Second chances, summer seedlings

Last weekend we had a lovely spring rain, followed by the kind of cool, cloudy weather we usually see in February. It made me feel like our spring had been extended -- and I was being given a second chance at planting seedlings!

So I pulled down my basket of seed packets, and the starter kit that had been patiently waiting on top of the fridge. The boys were very excited!

We planted corn, beans, summer and winter squash, melons, herbs, chard, carrots and sunflowers. We still have a lot of prep to do to get the garden ready for them, but in the meantime, they're starting to peek their little heads out of the soil.

We've been having another minimal garden year around here. I planted quite a few perennials in April, but put off starting my veggies. I did finally get a few tomato and pepper plants in the ground, but that was it.

Last year I limited our summer planting because we were leaving for a month-long road trip at the peak of the season. This year, we'll be home, but without our kitchen. I'll still be able to cook at my parents' house, but I'll probably be too busy painting to do much canning.

Nonetheless, we love having our own veggies growing out back, and some of them will be still be producing in fall -- in time to eat them in our new kitchen!

"It has come, the Spring!"

"...Is the spring coming?" he said. "What is it like? You don't see it in rooms if you are ill."
"It is the sun shining on the rain, and the rain falling on the sunshine, and things pushing up and working under the earth," said Mary...

...She unchained and unbolted and unlocked, and when the door was open she sprang across the step with one bound, and there she was standing on the grass, which seemed to have turned green, and with the sun pouring down on her and warm, sweet wafts about her and the fluting and twittering and singing coming from every bush and tree. She clasped her hands for pure joy and looked up in the sky, and it was so blue and pink and pearly and white and flooded with springtime light that she felt as if she must flute and sing aloud herself, and knew that thrushes and robins and skylarks could not possibly help it...

...The afternoon was even lovelier and busier than the morning had been. Already nearly all the weeds were cleared out of the garden and most of the roses and trees had been pruned or dug about. Dickon had brought a spade of his own, and he had taught Mary to use all her tools, so that by this time it was plain that though the lovely wild place was not likely to become a 'gardener's garden,' it would be a wilderness of growing things before the springtime was over.

 --Frances Hodgson Burnett, "The Secret Garden"

Mary and Dickon and Colin have been our literary inspiration lately.

On cool, grey or rainy mornings, we've been reading "The Secret Garden," studying botany, playing The Ladybug Game, continuing our Roman history, and trying to get started on a little spring cleaning.



Outside, we've pulled weeds, planted two avocado trees, three blueberry bushes, six rose bushes, a few lavender plants and lots of pansies, and watched our happy chickens scratch for bugs.

We've finished the first two chapters of "Exploring Creation with Botany," learned about angiosperms (flowering plants) and gymnosperms (conifers), studied the parts of a seed and their role in germination, identified the difference between monocotyledons (petals in multiples of 3, non-branching veins) and dicotyledons (petals in multiples of 4 or 5, branching veins), and collected samples for their notebook pages.

Tulip: angiosperm, monocotyledon

Western redbud: angiosperm, dicotyledon

Today I've been laid up in bed ala Colin (with a bit of food poisoning), but tomorrow we're hoping to get some summer veggies in the ground. It should be another lovely, sunny, warm spring day.

How are you enjoying springtime?

April in the garden

We've been home for a few days, slowly getting back into our routine. This morning we wandered out into the garden to see what changes two rainstorms and a week away had brought.

The weeds were high, of course -- but I happily counted that evidence that it's still spring, and not summer already! The chard and broccoli were much higher, having bolted over five feet tall.

The boys happily found an abundance of ladybugs to hold and examine...

The melons have sprouted, and a few sunflowers. But we'll need to plant more pumpkin seeds. Still have beans, squash and corn to plant from seed.

The blackberry vines are growing like crazy, lots of blooms, so we should have our first berries in another month.

Behind the overgrown cool season veggies, I've planted our first summer veggies, with lots of cilantro and parsley in between. I ordered organic tomato, pepper, and eggplant seedlings from The Natural Gardening Company here in California, because I knew I wouldn't have the time or patience to grow them from seed.

