Sinfonian’s Square Foot Garden

Well, it’s the start of a 3 day Fourth of July Weekend here in Seattle, so yesterday we had thunderstorms, lightning and rain.  Today I woke to rain and then it dried up and was muggy and 65-70 all day.  Not much sun but the garden really responded.  Take a look at my prize cauliflower!

It’s starting to turn a bit yellow, so I think that means it’s getting too much sun.  By the size of it I think it may be ready to harvest.  Sorry I couldn’t find a coin to show size, hehe.

The next several pictures are all of DIFFERENT cauliflower.  Yep, that’s right, nearly all my cauliflower decided to grow heads at the same time.  Take a look…

Hehe I bet you think I took a picture of the same plant over and over, but nope, the’re all golf-ball sized caulflower.  I am pretty sure when they are ready I’ll be freezing some for later.  I’m pretty much the only one in the family that likes it so if I have three heads to eat all at once I’m going to get cauliflowered out.  Hehe even one head is more than I eat in an entire year.  I don’t get it much since it’s just for me.  I normally buy broccoli instead (I’m the only one there too).

Speaking of broccoli, look at how well it’s growing…

Compare that to a few days ago…

Oh, did you notice in the first (later) photo, the tall stem on the right?  Well we forgot about the radishes planted around the broccoli and those ones grew foot tall stems to reach the sunlight. Seems the broccoli grew faster than the radishes did.  Oops.

Well, despite the holiday weekend, I still have a to-do list to share:

- Fluff compost bins, both of them.  I think the one is just about done but I can’t be sure.

- Fertilize my corn with nitrogen.  I’ve got to call around to find urea or something similar.  It’s pure nitrogen.  You have to water it in immediately but it’s worth it.  One or two rows of my corn needs it.  Oh yeah, my first planting IS knee high by the fourth of July.  It’s only my succession plantings that are smaller.  Exactly what I wanted.

- Plant more beans.  Sooner or later I’ll get some more to grow.  Otherwise I will just interplant with radishes, hehe.

- Plant more spinach. Seems my last successions that just became edible are bolting too.  I hope it’s still spinach season in Seattle? I got the slow to bolt kind.

Let’s hope the weather turns for tomorrow. It’s not supposed to be clear, but anything’s possible.  Tomorrow is a parade that our preschool (that means us too) is in, in the morning, then a party at my brother’s. Finally we’ll go to the park where the city is shooting off fire works.  Hopefully the kids will last that long. Gonna be a late night.

Enjoy your garden!

Thanks for the comments for Chrissy.  She’s really went through a lot this gardening season and to see how much she went through it was just amazing.  It is an honor calling her a friend.

Anyway, today was the most amazing salad I’ve had in ages.  The grilled chicken and green onions really made my standard salad pop!  I will definitely do it again… maybe tomorrow, ok took a brief hiatus to rush out and pick more lettuce and spinach before it got pitch black.  Now I’ve got an even bigger salad for tomorrow.  I was a bit hungry afterwards this afternoon, so a bigger salad is up for tomorrow… with chicken and green onions of course.

This evening was odd weather. It was a nice day, not great but nice.  And by the time I got home, the dark clouds had rolled in.  I pulled up to the driveway and my whole family was outside waiting for me. The kids were playing and my wife asked me what the weather forecast was like for tonight.  A quick blackberry peek at Weather Underground and BAM! out jumps a weather advisory for Western Washington for thunder showers and possible inch sized hail.  GULP!  What would any hail, let alone hail with mass do to my leaves?  I quickly ran through my watering in the expectation that showers wouldn’t provide enough irrigation for my garden.  By the time I finished the thunder was rolling and the rain drops were starting. 

I was right about the rain. It wasn’t much, but there was no hail either.  Whew!  We may still have some rain tonight but I think the threat of hail or thunder and lightning is over.

Oh yeah, while I was out I tied up a stray tomato vine. It was reaching all the way across the SWC and into the opposite bed, shading the cukes and marigolds.  It’s not anymore but I hope I’m not crowding the tomato plants too much.  It is a jungle in there.  I understand I’m supposed to thin it out but pruning is not my my strong suit.  Help is in order next time my mother or aunt is over.

While I was out there, one peak at my potato plants had me really worried about the wilting corner of my yukon golds.  I don’t have much else on that side to produce potatoes so if I lose that plant and no potatoes grow, it’ll hurt production.  Ah well. This is my first year, so it’s an interesting experience.

Enjoy your garden!

