A hurry-up harvest

It's supposed to freeze tonight, 20 degrees or lower here, which is COLD!  The kids and I got in the garden and did a quick harvest to try to save what was growing before it gets wiped out.  I'm happy and surprised by what we grew--we'll definitely have to do a fall garden again!

Hurray for kale, spinach, cilantro, and a few leftover radishes! :)

Bountiful

I enjoyed walking around in our backyard this morning taking pictures of some of the delicious things growing.  There isn't going to be a huge harvest, but what we've got is great!

More to come--these apricots aren't quite ready. The trick is to get to them before the birds do!

Banana peppers! with snap peas struggling behind them. The roma tomatoes and zucchini plants are doing great, too!

We're finally figuring out the term "two-year growth." We cut the grapevine all the way back last spring and were shocked to still get a nice growth of green vines and leaves that year.  This year the leaves and the vines came back along with a LOT of grapes! So fun!

What a difference from last year...

Oh, man, our garden is growing!  The weeds are growing, too, but that's okay.  We've already eaten lots of radishes.  I'm going to throw some of the cilantro in a salsa today, and before long we'll have some zucchini and tomatoes and snap peas, too.  The kids ate some cute little strawberries off that plant over the weekend.  The green onions have been a total bust, but everything else is thriving!  It is AWESOME!!!

I really hope these zucchini plants hang in there--I am dreaming of chocolate zucchini bread!

This makes me happy, too.  Last year we had one tiny little cluster of cilantro--this year is better!

Spring!

Aside from the allergy issues that seem to get worse for me every year (itchy throat, watery eyes, sneezing), I really do love this time of year.  Here's one reason why:

I spy radishes, tomato plants, zucchini, apricots, grapevines, marigolds, roses, strawberry plants, snap peas, and a basil plant (that one's from the store and just thrown in for fun!)

Time will tell how long this beauty will last, and if our garden will continue to grow.  For now, we're soaking it up!  I was most surprised by the little apricot trees out by the pool.  I'd noticed the green leaves, but when I got up close there were little green apricots growing EVERYWHERE!  So cool!

I do have some questions for more experienced gardeners out there:

--what do you do about the little green/white bugs on roses?  I think they're aphids, but I'm not sure.

--what do you do to keep the birds away from your fruit trees?  As soon as those apricots ripened last year, we were lucky to get a handful or two, while the birds ate everything else. :(

Random funny:  Wade came to my bedside first thing this morning.  His eyes were opened wide, his smile was stretched ear to ear, and his face was inches from mine.  "Do you know what TODAY is, Mom?"    We both said, "Harry Potter!"  (We're just a little excited about the blu-ray coming out today...can you tell?)



$60 experiment

Our 2011 "experiment" is finally in!  Rhiannon and Wade were wonderful garden helpers!  They enjoyed making the row markers and planted most of the seeds. 

This year we've got three things going for us--we planted a whole two months earlier than we did last year, we "reclaimed" the soil a bit with grass clippings and some super nice Miracle Gro "garden soil," and we said a prayer for its success when we finished! 

We learn something new each time we plant a garden and try to go into it with a "this is an experiment" mentality, but I really do hope this one will take off.  (I miss our 2006 extravaganza that was a dream of a harvest!)  This year we planted 4 early-girl tomato plants and then two rows each of zucchini, cilantro, radishes, snap peas, and green onions. 





We also planted some marigolds and a strawberry plant near the grapevine and roses,
just for good luck. :)