Weekend Wrap-up

Happy International Scrapbooking Day! Happy Mother's Day! It sure was an eventful weekend.We had some downtime on Saturday so I spent it in my scrap cave...making a card (yup just one), organizing albums and then *gasp* actually creating layouts for my boys' album. Did you get any crafting in this past weekend?

Good thing the rain stopped later in the day as I headed out to take prom pictures for a friend's son and his date. They were absolutely adorable and he was such a good sport. After, we went out for an early Mother's day dinner and this boy bought me ice cream for Mother's Day..."You've been wanting to go to...and we're here, so I'm going to buy you ice cream!" :)

We didn't have anything planned for Sunday since the boys had baseball games but they got canceled so Jorge and I went out to buy plants for the vegetable garden and new flower bed. We got the veggies in and will work on the other stuff throughout the week. It was a great weekend and I hope you had an great one too!

Garden Tales 09.17.15

My garden is still going strong mid-September and I do have to say I am amazed. By now, I'm usually done with it and packing it in. I truly believe it's the new soil I bought to add to the raised beds that made the difference. To be honest, I have never had my marigolds grow so big and have so many flowers! 

Even the basil is growing like crazy...anyone want some basil?

The zuchinni and summer squash didn't make it through the summer, not unusual for me, and I've pulled them out and planted a salad mix. It didn't take long for the seedlings to com out and before long, we'll be (hopefully) eating lots of salad.

Another herb growing crazily in my beds are mint. I have since learned that they are perennials and come back year after year. They are planted within a pot in my garden since they spread like crazy. their flowers are also something else!

Sugar snap peas also don't make it through the summer so I plant them twice, once in the spring and again in the fall.  They're coming up beautifully and we are looking forward to the fall harvest.

Last but not least, the raspberries are getting ready for round 2 of flowers. I didn't know theyy produced twice a year. Any raspberry growing experts out there?

How is your garden growing?

Garden Tales 07.02.15

A little late for a post but better later than never, right? We'll start with this cutie visiting my parsley when I really need her at the dill's since there's aphids moving in. I tried moving her over but she decided to fly away home. 

Here is a patch of the healthiest cilantro I've ever grown. I let the plants from last season go to seed and left them alone. They're growing all around the tomatoes and we're using them as fast as we can. 

And just in case you're wondering why the tomatoes are a weird color, it's a weird hybrid that I thought would be interesting to have in the garden.

Moving on...I Spy a baby zucchini. Always so exciting when I find one. I'm a pessimist when it comes to the zuchinnis and squash. 

There's even a little hint of red on the raspberries. Can't wait!!!

Garden Tales 06.25.15

Not much difference that I can see in the garden except for bigger raspberries, more flowers, plenty of snap peas and creepy crawlies (warning you may not like the last pic). Not too happy with these pics either...the camera is acting up a little and I couldn't quite get the right settings...ugh!

Garden Tales 06.18.15

The weather has been all over the place the last few days but today is looking like a beauty. I took these pics with my iPhone 5 after a walk with Diego. Everything seems to be blooming and growing...happy looking plants without my help whatsoever! The pollinators are out and it's looking like a good start.

Garden Tales 06.04.15

The rain helped the garden quite a bit and everything is just taking off. All the transplants are doing well except one. Not worried about that since I have extras. One major development to the backyard is this...

We put in (hired some people actually) a fence around the backyard. There is chain link on the sides since there are privacy hedges and wood privacy fencing along the back, to block the encroaching jungle from the back. We are loving it and I can safely say, so is Diego. Weirdly it seems to make the backyard look bigger than it did before. More work to be done...looking forward to a finished backyard.

Garden Tales 05.28.15

Planted the garden over Mother's Day weekend and it is definitely thriving. I added new compost to the raised beds and planted bought seedlings. The lettuce in the front of the bed came up from last year's seeds. The mint (in the buried pot) grows back every year and is in a pot to contain the creeping. The hosta all the way on the right was dug up to make room for some work in the backyard.

Here is the work that is being done to the backyard. Going up as I type. A few minor setbacks but it's moving along. Those poor guys chose a tough weather week to be digging fence holes by hand.

The main purpose of the fence it to keep Diego in and other critters, loose dogs...lots in our neighborhood, out. Besides dogs, there are plenty of small children and while he is super sweet with them, it never hurts to err on the side of caution. And I can't talk about the cutie without posting a pic of him now, can I?

ps. the dandelions are a problem in our backyard this year. I don't think it's ever been this bad. Any suggestions?

Garden Tales 09.30.14

This will be my last Garden Tales post for the year. The chill is back in the air and most of my plants are done. Just need a final harvest and clean up of the gardens. A few things will last through the cooler months but on the whole, it's done and I'm too busy.

