Spring Cleaning

We have been busy around here... spring cleaning and preparing for the warmer months ahead.

My Family gave me a lovely Mother's Day gift...

We even did a bit of yard renovation!

We have added a couple of trees to the garden and added rock around the raised beds.



The Kitchen garden is planted!

Thus far we have planted:

Corn
Potatoes
Beans
Peppers
Carrots
Arugula
Lettuce
Spinach
Garlic
Shallots
Onion
Tomatoes
Cucumbers
Zucchini
Yellow Squash
Swiss Chard
Strawberries
Thyme
Oregano
Basil
Rosemary
Chives

Seat-work is winding slowly to a close as we fill our days with more hands-on pursuits and lots of reading and imaginative play...


I simply love this time of year.

Taking A Rest

It's time to put the garden to rest for a while. Every living thing, in it's time and way, must rest and rejuvenate in order to produce good fruit.

Tonight the air will dip into the 20's and I am afraid what is left out there tonight will be dead in the morning. So, I went out and harvested what I could and bid my farewell... until next Spring!


Some lessons learned:

* I realized that six tomato plants are a bit much for one family...

(I fed the neighbors; canned sauce; froze a ton of them and still have more!)

* Next year I will be extra careful...
not to plant "wild" sunflower seeds in my boxes again.

(I did not intend to... perhaps the birds helped me out a bit)

* I must definitely start earlier with my greens in the Spring...
we loved them so...

* I will make room for strawberries...

* ...and maybe some bush beans...

* One, and only one, Zucchini plant is all anybody really needs!

This growing season has been a time of hard work and lots of enjoyment of the fruits of our labor! There is nothing more satisfying than feeding my family with the fresh home grown produce from our own little garden... I am thankful I had the opportunity to plant some seeds and watch them grow...

Mid Summer Garden Update

The past couple of weeks have become quite warm around here... above average temperatures into the 100's. My lettuce is bolting, by potato's greens just wilted away... My tomatoes became out of control... my cucumbers and zucchini are producing enough to enjoy every other day or so... my herbs are flowering and some are dying out because of the heat... the peppers are starting to produce as well!

Our Little Garden is full of life!

This is not up to my neatness standards :)
I am at a loss how to keep tomatoes in their place!

To my joy, the summer flowers are starting to bloom...

My First Sunflower!

I spent the morning digging up my potatoes... I found many more than were planted :)

It is official now... we are Idaho Potato Farmers...

Good Fences Make Good Neighbors

We are putting up a fence this week.

Between our neighbor and ourselves.

It is a good thing, yet, there is something in me that doesn't "love a wall"...

I love the open space that is not obstructed by trampolines or plastic monstrosities... nor overgrown weeds and piles of junk...nor of loud and crude noises and unsightly behavior...

I truly pine for the open quiet space of fresh mowed and perfectly green lawn... or that of a natural woodland or open pasture.

The sub-burbs seem to require a wall to keep the good in and the bad out... a buffer is necessary ... and so, the wall goes up between our two houses...

As the saying goes "Good fences make good neighbors".

Something there is that doesn't love a wall,

That sends the frozen-ground-swell under it,
And spills the upper boulders in the sun,

And makes gaps even two can pass abreast.

The work of hunters is another thing:
I have come after them and made repair
Where they have left not one stone on a stone,
But they would have the rabbit out of hiding,
To please the yelping dogs. The gaps I mean,
No one has seen them made or heard them made,
But at spring mending-time we find them there.

I let my neighbor know beyond the hill;
And on a day we meet to walk the line
And set the wall between us once again.
We keep the wall between us as we go.

To each the boulders that have fallen to each.
And some are loaves and some so nearly balls
We have to use a spell to make them balance:
'Stay where you are until our backs are turned!'
We wear our fingers rough with handling them.

Oh, just another kind of out-door game,
One on a side. It comes to little more:
There where it is we do not need the wall:
He is all pine and I am apple orchard.
My apple trees will never get across
And eat the cones under his pines, I tell him.

He only says, 'Good fences make good neighbors'.
Spring is the mischief in me, and I wonder
If I could put a notion in his head:
'Why do they make good neighbors?
Isn't it
Where there are cows?
But here there are no cows.
Before I built a wall I'd ask to know
What I was walling in or walling out,
And to whom I was like to give offense.
Something there is that doesn't love a wall,
That wants it down.

I could say 'Elves' to him,
But it's not elves exactly, and I'd rather
He said it for himself.

I see him there
Bringing a stone grasped firmly by the top
In each hand, like an old-stone savage armed.
He moves in darkness as it seems to me~
Not of woods only and the shade of trees.
He will not go behind his father's saying,
And he likes having thought of it so well

He says again, "Good fences make good neighbors."

The Mending Wall
Robert Frost

I pray that God grant me an attitude of grace and openness toward my neighbor...so as not to build a wall in my heart between us as well.

