Lost in Time

Wow! Summer is NOT a good time to keep up on a blog. I have so much garden progress to report!

Our squash was growing like crazy and has already started slowing down. We have some kind of fungus this year and if I remember correctly, I think we had it last year too. Apparently there are some sprays you can use to try and get rid of it, but we opted for weeper/soaker hoses to minimize the amount of water that lands on the leaves. So far, we are still getting some summer squash but all the plants have the fungus. Fortunately most of the zucchini plants have been able to somehow avoid getting "sick". We will be rotating their location next spring when we plant the 2014 garden.

Our tomatoes are also a bit of a disappointment this year as well. The leaves twisted and curled a few weeks after we planted the garden but the growth above the twisted leaves looks normal. From what research I've done, the only thing that seems to make sense is they were damaged from a weed killer or herbicide of some kind. Both my husband and our neighbor sprayed for weeds earlier in the season. I highly doubt we'll get many tomatoes this year but we still have all of August so we'll see what happens. Such a shame because the homemade tomato sauce I make from this recipe is really good. I adapted the recipe a bit by using frozen tomatoes that have been peeled. I don't add green pepper or as much onion and I only use enough (olive) oil to saute the onion. I start out with the recommended amounts for salt, sugar, basil and parsley but every batch of sauce is different so I do add more of everything as needed. We will also be moving our tomatoes for 2014.

On a positive note: Our beans are AWESOME this year! They are soooo tasty and I think planting them away from onions has been beneficial. The planting charts we used seem to be spot on. We've had fresh beans a few times already and have frozen some as well. We inherited an antique bean slicer from my hubands' parents and he loves to use it to slice beans for freezing. It was originally his grandfather's and they were really close. He passed away when my husband was 14. I think using the bean slicer reminds him of his grandfather. It's amazing how such a simple action can keep a memory alive.

The onions, lettuce and carrots are also doing really well. I'm glad we planted romaine instead of a leaf lettuce variety because even when it's hot out, the lettuce is still crunchy when it's fresh picked and eaten right away. I've been enjoying it with a simple oil and balsamic vinegar dressing.

More later...now I need to grate a GIANT sneaky zucchini that hid in the garden from us for fritters tonight!  Om nom nom.

sprouts!

I'm pleasantly surprised to see some sprouts in the garden today! We planted the garden eight days ago and since then it has rained quite a bit.  The rain was good because we didn't have to use our own water (thank you mother nature), and it was potentially bad because it rained pretty heavily at times. It rained so hard we were worried our lettuce seed was washed away but it didn't! Our lettuce is coming up and it looks great!  Our squash, zucchini and beans are coming up too!  However, after all the rain, our soil is looking pretty packed down.  Tonight, S-man and Boy1 are planning on hoeing and planting the marigolds.

Marigolds are great for repelling certain kinds of insects and garden pests. They can even attract good insects to a garden. There are some other great bug repelling plants out there and after this spring's heavy rains, I'm thinking about investing in a few planters for our deck and some mosquito repelling plants. Even if the plants don't successfully repel mosquitoes, at least our deck will look pretty, right?

Back to gardening....After I discovered our garden is sprouting, I discovered I also have a bit of a sunflower problem. Our uneaten birdseed is growing. I really enjoy watching the birds at the feeders, but they have really bad table manners! I also really love sunflowers so I think I'll transplant a few of our volunteer flowers to our east flower bed and see what happens. After that, I suppose I'll be spending some time out front under the bird feeder plucking sunflower seedlings.

little beans!

squash...or zucchini...i'm not sure

romaine lettuce

too many sunflowers!

a dolphin and a dump truck

Some of the things Boy1 says are unbelievable. I don't mean prophetically unbelievable but unbelievable in the sense that he's still only two years old and talks like a five year old.  It's also unbelievable to me the situations he can work through in his head and then verbalize.  

The other day Boy1 was playing with his dump truck and somehow a stuffed dolphin ended up riding in the dump truck. Boy1 stopped playing, looked at the truck/dolphin combination, slapped his knee, faked laughed and said "a dolphin in a dump truck, that's so silly mommy". I burst out laughing, and not because of the dolphin in the dump truck (which is actually pretty strange and probably should be reported to the proper authorities should you ever come across the scenario in real life), but because of his response to the situation. I don't know where he learned how to fake laugh and slap his knee. That was actually more surprising to me than his realizing a dolphin wouldn't be riding in a dump truck. 