Well, I got permission to share a great email I received from my friend Chrissy.  She, like me, is a novice gardener using the SFG system.  We’ve been emailing our trials and successes this entire season and I even agreed to a bet for a pack of seeds to the first ripe tomato.  Silly me I agreed before I researched her climate.  Summers in NY are radically different from Seattle.  Ah well, it’s all in fun. 

Anyway, I got an email today that blew me away.  I’ll paraphrase:

“My first ripe tomato came from my plant.  Oddly enough, my daughter had the first flower and the first fruit.  I ran a close second but in the end, my tomato ripened quicker than hers. We ate it today. Now, I need to preface the next part by saying that I know this isn’t the first thing I’ve grown and harvested from the garden.  And while I’ve enjoyed the things I’ve harvested, it wasn’t the reason I did this.  My peas were great.  I loved the broccoli and will plant a ton more in the fall.  The lettuce I could take or leave (note to self - next time - try something other than iceberg.) Onions and garlic - couldn’t taste a difference.  Carrots actually tasted more bitter than store bought.  More about that later.  But my biggest thing with the garden was always the tomatoes.  The whole thing was just about the tomatoes.  So today was a big day…

My daughter and I sat down today with our first tomato.  And ceremoniously cut the top, sliced it in half and took a moment.  And reflected on how long it took us to get to this point.  I literally took her step by step, hoping that she can appreciate how long it took us to get here.

I reminded her of the days of building the gardens.  Digging up the grass.  Buying the lumber.  Putting it together.  Buying the soil amendments and lugging it up to the house.  The days of going to my mom’s for fresh manure and wood chips.  Bucket by bucket.  Standing in shit.  Shoveling it into the buckets than trying to hoist those buckets into the back of the car.  Finally getting home and now  carrying those buckets up to the house.  At this point in my reflection, I did realize that this garden was literally built on my blood and sweat - but never tears.  As frustrating and as hard as the work was, it never broke down.  This realization made me take a step back.

The day we finally planted the seedlings into the garden.  But the work wasn’t over.  We had to baby them.  Covering them every night to make sure they were warm until the nighttime temp’s were stable.  And eventually, those little seedlings were growing and flowering.  The first sign of a tomato came almost two months ago.  And we watched those tomatoes grow.  And grow and grow.  And then they just  stopped.  And sat on the vines.  Fully grown and green.  We checked every day for signs of ripening for over six weeks until miraculously, a change of color.  Just slight at first and not too much of a change.  But I do have to say that at this point, the tomatoes redeemed themselves.  I was expecting another two to three weeks of waiting but within a week, they were ready to go. 

Was it a big tomato?  Not by a long shot.  A good variety??  Not from what I’ve heard.  Will I get better later on in the season as my heirlooms mature?  Absolutely.  But, you asked, did it taste good???  And I have to say, it was, by far, the best f**king tomato I ever ate.  This tomato took seven months, countless hours, countless sweat.  The blood?  More than I care to admit.  The cuts, the scrapes, the bug bites is a testament to this tomato.  And it was all worth it!!!”

Maybe you have to know her, but OMG was this not only made me want to will my tomato plant to grow fruit, but I wish my eldest was a bit older to share in the excitement.

On a similar note, no, that’s not right. On a remotely similar note.  I harvested my first green onion today.  Most are ready but I made up salads this evening.  If you recall, onions are not my thing, but I grew them for my wife.  I used to eat green onions with my mom as a child, dipped in salt.  I know wierd.  So after I diced them up, I ate a ring.  Wow!  I was impressed. It tasted better than any onion I could recall. Good enough to put a few on my salad for tomorrow.  Hehe, I’m growing.

Enjoy!

First off, thank you all for your comments. I appreciate the information.  It’s good to know I’m not alone out there with similar issues and experiences.  Again it also lets me know people are enjoying my foibles.  hehe.

As for the details of the coments, I actually thought of the broccoli and cauliflower one.  Good to get confirmation of it.  Next year my broccoli and caulflower get put in the small bed (#3) with peas behind it.  The peas aren’t nearly the cool-weather crop that broccoli and caulflower are but at least they will be in the ground before my beans or cukes.  It’ll also mean less of those veggies as the bed is only 3 feet wide.  That’s ok though, since I don’t plan on planting shelling peas next year (unless they’re too irresistable to pass up) because they mix with my others and I can’t tell them apart hehe.  And I like the idea of simply picking and eating rather than shelling before consuming my garden snack.