We're planning a big summer road trip for the last half of June, first part of July, so I'm trying to keep the garden small this year. I'll have to get a lot of canning done before we leave! Then, hopefully, I can plant a second round in August because we have such a nice long season.

How does your garden grow?

Welcome, Spring!

This morning we peeked out the front door to discover the first tulip of the season had opened! Eldest planted the bulbs in early January, and here they are!

We've already had a week of warm days. Shorts and t-shirts are out, and it's time to see how much we've grown!  Hopefully, I've shrunk. It's been a lean, mean Lent for Mama. No shamrock cookies for me, *sigh*. I feel really good about keeping my promise to give up sweets, but I couldn't do it without God's help!

The grass and weeds in the garden were knee-high this weekend -- I'd already hand-weeded, push-mowed and weed-whacked whatever I could. It was Scott's turn to tackle the yard before the warm weather turned the green grass into a field of foxtails...

Well, that's done. We can't afford to water the whole lawn during the dry season, just the vegetable beds, so it'll be dry, but tidy.

The last few weeks I've been checking off little projects in the name of Spring Cleaning. So far, I've....

• Decluttered and cleaned the bathroom cabinet.
• Laundered the curtains in the living room, and washed windows.
• Cleaned the mini-blinds in the dining room and bedroom.
• Cleaned the toy area, and donated a trunkfull of toys to Goodwill.
• Dusted the ceiling fans.
• Cleaned door-jams and knobs.

Now I'm reorganizing our bookshelves. Did I mention the books I bought at our library's used book sale? Twenty-six books for $12!

I also put up a new corkboard next to the whiteboard. I'd been taping things to the wall and closet doors, and it was getting a bit messy. Much better. :)

Scott's off next week for spring break, so we'll be finishing up some long overdue projects around the house -- woo hoo!

Where to begin?

Whew! It's been another full week, but I really didn't mean to desert the blog. January has been blowing by like the winter winds, bringing changes and lots of learning.

We've made our exodus out of Egypt and across the Mediterranean for a study of Ancient Greece this week. Scott and the big boys have been enjoying "The Lightning Thief," the first book in the "Percy Jackson and the Olympians" series. It's already whet their appetites for Greek myths and history. The books I requested finally came in from the library, and we're all excited!


This morning we listened to the story of Perseus and the Minotaur and I took the boys to see our own local Labyrinth.


It's always nice to hear, "That was awesome, Mom."

Earlier in the week, we spent two days visiting friends in the mountains -- alas, we missed most of the snow. But the kids had a blast anyway, and the mommies got lots of chatting in. Scott and I have been contemplating a change in the underground structure of our homeschooling, after much cajoling encouragement by our enthusiastic friends. ;) More on that in another post, as nothing's confirmed yet anyway.


Back at home, the boys kept themselves pretty busy...


After two weeks of rain, the garden was begging for attention, so we headed out to clean up and weed. I also need to get some more seeds in the ground before it's too late for cool-season veggies. Winter arrives, and just as we start to enjoy the break from outdoor chores, spring is here demanding we get back to work!


In other big news, Middlest has begun violin lessons. He's spent the last two years with unwavering interest in learning the guitar, but never directly asking for lessons. And then, to my surprise, he asked for violin lessons a few weeks ago!

So, I've found a teacher who can do both, but he'll start with the violin. He was nearly glowing with excitement and anticipation this week, and has already practiced his homework three times since his first lesson ended 24 hours ago.


And today, both Eldest and Middlest have a belt ceremony for Kung fu, and are expecting to move up to green and second-degree orange, respectively.

Well, now I feel caught up. If you're still reading this, I know you must love us. ;)

Labor Day

"Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master's happiness!"
--Matt. 25:23

We spent today working together in the garden, sprucing up and doing end-of-the-summer chores. We were grateful for weather that was bearable into the afternoon.

I raked up old mulch and dead grass, Scott cleaned the pool, and the boys helped move things into the garage and line a flower bed with bricks. I hoped that might make the emptiness more cheerful.

It's rather brown and bleak back there right now, but at least it's tidier now.

The tomato plants are still producing, but look withered and worn from the extreme temperatures. But the winter squash plants are finally taking off, and there's new growth on the watermelon plant! The first few vines produced nothing, so we'll see if the new ones fare better.

