How Does Your Garden Grow?

Slowly, if you live in my neck of the woods. But still, there's tiny fruits to be seen. Little promises of summer goodness. Plus, we are finally eating lettuce from the garden. Love garden fresh lettuce, pretty much spoils you to what's in the grocery stores the rest of the year.

Tomatoes:





Peppers:



Strawberries:



And of course a future egg-layer:

Gardens and Chickens

I'm tired. We've done a lot this spring, and things are looking pretty good, mostly... and we are not done yet. But I think it's caught up to me and now I need a break from it all. I need to melt some glass soon or I'm going to go crazy. You too? Sick of chickens and gardens? Oh well, that's all I have right now. Glass soon. I have date with it next Tuesday afternoon for sure... but first my knuckle has to heal up from what I did to it on the edge of the compost bin this morning... that wasn't pretty - always wear your gardening gloves, you never know when you'll wish you had!

Garden Time!

Well, that was fun. The chicken coop, I mean. I'm so glad so many of you enjoyed watching along - though I'm sorry it took so long! But it's done now... and things are quite... quiet out there. The chickies are really too easy now, I just open the door in the morning and let them out, put out some food and fresh water and walk away. Later on in the day I pull up some grass and weeds and toss them in the run for them to play with and eat. Later on I freshen up their bedding in the coop (takes less than 2 minutes) and make sure they have enough food and water in there... and then around 7 or 8 they just put themselves to bed and I go shut the door... and freshen up their run, which takes 5 to 10 minutes and is not so fun, I'll admit. I need to figure out how to make that part better.... a long handled kitty litter scoop? Maybe. But really, all in all too easy and not very exciting. Though I love having chickens in my back yard! Perhaps I need to get started on that chicken tractor so I can chase the chickens around the yard and try to tell them where they are supposed to be? Hmn... that sounds exciting! Maybe in a few weeks. I've got gardening to do first.

It's my favorite time in my yard, just about everything is in bloom right now, and I've been weeding like crazy. I'll never get it all done, I know, but I think I'm the closest I've been any spring so far. Luke is even learning to mow! Garden bed borders are getting moved around, some plants I haven't been loving are being removed, new things planted... flowers and shrubs, yes, but also lettuce, green beans, potatoes, tomatoes, zucchini, strawberries all growing. My spinach keeps failing me and I'm not sure about this burying the potato stems thing yet... I don't think there is enough dirt in the world to keep up with how fast those guys are growing. I'm thinking about a fence around my garden and a blueberry hedge. And I need to cover the strawberries so the birds don't get them before I do this year. So much to do!

Farmer Pam

So... I must be feeling better! I got my garden in, lots of hauling bags of dirt and compost and stuff, but the hard part is done - now all I have to do it watch it grow, right? This year: lots of strawberries, tomatoes, peppers, cukes, zucchini, basil, lettuce, spinach, green beans, purple carrots, a row of corn for Luke, and an artichoke. Still to go... mini watermelon, cantaloup, pumpkins. Except, I'm all out of room... and I'm really tired!

The Good Stuff

OK, OK, I can do good stuff too.

First of all, there is this "April" Treasury that Patty Lakinsmith put together - she included my bird egg necklace. April is one of my favorite months, probably because it's my birthday month, and this treasury really does make you *feel* April, doesn't it? See, that's a good thing.

Visit Patty's Store to see her great beads, if you like my beads, you'll love hers! And don't miss her "Meanie" series - those things are so cool!



What else? I have a ton of good stuff about my kiddo. You should see what a great reader he's turned into! All that hard work, and now he's just zipping through chapter books, reading some of the good parts out loud to me because he thinks I'll like the good parts too... and planning what he's going to read when he's done with the series he's on now. And you should see him crack the ball in baseball! Batting lessons are paying off. And you should hear him play the recorder! The kid can read music and really has an ear for which note is which. He did NOT get that from me! And... yeah, I could go on for ever about him, but I won't, because I'm sure you don't want to hear me braggin' on my kid for an hour.

Let's see, about the garden, you know, the weed jungle out there... well there are also tulips popping up in places I didn't plant them. I like that. And my Madrona tree is almost as tall as my house now, I bet she gets there this summer. I love that tree. And the magnolia tree has put on the best show this year, and now is sprouting leaves. And the rhodies are about to explode too. All kinds of good stuff out there beside weeds, it's true.

The diet thing. Eh. What can I say about gaining weight? Not much. But I don't really think it's the diet, because Frank and Luke both seem to be slimming down since I've been doubling up on the veggies and backing off on the starches. And I've been learning some tricks to make the veggies taste better, so people are actually eating them instead of pushing them around on their plates. So that's a good thing.

The technology bit? I love my iphone. That thing is the best thing since sliced bread. And my computer works great as long as all Apple programs are deleted... a working-great computer is nothing to sneeze at, right? I'm thinking of giving this one to Frank, and buying myself a mac book. That would be a Very Good Thing, don't you think?

Oh and speaking of buying things, I love my new Italian espresso maker! That thing makes the smoothest, yummiest coffee ever. And my new shoes, even though they are not flip flops, they are making my feet happy. And the new bag I got to go with them - love! (It's my birthday month, didn't I just tell you that? I go a little crazy spending in April. I'm not going to feel bad about it either, so there.)

Ok, that's enough good for now, I don't want go all Pollyanna on you or anything... besides, I need to go try to find that Muse of mine. She needs to get to work so I can start saving up for that new computer.

A Walk into My Garden

I've been taking so many macro pictures that I almost forgot to capture the big picture in my garden's most colorful month. Here, take a walk with me.

Come in through my gate, it's covered in fabulous wisteria right now.



The first thing you will see is my new garden bed on the left - all new except for the old camellia and wisteria. I've been working on that for about a month now. On the right you can see my hosta garden, the big rhody tree, and in the back is the studio, still waiting to be painted.



Step down a little ways and you will come to my arbor - I'm trying to grow a clematis up and over it, though it doesn't have much to grab on to yet.



Still further in you will come to a new bed of baby hostas and other shade loving things:



At this point you will be right by my back door, have a seat in one of these chairs beneath my wall of clematis - isn't that a wonderful vine? I think it's over 50 years old.



While you are sitting there, look around at these old azalea/rhody things that I don't know what they are. They lose all their leaves in the winter, unlike my other rhodys, but their flower is similar. In the back you can see my magnolia tree and way back is Luke's swing set.





Oh, why do you smell lilacs you ask? Come, I'll show you... but first, you have to walk by my only "full sun" garden. I've got all my colorful stuff packed into it - it should explode in about a month.



And here, turn the corner - yes, they smell soooo good. And they remind me of New England, I'm very happy to have them here.



One more thing to show you - the future site of my outdoor dining room/patio. I've finally got the plants dug up and moved from there, now I just need some fill, sand and stones/bricks of some sort. And lots of time and muscle of course. But it looks ready and that's a good thing. Oh, and there is my studio again, the next time you see it, it should have a front porch on it. Maybe even by tomorrow!



And that's it for now. Thanks for stopping by to see!