It’s also good to know the cukes are probably fine.  Hard to imagine our weather sunburning plants that have been in the ground since it snowed, but I’m all for watching it and waiting for the next shoe to fall (or not). Thanks!

Sorry that today is a picture free post.  I didn’t get home until dusk and my camera doesn’t take great pictures at night. If you want pictures, scroll down to yesterday. I can guaranty you my garden hasn’t changed much since then.

Actually, that reminds me of a funny story.  After seeing all my lettuce I decided that I really need to eat more of it.  Baring that, I need to start giving it away.  My brother hasn’t taken any, and my mother is more interested in my “one and done” radishes than my renewable resource of greens.  So today I asked my friend at work (the only one that seems interested in my garden stories rather than making fun of it).  She agreed to take a bag, so today I went out and harvested a bunch of greens, some radishes and even a green onion (they were ready IMHO).  The funny part is that I overflowed a huge basket and you can’t tell the difference at all in my garden.  /sigh…

Tonight I still need to grill up some chicken and prep a bunch of salad, but I do also have to go out and water the garden.  I do it after dark because the sun’s down and it’s the only time I’ve got to do it, hehe.

But before I do that, I’ve been reading the PNW regional gardening book Tim suggested. It’s good so far. I’m only on chapter two since it’s heady reading and I only have an hour or so to read a day (on the bus), but it’s good info so far.  He’s definitely got his expert opinions after six editions, hehe.  More on that later.

Finally, I correspond with some gardening folks via email on occasion.  And just like I do here, we share the ups and downs, challenges, frustrations etc. of our gardens, and occasionally a victory creeps in.  Well today came one of the most incredible emails I’ve ever received.  No, not a chain letter via email that’s either untrue or a retold story from the 1950s.  This was an incredible story of pain, loss, exhaustion and frustration, culminating in the ultimate success.  And if you’re lucky, I’ll be given permission to share parts of it with you.  I checked my email in the car before I drove home from the park ‘n ride and nearly broke into tears, hehe.  Let’s hope I can share.

Enjoy your garden!

Well, today is going to be picture heavy.  I decided it was past time to take some pics of my garden.  The hot weather’s been good to it.  So won’t you join me for a virtual garden tour?

First off, my succession lettuce has REALLY matured.  I had some the last time I made my chicken finger salad.  It was yummy!  Notice that I just trimmed the tops of the green salad bowl rather than dig to find a stem?  My brother does that when he does rows and doesn’t thin, and the PtF folks do it with their Square Inch Gardening.  In the bottom is my latest succession radishes. I’ve still got tons to eat, even after my mom harvested a shopping bag full of them for sandwiches. hehe.

Oh, and did I mention that my initial greens bed is still going strong?  Yeah the spinach is bolting (I never really harvested from it because I didnt’ need to).

But low and behold, the spinach I succession planted even before I realized my spinach was bolting is now ready to eat. Yay!

Ok, random order, but here is my forest of green onions and my little cuke plants that could…

Did you notice the white on the little first pseudo leaves?  I wonder if it’s leaf miners?  Any ideas?

Here’s the back of one of them. In case it’s too blurry, those are little black dots. I’m pretty sure it’s something bad that I want to cure fast…

Here’s an updated picture of my corn!  WOW, look at how fast it’s grown?  Even the succession plantings are getting some growth on!

Speaking of growth, look ath this cauliflower! OMG! It’s almost edible!

And we have CARROTS starting to form.  Too bad they don’t get much sun behind the cauliflower.  No clue what I am going to do with my broccoli and cauliflower next year. They need beds all to themselves with the first plantings in back and the successions in front.  Unfortunately that will mean I give up a trellis row… hmm?  Thoughts?

Oh, and here are my peas!  They have really topped out over 3 feet.  The package lied, hehe.

Here’s a close-up. Aren’t they tasty looking?  Still haven’t eaten them. Haven’t been home for dinner much lately.  Grrrr.

But to cheer me up, look at the broccoli start! WOW. And I took another picture but it looks just the same.  Sure enough, I’ve got dueling broccoli sprouts!

And for the tallest plant award, my pole beans are trying to reach the second story, hehe!

I’ll end with my topped out potato bins.  The Buttes look like a jungle of green, but I chose the Yukes to share because I noticed that the stems in the bottom left are wilting something fierce.  And the bottom right has a slightly munched leaf.  Is it a problem or is just a water problem?  I’ve been soaking it often to make sure I get enough water, knowing that any extra will just drain out.

Well, how did you like it?  I know I’m tickled pink… or green. Hehe.

