Tag Archives: Garden

Summer Doings

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I know I’ve been horrible at posting for months.

So, what have we been up to this summer?

Take a look and see!

We went camping:

We traveled to Nevada to work, see family, and spend time on the Homestead (click or hover over pictures to see captions):

preventative maintenance on the drainage ditches so they don’t wash out the driveway.
My little helper
Can you see the orange markings on the dirt? We started laying out the house!
Tea time with my sister and nieces
Working at the Ropes Course.
Working at the Ropes Course.

We worked on house plans:Exterior views

And found a building almost the exact size of the one we are going to build:20150610_155031It’s cool (and helpful) to see the dimensions in real life rather than on paper.

We harvested cherries from our very own cherry tree:

Dad and Flower Girl planted the garden.20150609_161319

Princess Girl and her BFF ran a lemonade stand and made quite a lot of money!20150613_170558

One of my sisters came to visit and we made raspberry jam after picking the raspberries from her extended family’s farm!20150701_103628

We had some weird stuff happen in the chicken coop:20150702_102452

We were messy like a typical 2 and a half year old (there’s STILL specks of paint in the bathroom from this!):20150702_153057

We had our first tomato (and a couple more since then). Mmmmmm….

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We played with sparklers to celebrate the 4th of July:

We traveled back to Nevada once again, then to Missouri for a family reunion (click or hover for captions).

Nevada beauty
Our “Shuttle” van which carried 7 people to Missouri and back.
Looooong road trip (34 hours on the road!)
Full van!
It’s my restaurant! (Almost spelled it right, anyway 🙂 )
Princess Girl and some of her cousins whom she just met.
Havin’ fun out on the lake.
Havin’ fun out on the lake.
Missouri sunset on the White River.
Cousins having some fun!
The Castle Rock family on the salt flats in Utah.

We did other typical summer type stuff (click or hover for captions):

Handstands!
Summer camp. Princess Girl is in that crowd somewhere and this Mamma’s heart was squeezing tight at the prospect of letting go, if for only 5 days.
Playing in the fountains at a park.
Playing in the fountains at a park.
Taking walks in the lush greenery of the PNW.
Hanging out on the nice shady deck in the warmth of the afternoon.
Hanging out on the nice shady deck in the warmth of the afternoon.
Hanging out on the nice shady deck in the warmth of the afternoon.

And we traveled back to Nevada once again so I can work –  (click or hover for captions).

Checking on and watering out apple trees.
Hoeing the weeds out of the driveway.
Working on the ropes course.
Putting up a tipi at the ropes course.
Putting up a tipi at the ropes course.

So, you know. We’ve kept busy.

🙂

Fresh salad!

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Fresh salad, straight from our garden/yard. Yum! I needed to thin out the lettuce from the small garden, I picked some of the over-wintered-but-not-doing-so-well spinach from the big garden, and I found some dandelion greens in the yard. I had a head of purchased iceburg in the fridge and add to all that some borage flowers which just started blooming and you have a gorgeous salad almost too pretty to eat. Almost, but not quite. 🙂

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I love that dandelions are considered a weed, yet they are edible and good for you. And the borage is a volunteer which comes back every year.

Edit: For the health of you and your family, be sure if you are harvesting any wild edibles that they come from a trusted source not treated with any harsh chemicals! We don’t use any herbicides or pesticides or even any fertilizer on our lawn, so I know the dandelions are safe to eat.

How to preserve marigolds the “easy” way

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The no-work, no-fuss way to get perfectly preserved marigold blooms:

1.) Have a child

2.) Grow Marigolds or otherwise acquire them

3.) When child is around 2 – 3 years old, buy said child a clear plastic beverage bottle

4.) Leave said child, in possession of said beverage bottle, in the care of husband

5.) Find said beverage bottle in toy box two weeks later with perfectly preserved marigold blooms inside

*Disclaimer: Author does not claim that step #1 or the intervening years between #1 and #3 is easy, only the end result of having preserved flowers, without having the do the work yourself. The author does not know why you would want to preserve your marigold blooms in such a way or how long they will last, she is just offering a unique and easy way to do it. 🙂

(This article first appeared on Maridy’s personal blog in 2008.)

The city…grrr (And a garden update)

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City living can get me down sometimes. Sure, there’s beauty here. I run across it all around. Like this lovely little scene just down the street.

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Looks like a beautiful spot to explore and maybe have a picnic. Until you look to the side. And see this.

