Tag Archives: gardening

2014 Garden

You know what I haven’t talked about yet this year? My Garden! Which is awful, because this is the first year ever I’ve had a yard and planted stuff in the ground!

We didn’t get around to planting our spring crops until the last weekend in March, which is a little late for Kansas weather, because you never know, it could start being 90 degrees everyday the first weekend in April. I was gigantically pregnant, and the ground was barely soft enough to dig. Our soil was far more clay-ee than I expected, so that was fun to work with on hands and knees at full term.

peas
We planted peas–and for the first year in four years of planting peas, I have actual peas on the vines. I am so excited!

carrots
For the first time, we planted carrots. I have no idea how these will grow, but the greens keep getting bigger, so I am assuming they are growing down there, despite the clay.

beets
Beets! I think we’ll only get a handful of beets, and even if they are bit size, I will eat them.

turnips
The turnips germinated like crazy, and because I was ridiculously pregnant and busy nesting, I didn’t get back outside to weed or thin the seedlings, so I have a blanket of turnip greens in the turnip bed. We’ll see if any turnips develop. The weeds in that bed have also been nearly impossible to keep up with.

first harvest
And the radishes are my first successful crop from an in-the-ground-garden. These were extra spicy radishes.

Next time, we’ll talk about the summer plants!

Container Herbs

container herbs just planted

I was going for super cheap this year, but wanted to put my herbs in containers, so I searched and searched for the most cost effective thing I could find -- and would you believe Kmart came to the rescue? Those flexible green tubs were only $4.99 each, so I grabbed three, drilled some holes in the bottoms, added a single layer of egg rock I had laying around for good measure, and plopped all my new little buddies in.

flexible tub planters

flexible tub planters

flexible tub planters

I had great internal anguish over whether to plant all three thymes together, or divide them among the three containers. I guess it's obvious which way I went, but it was not an easy decision, and there was much hand-wringing. ;)

Also used this season for the first time in years is the enamel basin I used to use as a planter at our old house.

enamel basin planter

Everything's filthy because it had been freshly planted, but I just love the way plants look in there.

A non-herb update is the addition of some cheater greens (ones I did not start from seed) to replace the failed mixed lettuce seeds. The seeds I used were great performers in the past, but the pack was very old, so I wasn't too surprised when they didn't come up.

"corn salad" and arugula

Yesterday I built the last two frames for the shelf and planted some broccoli (I do realize it's late, but we're just planting it for the greens back there) and some red lettuce.

Cross your fingers for the continued success of the shelf garden! It frees up a lot of space in the other beds and looks nice back there, so I'm really hoping it works out.

Working on uploading a glabillionty pictures from a nature walk I took with a friend the other evening and will share soon. I think you'll enjoy them.

Long time, no see.

false indigo

blackberry blossom

yay, peonies!

spinach!

old Christmas trees make a nice garden accent

white bleeding heart

awwww, baby kale

catmint in its new home

pretty columbine

love this color

fern love

purple iris buds

baby beets

the white clematis really took off this year

columbine just opening

yellow iris

rainbow chard

just planted :)

purple clematis almost ready to bloom

see you tomorrow, sun

Easing back into this whole "blogging and Etsy selling" online lifestyle after a lovely long winter of house projects and the energy to do them, and an even longer time before that of twiddling my proverbial thumbs and doing nothing --cheese alert-- well, except for some soul searching, (awwwwwwwww). Okay, that and raising my kids and attempting to keep the house in one piece.

But here I am. Maybe even some soap soon. But remember, I'm taking baby steps, so I really wouldn't recommend you hold your breath. ;)

Unexpected Garden Guests

Today the weather was beautiful, and we decided to take our learning outside.

As in, I needed to take advantage of the weather and get some gardening done, and I needed some slave labor to help.

The girls pulled weeds and collected rocks while I got out the hoe and pulled up all the grass and weed cover from the garden beds.  I was working along at a pretty good clip, dragging the top layer of weeds and their roots out of the ground, keeping a steady pace so i wouldn’t think about how tired I was getting.

At one point in the back corner of the front garden I noticed a small amount of fuzz fly up at me, but figured it was either partially composted wool bits or some of the fuzzier chicken feathers.

Then I struck down again, and a HUGE clump of the ground came out with the hoe, flinging lots more fuzz, and prompting a loud squeaking, crying noise from the clump.

In that same instant, I saw what I thought was a mouse laying there, squirming about, and I yelped. No, I am not afraid of mice, but I was taken by surprise and had already been edge worried about those huge monster-sized furry spiders that live in the ground out there.

The girls came running, and by that time I realized that the little creature had longer ears than a mouse, and no tail.

All of that fuzz was rabbit fur, and that clump was a nest of babies; a FLUFFLE of bunnies, if you will.

04.08.14a

The clump.  The outside is composed of leaves, hay, and leaves.  The inner part is all rabbit fur.

04.08.14b

There were quite a lot of them crammed in there, and they all sought the heat of each other’s bodies as we cooed over them.

Emily informed us that rabbits do indeed build nests in the ground this way, and that if you find one you are supposed to gently put it back and leave it be.  The mother will be back at some point for them.

04.08.14c

So that is what we did, despite protests from the younger girls that we should keep them forever.

Either way, I am not thrilled about having rabbits in the garden, but leaving them seemed to be the only option I could live with.  I’ll worry about keeping the vegetables safe later.

