12 April 2012 Garden Update

Today my husband went out and did a video of our garden. He does a great job telling you what everything is and how they are doing and even what the future holds as he does a walk through. I hope you enjoy our garden.



I hope that you are encouraged to grow some food in your garden because if we can do it so can you. Plus it is really nice to be able to step in the garden for a bit of rosemary and thyme as a recipe calls for it. Talk about fresh.

I get excited when my husband brings me a bouquet of carrots.

I am not the only one who loves fresh carrots.

I hope that you have a wonderful week filled with Love and Laughter. Be Well my Friends.

Beets

The most wonderful thing about growing your own food is sometimes you get something wonderful.

I get the man and those big red beets!

I can not wait to roast these sweet babies.

Maybe I will make a roasted root vegetable pizza.

How about a couple of beat songs?

Oh yes, Beet it!

Another one?

We got the beet!







The Beet goes on.                       

Wait for it . . .

You can't stop the beet.

Yeah I think I am funny.

Turn the beet around.

One more?



Eat to the beet.                             

Okay I promise to stop now but I did find a few other beat songs.

I hope you have a upbeet day that is filled with love and laughter! Be well my friends.









Mini Garden update

My yard looks like a meadow and I love it. The "weeds" are flowering, the grass is wild, and there are bugs living in it. I know it is not typical suburban beauty but it is just how I like it. Today for the garden up date is just an over view of the yard. I did not include the right side of the house where I am working on a rose garden and where three of our figs live. Not to worry it will come back around soon. We have company coming so the lawn will be mowed and the garden will be straightened out (meaning pulling out the flowering salad greens and putting in the summer crops) so that it appears to be perfectly happy and ordered. When we have company coming we clean up our act a bit. You know spend a couple of days spring cleaning and getting ready to impress any and all who chose to visit our lovely home. Hopefully we will keep it clean following the deep cleanse. I am getting off topic here is to my meadow in it's last days being free.

This is the view from my back porch. I love it! My husband and I sit out on the back porch at night with a bottle of wine (sometimes) and just enjoy this peaceful setting.

This is also a view from my back porch. Interesting fact about the trees with the yellow flowers. In Paris they use the flowers as a base to most perfumes. They have a lovely sent that at night is really wonderful. Rob told what they were called but I can not pull it out of my brain right this second.

This is looking into our vegetable garden area on the left side of the house. We are hoping that all these trees will block the view of the neighbors.

This is the Pecan Tree. I love how the leaves seem to be floating green clouds.

This is the Pakistan Mulberry tree.

Do you remember this Chocolate Persimmon? It has grown branches that are over a foot in length. It is truly amazing.

This is the Black Mulberry Tree. It is supposed to be the fastest growing fruit tree. We are watching it.

This is some kind of squash, peas, corn, and salad greens.

A view from the inside of the vegetable garden.. These baby Vegetables are mostly tomatoes, and peppers.

We are working on adding a path in between the garden beds. We are going to collect seeds from the flowering plants for next year. 

We wanted a giant head of Broccoli, so we waited for it to keep growing. What we got are yellow flowers. The lesson here is to pick the broccoli when it looks edible.

I feel like I should warn you. My husband is going to take a video of the whole garden and I am going to post it for you to see. I thought it would be easier then three or four complete updates on what's growing on.

I hope that your garden is showing signs of spring and that your day is filled with Love and Laughter. Be well my friends.

Trama in the garden...

I know I said I would be busy doing school work but I took a break to water the garden. What I found is unspeakable, totally horrible, but I am going to share it with you. The cat, my Husbands Cat, has found a liking for Rats. Now I never know when I am going to find them dead in the garden. Last week I found the head of a rat, this week the back half of one. I have to clean them up so the boys won't mess with it. It is gross, very gross. I wanted to puke! My heart is racing right out of my chest. I think I need a sedative to calm down. I am forever traumatized.I did take some lovely pictures, and I did find some lovely squash ready to be picked. So one to the garden update.

This is what I picked today.

Hello Squash!

I love this kid.

He is cute.

He is still cute too.

I love him too.

We had a wind storm. It beat up the squash beds.

It is still going strong even though it is beat up and sad looking.

I don't know what kind of squash this is. It is happy.

Melon. Yum Yum Yum

A bigger Melon. I hope they make it to full size.

The boy's beans.

Acorn squash in the boy's bed.

Another squash bites the dust.

Baby Kale! I hope it gets big.

Surprise purple Asparagus. We thought this didn't make it but God is good.

Look! Look! A baby pie pumpkin.

We have a lot to learn when it comes to gardening. I am glad we are getting some squash. When these plants are done we are going to be making some changes in how we garden. We watched this amazing movie/film that changed how we look at the soil.  http://backtoedenfilm.com/  I want to encourage you to watch the film on this website. It is about the importance of trusting God, and mulch. I am simplifying it but it is an exciting movie on how to garden. You'll see as we get ready to set it up early next year. We will put it in God's hands.

I hope you have a wonderful week filled with love and Laughter. Be well my friends.

In garden news...

My kids planted their first little garden bed so I thought it was the perfect time for an update on the garden. Rob has spent the last few months turning beds of clay into growing machines or at least add so much organic martial that we have a slight chance to eat something grows from our ground.

This is the boys' garden bed also what Damian wanted to to do for his birthday. Finally a month a later he planted his little seedlings and some root crop seeds for luck. They are so proud of all the hard work that went into this bed. I really hope it grows and produces tomatoes, green beans, beets, carrots, acorn squash, watermelon and pumpkin. We let them load it up in a desperate attempt to assure at least one thing grows. This is the bed to watch over the coming weeks.



This is our squash bed. It has green and yellow zucchini, bottle neck squash, straight neck squash, and summer squash. Then we also have a verity of beans and we just added some greens along the sides. Wishful thinking.


This is our bed of melons, orange watermelons, Christmas melons, cantaloupe, and Gaia melons. Wishful thinking all the way. See that pile of dirt over there? We buy dirt by the truck load in order to make our clay dirt into a lovely soil. For these three beds we have bought four truck loads of dirt, thirty bags of compost manure, and countless other additives. Do you see the grey paths? That is the dirt we started with. Because of the drought it is hard packed and causes Rob nightmares when he thinking about cutting into it. Maybe he deserves a back rub. . . Then again my very big bath tub is filled with his pots of seeds that he has started and hasn't made their beds yet.

Look! Do you see what I have been dreaming about? That is right I dream of baby squash. They are beautiful aren't they. I have big ideas for them and they all involve butter.

This plant has a tiny baby. Right now it looks like we might get lucky.

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I just love the sight of all these green squash leaves. They are all grown from seed. My heart is all a flutter with anticipation

This is my little herb garden. These beds boast rosemary, sage, lemon basil, lemon mint, oregano, sage, lemon balm, basil, peppermint, and one eucalyptus tree. We didn't know it was a tree when it was planted here (it is the tall skinny plant on the left near the porch) we will find a new home for it when it gets a little bigger or in the next couple of months.

Finally my asparagus. We can't eat for another year or so but it is very happy and adds a nice green reminder of when things go right. I love these ferns but I will be the first one to happily eat them when their time comes. Rob made a little fence for them so that they would not fall over.


There is a garden update. I know I did not include any trees in this post but I will another day after the grass is cut and the trees look taller then the weeds. So for now I am living with a prayer for rain. Dear God please send rain. Amen

I hope you are blessed with love and laughter and a green garden.