Our First Onion

This was the first time we tried Spring Onions (Walla Wallas). Last year we tried the overwinter variety and BOMBED big time. Since we missed our window to plant last fall (big belly in the way) I decided to try the spring variety. SUCCESS!!

~Say What?!?~070511

A fun look at life from a different perspective.
One of the aspects of gardening that I truly appreciate is finding the patterns that occur in nature. Patterns are comforting and predictable; however, sometimes life is not quite what we had expected, but there is beauty to explore there as well.


Tendrils. Tendrils everywhere. Grasping to continue growing. If they don't find something to intertwine within their curls, they end up in a ball mess with no growth. Grasp and reach out to grow today.

Deer, Sprinklers and Sounds

Ok, so I sent my kid barking after deer. Whatever.

I am beginning to feel a wee bit neurotic about protecting my garden. Is this normal?

Time spent relocating motion detector sprinkler this afternoon, 10 minutes. Really?!? Really. I had to get it just right. Protect the beds and the strawberries. Protect the pumpkins and watermelons. I won't even mention how many times I got tagged in the face by the #%?! thing. Yes, I had turned it off, thank you. But then I kept forgetting, again and again. I hope my neighbor saw some of the display and was entertained. I was just getting pissy.

Now I am sitting in my favorite chair, watching "Master Chef" and listening. The sprinkler has gone off a couple of times. Pressing my face against the window to the dark outdoors doesn't provide me with much of a view. Maybe if I press it a l i t t l e bit harder, it will make a difference. No. I can't see squat. Fingers crossed. Cursing under my breath (everyone is asleep). Ugh.

What extent would you go to to protect your harvest?

Please share.

~Say What?!?~ peas

This is entry #1 for the Gardening Hall of Shame. Note: Remove bird netting before the peas go wild otherwise you will end up with:

Ok, snicker away at my expense. Every year has to have it's failures so we can LEARN, right? We have learned from our mistakes, fixed the problem, updated our gardening journal and now, publicly humiliated ourselves. Now that we have that out of our systems, CHECK THIS OUT!

Peas! Can you believe it? All of the drama and now we have sweet peas. If I see a certain Towhee, I might even offer him one as a peace offering.


We are up to our elbows in spinach, lettuce, peas and strawberries right now and we should have some zucchini by the end of the week. I had to prep my better half about the beginning of zucchini season at dinner tonight. His response was very neutral.


If you are a neighbor and you are reading this, come grab a head of heirloom salad greens or some spinach! (Keep your fingers off the strawberries. A certain 4 year old doesn't believe in sharing these.)

All photos are taken by Val Curtis and can be used with permission only.

Need / Want / Like / Love 062311

I was searching through those items you just HAVE to have and I ran across this at Gardener's Supply Company.

Orchard Rack

It is a perfect little produce rack (orchard rack). I can just envision our summer and fall bounty of potatoes, onions and garlic resting here and looking beautiful to boot. They have a much larger version, but I would need to add a room on the house if I went any larger. So there it is.

What items do you dream of having for your garden?

Keep Your Eyes Open

Gardening and I are relatively new friends. I would consider us to be in the courting phase. We both surprise each other with new revelations upon each encounter. We are learning about ourselves through our interactions. And there are those frequent "Say what?!?" moments when you have to call your best girlfriends to see if the latest manifestation is "normal" or if you should run for the hills.

Every Tuesday, I will be sharing my "Say What?!?" moment of the week with you in hopes of finding some answers.

See you tomorrow!

A time for Purpose. A time for Fancy.

My children remind me that there are times to be purposeful (parading the crew out the door to pick up the one forgotten item at the store) and times to be fanciful (looking under forest debris for signs of fairies). Just when I am immersed in the throws of purpose, I will be reminded of the importance of fancy.


This week we experienced our first real summeresque day after a long winter of cold, wet days spent indoors taking care of our newest addition. My calendar was chock full of events and tasks to complete, but I opted to ignore the list for a couple of sun-drenched hours at our local beach with a friend and her son. Somehow this "spontaneity" turned me into a taskmaster yet again. Gather blankets, umbrellas, sunscreen, snacks and oh, yes, the kids, before completing our shopping at the Farmer's Market so we can THEN enjoy the sun. During my preparation / frenzy, my son kept asking me to come see his new trail (we often create new paths for adventures around our house) and I kept nodding and smiling and saying, "Ok Buddy, just let Mommy get the van packed so we can go have some fun." "But Mommy." "I know. Go pack yourself into the van Buggy."


Scurry scurry. Rush rush. Ugh. Where are his sand toys? So, I ran into the garden to grab his gardening tool bag when I stopped dead in my tracks. There before me ran a beautiful path of purple to the garden. Cole's trail. Dozens of zinnias and lavender buds were placed carefully to create a gentle carpet of purple (our favorite garden color) to the raised beds. I had to sit down and catch my breath and then I ran inside to grab my camera. After brushing away a few tears, I approached my little man and told him I found his trail and that it was beautiful and special and incredibly thoughtful. "I made it all purple for you." Yes, he made it all purple...for me.

As you catch yourself hurrying with purpose this week, do not forget to look for/appreciate/acknowledge the fanciful trails made, with love, for you.

Training

These are times of training and learning new skills. While my 2 year old is whining, laughing, crying and celebrating his way through potty training, I am doing the same with designing our garden for next year.

First came the onslaught of seed catalogs. This led me to my computer to see if they "qualified" under my "rules". Most do not, because they are owned by Monsanto. After I whittled the piled down to my two favorites, Seed Savers Exchange and Fedco, I created my dream garden.

Eight varieties of tomatoes for canning, making sauce and eating fresh, five varieties of lettuce, 4 varieties of beans, two varieties of peas, ground cherries, butternut squash, pumpkins, zucchini, yellow squash, broccoli, chard, four varieties of peppers, three types of basil, oregano, chives, and a plethora of flowers. Do you see a problem here? I do. I have 5, count them 1..2..3..4..5 raised beds. 1 large and 4 small. Hmmm. When a seed packet shows it is capable of planting 6 hills of squash, well that is what the seed deserves.

My first step is to convince my husband that we need to expand our garden. I mean REALLY expand the garden. He looks away. Cue the whining. "We reeeeeeeeeally need to do this. Pleeeeeeeeeeeeease."

Cue the laughter. These are not the sounds of my giggles, rather, my husband's. "You want to do what?" "How much do you think that will cost?"

Cue the tears. These ARE mine. "You don't understand, I am trying to make good food for OUR family!" Please note, these have NO effect on the previously mentioned laughter.

The only way to deal is to head over to your girlfriend's house with your precious seed catalogs and a bottle of wine. Cue the celebration. Perhaps they will bring me to a happy, sedated sort of garden reality.

So we are all being trained. 2 year olds are learning to "use the potty".   37 year olds are learning to build something dreamy and wonderful within their means. For both of us, we have to find the answers from within. As Galileo said, "You cannot teach a man anything. You can only help him discover it within himself".  Personally, I think you can always figure it out over a bottle of wine with the girls.