The Garden Report - Week 7

[Note to my future grandma self - there is no week six.]

The word of the week is tomatoes! You have to look carefully, but we're eating a couple small tomatoes every few days.

  

 

Our raspberries are still producing by the bowl-full. Can't believe how great this year's harvest has been.

 

Our peppers are coming in, but I'm a bit concerned that the fruit is coming in too soon for the plant - is this possible? Worried the plant won't be able to hold the weight of this many peppers.

 This purple lovely will hopefully one day be an eggplant.

 And our chamomile is coming in - will we really make tea with it? Really?

We planted beans in our yard in an attempt to grasp the whole "edible landscape" thing and I was worried we would confuse plants with all the weeds we have. Nope. Real food is pretty obvious.

And speaking of weeds (or growing like them actually), look who graduated from 6th grade today. So proud! And he picked that bow tie with toadstools all over it all by himself. I swear. Really. xo

Gypsy treasures

I attended the Gypsy Caravan yesterday for the first time ever. This lovely St. Louis tradition has been raising money for the St. Louis Symphony for 40 years! There were many tents full of treasures - some to dig for, some just sitting right out obvious. There were also lots of tents of crapola - 20 pairs of tube socks for $5 kinds of things...but it was a fun fun day!

I bought this teeny tiny bottle with the word "eternal" on it.

And these great vintage letter cards and tiles. The Turtle Tiles are not as impressive as I thought (they'd be easy to duplicate) but they're authentic and that's fun.

Five enamelware bowls...enamelware, table cloths, old tins and old books - I find you irresistible.

And the most fun find of the day was these watch parts. Nope...I have no idea what I'll do with them, but they were so much fun to find and select. Kyle actually gasped when I showed him - his Hugo Cabret wheels spinning spinning spinning!

Enjoy the week! xo

Vintage book trolling...

 

 

 

Just a quick post with photos of book finds that make me drool. Love old books. And these will be upcycled journals before you know it. David says every year that May is busier than Christmas and with each year, this seems to be more and more true. So that's where I am - hoping to share some creative posts very very soon. xo

The Garden Report - Week 5

 

 

Well, the delight of the week is definitely our raspberries! We had a horrible harvest last Fall. No harvest really and I was so worried about what to do this year - start over? Change location (our yard is great, but not big enough to accommodate a new location)? So I let it be and nature healed the way nature always does. We have such a robust "crop" this year that Kyle said it made him wonder if it was Fall. The plants still look a bit motley but the fruit is plentiful and delish. Hooray!

In death news, our pea pods are dead. Dead. Dead. Dead. I don't know what, if anything, we did wrong. I hope I think to plant some more in the Fall, just to see. I can plant beans in a new location.

I realized that if I want to continue to fantasize about keeping bees and chickens, it was time to "woman-up" and take care of garden business on my own. So I thinned out my apples on my trees - it was really hard to do, and I didn't pick them all. I just can't give up the chance for the kids to see an apple grow from beginning to end and if we move (hope we move), we'll have to start over which means they won't have this chance for at least two more years. We only have one lone peach growing on our peach tree and I didn't pick it. 

I have tomatoes in four parts of my yard this year. If we don't sell our home (please please please let us sell our home), I will know for certain where to plant tomatoes next year, won't I?

Green beans, edamame (new to us as a garden item) and sweet potatoes hopefully all going in by next Tuesday. xo

It only took 17 months

Don't judge me. xo

The Garden Report - Week 4(ish)

Oh my stars, I have so much to learn. We have no fewer than 30 kabillion grapes growing this year around our deck. Definitely our largest harvest ever and we have never netted them to keep them from the birds. I want to try it this year. Have no idea how to do this.

A pleasant surprise after removing tons of catnip (kids thought it would be a good idea after reading some herbology book last year) was that our cilantro returned beautifully! It's a bit leggy though - is there anything I can do to encourage it to reseed?

Planted bok choy and I suspect that I should have harvested it already since it's gone to flower? It doesn't seem big enough yet though. (And isn't it pretty?)

Our snap pea plants are no taller than 10 inches but are full of beans. Did I trellis them badly or are they meant to be this short?

I have never had luck with carrots. I'm sick of reading other people's blogs who ignore their gardens, who have never gardened, and who don't know what to do with their huge amount of carrots. I all but knit sweaters for things in my garden, but not this year, not with my carrots. I just threw a whole pack of seeds in this smaller bed. That black mark is Luna's footprint - if they can survive the dogs and the fact that I'm not thinning them out, we may have carrots for the first time ever. (I'm trying to act like I don't care about them...when I walk by, I only check them out if I'm wearing my sunglasses....)

Here's the most painful thing so far this year. We have fruit on all three of our fruit trees (two apple, one peach) and I know you're supposed to not let the trees go to fruit so that they can put all their energy into becoming healthy trees. I know. I know. I know. I'm going to check that fact just one more time online and then probably have David pick the fruits this weekend (wimper, wimper).

 

 

David built these monster cages to surround our tomatoes and (hopefully) protect the fruit from the squirrels and the dogs. I planted two tomato plants over spring break - hoping for no more frost. We already have tomatoes growing. I'm planting five more plants tomorrow - it's jail time for them too I'm afraid. I really think these monster cages are working.

In pro-active news, after my last garden post, I did google "when to harvest figs" and found this terrific post. Also, bunnies aren't eating my strawberries...my dogs are. Hmmmm.... xo

Little to big (too big)

 

 

If I can find a friend who will help me photoshop out the teacher notes and the creases, I'm hoping to do this with these little drawings of Kyle's. I think they would look perfect in our home!

And then, as we're painting the sides a bright and cheery color, we'll talk a bit about spelling. Or we may not. With Ky as my youngest, my days are numbered as far as having a child wish me "nise" days.  I think I will cling to them as long as I can... xo