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I understand why they have to set boundaries and protect the natural places. But the limits can be stifling to this country girl. So, I come home to my little garden and try to shut out the sounds of the city and dream of the day we’ll be back at Castle Rock.

And speaking of my garden, here’s some recent pictures. It’s just about time to start thinning the radishes and lettuce. I actually picked and ate a couple of the lettuce seedlings which had somehow* gotten planted amongst some of the carrots. It was a delicious foretaste of the salads we’ll be eating in just a little while.

*somehow – like maybe because a two year old was helping me plant? 😉

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Seeing my little garden and how well it’s coming along helps me to better endure our time here. Gives me a purpose outside the house. And will eventually give us healthy food to eat. A win-win situation.

Garden Plot Update #2

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20150217_101044Our first garden visitor!

So, I mentioned before that we planted our seeds on Feb 17th. What I didn’t show are our garden markers. I have used popsicle/craft sticks before with so-so results. Oh one hand they are cheap and easy to use. You write the veggie on the end and stick it in the ground. But I found that the sun and rain fades the lettering after a couple months. Just fine if you only want to know which row you planted your carrots vs onions in until they grow and you can tell them apart by their leaves. Not so good if you want to permanently mark your 4 different varieties of tomatoes so you can remember which type is which when it comes time for harvest. So, I thought I’d try a little experiment.

20150217_114825First, I wrote the info on the stick as usual. I used both sides. The front has what it is. The back has the expected harvest date so I can remind myself when I’m out in the garden and don’t have to refer back to my packets or journal

20150217_114854Then, I coated the end of the stick in clear nail polish. The polish soaked into the stick and dried very quickly, so I am hoping it will keep the letters from fading. At least until I can remember which variety of lettuce I planted where! I guess we’ll just have to see how it does.

20150217_123501And there’s the newly planted (and marked!) garden.

A friend of mine expressed some skepticism about planting so early in the season, but here’s one of the reasons I wasn’t concerned. I have shower doors! And they fit almost perfectly on my new bed. I guess this means I have a cold frame. I’m still working on a system to cover the gap in the middle, but for now, they work admirably.

20150221_132523They help heat up the soil during the day to give my little plants a boost, and they hold in just enough heat at night that the slight frosts we’ve had don’t touch the seedlings (even though everything that I have planted right now can tolerate lights frosts.)

20150221_184551And, if it gets really cold, the doors make it a cinch to cover the bed.

20150305_140335They are easily propped open so that I can work in there or to let out excess heat in case we have some really warm sunny days (hahaha! warm sunny days in the springtime in the Pacific Northwest? I crack myself up!)

20150304_103200Wait, what was I just saying about warm, sunny days??

At any rate, the shower doors also serve two more VERY important roles. One, they keep the free-ranging hens out of my seedlings!

And two, they provide the perfect table for a two year old to play with her dinosaurs and a pail of water. 🙂20150305_141309-1

Stay warm everyone. And God bless!

Garden plot update #1

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March is here and today was absolutely beautiful out. I so enjoyed going out and watering my little seedlings. Today I noticed that the brussels sprouts and kale had sprouted. I figured it was high time to finally write a post about my little garden plot. My father-in-law has his usual plans for the “big garden” and said that I could have a little space next to the back deck for a garden of my own. About a month ago, here’s what my little space looked like.

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Yep, that area piled high with bags, buckets, and junk. I started cleaning it up with eagerness.

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See, looking better already.

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I found the buckets a new home and gave the honeysuckle a haircut because I planned on hanging some containers on the fence. Then I used some of the fence wood I found on freecycle.org (which we also previously used for our chicken run) to construct a raised box for the garden bed.

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How did I ever do construction without pneumatic tools?!

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It was sooo easy. Bam, bam, bam and it’s done!

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The box ended up being 5 foot square. Twenty-five square feet of garden goodness. Not much when I’ve been used to at least 5 times that amount, but I’ll take whatever I can get. I also have grand plans for a bunch of containers. We’ll see how those turn out. I have never done container gardening before.

So, the evening I got the garden box built I ran out to the store and bought bags of garden soil to put in my box. I hated to spend that kind of money on it since I know there are far cheaper ways to obtain soil, but I was too impatient to figure it out. I was even too impatient to wait for the next day to empty the bags into the box. So I rigged up a light and worked into the dark.

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A nicely filled garden bed waiting for seeds.

