Your children are more than welcome. Mine are sure to be all around. In fact, my friend, Gabrielle, snapped this shot of us with my camera when we took a walk together last week.
Here's my little garden tucked in the corner of our backyard...
I didn't realize how much I would enjoy keeping up with it and watching things grow. We've had lots of rain this week and everything has doubled in size. I sneak out to weed it and work it up with my little hand rake once or twice a week. It only takes me about 20 minutes and it's such a relaxing task. Usually I have a chatterbox or two alongside me to add to the fun. This is just my salad garden. The bigger one across the street has beans, peas, corn, melons, pumpkins, onions, and much more (and isn't nearly as well-kept as this one).
We have this incredibly tenacious weed that grows along the back line of our yard. It has a network of branches that run under the ground and sprout new plants at a rapid rate. I have to really fight to keep them from reclaiming my garden ground. As you can see, they have grown right up to the edge and constantly threaten to make their way inside - or up and over. Do you have any idea what they are? They sprout with red leaves, then turn green with thick, bamboo like stems and later on, their tops flower with bunches of tiny white flowers. The kids play in and around them all the time and are never bothered by them. I wish I knew their name.
Anyway, here are my radishes and beets...
We've eaten a few radishes. They're better than the ones I buy in the store. Probably because they are as fresh as they get.
The radish leaves are full of little holes and covered with snails. Are the snails eating them or are the snails eating the bugs that are eating them? What do you think?
There is leaf lettuce on the right and I recently planted two more varieties (one is Romaine) so they will be ready to harvest at different times. We had our first salad from the garden the other night. I'm thinking that I'll be adding leaf lettuce to my
breakfast shake in place of baby spinach for awhile. Do you know the best way to keep it fresh once it's picked?
Next are my carrots and then chives. For some reason, my green onions didn't come up well (so I planted the new lettuce over top of them), but the chives are flourishing. The kids are NOT allowed to eat my chives; I can't stand to be in the same room with them when they do. They all love them, but there's no way they can sneak some without their breath giving them away. I remember my mom used to chop her chives into little pieces and freeze them for cooking with later on.
Then are my parsley and dill plants. The dill is doing fantastic, already flowering at the top. What can I use fresh dill for other than making pickles? And what's the best way to dry it?
Here are my tomatoes, three cherry tomato and three beefsteak, and then three green pepper plants across the front...
I heeded Julie and Tracy's warning and planted my mint outside the boundaries of the garden along with about a dozen sunflowers, but I forgot to tell the kids, so they trampled most of them while playing in the weeds. I still have two sunflowers that look like they're going to make it, and after I realized that I forgot cucumbers, I added two plants there on the end also. They're coming slow, but they look healthy.
Shall we go into the house? Here by the steps are our chickens. We lost three to what we assume was a raccoon, since we saw one by the garden one morning. Now we have just the Golden Comets (not nearly as pretty as our Rhode Island Reds were), but these three are growing nicely. I'm getting anxious for fresh eggs...
Come on in a minute. We moved the kittens into a box in the living room so that we could all enjoy them. They are on the floor between two chairs and those chairs seem to be occupied continually. They are so cute to watch and are just becoming more fun each day. Two boys and four girls - take your pick! I'll be advertising soon!
How could you resist that little face?
And look at my refrigerator. There is so much going on in the next month that I had to pull out a new calendar page and write it all down in one place. Four birthdays, my parent's anniversary, our 4th of July family picnic, Joy's bridal shower that I am throwing, three dresses to sew and others to get ready, Kimmy's surgery to have her eartube removed, berries to pick and freeze, a couple of doctor appointments, and then the wedding on the first of next month. Big breath... I did finish all of our school reports for last school year and faxed them in today. That's a huge relief.
Meanwhile Chris is busy with his own project out in the garage...
And some of you mentioned that you had never seen a mulberry. This is what they look like when they are truly ripe...
Although I personally prefer them with a touch of red tartness rather than all black.
I haven't tried to bake with them, although I should. Tracy, what did you end up making with yours and how did you like it?
My bigger kids came home from teen camp with a stomach bug that had swept through almost all of the campers and counselors (Can you imagine? How awful...), and they forgot to leave it behind, so now my other kids are taking turns. Sometimes it's good to be reminded of your real priorities when life seems so very full of everything else...
So, what's going on around your house this month? Are you as busy as I am? Last week was actually nice with the bigger kids gone (although I really, really missed them). The little ones pitched in to fill the void and I was able to relax and just enjoy dallying in dailiness. I read that term somewhere lately and fell in love with it. I'm hoping to do more dallying in the month of August after the busyness is over. Maybe I'll even do a "Week in the Life" project like
Sandra has going on right now. I'm so tempted, but I know better and having my camera gone for the week makes it a definite "no" anyway. (Although I did borrow Chris' camera again today for my garden shots - just for you, Julie!)
Thanks for keeping me company!
Have a wonderful day!
Love,
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