TOMATOES!!!

Woohoo! I finally got to harvest the first bunch of Roma's! I accidentally knocked the little green one off while getting to the red ones, but there are plenty left on the plant to ripen. Now I just have to decide what to do with them first. Oh the possibilities. . .

The waiting game.

Patience is not one of my virtues. I've been working on it, but it's still a struggle. I just don't like going nowhere. I feel like things need to progress, things need to get done, and then you can move on to the next. Yes, I am also an avid list maker. I'm also finding that if something doesn't keep my attention, I will move on to something that does. This doesn't help the waiting game, and is the root of my many started, few finished projects. I am dangerously close to the edge when it comes to my garden and am hoping progress is around the corner.

I haven't seen much change in awhile, but I was thinking tonight about all the little changes I've seen recently as well as what I've decided to do differently next year.

This is my one zinnia so far. After the first batch that I attempted to start inside, Papa gave me some seeds. These are planted next to the driveway in a spot that gets the least amount of water in the yard. Go figure. I do have some others that started growing in the garden, but they all became snacks for the slugs and are now skeletons. So, #1 on the list to do next year will be to start zinnia, marigolds, and allysum again, but this time it will be a bunch of seeds in a bigger planter instead of individual peat pods. And, I'm crossing my fingers I can save some of the seeds of the bloom on the left.

Tip #2: Do not believe the lady at the garden center when she tells you that blueberry bushes can handle full sun all afternoon. Not true. Our blueberry bushes are in the garden. It gets sun, but is shaded by trees by 3 or 4 in the afternoon. They started out great this year, but when the temps started hitting in the upper 80's, we (ok, by we, I mean my wonderful husband) had to put shade up. They did this last year, but I thought it was because we'd put them in too late. While I got a handful of delicious berries, most of them have now whithered up. I am praying that they will make it through the rest of the heat so I can relocate them to whiskey barrel pots in the fall.

#3: I also do not want to forget to relocate my peonies. They are in the grass. I think they got a fungus because of this and did not bloom. I do however have half a dozen new chicks shooting off from my hens!! I am plotting their re homing, but have yet to decide where. A pot, by the driveway, by the steps, oh the possibilities!

I saw an article somewhere about cardboard composting. A couple had moved into a new house with weeds everywhere. They took all their cardboard from moving, flattened it out, and laid it in the areas where the weeds needed controlling. They then topped the garden areas off with top soil and mulch. It kept the weeds down, and was an easy barrier to poke a hole in when planting. In the very least, this fall I want to make mulch out of all our fallen leaves. (#4)

My tomatoes are growing in number every day. Each plant has at least a few on them; the romas are going berserk. I just keep willing them every day to start turning red! And last but not least, I did make a new discovery tonight:

. . .my little cucumber.

Wild Flowers!

We ran into a friend/co-worker of mine from Supervalu tonight at church. In conversation, he wondered why I was always so stressed out at that job. Stress is a quickly descending, fickle thing in my life that I am struggling to manage. In Germany, people took time every day to go to the grocery store (their little mini-fridges stood proof) and, in the town I lived in, walked around the salt-water fountain because the moisture was good for the respiratory system. The general pace of life was more laid back.

All this to say that I have been very stressed since returning from Chicago trying to catch up on work and things at home and in the garden. But I will move on to the things I have been able to notice in the garden. First and foremost: wild flowers!! My plan on the outside of our fence turned out beautiful.

We continue to harvest loads of lettuce. We can't eat a fraction of it, even with sharing quite a bit of it. The idea of having not only enough, but to be able to eat it without the thought of running out (at least for now.) The broccoli has been a learning experience. Learning the timing of when to let it get just a little bigger and when it will bolt has been stressing Husband out. Next year, we will freeze more, I promise. :)

I have now eaten a handful of home-grown blueberries! There are lots of little tiny would-have-been berries, but I think they didn't get fertilized in time. We have one early producing bush and one late producing bush. Most of the flowers had already fallen off the first before the second bloomed.

And the tomatoes are going to be bountiful! I ended up starting one roma plant in a wall-o-water a few weeks earlier than the others. That one has huge green tomatoes, and the other plants are not far behind.

Mary, Mary quite contrary. . .

How does your garden grow? I was excited to get home after two weeks being away to check out what had grown and I discovered my garden is now overtaken with weeds. The lettuce is definitely yummy and abundant. I started three groups of lettuce 10 days apart, but nothing grew until it all grew. And the broccoli is great too!

Since this is a garden blog, I figured I needed to mention something about the garden. However, I've been away on a surprise trip to Florida with a short cruise to Nassau, Bahamas. We traveled through Chicago so we stayed a few days to visit family. We had a wonderful time wandering around the city visiting sights like the Bean, the art museum, the ivy (and the Cubs won!) and Navy Pier. The food is wonderful too. The tour of Chicago included Portillo's hot dog and Italian Beef, Uno's pizza, White Castle, Panera Bread, and Lawry's prime rib (yes, the original restaurant that made Lawry's seasoned salt.)

