Our garden started out looking like this. Bare, cold, gray, yet full of promise.



On June 23, it looked like this. Much more full and lush (although not all of the plants have grown as well as the ones on the back right.



These beds furthest to the west contain quite a few different plants. The one furthest back has a variety of lettuces in it that were planted from seed. The closer one has broccoli, cauliflower, anaheim peppers, cayenne peppers, and jalapeno peppers all planted from seed. It also has eggplant plants that my mother-in-law purchased for me. I had put some eggplant seeds in the bed but they did not sprout.



The bed farthest back has peas, beans, and cantaloupe all from seed. The bed closest has red and white onions, scallions, and carrots all from seed (which you can barely see in the picture).



The bed farthest has sugar peas, pumpkins, squash, pole beans, corn, and cucumbers all from seed. The bed closest has ladybug tomatoes and yellow tomatoes. The ladybugs are from seed, but the yellow tomatoes I purchased as a plant because all of my cherries and beefsteaks died in a storm.

Companion planted around the various beds are marigolds, two kinds of parsley, two kinds of basil, oregano, cilantro, and dill. I believe I planted more, but I can't remember and I'm not going out there right now to find out. ;)

Last night, we had our first meal that had ingredients from our garden in it. I picked some sugar snap peas, shelling peas, and two kinds of beans (burgundy and green) to include in our frozen mixed vegetable for our vegan shepherd's pie. I took the vegan recipe from the cookbook Quick-Fix Vegetarian by Robin Robertson. This book has recipes that really take about thirty minutes to cook and prep (sometimes a little more, sometimes a lot less). I absolutely love her Shepherd's Pie with couscous topping, but since the recipe is copywritten, I'm not going to be able to share it with you. Instead, I'll share two pictures.





Instead of plain couscous, I topped it with tri-colored couscous. It looks festive and it tastes wonderful.

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From my house to yours, happy Fourth of July!

Labels: cooking, gardening

There are two things that I like that will be highlighted in this post: 1) baths and 2) nature-inspired goodies.

When I still lived in Des Moines and went to college at DMACC, I took a human biology class from a woman named Donna Julseth. I thought she was a really nice, interesting, and intelligent woman. By the end of the class I learned that she had her own business called Prairieland Herbs. Donna and her daughter grow a wide variety of herbs and flowers which they then turn into herbal products such as bath teas, lotions, chapsticks, shampoo bars, massage oils and more. I hadn't actually tried any of her goods until we went to Living History Farms a week ago. While I was there, I bought a lavender and mint bath tea. It was fabulous! It colored the water just like a tea you'd drink, and the smell of lavender and mint wafted through the air as I relaxed. Now I really want to try more of her products, or perhaps learn to make a few of my own.

Already I buy soap from a local soap maker. She doesn't have a webpage (what a shame!) but you can buy her products, Plant Me A Garden Soaps, at Indian Creek Nature Center. Her soaps smell wonderful and get me squeaky clean. She also sells lavender cookies from her herb garden at our local farmer's market. They are amazingly good and fragrant.

One of my friends, Julie, is currently working on her social work masters degree. She works at a gift shop that uses mentally disabled individuals to create soaps, lotions, and other products. Shamefully, I don't know much about it because my big trap never closes long enough for her to get a word in edge wise. I'm working on it. This shop sells their products at Living History Farms as well, and I picked up a luffa lavender scrub. I have no idea how they made it, but at a wild guess I'd say they took a cross-section of a luffa fruit and filled it with lavender scented soap. It works as an excellent exfoliater as the luffa is a little scratchy and coarse. I wouldn't use it on any delicate parts.

Of course, for the past year since I watched a gardening show about the luffa plant, I've wanted to grow my own. I'm also interested in growing all my own herbs and drying them. So, perhaps some day in the future, I'll be making my own luffa soaps and herbal lotions. Wouldn't that be fun?

