The Progress of a Garden: Early August

 I pulled out the tomato plant that wasn't producing and we have started putting in our winter crops. The trellis is covered in green apple cucumber and spaghetti squash vines.

The Tomatoes are Taking Over!!! (This is after I pruned them back)

Ravenna's Faces

Silly Girl. We love her so!

Life, Interrupted

Blogging isn't really happening anymore. I look out at my garden everyday and think: "Wow! I want to take a picture to put on my blog to show how awesome and productive gardening is," but then I am called back to the reality that I have a five week old baby and a three year old in my care. Yes! Life is lovely, I am living the dream and yet, chaos abounds. One of these days I will find a spare moment when nap times magically coincide and somehow, somehow I am able to catch up on all the housework I have been neglecting. I wish I could share pictures of our little foster baby, Joseph, but it will have to suffice to say that he brings a great deal of joy to us and our home.

The Progress of a Garden: The End of May

From our gardens in May we harvested: strawberries (4 lbs!), radishes, lettuce, spinach, green onions, bok choi and swiss chard. It has been a really hot week so the spinach and bok choi are bolting. Next spring I plan on planting the bok choi MUCH earlier. I also read on a forum that spouting the seeds indoors on coffee filters and then planting the sprouts gives the seeds a head start on growing, so I may try that. The cold weather crops are definitely slowing down although I think we have a little while longer on the lettuce.

Everything is in the garden now! For our big summer producers we have a grand total of 6 tomato plants, 3 bush cucumbers, 1 vining cucumber, 2 zucchini, a rotation of 20 bush beans, and seven pepper plants.

Check out my peas on the trellis! They just started flowering

 

 The daikon radishes in the pot in the foreground are getting huge but no root development yet. I am afraid they will bolt before they do.

 In the front the bed is really full but I am still waiting on some green beans to germinate for the next rotation.

 The dill is flowering and it is beautiful. Behind it you can see the nearly ready Kohlrabi.

This is what green onions look like when they go to flower

Up for June: Kohlrabi, lettuce, carrots, chard, kale, green beans, zucchini, basil, snow peas, and maybe cucumbers at the end of the month.

Ravenna And The Twins

Nearly every week for most of the school year I babysat these cuties. Ravenna had mixed feelings at first but then grew to love their visits.

Garden(s) At The End of April

At the end of April, the first harvest: A dozen French Breakfast Radishes

The new backyard garden space: A 3X8 foot raised bed, pea trellis, a perennial herb bed and deep mulching to get rid of grass.

Currant and daikon radishes in pots. Plants being hardened off (they are now in the ground).

AND...the front garden: More strawberry plants; last years plants going crazy with berry production and a somewhat empty bed waiting for seedlings to grow.

3

 Look who just turned three years old;

 With cake, clapping, singing...

Lots of lovely presents...

And TONS of love!