Picking the Bounty from their Birth Trees

We planted fruit trees (or bushes) at the birth of each of our girls.  O(7)'s peach and fig trees produce abundantly each year, and E(4) was THRILLED to see pears on her pear tree for the first time ever this summer. (Unfortunately, it appears that her blackberry bush has died...hopefully, it will come back).  We picked almost all of the peaches today, but have barely even scratched the surface of the figs.  We really need to learn to make fig preserves because there is no way we can eat that many figs!  Hopefully, E(4)'s pears will be ready to pick soon!

Our Cucumber Dome

We planted our cucumber plants over our old climbing dome, and they is doing wonderfully!  (we did this last year, but all of the plants died)  The girls are reluctant gardeners, but they love to pick the cucumbers.

I planned on the cucumber dome being a fun outdoor playhouse for the girls, but it hasn't worked out that way at all.  The cucumber plants are covered in bees, which is great, but O(7) is allergic, so we certainly don't want her to be in an enclosed area surrounded by bees!  Also, I'd forgotten how prickly cucumber vines are...it would be no fun to play in a house made of them!  So, next summer we may grow a more kid friendly dome, but this summer we are just enjoying our delicious cucumbers!

Harvesting the Aquarium Garden

The girls were VERY excited to harvest the vegetables from our aquarium garden.  O(6) said "homegrown carrots are SO much better than store bought!"  And she is so right!


My plan to see the carrots growing below the soil in the aquarium garden did not work.  I'll buy a root-vue container one day.

Harvesting Peaches

The girls were very excited to harvest the peaches from our tree.  O(5) is proudly wearing her bracelet from Jordan!

Our Aquarium Garden

A couple of months ago, the girls, my mom, and I planted several different types of vegetables (onions, carrots, turnips, and garlic chives) in an aquarium.  I decided to try planting in the aquarium after looking at root-vue planters (and discussing them with a friend) and remembering that I had an old aquarium in our garage.  I'm hoping that we'll be able to see the vegetables developing below the surface, but so far we are just seeing long and skinny roots.





The aquarium garden is near the girls's deck playhouse where they spend a lot of time!  Lately, they love to pretend that they are orphans from Annie, and they sing "It's a Hard Knock Life" while they scrub the walls and floor!

The Children's Garden

We have really enjoyed our garden so far this year.  For the past couple of years, we've only planted grape tomatoes in our earthboxes, but I wanted to have a raised bed garden this year so that the children could be more involved.  So far, E(2) has really loved working in the garden, but O(5)'s interest comes and goes.  We planted the garden in their old sandbox (Thanks to Grandpa for this idea!  It worked perfectly!).





We planted eggplant, bell pepper, and cucumbers in the sandbox.  E is especially proud of the eggplant, and she regularly says "Look at my eggplant!"

In addition to planting in the old sandbox, we also planted in 3 earthboxes...grape tomatoes, tomatoes, and squash.










We have several other containers, and we have also planted sweet potatoes, onions, and carrots.  We planted lots of marigolds to put around our tomato plants as natural pest deterrents.  O loves arranging the marigolds around in the garden, and they both like pinching the suckers from the tomato plants.  O is convinced that we are not going to have to go to the grocery store anymore, and she's pretty excited about that!




I just realized that I neglected to mention that my mom is the driving force behind our garden (as she is every year).  I tell her what I want to do, and she makes sure it happens.  Thanks, Mom!

Growing a Sunflower House

O's sunflowers are growing fast, too! We planted them in a square to make a sunflower house. We hope that we'll have flowers soon. O was excited that the sunflowers are already taller than she is! The Sweet Pea teepee and Sunflower House are right next to each other, and we decided to do both so O and her cousin, M, will each have a house and be neighbors :) Now we just have to get M to come visit!

O's Sweet Pea TeePee

O's sweet pea tee pee is growing and growing! She was thrilled to find tiny flowers inside her tee pee. To make the tee pee we bought bamboo poles (5) from Lowe's, stuck them in the dirt in a tee pee shape, and tied them at the top with a rope. We then planted several sweet pea plants around each bamboo pole. I am amazed by how quickly the sweet peas have grown!

Gardening

Shelling sweet peas.

 



Here's our deck garden. We have lots of green tomatoes, and a few squash that may be ready by next week. Hooray!

 

Learning About Herbs

My mom has taught O all about herbs this spring. She can identify more herbs than I can! Yesterday they planted dill...yummy! Today they planted basil...I can't wait to make fresh pesto! In the background of this picture you can see Gracie's (our cat) container of grass that was briefly our Spring centerpiece. I can't believe that the grass is still alive!!!

Fun in the Garden

We were so happy that O and Guh-guh prepared and planted our earthboxes for us one day when Elliott and I were at work. We decided to primarily garden using earthboxes this summer instead of planting a large traditional garden. Last year our grape tomato plants grew to over 6 feet tall and produced grape tomatoes until October. We are hoping for similar results this summer!



They also planted flowers in O's window box on her deck playhouse.



O loves to help Guh-guh & Grandpa in the garden at their house, too. She helps spray the bugs off the lettuce, water the lettuce, and pick it for our daily salads :)

More Gardening Fun

O is learning a lot about gardening from Guh-guh and Grandpa! I'm hoping she'll plant our garden this summer since she has so much experience!

Yummy lettuce! We're planning on using earthboxes and having just a container garden this year. I guess we need to get started soon :)

Gardening

O has had so many fun learning experiences at Guh-guh and Grandpa's house this week. Guh-guh taught her how to re-pot African Violets.

Then they planted grape tomato plants outside. Yummy!

Gathering Collards from the Garden

Guh-guh and M planted collard greens a few months ago, so we'd have them to eat on New Year's Day. Yesterday afternoon, O, M, and Guh-guh picked the collards. M was thrilled to help pick them since she planted them, and then she got to eat them. Yummy! I was actually surprised that both girls enjoyed the collards. We eat collards for wealth in the new year and black eyed peas for good luck :) What traditional foods do you eat on New Year's Day?