Labels: crafts, environment, gardening

Spring has truly arrived, and with it, we've got mushrooms!



I love mushrooms, for some reason.

This weekend was another busy one. On Saturday, my sister came in to town to pick up the rest of her things from our basement. We enlisted her help in getting the last load of concrete block for our raised beds, and Aaron also grabbed another load of compost. We've figured out that we need approximately two more truck loads and we'll be done building the raised beds.



As you can see, there are now two levels of block on the beds. The front three and the back left bed still need more compost, while the back two that are covered with plastic are full of compost and have been planted (seeded?). They are currently covered with some plastic which will be going up on those hoops to create mini-greenhouses. All of the parts are reusable so we can use them next spring, and the one after, and the one after.



The pipe goes into wooden blocks cut to fit into the concrete blocks (go Aaron!) in order to make them more sturdy. The wood was scrap lumber, but the pipes had to be bought new. They will be used again (as I mentioned), so at least it isn't a complete waste. We need to buy some sort of t-fitting and stick some rigid pipe in between the two hoops and then place that plastic over the top.

I'm hoping when I design the rabbit hutch, I will be able to utilize round poles or dowels that will go into those blocks in order to keep the hutch steady. Unfortunately, I think the size difference from bed to bed in the way the holes were cut will make that impossible. I'm still trying to come up with a good flexible system.

Oh, I've companion planting planned all of the beds and the holes around the beds will be host to marigolds, nastartium, herbs, and other great companion plants.

Fortunately, the weekend wasn't all work (although I did lose two pounds just from all the shoveling of that compost).



Aaron and I enjoyed some time in our hammock. Aaron & Jen trivia - I bought Aaron this hammock for father's day last year, and it is where he proposed to me.



Nate also got his first ever bike ride. He was extremely excited and refused to get off. Unfortunately, we don't have training wheels, so it meant that Aaron had to wheel him around for quite a bit of time. They both had a blast!

How was your weekend?

Labels: gardening, mommy blogging, outdoors, random

I keep thinking that I want to move out to the country, get 40-50 acres of land, and maybe start up a CSA Farm. I want to be self-sufficient and maybe even supportive of other people in our community.

After Melinda posted this article in her blog, I started thinking about what I really want. I want to have local sustainably farmed chicken that was humanely butchered (and I want to watch it happen at least once), I want local eggs, I want local milk (be it goat or cow) that I can then make other products out of, I want to have horses, and I want to have my own space for growing my food.

What do I have now? I have a CSA Farm down the road that sells local chickens and eggs (I'd have to do research to see if they are humanely butchered and such), I could probably find local milk somewhere already, Miracles in Motion would love to stable a horse that is sponsored by me that they can use in their programs, and I already have space for growing my own food.

When I started looking at this house, a few voices said that the backyard was too small to have a large garden. I chimed in that there was a city park not even two blocks away. If I stand up on something and peer over my privacy fence, I can see the playground equipment. Right now there is more than enough space for my children to run around and play on the old metal swingset that someone left here when they sold the house. And as I expand my backyard into a garden landscape, they will grow older and need more space, and scamper right up into that playground with kids from the surrounding areas. They'll be part of the community.

Voices also said that there wasn't enough storage space in the house. My response was that I didn't need to have so much "stuff!" I buy sparingly, although still more than people living in severe poverty, and I weed stuff out occasionally to send to Good Will or garage sale. I buy things only when I need them or they'd make a significant difference in the quality of my life. I buy with an eye for long-term durability, the best sustainable materials I can find, a surviveable cost, and usability. It can be argued that some of my purchases aren't perfect or ideal, but neither am I!

Voices in my head tell me that I need to have cable so I can watch Food Network and some good movies. The reality is that I watch movies on Netflix, whose "play now" movies are free and the selection is getting larger, and all the spare time I have from not playing World of Warcraft and not watching cable is allowing me to work on my garden, read books from the library, and attend Creative Gardening lectures (future post on that). I'm probably the youngest member of our small town's Garden Club, choosing to learn from women (and men) in the community instead of that one channel on television (see, I don't even remember the name).