You say Potato I Say Potato

We are simply amazed at these Kronz spuds
growing in our garden...

They are simply breathtaking.

In just one week they have grown a foot or more!

Sarah has the measuring tape out today...
It looks like they are almost at three feet and
it's only the middle of June.

Busy Planting!

This weekend we enjoyed lovely weather and have been able to accomplish a lot!

Our community pool just opened and the children have enjoyed a few days of swimming... we have been busy planting flowers, mowing the lawn and fixing things... It is the same every Spring as we prepare our home and our hearts for the days of summer...

The new garden is starting to show signs of life!

We are now enjoying fresh salad every night! My greens are growing like mad!! My favorite thus far is our Spinach Salad with mustard vinaigrette... YUM!

What a great husband to do all this for little o'l me :)
I am truly thankful for the time he spent building my boxes
and hauling yards and yards of dirt.

Thus far, we have various kinds of leaf lettuce and herbs for salads (Mesclun, Arugula, Red Leaf and Spinach). We also have Tomatoes (Early Girl, Brandywine and Old Time Tasty and Sweet Grape)... Onions, Chives, Basil, Rosemary, Thyme, Dill, Oregano, Cilantro, Cucumbers (Burpless and Armenian), Peppers (Sweet Red Bell, Sweet Banana, and Hungarian Yellow Wax)... even the Potatoes are pushing up their leaves from deep underground (they have grown two feet in a week!)

The change from the long winter months of dry and cold to vibrant green and warm is just one of my favorite times of year. New life is springing up all around... It is also a time to finish up and put away projects from the winter months and get outdoors and work in the garden and play!

I truly enjoy the evenings we spend sitting out on our back porch as a family talking and laughing or sharing a meal... these are times to savor as they will all too quickly pass... just as the changing of the seasons... Savor I will!

The Seed Is Sown in Good Soil

Signs of Spring are finally here... The Bees are Busy!

Yesterday we planted our first seeds to begin our kitchen garden.

My sweet girlfriend even participated in our first planting...she brought me potato seeds! Of course, Idaho is famous for potatoes and I would be remiss if I did not provide a space for them in our garden...

My children eagerly gathered around our pristine new boxes of deep rich soil and we discussed the art and science of gardening... Homeschooling at it's best!


My son eagerly obeyed my instructions and planted the individual seeds in the holes I provided for him and gently covered them up. He is very excited as to what will happen! " When will they grow?" As we thoroughly watered our meager little seeds, my son fully expected IMMEDIATE results! I explained that this would take several weeks... of waiting patiently for the fruit of our labor...

My Daughter and I were talking about why we plant seeds in deep fertile soil rather than shallow hard soil. She explained to me that she had already studied this topic... I asked here where she had read about it... I fully expected to hear her tell me... in her science book... No, she told me it was in her Bible! The Parable of the Sower, found in Mathew 13:1-23.

A farmer went out to sow his seed.
As he was scattering the seed,
some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up.
Some fell on rocky places where it did not have much soil.
It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow.
But when the sun came up,
the plants were scorched,
and they withered because they had no root.
Others seed fell among thorns,
which grew up and choked the plants.
Still other seed fell on good soil,
where it produced a crop- a hundred,
sixty or thirty times what was sown...

...Listen to what the parable of the sower means:
When anyone hears the message about the kingdom
and does not understand it,
the evil one comes and snatches away
what was sown in his heart.
This is the seed sown along the path.
The one who received the seed that fell on rocky places
is the man who hears the word and at once receives it with joy.
But since he has no root he lasts only a short time.
When trouble or persecution comes because of the word,
he quickly falls away.
The one who received the seed that fell among the thorns
is the man who hears the word ,
but the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth
choke it making it unfruitful.
But, the one who received the seed that fell on good soil
is the man who hears the word and understands it.
He produces a crop,
yielding a hundred,sixty or thirty times what was sown.

The Holy Bible, NIV

I was truly blessed today by my daughter's understanding of gardening...

A Vegetable Garden! A Work in Progress

Every winter I enjoy looking through Gardening books and magazines in hopes that Spring will come... and I dream... and plan a true vegetable/kitchen garden. I have never actually planted a garden mind you... it has been a fun occupation to dream about it.

I have had much success and pleasure with tending my landscape gardens as well as potted gardens...we have enjoyed lovely flowers, tomatoes and herbs for salads.

Yet, my interest in more has grown, year after year, into a desire for a true working kitchen garden that we can harvest throughout the summer and fall.

Well, it's time to actually do it! My sweet man spent this weekend crafting two 4X8 foot raised beds! They are extra deep so that I can tend to them without hurting my back and they should be easy to maintain.

I will keep you posted of our education in the art of square foot gardening throughout the spring and summer... any suggestions would be welcome and appreciated.