My little Garden Girl!

Keira is finally getting to enjoy some of the fruits of our labor! She's such a great little helper... and she sings while we work! What more could a mom ask for!

Our little strawberry plant is growing bigger and bigger... and Keira now gets to eat about 1 - 2 berries a week. It't not much... but she LOVES IT!

Garden Update

After spending the better part of the day pulling weeds I thought it was time to take some pictures of garden. I'm so excited with how much everything is growing.

We finally have little corn sprouts!

Keira's very excited to point out

the little strawberries

that are starting to grow on her plant!

I discovered that I'm off season with our broccoli, but they are still growing!

Look at all those beautiful carrots! I can't wait to sample them!

When I started the garden, I thought it would be a fun little experiment and something that Keira would enjoy. I thought that it would be good for her to learn where real food comes from! Little did I know how much I would enjoy everything about it! Everything... the getting dirty, the weeding, the anxiously awaiting sprouts to make their appearances, the smiles and pride on Keira's face when she shows off our garden! It's been such a great experiment for me!

Garden Update

I started out today thinking that I would spend about 20 - 30 minutes pulling some weeds in the garden area and cleaning off the patio in the backyard. WRONG! I ended up spending the entire afternoon/evening working on the yard again. I'm really enjoying it! I love seeing my little sprouts growing!

Today, Jason and I had a very productive day!!! Here's what we accomplished:

We thinned out all the dead branches from the "Mushroom" tree.

Moved the monster rocks to the other side of the yard, by the pool.

Cleaned up all the old fall leaves.

Cleaned up the patio furniture.

Moved the furniture to a new location in the yard.

Jason cleaned out the shed and worked on the pool sweep.

Then.... here's how I finished up the afternoon:

Pulled weeds in the garden

Planted some corn, red onions, white onions, watermelon, cantaloupe, pumpkin and sage.

Made a trip to Home Depot to pick up new sprinkler head.

Made out labels for the 23 different vegetables/fruits/herbs I now have planted.

Started some seeds growing in the kitchen to fill in the areas of the garden where some of my seeds didn't sprout.

A little over a month ago, I thought I'd have a nice and small little garden... and it'd be a fun little hobby to do with Keira. Now, I'm finding that I'm really enjoying the project... and find it pretty relaxing/fulfilling/fun/addicting!

Now, here it is.... closing in on bedtime and I need to take a shower before climbing into bed. I've realized that I forgot to eat dinner. The house is so peaceful and quiet.... Jason's playing hockey and Keira and Bailey are fast asleep! I should get in the shower and go to sleep.... but I'm loving the silence so much, I don't want to move!

OK, scratch that.... Jason just got home from hockey, Bailey is awake... and the TV is going on. It's no longer quiet in here.... guess I'll go take a shower!

Spring at last..... Spring at last!

Oh I forgot how much I love spring! I love walking out into my yard every morning and seeing the new growth on the trees, the flowers blooming.... and the sprouts getting bigger and bigger every day!

This weekend, Keira and I decided to take advantage of the warm weather and we pulled out the bike trailer and my bike and took a ride to Grandma Dub's house. It was a short but sweet little ride; just enough to make me realize I need to be riding my bike more. We ended up spending the day getting ready for Andrea's surprise party... which despite a few hurdles (Andrea not wanting to stop studying to leave the house) the party went off without a hitch!

Today, Jason dropped Keira and I off at Grandma Dub's house after a quick trip to Home Depot. We hung out a little bit to say our "see you laters" to Chandra and grabbed my bike and Keira and I rode home. We spend the next few hours working in the yard some more. Today, I laid out the drip line and planted a few more things.

I've been nervous about the bell peppers not sprouting yet, since I have now seen sprouts from a few of the other seeds that we've put in. Keira and I went to the nursery to check out some of the herbs. They had some beautiful red and green bell pepper plants... so I picked up 2 green and 1 red. We also picked up a jalapeño, basil, oregano, and celery.

The Jalapeño

The Celery

The Bell Peppers

The Tomato, Oregano, Basil and Sugar Snap Peas

The Strawberries and Cherry Tomatoes

I realized after spending a few hours doing yard work and going for a couple short rides this weekend how much my body needs by way of getting activity in. I've been really bad for the last few months about getting to the gym. I hope to take advantage of the nice weather and be sure to at least get in some walks this week during my lunch break.

Garden Update

We had our first sprouts show up! We have Broccoli sprouts! YEAH!!!

I knew when I woke up this morning that today was going to be a busy day.... but I got a lot more than I bargained for!

After a short trip to the hardware store, to pick up some tomato cages and some new gardening gloves, Keira and I got started on finishing up our garden. After a short while, I realized that the vine we had growing along side of our yard down the entire fence needed to come out. It grows some "Audrey II" looking pods which open up and drop very fine white fur into our pool, which is clogging the pool sweep. We called Jason in for his support and set him right to work tearing out "Audrey II!" Little did we know this would open another can of worms!

After taking out the Audrey, there was a ton of clean up and anther plant that needed to be relocated. I transplanted one of our 6 year old plants to another side of our yard near the pool filter. (The thinking behind this was 2 fold..... 1: I love the plant and didn't want to just tear it out and throw it away. and 2: We thought that with it next to the pool filter it would help absorb some of the noise when the filter is running.)

Once we got all the plants moved and removed filled 2 yard waste containers and made huge piles in front of our house, it was time to clean up and get the rest of the seeds planted! Here's what we planted today:

Cherry Tomatoes, Standard Tomatoes, Sugar snap peas, Strawberries, Carrots, Green Onions and Spinach. This is in addition to the Broccoli and the Bell Peppers that we've already planted.

A little green...

Lately I've been inspired by several women in my life to makes some changes in how I live. One of the changes I'd like to make is to live a little greener.

This week, inspired by Lindsay, Mom, and Nikki, Keira and I started planting a garden. We don't have a lot of space in our backyard for a huge garden, but we’ll manage. So far, we’ve planted Bell Peppers and Broccoli. I still have a little more work to do to get the rest of the planting area ready. Once we move a couple plants and do a little more weeding… we’ll plant some Cherry Tomatoes, Green Onions, Spinach and eventually some Melons. I am excited to show Keira where real food comes from; not just from the grocery store.

I've also recently started kitchen composting. Right now, it's tough to get Jason to support the garden composting, but I'm hoping to prove that it's not something that will take a lot of effort from either of us and that it'll be great for our yard. Now I just need to find a small composting bin for our backyard that is not too expensive. I think I might be going with the one offered through our county composting program. Hopefully before long we'll start seeing some "black gold."