I can get the things I need from my community, without needing to isolate myself. I need to know where to look, sure, but that isn't too hard. There are two CSA Farms in the area, and I'm sure within thirty minutes I could call and leave messages asking about their chickens and eggs, and how they manage them. If they aren't willing to answer me, there are many more CSA Farms that deliver to the Iowa City Farmer's Market, and I could easily make a trip down there once or twice a month to get food.

The lesson to be taken from this, I think, is that I don't need to strive for more land and more space for me to do everything on my own. My community is here, welcoming me, and it has a wealth of resources. Yes, some things are not readily availble in my community (like 100% grass fed beef), but they may be available within a few hours, and perhaps they might even deliver to Iowa City restaurants and be willing to allow me to pick it up in the parking lot of said restaurants (whaddya know, they do!).

I was talking to someone at the psychology lab, where I work. They mentioned that they were morally outraged by what goes on in slaughter houses and the environmental damage, but they were too lazy to do anything about it. Too... lazy. I remarked, "You know you can find another source that isn't as bad, right?" They just shrugged.

What do you think? Do you ever think about what goes on for you to get the food that you eat? Or do you just shrug it off? Do you buy locally (which isn't necessarily the solution, as many people have pointed out)? Have you even thought about it?

Do you look within your community first to solutions to your problems? Do you feel isolated from your community? I know I did, until I started attending more community events. I'm starting to recognize faces from the library's story hour to the easter egg hunt to the town park. Soon, I think I might be browsing the vegetable selection in the local family-owned grocery store and be able to say hi and ask how their children are doing.

And that's a nice feeling.

Labels: environment, gardening

Aaron and I always have a bunch of projects going on. I don't know if it is because he likes to do stuff, or if it's because I'm obsessive and have to do stuff. Honestly, I think it's the latter. After all, Aaron will be the first to say that his favorite thing to do is... nothing.

I've got some serious plans for this window, and it's sister.



My mother-in-law (to-be) and father-in-law just finished replacing some old windows in their kitchen. You got it - this is one of them. I snapped this sucker up as soon as I heard about it, because I've got plans. I want to build a raised bed on the back of the garage the same size as this window (and another for its twin) and then place the window on top to create two cold frames.

Right now I'm looking at this location, as its about the only one I've got.



Imagine stretched across that back two cold frames and a big compost bin. That's the plan, anyway.

Of course, I can't start on it until I finish the raised beds first... Three more truck loads of compost (one mixed with some top soil I think) and two truck loads of cinder block!

Labels: gardening, outdoors

I received my seeds from Cook's Garden last week some time and got some of them started (a little late, but better than never!). The broccoli, cauliflower, and bulb onion seedlings are just now poking their heads out of the soil.









Exciting!

Labels: gardening

This weekend was a busy one. It was finally nice enough outside to work on projects, with just a lingering bit of carefully hidden ice and snow in corners of the yard. I'm not sure what the temperature was, but when we got started moving that cinder block, I certainly didn't feel the need for my sweater anymore.

Friday

After dinner we borrowed my in-laws (to-be) truck, since they are so incredibly good to us, and drove over to Menards to get 108 cinder blocks and some 1" chicken wire. When we got there, we found out that the cinder block was on sale for $1.19 a block and a 50' roll of the chicken wire cost about $20. The first layer of our raised beds then rang up to around $150. Each block is 8"x8"x16", so we'll need at least two blocks high to get within 12-24" in height.

Only sixty of the blocks would fit in the truck at a time, without overburdening the poor thing, so we got right to it. Hauling those blocks seemed to take forever, but in retrospect it wasn't so long. By the time we got home at nine, I was pooped, and just wanted to go lay down to "na-ne" just like the kids were. Aside - Nate has always called it na-ne because when he was a baby, he couldn't say night-night.

