Language development fascinates me. You? Lately, the little birdie calls almost everything remotely apple-esque, “ap-ple!” You might say tomato, but the little birdie begs to differ.
You say tomato, I say apple
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Tag Archives: grow
looks like you overplanted your garden
Happy Thursday, lovelies! How has your week been going? I’m doing OK, but I’m still suffering from major garage sale hangover from last weekend. I’m working on gathering my thoughts on that front, but in the meantime, I’m turning to the garden (err, tomato forest), I visited the hardware store yesterday to get some gardening essentials. I know yard work can be daunting. Without the proper gardening tools, keeping your yard and walkway clear of fallen leaves can become a tiresome task. Once you’ve cleared and gathered all those beautiful fall leaves using the best leaf vacuum mulcher for your yard, then comes the tedious chore of getting rid of them.
In case that you enjoy gardening as much as we do, check out the best tree removal companies in Sunbury, PA that will help a lot to organize your garden space.
As I was figuring out the best way to climb over the rabbit-proof fence and find a plant-free place for my midget feet, my neighbor yelled to me, “looks like you overplanted your garden!” Um, yeah…, ya think so?! No tomatoes for you, mister smarty pants! Hmmphh.
Here are a couple of photos from early June when I trimmed the lawn using the cheap lawnmower I was recommended by a friend to look on https://www.lawnmowery.com/best-riding-lawn-mowers/cheap/ and the time right after which I first planted the garden. It seemed almost barren with a lot of hopeful space. The tomato cages looked way too big and now they’re ridiculously small and completely inadequate. No exaggeration.
And here it is now, not even August yet! Do not stand too still around the garden or the cucumber tendrils will find a way to wrap around your shoe laces, pony tails and belt buckles; they will take you down. Make haste, grab your veggies and get out! If you have a garden I would recommend getting the best TechnoMono zero turn mower for 10 acres lawn would make the job 10x easier for you. Also I’ve transformed my garden with festoon lighting the landscape lighting specialists, they create a lighting plan that will benefit your property, and meet all of your needs, I loved the work, if you want to get more info you can check this website!
If you love gardening but you don’t have enough space for your plants, you can go online and look for listings with the property details you are looking for. You can find more info here.
We love using secateurs nz that are a pair of pruning clippers you can use with one hand, for little branches to keep the garden nice and clean. What scares (and excites) me is that things aren’t even at their peak yet. Oof. Every day we get a bit of this or that, an assortment of fresh, healthy green goodies like this:
The upside to overplanting a garden? Hardly any weeding on the agenda! How is your garden growing, lovelies? Do you have an earwig infestation in your mesclun mix too? Yuck yuck yuck! Try using turnip seeds if you are a beginner at gardening. They give me the heebie-jeebies. How ’bout you? Any advice on how to get them to go away and never ever (ever) come back? I get the chills just writing about them. Did I say “yuck!?”
Happy diggin’ in the dirt, don’t forget that if you want to get more advice, you ca read more about it here!
Strawberries!
The little birdie and I had a great time at the farmer’s market this morning while we let Chris enjoy some peace a quiet and a few more minutes of beauty sleep. We got ourselves a couple bins of lovely, organic “jam strawberries,” which are softer and a bit imperfect. Imperfect means perfect for chubby baby hands. Needless to say when you see the photos, Wren loved them!
I’m not even going to post any recipes or ideas on how to enjoy strawberries today because my favorite way is to eat them fresh. What’s your favorite way to enjoy fresh strawberries?
a few things
Just wanted to check in with you and let you know I’m thinking about you, but I’m also thinking about a lot of other things so my blog is going to look a bit neglected. For a little bit. Here are a few snippets of life from our nest:
- Chris broke his wrist and while it’s amazing to see what he can accomplish around our nest and at work with only one hand plus some fingers from another, it’s still a major bummer for the nest.
- Ever had mastitis? It knocked me out cold for a few days. Ever been hit by a truck? That’s what I felt like. I’m so sorry if you really were hit by a truck because I’m sure it was a lot worse, but you get the point. Pain is really interesting because the pain of natural childbirth, or any kind of childbirth for that matter, is intense to be sure, but it comes with a purpose and that makes all the difference. When was your last paper cut? OUCH!
- Wren will be going to “school” a couple mornings a week pretty soon so I can make some progress on my *work* and she can play with some other kiddos. As she’s becoming a busier little 20 pound tornado, my *work* has slowed to glacial speed. No big surprise there!
- Wren likes to pull herself up on everything and walk along the furniture, but no real walking yet. Any bets on when that might be? She’ll probably skip over walking and go straight to running, the little high-energy lady that she is.
- We’re in the process of refinancing our house. Finance, yuck.
