Seed Collection

This spring I went through my Mom's seed collection. She was a master gardner and loved saving seeds. I found an envelope containing seeds from squash she had used for decoration on her Thanksgiving table. She wasn't sure if they would germinate, so I thought I'd give them a try. I planted the seeds in my garden and now I have huge plants that have colorful squash hanging from them. My favorite is the green one. I also have a bright orange one. I don't know if they will last until Thanksgiving, but it is nice to have a little something that my Mom loved in my garden.

First Harvest

Today I harvested the peas from our garden. This is the first year I have planted peas and had good results. I planted them in the same garden boxes as the tomatoes and cucumbers. It worked out nicely. The roots on the pea plants weren't very deep, so they didn't compete with the other plants and it was fun to watch them grow up the trellises which will now hold up the tomatoes and cucumbers.

I picked all of peas and then pulled up the plants, since they are finished for the season. I blanched and froze the peas that we didn't eat fresh. It will be nice to have the taste of summer during the winter.

It's so nice to have a garden.

From The Garden

This week I was able to harvest some of the salad mix I planted in the garden. It was so nice to just step out in the backyard and clip some lettuce when I wanted to make a salad for dinner. Having a garden is wonderful.

This year we planted tomatoes, peas, beets, kale, onions, spinach, salad mix, zucchini, butternut squash, acorn squash, cucumbers, lemon cucumbers, 4 different kinds of peppers and a variety of herbs. We still have the strawberries I got from my parent's yard two years ago. So far, things look promising. I noticed a little pea pod tonight as well as a strawberry that's almost ripe.

Ready for Spring

I want spring to come. I'm ready for the snow to be done and for the flowers to start blooming. I spent three hours raking the grass yesterday and this is what it looks like this morning...


I spent an hour shoveling a couple of inches off the driveway. I hope this is the last time I have to shovel it this season.

Inside, it looks a little more like spring...

Last week my Dad pruned the peach trees so I have branches that are getting ready to bloom in a couple of places in the house. I hope they do as well as last years branches.

The orchid is still in full bloom. It is beautiful.

In the basement, I planted 50 lavender seeds in a starter tray. I am hoping to plant the lavender in the flowerbeds outlining our backyard. The little sprouts are cheery reminder that spring is just around the corner.

Blooms

We have beautiful blooms in our garden. The volunteer onions grew over three feet tall and bloomed into beautiful white snowballs. The squash is in bloom and there are tomatoes ready to be picked. We also ate our first zucchini of the season this week.

Inside, the gardenia that Dwight gave me for my birthday is in bloom. The scent is wonderful.

Bird Watch

Last night I was out on the porch watering the hens and chickens that my Grandma gave me (they are plants, Amy, so you can rest assured that you will not encounter any foul bigger than a dove when you come over). I looked up to see two faces watching me from the dove's nest.

My neighbor came over to see the baby dove this morning. She said that yesterday morning, the mom and dad dove were both in the yard cooing. She said that they have been taking turns sitting on the nest.

The mom is still sitting fairly high in the nest, so we will keep watching to see if there is another one in there.

The Nest

A couple of weeks ago, I spotted a small straw nest on the top of our weeping cherry tree. I brought Dwight out to look at it and he was able to look inside. There wasn't anything in it. For the next few days I would be serenaded by a dove sitting on our fence when I worked in the yard. I loved to hear its cooing.

A few days later, I went out to water some plants on the porch. I stepped off the porch to get the hose and a bird flew from the tree. It was the dove that had been singing to me earlier in the week. I hurried and got my camera so I could see into the nest. I had to hold the camera above my head. I took a picture and was surprised to see a small white egg resting in the nest.

I went back inside, hoping I hadn't scared the dove away. When I went out a little while later, she was sitting on the nest. It took a couple of days before I stopped worrying about her. When it rained, I wondered if I should go and put an umbrella above her, I wondered if I should put food and water on the porch for her. One stormy day, Dwight thought I would be out on the porch with the hairdryer to warm her (I'm sure he thought of it because it's something he would do. He bought Ellie two heating pads, one for her bed and one for when she is laying by us on the couch. He also warms spots for her with the hairdryer when it's cold).

It's nice to have a bird nesting in our yard. She is a beautiful dove.

The Garden

Last year, my mom told us about a book by Mel Bartholomew called Square Foot Gardening. I got the book and decided to try gardening in boxes instead of having to dig through our rock-filled clay. We covered the ground with weed cloth and made the boxes. I didn't have to weed at all. I loved gardening in the boxes. I was able to grow more in the boxes than I was in the rows the previous year.

This Spring, we had a hearty growth of weeds underneath the weed cloth. I had to pull up the weed cloth and pull all of the weeds. We brought in a load of gravel last week and covered the weed cloth. Hopefully this will keep the weeds from growing.

I realized this week that I like the gravel for multiple reasons. We have had three days of rain, and I am still able to walk around the garden without getting muddy. Ellie can also enter the garden. The first year we had our garden, she loved to dig in it, so I was giving her a bath often, we finally had to put up a little fence to keep her out. I also like the look of the gravel with the wooden boxes.

So far, we have planted onions, 4 varieties of peppers, 3 varieties of tomatoes, lemon cucumbers, watermelon and corn. We still have a box full of herbs and strawberries from last year. I am still planning on planting more cucumbers, 4 varieties of squash, beets, radishes, cantaloupe, honeydew, and eggplant this weekend.

One of my favorite things about gardening this way is the ability to grow vertically. I will grow my squash, tomatoes and cucumbers on the trellis' that I made from electrical conduit. It looks so neat in the Fall when the squash is hanging from the netting. I think Mel Bartholomew is a genius for coming up with the idea.

I look forward to watching the garden grow, and hope we will have a good harvest in a few months.

Where is Spring?

I was so excited when I took these pictures last week because I thought that spring had finally arrived. As I type this post the snow is flying. It is snowing so hard I can barely see across the street. I thought that it was supposed to stop snowing in March and that April showers, not snow, brought May flowers.