build Echo a little sand box to play in. He actually built it a while ago but I keep forgetting to post photos. We put it out by our blueberry bushes in the front yard so that I can see her from the garden. The idea was that I could work in the garden while she played in the sand but she almost always wants to help me when I work in the garden so we usually just play in the sand together after I am done gardening.

This is such a simple toy to make but such a huge hit! My parents got her some sand toys to play with and we were able to pick up a few more from the dollar bin at Target so she has lots of things to build and shovel with.

It's pretty small at this point so it may need to be expanded after Clover is big enough to want to play in it too but it's a great size for Echo right now. When the girls outgrow it we will probably convert it in to another raised garden bed.

The Best Garden Year Ever

Garden area with new beds. It's looking a little messy right now because I have lots of pots of seedlings going but once I transplant them I can clean things up a bit. 

Or so I hope! I am always highly optimistic at the beginning of the gardening year though so we'll see ;-) Last year I had to abandon my raised beds at the top of our lawn because it was just too shady to get anything to grow properly there. There isn't a ton of sunny space in our yard but we are trying to do the best with what we have and Eric put in 3 new raised beds up by our mailbox which is generally the area that gets the most sun for us. He had to take out two more of our holly bushes which is sad but they were ailing anyway and hopefully the results will be worth it.

Radishes, kale and garlic

 Eric used cedar to make the beds this time to try to keep the bugs out of the wood and they turned out really pretty. Unfortunately I got a little mixed up when i was starting my seeds inside and now I totally don't know what some of the things I planted are, oops... Hopefully it will become clear as they get bigger. To further complicate my gardening Echo loves to "help" me when I work out there. This means that a lot of things get pulled up and scattered around but seeing her enjoy the outside and starting a tradition of gardening with her at a young age is totally worth it! I don't take my gardening too seriously so it's no big deal, plus I usually have way more seeds than I have room to plant things so whenever she pulls something up I can always replace it.

Another view of the new gardens

The pictures I'm posting here are a little old and most of the radishes have been harvested already. In the new beds I have a healthy crop of bush beans, cucumbers, zucchini, watermelon and carrots coming up (also a mystery plant that I have no memory of what it is, maybe time will tell?). It's always so exciting to grow things from seed and see the little spots of green start to poke up. It's even more exciting to make a meal with ingredients grown from your own garden!

Salmon cakes and salad, this was ridiculously tasty!

For the above recipe I got to use kale and radishes from my garden in the salad garlic chives in the sauce (which also used Eric's home made yogurt as a base). Although I don't yet provide a substantial portion of what we eat from my garden there is nothing quite as satisfying as growing your own food. Hopefully by moving to a sunnier location and planting things that are easy to grow I can have the best year ever in my garden.

More Garden Prep

Spring has been in the air lately, well off and on it has, and I was inspired to not only work in my garden but also to give my blog a spring makeover! Yay!

This weekend the weather was so lovely that I worked on some Spring garden prep. I worked on clearing my larger raised bed of leaves and acorns (many of which had already started to grow roots) and improving the soil quality. I thin the lack of good soil really hurt me last year so this time I mixed in quite a bit of composted cow manure and peat moss to make the soil rich and light. Eventually I can use my own compost to enrich the soil but it isn't ready yet. Hopefully this will improve my garen production this year.  

Both raised beds are prepped and planted now

I planted both beds with radish, swiss chard, lettuce and a few carrots. I'm excited to get this growing season started. My rosemary and mint are starting to make a comeback after winter as well. They are my only two perennial plants in the garden and it's nice to see a little something green in there.

Rosemary

Mint

 In addition to my raised beds from last year, Eric built me a new one with a lattice this time. I plan on growing green beans and peas in here but I haven't planted it yet

Above is a view of my whole garden set up at this point. I'm sure we will be adding to it as the years go on but for now this should be all (probably even more) than I can handle.

Springtime and Garden Prep

 So many plans and happenings in the yard this month that this is going to be a long post! First of all I'm very excited to say that we finally got our compost bin up and running. All it took was a big plastic trash can with some holes drilled in it and a wooden frame to set it on to allow for drainage. This is a project we've been wanting to do for ages but we kept putting it off. Now between recycling and compost we hardly have any trash, yay! Plus I have high hopes that this will improve the quality of my garden greatly this year. Sadly the compost won't be ready for a while yet but it's a good start.