So where did November go?

bittersweet vine

Since I still hadn't decided if I was tired of listening to my inane drivel and seeing my same pictures over and over again here in my little corner of the internet, I decided I must not be, and that I would just keep plugging away.

bittersweet vine

Things have been... What's a nice word for, "Lydia is getting a good jump on the terrible twos and is practically unbearable to be around one moment and full of heart-melting amazingness the next?" Then there's the trying to keep up with all the boys' school stuff, and bill stuff, and money worries, and worry worries, and me getting overwhelmed (shock!) and questioning every major life decision I've ever made, and all the while continuing on my never-ending and seemingly fruitless quest for better mental health -- well, somehow we keep on doing our thing, and each day fades into the night without any major damage.

butterfly bush new growth

So really, the word I am looking for is just "life."

knockout rose

clematis still blooming

dead leaves, new flowers

rainbow chard

my first broccoli

(Despite the cold snap, we had quite a few things still growing throughout most of the month.)

a little nighttime knitting

The Shepherd

So there I am. Wandering around my increasingly dormant back yard, and knitting. Always knitting. Well, when I'm not tearing through some exciting house project (hint: no more carpet in the upstairs hallway or on the stairs).

The Shepherd

But yeah, mostly a lot of knitting.

A perfect weather day

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I have so many thoughts in my head lately, but not too much of a desire to try and sort them out enough to write anything down, so instead, come take a quiet walk through my yard with me on a perfect weather day. (Some things are from my neighbor's yard, but she doesn't mind when I lean over the fence and annoy her plants with my camera.)

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Tell Me Something Good Tuesday

Okay, lay it on us! We want to hear what good things are happening to you today!

Tell Something GoodTuesdays

The weather has been glorious since I returned from Seattle to Massachusetts. Although yesterday morning it was so chilly I wondered if I had skipped all of August and moved straight to the end of September! But this lovely weather inspired me to take a moment to stop and smell the literal roses. I wandered my tiny street and took pictures of the neighbor’s flowers.

SmellTheRoses11

This hydrangea bush started it all. It’s changing from this brilliant blue to a dusty rose!SmellTheRoses12 SmellTheRoses13 SmellTheRoses14 SmellTheRoses15 SmellTheRoses16 SmellTheRoses01

We have amazing grapes growing everywhere! There is an arbor, but this bunch is growing off the telephone wires! (And hanging down low enough that it’s at my eye level!)

SmellTheRoses02

You can see the original arbor in the background…SmellTheRoses03 SmellTheRoses04

Here you can see how the grapes are taking over other foliage.SmellTheRoses06

Including this old apple tree!

SmellTheRoses07

Until this year we thought it was dead. It didn’t have very much green and I was worried about it falling into the house. But this year is sprang to life and is producing more apples than the critters can eat.

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I think this is a tiger lily, but I need to check the leaves to be sure!

SmellTheRoses05

What is stopping you from rushing about and reminding you to take a moment for yourself?

…and more trellis…

that's that I guess (for the trellis)

Got the sides up and tied up the unruly heap that was, well, everything in the garden.

green beans, (carrots), kale, and chard

I definitely let the beans choke out most of the carrots, but that's fine since I have never grown successful carrots in my life anyway. Only bitter failure carrots. I thought about naming a whole new variety after myself actually. "Amber's Bitter Failure." They'd be a big hit among people who don't even like carrots anyway.
one side

So now those green beans have a nice place to raise their babies, because LOOK. BABIES!

baby green beans!

Gets me every time. :)

The other bed is loaded with broccoli greens and a few happy beets,

broccoli and beets

as well as the squash family monsters,

other side

Those pumpkin vines were challenging to move and tie, but it'll be worth it if we can have some little fun (and tasty) pumpkins come fall!

tiny pumpkin

Now all to do is the path. Maybe this weekend if I'm lucky.

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Unrelated: my second guest post on the Juniper Moon Farm blog is up with a little more progress on my Blaithin.

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I try to at least touch it once a day, even if a certain small person does not let me actually knit more than a few stitches.

Lydia, just over 14 months

Oh Lydia, lucky for you you're such a cutie...

A teensy bit of trellis progress

the front view, trellis frame

It's not much yet, but the ends of the trellis are up now and waterproofed to match the beds. I couldn't resist a few cheesy embellishments, forgive me.

oh my stars!

And from the back (facing the grass alley),

the back view

It's more of a plea than a command really.

Grow! (please)

I have some more studs to cut down to size for some horizontal supports, and then I will run some twine up and down for now, but as soon I have the money for it, I'll be buying a short length of that square opening fencing and tacking it up and over. (And preferably the coated stuff so it won't rust.)

But really, what's one of my projects without another project nipping at its heels?

I have decided to make a path between the beds with the pieces of the path that failed up at the other end of the yard. It just got too overrun with stupid crabgrass and really, it needed to be widened anyway. I will revisit that one some other time, but for now, I'll just let it grass back over up there.

So the current plan is for a brick-edged path (as seen below) with bluestone slabs down the middle, but maybe set with a little concrete so it doesn't immediately sprout a weed and crabgrass garden of its own.

the "plan" for the path

It should be noted that every single one of those bricks was carried from one end of the yard to the other by the boys. How wonderful is it to have some kids old enough to really start helping now? I'll tell you: So wonderful.

So now the sod's all removed and after this weekend's rain I'll be putting everything in place and getting the trellis supports up.

sod removed and bricks stacked

And that ought to keep me busy for a few days I guess...

Grow!

broccoli greens

green bean in the works

carrots

raspberries yet again (this year's obsession I guess)

lovely kale

oh kale

clover

blackberries, just not yet

pumpkin!

chard

My late start this year has not hurt one bit. Everything is doing nicely and the greens have been just delicious. And now the heat has finally let up enough to want to be outside again, so maybe I can get a trellis up for those green beans before they choke out everything else in the bed.

lush

(Not even sharing the other bed this time *cough* overrun with pumpkin vines...)