March 1st in St. Helens Oregon

It is quite a sloppy mess so I do not think we will be attempting to play in it. We will just enjoy how beautiful it looks.

Not What I Had Planned for a Monday Morning

Well last Monday Roto Rooter came out for my neighbor's clogged sewer line. Long story short apparently my front yard is not as wide as I thought and his sewer line goes straight through my veggie garden. Good thing that is is winter and there are no veggies growing. The Roto Rooter guys found where the clog was, my front yard, and started digging. About four feet down they hit the sewer line and to there surprise, and mine, discovered that when NW Natural had put my gas line in (prior to me moving in) they went straight through the neighbor's sewer line. This benefits my neighbor in that NW Natural is now paying for the repairs to his sewer line. It is now Sunday and they have done no further work on this sewer line problem or the hole. So I have a large sheet of plywood laying across this large hole in my front yard. I, however, am looking at this as a golden opportunity, free rototilling. When I look out all I can see is how when they are done the dirt will have all been dug up and mixed around thus rototilling.

Garden 5/17

A beautiful iris that I snatched from the Morgan Drive house just before Mom moved. My little greenhouse. Those are the egg crates from our 5 dozen at a time purchases. I am growing fennel, three types of cucumbers, three types of squash (zucchini, delicata, and acorn), dill and cantaloupe.

The broccoli is growing and is even bigger now but I had to get these pics posted first.

Look at those onions go.

Since taking these pics I have also planted 40 more onions and over 100 pea seeds. I also have six full rows of lettuce now all at different stages so we will have lettuce for the long haul. The tomatoes that were in the box at the last posting remain there, it has not been quite warm enough.

Garden 4/27

Here are the raspberry plants I got for free from Sophie's grandma (Sophie is Leah's best friend). We went with Sophie, sister Lorilei, and her mom Sara up to the grandparent's house to dig up the plants. Momma is quite excited to get her raspberry patch up and running. I should even have berries this year!!Here is the bed I have ready for the raspberries. Notice that it is surrounded by cement on all four sides and what you can not see is that it is lined with plastic so hopefully the raspberries do not run. Currently it is covered with plastic to keep weeds from starting. Look, my lettuce is popping up. And the onions have taken off, now to keep them out of Paige's view until maturity. Here are my three paste tomatoes and two cherry tomato plants. Waiting until mid-May to put them in the ground.

Gardening has started

Here are my first attempts at the veggie garden for this summer. I planted around 50 onions (different spot from last year to see if I have more luck), three pepper plants and nine broccoli starts. The onions are in the back corner, as far away from the path as possible to reduce the amount of premature onions Paige eats.

Below is Leah's onion patch. She took my extras and planted them in her little plot. Look closely and you can see the bulbs. In this pot is one pepper plant and four bunches of cilantro (my new favorite flavor).

Here is my miniature greenhouse made with an old shower curtain and two metal political sign holders. I am going to plant my zucchini and cucumber seeds soon and put them under here to get a good start. I have also planted a few lettuce seeds and am waiting for them to sprout up. Next weekend is the big master gardener's show at the local high school where I am planning on picking up four paste tomato plants, two cherry tomato plants, oodles of lettuce starts, and hopefully some other fun plants. Ohhh and hopefully someone will have basil.
Here is my contribution to flower garden planting for the year. I just have such a hard time planting something that will not become food. Although as I informed Leah yesterday pansy petals can be eaten and she proceeded to eat at least five at which time I had to tell her to stop or all of Momma's flowers would be gone.

Mr. Ron and the Dirt

Over the past few years I have gotten to know a great couple, the Koops. Carolyn and I rode down to a women's renewal retreat together one year and have continued our friendship. Her husband, Ron, teaches a Sunday School class so I have gotten to know him that way. Recently he came by our house and saw that my front yard is all dirt and was going to need rototilling prior to planting. He stated that he has an old rototiller that he is tinkering with and that he needs somewhere to test it out. Would I let him test it on my dirt plot. I jumped at the chance, this way I would not have to do it with my tiny, little tiller. Well this past week Mr. Ron made good on his offer and showed up to till. As Leah said later that day "isn't that some butiful dirt Momma?" Lovin' it. Thank You RON!
Now Momma is itchin' to get the seeds in the ground, plants in the dirt, and trellis up for the peas and beans. I have to keep telling myself that it is not quite time. Wait just a bit and you will have more success. Oh it is so hard to wait.

The Season is Ending

Well my gardening is almost done for the year. Sunflowers are down, most corn is down, squashes are done producing and the beans have wilted. However, I still have five tomatoe plants producing although I have not picked off of them for at least two weeks. At this time, I am planning for next year. How to improve the soil, improve production, and how to divide the beds. Had some troubles this year with accessing the produce when it was ready as Momma got too excited when planting and doubted things would get as big as they did. Also realized that although some things are fun to plant we do not necessarily enjoy the product they produce. Plus none of the cucumbers came up this year and momma needs some next year. With the fence redone I am thinking that I will have to make the garden a bit more asthetically pleasing next year as more people will be seeing it. Plus I am wondering how the shorter fence will affect the hot box set up that seems to have been present in the garden this year.