We were then off to the beach, humidity, and animal adventures. I'm excited to get on to the good parts, so I will just say that I doubt I will go to Ft. Lauderdale again, nor do I see myself getting on a cruise ship again. This trip did get me wondering why I forgot about marine biology when I was picking a major. The highlights of my trip all have to do with animal encounters. In Ft. Lauderdale we took an air boat tour of the Everglades where we saw blue herons and alligators. Pay $5 to hold a baby alligator? Yes, please!

If you're ever in Nassau and want to go snorkeling, I highly recommend Stuart's Cove. The customer service was great, especially when we were racing back to board our ship on time. We were wondering the whole day if a cruise ship holds departure for tardy people. I don't know if they would hold the ship, but I do know for sure that you have at least a 10 minute window from the time they tell you to get back on the boat. It was truly God's power that got us back on the ship in time. That wasn't the only time we witnessed God that day. We snorkeled at 3 different spots. The first spot was full of yellow fish and two types of blue fish. I got back on the boat early to rest my jaw and got to feed and pet a parrot fish! The next stop was the same type of fish in choppier water, but Kyle did spot a 2 foot lobster.

Before we left, our pastor talked about spending prayer time honoring and standing in awe of God. Floating in the ocean, face down in the deep blue with the sound of the waves, I could feel nothing but awe staring into the face of a Caribbean reef shark. I don't know if I was overcome by the strength and power of God's creation or if it was simply being undeniably surrounded by His spirit in a way I've never before experienced, but even just the memory provokes in me a sense of wonder I don't have the vocabulary to describe.

After swimming with half a dozen of these creatures, I was getting back on the boat and got stung by a jelly fish. After the captain of the little boat didn't know how to "tell a lady" the best thing to take the sting away (yes, think Friends), he informed me that vinegar works, too. The sting was gone a couple days later.

To top it off, while eating dinner, I looked out the window and there in the middle of the ocean was a brilliant full rainbow.

The adventures didn't stop there. While at Sea World and Busch Gardens, we were able to pet a dolphin, manta rays, and flamingos -- once one had picked/cleaned my hair. Add to all of the above 10 minute waits for the roller coasters and it really was a wonderful break.

**A special thanks to Jillian and Diane for keeping an eye on the garden, to Christy for the wonderful night tour of the city, and to Aunt Fran and Uncle John for being such gracious hosts.

Hot hot hot

With the temperatures hitting above 90 degrees I would say it's summer! The snow is off Shaffer Butte and so according to area wisdom that means my tomatoes, cantelope and cucumbers are all safe. (The night never fell below freezing from the time I planted to today, but it was mid-30's a couple nights.)

I also came home for lunch today to find my first iris blooming!

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Name That Onion!

I pulled out part of what we think is an onion to get a better look at it. We found it on the outerside of our fense among the overgrown grass we ripped out to replace with wildflowers. Is it a green onion, the tops meant to be eaten? Is it a normal onion supposed to be left in the ground longer, the root meant to be eaten? Is it a shallot?

The last of my garden is getting planted tonight. As stated in a previous blog, I attempted to start 3 flowers: zinnia, allysum, and marigold. Verdict: bust. Thank goodness for grandparents! I received more zinnia from Papa and I'm picking up a gift of marigolds from Grandmom tonight. I also attempted to start cantelope from seed. Out of nine peat pods planted with 2 seeds each, only 3 germinated. I put them out to start hardening off, but when I came home, there was a catastrophe waiting for me. Something had dug in the little pods, seeds strewn about, and my germinated plants decapitated! It nearly brought me to tears. One little start made it through the ordeal. And to my surprise, a few days later (and two weeks after originally planted) another seed germinated!

A heads up: I will be on vacation for two weeks starting a week and half from now. I'm anticipating that my lettuce and broccoli are going to be ready for harvest just as we leave. Please feel free to stop by the house and pick what you would like. All I ask is that you take only the lettuce leaves that are ready and not the entire head so that more leaves can be harvested later. Please be careful to not disturb the other budding veggies as well.

Lilacs, slugs and rain, oh my!

It was a normal morning. I kissed my husband goodbye and went about fixing my breakfast. It wasn't a few seconds before I was beckoned outside to see the "biggest slug ever!" And it was. The biggest slug that I'd seen in Idaho at least. With a girlish squeal I did the most logical thing: Grabbed the salt! It was as cool as all the legends promise. I guess I will have to add beer to my grocery list to take care of the rest of the buggers that are chomping on my iris.

Speaking of my iris, their bed is infested with some sort of weed. I can never get the root out, and it has a milky puss that oozes out of the stem wounds. Anyone know what this is or how to get rid of it?

I discovered why my lilac only has 4 blooms. Lilac buds form early. If the shrub is trimmed without knowing this, one can chop off all the future fragrant flowers. The plan for trimming the upcoming year is to cut back 1/3 of the growth at the ground, continuing with the same tactic for the following two years. Lilac bushes take 3 years to bloom so this will keep it continuously producing flowers.