Summertime in the Garden

Summertime!! :)

 Above we have two varieties of melons and two varieties of pumpkins. :) One for pies, one are tiny little things for fun.

 Beautiful blossoms. :)

 TOMATOES!!! (she typed with enthusiasm)

 OH yeah!

 These are "Orange Fleshed Purple Smudged" -- excited to see the colors come in!

 Kale (and some grass that wandered in)

 Salad greens. And grass. =P

 This is a....

 ...carrot! Surprise!

 How do you know when they're ripe? I don't know if I pulled this one too early? It's pretty zesty tasting, not all that sweet. I keep meaning to google that...

 My reluctant cucumbers are finally getting with the program. They're "dragon's eggs" cucumbers. Small and white. It's gonna be great.

 Tip: If you want to look like a better gardener than you really are, plant some birdhouse gourd. It goes CRAZY and is quite impressive.

 Up and over the fence.

 Pretty white flowers.

 The start of a gourd. A baby birdhouse gourd. Aww! They're fuzzy and adorable.

 I really love how big these leaves are,

 And the little curly-que grippers. Adorable! Like little ribbons.

 It keeps growing and growing and growing!!!

 L shows up, and helps me with the carrot.

 The jungle cat, keeping the grounds rodent and salamander free.

 Garden in summertime. Sweet summertime (now that it's cooled off!)

 Potted portulaca.

 So pretty!

 You never know what color is coming up next. Surprise, it's orange!

 Surprise! Pink, now!

 Rhubarb (grow grow GROW, please!!). Don't eat the leaves, fyi.

Grapes. :)

The end!

Bok Choy

In this week's veggie box there was a different sort of vegetable. I'd seen it before, but couldn't remember it's name.

So I consulted The Book...

and looked at everything we had in our box...

It wasn't in there.

So I googled it.

Why didn't I do that first?

It was Bok Choy.

The sad news is: most of these veggies weren't consumed. 

A stomach flu went through our whole family,

and by the time our family was ready for real food

the veggies were 

wilting

and 

molding

and

dying.

Womp. Womp.

The not quite as sad news: we composted most of them. 

And that makes it less like wasting.

 ...I guess.

A Saturday in May

Everything is growing so fast!

Tomatoes. Herbs. Peaches. Garden. Boys.

J's tomato plant, ready for transplanting.

Hot Box for hardening seedlings. Never fear the cold nights again, just close the lid.

Teeny weeny strawberry plants. I may go buy some mature ones- I want garden strawberries this year!

Sow your carrots atop the soil lined in a row, ordered the directions.
I complied.
Down comes the rain to distribute the carrots everywhere.
Ah. Well.

Salad greens! I'm having success with everything except that kale...

Arugula- sooo good!

Fence in progress. Then probably some gravel down and more stepping stones.

Future melons and pumpkins. Just gotta finish digging it out and add the top soil. I'm waaay behind on it! Eecks!

Fields of clover- best thing about May.

PEACHES!!!

Should be ripe in June!

We have an apple tree now too, but there were no blossoms this year. Maybe next year...

Mommy's helper.

J running.
("RUN! RUN!")

L running.
"RAH! RAH!"

Races.

I weeded this little path way and showed the boys all the worms I found.
The little one (L) said, "Ssssss!" every time.

Somebody's graduated to the top of the tire swing...

Daddy's shoulders.

Since he's now a big boy, he's a bit resistant to going back under the tire swing.....

Gorgeous day in May!