Lets Go Picking!

Welcome to my little square foot garden!

(LOVE my little harvest basket)

Tomatoes are doing well -- I was under the impression that tomatoes should be in abundance in the middle of summer...If that is the case, my tomatoes (and eggplants, for that matter) are late bloomers

My Japanese (Ichiban) eggplants are doing well -- it has yielded quite an abundance (to me, at least) of fruit.
Whereas the regular eggplant has had 2...one of which is still in the mid-stages of growing.

It currently has about 4-5 that should be ready for picking in the next week of so, with some tiny little babies still growing (looks like a little Christmas light bulb!)

A regular harvest for me

Sometimes in the span of a few days, a week, or longer than that -- it really depends on the plants - I do not treat it with fertilizer. I don't do much other than water them occasionally, to be honest.

Seems pitiful in comparison to serious gardeners. But it is sufficient for this household of 1 1/2.

Even with these meager pickings, I am at a loss of what to do with them sometimes, as there are only so many eggplant/tomato/basil cravings I get.

For today, it shall be a simple omelet type mash



In other parts of the garden, my lavender in the side garden is going into second bloom...love my lavender!

 

And a random picture of Isabel as she went to school this morning --

She looks like a skater girl/tomboy.

Rarely does she ever dress like this - it's the baggy jeans that gives that impression. Again, another outfit courtesy of her dad. 

They aren't really my style, but whatever floats her boat. She is still cute as a button 

(with a little hooligan hiding within that cuteness)

5 Random, Mundane Things #1

1) Obsessed with this song:

The church I have been attending have had a turnover of their choir/singing group (with a fantastic new lead/guitar player) and they have been introducing a lot more contemporary songs -- this one was played with a strong drum beat (like the march of an army) and is sing-at-the-top-of-your-voice FANTASTIC

 2) Still awed by the fact that I am actually GROWING food. It is a humbling and amazing experience. And quite fool proof as I have basically been ignoring my plot, except for random watering and weeding.

3) Books I recently finished and loved

The One and Only Ivan

Tears fell, my heart ached, I wondered about the cruelty of humans and I don't want to go to a circus ever, EVER again

 It is a children's book, which I have a soft spot for. 

Edenbrooke

A historical romance, my favorite kind. I read a lot of these, but this is definitely one of my favorites, along with She Walks in Beauty  by Siri Mitchell.

I borrow my books from the library because if I bought all the books I wanted to read, I would go broke and will live in a cardboard box under a bridge.

But this is one I will be purchasing for my own library 

(that sends a thrill down my spine---"my OWN library")

 Some of my old friends and I are trying to form a book club where we will read and talk about books. We all live on different continents, with probably very different tastes in reading materials (I prefer to read those with a hopeful air, happy endings and basically something, that at the end of it, will make me have a new perspective on life and hope for the future. One of my friends prefer sad books -- She loves Wuthering Heights..I wanted to smack Heathcliff, and shake Catherine)...so it shall be interesting.

I am excited.

4) Since I love historical fiction, it is probably a given that I like period movies and shows as well. I don't watch much TV, but PBS has made available fantastic shows

Call the Midwife

via

Set after the war in the 1950s, it follows the life of midwives in London's East End.

The second season is still up for viewing here

Downton Abbey

via

Also made available via PBS, it is about lives of aristocrats (the Earl of Grantham and his family) in the post-Edwardian era

I have recently signed up for a trial of Amazon Prime and to my delight, they have made this series available for free (All THREE seasons)

Whereas Netflix has taken down Season 1 (the one and only season offered on streaming) from their online selections. 

Boo Netflix.

5) Trying to be super fantastic mom and make inspired lunches for Isabel as she starts her new school. Japanese containers rock.

Sunflower butter sandwich, hard-boiled egg, fish nuggets and a tomato FROM MY GARDEN

And I don't know how American kids can survive (and actually LIKE) having some form of a sandwich day after day after day for their lunch. 

A Little Evening Gathering..

