Thursday, May 14, 2009

Garden Update & A Surprise

My real job has been quite busy in the past week or so, but luckily my garden is growing without me. As are the weeds. :-) Here's a quick over-greening experience for you all.

The potatoes that I planted with the children are doing great! These first 2 rows are yours, guys!!!

I numbered all 18 of my tomato plants for you, just so that you could tell I really planted eighteen. There's a tray of 5 more sitting in the foreground. And 5 chocolate cherry tomatoes still growing inside. I've given them away to neighbors and co-workers, but there is still more!!!

Here's the mixed area. Notice my lovely square pattern? :-) I'll be adding some cosmos flower seeds, some zinnias and some marigolds to this soon. Just as soon as I get rid of the weeds. Real soon.

We've already had several servings of the lettuce which tasted FANtastic. I'm so excited. I've also picked (well, cut!) the aragula (foreground) once already and I'm going to blanch it and freeze it.
On to the surprises.

I love my camera, and I love taking pictures. Some day soon I'll post about some digital photography and some Photoshop I've been messing around with. Here are a few pictures of surprises around my garden. They make me smile.

The gecko hanging out on the gas can for the grill. We see them every time we take the cover off!
Kane likes to chase them. :-)

The electric-blue pansy! I added some edge burn to this image. It almost glows!

The Amaryllis. Pretty, isn't she?

Except where she decided to grow. I have Amaryllis bulbs for Christmas every year, because that's what I'm used to from Sweden. Sometimes I save the bulbs, but some that look a little shabby, get tossed...

This girl got tossed into the area under the trees where we throw flower scraps and weeds that don't go in the compost pile. She surely did not let the ugly location stop her from putting on a show. Guess she showed me. :-) I'm sure there's a learning experience in all this somewhere.
What do you think?

This weekend my best friend Leslie, who is also going to be my maid of honor, is coming down from Detroit, MI. We are going to start making the invitations for the wedding, and we're also going to make some trial cakes (and filling, and frosting!!!!) to see what we'd like to do for the wedding. Anyone available for taste-testing? lol.
I'm hoping to do as much as possibly by myself, our by ourselves (!). At least I may be able to serve my own tomato-sauce for the wedding reception meal, right?

5 comments:

Mrs. JP said...

Oh, I have so much to say that I know I'll forget something. I like the square pattern and picture featuring labels (very clever). I want to volunteer for cake and sauce tasting. What are cosmos and where do I plant them? I got them free with a seed order this year. Oh, I bet the geese provide nonstop entertainment for Kane.
Make sure you draw the line somewhere in the "doing as much yourself" thing. You should enjoy your day too. My lovely daughter-in-love ended up shelling mountains of shrimp for the reception the night before the wedding. She was exhausted and still looked beautiful. But delegate, delegate as much as you can. :O)
We're waiting on the names to our garden dogs...I'm drawing a blank.

wvfarmgirl said...

Love the pic of the pansy! That certainly is "electric" blue. Did you increase the color of that using photoshop, or is that the natural color?

YD, sometimes with ♥June and ♥Angel Samantha said...

Oh I love the pic of the pansy!
Your garden sure has a lot of GREEN, mine is still quite bare. I am due to do an update post very soon. I've been very busy too.
Mrs. JP is right, you want to enjoy your own wedding day. It's nice to DIY a lot of things but you don't want to get too tired and stressed out.
Please give Kane a big hug and a kiss for me. I love that boy!

Lena said...

Dear friends - Thank you all for your comments! I promise to not overwork myself for the wedding. It's just that with this economy we're having right now, I'm trying to save where I can....Trust me, I'll be dragging in "volunteers" from left and right! :-) Maybe I'll be shucking (sp?) corn the day before my wedding! That will be the rehearsal dinner....

@ Mrs. JP - Cosmos are beautiful sheer-looking flowers that are great bee-attractors for your garden. Plus they look really pretty in between tomato-plants and eggplants. They come in all sorts of great colors. For me, they remind me of my great grandmother, Ida. :-) She used to have lots in her garden.
Going to your blog to suggest names now!

@wvfarmgirl - The color of the pansy is it's own doing. :-) I just added the edge burn (Pioneerwoman's actions). It was right after a thunderstorm, so I think the light made it extra electric!

@ YD - I saw your pics on FB of your new garden - that looks fantastic, and I have to admit I'm so jealous of your nice soil!!! Want some red dirt clay? :-)
Kane says hi back. He loved the hug and kiss, and he promises to be back with more pictures soon. He sends his best manly woof to your doggie girls for a great weekend.

YD, sometimes with ♥June and ♥Angel Samantha said...

Lena, I forgot to mention this to you the last time I was here. To control weeds, you can cover your soil with newspaper and straw. I used it last year and it cut down my weeding time. What I didn't do was to put it down thick enough so some pop through, that's why I had to weed the garden. We get daily newspaper at work and that's a good way to recycle newspaper.