Simple Pleasures of Childhood

Right now, my older 3 are outside, digging for potatoes. I mentioned, in passing that it was time for them to be dug up and suddenly I had 3 volunteers! They are all very excited to be in the mud, it rained here for 3 days straight, digging around for the treasures of the potatoes! With each new potato that is discovered, they shout "Potato!" These tasty spuds will be used for the party a week from now when I make Cheesy Smash Potatoes.

I hope that you all can find the simple joys in life this week.

Ooh, What Pretty Flowers!

I KNOW I'm a dork because I always post pics of the flowers that I grow. Jason doesn't understand why I bust my butt to grow them and why I'm so disappointed when they don't grow. I have finally found a way to tell him why. Simply put, he collects coins. I don't know why, I don't understand it, but it's what he likes. It's the same thing with my growing things. That's our compromise.

So now I'm sharing my pretty things with you. We didn't do a veggie garden this year. I'm having a hard time just getting the flowers in. It's hard to dig in the ground and be focused on that while a certain rambunctious 3 year old is ALSO outside. Thankfully Katy Beth is here this weekend so she is earning computer time by minding that 3 year old while I dig and plant. Jason has Tuesday and Wednesday off this week, so I'll be able to get stuff accomplished on those days as well.

These are my first irises. Is that even spelled correctly? What is the plural of iris? Ah, it doesn't matter that much. These are from the bulbs my dad gave me when we moved in 2 years ago. They didn't bloom last year, though they did get leaves. I also have lillies that are getting ready to bloom. I don't remember what KIND of lillies they are however. I suppose I'll figure that out when they show themselves! I like that these irises are yellow and white and not the "usual" purple that a lot of people have. I do believe they are called "Dutch Iris" and why my dad got them for me, us being of strong dutch decent and all of that.

Another note before the flower pics. I dug up my lilacs, roots and all. They weren't sprouting any leaves. However, it DOES look like they were trying to get new root sprouts, so I brought them inside, plunked them in a vase of water. It's been a couple of days and I'm seeing root sprouts on at least one of them! I may have viable lilacs next spring! WhooHoo!

Prayers and blessings everyone. I hope your days are filled with lots of beautiful things as well.

Something Bright and Cheery

Because I've been slacking as of late on the blogging, so sorry, but life happens, ya know, I'm going to post some pics of something bright and cheery and leave you on that note. I cut these from the plants in my front flower beds. Yes, they are STILL blooming, 2 days shy of October. I think they are lovely. This is also the first time this season that I thought to cut flowers and make a bouquet out of them. I've always just left them out front. Yes, it's a wine goblet and yes, it has holly painted on it. It was the right size, so I used it.

Discovering Something New Every Day

This is what I believe is a zucchini plant. Don't mind how I am spelling that by the way, I keep going back and forth as to whether it has 1 C or 2. Anyway, I'm going to bring your attention to the leaf shape on it.


It looks slightly like a spade, yes? Originally I was thinking I had cantelope growing in 2 spots in the garden, based solely on the flowers themselves. Upon closer inspection, I notice, however, that the leaf shape is significantly different.


Do you see the leaves on this one right there, above? Now look at the one directly below. See the difference? The one above is right next to the plant with those pretty yellow star flowers. The one below is on the other side of the carrots. As I was weeding today, I noticed that, while the flowers look the same, the leaves are significantly different.

This one above has leaves like the zucchini/cucumber plant. Still not sure what it is, but I'm told a cucumber has white flowers while a zucchini has yellow. The plant directly below has bright orange flowers, just like the one above, and the leaves are not shaped like a squash
plant.

I did find another tiny couple of plants, over on the other side of the orange flowered squash leaf shaped plant that has leaves shaped like the non-squash shaped orange flowered plant. So I'm wondering, could I be getting watermelon and cantelope and pumpking and zucchini? Jason couldn't figure out how the cantelope was planted in two spots. Well, maybe now we know that it's not cantelope after all. Time will tell. It's amazing what you find when you take the time to rip out all the weeds.

In the next couple of days, I'll post pics of my transplanted broccoli and tomatoes. And I need to train the non-squash orange flowered plant to go out in to the area that isn't around the lettuce so that is not also smothered. Wish me luck. This gardening is a lot of work, but I'm really enjoying it. MF Jenn is bringing over tomatoes at the end of the week. I am going to learn how to make homemade spaghetti sauce and can it. That will certainly save us some money this winter!

The Fruits of My Labors.

It's amazing to me that these gorgeous flowers will turn in to some very tasty and yummy fruit. At least I hope they do. That is the goal after all.

Well, technically, the food garden is Jason's labors, but we are just going to go with it, k? For the past few days I have looked out my window and seen these gorgeous flowers. They are cantelope. And judging by the amount of blooms present, we are going to have a BUTT LOAD of cantelope. Good thing every one likes it!

The thing about the garden is this, I really wanted it. I'm trying to have our family as a whole eat healthier and for us to spend less on groceries. I'm sure that everyone out there can appreciate that.

These are, I believe, green peppers. I didn't have any other kind of pepper seed, so I'm pretty certain that is what they are. We'll see as they grow.

The plan is that we'll keep the seeds from the fruits and veggies we harvest and plant them again next year. We'll clean them, dry them, and store them in clearly labeled paper envelopes. Again, that's the PLAN. I'm also hoping to add more variety to the garden next year. I know a lot of stuff was planted, not all of it came up.

We also have strawberries in their first year, so the fruit from them won't be much at all. Tons of tomato plants that I need to tie up to the fence to keep them from toppling and to spread out a bit. A vine plant that is watermelon or zuchini or possibly pumpkin. It is just beginning to get it's flowers so we'll see how it goes. Tons of carrots. Quite a bit of lettuce, that I'm not sure when I should harvest. And I *think* a broccoli plant or two.

All of this planting and growing is teaching me that it is all trial and error. We buy things that don't grow. So we try again next year. Hopefully we'll get better at identifying the weeds before they get as well grown as they are this year. I still need to thin out and weed 1/2 of the flower bed up front. I recently ripped out all of my herbs and cut my bulbs to the quick.

With the herbs, only the cilantro grew. I bought some potted herbs, ones meant to be planted outdoors. I hope they grow well. And I'm wondering, how do I harvest those? Do I rip up the entire plant, just take the leaves off? What?

I love to see all of this stuff grow and know that I, and Jason, and even the kids to a point, have helped nurture it, to helped it thrive so that it can enrichen our lives.

The kids' current sceince projects are sunflower seeds. They are the small pretty variety, not the ones with the huge heads. They each have 15 seeds, though Jayden only has 14 now, she dropped one on the floor. They'll plant them out front, and watch and chart their growth. Lots of sketches and charts and paragraphs will be written about these flowers. I'm sure there will also be some competition about them. I'm just glad that I'll be able to share what I love, growing these plants, with the kids and have them learn too.

As the next few weeks go by and summer leads to fall, I'll be posting more pics of our fruits of labor. Maybe you can share your tips with me about harvesting and planting for next year.