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It was such a mild night out, that I was able to kick back and put my feet up for a little while and enjoy my endeavors.

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And speaking of feet…I am loving gardening in my rain boots. I loved that I didn’t have to worry about dirt getting into my shoes as I spread it around. I know this may seem like a no-brainer to you all, but I’ve never had good rain/much boots before.

And here’s the prepared bed (along with containers on the fence and you can see a few on the table – more on those later.)

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Watch this space. A couple months from now I’m hoping it will look vastly different, namely greener! 🙂

The very next day (February 17th) the girls and I got busy planting.

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Such good helpers!

Well, that’s enough for now. I have several more pictures about my garden, but it’s late and I’m tired.

Until next time.

Growth!

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I have yet to write up a post about my garden plot and container garden plans, so I know I’m jumping the gun by showing you these pics, but I just can’t help myself. Is there anything as exciting to a gardener as the first sprouts?

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Do you have anything growing where you’re at yet?

Maridy

“I lift up my eyes to the hills, where does my help come from? My help comes from the LORD, the maker of heaven and earth.” Ps 121:1-2

Ok, Now I’m excited

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I found this graphic through a Pinterest pin. Now I’m excited. I really could garden year round here in Portland. I need to get some seeds in the ground! 🙂

As a comparison, here’s a graphic for where we lived in Nevada.

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Zone 5 – where we used to live and will again! http://veggieharvest.com/calendars/zone-5.html

Eventually I want a greenhouse on the homestead in Nevada, or at the very least some cold frames so I CAN extend the growing season. There is a small part of me that feels as if it’s cheating to have it so easy up here. On the other hand, there’s a very big part of me that’s happy to not have to deal with all that for just a little while longer. 🙂

Since we don’t have enough south facing window space here and not really any place in the house to start seeds anyway, we’ll be purchasing tomato and pepper starts, but I think most everything else we want to grow can go directly in the ground as seed. And I found out that our last frost date is March 15th, not April 15th like I previously thought. That’s a full two and a half months before the Nevada Homestead! And since even the winters are mild here, things like lettuce and broccoli should be able to survive the full winter weather even without cold frames. Oh, this is exciting!

What about you? Can you garden in the winter where you live?

I’m not ready for this!

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It’s February 2nd. And Spring is starting in the Pacific Northwest. Shoots are popping up all over the place.

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Grocery stores are selling blooming tulips, buttercups, hyacinths, primrose, and pansies. The trees are starting to put out buds.

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And this is completely normal. Back home in Nevada, the same thing is happening, but everyone there knows that the temps will dip again and everything will die back and wait for real Spring. Here in the Portland area, Spring really is on it’s way.

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It’s exciting, knowing that  our growing season is starting. My father-in-law and I were comparing seeds today. Later this week, we are going to break out the graphing paper and start plotting the garden. I may actually, finally, get a good pea harvest by starting early. But it’s a daunting task to be learning everything new. The climate here is completely different, and I have to learn a new plot of land: what’s the soil like, where does the sun hit in different seasons, where’s the best place for certain veggies, etc.

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I want to take advantage of the extended growing season here. If we were planning to stay long term, I would look into learning to grow year-round. In fact, I want to do that back in Nevada, too, it would just be easier here in Oregon. But we’re hoping this is our only winter here. So, as we head into spring, I want to take advantage of living here, get some things planted early, grow things that have a hard time growing back home because of the climate. But it’s only February 2nd and I already feel like I’m behind the curve. I’m not sure I’m ready for this. But I’m sure gonna try! 🙂

Maridy

“I lift up my eyes to the hills, where does my help come from? My help comes from the LORD, the maker of heaven and earth.” Ps 121:1-2

A “new” way to wind a garden hose

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Yesterday, I experienced one of those moments that make you say No Way! I was winding the garden hose back into its spot on the ground. It kinda sorta did its own thing and wound into a figure 8 rather than a circle. But here’s the thing,  as it was being put down, I didn’t have to twist or wind the hose to get it to lay flat. In fact, the whole thing laid down with nary a twist in the entirey. Which means, that in theory, when I pull the hose out next time, it shouldn’t twist and coil and kink.

Did I really just discover the secret to un-kinked hoses? Will it unwind with the same ease? Will my gardening life hereafter be blessed with free flowing water?

Have any of you experienced this? Am I really just now discovering this? Is this the “right” way to wind hoses and I’m just now learning about it??? Or was it a total fluke and it won’t make a difference?