Back on track. Aaron can never just let something lie - oh no, if it needs to be cleaned, picked up, moved, brought indoors, it's done right away. So he'd have nothin' but cleaning out that entire truck of the cinder block.

That was the last thing I remember that night.

Saturday

The first thing I did when I woke up was go outside and look at my beds. I unrolled my chicken wire, grabbed some wire-cutter thingies (hey, I know what they look like, I just don't know their technical name), and my tape measure. Last week I'd made a to-scale blueprint of sorts of our back yard and plotted where I wanted these beds to be. I got to layin' out wire, cutting wire, and hauling cinder blocks into the exact spot I wanted. I was going to get some pictures of this process, but I got lazy. In essence, I rolled out the wire (to keep predators from coming up into my beds and eating my rabbits or my vegetables) and then just plopped the cinder block on top of the wire. I filled in the center of the beds with card board boxes to suppress that damn creeping charlie (hopefully). I got about two beds done before I called Wanda and asked her if she was ready to go pick up a load of compost.

While I was laying out beds and watching children, Aaron had run over to Menards and gotten the rest of the block. He got back before I called Wanda, and I helped unload the cinder block. Wanda and I ran over to the solid waste facility and picked up a load of FREE compost.

I came back home and spread that stuff out into the beds (with Aaron helping and doing most of it, since my sister arrived unexpectedly to pick up her couches and stuff she was storing in our house).



Aaron finished up one of his projects from before winter hit - getting some lattice up on the sides of the firewood holder.



It was a productive weekend.

Sunday

I rested.

Labels: gardening, outdoors

If you remember (or if I told you), you may know that the seeds I started a few weeks back were from last years seed packets. I didn't store them correctly, and they were expired. I wasn't sure if I'd be able to pull them off, mostly because I know nothing about seeds, so I thought I'd try to plant them and see what happened. We're still weeks (many, many) from the last frost date, but I was curious. And if I'm curious... well, you know. Nothing gets in my way.


The majority of the seeds are growing well.

One of my goals is to teach my children as many skills as possible to make them as well-rounded as I can. My son already "cooks" with me (I describe what I'm doing while he watches, and sometimes there are parts he can lend a hand), as one example. Lately, Nate has really been into his version of gardening. We stuck some apple seeds into a yogurt cup, as can be seen above (it's the dark green bunch of plants). I have no idea what to do with it now, though! Our latest project was making the rye grass for Easter.


Nate's is the one that has hardly any growth. He has a problem with over-watering. Unfortunately, all the herbs behind it died. I think I'm going to have to buy a plant at the nursery to pot into large pots, because I can't seem to start them from seeds, ever.

On the other hand, the lettuce from the lettuce project has gotten HUGE. I fed the first leaf to Kai and Timothy, today.


I am not sure what to do now, because if I harvest all of this to feed them, it will take months before the lettuce grows enough to feed them again. Hmm. I've got to find a better solution.

Last, I leave you with a look outdoors. We live on a sledding hill and while the snow has melted on all the streets in the rest of the town, ours is stubbornly hanging on. We've got frozen ice hills and slushy water ruts which make driving over it feel like four-wheeling. Nate and Sammi love to hum "mmmm-uh-mmmm-uh-mmmm-uh" as they go over it, making that vibrating noise that kids so love. (Think: blowing into a fan.)


Is the snow ever going to melt off our street? Is that last frost date ever going to come?

Luckily, the kids and I got out for a forty-minute walk yesterday and it was superb. We saw and heard birds, saw clumps of snow fall crashing to the ground, and patches of dead grass here and there. Spring is coming. Finally.

(P.S. Want a laugh? You have to be willing to see a large amount of cleavage and a huge arm. Sammers is resting her chin on my bosom while she watches a movie. No wonder she prefers cuddling with me!)