Lastly, Judy over at Ft2Garden.com has graciously offered to send me some Minnesota Midget cantaloupe seeds.  And all indications are that if I plant them immediately. I have a shot at cantalope this year!  So I’m going to fix up Toasty’s SWC and get it ready to plant some mini cantaloupes (hehe, apparently there are tons of ways to spell canteloupe, hehe.  Either way, YAY!  I’ve got to fix it up quick and build a trellis.  I figure I’ll put it between the two potato bins behind my apple tree.  It gets basically full sun, and I’ve got room for a trellis. hehe, I’m excited!  Thanks Judy! You’re awesome!!!

Enjoy your garden!

Whew, today was a scorcher. Almost made me not want to be in the yard and garden… I say ALMOST.  hehe.  But first, I just have to nention the slew of comments I’ve been getting.  Not only is the information excellent (if you don’t read the comments, please do), but folks have been coming out of the woodwork.  So many people have commented for the first time.  It put a smile on my face that isn’t going away any time soon.  Thank you!  Hehe, of course now I’m confused about tomato suckers, hehe.  Good thing they’re all gone as of today.  Thank you all for your thoughts.  I love hearing from all of you.

So, today.  Well I woke up early and read more of my garden book, relaxing and petting the cat.  It was relaxing, just like Father’s Day was supposed to be. I could do whatever I wanted… I just had to make my own smoothie, hehe.  Anyway, it was relaxing up until I heard the garage door open.  Then it was a scramble to get ready. My folks didn’t call first, they just came over to finish chipping up the branches.  Boy was it a hot one, even that early in the morning.  And unfortunately at that hour there was no shade.  Here’s the new compost bin full of chips, not nearly as much as all the branches we cut, hehe.

And here’s the old bin that’s not quite done, but won’t heat up.  I figure to heat up beyond 130 degrees I need more material, but I don’t want to add anything, hehe.  It’s a conundrum…

Does it look done to you?  It kinda looks like Joe’s compost that he told me to look at to decide if mine was done.  Not sure what else I need to do with it, but I do want to use it to mulch in the rose garden. What the heck, I’ve got tons and am making more as we speak, hehe.  Note that I am finding that with the hot weather I am needing to add water to the bins regularly. In fact I need to water everything more frequently.  hehe. Go figure.

When we were done everyone was beat and hot, so they left and I remembered my promise to have a salad for lunch.  My greens are overflowing and I don’t want them to get too “woody” on me.  So I came up with creative take on my standard salad.  I cooked up some chicken strips and cut them up on top of my salad.  Doesn’t this look tasty?

All that’s missing are tomatoes and cucumbers, but those aren’t ready yet.  I just have got to get used to doing without what’s not in season.  The PtF folks are good at that, and the book I’m reading by Steve Solomon talks about eating what your garden produces year round.  I’m not very far into it, but I’m encouraged that when I’m done I’ll have a much better idea on how to garden year-round in Seattle.  That’s very good news!

As I was cleaning up the back yard getting ready to mow (boy do the kids have tons of toys on the lawn), I just had to take some pics of my rose garden.  As much as I complain about the placement of colors and the overgrowing morning glories, you have to admit it is beautiful!

And here’s a shot from the other side. Unfortunately my wife tried to kill it by leaning the kiddie pool against it, breaking a few of the branches.

I’m thinking about putting strawberries under the bathroom window.  I’ve got a concrete box already built for them.  It’s the old foundation for the bathoom that we shrunk down when we rebuilt it last year.  It would be a nice little 1×5 box that no runner’s going to get out of. hehe.  It’s a thought.

After lunch I mowed the lawn.  It didn’t need it as badly as I thought it did.  I hardly filled one yard waste container, which of course went on top of the branch chips and the contents of my kitchen compost bucket. I’ve been saving it for the new bin.  Speaking of the kitchen compost, we put tons of browns and greens in it (tissues/paper towels and fruit/veggie scraps) and yet it NEVER smells.  It’s amazing!

By the time I was done with the lawn, the family was home and my bachelor weekend was over.  My eldest was a crank after a rare nap (he always wakes up on the wrong side of the bed) and the youngest was ALL about Daddy, even before my shower.  Ewww, hehe.  That’s love for ya!

So the weekend’s over. Let’s see what I didn’t get to from my to-do list.  Well, the peas are still on the vine. I was so hungry that we went bad for us. Tomorrow I hope to have a nice sit-down meal with fresh peas as part of dinner.

