Monday, April 16, 2012

how does your garden grow?

Between my kids and other critters my growing things are having a hard time reaching their full potential.
I have the strawberries for the kids to pick- so I am ok with the barely red ones disappearing, but I do not like feeding the whole neighborhood of these guys.  Any suggestions?


Nobody seems to want to both my onions though- they are happy.

This is the first year I have tried to grow cauliflower.  We will see how that works out.  The kids love to much on it.  For the most part that is the kind of garden I am growing- leftover seed kid munching garden.

The basil is not happy- it is yellowish and it's leaves have lacy patterns chewed out of them.

After I fertilized the strawberries perked right up and began producing like... rabbits! (one of our neighborhood buddies taking advantage of my seedlings)

and I grew up thinking these guys were harmless.

This one I did not plant this year of last season- I think it is a flower that the gopher ate mostly up but some survived and pocked his head up in the middle of my garden- surprise! What is it though?

My mint has outgrown it's contained underground pot and is something I now regularly weed.

the raised beds have more protection under, around and love their chicken poop and rice hulls- I would love some more! Yes, both the raised beds and the...well, um... poop. 

cucumbers have had a harder time, but this one in the raised beds hopefully will give us some munchies.

marigolds home harvested.

peas!- lots of peas.

My mom calls these growing things dandelions- (for their tops)

i should make them pay rent


no matter how many times i tell him that the greens ones aren't as tasty- he keeps picking them.

only three plants survive the gopher attacks


and wildflowers are always welcome to interrupt my rows- I want to learn all their names too.

it just rained and everything is a little dusty- I would have thought that they would have been washed clean, but these were some seriously large drops.



sunflower- giant


I want a garden full of old ladders, but the kids would climb them so I will wait till they grow a little taller and the fall is not so long or only use short ladders.

more gopher friends

they make watering hard

cactus I have had since college

drought happy- another keeper

these are very pretty when they are open with their white flowers and purple underskirts.  I want them to follow me when we live someplace else.

cami seems to notice when each bud opens up.  I think she loves spring.


Mostly we have purple irises, which remind me of sister Ivy, but there are a few yellow ones 

We find new holes every morning and Zana (dog) helps dig them up before we get to stomp them in

I don't know what these bushy ones are


the last of the early spring bulbs

Ivy is growing around and hopefully up my old doors.


chard is a very, very easy and hardy addition to the garden- I have no idea how it got there but it grows up beside the kids sandbox.

the roses are in bloom and this color is my favorite.

in the orchard around our home there are a few missing trees that make for nice sunny growing spots that get watered regularly without any effort on m part- so we have some more experimenting going on. 

pumkin


watermelon 

you see! I go out and check on them and the leaves are chewed right off! They didn't even get a chance!  

This seems to be saving them from the rabbits so I am making everyone drink only milk so I can get more cartons.  I will never have a problem with having to drink more milk.  It is my beverage of choice. tasty.

Ornamental gourds were the most successful orchard planting. I think it will be fun to watch them grow.  They need to climb up and I am looking into a pallet trellis.  It would be cheap.

this is my favorite seedling photo capture because of the seeds outerwear still hanging on.

coloring eggs





I didn't like that Easter came and went without staining our fingers the least tiny bit.
So, while the boys slept we learned about color mixing and such for our preschool session- we used raw eggs and then scrambled them for dinner.  Camilla gobbled up her pretty Easter eggs. Then we saved the shells for another art project we saw at her cousins'.