Labels: gardening, lettuce project

Living in a Toxic World just posted a blog regarding how animals impact the environment. This was something that I was just talking about with Aaron the other day. The conversation went something like this:

Jen: Aaron, you know how I've been working really hard to eliminate a lot of animal products from our diet because of the environmental consequences?
Aaron: Yeah, how could I forget...
Jen: I had a disturbing thought. Maybe I'm just becoming really weird, instead of just kind of weird. ...but, you know, Ra-ra eats commercial cat food. That has meat in it. So, even though us humans are trying to get off the CAFO food... Ra-ra is still eating it.
Aaron: Don't worry, he's only eating the downer cows and sick horses.

I laughed heartily (because I have a screwed up sense of humor like that, and often laugh at inappropriate things), and then started wondering about how I could reduce all of my animals' dependence on commercialized products, just as I'm reducing my family's.

I have three pets, currently.

Lord Kai Ramzeez Ta'Rkais was my very first pet. I had other pets as a child through my parents, but I purchased Kai for my birthday back in 2001 (January 27th, to be exact). He was named for a couple of people I really liked from an online game I played at the time. Kai is a bearded dragon, which is a desert animal from Australia. Beardies are extremely friendly and playful, although I never take Kai out of his tank. Before I had kids and a huge house, I'd let him run around in the living room, but now there are too many places for him to hide and things to eat or hurt him. Beardies do get stressed when their habitat changes, too, so while I'd like to get him a larger tank (he's in a 55 gallon right now), for now he just stays in his. He eats a combination of crickets and lettuce/vegetable mix.





Timothy was purchased when I was pregnant with Nate, in late 2003 or early 2004. Red-eared slider turtles can be found all over the southern United States. He is probably the favorite of people who come to visit, because he eats comets, a type of gold fish, which swim all around the tank. Whenever we are eating dinner, Timothy is trying to as well, and it is highly entertaining to watch. He eats a mixture of lettuce/vegetables, comets, snails, and red wigglers.



Our third pet is Ra-Ra Alexander, our cat. Ra-ra was purchased when Nate was turning a year old as a birthday present. Nate and Sammi both love Ra-ra, and pet him often. The only two words Sammi says? Hi and "mauw," which is her version of meow. Ra-ra is now a fatty mcfatterson cat, although he used to be a cute little fluff ball.





I've had a variety of pets over the years, but I've pawned off most of them (or they've died), and I really don't want any more. I don't know what I will do when the three I have die, because I love them all so incredibly. But I don't want to add to the mix at all.

So, what measures am I taking, you ask? And please, feel free to add any comments on my choices, suggestions or criticisms. I'm still learning, here.

Kai:
Part of my lettuce project of growing lettuce indoor this winter was aimed at feeding Kai and Timothy. I have learned from the project: I need a lot more space to grow any amount of lettuce that would be capable of feeding them; Kai does not like frozen vegetables/lettuce. I had mixed up a blend of veggies and lettuce, shredded them in a food processor, and then frozen them. Timothy (and the comets) love it, but Kai hates it. I would like to grow a huge amount of lettuce this growing season for them, and then I need to learn a way to preserve it for the animals for the winter, or make a larger area to grow lettuce indoors. Any suggestions here?

Kai also eats crickets. I have tried to raise these, but unfortunately I am unable to remember to water them, so they end up shriveling up unused. I think I will try again in a couple years when I have less responsibilities on my plate, or at least less stressful responsibilities. (Does that ever actually happen? Less stress?) Currently I buy them from the local Petsmart in just the right amount for Kai to eat before they kick off.

Lighting and substrate. Kai's last light broke, so I just switched him over to a compact system. He has a compact flourescent-like bulb for his spectrum and another bulb for his heating. They all operate on less than 45watts for about 10-12 hours a day. We put a cover on top of his tank to try to keep the heat in for him. He also has a small undertank heater to try to keep the heat up in his tank. I don't know of any way to reduce these energy costs, although we are moving to more and more renewable energy sources. Kai's substrate is crushed walnut shells. This has been shown to cause impaction in some animals, but he's been living on it for seven years with no problems. I prefer it to the sand because it is renewable, but I haven't researched it, so that may be faulty logic.