It's time to pull out the corn, and plant peas, but I didn't get to it today. We came in, cleaned up, and decided to join friends for a movie.

Littlest got to hang out with his Papa, and the rest of us went off to see "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" again -- a fun treat after a hard day's work.

Home again, home again

This week, in between catching up on laundry and, um... blogging, I've been working on my garden plans for the next year.

Our growing season begins in late February. In general, cool season veggies can be started indoors in January, and need to finish by May. Warm season veggies go in the ground in March, and need to finish by July. Tomatoes, peppers and eggplant are about all that can survive the late summer heat.

The second growing season actually starts indoors in August. By October it's safe to put another round of cool season veggies in the ground, as long as they'll be finished before December, or don't mind a little January frost.

I'm hoping for green beans at Thanksgiving! This was the second year they didn't do too well in the spring season, so maybe fall will be better.

I actually found an organic nursery and seed company that will ship tomato plants in August! This is awesome, because I haven't been able to babysit my own seedlings while in and out of town, and I'm thinking of ripping out the sad-looking tomato plants still hanging on.


The self-seeded cherry tomato was covered in fruit when we got home, but it looks terribly dry and gangly. Last year my tomato plants survived all summer into December, still producing like crazy. Even after the first frost, I had ripening tomatoes hiding underneath, protected by the bushy leaves!

While I've been obsessed with my garden plans, the boys have continued to protect us from further zombie attacks, taken refuge from the heat in our pool, and done a little backyard nature study.


It's nice to be home, looking after my garden, even there aren't any French pastries around.

In the garden: Harvest time already?

Our pumpkins were ready to be picked today, can you believe it?! The two pumpkin plants that sprouted out of the compost pile produced these six cuties. A couple of them look like they came from two blossoms, like Siamese twins. Double butt pumpkins.

The boys are already excited about pumpkin pie and pumpkin cookies! They don't seem to care about turning them into Jack-o-lanterns.


Also picked a handful of green beans. They're not doing fabulously, but better than last year.

When my friend Mark gardened in our yard, he grew millions of green beans, so I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong. I think the Three Sisters idea isn't working so well -- the corn is shading the beans too much. But last year they burned up before going to seed, so who knows.

Cherry tomatoes!

This was not the best year for full-sized tomatoes in my garden. I've learned something about the effects of erratic weather, however. And next year I will put more effort into pruning and propping.

Our little heat wave in May produced hundreds of blooms, but then it cooled down so much in early June that the tomatoes got bigger and bigger, but stayed green. The last few days, I've been picking some big, beautiful red tomatoes -- but tossing a few sunburned ones to the chickens, too.

The Native American popcorn is ready, too! Eldest helped pick these, and then took them inside to shuck. He was so excited to have grown our own popcorn! Some of the ears need to dry a bit more. And then we'll have a movie night!

Eldest has been my biggest helper in the garden this year. A few mornings he's gone out and watered before I've even woken up! He loves harvesting the most, though.

He also likes to rescue helpless Black Widow spiders from a sad and squishy death under my shoe...


I mentioned that I harvested our garlic already. It was pretty easy to grow. It just takes patience, because you have to wait about six months. I waited longer than I needed to.

I didn't even use seed garlic, like you're supposed to. I just broke up a few heads of organic garlic from the grocery store, pushed them into some loose, compost-amended soil, and watered.

They do need regular deep watering. And I mulched when the weather started to warm up. When the tops start to turn brown, bend them over halfway down, so the nutrients go into the bulbs, not into making flowers. That's it!

Now if someone could tell me what to do with these potato plants. They look so pretty, don't they?

I think it's time to pull up new potatoes, but we've gotten so many in our CSA box, I've just left them in the ground.


Our first butternut squash fruit popped out this week! While the summer squash planted by the corn has been prolific, the squash and melons on the south side of the garden have been really slow to develop. I amended the soil just as heavily, and they should be getting enough water, so we'll see.

Well, I think that's everything. The fig tree is so full of figs, there's no way I'll be able to process them all. The birds and beetles will get their fair share this year! But we have a few weeks to go, I think.