Cool Beans!

First ever Ben and Jerry's store cone - Cherries Garcia for Ian!
(And I just stole a bite of Daddy's cone!)

Cookie dough and Brownie Batter for Nate and Dave!

Ian's very well nurtured pumpkin
To-mah-toes. Finally ripening.

Our only two peppers - at least that makes it worth the cost of the plant.

Every 2-3 days we harvest our bean and carrots. Think it's time to get out the foodsaver!

Waiting, waiting, waiting

We have been waiting, waiting, waiting for veggies to grow and mature in our garden, especially those darn pole beans that have been growing beautifully. Well, today we searched again and voila, we found about 5 mature beans. Two tomato plants a have lots of plump and green tomatoes and our yellow pepper plant has two peppers that are slowing coming around. And the squash, that pathetic squash that has been tiny and troubling all along, is giving us a bit of hope. The zucchini is still flowering, but the yellow have popped out a few little fellows. I've given up all hope of having cucumbers. It just wasn't meant to be.

(Oh look, you can see the whole Banzai in the background of the bean plant picture.)

How does your garden grow?

Garden update: Lettuce, onion, radish, peas, tomatoes, yellow pepper, strawberries all up growing. Squash, zucchini, carrots, cucumber planting soon!

Crisis Garden or Ecco Chic?

Fertilizer. Check. Dairy Compost. Check. Popsicles. Check. Hottest day of the year. Check check. Garden prep is underway. Dave tilled. I sifted. Ian pounded and got very, very sticky! We have tomato starts (don't forget to say to-mah-to at this house!), pea and lettuce seeds ready to be planted. Oh, and a yellow pepper for Dave. We are going to try out the water cages since it is a little soon to plant those starts. Here is a link to a great planting calendar...http://www.portlandnursery.com/plants/docs/veggies/veggie_calendar.pdf

The Making of Greendrops

In Ian's favorite book "I Will Never NOT EVER Eat a Tomato" (which you MUST pronounce to-mah-to, not to-may-to!), Lola will not eat peas. But Charlie convinces her that they they are not peas, the are green drops from Greenland, and they are incredibly rare. Lola nibbles a few and discovers that "oh, quite tasty."

A few weeks ago Ian came home from school with a tiny sprouting seed that we later discovered was a pea plant. Today we transplanted the growing sprouts into a pot dubbed Ian's Garden Growing Pot. Perhaps my hopes are high that the child who requested I remove the 'green balls' from his soup a few weeks ago will taste the peas that will hopefully grow, but I gotta try!

A Great(ful) Harvest

"Let's make fruit salad today mom!" he says as we are meandering the produce section at Costco. "Sure, sweetie," I answer. "And mom, we HAVE TO get strawberries from my garden!" Ugh. After being gone for nearly 2 weeks and God knows what kind of heat and birds have gotten to the garden (there is no direct water source since it is a raised bed, I hand water it when we are home). I reluctantly drive home, barely stopping the car before Nate heads up the hill to check his bounty.

Great bounty of berries. I'm grateful.

In other news, we stopped by the pet store today to get a couple new African Dwarf Frogs for the fish tank. Their names are Rock and Roll. Did you hear the story of how we lost Leap? (don't feel bad Dave, it was NOT your fault). I'm out Grocery Gaming one night. I come home and the boys are just headed to bed. "Tell mom about what we found in our kitchen tonight, boys," Dave says. A frog! Really, a frog? Darn kids are always leaving the screen door open blah blah blah. So they shoo'd the frog out the door and off the patio into the ivy.

A couple days later I am cleaning the tank and I can't find Leap, only Ribbit Ribbit.

Guess who escaped out the tiny cord hole in the back? ADFs only live in water, but they will try to escape if given the chance. May he rest in peace!

Master gardener in training

What began as 5 small Everbearing strawberry plants last summer has grown into a huge strawberry garden. Nate has been tending this garden and we are eagerly awaiting the ripening of the berries. Here he is watering his crop after a long day at Zoo Camp.