- The garden is doing great and I did some bittersweet thinning yesterday. We had a delicious salad with assorted microgreens: spinach, radish, beet, mesclun mix, ooh la la. We also enjoyed our very first red, ripe strawberry, which you can see if you look closely… Here are a couple pics of the gardens and flowers and I promise more on that process later. Enjoy!
These are my zinnias I grew from seed in the sunroom this spring. They make me smile. The best $1.99 I have spent in a while.
What’s been happening in your nest? How are your gardens growing? Have a lovely weekend if I don’t see you in Cyberspace. And a hip hip hooray for all the Dads out there. Although it’s obvious that we literally could not do this (life, that is) without you, we adore you and how much you absolutely adore our kiddos. XO
Dig for Victory
While on the one hand I’m immeasurably happier when there’s a full bag of pretzels in the cupboard, our nest is consciously trying to eat whole foods, more locally grown produce and cook most days of the week instead of going out to eat. We’re also working on getting the garden going too so I’m inspired by the timeless nature of this quote from 70+ years ago: “We want not only the big man with the plough but the little man with the spade to get busy this autumn. Let ‘Dig for Victory’ be the motto of everyone with a garden,” – Rob Hudson, Minister for Agriculture, in October 1939.
So this Etsy find appeals to my sensibilities. It’s a new design based on a US Food Administration poster from the World Wars. Have room in your kitchen for it?
I’m equally as smitten by this t-shirt, which is based on a Depression-era design as well. What do you think, dear readers? Although it comes in other colors, isn’t this green the best choice?
How’s your Victory Garden coming along? Mine is WAY behind or maybe these 90+ days are making me feel like it and I’m OK. I noticed LOTS of starts at the farmer’s market this past weekend, which made me smile. Don’t you love the hope that’s embodied in the first leaves of a musk melon? Cheers, lovelies!
harbingers of Spring
It’s decidedly Spring in northern Michigan when the rhubarb’s thigh-high (remember, I’m short) and the local asparagus decides to pop its happy, green head through the sandy soil. At today’s windy, cold (36) first outdoor farmer’s market of the season, we giddily found both. The smiles of the farmers in spite–or perhaps, because–of the weather, made the outing worthwhile. OK, the down coat helped too. And the hot coffee from Morsel’s on the walk home. And being with my family. So I hereby dedicate this week to the tastiest harbingers of Spring, rhubarb and asparagus. Follow along on some tasty adventures with me this week! Rhubarb crisp and asparagus frittata, anyone? Or maybe some cream of asparagus soup to warm you up? What are YOUR favorite asparagus and rhubarb recipes?
Got plans for next weekend already? Of course it includes a trip to Empire for the 7th Annual Empire Asparagus Festival, right? Rain or shine, asparagus-lovers unite to celebrate the mighty green stalk. Even roasted asparagus beer. Yes! You will find it courtesy of Traverse City’s Right Brain Brewery. And lots more spear-ited fun! Hope to see you there.
Holy tomatoes, Batman!
I’m simply amazed. Almost a month ago, I planted heirloom tomato seeds with a (very) liberal, healthy dose of GUARDED hope that they would actually sprout. Well, they did indeed sprout. And they kept going. My experiment was working. Some soil, some unseasonably warm, sunny days (thank you, Climate Change?!), regular waterings and voila! Real tomato plants grew in our sun room. In northern Michigan. And the fat lady sings indeed.
So, as you can see, they got so big that I had to transplant them today. I know, right?! Aren’t you amazed, too? Whew.
I was so thrilled with the whole idea of it all that I had to wear my gardening galoshes while I transplanted them. Silly, but fun! (Hey, this Mamma doesn’t get out much.)
So I gingerly moved the seedlings to their own pots… Do you think they will miss being closer together? They’ve been together since the womb. What say you, dear readers?
My hands even smell like tomatoes still. It’s lovely.
So here’s the question of the day. I really didn’t think these would do very well so now what will I do with so many tomato plants? I suppose it’s a good problem to have… and I’m probably jumping the gun here because there will probably be some loss moving forward… but I’m thinking that I better revise my raised bed plan to just have a whole bed devoted to tomatoes. Bliss!
How are your seeds coming along? Have any gardening plans you’d like to share? Tomato recipes?
shoot!
Breaking news from Wren’s Nest…
Yes, that’s right! Shoots are popping up out of the microgreen cells that I planted just last week. I couldn’t be more thrilled or hopeful about my gardening experiment–so far. And I had to share it with you.
Happy weekend to you, dear readers.
planting the seed!