Timothy

Timothy eats a variety of foods.

Petsmart has a problem with invasive baby snails growing all over their tanks. They get shipped in with the plants and then take over. We get our snails for free from Petsmart. If someone doesn't come in to take their babies, they throw them away. I also have a small tank set up on the kitchen counter which receives sunlight and that's all (no energy costs whatsoever) with some snails in it. I'm trying to grow some to put in Timothy's tank for eating purposes.

The lettuce project.

Red wigglers. I started my worm composting system with the idea that I'd be able to take the extra (bred in my system) red wigglers from the system to feed to Timothy. I think this is a great idea to help sustainably feed Tim.

Currently, Tim eats comets. Once I get the red wigglers up and running, I'd like to remove comets from the system as much as possible, and only feed them as a treat.

Lighting/substrate/water needs. Timothy has a low wattage light to add some heat to his basking spot and to light up his tank. He also has a water heater to heat the water temperature. He has a gravel substrate which is cleaned, but never removed. (I did have to purchase this recently, as I had removed all the gravel out of his tank to use in a fish tank awhile back. Now I have all that gravel back [the fish died and we didn't replace them] and I don't know what to do with it. I think I'll clean it and line plant pots with it.) The biggest problem with Tim is his water usage. He has carbon filters which need replaced every so many weeks and water is constantly evaporating. Any ideas here?

Eventually, again I've done no research, I thought it would be neat to set up an aquaponics system with Tim to use that water for better reasons. I have no idea if the water would be too strong for plants, since turtles are extremely dirty and give off a lot of ammonia. I need to do research.

Ra-ra

Ra-ra eats commercialized cat food, currently. I just switched his litter over to Yesterday's News from clay litter. He doesn't have many toys, and I don't purchase him new ones. I'd like to see if there is a better way to feed him.

This post got reaaaaally long, eh?

Labels: environment, gardening

I have been reading EcoSherpa | Sustainable Living, Compost Guy | Turning Wastes Into Resources, and Red Worm Composting for several months now. As I mentioned in an earlier post, I am interested in starting a compost bin near my garden. This bin would be my first foray into outdoor composting (my parents certainly never composted), and Bentley lives in Canada, and thus he experiments with winter composting. As my recent snow pictures show, I also have to be concerned about temperatures dropping in the winter.

For the past six months or so, I've been looking at worm systems for interior composting. I also have absolutely zilch experience with this, but I never let that stop me from doing something. As can be seen by my Lettuce Project, I am interested in finding ways to feed my red-eared slider turtle locally and for cheaper. Red wrigglers, a source of food for my slider, are the worms used in worm composting.

I have no idea if it is a good idea to use red wrigglers from the interior bin to feed my turtle or not, but I figure if I'm "feeding" the wrigglers organic food left-overs from my garden and newspaper or cardboard not sprayed with paint or some other harmful substance, they shouldn't be able to harm my turtle, right? And apparently, if you get a bin set up really well, they will reproduce. Of course, I need to keep enough worms in the bin to compost the bin, but I think they could provide a nice snack for Timothy. Follow my reasoning?

Last night, I set out to make a deluxe bin as instructed by Bentley. Aaron found a set of tubs at Wal-Mart that are made of 75% pre- and post-consumer plastic, I placed quite a bit of cardboard and newspaper (mixed about equally and shredded into small inch x inch pieces) into my bin and now I'm starting to cover it with food waste. In a few weeks, after my bin has quite a bit more food waste and bedding layered into it, I will order some worms. I'll keep you updated on how it works!


