April 23, 2013
I asked my son, Dylan, what I should title this post and he said “I don’t know, Garden Update?”. Brilliant. This is what this is. A garden update.
Well, where do I start, let me rewind back to February. My summer garden plans had me dreaming of 200 tomato plants and loads of pepper plants, which I had started in January and they were all nicely coming along. And then, my entrepreneurial 15 year old son had an idea so I went with it. He wanted to sell plants. So, what does a good homeschooling mother do? She lets him sell plants. He had about 500 tomato and pepper plants started in seed trays so I told him he could sell the 200 plants that I had already started in January with me knowing that 500 more were supposedly coming. Then all of his 500 plants got a weird disease and didn’t make it like they should….of course. So in the meantime he sold all of my plants, except for 20 of them which I planted in my garden and most of them had lost their name tags so I don’t even know what kind they are! All of my neighbors are now growing my plants and I hope they enjoy them! Cracks me up.
Anyway, here are a few photos of my garden so far. I got a really late start with the tomatoes because my son had them in trays out in front of my house trying to sell them until the end of March. He’s very proud of himself and hey, I’m proud of him, plus we got to meet a lot of our neighbors. What can I say? I love growing plants and my son likes selling and organizing them. Hmmmm…maybe we’ve got something going.
[ 7 Comments ] Posted on 04.23.13 under From My Garden
A Little Whine, Thanks for Listening
March 13, 2013
Oh man, I am so disappointed.
A few months ago, we put up a fence to protect the garden space. Then I realized that rabbits could still get through the fence. So we put up about a foot high of smaller wire mesh along the bottom of the fence to keep the rabbits out. That worked.
Then the gophers kept pulling my plants under. So we bought gopher traps and trapped them. I don’t know how many gophers are out there, but there are more out there than we catch. But, we got them under control.
Then I noticed that the birds are hanging around and pecking at my plants long enough to leave their poo on my plants and holes in my plants. So I bought metallic ribbon and tied them to the end of an irrigation flag and hopefully that will work.
Then I noticed little itty bitty rabbit droppings all over my garden just recently. And then my kids noticed two baby bunnies scrambling down into holes inside of the garden area. But, there are so many holes from the gophers that I don’t know where the heck they live. And this is the damage that they are causing to my tomato plants. There’s not much left of them.
It’s so sad to watch what I babied for the last 2 months be eaten in a couple of nights. I think the next plan of action is to get some live traps because we have all decided at my house that we don’t have the heart to gopher trap the baby bunnies. Try me again in a week and see where my heart is if I can’t live trap them. I can’t plant anything else until those babies are out of my garden.
[ 3 Comments ] Posted on 03.13.13 under From My Garden
Transplanting Tomatoes
March 05, 2013
Yeehaw, I planted some tomatoes today! And, I did my very first video for any newbies out there that don’t know how. That’s what I do in my spare time. For fun.
Check it out! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UU_f_wJJUZU
[ 6 Comments ] Posted on 03.05.13 under From My Garden
(Twiddling My Thumbs…
February 17, 2013
and whistling a little.) I’m trying to patiently wait for the weather to stay above the 30′s at night. Wednesday and Thursday night it says it’s supposed to be 38 and 39 degrees and that’s a not so good temperature for my tomato seedlings so I will keep them safely indoors at night for a little while longer. In the meantime I had my boys rip out my beautifully blooming and going to seed rapini plants, which got to be a little over 5 ft. tall. There were hundreds of bees and a few butterflies that meandered through the beautiful yellow flowers over the past month. I will definitely plant them again, mostly for their flowers. Did you know that a small little bunch of rapini sells for $3.99 for a little bunch at Sprouts? I was surprised. Ha! and I let so many go to seed.
My next post will be about planting my tomatoes!!!!
[ 10 Comments ] Posted on 02.17.13 under From My Garden
It’s Harvest Time
February 17, 2013
One of my animal friends took it upon himself to harvest this one.
Way cool.
[ 1 Comment ] Posted on 02.17.13 under From My Garden
Oh My Good Gracious
February 09, 2013
That was so good. I made a recipe from my big new Cooks Illustrated cookbook from Costco. I’m thinking it’s copyrighted so I can’t give the recipe, but oh my, it was so good. Think of pan sauteed cauliflower and broccoli with a really good satay sauce poured over at the end and simmered for a couple of minutes. I didn’t share.
[ 2 Comments ] Posted on 02.09.13 under Broccoli, Cauliflower
Cauliflower Goodness
February 07, 2013
I was walking around my garden today and leaned way over, looking into the big bushy cauliflower leaves and lo and behold, there was a fully grown cauliflower that I hadn’t even noticed before. And then I found another one. And then I let out a “whoaaaa, where did that come from” kind of sound with a puzzled look on my face.
I then immediately decided to chop it up to roast it, which is my absolute, favorite way in the whole world to eat cauliflower.
Add a little salt and pepper, drizzle with olive oil and roast at 450 degrees for approximately 30 minutes, stirring once or twice.
That was better than eating chocolate! It was that good.
There were no leftovers, the chickens even ate the cauliflower leaves.
[ 2 Comments ] Posted on 02.07.13 under From My Garden
Broccoli Recipe, Sort of
February 05, 2013
I have eaten two small heads of broccoli so far. They taste so, so good cut up, sauteed in a little oil, add some crushed garlic, a little water to steam and cook until crisp tender. Give it a couple of pinches of salt and that is it! I have secretly eaten both heads of broccoli so I don’t have to share. Shhhh, don’t tell anyone.
All the new little heads are being eaten by birds and that stinks. Between the rabbits, gophers, quail and cute little chickadees , it’s amazing that I have enough leftover to eat myself. I think we finally have the rabbits under control where they can’t get in, but the gophers are sucking under my broccoli stalks that are about 2 feet tall and eating big sections of my carrots. I need to put a bigger bounty on them for my son to keep catching. And apparently I need to rig up some bird netting before the broccoli is all eaten up.
Keeping these animals out of my garden is like trying to nail jello to the wall. But, it sure is worth is. : )
[ 1 Comment ] Posted on 02.05.13 under Broccoli, From My Garden
First Broccoli
February 01, 2013
It’s a little on the small side, but there are also little broccoli shoots all around the sides. I was juicing a bunch of veggies and threw it in with them, but I’ll cook the next one that’s ready and let you know how it tastes.
[ 2 Comments ] Posted on 02.01.13 under From My Garden
Plant Babies
February 01, 2013
I was reading I Corinthians 15: 38-49 and it reminded me of my seeds that I started a couple of weeks back. Oh, I can hardly wait for that new body I get to have.
[ No Comments ] Posted on 02.01.13 under From My Garden