Enjoy your garden!

Well, today was fun.  I slept in until my body woke me up (10 pm). I haven’t done that in over 5 years.  Then I leasurely tended the garden before my folks came over to help trim back some more plants that had gotten unruley.

While I was out there, I realized we’d be chipping up the branches and I swore I was going to stop adding to the compost bin.  So the solution was to run to the hardware store (True Value to save on gas… shop locally) and bought galvinized 3″ deck screws.  I used only two of my remaining four pallets because I used the side of my first bin as a side of my second.  It also saved on space as I am almost touching my pear tree.   I used cardboard this time to line the bottom because newsprint is just too flimsy to keep the pitchfork and weeds from penetrating it.  Here’s a pic of it, sorry it’s soooo dark, I forgot to take a pic of it since my folks showed up as I was finishing it, so I went out at dusk.

I think I’ll move some of the old compost to the new bed to make it not so much.  It’s nearly to the top of the bin. hehe.  I’ll also have more chips tomorrow and likely grass clippings. I’ve got to mow.  My aunt wants to use some of my compost to mulch the rose garden.  I’m not sure it’s the perfect mulch, but it should help them grow, hehe and if it smothers out morning glories, then I’m all for it. hehe

Anyway, today it was pruning the “parking strip” which is the area on the edge of my property just outside my garden on the corn side.  It’s where I park my car and has a storm sewer down the middle of it.  Well between a vining maple, a lilac, a rhodie and some other bush, they were all too tall and definitely encroaching on the parking area, especially where my mom parks when she comes over.  So that’s why she wanted it done.  Hehe.  Anyway, we didn’t do much for the height but it looks much better now.  We didn’t get it all chipped up so we just left it in the driveway and will finish tomorrow. 

After that we went out for a nice steak dinner and stopped by at the dollar store afterward.  There I found a great deal on a tricky component in building an SWC.  When I was shopping for materials, the pond basket I found was too big and nearly $10.  It would have taken up too much of the reservior space.  I went with a smaller improvised basket though it was still $7.  Anyway, in the dollar store I found a basket that would work just as well for, you guessed it, $1.  Hehe look at this.

And for all you “guys” out there, sure it’s purple, sure they’re butterflies, but who cares, once you build it, you never see it again.  It’s a good height and width and everything. I won’t let out much dirt and will definitely let in water.  That makes the SWC even cheaper to build.  Too bad I don’t need anymore SWCs or I’d have bought one.

As the evening drew to a close, my mom (the veggie gardener) checked out my cauliflower. I’ve got a second head forming and my first is almost the size of a soft ball now. WOW!  She said it’s not time to tie up the leaves but she did bend a young leaf over the top of the head to keep the sun out.  The big leaves are doing a good job of that too since the sun is never directly overhead.  She also picked close to two dozen radishes for her radish sandwiches.  I didn’t mind since I went overboard planting after we ran out the first time.  I have GOT to eat more salads now that I’m healthy.  Tomorrow for lunch for sure.

She also showed me how to cut or pick off the suckers on my tomato plants.  NOBODY ever told me that tomato plants get suckers.  Apparently when a vine splits it splits it Y’s.  Sometimes a third branch will sprout from the middle of the Y.  That’s a sucker. It won’t grow flowers or fruit and should be removed to conserve water and nutrients.  Since I didn’t know that before some of mine were pretty big. Those got snipped with my key-chain leatherman.  The small leaves got pinched and that was much easier.  Now that I know I’ll keep an eye out.  Learn something new every day.

I have to admit that watering today was an afterthought, as in I wanted to water all day when it was 95 degrees in the sun (per wunderground.com), 85 in the shade, but forgot to water at dusk.  So I took my flashlight out about an hour ago and watered.  Under the flashlight it kinda looked like I was developing broccoli heads in my biggest plants. I’ll check tomorrow.  Wouldn’t that be cool! 

Well that’s enough for me for one day. Enjoy your garden!

Ahhh, I hate to say this in fear my wife may read this and get mad.  But she’s out of town this weekend and my in-laws graciously agreed to take the boys for the weekend (they don’t get to see them often enough).  So that means I have the house to myself. 