The blue hydrangea (Endless summer variety) bush is overflowing with blooms, so I decided to help lessen its burden again in the twilight hours one evening

 

Buddy is visiting with Melly and I for a week while Isabel and her dad goes back to the Mid-West for a visit with family

 

I am finding that I much prefer the white hydrangeas these days...I hope that the 4 bushes of whites (blushing bride and endless summer varieties) that I've planted will do as well as the blue (which at 3 years, is the most mature)

  

Guess what else is also starting to bear fruit? 

Japanese eggplant tree from my little square foot gardening patch...the only one that is bearing fruit at the moment. I have decided that tomatoes plants are too much trouble for me -- I don't even particularly LIKE tomatoes. Next year, I shall have to reconsider the plan of attack. 

Vegetable gardening is a tad too time-consuming for me. I who generally like to do something once and be done with it.

 

 

My basil is doing great though...but again, much more than I know what to do with it...

I have been missing my darling dreadfully...

  

 

But it is nice to be able to actually have time in the nights to do WHATEVER I WANT. 

Catching up on movies is one - I don't remember the last time I've actually watched a grown up movie the whole way through. The dogs are good cuddlers for that.

 

How Does My Garden Grow

I was gone for a week on a business trip last week.

Before leaving, my lily plants were showing a bloom or two

When I came back a week later, I was tired and longing to just get back to a routine.

And my little garden welcomed me home in great style -

The hydrangeas in Grandma's Corner was blooming as quick as they can

 

And I snipped some to grace the kitchen table, in time for our weekend breakfast routine.

It is happy days indeed when I can have fresh flowers in the house courtesy of my OWN plants from my OWN garden. Makes all the sweat and dirt-filled fingernails worth it.

 

Garden Update!

* Again, lots of boring pictures of green stuff...skip if this is not your cup of tea

The temperature is warming up -- you can tell when one walks around with ice-cream on her face:

Another way to tell is when you notice the flower buds developing and opening

Lilies:

Hydrangea in Grandma's Corner: (few weeks before)

One flower is starting to bloom: (this past weekend)

Foxglove:

 

Hydrangea in the front yard -- doing spectacularly well -- Look at the difference a month of sunshine can have!

Before:

Now:

I am intent on having a vegetable garden area this year -- And I like free just as much as the next guy...So here I am, trying to grow celery from the base that was cut off from store-bought celery --- and it works! It is fascinating seeing it grow from something that is usually discarded...and my Chinese penny-pinching ways is alarmed at how much money was being literally thrown out with the garbage.

Other randoms:

Treating myself to fresh cut flowers every once in a while

The way I enjoy my quiet time when my baby girl is away:

 

Right now, my mind is busy making plans on putting in flower beds in the front of the yard by the sidewalk to shield my poor neighbors from having to endure looking at my weed patch....Grass growing is really not for me

 

*I may or may not look like this when the plans are running through my mind.  

Garden

Warning-- there are going to lots of pictures of plants and dead-looking plants. So skip if you are not into gardening.

***

The weather is warming up (reluctantly). And my garden is waking up from its slumber. With minimal casualties, I might add (Dumb beginner's luck)

The daffodils are always the first to pop their heads up (in my then unraked garden bed) - they were planted by the previous owners and have been coming up for the past 5 years now. These cheerful ladies are a sight for sore eyes in March/April when one is completely sick of the cold and is tempted to sell everything and move down to Mexico so that one is warm all year long.

The muscari (also known as bluebells, but not those kind of bluebells) are back in full force

And the tulips are getting encouraged by the warmth that we had this past Saturday and have grown quite a bit by Sunday.

Amazing how much difference a day of warmth can positively affect living things.

My precious hydrangeas have all returned (with the exception of two that are still showing no signs of activity -- they probably breathed their last breath sometime in the summer last year, but I shall give it a few more weeks....just in case.)

Endless Summer by Grandma's Corner -- it's her 2nd spring and doing very well indeed

Sun-tolerant Little Lambs by the front of the house -- they were looking like dried up sticks for a long while and I was worried that they weren't coming back. But this weekend was warm enough to encourage them to start waking up --

If you look closer, you'll see that there are buds growing, Being a sun-tolerant variety, it makes sense that it started to bloom later than the other shade-preferring varieties -- I assume it was waiting for the temperature to stabilize a little more.

