Summer Harvest

My parents live on four acres of land and have a beautiful garden. We went to eat dinner with them last night and the meal was almost entirely home grown. I'm so proud of what they've done in their spare time! The images below hardly do justice to reality since they were taken with my cell phone. You'll have to forgive the quality a little.



I keep trying to get my mom to start a gardening blog because I think she has a lot of talent and knowledge she could pass on to the likes of me. No such luck so far though! Anyway...our dinner was fabulous, the best I've had in a long time! The food tasted so much fresher--even the potatoes we dug up tasted better than store bought ones. I can't exactly put my finger on what the difference is, they just taste better.



The peppers were by far the most abundant plants, at least as of right now. They were gorgeous, much prettier than the ones in our local Kroger's, and this is without any pesticides! Did I mention I'm really proud of what my parents have done?





My mom took all the veggies and chopped them up into a lovely summer medly. She added a little bit of fresh dill and some Mrs. Dash seasoning and the result was a delicious veggie stir fry. YUM!

Garden Growth Spurt

We've had lots of strong thunder storms here over the past several weeks and the garden is just bursting to life! I finally had some time to get myself outside to shoot a few pictures today. I can't seem to get that one perfect shot of the whole garden because the angles are always a little odd, but hopefully the individual shots will give at least an idea. The weeds are currently winning the war I've waged upon them. This time of year it's almost impossible to keep up with them, especially because I'm really trying to avoid chemical warfare.

A Few Words About Weeds

Today I've been feeling sort of...I don't know...blah all day. Finally, at about 7:00 tonight, I got sick enough of my own attitude to go out and do some gardening. Normally weeds are thought of as a bad thing for gardeners. Well...they ARE annoying, but man you can really take out some major frustration on the little buggers too! Seriously, next time you're grumpy, sad, irritated--any negative emotion, go pull some weeds! If you don't have a garden of your own, find a gardener and ask them if they have some weeds you can pull. There's nothing quite like this as an anecdote to irritation! I also did some serious pruning of our dogwood bush. I may have gone too far this time. Gardening is a lot like what I imagine raising children will be like. You really don't know what you're doing so you read a few books, make some educated guesses, try a few things, talk to other gardeners, then you hope/pray you don't screw things up too much in the end! The bush actually looks pretty, it's just MUCH smaller than it was. I think it will grow back but there's always that nervous feeling that it won't this time. Only time will tell.

In other news, I went on a shopping spree at Salvation Army this afternoon. I expect to start subbing next week, which means I need a few decent outfits. Since I'm subbing primarily because we need the money, thrifty shopping was my solution. I did pretty good. I spent $52 and I got three pairs of pants; two tops; a pair of shoes; a sheet set for the twin bed in our guest room; two sets of drinking glasses, 8 large and 6 small for a total of 14 glasses; a heated massage pad for the seat in my car; one outfit for my niece; an old fashioned rocking horse, also for my niece, with the dual purpose of a prop for the studio when I do portraits. Not too shabby if I do say so myself! Me being in school for the past several years has meant that we're generally low on money. This has taught me one thing though, and that is how to be thrifty! My good deals, at least, made me happy today.

I'm done for now.

Spring Planting

I've spent the better part of the past several days getting all my spring planting done. There's a new grass garden behind our garage now and I planted three new Foxglove plants, three new Blanket Flower plants, and three more of a variety whose name is presently escaping me. They should go a long way towards rounding out the front garden. Thanks again to my parents for all the help! I also got all my annual hanging/porch baskets done. I planted five flats of annuals this year, plus a few other miscellaneous plants so this was a big job. I'm sporting one huge bruise on my leg and another on my head! The first is from walking into the corner of my dad's truck (ouch!) and the latter is from my run-in with a new metal plant stand I bought yesterday. The thing is long and awkward, not to mention heavy, so I had trouble situating it in the cart, along with two kids and a load of groceries. I thought all was well but I leaned over the cart to pick something up off the floor and SMACK, it came crashing down onto the side of my head. It hurt real bad and now I've got a huge knot on my head. :( I'm just thankful it didn't hit either of the girls or any other Meijer guests. It's been raining steadily all day and now the plant stand in question has actually managed to bend itself in half. I guess the hanging baskets are too heavy with all the water they're holding today. That or maybe it's just a piece of junk and I should take it back...the thing's been nothing bu trouble since I put it in my cart! Oh well...plant stand aside, I think all my baskets and new garden additions look nice...once they fill out some and are more worthy I'll post some pictures.

For now I'm off to make some white bean chicken chili to try and embrace this dreary day!