There are two valuable lessons we can all learn from this: 1) if you need a good laugh, spend some time around a two year old and 2) NEVER underestimate your child's intelligence and ability to absorb information.  Toddlers can be scary smart sometimes.

the line up

The garden is planted! It has been raining for most of the day today and it rained for a good portion of the day yesterday. Now, it is super humid and warm.  S-man got pretty soggy yesterday but at least we didn't have to turn the sprinklers on right? We planted some transplants and some seeds. Here is the list of what went in the ground yesterday:

SEEDS:

Carrot - Tendersweet

Carrot - Unknown variety (leftover seed from last year - package was thrown out)

Garden Bean - Brittle Wax

Green Bean - Contender

Lettuce - Classic Crisp

Squash - Italiano Largo Hybrid

Summer Squash - 49er Hybrid

Zucchini - Burpee Fordhook

TRANSPLANTS:

Cucumber - Pickling

Onion - Yellow Spanish

Pepper - Early Red

Pepper - Yellow Belle

Pepper - Sweet Banana

Tomato - Better Boy

Tomato - Early Girl

Tomato - Supersweet 100

We used this planting chart from OneCreativeMommy.com to determine which plants would be nice neighbors (eventually I'll get an image up showing how we planted our garden). Figuring out where to plant most of our vegetables was pretty easy.  However, it seems like there's always a black sheep amidst the flock. Our black sheep? The beans. Beans are apparently not good to plant next to, well, anything else we have in the garden so we gave them a separate home. Fortunately, in addition to our main garden, we also have another, smaller garden and didn't have to think too much about where to plant those troublesome beans. The smaller garden is an empty bed we haven't landscaped yet and it was the perfect spot for the beans. 

In addition to the vegetables we've already planted, we will also be planting some marigolds and nasturtiums around the squash, and we might plant some nasturtiums around the cucumbers and tomatoes. Not only will the flowers look pretty and add some fun colors to the garden, they will also help control certain bugs, nematodes and other nasty little pests. OneCreativeMommy.com also has a handy companion planting chart specifically for insect repelling plants.

I like both planting charts because they are simple and easy to understand.  If you like them too, you can print them from this blog post.  OneCreativeMommy.com is a really fun blog to peruse when you have a few minutes!

the diaper that broke the camel's back

Last night I hit my limit.  More specifically, my poopy diaper-changing limit.  My oldest (I'll call him Boy1 - based on order of appearance) will be three years old in August.  He's been sort of potty training for a while but with an infant (Boy2) in tow, I've been just a little preoccupied and haven't taken the plunge into the exciting world of potty training yet.  Boy2 is becoming much more self-sufficient now that he's approaching the one year mark.  Even though he can mostly feed himself and entertain himself for a few minutes, keeping two boys under the age of three alive will keep anyone busy.  But I digress...

Boy1 was playing in the backyard last night.  He was having a great time running around with his lawnmower and chasing the dog.  He stopped running and chasing.  He gave S-man "the look".  "Do you need to go potty?", S-man asked.  "Nope daddy, I'm okay.", replied Boy1.  [Note: at this point, I would have brought him inside to the bathroom.  I don't yet trust Boy1 that much to stop what he's doing just to go on the toilet. However, I'm letting S-man take the lead more and use his judgement with this type of thing...end note.]  I step into the scene a minute or two later and can immediately smell you-know-what.  It was not your run of the mill you-know-what either.  It was bad. Bad, bad, bad.  I'm being non-descriptive here on purpose.  I know all you parents have been there.  Anyway, that was it.  I hit my limit.  As I was changing his diaper, I found myself both silently cursing and audibly gagging.  I realized at that moment Boy1 was mentally and physically ready; it was me who hadn't been ready for potty training.  Who would have thought Boy1 was waiting on me to take the lead?  It makes sense when you think about it.  Parents are supposed to be the leaders when it comes to teaching children new skills, such as eating with a spoon or potty training.  Today is our first day of potty training and so far, so good.  We're on a 20 minute schedule and only one accident so far this morning.  I know there will be more accidents and I'm okay with that.  I'm just glad we waited until I was ready.

In addition to beginning the potty training process, S-man is also planting the garden today!  Between trips to the toilet with Boy1, occupying Boy2, feeding everyone and planting the garden, it's just an average day around here.  Chaotic, messy, loud and exhausting.  I wouldn't have it any other way.

ready for summer!

Every year we (and by we I mean my husband - who will be known and S-man from here on out) plant a garden. I would say it's a larger than average garden for our suburban plot of land, but it's not huge.  We've had really some good garden years and we've had some really bad garden years.  We (including me now) have planned on documenting our garden adventures for the past few years but for some reason we never do.  FINALLY this year, we're actually going to take the time to document what we plant, what grows well, what doesn't, what we plant where and so on.  You may wonder why we're doing this.  Wouldn't you just plant some green things every year and call it good?  Believe me, I wish it were that easy.  We have two boys under the age of three and our lives are just a little...well, haired.  It seems like every spring when we get ready to plant our garden, we ask each other what we planted the previous year and neither of us can remember.  So in order to prepare for our 2014 gardening season, I'm going to track what we do rather than relying on our apparently crappy memories.  Hopefully next year I'll remember what I did with all the information... Come on, laugh, it's funny.