The basil is not going to become basil pesto...the leaves have brown spots on them and are tiny :( The jalapenos are ready to be harvested (maybe a pot of chili?)...oh the possibilities.

We planted 2 packets of sunflower seeds in the garden in the spring and this is the lone sunflower that grew. And it just bloomed. Weird! I always though sunflowers were the easiest thing to grow.

 We ended with tons of cucumbers that we've been eating fresh as well as pickled.

And these sugar snap peas are growing and flowering so I'll leave them be. A late harvest of sugar snap peas would be nice.

 New feature next week...come back and check it out!

Garden Tales 09.16.14

Nothing much is happening out in the garden...more cucumbers, still plenty of parsley (which reminds me I need to make that chimichurri), plenty of thai basil (waiting for more to make that pesto) and growing snap pea plants (slow going). The temperature is something I'm keeping an eye on, especially for frost advisories.

So with nothing to report on the growing and harvesting end, I want to share this photo I took a few weeks ago. I had just read a review about a book titled "The Bees" by Laline Paull and ordered it from our local library. When I saw this beauty at work, I couldn't wait to get my hands on the book.

I picked it up as soon as it came in and dove in. It was amazing...to write from the perspective of a bee...just WOW!!! I knew the basics of bees but this book took me into the world of bees, of seeing through their eyes and making them more human. Loved the book, perfect for a bio geek like me.

Garden Tales 09.09.2014

It's a lot cooler this week than it was last week so I decided to head out and harvest what I could. Cucumbers and tomatoes were all I managed to get. There is Kale and lettuce and herbs but I'll grab those as needed. No frost in the forecast so no worries.

I've been reading about harvesting potatoes so I dug mine up. So much fun to pull these out of the ground and they are that pink/red in the ground! I will have to plant more next year...it was super easy to care for.

Zero yellow squash, zucchini and butternut squash this year. As I've said, not sure what I'm doing wrong...some research will be happening and I'll try again next year.

Garden Tales 08.26.14

Status quo - nothing much has changed in the garden. Wishing I had planted more basil so I can make homemade pesto and planning to get some churrasco so I can use up the parsley in chimichurri. Tomatoes are ripening, plenty  of Thai basil, peppers and cucumbers. Kale are getting big too...maybe some kale chips this week or am I supposed to wait for it to get cooler before harvesting my kale? Anyone?

And yesterday, I gladly paid my helper (only one since the other was at football practice) to re-do my compost area. Some pesky plants have sent their roots into my compost pile...heavy mat roots...to the point the bottom half of the compost is trapped. We moved the pile, dug up the roots, laid down two layers of cardboard (from the shelves we bought for the garage) and dumped the compost pile back on it. He did a lot of the heavy work and it was totally worth the $$$. 

Garden Tales 08.18.14

These guys are doing great...finally. I've never really had great success growing them in my veggie garden, maybe I don't plant enough or maybe it's the cooler weather we've been having. Whatever it is, I love seeing them and all the ruffles!

Tomatoes are ripening but they aren't growing as well as I would like. I remember a couple of years back when we had so many grape tomatoes, we were eating handfuls daily. Anyone a little more successful with their tomatoes this year?

I planted my cucumbers pretty late in the season...bought them and pretty much just plopped them in the ground with a tomato cage around it to climb and left it alone. I was so glad to see baby cukes on them this morning. Fingers crossed we;ll have a decent harvest of cucumbers.

How is your garden growing? Do share your garden pics with me.

Garden Tales 08.12.14

The garden hasn't changed much since last week's post other than the snap peas have sprouted. I haven't been home much to mess around in the garden other than to harvest (beans, herbs, tomatoes, greens) and enjoy. Instead, I'll show you what else we did...we have 2 pet turtles...the boys and I made a make shift pond in their old sand box for them. Basically we dug a hole, lined it with an old shower curtain and placed rounded rocks around the edges to hold the liner down. Filled it with water and dropped them in. They were happy to be out of their tank and happily explored.

This guy stayed out there for over an hour reading and "babysitting" the turtles...they were trying to get out. They made it out a few times and each time, we just picked them up and placed them back in the pond, moving the rocks they were using to climb out on.

The next day, we did the same but this time covered the top of the sandbox with the boys' baseball throwback net and weighed it down with pieces of lumber. Well, sad to say we didn't "babysit" them and when we came back an hour later, one of them was gone. It's been over a week and we still  haven't found him. We are sad but are hoping it found it's way to a nice pond. As for the other turtle, we are undecided on what to do with it. For now, he is back in his tank with a few shiners for company (edited: 1 shiner for company, the others... .)

Garden Tales 08.05.14

Just a quick post...everything is growing and blooming. I pulled out the sugar snap peas as they were done and planted a new batch.