I didn't make this picture pretty at all, just snapped and uploaded. Sorry - didn't have the time! :)

Bentley's Deluxe Worm Bin Video

Timothy and Kai having a little chat:

Labels: environment, gardening

I haven't really written an introductory post about the gardening challenge I'm taking this year. Melinda over at Elements in Time: Creating Edible Landscape is hosting a challenge to grow one additional type of vegetable or fruit from seed this year.

I had already started some seeds (of which most are being stubborn and doing nothing) from some packets I had laying around from last year. I figured I'd go ahead and try it to see what happened, while I'm waiting for new seeds to get here. I'm pretty much a garden moron, as I used to have what I called a terminal black thumb, but in recent years I've actually managed to let my house plants stay alive, and last year I grew some tomatoes and peppers from seed.

It was a major accomplishment, let me tell you.

Here's a basic outline of what I've got planned (in my head) for this year:
1) I would like to scrape up enough money to build several cedar-board raised beds behind our garage where we had tilled last year. Eventually, I'd like the entire area behind the garage to either be raised bed, compost bin, coldframe, what I'm calling a "gardener bin", shed, or some kind of ground cover (perhaps a type of stone with mint or something else grown in between it). No grass at all.
2) Build the compost bin, coldframe, and gardener bin.
3) Plant tomatoes (cherry and large), corn (new), green beans (new), peas (new), peppers, eggplant (new), squash (new), Camellia sinensis (new), and hops (new). I'd like to plant more, but this is my "starting list."
4) Maintain raspberry and blackberry bushes, strawberries, and giggle at the grape vine.
5) Finish the fence.
6) Plant/transplant herb garden.

Here's what I've got going so far. I can't remember what all I threw in there, but some of it is laughing at me. I can tell. I did label each cup to see what happened with each type of seed, but I'm too lazy to go look right now.


Only the tomatoes and jalapenos have sprouted here.


Only the cilantro has sprouted here.

Just for fun, Nate and I planted some apple seeds. Those sure took off.


He sure enjoys going in to the living room and checking to see if his "apples" have grown yet! :)

Labels: gardening

This winter has been a particularly snowy and cold one for us Iowans. I thought I'd put up some photos to illustrate what I'm talking about. Keep in mind that currently the drifts in our yard, where Aaron shoveled the snow from the driveway, and wind blew snow, are as tall as I am. In the rest of the yard the snow is between one foot and 3 feet deep. The "water" part of our fountain is covered with snow, and our yard table's chairs have snow up and covering the part you sit in. It's deep. It's cold. There's snow everywhere.

I can't wait for spring.

The pictures below are not the latest. These were taken right before another foot fell on us about a day or two later.


Yes, that's right. An icicle is reaching from the roof almost all the way down to the ground.


Our snow-mounded driveway. Later pictures will show you how big that mound on the left really is.


Here I've crouched down in front of that mound and aimed my camera straight at it for my crouched eye level. What I mean, is I'm not pointing up to try to make it look bigger. That thing is over 5' tall. ;)


Same mound with my glove thrown on it for added perspective.


This is our fountain a year and 2 months ago.


This is our fountain nearly 8 days ago.


I'm not wading over to THAT table any time soon...


Think the kids would like to swing?

So, I'm looking at seed catalogs, drawing out blueprint style what my raised beds and compost bin are going to look like, and doing it all while being surrounded by this much SNOW.

When is it going to be spring again? :)

Labels: gardening, random

We're edging close to February now, which means only two - three more months of snow, after which the green grass will start popping up. About this time of year all I can think about, dream about, and imagine, is the brief flickers of lightning bugs and the muggy sweat of summer. I can't wait to dig in the patio in my back yard, planting mint around each square stone, and placing our plastic table and chairs on top of it. I can't wait to crack open one of our homebrewed beers and put my feet up on the raised-bed planters we'll install in the next two years. I can't wait to grill up some freshly picked vegetables from our garden on our new built-in grill in the next three years. I can't wait to install that hot tub on the corner of the patio in the next ten years.