If you’ve been following my drivel, you know I’ve mentioned thumbing through seed catalogs and planning a couple raised bed vegetable gardens this year. I spent more than a few hours this winter perusing catalogs with coffee in hand, pondering what interesting veggies I might grow from seed. All the while thinking that I’d have the seeds ordered and in hand by the end of March. So it hit me yesterday that it was already the end of March and I hadn’t even placed my order yet. Well well well. It’s the thought that counts? As it turns out, this philosophy will only get one Mamma so far.
It was time to stop thinking, wishing and hoping. Act already! Truth be told, I was overwhelmed by the hundreds of organic heirloom tomato possibilities and just needed to settle on a couple packets of seeds. But which ones? It was like going down the cereal aisle at a big grocery store. Too many choices!
48, sunny, and a desire to dig in the dirt pushed me to load up my little birdie and head to Target. Because when you think of gardening, you think of Target, right?! The last time I was there I noticed a good selection of seeds and I just HAD to get a few other things so there I found myself. Thankfully, Target and Burpee made the decision for me and only had organic Brandywine tomato seeds. I’m not a huge believer in fate, but this was possibly just meant to be. I also picked up a packet of organic cherry tomatoes called Sweeties. How cute is that? A packet of organic Chinese Giant peppers also jumped out at me. For instant gratification, I grabbed a packet of microgreens. In two weeks, we’ll apparently have something edible to snip off and munch on so I couldn’t resist. I also got some biodegradable seed-starting cells and I was on my way!
Side note: while I was shopping, Wren was playing with her kazoo in the cart and flirting with other shoppers. Have you ever seen a baby play a kazoo? It’s pretty damn funny.
I couldn’t wait to get home and get planting! Wren decided she didn’t want to be around when I was flinging potting soil every which way so she took a nap. Perfect timing!
Here are a few pics. Enjoy!
My hope in this seedling experiment is of the guarded sort because I’m not sure we have enough heat and light in the sun room, but it’s worth a shot! I’ll keep you posted on what happens this spring. Even though I check on them every hour or so, no shoots yet. Shoot.
So what about that fancy seed order? Well, I still want to place one for other fun stuff I’ll start from seed after Memorial Day. Spinach, beets, sugar snap peas, mache, carrots, basil, zinnia, bells of ireland, oh my! I will try to restrain myself because I want it to be an enjoyable summer and with a mobile toddler, I’m not sure how much garden maintenance I’m actually going to be doing… thankfully it’s still light out at 10 p.m. when I’ll probably be doing most of the weeding. With a cold beer in the other hand.
What about you, dear readers? What garden plans do you have this year? Will you be planting a “Victory Garden” too? Tell me about it!
eat food. grow food.
Have you read Michael Pollan’s new(ish) book Food Rules? I read it out loud in the car on the way back from Chicago and I can’t stop thinking about it. Although the critics say it’s just Pollan distilled down into bite-sized bits for the masses, that’s what I like about it and that’s exactly why I’m going to buy a few copies to give to friends for them to read. And pass on. And for them to pass on. And on. It’s one of those. And it’s only $5 through Amazon so I declare that you really can’t lose with this one.
The book pushed me even closer to placing my seed order for my ambitious raised bed garden that I’d like to have this year. Earlier this winter I looked through catalogs and then filed them away in my “to do in March” brain folder–still don’t have the office set up yet and my brain folders are getting full, but we really ARE working on it, thank you very much. Lo and behold, it IS March so here we go! I usually dislike March with its promise of spring and its reality of brownish winter, but somehow I’ve managed not to be down on it just yet. Give me a few more weeks… Maybe it’s April that’ll push me over the proverbial edge this year with its promise of spring and its reality of brownish winter. Why do we live in northern Michigan again? For me, it’s because of mid-May through snowy February, but I digress. Whew. Good thing I stopped that tangent early, eh?
Moving on.
A great kids book that pairs well with Food Rules is Planting a Rainbow by Lois Ehlert. A friend told me about it and the very next day Wren received it as a gift from Aunt Becky. How very serendipitous was that?
I love the colorful illustrations of the plants (especially the ferns-very cool!) and of course, the story of growing a garden is timeless and timely. This is one of those books I will also order several of at a time and give to several friends. A must-have book in your kids book library if you don’t already own it!
Confessions.
- Don’t try to kill me, but I was rooting for Canada in the Canada vs. USA hockey game. Go, Canada! Except those closing ceremonies were really cheesy. Huge inflatable beavers? Are you kidding me?
- Still loving orange things, especially my new orange scarf.
- Wren is getting feisty. She now realizes that there are things that she DOES NOT want to do and she lets us know. It’s pretty funny. Until she had a meltdown in the locker room after baby swim. Half-naked with a screaming baby is not really the best look for me I’ve decided.
best!