Hooray compost!

Speaking of the garden, I haven't too much time for it yet this year. It's been too cold to take Echo outside with me while I work in the main garden beds but I am trying to grow some things in containers on the back deck. I can work out there while she is sleeping in her room and still be able to hear her when she wakes. Out back I am working on some lettuce, carrots and peas. Sadly it looks like the squirrels had a field day digging in my pots the other day so I'll have to see which if any of my seeds survived. 

Some of my containers on the back deck, in the sunny corner

I did spot a little lettuce sprout today in my outside planters, maybe the squirrels didn't get everything

I'm also starting some tomatos inside so they will have a good length of time to grow before I move them to the big garden outside. I wasn't planning to grow tomatos from seed this year since they didn't turn out well last year but the guy I buy seeds from always throws in a freebee and this time it was tomatos so I'm giving it a go. 

Baby tomatos

 In other yard news some of my blueberries are already getting blooms and my daffodils and forsythia are starting to bloom! It was so refreshing to go out in the sunshine today. As much as I love rain it was nice to see the sun and I took Echo out with me for a bit to enjoy the fresh air.

Blueberry blossoms

Echo lounging outside

Daffodil 

Forsythia

 Below you can see all the seeds I'm planting this year. I tried to stick with things that are supposed to be very easy to grow. I enjoy gardening but I'm not prepared to spend a ton of time on it. Honestly I'd rather be playing with my baby girl than laboring in the garden. Still, I enjoy the thrill of watching those little green shots come up so hopefully by sticking with the easy stuff I can have some fresh veggies without too much work. This year I'm planting green peas, green beans, carrots, radishes, tomatos, lettuce, chard. cucumbers and basil from seed. I will probably buy a few more mature pepper plants later since they are harder to grow from seed and I had a ton of success with them last year.

sseds!

 As you can see my main raised beds are currently empty, but hopefully I'll get to planting them soon!

The Garden in June

I haven't had a ton of time for my garden this month, poor garden :-( I'm just trying to hope for the best and not stress myself out over it. The good news is that we have had lots and lots of rain so watering it hasn't been much of an issue. The cucumbers have continued to produce astonishingly well and the brandywine tomatos are coming along nicely too.  I gave up on the carrots ever doing much and just went ahead and pulled them and we had nice roasted baby carrots with dinner one night. A lot of the other things I grew from seed are still growing really slowly, I'm wondering if they need more fertilization or something. This year they might just have to fend for themselves I'm afraid. Here are some updated pictures of the garden shot with my lovely macro lens.

Red bell pepper, getting bigger and turning a teeny bit red.

Thai basil

Cucumbers still going strong

The Cayenne peppers are finally turning red. They are so pretty and oh so hot!

Brandywine tomatos, I have quite a few of these that will be ready sometime over the summer.

Infused water that I made with my home grown mint and cucumbers. The only thing I didn't grow was the lemons :-)

Just for fun here is an artistic shot of my hibiscus which has been blooming nicely

And here's a super cool spider that I found in our yard. 

The Garden in May

Does it seem to anyone else that May is flying by at record speeds? I can't believe it is almost half way over already! The garden has been growing like crazy this month, I can't believe how quickly it changes. Here are some updated pictures.

Blueberries getting nice and big, one of them is even starting to turn blue!

view of both my raised beds, you can really see how everything has grown!

Cayenne peppers, I've used one of them so far but it was very hot yet so I'm trying to leave them longer, they should turn red and be much hotter eventually

The cucumbers are taking over! I really need to get a trellis for them but I keep forgetting.

Cucumber flower

Carrots, still taking forever. I'm not sure if these will pan out this year or not. 

Thai basil that I grew from seed.

Baby cucumber :-)

The brandywine tomatos are getting huge and have tons of flowers on them but no fruit yet,  here's hoping they turn out

All the radishes have been pulled from this bed and I transplanted all the little guys I started from seed. This bed now contains jalapeno peppers, yellow bell peppers, yellow pear tomatos, cilantro, mint, rosemary and cayenne peppers.