Fresh Veggies

Every year our garden is a little different.  Last year our lettuces did really well so we planted at lot of them this year.  Boy oh boy do we have a lot of lettuce.  The arugula grows like crazy, red and green leaf are doing well and I'm so happy that we finally have healthy romaine.  Once again the Swiss chard did not disappoint.

Our snap peas always do better than the green beans we planted them along two walls.  The are just beginning to bloom and I have a feeling we'll have plenty to share.

Garden Update

 Our peppers are ready.  Looks like we'll be watching football with some homemade salsa this weekend. 

The lettuce seeds went in a few weeks ago and I'm just about ready to thin them.  

Finally my favorite.  The rainbow chard never fails. 

On a side note I think I have climbed my pile of paperwork at school and I can finally see the other side of the mountain.  Whew.  Also, Ava's teacher situation has finally been resolved (thankfully) and I've started a blog for other classroom parents who are looking for ways they can help their child at home.  This long Veterans Day weekend could not have come at a better time.  Hello knitting.  Hello book.  Hello kitchen and clean laundry.

Garden Discoveries

Erin was walking by the garden the other day and she spotted the strawberries.  It was more exciting than an Easter egg hunt. 

On one of the strawberries she spotted a ladybug.  Double whammy!

 More goodies are on the way with posts sure to follow. 

Gardening... Again

The gardening gloves I made over the weekend were inspired by my husband's impromptu garden building.  Our first two garden beds have been successful so we decided to expand and build a third.  Although we had talked about where it would go and what plants we wanted it was sort of one of those "I'm in the mood to build it so lets get it done" kind of projects.

Together they planted tomatoes, peppers, cucumber and zuchini.

Currently our mixed greens, spinach, arugula and Swiss chard are doing awesome and the strawberries are just beginning to flower.  Unfortunately we lost the sweat peas and green beans during a freeze and neglected to harvest all the broccoli before it bloomed.  We eat from these beds just about every day and oh how it brings me happiness. 

Gardening and Keepin it Real

I realized this morning that is has been a long time since I posted about our garden.  Every season we try something new and expand it a little.  We added this bed in the fall and it is doing awesome.  I love our garden.  For weeks we've been enjoying fresh arugula salad and soups with rainbow chard. The sweet peas are now beginning to bloom and the broccoli heads are growing bigger every day. 
We've come a long way since our herb garden 2 1/2 years ago (here).  If you've thought about a garden of your own start planning now, spring is around the corner.

Just so you don't get the wrong idea about me I thought I would throw this picture in here to balance things out. One thing I don't spend too much time worrying about is the girl's bedroom.  It is a big fat mess 24/7.  Sure we clean it from time to time so I can vacuum and wash the socks that got shoved behind the bed but otherwise I close the door and get on with my day.  I remember my room looking like this when I was their age and I turned out okay.  As long as the rest of the house is tidy I don't mind that this gets out of control.  So if you had the impression that my girls play with handmade dolls in a pretty little room out of a Pottery Barn think again, we are knee deep in crap made from China.

Salsa - Yum

There are peppers popping up everywhere in the garden. I looked up several salsa recipes but ended up just just throwing the following ingredients into the food processor.

• 6 Anaheim peppers (broiled and peeled, stems removed)
• 4 tomatoes (broiled, peeled and seeded)
• 4 green onions
• 2 cup cilantro (give or take)
• 2 cloves garlic

The result was a pretty darn good spicy salsa.

I'm thinking of something long, green and growing in our garden?

Nope...
Try again ...

Yes! Caterpillars! I called the girls over to see what had been eating our plants and Erin causally said, "Oh, Tomato Horned Caterpillars."

What a smart kid.

Waiting for Watermelon

Okay, so we have a garden but that does not necessarily make us gardeners. I know that there are endless amounts of resources but so far we have relied on trial and error when it comes to growing vegetables. Sort of a garden experiment. I admit this is not the smartest way to grow food but it has been fun.

The watermelon for example, I'm pretty sure it tells you on the seed package how big this plant will grow to be but I like the surprise of checking on it every few days to see how long the vines have gotten. Had we thought about this we would have just planted one plant not two.


They just keep growing and growing but so far no fruit. That seems to be a theme in our garden.

3 Zucchini plants = 0 zucchini
1 Eggplant plant = 0 eggplants
6 pepper plants = 0 peppers


(Zucchini)
These are big healthy plants but we just can't get them to grow anything. I'm pretty sure it has to do with pollination. Or maybe it is a bug problem. Either way I'll get around to Googling a solution but it just has not been a priority these days.

We still are enjoying the Swiss chard that has been growing for a year now. The basil will likely be added to dinner tonight. As for the rest... we'll just have to wait and see.

Giving Green

To celebrate Earth Day I went out to the garden and harvested some goodies for friends at work. They got chard, arugula, sweet peas and grapefruit. It is hard to believe that Jeff built bed this just last August. So much good food already and it is looking like much more to come.

Broccoli Flowers

I'm not sure if these flowers have a name but this is what happens if you let broccoli grow. We had a lot more of this than little edible florets so we pulled out the broccoli to make room for more peppers and zucchini. I couldn't toss these pretty flowers into the trash so I bundled them up and set them on our table. Someday I'll read a book on growing vegetables but the trial and error method is working for now.

From the Garden

Swiss chard from the garden for last night's dinner. This could be the best vegetable we've grown yet.

A Lovely Weekend

What a beautiful weekend we had. First of all, my husband came to my door with a valentine twenty years ago to ask me out. We were married nine years later on February 13th. So this was a very special weekend for us. We did not celebrate with anything special but time together, ordered dinner in and looked through our wedding album. There have been so many great memories already.


Besides all that lovey stuff, the weather in Tucson was spectacular.


Lemons from a neighbor's tree.

Freshly made flowers in a jar.

Spring planting.

Back to the sewing machine.

Garden Update

The garden bed Jeff built last summer is a success (here). Besides the one side that was trampled by our 130 pound dog, the rest is now ready to harvest. My favorite has been the Arugula we planted from seeds that my parents brought us from Italy. We have enjoyed several dinners with with a fresh Italian arugula salad. Oh so good.

We also have red and green Swiss chard but haven't tried it yet.

I spotted this sweet pea today. The first of hopefully many to come.

We had broccoli last year but there is quite a bit more this year. We cut several large crowns last week and still have plenty more.

I did not photograph the herbs but I'm really wishing we planted more Rosemary and Thyme. We use them often. The Basil has died with the cold weather but I just bought some to keep inside until we can plant some more.

It has not been all veggies around here. I also whipped up this batch of chocolate chip cookies recommend by Emily of The Black Apple. I was expecting them to be a little more chewie. Perhaps I should give them another try when these are gone.