Maybe I'm imagining too far ahead now.

Or maybe I'm imagining just far enough ahead to make it through each day with a smile on my face and a light feeling around my heart.

Labels: gardening, random

We unfortunately had two large incidents which have decimated half the population in the Lettuce Project: Operation Pinenut and Operation Granola. Due to strategic incompetence, the organizer of the Lettuce Project placed the open tank under a kitchen cupboard. Because of operator error, two large bags of pinenuts and granola fell on the lettuce sprouts at varying times of growth, eliminating half the competition.

The organizer of the Lettuce Project fully admits to her moronic actions and has removed the project from underneath the kitchen cupboards. The move to the living room shelf took less than five minutes and hopefully did not traumatize the sprouts too much.

Organizer over and out.

Labels: gardening, lettuce project

The November - January issue of Organic Gardening Magazine has an article about creating your own lighted herb bookcase. As I was reading the article, I remembered that when Aaron and I moved into our house, Aaron's mother gave us a bookcase her husband had made for her. It has a fluorescent light fixture built-in to the bookcase and is an attractive feature in our living room. Half-way through the article I looked up at the bookcase and realized that this perfect space for my herbs is currently being dominated by a stack of Aaron's notebooks from college. Since I'm a smart individual, I think I'll find a new location for those notebooks and replant some herbs! I had sown mine outdoors, but they died off weeks ago when the heavy snow came in.

This particular issue also highlighted keeping chickens in your backyard, which is a concept that was first brought to my attention by the Garden Girl, Patti Moreno. While my father raised chickens (and pigeons I believed), I've had no experience with keeping animals other than the family dog in my backyard. I'm still contemplating beginning this experience, but I'm also paranoid that I'll receive complaints from my neighbors. I definitely need to do more research and perhaps read some books.

Labels: gardening

Patti Moreno, Garden Girl, has released parts four and five of her indoor gardening series.

Thanks Patti!

Labels: gardening

It's been four days and already the sprouts are standing nice and tall. Maybe in a few months I'll actually have real lettuce?!

After watching Patti's videos, Aaron and I are thinking about temporarily converting some of the shelves in our living room to access more light from the windows. Then when we start our tomato seedlings in a couple weeks (as I get time), they'll have more natural light.

Right now, I am trying to figure out what to start the seeds for the garden in. Last year I started them in little peat pellets. Is that a good environmental choice? [Edit: I just found this article. Does that mean peat pellets are not a good choice?] I have old yogurt cups that I'm going to transplate the seedlings in after they outgrow their peat pellets, and I'll just keep recycling and reusing those yogurt cups. Anyone have any tips or advice? (I know very few people are reading right now, and none are commenting, but I'm working on changing that.)



In other news, this plant was left out doors after the frost swept in, and it was "killed off". I brought it in doors and was going to dump it when I realized it had a bulb-like root system. I replanted it and put it in direct light and kept it well watered. I can't even remember what the plant is, so it should be interesting to see when it grows more! I'm surprised it even made it this far. So exciting!

Labels: gardening, lettuce project

Patti Moreno, the Garden Girl, just released a three-part series on indoor gardening, one day after I proclaimed my ignorance regarding my Lettuce Project! She gave me permission to embed her videos in my blog, so for your viewing pleasure:

Labels: gardening

I have a bearded dragon and a red-eared slider turtle whom both eat mostly lettuce. I'm tired of paying for store bought lettuce, and since I live in zone 4b/5a, it's a little too cold to be growing lettuce outdoors! I was cleaning out some pet supplies when it dawned on me that I may be able to use my old plant light on an empty 10 gallon tank and turn it into an indoor lettuce garden. Warm, no pests, good drainage, and I'd be able to keep an eye on it since I put it in my kitchen.

Here's the beginning picture of "The Lettuce Project". I really have no idea what I'm doing, so any suggestions/comments are completely welcome!

Labels: gardening, lettuce project