Also happy to see that my Mother's day gift from Izzy last year is making a come-back.(There's sign of new growth at the bottom right of the plant)

It is really hard to see all these dead looking twigs and not think "Crap, they are done for". But hydrangeas bloom on old wood, so it is imperative to not remove those unsightly spindly twigs during fall/winter.

I am moving on to the back garden this year, behind the garage.
The plan is to convert it into a vegetable garden with raised beds and pea gravel paths. 

Since it really is technically still too nippy out to transplant stuff, I started the only vegetable that I was going to plant directly from seed

And after a week and a half of waiting, they are FINALLY sprouting! 

Do you see them??

How about now?

It is quite sad how excited I get over 5 little baby leaves (that was Saturday...by Sunday, they have doubled!)

But there you go.

My little baby carrots =)

Things I've learned from last year:

1) Always...and I mean, ALWAYS...wear gloves. ESPECIALLY when you have neighbourhood cats roaming the land. Do you see where I am going here? Said cats have a tendency to release their bowels when they feel the need to, and sometimes, it is right in your garden bed.

2) I like clearly defined boundaries. Pavers, planters, rocks..my garden beds HAVE to be clearly defined

3) I am still hopeless at growing keeping grass alive. Perhaps I shall set a statement and say, haven't you heard, weed-patches for front yards are the latest "in" thing now, 

Perspective

One of the things I like to do now that Isabel is older, is that when there's a little person's birthday party to attend, we will try to incorporate something "homemade" into the gift.

For little boys, that generally encompasses just a card, because I don't "get" little boys. There's nothing fabric related that I could think of that would potentially interest the kid. There was a good idea of making a cape and a mask, but I was too lazy. Perhaps next time.

(NOTE: Speaking of superhero capes-- just read this post about the U.S Cape Crusader Challenge. I am going to try and do it)

So on the morning of the party, Isabel and I will typically hang out in the reading/craft room of the house. I *TRY* not to coerce her to do things the "right" way, but....lets just say I have lots of room for improvement.

This time around, she just told me what to draw. And what colors to use.

And then she put on the finishing touches.

So here we have it...a picture of a house, with a car.

And on the back, a pond...with frogs. And a squirrel on the tree

 

And little Gavin in the pond...

Drowning
Swimming

 
 I felt compelled to tell the mother of the birthday boy that. Just so she knows, before she sees the card.

On another less morbid note, my butterfly bush was flourishing and attracting lots of butterflies

 Aren't they gorgeous? This is probably my favorite part of gardening --- the wildlife that it attracts. It makes me happy to see little bumblebees buzzing around the foxgloves and butterflies fluttering away

 

 Then I moved the bush (I didn't space it enough when I first planted it a few months ago) and it is flourishing a lot less. "Wilted" is a more appropriate word. But I will revive it back to its former glory.

In Remembrance

My grandmother passed away last year. I was unable to be by her side.

One of her loves is her garden. And I promised myself that I will have a garden in memory of her. 

Remember my white picket fence?

It's time to toss it out and start anew.

After the months of digging through the dirt, I finally have a spot worthy enough for a dedication:

In remembrance of my grandmother and Izzy's great-grandma...

  

It reminds me of a little English garden -- something about the foxgloves and the brick wall behind it

  

Purple Salvia 

Foxglove - this one has a tinge of purple, and the other, yellow tones.

 

And of course, a hydrangea - this is of the original Endless Summer variety that was planted last year as a trial. It came back this year, much bigger, and there's quite a bit of flowers starting to grow - I am excited. It should have blue flowers, assuming the soil is the same -- the flowers change colors according to the pH of the soil.

And a little rock grouping - the ornamental stone with "Grandma's Garden" was brought over from my grandmother's garden when my mom came for her visit last year. I believe that I may have been the one who gave it to her -- it looks very familiar.

 

The brick wall is not complete -- I have one more trip to make this afternoon.