Sure I miss my family tremendously, especially working as many hours as I have lately, I hardly see them as it is.  That said, working so many hours has put the garden, the house and countless projects on hold.  So tonight, after a leisurely evening in the heat of the day, I went out and got tons of garden projects done.  Hehe it’s now going on 10 and this is what I did…

- I planted my pole beans, filling all the empty holes with the best germinated seeds. Those that didn’t germinate inside are garbage.  Hehe I considered throwing them in the compost pile, but I don’t want stuff growing in it. I also planted two of the basil sprigs that I put in water two weeks ago.  They had grown little white roots.  I hope they do well at 2 per SF.  I put them in closest open square to the tomato plants, one foot farther away than the marigolds are (in a different bed).  Tomorrow I’ll try to remember to take a picture.  Let’s hope they survive and don’t get crowded out by my broccoli or crowd out my bush beans. Boy do I have a lot to learn about spacing.

- I watered the plants and noted that my best cuke is growing decent leaves finally (the one that I unintentionally winter-sowed). 

- I cut the final two 2×6 doug fir boards and installed them to the tipity top of my potato bins.

- I added 3 bags of Mel’s Mix to the bins, filling completely the Yukon Gold bin.  Unfortunately I want to give the Butte bin a bit more growing to get some of the plants above the wood line before I cover to the top.  This time I went very slow, almost totally by hand.  I highly recommend hand filling to keep from completely burrying plants.  It was especially important with this bin. As you can see, it’s a jungle in there!

Lastly I watered it in. I’m not quite sure how much water to give it. It drains very well, so that’s a plus.  It’s kind of expensive to use Mel’s Mix in a bin that you can’t use the next year (for potatoes anyway), but at least I don’t have to worry too much about overwatering since there’s no  bottom.

As the sun was going down, I checked the temp on my compost bin.  Unfortunately it wasn’t 140, the highest I found was 135.  Not sure, it shouldn’t have pettered out already.  It’s a little dry but I’d put away the hose already so I’ll wet it down a bit tomorrow after I fluff it again.  Maybe that’s a sign it’s almost done.  Odd since last weekend I added those rhodie chips.  Hmmm, something new I guess.

Tomorrow’s supposed to be boiliing hot.  I hope to get out early and do work in the yard before it gets into the 80s (that’s hot for us with our constant humidity). 

All in all, not bad for a day that I worked 10 hours, hehe.

Enjoy your garden!

Forgot to post my to-do list yesterday so here’s a quick make-up post from by Blackberry.

This weekend I’m bacheloring it. My wife is away and the kids are at my in-laws. So I may go into the office or just work in the yard and on the house.

- Plant beans, carrots, radishes and maybe more spinach in the open squares around my beds.
- Finish building my potato bins and add the last dirt. They’re really looking good.
- Build a new compost bin. I want to let the full one finish up so I can use it to replant and maybe mulch my rose garden.
- Harvest peas for a meal. I’ve got tons right now.
- Start the Steve Soloman book about Growing Veggies West of the Cascades. It’s been highly recommended. Thanks Tim.
- Mow.
- Then there’s a ton of projects around the house that need to get done and would benefit from an empty house. Too many to list.

Weather’s supposed to be in the 80s so we’ll see.

Enjoy your garden!

Well, nothing major on the home front. Went for a walk after watering the garden.  I left the beans soaking overnight, they had prune fingers, hehe.  I didn’t mean to leave them much longer than an hour, I also forgot to take out the garbage…  It was a late night last night.

I watched the latest GardenGirlTV videos. If you aren’t addicted to them and check back regularly, I suggest you click the link to the right and check out her stuff. She’s not only huge into urban suststainable living, but she’s a film producer so her video snipits are phenomonal.  Hehe, no cameraphone utube videos there.

Anyway, her latest video is about gardening with kids.  I am trying to get my kids actively involved with our garden but with all the stuff to do in the back yard, they’re less interested in the garden right now.  I wish the carrots would grow faster so my eldest could harvest one.

I’ve also have been reading the journals over at PathtoFreedom.com.  One of their posts is all about eating locally.  Frankly we drink smoothies 4 or 5 times a week and one of the must-have ingredients are bananas.  I am doing my best to grow my own veggies in my garden, but our climate sucks and I can’t grow things fast enough to eat them, other than cool-weather crops like greens.  There are only so many salads you can eat and lately after I eat a huge salad from my garden I’m still hungry.  Grrr, things have got to grow fast.  Please? hehe

So I’m nowhere near a 100 foot diet, or even a 50 or 100 mile diet.  Costco is still our friend and I don’t see that changing.  So many posters on their site are all deep into the urban homesteading.  Its awesome, but I’ll be happy if I can eat 50% of our produce from our garden.  That’s a big hill to climb with all the smoothies we make.

Enjoy your garden!