I have dried some seeds from various plants this summer in the hopes of using them next year and not having to buy seeds. Plus they are from items we loved so I know we will use the produce once it has grown. So far I have three types of bean seeds, delicata squash seeds, pumpkin seeds, nastursium seeds and a few crookneck squash seeds. Although after this years over production of crookneck I am not sure I want any next year. Also for next year I have the whole new bed in the back that did not get planted this year, 15 X 9 more garden. Yeeee Haaww.

Lessons learned:

I prefer bush varieties of squash but pole varieties of beans.

Plant the lettuce near the walkway so you do not have to tramp out into the garden every night for the dinner salad.

Do not plant sweet corn next to Indian popcorn. The bees do not know the difference and when they cross pollinate the sweet corn turns starchy and occasionally hard kerneled (it was nasty).

Potatoes will grow up to 3 feet tall so do not plant short plants on top of them or the short plant will waste away.

I can grow brocolli and it is delicious.

I prefer row planting to companion or square foot planting.

My garden can grow huge tomato plants so give them ample room otherwise harvesting can be difficult.

Make sure the kids get to help and have their own garden to grow. Leah loved watching her sunflowers this year.

Still need to figure out how to grow garlic and onions.
Well you will need to stay posted for next years garden. Plans are grander and larger than this year with hopes that we may go a few months without buying any veggies from a store. Plus there are hope for a greenhouse or learning how to make short row covers to extend the growing season. So long produce/garden. See you next spring, or maybe late winter.

Pumpkin Patch 2009

We made it to the pumpkin patch/farm for fun again this year. The actual picking of the pumpkins was not all that necessary given that we have three rather large ones that we grew back at home. However, the experience of the farm and picking is a must so we grabbed a few more, plus, this is Paige's favorite event of the year.

Since we went on a weekday the hayride was not running so we hiked out to the closest patch (the gourds). Eden walked the entire way to the patch (yee haw). Leah loved running through the pumpkins and only got tripped by a few vines. Paige, of course, was in heaven and wanted to pick all the pumpkins and was a bit upset by only getting one.

We visited Matilda the pig. It appeared to Momma that Matilda was hungary as she was pushing at the fence and grunting a lot. It scared Leah and excited Eden. Eden walked all the way from the patch back to the barns to visit with the pig and chickens.

Photo op at the patch. Check out Eden's face in most of these, it appears we have a real ham on our hands. I love the way Leah looks at Paige adoringly in the picture of the three of them on the hayride.

Paige holding her pumpkin on the stationary hayride and signing pumpkin for the camera. And Momma loves making funny faces for the camera.

Sunflower Seeds Anyone

Here is a picture of one of the sunflower heads that I harvested. I have just over one dozen of them. Notice the regular size marker in the picture for perspective. They are massive.

More garden news: The harvest is pretty much done. Today I picked the two watermelons and found out that they have white flesh not red. Interesting. The tomatoes and a few beans are all I have left. I have torn up everything else and am letting it compost in place to create great dirt for next year. Many lessons were learned this year, the main one being that plants will get as big as the seed packet states. Make sure tomatoes are farther apart than necessary because they grow huge. Plant lettuce as a border along a path, that way you do not have to stoop through the garden to get to it (since you are out picking it almost daily). Have defined paths and do not plant up next to them or the plants grown them over. Companion planting works but be sure to give things the space they need.

Backyard Bliss

We spent some lovely time in the backyard this morning playing to our hearts content. Leah did tons of gardening for Momma, Eden played on the jungle gym and in the car, and Momma worked on training Berry Jane. Leah also did some jungle gym play and of course Momma joined them. It is great fun to climb all over plastic with your children.

Dealing with the harvest.

Not all of the below pictured are from my garden but I still have to deal with it all. The round zuchinnis are from a friend, the regular zuchinni, yellow squash, crooknecks and tomatoes are from my garden and the pears and cucumbers are from Sauvie Island. I also have another 30 lbs of tomatoes that a friend gave me that are not pictured and our garden produces more stuff daily.
These all got slices, blanched, and then frozen for use as pizza toppings and the like through the year.The round zuchinni on the left resulted in over 20 cups of shredded zuchinni to be made into zuchinni bread. Five loaves are already in the freezer. Blanched, peeled, and frozen. To be thawed in a few weeks when I have more time to make them into tomato sauce, paste, and spaghetti sauce. Half of these are now canned, 4 quarts and 2 pints. The rest should get done within the next 24 hours. What it all looks like stack up on my counter. Almost overwhelming.

The Potatoes are Ready

I went out tonight to dig up a few to see if they were ready and yes they are. It was so exciting that I dug up almost one whole row ( I have 7 others to do). I do not think I dug deep enough to get them all up but here are some pictures of my first potatoes (ever).
And here is Leah all cute in front of her bunch of sunflowers. They really are spectacular and she points out "her" sunflowers each time we drive up. Way to go Sweetie!!

Reaping the Benefits

We are now really reaping the benefits of our garden. Last night we had homemade pizza topped with homegrown green zuchinni, yellow zuchinni, brocolli, tomatoes and basil (in the sauce). The crust was homemade but did not contain homegrown ingredients. It was delicious.